A bright, sunny day greeted the 130 anglers on their visit to Scunthorpe’s Messingham Sands Fishery complex for the Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier on Wednesday 30 May.
Though weights had held up over recent matches it was felt by the locals that if the carp could be persuaded to get their heads down and feed that some good weights could come from anywhere on the complex. As it turned out the top five anglers had nearly 800lb of fish between them.
Warren Martin (Barford Tackle/Sensas) from Lyng in Norfolk fished peg 9 on Merry’s Lake to take the winning weight. Warren fished 8mm banded pellet shallow on a pellet waggler and caught over 120 small carp and ide to finish with 178lb 10oz.
A Fish ‘O’ Mania atmosphere surrounded second placed angler, Robert Morris from Lincoln, on corner peg 1 on Swan Lake and a number of spectators watched as he put together his weight of 168lb 10oz carp on the pellet waggler.
Third place angler was Fish ‘O’ Mania regular Steve Rothery pegged 3 on Swan Lake, who fished 8mm banded pellet on bomb and pellet waggler to finish with 150lb 9 z, with his biggest carp coming in at 14lb. Fourth place went to Huddersfield’s Colin Wood, pegged 57 on Swan and fishing long pole shallow down the margin on 11 mm pellet and pellet waggler into the corner bay. Colin took nearly all of his weight of 122lb 8oz in the last two and a half hours of the match.
The match was tinged with sadness as the original organiser for the Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier at Messingham, venue regular and match organiser Brian Turner, passed away after a short illness just a few weeks before the event. The Angling Trusts’ Competitions Committee, staff and Board of Directors express their condolences to Brian’s family and friends at this sad time, Brian will be remembered fondly by everyone that knew him.
The next Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier is at Partridge Lakes, Warrington on Saturday 02 June 2012
