Dean Barlow and his pairs partner, Steve Fleming, have just returned from the Lakeland & Inland Waterways World Irish Pairs. Here’s his frank account of an enjoyable week:
Having just got back from the World Pairs in Ireland, I’ve had time to reflect on the competition. As with any five-day festival, your section rotation is important, but this week just pointed out how important it was!
My pairs partner Steve Fleming and I drew ‘Rotation 1’ which put us in Enniskillen the first day. This is a section you need to catch a big weight to be in with a chance. I drew the famous Killadeas section on Loch Erne and Steve the river at Crom. To cut a long story short it was very poor as the venue hadn’t been fished since May. I put 2kg on the scales with only 8kg winning the section off the end peg. Steve had 4kg off the river. Every day, as more bait went in, the section got better with some big weights… but we had missed the boat!
Day Two saw me at Haughtons Shore on Garadie with Steve on Loch Scur. Haughtons had been poor for some time and 3.38kg put me 3rd in my 14 peg section, with only 5kg winning. Steve had a better day catching 11kg to come 3rd in the county and a few pennies in the pot!
Day Three was either Horse Island or Loch Ross and to be fair I really didn’t want the latter, Steve went in the drawbag and pulled out Loch Ross so his appalling draws continued, putting me on Horse.
I set up a 12ft Matchpro Medium Feeder and decided on distance of 57 turns of the reel. I also plumbed up the Acolyte Carp pole at 13m and found 15ft of water where I balled in 10 big balls of groundbait full of hemp and caster hoping some fish would settle on it later.
The match started steady with odd hybrids and big roach coming to the feeder. A change to a bigger feeder paid off as the peg went solid with decent roach and hybrids. It started to slow down so a look on the pole brought a couple of roach, then two 1kg hybrids followed. A change to a shallow rig caught me small roach until the end. With 13kg winning the section by the time they got to me I was happy when the scales went round to 16.05kg. A section win and a county win too! Steve had a hard-earned 4kg with only grams coming from either side on a very muddy Loch Ross.
Day Four saw us on Brackley and Bernerkey lakes. A high draw was needed on both. I pulled out number 10 on Brackley but Steve got 4 on Bernerkey, which Is very poor.
Feeder would be the main attack with a long pole set up for later in the match. 55 turns on the trusty Series 7 Carp Feeder reel was the distance I selected, as this was the deepest part of the peg. Four maggots were put on a size 10 Kamasan B512 hook and off we went.
I had bites on and off for four hours with hybrids and roach coming in spells. With 45 minutes to go I had a look on the pole and it was solid, catching a roach every chuck for the rest of the match. The scales came and 18.93kg was my weight for another section and county win. Steve and everyone else struggled in the early numbers with only 11kg winning that lake.
The last day saw us on Garadice. I drew Connellys 9 and Steve had Church Shore 13. One feeder rod was set up cast 50 turns, where the odd hybrid was caught. Next peg, Irish star Rory Dunne got off to a flyer catching hybrids and roach. A few small skimmers graced my net in intervals. At the end of the match I put 11.8kg on the scales while Rory had 10kg. A few pegs down Tim Nash had 14kg for a county 2nd so it was a default section win for me. Steve had 5kg from a difficult Church section.
Speaking to the lads after the match, we all felt like we pre-baited pegs earlier in the week, while some venues had been ‘fished out’ by the time we got there later in the week. Only one pair, Shane and Rory Dunne, making the top 10 shows how important the rotation is.
Congratulations to Rob Wooton and Adam Wakelin on winning the Pairs and also to Steve and Phil Ringer for coming second in successive years.
Personally I finished just 8kg from the top 10 and never really caught anything for the first two days. It just shows you have to keep going as anything can happen! Nonetheless the craic was great and our host Francis Mcgoldrick at the Angler’s Rest was brilliant. Time now to spend some time with my family before we go down to White Acres!
Tight lines. Dean.