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DAI SCOOPS<br />
DRENNAN CUP<br />
...but champ takes it by just two points<br />
1<br />
Dai Gribble<br />
£2,000<br />
BEN MILES<br />
News editor<br />
T<br />
HE world’s biggest<br />
specimen fishing<br />
competition has<br />
crowned Dai Gribble champion.<br />
In the closest-ever finish in the<br />
31-year history of the Drennan Cup<br />
the Staffs-based specialist became<br />
the envy of the big-fish world<br />
when votes cast by angling’s elite<br />
put him just two points ahead of<br />
Yorkshire’s Tony Smith.<br />
He sent shockwaves through the<br />
angling world when he began his<br />
campaign and made an incredible<br />
string of tench hauls that many<br />
believe will never be rivalled.<br />
The Korum-backed angler’s<br />
incredible journey began last May<br />
when he targeted Medway Valley<br />
Fisheries and banked a huge 13lb<br />
3oz fish that was backed up by no<br />
fewer than seven other doublefigure<br />
specimens.<br />
Just a few weeks later he<br />
switched to another venue and<br />
made tench fishing history<br />
when he banked the biggestever<br />
specimen caught by design<br />
weighing in at a colossal 14lb12oz.<br />
The specimen later graced his net<br />
for a second time an ounce heavier<br />
at 14lb 13oz.<br />
Not only did he land 16 doublefigure<br />
tench during his campaign,<br />
but his summer was completed<br />
when he struck gold again, this<br />
time with another species – a<br />
20lb 10oz bream, along with six<br />
other ‘doubles’ that secured his<br />
third and final Drennan Weekly<br />
Award of the season.<br />
“By the end of June I’d<br />
made five catches that were<br />
all once-in-a-lifetime achievements<br />
in their own right, and anglers that<br />
I hold in the highest regard were<br />
saying ‘Dai you’ve got the Drennan<br />
in the bag’. I didn’t even dare to<br />
dream that this could be the case,”<br />
2<br />
Tony Smith<br />
£1,000<br />
Second-placed Yorkshireman, 71-yearold,<br />
Tony Smith, earned four Drennan<br />
Weekly Awards. The man who ‘fishes<br />
purely for the love of the sport’ ticked off<br />
four of his main targets with a 13lb 13oz<br />
tench, an 18lb bream, a 5lb 6oz eel and a<br />
16lb 9oz barbel.<br />
he told <strong>Angling</strong> <strong>Times</strong>.<br />
“I never set out to win the<br />
Drennan Cup as I just have a<br />
passion for catching big fish.<br />
“To have my name etched on to<br />
this trophy along with names such<br />
as Terry Lampard and Tony Gibson<br />
is just incredible.<br />
4 APRIL 26, 2016
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