The sound of the Dutch anthem playing at 6:58 AM followed by a blast of the airhorn puts all pedals in motion. 71 Anglers rush out of Jachthaven Atlantica in excitement to find their first fishing spot. It’s not just the start of a competition, it’s a step closer to going back to ‘normal’. Sharing your hobby, sport and passion with other likeminded people.
Within 15 minutes, the judges receive the first catch submission and more followed slowely after. A lot of anglers decide to fish the edges of the channel towards the shallows. Leaving a stretched-out line of anglers in sight. During the morning, the winds picks up a little bit and some rain showers come by. But overall the weather has been really good for the anglers. 18-20 degrees Celcius and overcast.
The first couple of anglers return around 1:00PM, their gameplan did not really worked out and decided to head back to prepare for day 2. It seems some sort of tradition, unwritten rule, or just the cleverest thing to do, but the closer the check in time is, the more anglers are fishing just around the check in spot. Hoping they will hook into that monster and ending the day on a high.
By 3:00 PM, everybody had their key tag on the board and this would be the point where the judges would retreat and do the scoring. By using TourneyX 95% is already checked, verified and uploaded to the live leaderboard. Beside the judges being happy with the app, competitors find it very easy in use and find the live leaderboard an exciting addition to the competition feeling.
Former World Champion Salah El Barbouchi (DE) had a great start, before noon, he took the lead with 5 fish in his bag, only missing 1 zander and 1 pike. Not long after Matthias Fischer (DE) submitted a 103CM pike taking back the lead he had early morning. Knowing this, Salah handled the pressure extremely well and managed to get his zander and pike whilst also having to deal with the pressure of the marshall/media boat present. These2 fish lifted him back to the top spot and kept him there untill at least tomorrow morning 7:00 AM when competition day two starts.
Top 3 after day 1:
- Salah El Barbouchi – 367cm (7 fish)
- Matthias Fischer – 330cm (4 fish)
- Ronald Traas – 327cm (5 fish)
Big fish after day 1:
118 CM pike – Olivier Schäfer
Check out the live standings here:
To keep it exciting for everyone, the live standings will be disabled form tomorrow mid morning. Anglers need to be back at 2:00PM. The award ceremony will be held at 4:00 PM after which the standings will be live again.
