WONDERFUL WAKEFIELD DOMINATE DIVISION 2 NATIONAL

Sometimes it can take a new team a while to gel and begin getting results, but not for Wakefield AC, who since being formed 18 months ago have gone on to finish second in the Winter League Final and to then win the Angling Trust Division Two National!

Fished across the Aire & Calder and New Junction Canals against 24 other teams, Wakefield carded 67 points from their ten anglers to finish seven in front of Bait-Tech North, the bronze medals going to NuFish Selby who were only one point off taking second.

Wakefield also had the top individual as Danny Myers won the match thanks to a 14-600 net of bream, roach and skimmers from peg 74 in C section at Rawcliffe Bridge on the Aire & Calder, WICAC Jacob’s man John Christey earning second with 11-600 off the New Junction and Dave Binns of the CRT Staff team picking up third a few pegs away from Danny with 11-400.

Aside from the medals, this National was also about promotion, with the top 10 teams going up to fish the Division One event next year.

Joining Wakefield, Bait-Tech North and NuFish Selby are Pelham AC, Spotted Fin Normanton, Prince Albert AS, Matrix Halifax, Cadence North West, Nytro Team Central and the CRT Staff sides.

Faced with two very different venues, the new champs Wakefield picked two different teams to fish each one, the five anglers headed for the Aire & Calder being better suited to catching bream and bonus fish while the five on the New Junction were out and out small fish experts, as victorious skipper Neil Stead explained.

“We know the venues a fair bit and knew each one was different. On the Aire & Calder, you were always going to need some bigger fish to score well in each section and we’re generally talking bream here, while on the ‘Junky’, it’s more or less all small fish and about catching as many roach and perch as you can,” he revealed. “That’s meant several pole lines and a feeder chuck for those bream with careful rotation, constantly looking to pick fish off throughout the match, while for the small fish, it’s been a groundbait and pinkie or hemp job, although not quite so many roach have fed compared to what we expected.”

Alongside individual winner Danny with his section win, Wakefield’s next best scorers were John Ibbotson with a second in section, Matthew Mollart with fourth, Simon Wain with fifth, Steve Barraclough with sevcn points and Matt Anderson with eight. That left skipper Neil to chip in with nine points, the same as Luke Wrzosek and Richard Drage, Daz Hall contributing 13 points.

“We were one of the favourites beforehand, but we’ve all been in that situation before and seen it not quite come off and this time, when we got back to the HQ, we felt we’d been pipped,” Neil said. “Turns out I added my scores up wrong, and we’d worked out that we might just have done enough – and we were right! For a team so young and with a lot of young anglers – half of the side are aged under 31 – it’s exciting times ahead. They’re all dead keen and we’ve got the right mix of youth, ability and experience. It’s exactly what we wanted when we started 18 months ago.”

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BREAM SEAL INDIVIDUAL WIN FOR WAKEFIELD’S DANNY MYERS

The race for the individual medals was always going to be centred around two areas on the Aire & Calder Canal – either in C section at Rawcliffe Bridge or next-door D section by the M18 motorway bridge – with the former being where the honours were decided.

Drawn on peg 74 in the marina, Wakefield AC’s Danny Myers got the nod with 14-600 against the 11-600 of WICAC Jacob’s rod John Christey on peg 391 of K section at Sykehouse on the New Junction, Dave Binns coming in third just 200g behind John from a few pegs away from Danny.

The marina is a noted area and both Danny and Dave traded blow for blow throughout much of the match, Danny importantly having a few pounds of small fish on the pole alongside bream on the feeder to push him clear of the chasing pack.

“I think we all knew about the marina pegs, and I could have just fished back-to-back on the feeder all-day, but as a team we felt that the bream would need some rest from time to time, so catching on the pole was going to be just as important,” Danny explained. “I’ve had about 2.5 kilos of roach and perch on maggots and hemp on the pole along with the bream and skimmers on the tip, and I think that’s made the difference between winning and coming second or third.”

Casting to a marina jetty opposite his peg, Danny began on a cage feeder with three pinkies, changing to redworms when the fish arrived in numbers, a bait that also allowed him to pick off some bigger bream, including a couple of 4lb fish late in the day.

“The plan was to begin on the tip to get some bait in early and catch some early skimmers,” he revealed. “When that faded, it was time to put some more feed in, come off it and spend 30 minutes or so on the pole, but not leave the feeder line for too long. Constant looks were the key and long casts too, sometimes waiting up to 10 minutes between chucks as we’d found patience to be just as important as using the right bait or chucking to the right spot.”

WATCH THE DIVISION 2 NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS VIDEO ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL SOON… https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbCf7zvfwFtLT0ApVjDbRrQ

FULL RESULT ON HOTFISHIN.COM… https://www.hotfishin.com/app/matchresults/Angling-Trust/2024-Angling-Trust-Division-Two-National-Championship/SX7XKBHV/