Congratulations to everyone involved today especially Keith and Tommy. A fantastic fishing match, the ‘best ever televised’ by far. Well done to Team England – simply awesome.

only saw an hour and a half , it was fantastic, alans performance on the waggler was really impressive , obviously i knew he was a fishing god but you usually only see the results not how they do it, imo it was much better than yesterdays match.

hope they do that again next year

cheers mike strutter

i totaly agree guys i was there yesterday and watched it on sky today what a great match, i wish we had gone down today, and for all those people out there who think fishing isn’t a sport well i hope they watched the fisho today it was a fantastic match and just proves what legends raison, scotthorne, ship, hemingray and the rest of the england squad really are well done guys. it was also good to see the rest of the home nations turning out some great anglers lets hope we see more of it next year, fishing was defenatly the winner today.

Further to Mikes observation about Alan Scotthornes brilliant performance on the waggler.
I thought Sky could of filmed more in detail of Alan doing what he did to perfection rather than telling us what he was doing.(if they did apologies i missed it!)
I think they are missing something here not showing just how accurate he was, and how easy he makes it look.

not complaining, i agree with everyone else,, it was absolutley awesome,
but did enyone else notice these boys didnt have to put up with a boom camera rammed down the margin swim or being swund out infront of them ????
and not one of em had a microphone rammed in there mouth !!!!!

hopefully, sky have seen the potential for televised match fishing !!!!
could be the start of something special !!!!

Weather aside, did you not see the lower level of interest..Saturdays weather was just as changeable but that days event took the ‘crowds’. Maybe, the lack of a crowd helped with the fishing too as there was less disturbance at the bank.

Can’t someone rig up a pole pot camera 😀 or maybe a trained duck :p

All the same it was a very good delivery for those die hard fishermen amongst us who would fish a puddle if we were told there were fish in it. :rolleyes:

As Mr Pickering pointed out it could alter the way in which people tackle the Fisho final next year…lets hope so ‘coz I thought it was very difficult for the sky presenters to ooh and aah on saturday.

Top weights by top blokes, and the juniors had a good day too by the looks of what I’ve watched so far.

Leaky Lloyd: Oh yes they did have ‘pole-cam’ swung round in front of them but NEVER over their margin swim. They each have a spare peg either to left or right and that is sacrosanct but there is a camera platform between each two adjacent anglers for exactly that. The reason why they did’t have a mic to speak into was because they weren’t sitting, arms folded, watching a tip! If they are pole fishing, we ask if they are prepared to be mic’d up (as Will Raison was, and several people on Fisho) and have the option, as Lee Edwards and someone else I don’t recall on Saturday did, to decline.

top work Keith and Fordy and every1 else at sky sports!
are they plans to do another 4 nations next year?
maybe it would be better with more anglers? but would probs have to be on a bigger venue? really enjoyed it, even the wife watched it!!
i reckon if they did do another more people would go next year! for sure!

Cutnut that’s hardly a surprise, it’s been years since team fishing really attracted the crowds…. I recally the world champs at Holme Pierrepont there were huge crowds. Something has changed since then….

Watched the international on sky+ last night. Awesome, proper fishing rather than just sitting there with your arms folded. All of the england team really showed what could be done on the venue.
Thought the coverage was superb. Well done keith and the team 🙂

its brilliant to get any coverage of angling on TV top marks to sky and the lads and not forgetting toms, absolute match fishing programme.its all repeated from 6.30am tomorrow morning
angling has so much against it whether you like it or not,sky and everyone involved with the making of theses programmes have taken it to another level a level where a lot more people outside of angling can watch
the two competitions were miles apart and perhaps in the future wants looking at,i know its a winner take all of 30,000 and the method seams to be the winning method but it was miles better watching laggy being pulled all over the place watching the anglers feeding,what floats are they using all helps the outsiders understand the sport

i used to be like that with American football but when you know what they are doing and why they are doing it the sport becomes entertaining

geeps i thought you’d make a good pundit on TV mate 😀 😀

Well done to sky and everyone in the production of 10 hours of fantastic coverage. The sky bank presenters are becoming more knowledgeable about fish and rough size of them which comes across really well. It’s nice to have un interupted coverage, not cutting off to some mickey mouse celeb match, just pure match fishing great!!

It would be nice for us to have seen a good 5 mins or so watching Will or Alan or Jamie actually fishing so we can see whats really happening.

Or how about this for an idea….. CAP CAM!! and small camera clipped on an anglers cap so we can really see whats going on, i’m sure it’s possible just if an angler would want this attachted to them.

Once again great coverage, and no doubt i’ll watch the matches agian on sky plus. Well done 😀

I’m another who would like to see the match repeated next year.

Hopefully the weather will be kinder as it was awful yesterday. I was behind Des Shipp for quite a while but in the end the wind and rain forced me to move.

