Irelands top lure anglers took to Lough Derg at the weekend for the first round of the qualifiers and team selection for 2020.
Bright sunshine and little wind made it difficult for the eight competing boats fishing in pairs looking for a place on Team Ireland. Whilst the perch were moody and difficult to locate, constant changes in lure presentation paid off but it was quickly evident the way to win the day was to catch pike. Tomi & Jacek did this well and were clear winners on day one with an impressive 89048pts! A few pars struggled but kept trying and didn’t give up to the end.
Day two brought better weather to Mountshannon, overcast with less wind and some drizzle. A few pike topped up with some nice perch saw some reasonable catches evenly across the teams and some serious mixing of the rankings.
It was fantastic to see new faces taking part with this competitive sport played out in a great atmosphere. Well done to all who took part.
The rankings after the first round are;
Tomek Kurman/Jacek Gorny 1
Steven Powell/Andrew Powell 2
David Knipe/Phil Scroggie 3
Petru Pop/Nicusor Munteanu 4
Colin Rutherford/Simon Thompson 5
Simon Gibson/David Dennis 6
Jurijs Blinovs/Vladislavs Skorohodovs 7
Beata Kielak/Marcin Wrzesiński 8
