F.I.P.S.e.d. 54th World Freshwater Angling Championships 2007
Congratulations to Individual Bronze Medal Winner Lee Edwards
And well done to all the squad for a brilliant performance that put Wales back on target 3 x anglers in top 11.
2007 Shimano Team Wales Achievements:
7Th Overall in European Championships:
Celtic Cup Winners
4th Overall in World Championships
Individual World Championships Bronze Medal Winner
This year the event was held in Hungary on Lake Velence hosted by the Hungarian Federation and was to prove to be the biggest ever World Championship event ever held with 40 countries and over 200 anglers taking part.
The event was held on the rowing coarse side of Lake Velence over a match length of 2 kilometres with good easy access to the pegs.
The lake is about 40KM from Budapest and has the following species of fish carp, grass carp, pike, cat fish, eels, tench, bream, roach, zander, asp and bleak.
The Team Consisted of
Eric Humphreys Manager
Robin Darker 2nd Captain
Andrew Murphy
Lee Edwards
Nigel Evans
Paul Philmore
Darren Frost
Andy Amos
Also attending in support and assisting was Ex Youth International Tomos Lea and Senior Welsh International Jimy Price.
During the five days of practice all teams found the fishing hard more so in some areas than others. We all kept thinking that the fish would move in over the feed that was being introduced but in reality this didn't’ really happen and what was expected to be a pole match suddenly became a fixed body waggler and slider match.
The weather had certainly effected the fishing making things that much harder for teams to develop any real strong tactics. Even the bleak failed to show in any real significant numbers and certainly the bleak where in some areas and not others. So purely depending on bleak to get you out of trouble was not an option on its own.
The fishing length had a distinct shelf with an average depth of 2metres dropping of into deeper water up to 3 metres plus in places. But the crucial thing was that on the vast majority of pegs you could not get out to the drop off using the regulation pole limit of 13metres so as a result a heavier float was called for and longer lines to swing the float further out.
During practice no team proved to be any better than anyone ells and as the days passed by teams appeared to have written off the pole in favour of the fixed waggler or slider.
On practice day 1 weights within the team varied from .100gr up to 700gr not a good start to the week however Andy Amos hooked and landed an asp weighing in at 600gr. However day 2 was our best day of the week looking back with weights ranging from 1lb 15oz up to 9lb with Paul Philmore landing a Zander on the pole weighing in at just over 2lb 7oz and Andy Amos landing a carp of 2lb 4oz. A couple of different groundbait mixes where used but neither stood out as being any better than the other.
The pattern pretty much continued up until Thursday and Fridays practice was not any better than day 1.
Throughout the week we introduced balls of groundbait and leam with joker on the pole line hoping things would have improved but in the vast majority of areas you could have sat on the pole line for three hours and not even get a bite. So we favoured the fixed body waggler at distances catapulting small balls of groundbait and leam laced with either bloodworm or joker and fishing with a bunch of 4 or 5 bloodworm on a size 16 or 18 hook.
This event had to be one of the most testing for competitor and manager alike with no clear pattern emerging from the practice sessions making it extremely difficult to formulate tactics for the competition days.
Throughout the week everyone was watching Hungary and England and Italy but again in reality they were not doing that much better than anyone ells. And certainly if they did have a secret they were not giving anything away.
Darren Frost was hoping to improve his chances of a medal this year in Hungary especially after just missing out last time on this venue. But again luck were not on Darren's side.
I must point out that Paul Philmore won the side bet the team normally have on who catches the biggest fish during practice.
For the competition day the team tactic was decided after only a short meeting.
We used double leam 5 bags for the main waggler line, and a 50, 50 ground bait and leam mix for pole line we also had a bleak mix.
This gave us the 17litre max permitted. We also favoured using more bloodworm in the feed.
We also favoured the fixed body waggler rather than the slider with very little shot down the line and fishing approximately between 8" - 10" over depth although fish where caught just tripping bottom. This method was followed up by feeding one to two hard balls of double leam with bloodworm or joker as feed.
