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We have a saying in England when something becomes boring… “It’s like watching paint dry”. Regrettably, this is the closest definition I can give to an event which began on the first practice day looking like a relatively even contest, but then sadly deteriorating into a Championship dominated by bleak!

For me personally, the disappointment at having to continually scan the horizon for signs of elastics pulling out was obvious. But let me add that this was no Opole, far from it. Had it not been for the downpour on Thursday, I believe we would have seen a very different outcome. To see teams like South Africa, Holland, Wales and Channel Islands (to name just a few) struggle to cope with ‘alien’ methods saddened me. They had come, at great expense, hoping for some form of level playing field, but found that Thursday’s conditions had degenerated the contest into a mainly small fish battle, for which they, and others like them, were ill-prepared.

This particular occurrence was in no way a reflection on the venue or organiser's. Angling has and always will be at the mercy of the elements and, again as always, will prove advantageous to certain teams and individuals!

Having said that I must congratulate both Poland and Sean Ashby for their respective victories. Both fished outstandingly well, given the conditions present, and their victories were thoroughly deserved. But the way the Championship developed over the weekend into an out-an-out bleak match was a great disappointment.

Had the normal conditions, present at the beginning of the week, continued, these Championships would certainly have seen a more numerous spread of quality fish. Even so, under normal conditions there would have still been an element of luck attached, where the draw was concerned.

Let me explain what I’m referring to:

The effect of any flowing water, even under calm conditions, is governed by its course. A straight water has little or no advantage in terms of holding areas, a twisting water, however, has many (see our views in the gallery opposite). But when flow increases it creates more eddies and slacks than usual, making the draw paramount. Note: You obviously have to take into account the nature of the bottom as well as some pegs proved very snaggy… ask Des Shipp about his day two draw!

The Morava, due to its twisting nature was, under normal conditions, still prone to some form of draw lottery during the championships weekend, which created uncertainty and imbalance for many. Another downside to he venue was the massive gaps between some sections, notably A and B, C and D. This proved almost impossible to cover properly in the given timeframe.

The day after
Friday’s final practice effectively confirmed tactics. The river was still pushing through at pace and flat floats up to 50g were needed to fish properly. It was going to be, at very least, a first day bleak race, with the river now in ‘lottery’ mode. How many bleak would show would depend heavily on this factor. It may be some bleak, more bleak, or shedloads of bleak for those fortunate to draw in the right area.

New day… new hope?
But what of the two day Championship itself? Let's first look at Saturday, as this was the closest to Thursday's downpour, so would possibly set the scene for the whole event.

With the river beginning to fine down, but only marginally, so many teams played safe and opted for bleak close in as expected, England included, as that looked the most logical choice to them. A few anglers fished longer, around 6-8 metres for them, and on the bottom, as this seemed to bring a better size fish… and there was always the chance of 'snaring' something decent. Certain parts of sections, like A, B and C seemed to have fewer bleak than others, although having said that the river was producing little else, so options were limited!

It was emerging as each hours fish count passed, that teams from east European regions were doing rather better than their western counterparts, with the obvious exception of France, of course. This Championship looked to have their name written all over it!

I was running in D and E sections and it was very noticeable that for the last few pegs in E section another imbalance was occurring. Remember, each section was divided into two, peg 19 being the dividing mark in each, as there were 37 teams participating. E section, like others, was tree-lined and with the sun behind it created shade for the much of the second half. But when you came to peg 25 it started to brighten up and it was clearly obvious that these last pegs were producing bleak on a faster and more consistent basis.

Above left: It's not often that a German excels at this type of fishing, but Gunter Hörler found over 522 bleak to record a superb 3rd in section from peg E34. He registered an incredible 191 fish in the first hour but found the Polish angler on E29, Wojciech Kaminski pipped him to second place with over 555 fish for 7.123kgs. Right: Markus Balogh (E23) obviously sat on a few fish, unlike the majority of other anglers, and produced 11.037kgs to put Gunter and all the other bleakers in his section, firmly in their places...that's the 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14 places etc, etc!
I watched Germany's top angler, Gunter Horler a past Euro Champ, catch fish after fish on a 2.5m whip. In fact his first hour produced an astonishing 191 bleak, something not particularly associated with any German's favorite method! Gunter went on to record a fish count of 522 (6.539kg), which earned him a 3rd in section. His Polish adversary, Wojciech Kaminski on peg 29, caught even more, 555 (7.123kg), to give him a 2nd in section. But they were both pipped to the section win by Austria's Markus Balogh (11.037kgs), from peg 23, who caught better quality fish fishing long. His 133 fish count was testament to his ability, fortunate or otherwise, to find better fish. It was clear that his quality fish far outperformed many below him, who had stuck with small fish tactics.

The first part of E section saw the runaway winner, Dutchman Jurgen Spierings, take over 10 kilos from E7. He would be the Netherlands only success story, on what turned out to be a miserable tournament for them. His nearest rival, Russian ace Sergey Fedorov set himself up for a podium position, which would be gained on weight at the end of the Championships.

