The 2nd Hobie Fishing European Championships powered by Lowrance & GoFree was held on the 11th – 13th of September. The championship started on Friday the 11th with Registration and Pre Fish Day followed by the mandatory Captains Meeting including the initially presentation of the GoFree Hooked app in Europe. Most of the anglers fished and mapped the tournament arena Lac de Lacanau in France for the first time to find their strategy for the following two tournament days.
Day one welcomed all anglers with a thunderstorm and lightning and therefore the first morning started with the national anthem of France being played over the waters of Lacanau with a delay of 30min. However with an extended session time, it turned out to be a good day for all anglers.
Day one results saw Edi Brader from Austria in 1st place with a total fish length of 204cm, in 2nd was Guillem Soriano Arcarons from Spain with 152cm and Vidal Limbourg from Belgium in 3rd with a total length of 134cm.
Like the first day the second competition day (Sunday) started with heavy rain. Cloudy skies over the arena and winds up to 3bft promised to turn on the bite and to bring up some decent fish. And so it was, a total length of 52.8 meters of predatory fish were caught and released during the weekend.
- Edi Brader, AT, 287cm
- Axel Heinlein, GER, 246cm
- Matt Boast, UK, 225 cm
- Igor Manuel Azevedo, ESP, 209cm
- Daniel van der Post, NED, 207cm
- Mael Martin, FRA, 196cm
- Vidal Limbourg, BEL, 188cm
- George Ekkelenkamp, NED, 186cm
- Philippe Lachaud, FRA, 176cm
- Alexandre Rouffort, FRA, 175cm
Alexandre Rouffort from France won the Rapala Big Fish Award. The “Rapala Big Fish” (the biggest fish of the tournament) was caught on day one, and measured 114 cm pike (the biggest pike in HFE history). Jonatan Procas Lohoz from Spain won the “Shimano Best rigged Kayak Award”. Lucia Barabasova from Slovakia won the “Hobie Longest Distance Award”.
HFE2 has been a tightly fought competition and a brilliant event. Without the generous support of our sponsors, the 2nd Hobie Fishing European Championships powered by Lowrance & GoFree would not have been possible. Because of the enormous effort of the local Navico Pro Staff team who mapped the tournament arena before the event, all competitors had the opportunity to download the best possible map, a highly detailed Insight Genesis map. Fully packed Rapala Waterproof bags including loads of Rapala & Storm lures, Sufix braided line, VMC Hooks etc. and high class Shimano rods and reels were part of the huge prize table as well as the Starter Packs for each competitor. But not just those anglers who have been awarded on stage were happy and excited about the event. All anglers went home with great memories.
Edi Brader (Austria), Axel Heinlein (Germany) and Matt Boast (UK) are joining Team Europe in the upcoming Hobie Fishing Worlds in China, which promises to be another world class Hobie event.
Special thanks go to all who competed, the team from Savager´s for providing dealer support, the town of Lacanau and once again to our sponsors Lowrance, GoFree, Rapala, Shimano, Sufix, VMC Hooks and Storm Lures.
For more information: [email protected]
