Following almost two weeks of typical April showery weather, cold easterly winds and the occasional frosty night the fishing was always going to be tough for the third Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier at Makin’s Fishery, Nuneaton on 21 April.
The event was staged on all of the large, open lakes at the fishery so it was no surprise to find the fish still generally shoaled up in their ‘winter quarters’. Because water temperatures are still low many carp are cruising shallow, trying to find a layer of warmer water and it was these fish which were targeted by a lot of the anglers and which most of the top weights.
Steve Cooke, better known as ‘Cookie’ to everyone on the match circuit, became the third Garbolino match ace to qualify for a place in this year’s grand final of the Fish ‘O’ Mania on 14 July.
Steve found himself on an adjacent peg to Phil Ringer found themselves in the middle of Lake 1 and, not surprisingly, a real battle ensued. Eventually it was the Garbolino-sponsored Steve from Retford, Nottinghamshire who came out top to win the event with an excellent 146lb 6oz of carp to 12lb, all bar one being taken on the pellet waggler.
Steve said:
“I had one carp on the feeder and the rest on pellet waggler and 8 mm pellets on a 11.6g max waggler rod to 6lb main line and 0.20 hook length to a 16 Guru QM1 with a banded pellet, and caught about 16 fish. This is the sixth time I will have fished in the Fish ‘O’ Mania grand final after winning it in 1999, but this will be my first time fishing a final at Cudmore Fisheries”.
Stuart Belton from Newark on peg A20 on Lake 2 just pipped Phil Ringer for second place with 127lb 13oz. Stuart caught a couple of early fish shallow on the waggler but then found some ‘lumps’ in the right hand margin on luncheon meat, the biggest scaling 15lb. Phil Ringer secured third with 121lb 13oz catching carp to 10lb on the pellet waggler.
Tim Dabrowa, also in the hot area on Lake 1, took fourth spot with 72lb, again on the pellet waggler; fifth was Sean Huggins who weighed 68lb 14oz from Peg 26 on Lizard and sixth was Marc Jones with 66lb 2oz from peg 4 on Lake 5.
The Fish ‘O’ Mania action moves to Woodlands View, Droitwich today (25 April) and it will be interesting to see who will join the Garbolino star anglers, Stephen Tucker, Simon Fry and Steve Cooke in the final.
