Once again Donegal Bay was alive with fish as 14 nations compete for the Word Boat Angling Championships. Against a backdrop of wheeling gannets and busting bluefin tuna teams from Ireland, England, Wales, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Croatia, San Marino, Slovia and Luxemburg dropped lines at 9.30 this morning.
A variety of wrasse, pollack, dogfish, ling, coalfish, and an odd conger, to name a few, were landed by the 70 anglers fishing from 9 charter boats. All angling is done at anchor and is bait only.
Today’s leg of the competition was fished in Zone 2 – between Teelin and St. Johns Point. Some boats saw catches dominated by pollack and wrasse, some dogfish and others had a mix of fish – all depending on the ground and the tactics employed.
The Italian team did incredibly well taking four first places and a second. The Azzurris have thrown down the gauntlet to the other teams and if this form continues they will be very hard to shift from first place.
The Irish team will hope to do better on Day 2. Heiko Dreier got caught up on very snaggy ground, losing a lot of time and gear, and Tony Santry also had a bad day in the office but John Dennehy and Josie Barrett did enough to keep Ireland in contention.
While a number of the the teams were disappointed not to feature in the top 5, The Slovenians but on a great unexpected performance to take a very solid Third place.
Results
Team
- Italy – 588 points 199 fish
- England – 504 points 156 fish
- Slovenia – 476 points 133 points
- Croatia – 422 points 152 fish
- Belgium – 338 points 114 fish
Individual
- Paolo Volpini, Italy – 173 points 57 fish
- Aliosa Tomsic, Slovenia – 173 points 45 fish
- Gary Galbraith, England – 133 points 37 fish
- Anthony Giacomoni, Italy – 114 points 40 fish
- Bram Cole, Belgium – 114 points 36 fish
Full results
