Last year, Lurgan Coarse Angling Club exceeded all expectations and won the World Feeder Club Championships on home ground at Lough Muckno. This year, they travelled to Portugal to defend their title. The odds were stacked against them, as they were fishing on foreign turf, for a fish species they rarely fish for (carp) with one of the smallest teams at the competition.
Their inexperience with the species showed on the practice days, as they took a while to get to grips with the setup. But they are not world champs for nothing, and they quickly figured out tactics to tackle the competition. They fished well on day one and were 12th place overall at the end of the day. Day two saw them set out with a bit of confidence and they fished hard all day, managing to finish ahead of everyone else for that session.
So, they thought they had put in a creditable performance in defence of their title, but as the count went on, it seemed that they had done a bit better than that, and when the results were released, they found that they had managed a fantastic 2nd place finish, with only local Portuguese team Folhadosa Fishing ahead of them.
Winning a gold medal last year was exceptional, but to follow it up with a silver this year is truly remarkable. Hats off to the team and everyone who helped them on their way. 👏👏👏👏👏👏
