The 25th World Carp Fishing Championship - Team USA Prove They’re Contenders

The USA Carp Squad overcame early setbacks to turn in their second best ever performance at the FIPSed 25th World Carp Championship in Croatia. They came in sixth overall, ahead of 27 other countries. They landed 29 fish in the round-the-clock 72-hour marathon match, including one of the biggest landed in the tournament, a fish of 17.625kg (just under 39lbs).

 

It was a complete team performance with each of the US squad’s three pairs of anglers ranking well within their section, and the pairing of Bogdan Bucur and Srdjan Gazivoda matching the best historical section performance of an American pair, with a second place in section A. The overall event, which was spread over two different lake venues, was won by Moldova, with England second, and Ukraine third.

Those are some of the facts and figures. Here is some of the behind the scenes story of how it went for Team USA, and the huge commitment it takes to compete on this level.

 

The team flew out three days in advance, first to Istanbul then catching a connection to Croatia. Unfortunately, there was a mix-up on the flight details that delayed the team manager, Christine Simpson, from traveling with the team. As she was the one who booked the hotel and hire vehicles, a little extra stress was placed on everybody just to get to the venue, not helped by some of the accommodations not being ready.

With a day to spare and everyone in situ, they spent the time before the tournament preparing an enormous amount of tackle and bait, some of the bulkier items of which are stored in Europe during the year. This year the Championship was fished across two distinct lakes – Lake Jošava and Lake Borovik – close to the town of Đakovo, in the northeastern Slavonia region of the country. 

Team USA knew how the lakes might fish thanks to a reconnaissance mission carried out by a couple of squad members, who’d flown out three weeks prior to compete in a local tournament and get a feel for the place and the tactics needed. Some European teams, funded by their home governments, have been known to spend weeks pre-fishing a venue before the Championship, and this has always handicapped American teams.

It was vital info: Jošava is a venue that seemed to demand fishing at extreme range (200 yards plus) for generally smaller fish with few places for the carp to hide, and Borovik was the opposite: larger fish, closer in, snaggier.

 

At the draw, Sean Lehrer and Henryk Burza, Tanner Smith and Norbert Samok were pegged on Jošava, and Bogdan and Srdjan were on Borovik. At the end of the first day, triggered by the extreme casting and baiting-up they were trying to achieve, Henryk suffered a back strain severe enough that he had to drop out of the competition.

As the reserve angler, Rafal Wlazlo was able to step in and achieve his dream of representing his country as a carp angler for the first time.

At the Championship, every angler is being closely watched and studied by spectators, officials, and competing teams. Rigs and bait buckets are kept shielded, tactics are obscured to any extent possible, and substitute anglers are quickly assessed for skill level. And the better a team is doing, the more intense the level of surveillance.

It’s a high-pressure environment, and when Rafal was able to land his first fish, he took a moment to call his wife and shed a tear or two of built-up emotion.

“When I received the call to see if I was interested in joining the team, I was extremely excited. Proud is an understatement. So when I caught that first fish, after all the prep and expense and stress and strain, it was an individual achievement but I also felt I was now in the game, that I’d contributed something material to the team. I called my wife and just said to her, ‘I freaking did it!’”

Through the luck of the draw, Team USA was pegged next to some of the highest ranked teams in the tournament, Sean and Rafal next to England, Bogdan and Srdjan next to eventual winners Moldova, and Tanner and Norbert in between Romania and Hungary. Though these were decent draws in terms of having fish in front of each team, competing against such capable extreme long-range anglers was a challenge. Not only because on Lake Jošava, the majority of the fish were at range but because these neighboring teams were able to use tactical baiting to cut the fish off from moving.

Sean and Rafal decided they couldn’t quite meet England’s long-range game and switched to spots roughly 160 yards out that they could fish and bait to accurately. Even so, it required them to use only 9lb mainline (with a shockleader), which made the playing and landing of every one of their 12 fish a heart-in-mouth affair.

Casting to the horizon hundreds of times to bait up, the rods themselves recast every 90 minutes (on a timer), and fishing through the day and night for three days straight, eventually the funnel of concentration is dictated by sleep deprivation and narrows down to just the task at hand. These matches are called “Enduros” for a reason.

Exhaustion nearly cost Sean and Rafal a crucial fish just a couple of minutes before the tournament was due to end. Rafal was taking a video of the rod pods as a final souvenir of the experience, when he noticed one of the indicators was hanging a little limp … they’d had a very subtle drop-back bite neither had noticed, and amazingly the fish – a beautiful mirror and one of the better ones landed in the whole tournament – was still attached.

 

Though each pair was updated regularly with how the other pairs and teams were doing, and they knew they were grinding out a very solid performance, when the whistle went they were still in the dark about final results.

“In my mind we were competing for third” says Rafal. “We came up short, but we were close enough that it just makes you want it more next time. The US has been considered the red-headed stepchild of carp fishing in Europe, but we showed everybody we belong. So many teams came up to us at the end and congratulated us on sixth place, because they understood that it was a massive team achievement.”

“At the closing ceremony when the results were announced, all the competitive mode goes away and you’re just part of this beautiful experience, taking pride in representing your nation. Teams were cheering on each other, cheering on other anglers. It was fantastic, and a lot of what’s missing in today’s world. Just like in other sports, it’s a tradition to swap jerseys with other teams and countries and I can tell you, the American jersey is probably the most sought after of all the nations.”

Sean summed up the experience and the lingering feeling that the job’s not done yet: 

“Years of blood, sweat, and tears as a team working towards one goal, and that's bringing some hardware home! This is a big step forward for our team and country and  I am proud of where we finished. I still will not be satisfied until our goal is complete. We learn so much year after year, strengthening our game traveling from the other side of the world. It makes for a very difficult road which we are conquering. The next chapter is already underway!”

Author: Craig Buddo