One final criticism of the venue, albeit a small one, was the formation of the banks. They were irregular and highlighted by Welshman Clive Wynn's end peg E37. The picture below shows Clive fishing in a most uncomfortable manner. I was pleased to hear that Clive did not suffer from vertigo, otherwise there may have been some issues with dizziness!!!
The view from the end of E section looking at the high placed Welsh angler Clive Wynn who was fishing for bleak with his pole down at 30°.An acknowledge small fish angler back home in England, Sean Ashby came alive during this competition and, as everyone will now be aware, won his first day section with this 6.289kgs of bleak from D3 to set himself up for day two and an ultimate golden reward!Dropping back to D section, any chance of quality fish where severely limited, as were bleak in some areas. No such problems for England's Sean Ashby on D3. His fish count of 537 was miles clear of anyone else's. In fact his nearest rival on count was the Serb Vladimir Danilovic, and he's no mug when it comes to bleaking! The only anglers, with any bonus fish, to really challenge for points in each half of the section were Russia's Ilya Yakushin, D9 (4th in section with 138 fish for 3.824kg) and Germany's Lutz Weissig D27 (a section winner in top half with 110 fish for 6.349kg). One sad note regarding the day's match was to see both South African's finish rock bottom of their sections. This was definitely a match to for them to forget and one where the level playing field ideal was badly misrepresented!

Reports back from A and B sections confirmed a distinct lack of bleak. The best recorded was from the Croatian Dejan Vondrak with a fish count 346 for 4.174kgs and a section win in the first half of A. Section B saw the top points taken by a few decent fish. The first half saw Belgian Bart Helsen weighing in nearly 6kgs, which was helped by of a superb barbel of over 3kgs. Bart also added a near 2kg chub, a catfish and some smaller fish to finished first in the section, just 350g away from Slovenian Miroslav Matjasec. Austrian Mario Litschl added some bonus bream from B31 (5.562kg) to beat the Polish angler Adam Niemiec, on B36, by just over 900g. Adams fish count was 267, compared to Mario’s 101, and consisted of mainly bleak. Channel Islander didn’t bother with any small fry and wisely sat it out for a better stamp. He was rewarded with 3.051kgs and a section 3rd. Unfortunately that was as good as Greig’s Championship got, as he pulled a 13 pointer the following day. He did, however, finish as his teams best scorer with 16pts. A match the Channel boys would, like the Springboks, also want to forget!

Some action at last
Section C was where the real action took place, in the form of some proper fish, but then only a few. I’m referring to the Morava’s carp population of course. But it was left to just two anglers to reap the rewards of these river leviathans. Germany’s Rene Bredereck and Slovakia’s Peter Baránek to show they way. Rene included a beautifully scaled mirror of around 10lb (4.5kgs) in his 7.498kg weight, to help him secure his section over one of Frances’ finest bleakers, Stéphane Pottelet, who weighed in 401 fish for a total of 5.560kgs. Stéphane would improve on day two!
Slovakia's Peter Baránek takes the strain as he hauls up his second prize fish!
But the star of day one was undoubtedly Slovakian Peter, who took not only one carp, but two! His first fish weighed over 6 kilos (which I missed), while number two weighed a little over 5. His final weight stood at nearly 13 kilos, more than enough to take the section and two others! I watched his second fish come to the net and was impressed by his coolness in front of the gallery, who had patiently watch him for over 30 minutes!

Vive la France... schhhh!
While much of the focus had been on the east European teams, France was quietly racking up some good points, doing what they do best. Their lowest section points was 7 for the day and they ended up only 5 points off the two joint point leaders, Poland and Serbia, although Poland were in front on pure weight.

It was quite remarkable that neither of the two top finishers on the day included any section winners, testament to their committed drive for small fish.

News had been filtering back to me that England’s Sean Ashby was leading his section, but regrettably I was unable to get down to the beginning of C section, because of the massive distances and difficult access between the sections. That was good to hear as I knew Drennan Team England where falling behind slightly.

By the 2pm the race was on for the runners to filter back information to Mark Downes, to see just how badly the team had faired. On the surface England looked to have scored okay, our only hiccup was Stu Conroy who had struggled to find any quantity of bleak and finished down in 12th position. No matter what he did he could not improve his situation, even with 5x World Champ Alan Scotthorne as his bank runner! There was simply not enough fish to go around! Those around him also suffered a similar fate. That’s why I mentioned at the beginning about some areas having “some bleak, more bleak” etc.

What a result!
From an eastern nations’ perspective, it was a fabulous day. Both Poland and Serbia tied on 19 points, only distinguished by a 2 kilo gap. Consistent Belgium had shown again that they were more than capable of a good showing with 24pts and two section winners… that would be put to the test on day two! No surprises for seeing France up there with them. With the same points, but less weight, they were in a prime spot for making their game plan pay on day two. Three of these teams showed the way for all with fish counts exceeding the 1400 mark and not one of them had a section winner! Only Belgium produced some better fish consistently with a total of 698.

Of the rest, Austria slipped in a performance to savour, recording 28 points and two section winners, while big brother Germany also produce a great performance to post the same points but lighter weight. An interesting aspect of their catch-count was that they registered just 740 fish, remarkable when you consider that their top gun, Gunter Hörler, caught 522 of them!

The Czechs showed some home form by matching both Austria and Germany with 28 points, Slovakia and England followed them on 29 points. Mark Downes put the day into perspective by saying it would be hard to overtake both top teams, but that a bronze podium could be possible, given some luck.

Can you believe it?
Perhaps the greatest shock of the day was Italy’s performance. If the wheels could come off a teams march towards global dominance, then Italy’s car effectively lost all wheels, plus an engine! It seems inconceivable that one of the best small fish teams in the world can finish down in 15th place, 20 points off the pace, on a venue which, like France, suited them perfectly? I would have loved to have been a ‘fly on the wall’ when they had their team meeting on Saturday evening, to have found out! Maybe their demise would be Drennan Team England’s consolation prize, come Sunday evening? How day two fished would have a great bearing on that particular outcome.

We’ll pick up that story in Part 2!