Dean Barlow looks back on an amazing team victory with the Preston Innovations England Feeder squad. After a nail-biting climax on the difficult Ghent-Terneuzen Canal in Holland they managed to successfully defend their World Championship title by the narrowest of margins!
Having got back from the World Champs with the England Feeder team, it’s taken some time to digest exactly what happend with all the emotions of the final day. At the start of the official week our captain Tom Pickering said we were going to need balls of steel as the gold could be won in the last 5 minutes. At the time we didn’t realise just how true this would be!
Our five-day practice went quite well. We caught steadily all week, trying to find out little things that would get us a bite on the difficult Ghent-Terneuzen ship canal In Holland. We settled on two lines; one at 25m where we would feed a whole bag of leam with a few jokers and casters in. This was our big fish line where we hoped to catch bream, then a 39m line where we fed just groundbait. The bait we put through the feeder was very important. The canal is very deep, probably about 45ft where we were fishing, so it was important to try and get our feed to the bottom hoping the fish would follow it down. Lots of pinkies and joker were fed through the feeder to try and do this.
Day One
Saturday morning came and I was handed B25, a bit we hadn’t fished all week but I was confident of catching. Six rods were assembled. Three 11’6″/12’6″ Matchpro Medium Feeder rods at the longer length were used for the long line and three 12ft prototype Acolyte Feeder rods for the short line. All the rods were matched up with Series 7 Carp Feeder reels. For hooks we used size 16 Red Match and Kamasan B560s all tied to the ever reliable 0.128mm Double Strength.
I fed my lines in the pre-baiting peroid and started on the long line. We had worked out the the feeder didn’t need to be in the water more than five minutes so with that in mind I re cast after four minutes, the tip went round and I had a roach in the net. Phew!
No more bites for an hour then, out of the blue, I caught a skimmer. The bank walkers were telling me that I was lying 3rd in the section so far as it was fishing appalling! I hadn’t had a bite for ages so I changed lines by adding a few metres to the cast, which had worked in practice, and I was rewarded with another roach and a skimmer. I never had a bite short.
The word was that I would be well up, which proved correct as I finished 4th in the section. I was happy about that as I was only beaten by single big fish.
The team did fantastic with three section wins, a 4th and a 7th. We had a total of 14 points, tying at the top with Hungary and France.
Day Two
The second day saw me in B Section again but this time on peg 14. We didn’t change much in the way of tactics, so it was just another ‘head down’ job!
I fed the same as before and cast out long for my first chuck. The tip went round and an 8oz ide was in the net. A perfect start! Three roach and two skimmers were added in the next three hours. The bad news was that we were not even in a medal position with an hour to go!
As the clock ticked our boys started to turn it up. I never had another bite but Steve Ringer had caught a few fish and was well up, Phil Ringer caught two bream, Mick Vials had a bream. Things were looking up! It could not get any tighter as the word came down that Adam Wakelin had caught a skimmer at the death.
Word on the bank was that I would be 5th or 6th in the section as there were some bream caught. My section was the last to weigh so we already knew that the other boys had all come 2nd in section. Following the scales down we got to the last two pegs. At this point I was 3rd and already knew that the Moldovan angler had beaten me on the end peg. That left the Irish angler, Paul Leese, to weigh who had two decent skimmers and a roach. I honestly felt sick as it looked like he’d beat me. The scales stopped and I had actually beaten him by 10 grams!
I cannot describe the feeling I felt as the news came through the walkie talkies that we had won gold by half a point from France. We had snached victory from the jaws of defeat! Tommy came down the bank and I’m not ashamed to say I cried my eyes out! All the effort and dedication we had all put in had paid off. That made us double World Champions – something only dreams are made of – plus my family was there to see it! My room partner Mick Vials came 3rd overall, so another individual medal to his collection!
I would like to say a massive thank you to Preston Innovations for their continued support of the feeder team. Without them it wouldn’t be possible. Also a big well done to France, who a couple of years ago were miles off winning a medal, but they have shown what hard work and good tactics can do for a team.
Tight lines!
