Industry backs Romania’s first Danube Delta Predator Challenge

The growing number of predator fishing competitions sweeping across Europe continues unabated with the latest taking part on one of the region’s most famous waterways.

A host of top name sponsors backed the first-ever Danube Delta Predator Challenge – the largest gathering of boat anglers for an event of its kind in Romania, including Net Bet, Garmin, Humminbird, Lucky John, Minn Kota, Repo, TCL, Xiaomi, Bravo Phones, GoPro, Relax Lures and Toyota. The event attracted 93 teams of two who were battling against each other to win €50,000 worth of prizes.

The tournament was originally planned for April, but had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was restricted to competitors exclusively from the home nation, with anglers from Germany, Sweden, Moldavia, Bulgaria and Poland forced to cancel their appearances. It was staged by the Liga Romana de Spinning (Romanian Fishing League), the organiser of the National Championship of Predator Fishing.

The winner of the competition was Team Daiwa Romania, which included Eugen and Petre German, who finished with 960 points – ahead of the runners-up, Delta Spinning Team 7 (Dorin Popa and Richard Pavel), and third place, Particularlii (Ciprian Lazer and Cosmin Schiopu).

Cristi Albu, one of the organisers of the event and Angling International’s Romanian correspondent, said: “I have been involved in the ‘Romanian spinning movement’ for more than 13 years and can say that it was the best tournament of its kind in the country. For some it was the perfect competition, bearing in mind its location on the Danube Delta – one of Europe’s most beautiful fishing venues – the very big prizes and the top class accommodation offered.

“It contained suspense from the very beginning with live transmissions on YouTube and Facebook capturing all the action. A film of the event can be seen on the Fishing & Hunting Channel which is available in ten different countries in Europe. I look forward to next year’s competition and hope to see more teams from Europe taking part, making it a truly international event.”