I found the match a better event to watch than the Fishomania final itself.

FBLUES!!
i personally never saw the boom camera ,
but you sound like your in the know mate so i aint gunna argue !!!! :p 🙂 🙂 🙂
and with reguards to the lack of interest,, it was absolutely throwing it down on sunday, where as saturday i’d describe more as scattered showers !!!

Cheers Leaky Lloyd. Oddly, in the locality and at the time people would have been leaving to go to the show, Sunday was dry, mild and breezy but the forecast was for it to blow and rain later. On Saturday it was TIPPING down from when I left the hotel at 8am until the match started yet there were more people there for the opening hooter than all day on Sunday. I have a plan (as if I wouldn’t!) and will have conversations with the fishery management about them.

Glad you all enjoyed it, it was terrific to work on and there was a tangible feeling that every team really wanted it and realised they had taken part in something special.

The Scots used a certain Japanese groundbait by the way…

Keith I too enjoyed it but if I am honest I dipped in and out as I was working at home all weekend. You mention the Scots used a Japanese groundbait but in general how did the teams approach it? I got the gist that England fished lighter with a small piece of worm whilst the others were more positive. Also Alan wagglered his weight of skimmers on dead reds and groundbait. From what I saw the main approach seemed to center on casters and worm, potting heavily for the bigger fish, kinder pots for scatching.
Where did the general groundbait come into play? Was there a heavy pre baiting session by anyone for example?
Thought Mr Hemmingray was outstanding by the way his weight really stood out for me.

England started on small, kinder pots of chopped worm and caster then changed to a small ball of groundbait, 50-50 sweet/fishmeal, with tiny amounts of chop and caster. They got their big lead fishing worm heads.

Wales led at the first weigh, possibly being more aggressive, using bigger bits of, or even whole worms.The fish backed off their feed before they backed off of England’s smaller amounts.

I don’t know how the Scots fed but I know they used ‘that’ groundbait (I think it was EFG131). I know there is a feeling that if they could have used JPz on the hook they’d have smashed the place up.

When the gap started to close England went to their 13m line (they’d caught on 10-11m) for bigger fish and if they caught them would stay there. I don’t think they did. AS went on the waggler as there seemed to be fewer bigger fish between 14 and 12 although a couple were caught late. They weren’t big enough, or frequent enough, to beat Alan’s 2kg or more every 30 minutes on the wag, fished about 4/5ths over (not tight as some have said – I could see from my elevated position 25m from his peg). He fed soft groundbait and, unless he’s changed recently, usually that would be 50% crumb.

I think in the last 30 minutes England were free to have a right go as some tried margin swims but mostly failed, reverted to what they’d been doing and did enough to beat the charge. Two of the best weights, if not the best weights, in the final 30 mins were Irish anglers, one of them being Willie Wheeler who had mostly struggled throughout, so I assume the fish moved on to his feed that had gone in early.

It wasn’t half a good match to watch!

Good viewing that, so impressed by Will Raison fishing so light and landing fish to 6k. I know he was using a pulla kit by even so he made it all look so easy. As mentioned would liked to have seen more of Alan Scotthorne on the waggler.

Thanks Keith, sounds like groundbait did not have a major part to play, unlike most other world champs.
JPz???? whats that sorry dont understand.
Maybe the format could be extended like the rugby to include the French and Italians, now that would be worth paying to see.

JPz are the new Marukyu jelly pellets – actually pellets made of jelly, not just pellets soaked in it.

Home International is what we’ve got. Anything else means we’d have to relegate the Juniors – OUR juniors – to a different lake again. Also costs have to be considered. Accommodation and travelling expenses were paid to the teams competing and bringing in teams from Europe magnifies that somewhat! Think about practice too…

I rather like the way it was at the weekend.

It was great as it was but it would have been nice to see how the continental anglers would have approached it.
Building on Gareths comments on the crowd in attendance I think had the French etc been there it would have drawn more in.
I understand the cost issues, just thinking how to broaden the appeal, maybe we just need to walk first before we think about running!
Must look out for those pellets Keith thanks.

To be honest Take That may have drawn a few more but angling crowds are different from years gone by. I remember anglers FIGHTING on the pavement outside a hall in Ilford to see an Ian Heaps Roadshow. Ian toured the country to sell-out audiences. Tom Pickering did road shows that all sold out. A few weeks back Martin Bowler had himself, John Wilson, Hugh Miles, Chris Yates, Terry Lampard, Tim Norman and possibly more I’ve forgotten at a do in Chippenham. It was £15 to attend (Heapsy was £5 in the late 70s) but it was an all-day thing, with a BBQ, field available for bivvying up in, FOC. I don’t think he sold more than 50 tickets and they were mostly to autograph hunters for books to sell on fleabay. He has over 5,000 facebook fans too and it was to raise money for McMillan.

