Take Us To The River!
Top teams dominate in Southern Semi Finals.
Daiwa Dorking and Kamasan Starlets have secured their places in the Angling Trust Winter League Final in emphatic style- by winning their respective Semi Finals.
Saturday’s match took place at Gold Valley Lakes in Surrey, and Daiwa Dorking proved their undoubted international class by winning the event –with only two of their anglers finishing any lower than second in section.
Team regular, and former World Youth Champion, Callum Dicks explained: “Gold is obviously a venue where our anglers are very experienced, so we were able to keep our plan fairly simple. For most of our anglers, this meant just two swims - a bream line fed with fishmeal groundbait and joker on the long pole, and a bomb line which was fished in conjunction with a pellet cone.
Due to the cold temperatures, we knew that not everyone would catch carp, so in some areas anglers also set up a groundbait feeder to target skimmers. While a few of our anglers got lucky on the pellet cone, the real key line for us was our long pole swim – and crucially the time that we went on it.
In practice, we found that there were some big fish to be caught in the last hour of the match. By leaving the line alone for the most of the day, then going over the top with a bunch of bloodworm, a lot of our team members caught late fish boosting them from nowhere in their sections to securing really good points.”
When the results were calculated, Daiwa Dorking finished in top spot, followed by Monks Lakes in second, and Preston Innovations Delcac in third.
Small Fish Assault!
In contrast to the carp and bream attack that helped Dorking to victory, Kamasan Starlets pinned their faith in a bloodworm and joker approach to take top spot on Buckinghamshire’s Grand Union Canal.
Skipper, Mark Downes explained: “In practice, we had found the going to be really tough, with weights as low as 2lb framing in some matches at the venue! We knew that bloodworm and joker would play a big part come the day of the race, with the prospect of some big perch on lobworms too.
With ice on some areas of the canal come the big day, a slow start was expected, and in fairness the fishing got better as the day went on. Many of our anglers were only able to catch properly later on in the day, and for many it was simply a case of getting our heads down and catching when the fish switched on.
Standout performer for me was Darran Bickerton, who never had a bite for the first hour – but got his head down and eeked out over 200 fish for 5-14-0 in the last four hours.
After the weigh in, we knew things would be tight between us and Garbolino Blackhorse, and so it proved – we actually tied with them on points, but managed to nick victory after a weight countback.
All in all, we are delighted to be heading to the Trent, it should make for a really interesting final.”
Results:
Saturday 2nd March, Gold Valley Lakes, Aldershot.
1 Daiwa Dorking
2 Monk Lakes
3 Preston Innovations Delcac
Individual Winner: Pete Goodman
Sunday 3rd March, Grand Union Canal, Milton Keynes.
1 Kamasan Starlets
2 Garbolino Blackhorse
3 Drennan Banbury Gunsmiths
Individual Winner: Graham West
Daiwa Dorking and Kamasan Starlets have secured their places in the Angling Trust Winter League Final in emphatic style- by winning their respective Semi Finals.
Saturday’s match took place at Gold Valley Lakes in Surrey, and Daiwa Dorking proved their undoubted international class by winning the event –with only two of their anglers finishing any lower than second in section.
Team regular, and former World Youth Champion, Callum Dicks explained: “Gold is obviously a venue where our anglers are very experienced, so we were able to keep our plan fairly simple. For most of our anglers, this meant just two swims - a bream line fed with fishmeal groundbait and joker on the long pole, and a bomb line which was fished in conjunction with a pellet cone.
Due to the cold temperatures, we knew that not everyone would catch carp, so in some areas anglers also set up a groundbait feeder to target skimmers. While a few of our anglers got lucky on the pellet cone, the real key line for us was our long pole swim – and crucially the time that we went on it.
In practice, we found that there were some big fish to be caught in the last hour of the match. By leaving the line alone for the most of the day, then going over the top with a bunch of bloodworm, a lot of our team members caught late fish boosting them from nowhere in their sections to securing really good points.”
When the results were calculated, Daiwa Dorking finished in top spot, followed by Monks Lakes in second, and Preston Innovations Delcac in third.
Small Fish Assault!
In contrast to the carp and bream attack that helped Dorking to victory, Kamasan Starlets pinned their faith in a bloodworm and joker approach to take top spot on Buckinghamshire’s Grand Union Canal.
Skipper, Mark Downes explained: “In practice, we had found the going to be really tough, with weights as low as 2lb framing in some matches at the venue! We knew that bloodworm and joker would play a big part come the day of the race, with the prospect of some big perch on lobworms too.
With ice on some areas of the canal come the big day, a slow start was expected, and in fairness the fishing got better as the day went on. Many of our anglers were only able to catch properly later on in the day, and for many it was simply a case of getting our heads down and catching when the fish switched on.
Standout performer for me was Darran Bickerton, who never had a bite for the first hour – but got his head down and eeked out over 200 fish for 5-14-0 in the last four hours.
After the weigh in, we knew things would be tight between us and Garbolino Blackhorse, and so it proved – we actually tied with them on points, but managed to nick victory after a weight countback.
All in all, we are delighted to be heading to the Trent, it should make for a really interesting final.”
Results:
Saturday 2nd March, Gold Valley Lakes, Aldershot.
1 Daiwa Dorking
2 Monk Lakes
3 Preston Innovations Delcac
Individual Winner: Pete Goodman
Sunday 3rd March, Grand Union Canal, Milton Keynes.
1 Kamasan Starlets
2 Garbolino Blackhorse
3 Drennan Banbury Gunsmiths
Individual Winner: Graham West
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