Individual National Championship

Despite the venue being in dour form of late we still had the biggest turnout for an Individual National we have seen for many a year.  Heavy downpours in the days preceding the match did nothing to improve the sport and most competitors struggled for just a few bites with 49 competitors not bothering the scalesmen.  Despite that, there were some respectable weights recorded by those that were lucky enough to find themselves on feeding fish with 2Kg plus required to finish in the top 40.  Paul Abbott was over the moon to be drawn peg 145 on the mouth of Yardley Marina and he made no mistake in winning this prestigious contest and take the accolade of Individual National Champion 2021 and the gold medal with 12.770Kg of bream taken on ground bait feeder tactics.

Individual National Champion 2021 Paul Abbott

Another fancied peg, peg 1 at Stoke Bruerne was drawn by Terry Molloy and after a bumpy start losing 5 good skimmers on the trot he managed to keep the rest on the hook and ended up as runner up and a silver medal with 9.610Kg of skimmers.  Graham Smith was drawn at peg 188 at Drift Farm which had a bit of form and despite falling behind in the early stages to the pegs below him he clawed it back to finish in the bronze medal position with 7.680Kg of skimmers.

Top 3 winners from left to right: Graham Smith (bronze medal), Paul Abbott (gold medal), Terry Molloy (silver medal)

Full results can be found posted on the Angling Trusts Competitions Facebook page.

The canal is now closed to practice so 2 weeks’ rest should now give us a better Division 1 National to look forward to.

The Angling Trust would like to thank Chris Howard and his team for organising the day and Northampton Nene AC for use of their waters.

Result:

1^st          Paul Abbott                    12.770Kg

2^nd         Terry Molloy                  9.610Kg

3^rd         Graham Smith               7.680Kg

4^th         John Bates                      6.160Kg

5^th         Daniel Abbott                5.950Kg

6^th         Tony Cassidy                  5.700Kg

Zone Medal Winners:

Pegs 1 – 30                     Terry Molloy                 Peg 1                  9.610Kg

Pegs 31 – 60                  John Bates                      Peg 35               6.160Kg

Pegs 61 – 90                  Steve Pawson                Peg 77               5.090Kg

Pegs 91 – 120                 Dan Ashington              Peg 98                3.580Kg

Pegs 121 – 150               Paul Abbott                    Peg 145             12,770Kg

Pegs 151 – 175              Simon Willsmore          Peg 167             2.120Kg

Pegs 176 – 200              Graham Smith               Peg 188             7.680Kg