MICHAEL BUCHWALDER - WORLD CHAMPION!
It was a weekend that dreams are made of for MAP Consultant Michael Buchwalder!
It was a weekend that dreams are made of for MAP Consultant Michael Buchwalder!
Having spent a week practising for the upcoming World Feeder Championships on the Guadiana River in Merida, Spain, with his team mates from Ireland’s national team, a plan was formulated for the two days of competition over the weekend.
It wasn’t plain sailing for many of the anglers involved in the event as a sickness bug managed to strike members of most teams with Michael himself one of the victims suffering towards the end of the practise week.
Sickness aside and with the venue offering some amazing fishing, with big weights commonplace, hopes of an excellent world championships were high and the venue certainly didn’t disappoint.
On the first day Michael was heading off to C3 and enjoyed an excellent match, managing to catch a mixed bag of 74 carp and carassio which went 32kilos at the scales. This secured a brilliant 3rd in the section and great team points.
The Ireland team had also enjoyed a great day too, accumulating 30 points between them putting the team in second place going into the second day, the chance of a team and individual medal was now a realistic possibility!
Going into the second day, Michael drew D21 and turned in an awesome performance to take the section win with a brilliant 45kg 060g another amazing day’s fishing and he would now wait to find out whether he’d done enough to become the individual World Feeder Champion.
Over the two days Michael used our Parabolix Black Editon Pro 11ft Ultralight Feeder and Parabolix Ultra II 11ft feeder rods fished at ranges of up to 25 metres to put together two big weights on a venue that anglers in England and Ireland never get to experience other than on events like this one.
The 11ft Ultralight was perfect when the fishing was a bit tougher earlier in the match, ensuring every fish ended up in the net, and when the fishing got better a switch to the Ultra II 11ft Feeder provided the extra power needed to land the fish quickly.
Durable tackle was the name of the game, with 0.21mm Optimum Power hook lengths and 8lb Optimum main line being perfect for the rocky terrain. Also, with the rocky margins along the river, a 4m Parabolix Black Edition landing net handle gave the extra reach required to get the fish into the landing net as quickly as possible.
As news filtered through, it was confirmed – Michael Buchwalder was the World Champion, the stuff of dreams…but it didn’t end there!
Team Ireland had another amazing day as a team too, putting together a score of 29 points for second on the day behind England which combined with their first day efforts gave them 59 points that confirmed Ireland as World Feeder Champions!
This meant that Michael had achieved a very rare feat, double gold and an achievement that will last forever.
Congratulations from everyone at MAP!