I’ve made some suggestions to Cyril so that should it go ahead next year we may just get a better turnout.

PS: a few may have gone to see the French have their derrieres kicked.

Hope I can make it next year Keith. Last weekends events were definately a major step forward for televised angling, congratulations.

Thanks JohnH. I’m pretty confident you won’t ever see live match fishing anywhere else on telly. It took over 100 staff to get those shows out. Lord-knows the budget!

@FBlues wrote:

England started on small, kinder pots of chopped worm and caster then changed to a small ball of groundbait, 50-50 sweet/fishmeal, with tiny amounts of chop and caster. They got their big lead fishing worm heads.

Wales led at the first weigh, possibly being more aggressive, using bigger bits of, or even whole worms.The fish backed off their feed before they backed off of England’s smaller amounts.

I don’t know how the Scots fed but I know they used ‘that’ groundbait (I think it was EFG131). I know there is a feeling that if they could have used JPz on the hook they’d have smashed the place up.

When the gap started to close England went to their 13m line (they’d caught on 10-11m) for bigger fish and if they caught them would stay there. I don’t think they did. AS went on the waggler as there seemed to be fewer bigger fish between 14 and 12 although a couple were caught late. They weren’t big enough, or frequent enough, to beat Alan’s 2kg or more every 30 minutes on the wag, fished about 4/5ths over (not tight as some have said – I could see from my elevated position 25m from his peg). He fed soft groundbait and, unless he’s changed recently, usually that would be 50% crumb.

I think in the last 30 minutes England were free to have a right go as some tried margin swims but mostly failed, reverted to what they’d been doing and did enough to beat the charge. Two of the best weights, if not the best weights, in the final 30 mins were Irish anglers, one of them being Willie Wheeler who had mostly struggled throughout, so I assume the fish moved on to his feed that had gone in early.

It wasn’t half a good match to watch!

there aint no “LIKE” button,,

but i like it !!! 😉

@FBlues wrote:

Thanks JohnH. I’m pretty confident you won’t ever see live match fishing anywhere else on telly. It took over 100 staff to get those shows out. Lord-knows the budget!

would pre recorded matches need a similar number of staff to put out ?????
obviously it could be edited to fit into a certain time slot, sort of like the fisho qualifiers on tightlines,,
always thought this way would work better than a live match,
reason being down to editing,,, could get rid of the useless parts and ram it full of quality info footage and interviews !!!

fblues that was a great weekend you must be very proud to have got the home international included
i think the venue is spot on and the coverage was first class
people were catching it did not need big weights if someone was not catching it added to the event for the twists and turns that can change an outcome
im glad england won but loved how they started to panick at the end
when sam won the girl in that family had a tear run down her cheek which touched me

when des and will had a quiet spell i was wondering if by takeing the silvers from there peg this could stop fish feeding as feeding fish do bring in more fish this was just a thought
thanks again to you and sky

The UK Champs is done how you say Leaky Lloyd. Don’t know the crew size, it’s an independent production but I would guess 4 tops. It’s not difficult to do at all and Sky have, or had when I asked, the time slot. It’s all down to funding. Find me £60k and I’ll give you 8 quality 1hr and 1 2hr show, team and individual fishing. Then find the money for prizes and expenses for the anglers for 8 matches…

I had a format on the table, I had most of the money to ‘do’ it in place but not the time.

By the way, I forgot to say thanks to swingtipbry and the others who enjoyed the show. I loved it, it was great to be part of both days and I thought Shane Atkin was awesome, as were the 2 Sams: Sim and Hughes. All a credit to our sport.

With regards to international teams coming to the UK to fish competitions, I don’t think it is far fetched.

There are already big, international competitions in at least Germany, Spain and Italy, where people travel far to participate. I would imagine an international competition somewhere in the UK would be well attended as well. It would be interesting to see how countries like Hungary and Italy would attack a carp puddle.

When I fish one of the big competitions the budget is usually around £1000, which will cover the fee, transport, accomodation, bait and food. I’m sure it won’t be more expensive than that to fish a week in the UK.

Maybe Fisho on the Saturday, home international 3 hour match Sunday early with an international 3 hour match later on the Sunday?
Coverage costs would be the same so you are just looking at expenses for the overseas anglers which will surely be offset by paying spectators and an increase in betting?

@FBlues wrote:

I’ve made some suggestions to Cyril so that should it go ahead next year we may just get a better turnout.

Hi Keith,

Perhaps you could suggest to Cyril that changing the spectator banking from a slope to a tiered setup would actually make standing there for hours on end much more comfortable.

I really enjoyed watching the home international match despite the appalling weather and hope that it returns again next year.