Andy Benwell (Masons AC), a carpenter from Kidlington became the ninth angler to qualify from the Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier held at Moorlands Farm on Saturday 15th May to secure his place in the Fish ‘O’ Mania final on 17th July.
Andy drew Meadow Peg 25 where he pole fished paste at 13 metres to catch carp to 12lbs to win with 98-1-0. Andy said he was “chuffed to bits with his win”.
On the day weights were a bit lower than predicted, probably due to the recent cold nights, and even with lower weights the lowest winning 10 peg section weight was 29-4-0.
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| Andy Benwell (Masons AC) |
Runner up on the day was local angler Warren Jennings from Kidderminster who weighed in 67-5-0 from peg 13 on Moors Pool where he fished caster & worm shallow to take carp to 14lbs plus some nice Ide. Paul Law from Waltham Abbey in Essex was third to weigh in 61-1-0 from peg 2 on Bank Pool where he fished in the margins with worm over a bed of pellet & corn to land carp to12lbs.
In fourth place was Perry Stone from Chertsey who had a rather disastrous start to the day when he unloaded his tackle in the car park and another angler’s foot slipped on their accelerator and drove over Perry’s rod holdall and tackle box causing an immense amount of damage. Perry had to borrow a pole so he could still take part in the qualifier to take carp to 3lb in his net of 58-1-0 taken on pellet at Bank 22. In fifth place was Andrew Bailey from Doncaster who had carp to 6lbs in his net of 56-10-0 from Meadow 56.
Octoplus Boldings is the venue for the next Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier on Saturday 22nd May, and it will be interesting to see which angler secures their place in the line up for the Fish ‘O’ Mania final in July with just six more qualifiers to go in 2010.
