Gary Miller has recently returned from the annual World Pairs event held in Ireland having competed in his fourth World Pairs event this year with partner Chris Vandervleit.
The event, which attracts anglers from all over the world, saw fifty five (55) pairs compete over five days with cumulative weight deciding the final outcome. Anglers were required to fish two days in Northern Ireland followed by three days on the smaller lakes of Southern Ireland competing for both pairs and individual titles.
“This was the fourth time my partner Chris Vandervleit and I had fished the World pairs in Ireland. This is a very competitive festival with two days fishing in Northern Ireland on the massive Lough Erne followed by three days in Southern Ireland on the smaller lakes, but they are still massive waters – much bigger than we find in the UK”.
“Due to the high water conditions fishing the feeder caught me 99% of my fish. Using 13ft Diamond Extreme feeder rods and reels loaded with 0.10mm Maver Profile 8 braid with 8lb shock leaders, big size 10-12 hooks on 0.18mm Zero HL smart line hook lengths, I fished maggot hookbaits in the main with worm also catching some fis”.
“Hybrids were the target fish with some individual fish running up to about 3lbs. The average stamp was around 12oz to 1 1/2lbs, plus roach, odd skimmers and perch. I managed to catch some nice roach up to 1 1/2 lbs on the second day, but not many roach showed this year compared to previous years – probably due to plenty of cold water entering the venues due to heavy rainfall”.
“My partner and I were in and around the top ten all week, but with our last two venues in our rotation switching off on the last two days we finished in 13th place overall. Individually, I found myself in 7th place going into the final day, but unfortunartely slipped to 15th after a poor last outing”.
“I had a great week winning my mini section five times out of six, as well as earning a fourth place finish overall on one of those days with 17 kilo 500g. Well done Micheal Buckwalder and Rod Scott winning the pairs. Looking forward to it next year”.