Gallery Four ... Day 1 continued

The stars of the show....
The River Vilaine is big and wide and, until a few years ago, was mainly a bream water. All that has changed now with the influx of the 'cats', who have overrun everywhere. The French treat them as vermin and they have rules not allowing them back in the water, much the same as we do with crayfish. What this contest showed us, is that if a team could sort out the bream from the cats then they would hold a strong hand in the final placings. We've included a selection of a few of those anglers lucky enough to net these prized species....

Above: Ireland's Willy Wheeler slips the net under a kilo fish which helped him weigh-in 6.90kg to take fourth in section E.

Below left & right: New Polish star, Wiktor Walczak, gets on top of things in order to get his bream out of the inside weed bank.

Above: A decent skimmer for Luxemburg's Serge Wolsfeld helped lift him off the bottom of section E.

Left: Although Stu Conroy had the proverbial 'mare' of a match, he did managed to snare the odd decent bream to bolster his weight to 2.900kg. Day two would see him step down in favour of Darren Cox.

Below: England's star performer and the 2005 European Champion, Will Raison, lands a good bream from B section to give him a 4th place. He would later surrender his crown to one of Belgium's finest anglers'.

Above: Surprise team San Marino turned in a surprise performance on day one and one of their star anglers was Andrea Riccardi. He produced an outstanding contribution to the team with 6.760kg for a 2nd in section, although he nearly found himself in trouble with one of the stewards as his coach came down to the anglers side and touched his fish (below left). The steward approached both man and motioned the coach away from Andrea, who was left to deposit the hard fighting bream into his net (below right). Unfortunately San Marino's anglers couldn't maintain their advantage on day two and ended up in 12th place overall. Andrea's day two was even worse, he finished in a lowly 23rd place in section B.

Above: Portugal's Jose Calado adds another big Vilaine skimmer to his score and eventually finished 3rd in section with 7.420kg.

Above: England's Will Raison brings in another good skimmer from B4 to boost his weight to 5.070kg and 4th in section.

Above: Continental angler's have some weird ways of netting fish compared to their UK counterparts. I suppose its something to do with getting the fish clear of the water before the end signal sounds as it would be disqualified if still in the water, until the UK were we are usually allowed a certain time's grace! Belgian star Eric Di Venti shows his acrobatic flair by heaving this decent bream clear of the water before the all out!

Catch of the day...

A few shots of the weigh-in from day one...

Above: Continental weigh-ins are a bit of a frought affair for us fish loving UK anglers. The same amount of care does not always carry to our European neighbours when it comes to weighing this valuable cargo... most commercial fishery owners would see you strung up if their fish were handled fish like this. Below: This mullet was one of many fish that put a smile on Eric Di Venti's face, as it sealed his A section win with 10.5kg on day one and gave Belgium its third section winner on the day.

Above: Not a mullet to be seen in Steve Hemmingray's 4.540kg net from peg A4, that would change on day two!

Left & above: Classy Frenchman Eric Lubin is all smile after securing a section second from peg A1 and helping France to a stunning 16pt first day total... surely they'd take the Championship with this form?

Mullet helped dominated the top weights in section A, they proved a distinct advantage at the weigh-in in which low numbers figured in the top ten.

Below left & right: Two past World Champions, Alan Scotthorne and Tamas Walter had mixed fortunes. Alan finished the tournament with a paltry 17pts while Tamas faired better with 8pts and a top ten individual place.