Some of the team where fortunate to have bleak in front of them and took advantage of this at the start of the match.
After day 1 we had 3 anglers with a possible chance of winning a medal Darren Frost, Lee Edwards and Andrew Murphy, plus a potential of a team medal.
What a position to be in.
Unfortunately we can't have all good pegs and unfortunately Andy Amos drew a bad area but nether the less fished an absolutely brilliant match on both days.
Results After Day 1 Results After Day 2
Lee Edwards 3 points Lee Edwards 3 points
Darren Frost 2 Points Darren Frost 6 points
Andrew Murphy 3 Points Andrew Murphy 6 Points
Nigel Evans 5 Points Nigel Evans 15 1/2 points
Andy Amos 22 Points Andy Amos 21 Points
ToTal Team Points Day 1, 35 Points ToTaL Team Points day 2, 51 1/2 Points
Day 2 the tactics remained pretty much the same.
At the End of the day we missed out on a Bronze Medal by only half a point and when the results where announced the team where absolutely devastated. But at the end of the day all the team members performed to a standard that you can all be proud off and beating England was in its self a great achievement. And not to mention the fact that we have had 3 anglers within top 11 individual rankings.
Nigel Evans
Lee Edwards individual Bronze Medal was well deserved and all the team where pleased to see a Welsh Team member on the winners podium.
And I am sure you will all agree in wishing Lee all the best and a sincere very well done.
It is fair to say that the standard of angling ability amongst the competitors throughout the World is getting higher and higher all the time and the pressure that these lads are under when competing at this level is something very few anglers get the opportunity to experience.
Wales has had a very good year in relation to results at International Level and we all hope that 2007 is a turning point for Wales.
Alan Scotthorne is now 5 x World Champions after putting up a brilliant performance over the two days. Well-Done Alan.
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Celtic Cup - Bron Eifion
Senior Celtic Cup
Wales/Scotland/Ireland
Bron Eifion Fishery
(Lee Edwards Breaks Lake Record 117lb in 4 hours)
11th & 12th August 2007
1st Wales 16points
2nd Scotland 24points
3rd Ireland 32 points
Lee Edwards 1st Overall
| Celtic Cup 2007, Bron Eifion. | |||||||||||
| Name | Country | Points D1 | lbs | oz | Points D2 | Lbs | oz | Points Tot | lbs | oz | position |
| Lee Edwards | Wales | 1 | 117 | 1 | 1 | 61 | 4 | 2 | 178 | 14 | 1 |
| Jamie Masson | Scotland | 1 | 83 | 6 | 1 | 88 | 5 | 2 | 171 | 11 | 2 |
| Paul Jones | Wales | 1 | 90 | 2 | 1 | 61 | 5 | 2 | 151 | 7 | 3 |
| Nigel Evans | Wales | 1 | 79 | 9 | 1 | 64 | 6 | 2 | 143 | 15 | 4 |
