We were really excited to have two top internationals visit Drennan headquarters recently – Andy Berteyn from Belgium and England’s most decorated international angler, Alan Scotthorne!

Andy is a former Belgian National Champion with a European and two World Championship team gold medals under his belt. He is also a key Drennan sales agent for Belgium and so we had to get these two top anglers together in Oxford.

First up was a factory visit and a look at some of the latest Drennan products being made. Peter Drennan was also keen to demonstrate recent developments with pole float technology and also very proudly revealed his state-of-the-art CNC lathes busily producing items like Super Slick PTFE Bushes and Olivettes.

It was then time to get Alan and Andy together for a session on the River Thames at Medley. The river was still carrying extra water and flowing hard when they arrived at the waterside. With this in mind, they opted for a pole approach over plenty of groundbait, containing chopped worm and casters with loose fed hemp over the top.

It turned out to be quite an interesting and thought-provoking session. Getting bites was certainly not a problem as the upper layers were teeming with bleak and tiny dace. Maggots and casters were being instantly smashed before the better quality fish could get to them!

One solution was to stick to more selective hook baits like hemp and tares. This worked well for Andy and was a completely new experience for him. Tares were something he had never seen and, despite feeding hemp, he had never put a grain of hemp on the hook before. A flurry of better roach was his reward and hopefully some new tricks to take back to Belgium.

Alan was also pestered by tiny fish but a small piece of worm fished with a 2g prototype AS pole float (out later this year) brought lots of perch plus the occasional better dace and roach. Pike also became a real nuisance and on several occasions, they grabbed small fish on the way in! Undeterred, Alan kept regularly topping up with cupped-in balls of heavy groundbait and soil containing chopped worm and casters and worked hard at trying to present his hook bait in the current.

The river actually rose an inch as they fished but a switch to a 4g lollipop-style flat float enabled Alan to edge his hook bait through at half the speed of the flow. Fishing more over depth with a larger piece of worm on a size 14 hook to 0.12mm Supplex Fluorocarbon eventually did its job. A positive bite saw him strike firmly upwards and connect with something much more substantial.

He was fishing Aqua F1 & Silverfish Bungee through just the long No1 section of his Acolyte pole and this offered good control over what was clearly a decent bream. The fish gave a good account of itself in the flow but it eventually succumbed to Alan’s trademark bream-playing technique!

Two more bream followed before the heavens opened and it was sadly time to pack away. A catch shot was quickly taken before the duo made a hasty retreat for shelter. After sampling our country’s fine manufacturing heritage, some quality fishing and famous wet weather, it only seemed right to end the day in a quaint English pub called The Perch!