Cane Pole World Championships?

[Johnny wilkins]

While the title says Cane Pole World Championships - the poles used in this September's World Championships of fishing will be made from anything but cane. That said, 40 nations will meet and the primary fishing weapon deployed by the 5 anglers each nation sends will be the 42' foot pole (with no reel) - a modern cane pole.

 

The Fishing World Championships will take place in Northern Italy and the Championships of Nations will be played out on the shores of a massive canal and will resemble the set of Brave Heart closer than it will the Bassmasters. You see, some 400 of these poles will line up along miles of this giant canal as one angler from each nation will be placed in one of 5 sections. Only one member of team USA is in each section at any one heat. The world championships will be fished over the course of 2 4-hour heats. Our team from the USA features 2 anglers from Elkhart, IN, one from Arizona, 1 angler from New Jersey and myself (Chicago, IL).

 

This cane pole battle will feature those modern cane poles which are really hollow carbon-wrapped tubes weighing from 6 lb. - 3 lb. for the really top-of-the line poles.

Anglers will use chum, attractants, live worms, grubs, seeds and whatever they can to lure fish in, get them to feed at the end of these long poles. The battle is not only to catch the fish, but also to take fish from your neighbors with better feeding and better baits. The winners will have the heaviest bag of fish caught in 4 hours on the two days. Points determine where you stand and how high you finish in your section determines how many points you get. It's all about the points.

 

In my past two World Championships, I had little warning and now rest as I was called in as a reserve. This is the first World Championships that I qualified for in the National Qualifying heats in Indiana this past Spring. The fishing is the highest level of competition in angling and this style of fishing and the sport is massive in Europe and the rest of the world. Crowds will gather in Italy to watch this competition as the fishing-crazed people will come from all around to watch their team and anglers from around the world fishing at the highest level. Their anglers have supermodel wives and are like Formula One drivers, they have large crews, team assistants - it is big time.

 

I am happy to report that team USA has fantastic organizers this year and we have the good fortune of having the most support and the largest ground crew for this event that I have known. Sponsors have helped us this year more than ever including TopMix USA, TopMix Hungary, St. Croix USA and other sponsors who are boosting US Fishing further than it has ever gone. With these sponsorships and with this large crew we will be well equipped, well rested and well-prepared.

 

This reminds me, I have to go tie some lines. Preparation will consist of tying over 200 hook lengths, preparing 50 sets of floats all balanced perfectly to hold less than one tiny grub in the water column. Different sized floats to carry larger and smaller baits, some for windy conditions and some for larger fish will be rigged up.

 

I have stacks of split shot in the finest assortments available from England & France (US split shot is the pits) - this split shot is measured and accurate to within .05 grams and comes in an assortment so that rigs are exact - this is the key to the fishing - precision. Light lines will be employed from .75 lb. breaking strength and up - we can only hope we don't have to fish that light- but like in Portugal- this is what the fish would take and catching fish is what this is all about.

 

I really am going to prepare some rigs, and tie some lines tonight. I took a 4-hour lunch break to get my passport downtown, the split shot and a balancing tube along with the largest mass of floats I have ever had in my life is waiting for me. The workbench will be filled tonight and in the coming 10 days-  blogging will not be on the top of my list. I need rigs balanced out to .35 grams in sets so that I have back-ups. I will even tie some big rigs hoping that I do get to tangle with the bigger fish which might include some nasty cats, powerful carps and even some bluegills in Italy. After all- they are stocking these along side the black bass which is growning in popularity over there.

 

Is there an Italian bluegill photo in the making - I hope I see a pumpkin seed or something... Stay tuned. I have to go tie up some rigs...

 

Johnny