Our Italian correspondent, Matteo Maggi, reports back from the latest two qualifiers for the Italian Feeder Championship, fished on two very contrasting venues.
The Spinadesco Canal and the River Tevere recently hosted the last rounds for the Northern and Southern Qualifiers for the Italian Feeder Championship. Both the matches are important to select the 120 anglers for the first round of the individual Italian Feeder Championship, which will be in Ostellato at the end of August. These are the stories of those two matches.
Starting with the Northern Qualifier, the Canal Navigabile in Spinadesco (2008 World Angling Championship venue), it was the least favoured round for many people because the fishing had been very difficult… but not this year. After much rain in the North of Italy, the day of competition was fantastic!
Around 130 anglers fished, 40 less than the second round. It was sunny, but not too hot and although a lot of floating weed caused problems with anglers trying to sink their line, the fishing was very good. The anglers typically targeted three different areas: the near the bank at a maximum of 10 metres, the middle of the canal at 25 metres and near the opposite bank at 35–40 metres.
Some sections were very full of fish – especially carassio of 300 to 700 grams, which were mostly caught between 25 and 40 metres. In other sections, however, the size of fish wasn’t so high, so some anglers targeted the larger carp for four hours with mixed success. It was a gamble, as those that fished closer in for little skimmers averaging between 30 and 100 grams fared much better.
Maggots, sticky maggots and chopped worms in groundbait were principally used for the carp and carassio, with dark groundbait, damp leam and pinkies used for the smaller skimmers.
For feeders, the absence of flow allowed the use of classic large Cage Feeders of 10–20 grams for speed fishing for the small skimmers. Block-end Maggot Feeders, Vari-Weight Feeders or Gripmesh Feeders were used to find the carp or carassio.
The top weight on the day was Massimiliano De Pascalis of Team LBF Italia Fishingitalia.com Preston. He took advantage of a favourable end peg before a bridge and recorded 11kg of skimmers and carassio.
About the general ranking system; each angler can discard their worst result out of the three competitions. This meant Mirko Govi of Team Mogliano Preston was the overall leader with two points and weight advantage. He was in front other five competitors also on two penalties and eight with three penalties.
The Southern Qualifier was on the River Tevere in Ponzano Romano, near Rome. This is one of the better venues in South Italy and after practicing on the Saturday you could tell immediately that bream were the most abundant fish in the venue, fishing between 27 to 35 metres out. The Tevere has a depth of over 9 metres in places, so it is very important to have many types of feeder with weights between 40 and 80 grams.
Unfortunately the fishing was inconsistent, with several anglers catching nothing. At the end of the competition, there was a big difference between the top three anglers in every 10-peg section and the other seven competitors.
The overall winner of the day was Giancarlo Asquitti of Team Pontecagnano Colmic and one of Fishingmania’s southern collaborators, with over 8 kilos.
Next step, is Ostellato, on the Canal Circondariale on the 31st August. Here the first five of every section qualify for the second round of the Italian Feeder Championship in Umbertide!
Report by Matteo Maggi – www.fishingmania.it