270 anglers came under starters orders for the final qualifier at Lindholme Lakes, Doncaster and, despite the number of anglers taking part, the fishery did not fail to deliver another cracking competition. Of the thirty ten peg sections only six were won with less than 20kg and 14 were won with over 30kg.
Generally there was little to separate the top dozen anglers, many of whom had a really quiet spell sometime during the course of the match. However, Browning’s Adam Richards from Billingham, fishing on Bonsai peg 73, seemed to get it right for the whole match and fishing worm over caster long to the island he caught F1’s, ide, tench and skimmers for a brilliant 63kg 350g.
Runner up was Team England regular Darren Cox. The Garbolino star drew what many thought to be a no hoper, peg 15 on the Strip Pool but fishing worm and caster shallow he caught F1’s, carp to 3kg and chub and then, later, barbel in the margins to weigh in 46kg 600g
On the opposite bank at peg 10 was Sheffield angler Stephen Forster. Stephen also caught shallow, but on pellet, and then later on paste on the deck to take a mixture of F1’s and carp to 4kg; his weight of 46kg 450g secured third spot.
Fourth was Maver Gold/ Bag’em’s Peter Goodwin who caught F1’s and barbel shallow on maggot to weigh 43kg 700g from Willows 53. Confirming it was a good day to be on Strip Pool Kerry Kirkwood took fifth place with 37kg 300g of F1’s and carp fishing meat long on the deck at 14 metres on Peg 1.
All sixteen winners from the qualifiers held this year will compete to win one of the most prestigious titles in angling on Saturday 14 July at Cudmore Fisheries.
