"we've Been Unlucky"
England Feeder Team Manager, Tom Pickering reflects on the World Championship.
The Preston Innovations England Feeder team arrived back in England yesterday, after competing in the World Championship in South Africa last weekend. Despite securing a team bronze medal behind winners, South Africa, and runners-up Hungary, England team manager, Tom Pickering admitted that he was "gutted" that the team hadn't returned with gold.
He explained: "I have no problems holding my hands up and saying we got it wrong. On the first year when we fished in Italy, we definitely made mistakes. But this year in South Africa, we got it right – and were very unlucky not to lift a gold medal.
"I hate making excuses, but sometimes you have to be honest with yourself, and say that you haven't quite had the rub of the green. Steve Ringer, who was awesome all week, could easily have had two section wins and been crowned World Champion, were it not for the fact that he drew two pegs that were full of snags and lost a load of fish. What is even more bizarre is the fact that none of us encountered any snags all week!
"Add to this the fact that I missed out on a section win on Day Two by just 500g, and had Mick Vials caught just 500g more on the second day we would have had three more points, and you can see what I mean. Our tactics were right, but we were unlucky.
"One of our contacts in South Africa was generous enough to sort our groundbait out for the week – and we found a flavour he sells called Bananarama worked particularly well. We added a lot of corn to our mix, to give it a high food content. Believe it or not, we found a single piece of corn pulled from our groundbait mix worked best on the hook.
"With carp the target, tackle was robust, we used Preston Innovations Dutchmasters in 11ft or 12ft models, with big cage feeders, and 0.19mm and 0.21mm Reflo Power hooklengths.
"A key tactic, we found was what we called 'double chucking'. We would cast out a feeder full of bait, leave it for two minutes while the feeder emptied, then cast out again with another feeder full of bait. This would often bring a bite very quickly.
"Going into the first day, we set our target as being 10 fish per man. The least fish we had was 22 – as an influx of small fish onto the match length caught everyone by surprise! A lot of 1lb and 2lb fish were recorded – when the previous average was 3 to 8lb.
"The second day, it was back to business as usual, and fish of the size we had caught all week were once again the average.
"One thing that did come out of the week for me was how good the Hungarian team were. The have been coached by the former World Champion, Tamas Walter, and he really did get the best out of them. They fished brilliantly, and thoroughly deserved their silver medal.
"In the early stages of practice, we seemed miles ahead of everybody and I wasn't alone in questioning whether any other team would be able to beat us. As practice went on though, the other teams got better and better, and by the end of the practice time, I felt a lot of them had caught us up.
Although I am obviously disappointed not to lift gold, it has been an awesome experience, both for me and for the lads. They have all done brilliantly, and on behalf of the team, I would like to thank our sponsors, Preston Innovations for making it possible."
The Preston Innovations England Feeder team arrived back in England yesterday, after competing in the World Championship in South Africa last weekend. Despite securing a team bronze medal behind winners, South Africa, and runners-up Hungary, England team manager, Tom Pickering admitted that he was "gutted" that the team hadn't returned with gold.
He explained: "I have no problems holding my hands up and saying we got it wrong. On the first year when we fished in Italy, we definitely made mistakes. But this year in South Africa, we got it right – and were very unlucky not to lift a gold medal.
"I hate making excuses, but sometimes you have to be honest with yourself, and say that you haven't quite had the rub of the green. Steve Ringer, who was awesome all week, could easily have had two section wins and been crowned World Champion, were it not for the fact that he drew two pegs that were full of snags and lost a load of fish. What is even more bizarre is the fact that none of us encountered any snags all week!
"Add to this the fact that I missed out on a section win on Day Two by just 500g, and had Mick Vials caught just 500g more on the second day we would have had three more points, and you can see what I mean. Our tactics were right, but we were unlucky.
"One of our contacts in South Africa was generous enough to sort our groundbait out for the week – and we found a flavour he sells called Bananarama worked particularly well. We added a lot of corn to our mix, to give it a high food content. Believe it or not, we found a single piece of corn pulled from our groundbait mix worked best on the hook.
"With carp the target, tackle was robust, we used Preston Innovations Dutchmasters in 11ft or 12ft models, with big cage feeders, and 0.19mm and 0.21mm Reflo Power hooklengths.
"A key tactic, we found was what we called 'double chucking'. We would cast out a feeder full of bait, leave it for two minutes while the feeder emptied, then cast out again with another feeder full of bait. This would often bring a bite very quickly.
"Going into the first day, we set our target as being 10 fish per man. The least fish we had was 22 – as an influx of small fish onto the match length caught everyone by surprise! A lot of 1lb and 2lb fish were recorded – when the previous average was 3 to 8lb.
"The second day, it was back to business as usual, and fish of the size we had caught all week were once again the average.
"One thing that did come out of the week for me was how good the Hungarian team were. The have been coached by the former World Champion, Tamas Walter, and he really did get the best out of them. They fished brilliantly, and thoroughly deserved their silver medal.
"In the early stages of practice, we seemed miles ahead of everybody and I wasn't alone in questioning whether any other team would be able to beat us. As practice went on though, the other teams got better and better, and by the end of the practice time, I felt a lot of them had caught us up.
Although I am obviously disappointed not to lift gold, it has been an awesome experience, both for me and for the lads. They have all done brilliantly, and on behalf of the team, I would like to thank our sponsors, Preston Innovations for making it possible."
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