The conclusion of this three-part World Championship special looks back at the drama and celebrations from the final day.
Yet more unseasonal rain hampered this event as the watercourse continued to rise! Umbrellas were out in force in the morning, but it never dampened the spirits of the watching crowd. Home nation Croatia were lying joint second after Day One and stood a great chance of being crowned champions on home soil. They had Serbia, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic to fend off if they were to achieve that feat…
Off The Box
A number of anglers resorted to climbing off their seatboxes and walking up the bank behind them when a barbel was hooked. This produced very mixed results – especially as they somehow still had to grab their landing nets!
Early Trout
Des ‘Dr Dolittle’ Shipp once again had some fun with unusual creatures, as this rare trout was spotted sulking in his swim before the start of Day Two! It disappeared before he could try and catch it, though.
Bolo Success
Even fewer anglers tried to fish with bolo rods on Day Two, but this angler was glad he did as he managed two big barbel, which helped him beat Alan Scotthorne pegged upstream.
Szilard’s Stones
To help combat the flow, top Hungarian, Magyar Szilard, was cleverly moulding his feed around pebbles and stones, as well as using fine gravel like everyone else. It helped him bag this quality barbel, but he struggled to add to that fish on Day Two.
Big Barbel Drama!
Two huge tiers of spectators gathered to watch this Ukrainian’s epic fight with a barbel. After walking up and down the slippery slope, nearly losing his landing net and hoisting a full 13 metres of pole in the air, it was eventually netted to rapturous applause. Bravo!
French Flair
Former French national champion, Stephane Pottelet, stayed on his box to put on a convincing display of big-fish angling to win his section with 7.24kg.
Steve Hemingray
After being named the reserve for Day One, Steve Hemingray came in for Sean Ashby on Day Two with a point to prove. He managed Drennan Team England’s best points score with a 5th place from an ultra-tough A Section.
Irish On Top
The Tubertini Ireland team were the most successful of the home nations, finishing in 9th position. Pictured is Ireland’s Vincent Walsh with a quality barbel.
The Big Heave!
There is no extra time to play a fish when that final hooter goes; it must be in the net to count. So, when Alan Scotthorne hooked a huge fish with just minutes to go he had one option – the big heave! It was most likely a foul-hooked barbel and the crowd was in awe as his Acolyte Carp pole hooped around as he piled on the pressure. Alan was clearly not letting this fish get away from him and people could not believe how the pole was still in one piece! After surging downstream, the fish sadly shed the hook and was last seen heading for the Istrian coast!
Mr Barbel
Goran Radovic has a reputation as the ‘Barbel Man’ amongst his peers. In Croatia he showed everyone precisely why with two convincing section wins with the species. This was enough to crown the Serbian ace as the 2014 World Champion.
He certainly looked very composed and methodical compared to many of the anglers fishing as he skilfully played each fish to the net.
With a combined weight of over 18kg he was a deserving and popular winner.
Top Team
The Netherlands scored a runaway victory on Day One with just 16 penalty points – and followed that up with an almost equally impressive 22-point effort on Day Two! The Dutch evidently reacted best to the changing conditions and, instead of nase, they targeted barbel close in with substantial tackle, stickymag, gravel and large bunches of maggots on size 10 hooks. With 25 dry nets on Day Two, catching a single big fish made a huge difference at the weigh in.
Claiming the individual silver and bronze medalists with Arjan Klopp and Stefan Altena further cemented their dominance of the venue and they were popular winners at the post-match presentation.
Host nation Croatia flagged slightly on Day Two, which left the Czech Republic and Serbia to fill the next two podium positions with 44 and 45 points. Some way behind in 4th place was Spain on 63 points. Perhaps this shows that the top three nations really were so much further ahead of the chasing pack in terms of tactics and feeding?
All in all, the conditions were tough, the venue was unforgiving, but it was still a great event to watch and be part of. Hats off to Croatia for such an exciting and well-run event!