Lure Angling Championship Final
On the 4th October 2014 I competed in the inaugural British Lure Angling Championship Final and what a day of competition it was. In order to qualify for this event I had fished in 4 of the 10 qualifiers that had been held around the country eventually securing my spot for the British Lure Angling Championship Final by finishing 6th on the River Tone.
In the final I was going to be fishing against 59 of the countries top lure anglers for the top prize of £1000 and most importantly the opportunity to be crowned the first Lure Champ in the UK. The final being on Chew valley was going to take place on boats, prior to the day our boat partners were drawn and I was lucky enough to be paired with local angler Alan Buckingham. A man vastly experienced on this body of water and who I thank for putting us on a fantastic spot for the majority of the day.
I started out by casting a large silver spoon to mimic the huge balls of bait fish that were in our area, Alan very kindly suggested that I revert to the tried and tested method of casting replicant type baits allowing them to sink and then very slowly retrieving the lure. Now we were fishing in about 15-20 foot of water approximately 60 foot off the main slipway for the sailing club. Alan was first to land a fish however only after loosing his first one right at the boat, I followed this pattern loosing my first fish right at the boat then landing the next one. It quickly became apparent that we were on the right pattern when we both started trading blows catching fish for fish which was really fun. Alan soon overtook me though as at one stage he had 3 fish in as many casts. I was becoming an expert “Net Boy” the way Alan was catching them. As the morning went on it was clear that the other boats saw how well we were doing quite a few boats started to edge closer to our area which I was not to bother about but Alan was not having any of it and was very quick to point out the rules and send the other boats on their way. Take my word for it Alan is an absolute gentleman but get on his wrong side at your peril.
As the break neared it was apparent that the boys fishing for perch were doing well as the media boats were focusing on Ben Humbers boat which was near enough that I could see the size of some of the perch he was landing with an alarming regularity, I remember thinking “man he has to have caught a really decent length of fish”. I decided to switch up to one of the lures that I trust the most a Quantum Specialist Battleshad specifically the 12cm Rainbow pattern version on a 20 gram jighead to get the lure down quickly. My hope by downsizing from a 6 inch replicant was that this lure was still big enough to tempt the pike but also small enough to tempt the larger perch. Well it did not take long for this to work as I landed a decent size perch which would be my last fish of the morning session as the sound of the airhorn came through the air and it was time to head back to the clubhouse, the first session of the British Lure Angling Championship Final 2o14 was over.
The lunch break gave me the opportunity to catch up with the other anglers and see how good or bad I was doing and from the conversations that I was having I must have been doing really well at least in the top ten at that stage which I was really happy with. Lunch was very kindly supplied by the Polish Angler Association it was Polish sausage served hotdog style and man it was very enjoyable thank you to all at the Polish Anglers Association I really enjoyed that. I did use that last 10 minutes of the lunch break to clear my mind and think up what my tactics might be in the afternoon session.
Lunch was soon over and we were in the boats waiting to head out. Such was the enthusiasm of the anglers to get the best spots Julian had to come out and round us back up into the holding area before he would sound the horn which kicked off the final session of the British Lure Angling Championship Final 2014. Fortunately for me Alan put us back on the good spot.
I kicked things off after lunch landing two fish in quick succession on the Battleshad. Alan then caught his final one from this spot. We fished this hard for the next hour with no further success we made the decision to try some drifting around the back of the island. I brought up the anchor and we were on the way, after making 3 drifts we with not a bump from anything we moved to an area where in the qualifying event my boat partner managed to land a 17 and at 19lber in short succession. Again this proved fruitless and we made our way over the cages where it seemed the other 30 boats were all holding. Not wanting to annoy the other anglers we stayed on the top end of the cages in about 20-25 foot of water casting the replicants again the proved fruitless and time was running out. Alan took us over to an underwater culvert that he knew about this was more promising as I lost another fish right at the boat and landed another junior Alan chipped in with his final fish of the day before the klaxon went and we were headed back to club house for the presentation. The afternoon session had proved a lot harder for us than the morning session with only 4 fish being landed. As we were unloading the boat it was clear that other boats had a much better afternoon session than us. Frustrating but thats that nature of competitive fishing its all about making the right decisions and having the right knowledge.
With out cards all handed it it was time to put an end to the speculation and announce the winners and put an end to the first ever British Lure Angling Championship Final 2014.
Biggest Fish went to Ben Tregoning 35+lb pike caught on a 4.5″ shad which we will never know the true weight of because there was no scales available. Anglers pay attention to this ENSURE YOU TAKE SCALES WITH YOU ALWAYS
The Top 20 Were
1 | Steve Collett |
2 | Ben Humber |
3 | John Horsey |
4 | Paul Parnell |
5 | Shane Close |
6 | Rado Papiewski |
7 | Marcin Kwasniewski |
8 | Ben Church |
9 | Andy Charmer |
10 | Mariusz |
11 | Alan Buckingham |
12 | John Cheyne |
13 | Adam Kirby |
14 | Matt Boast |
15 | David Watkins-Smith |
16 | Ben Davis |
17 | Jakub Potrykus |
18 | Dan Sissons |
19 | Greg Bafia |
20 | Slavomir Perzynski |
I managed to finish in 15th place and my Alan finished in 11th had I not lost the 4 fish that I did and Alan not lose the 6 fish he did I am sure we would have been right up there in the top 10. I am still happy with that achievement and I am sure Alan is too.
I learnt many lessons this year and made even more friends along the way to the final and have to say what Julian Chidgey and Fox Rage are doing for the sport of Lure fishing is a long time over due and I want to thank them. So Julian and Fox thank you for putting together this fantastic Tournament I am looking forward to the 2015 tour schedule.
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British Lure Angling Championship Final 2014
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