I can see where you are coming from but we in the UK dont even have a venue to use just to catch bleak.
Heart breaking for the guys and gals who put time and effort, not to mention significant cash of their own,to fish.
They deserve better but are probably not going to get it. Very sad for them and makes it harder to attract sponsors TV etc
I am sure the governing body has minimum standards but these are clearly hard to enforce..

Lots of venues are the same though, good fishing, but soon as there is a bit of pressure, fish disappear. I love hard venues.
Any news on how the home nations are doing in Czech?

All this talk of crap venues, long walks, tiddler bashing etc… about time they put them on a commie puddle! 😮 😮 😮 😀

There seems to be a complete lack of quality inconsistency regarding FIPS venues – not least because of politics and leaving to domestic member Feds. to sort out.
We’ve just had the excellent Merida and now an unusually cr@ap dutch canal venue and now this Czech disaster -presumably chosen because the czechs think they can compete here.
If you wanted to further public dis-interest and put off prospective anglers from the long and arduous commitment to FIPS fishing and, what should be, the pinnacle of fishing for on’es country- then the organizing overseeing venue committee and host federation are doing a wonderful counterproductive effort sadly.

Yep the venues seem to be getting worse you shouldnt be getting loads of blanks like some teams in the Ladies World Champs and now the men Fishing for bleak surely that makes teams like Italy and France who can speed fish Favorites. Where is next years being held anyone know and is it any good

How can we call other countries? Has everyone forgot about Holme Pierrepoint?

List does make dismal reading Geeps, does make you wonder if venue logistic current requirements need to be amended to allow a surely greater priority of some decent fishing for those involved given their immense effort. Some of those venues could hardly be considered fair – if near blanks and patchy sections are also included.

Another perennial gripe, is flow – or the altering of it come day of the match on large rivers or Kanaals – even introducing newly stocked fish in that euro a couple of years back- making practice weeks almost meaningless.

Still South Africa should be interesting having read a few posts on those who know the venue – seems some locals use beachcasters and pendulum style for casts up to 200 yds!! – so the 80 yd minimum requirement for the English AT trials suddenly seems quite modest, lol.

mind you who can afford to travel over there must throw a few doubts over the number of teams entering given the global recession? Will you be representing the US this year?

Have a look at the work Richard Caplice is putting into the redevelopment of the European Championships 1998 Venue Lough Muckno.

It has received €750,000 of public funding to redevelop the venue into a 200 peg venue. It is one of the few CIPS recognised venues in these isles.

Over the next 4 weeks the venue is hosting.
World Pairs
Muckno Pairs
European Police.

http://www.fishingtalkireland.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=11749

good to hear re- czech venue for this weekend Geeps – hope our boys are now catching in practice as well- any news?
– though seems daft if the US has made qualifiers mandatory and then not put in a team.

Also what’s happened to the Chinese in FIPS of late- re
call they used to send a team?
and now must have quite a few to choose from and given their world supremacy and a large home grown bait company, when can we expect their return?

The venue is perfectly fine for a WC, however nobody are able to control the weather. Even with a strong current, it won’t be as bad as lasts years EC in Poland.

If the bigger fish picks up the feed again, some sectors can easily be won with more than 20 kg’s. Multiple teams have had 10 kg+ weights during the week. The best bleak countries have had up to 8 kg of bleak per angler (before the rain).

Also, it appears that Alan is on the reserves list for saturday 😮

Looks like the venue fished really well today. 15 lb of bleak aint too bad for a “few” hours bagging 🙂