| Andy Amos | Wales | 1 | 73 | 14 | 3 | 62 | 6 | 4 | 136 | 4 | 5 |
| Darren Frost | Wales | 1 | 62 | 7 | 1 | 66 | 0 | 2 | 128 | 7 | 6 |
| Brian Clark | Scotland | 2 | 69 | 6 | 2 | 47 | 0 | 4 | 116 | 6 | 7 |
| Dave Corcoran | Scotland | 2 | 45 | 2 | 2 | 62 | 7 | 4 | 107 | 9 | 8 |
| Peter Nolan | Ireland | 3 | 36 | 4 | 1 | 68 | 0 | 4 | 105 | 4 | 9 |
| Brian Lynn | Scotland | 2 | 47 | 0 | 2 | 54 | 4 | 4 | 101 | 4 | 10 |
| Ewan Weed | Scotland | 2 | 45 | 1 | 2 | 45 | 6 | 4 | 91 | 0 | 11 |
| Phil Davies | Wales | 2 | 49 | 6 | 2 | 35 | 12 | 4 | 85 | 2 | 12 |
| Brian Kane | Ireland | 3 | 31 | 9 | 2 | 48 | 0 | 5 | 79 | 9 | 13 |
| Jason Ward | Ireland | 2 | 43 | 6 | 3 | 35 | 1 | 5 | 78 | 7 | 14 |
| Fintan Brennan | Ireland | 3 | 23 | 1 | 3 | 42 | 1 | 6 | 75 | 11 | 15 |
| George Glenn | Scotland | 3 | 37 | 3 | 3 | 25 | 11 | 6 | 62 | 14 | 16 |
| Jimmy Price | Ireland | 3 | 32 | 7 | 3 | 29 | 0 | 6 | 61 | 7 | 17 |
| Dave Hill | Ireland | 3 | 19 | 8 | 3 | 37 | 15 | 6 | 57 | 14 | 18 |
| Total | 36 | 985 | 12 | 36 | 934 | 3 | 72 | 1919 | 15 | ||
| Statistics Day 1 | ||||
| Name | Country | Section | Points D1 | Weight |
| Lee Edwards | Wales | A3 | 1 | 117.10 |
| Paul Jones | Wales | D3 | 1 | 90.20 |
| Jamie Masson | Scotland | E1 | 1 | 83.60 |
| Nigel Evans | Wales | F3 | 1 | 79.90 |
| Andy Amos | Wales | B3 | 1 | 73.14 |
| Brian Clark | Scotland | A1 | 2 | 69.60 |
| Darren Frost | Wales | C3 | 1 | 62.70 |
| Phil Davies | Wales | E3 | 2 | 49.60 |
| Brian Lynn | Scotland | D1 | 2 | 47.00 |
| Ewan Weed | Scotland | C1 | 2 | 45.10 |
| Dave Corcoran | Scotland | B1 | 2 | 45.20 |
| Jason Ward | Ireland | F2 | 2 | 43.60 |
| George Glenn | Scotland | F1 | 3 | 37.30 |
| Peter Nolan | Ireland | A2 | 3 | 36.40 |
| Jimmy Price | Ireland | C2 | 3 | 32.70 |
| Brian Kane | Ireland | E2 | 3 | 31.90 |
| Fintan Brennan | Ireland | D2 | 3 | 21.10 |
| Dave Hill | Ireland | B2 | 3 | 19.80 |
| Total | 36 | 985.12 |
| Statistics Day 2 | ||||
| Name | Country | Section | Points D2 | Weight |
| Jamie Masson | Scotland | B2 | 1 | 88.05 |
| Peter Nolan | Ireland | F3 | 1 | 68 |
| Darren Frost | Wales | E1 | 1 | 66 |
| Nigel Evans | Wales | D1 | 1 | 64.06 |
| Dave Corcoran | Scotland | F2 | 2 | 62.07 |
| Andy Amos | Wales | F1 | 3 | 62.06 |
| Paul Jones | Wales | A1 | 1 | 61.05 |
| Lee Edwards | Wales | C1 | 1 | 61.04 |
| Brian Lynn | Scotland | A2 | 2 | 54.04 |
| Brian Kane | Ireland | D3 | 2 | 48 |
| Brian Clark | Scotland | C2 | 2 | 47 |
| Ewan Weed | Scotland | E2 | 2 | 45.06 |
| Fintan Brennan | Ireland | A3 | 3 | 42.01 |
| Dave Hill | Ireland | E3 | 3 | 37.15 |
| Phil Davies | Wales | B1 | 2 | 35.12 |
| Jason Ward | Ireland | B3 | 3 | 35.1 |
| Jimmy Price | Ireland | C3 | 3 | 29 |
| George Glenn | Scotland | D2 | 3 | 25.11 |
| Total | 36 | 934.3 |
