Cambridgeshire Angler nets winning weight at Woodlands View
Despite having no fewer than nine former Fish ‘O’ Mania Champions take part in the Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier at Woodlands View Fishery at Droitwich, Worcestershire on Wednesday 27th April 2011 there was only one name in the spot light. Tim Nash (Browning Hotrods) a landscape gardener/builder from Cambridge who took the qualifying winning title with 125lbs 6ozs of carp from peg 18 on Ghost pool with his biggest fish landed in the match weighing in at 9lb.
After 1 ¾ hours Tim was struggling to catch on pellet feed with another angler close by being 40lb ahead, so made the decision to change to casters to fish up in the water to catch steadily for the rest of the match especially towards the end. Tim’s experience and confidence shone through on caster and hook catching half a dozen roach on maggot and a few skimmers and never lost a fish which made all the difference to take the lead by just 1lb. Tim has only fished two previous Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifiers, Makins and Lakeview making this Tim’s first appearance in the Fish ‘O’ Mania final line up.
Tim Nash said “I was lucky to get six tickets for the qualifiers this year and only fished three of them so far. I loved the venue at Woodlands View and when I drew my peg I knew that 500lbs had came off the lakes the day before so I was trying to think tactics whether to change baits knowing that all the pegs were being fished, so limiting weights caught. I felt sorry for Steven Openshaw being just 1lb behind me when the results were read out and can imagine how gutted he was to come so close. I am really looking forward to the final and I know some say the prize money doesn’t count, but as well as the money it is excellent to be a part of the experience”.
Runner up Steven Openshaw a Fishery Manager from the Wirral was close behind with a weight of 124lbs 8ozs of carp with his biggest fish going to 12lb taken on pellet with some on the tip and the rest fished shallow on long pole from peg 36 on Arles pool. In third place with 118lbs 2ozs from peg 11 on Barley pool was former Champion, Steve Ringer who had 24 carp with the biggest fish landed in the match at 8lbs on his pellet feeder rig. In fourth place was Tom Pickering, England World Feeder Manager who also fished pellet feeder from peg 17 on Hay pool to take carp to 10lbs. Another former Champion Mick Bull also used the feeder and pellet from peg 11 on Hay pool to land 100lbs 15ozs of carp to 6 lbs for fifth place in the qualifier.
The qualifier was fairly even with all but 2 of the 10 peg sections needing over 55 lbs to win them. The fifth Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier will take place over the bank holiday weekend at Packington Somers, Meriden, Coventry on Saturday 30th April 2011 when the next finalist will be decided for the Fish ‘O’ Mania grand final in July.
Fish ‘O’ Mania XVIII grand final recruits Chris (Hatman) Kendall
A new face for the final this year is Chris Kendall, (Yorkshire Anglers and Maggotdrowning.com) a Recruitment Consultant from Ilkley, West Yorkshire. Chris an internet era match angler, better known as ‘Hatman’ in the world of fishing forums was showing as third place on the reserve list on the day, and was lucky enough to get a ticket to draw peg 18 in the middle of Reef bank.
He fished red maggot as hook bait, feeding a combination of maggot and pellet to the far island bank, varying his depth from 3 feet to 18 inches up and down the slope, he caught carp and F1’s from 1lb to 3lb steadily throughout the match. Unfortunately a fence behind the peg and too many tree branches made fishing at 13 metres into the shallowest water difficult, but Chris managed to keep catching throughout the match in the far slope area so did not need to complicate things by trying other areas.
Bright Sunshine, cloudless sky and flat, calm conditions greeted the 130 competitors for the third Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier of 2011 at Lakeview fishery on Saturday 23rd April 2011 which, many of the regular participants who fished this event considered to be one of the more even and fairer venues in the Fish ‘O’ Mania calendar.
As with previous years events held at Lakeview Fisheries, no one wanted to put their heads on the block and predict openly where the winner was likely to come from, although secretly, Lagoon or the recently re-instated and re-opened Reef lake, which had been won with 150lbs last weekend, were considered to be favourites, but in general most felt that, as in previous years it would be a closely run match with so many anglers on the banks. And so it turned out to be, with only 3lb separating the top two anglers, 10lb separating the top there and others needing 50lbs plus to win their respective sections.
Chris Kendall said “I was on the reserve list, and although I was certain I’d get a peg, it was a relief when it was confirmed. I’d seen recent results from the matches on Reef so when I drew peg 18 on Reef I was delighted and felt I’d have a realistic chance. Unfortunately owing to having to wait for reserves to draw I was a little short of time to set up my gear, but the match started well for me and it didn’t take too long to fine tune my tactics and gear for the day. By the end of the match I was confident of having done a ‘ton’, but didn’t realise that the second place angler was so close to overtaking me from just a couple of pegs away. I had no idea of how other lakes had fished, but once everyone on Reef had weighed in I was starting to hope that it was a win, since some of the other competitors were congratulating me well before most had weighed in”.
“It took a while to sink in that I had won the qualifier, even on the way home I was half expecting someone to ring and tell me they’d added up the weights wrongly. I am very happy to have made it through to the final as all the heats include some high profile names in angling, so a relative nobody like me needs a lucky break and I got one. I’ve now got several weeks for the nerves to calm down before the Fish ‘O’ Mania final”.
In second place with a weight of 107lbs 1oz was Fish ‘O’ Mania regular Andy Moors (Maver Pickerings), who was kicking himself for loosing so many fish which cost him the match. Drawn on Reef peg 15, three pegs away from the winner, Andy fished shallow, long and short using caster as both feed and hook bait and, like the winner caught carp and F1’s with his biggest fish going 9lbs. Third place with a weight of 100lbs 9ozs, drawn on peg 24 on Reef, went to John Hall a tackle shop owner from South Wigston, Leicester. Fourth place went to another Fish ‘O’ Mania regular Rob Wootton from Leicester, drawn on Lagoon peg 9 with a weight of 91lbs 11ozs.
