Dean Barlow gives you his in-depth account of an amazing weekend that saw him proudly return home from Ireland with a gold medal around his neck!
Having been home for a couple of days, it still hasn’t sunk in that my team and I are World Champions!
A lot of hard work has been put in by the Preston Innovations England Feeder squad, which started weeks ago with various trips to Ireland’s Inniscarra Lake in Coachford, Cork.
The most important thing in team fishing is to get the tactics right. The target species were skimmers, roach and hybrids. You could catch the roach at short range but no skimmers. The skimmers were at a longer distance but if you fished too far and in too deep water you caught eels, which are a protected species in Ireland so they don’t count in competitions.
After various sessions, we decided the best depth to catch all species was to cast out a 1oz bomb and find an area that took a count of 12 before it hit the bottom. This could be 18 metres in one section and up to 30 metres in another section, so plumbing up was very important.
We also tried various groundbaits and settled on quite a heavy mix to keep the fish down in the deep water. Lighter mixes also attracted small 1oz roach, whereas a heavier mix attracted 3-4oz fish and those all-important skimmers.
Day One
The big match soon arrived and I was drawn E7 on the ‘garden centre’ section for Day One. This is a different part of the lake from the new World Champs stretch and a lot shallower. We had practiced this area the day before and one end of the section was very good for bream and skimmers, so my work was cut out but we had confidence in our plan!
I plumbed about and settled on a 30m swim. My tackle was some prototype Drennan 12ft feeder rods matched with a Series 7 Carp Feeder reel. These are a 4500-size, which is perfect for cranking these wild fish in!
The reel was loaded with 0.10mm braid, plus an 8lb Method & Feeder Mono shockleader. Feeder size was also important so several sizes were needed for the job. The end tackle was 50cm of 0.15mm Supplex and a Kamasan B512 size 10 hook.
Baitwise we had 12 litres of groundbait, including corn and hemp and 2.5 litres of other baits, which consisted of half a litre of joker and the rest was made up of chopped worms, maggots and casters.
The hooter sounded and I was away, catching roach quite quickly on a single maggot. The team plan was to keep putting fish in the net and that’s what I was doing! My runner, Adam Rooney, told me they were catching skimmers in the late pegs as expected, so I just had to be the best roach weight.
The time passed so quickly and before I knew it the final hooter sounded. I had about 160 roach and three small skimmers. Adam told me 6th or 7th in section would be an awesome result. The scales arrived and my fish weighed 11.29kg which I was happy with so it was just a matter of where I finished.
Adam followed the scales and came back with a huge grin on his face. I ended up 4th! A great result as the three anglers that beat me had bream weights.
Even better news came through that the team had performed brilliantly, with Steve Ringer and Mick Vials winning their sections, Phil Ringer 2nd and Adam Wakelin 3rd. That gave us a total of 11 points, an unbelievable total. The host nation Ireland was 2nd with 23 points and the dangerous Dutch team was 3rd with 24 points.
Day Two
The next day came around very quickly and I was handed A16, which I was quite happy with. I plumbed the depth and once again found my 12 count at 30 metres.
First cast I had a small skimmer, so I was settled quite quickly! My runner for the day was manager Tommy Pickering and he said it wasn’t fishing as good as the day before. With that in mind I decided to cut out the worms and put more joker in. This worked a treat, as the odd skimmer, hybrid and roach came steadily all day.
Again it was going to be a close section with 9.083kg winning my section. My fish went an agonising 8.88kg to finish 2nd in the section, but it came through that the team had done enough to be world champions! Steve had won his section again, making him individual World Champion, Mick had finished 2nd in section, winning an individual bronze medal, Adam was 2nd and Phil was 8th in the difficult ‘garden centre’ section. That gave us a 15-point Day Two total and an overall score of 26 points; an unbelievable total that showed just how right we got the tactics.
Ireland finished 2nd to get their first ever world team medal and the Dutch finished 3rd.
Personally I finished 8th overall, which I was pleased with as the team job had been done. My family was also there on the bank, which was a great help to me so I would like to thank them.
2014 has been an unbelievable year so far with the birth of my daughter and now a gold medal. Life doesn’t get any better than that. I just wish my Dad was there to see me, but I’m sure he was looking down and would be very proud of me.
Tight lines!
To discover Dean Barlow’s top six feeder rigs, check out the August issue of Match Fishing magazine!