Bitterly cold conditions with a biting wind greeted the 130 competitors for the second of the Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifiers for 2013 held at Preston Innovations Boldings, Bridgnorth.
The early arrivals for the event took their customary walk around the fishery and the talk prior to the draw was that it would fish hard given the conditions and that 60 – 70lb would be needed to win, but no one was prepared to stick their necks out and make a prediction as to where the winning weight would come from.
It turned out that last to draw from the initial entry list, four times qualifier Darren Cox, did in fact draw the winning peg! The Kamasan Starlets angler fished Sycamore peg 6 and started on the bomb with bread and had two fish in his first two chucks, loose feeding pellet over the top.
After those two fish no more bites were forthcoming on the bomb and, with the occasional fish topping in front of him, he switched to pellet up in the water and never looked back, staying on this method for the remainder of the match to amass a total of 82lb 7oz of carp to 10lb and F1s.
In second place was another regular Fish ‘O’ competitor Andy Moors (Maver Pickerings), who, like Darren, fished pellet up in the water to finish with a weight of 78lb 11oz from Larch peg 5, again with a mixed bag of carp and F1s to 9lb.
Third place went to Jonathan Trivett (Rose and Crown A. C. Derby), fishing his first ever qualifier, with a weight of 70lb 4 oz from Sycamore peg 48 made up mainly of carp and F1s caught on banded pellet up in the water and a few barbel caught on maggot in the margin.
Fourth place went to Sean Barber (Maver Midlands) with a weight of 60lb 1oz, again fishing up in the water catching mainly F1s on pellet, with fifth position taken by Phillip Weaver (Cwmbran Nobblers), with a weight of 58lb 2oz on long pole and caster.
The Fish ‘O’ Mania action continues at Makin’s Fishery in Nuneaton this Wednesday (17 April).
