Everything was organised, 100 anglers were entered into the regional qualifier of the Fish'O'Mania IX 2004 Championship at Barford Lakes. Glorious weather preceeded the event and the lakes were all fishing well, so you can imagine my disappointment with the torrential rain we got for the match!
There was a downpour during the set up time so all were soaked through before the match had even started! The weather brought the average weights down from previous week's fishing, but there were still three catches of over 100lb.
Congratulations to this year's qualifier, 22 year old Worksop scaffolder Chris Eves who was drawn on Colton Lake.
Chris drew peg 30 and caught on catmeat on the deck and down the far edge. He had carp to 16lb for a final weight of 112-12.
Other good weights on Colton were Luke Sear on peg 19 with 65-00. Dave Self with 64-09 on peg 22. Paul Ashford on peg 32 with 61-02 and Jim Barrowman on peg 33 with 62-02.
Willow fished very hard and the section winners were Shane Trower (Doncaster) on peg 27 with 51-05, Chris Knights (Jnr) from Harleston on peg 25 had 52-11 and Stephen Conlan on peg 21 had 46-13. Rod Finch (Deben) caught well on peg 1 and had 56-02 for a section and lake win.
The Pleasure Lake didn't produce the same great weights as last year's event but there were some lovely carp and quality silver fish that showed. On the causeway, peg 19, Ray Malle (pictured above) had this quality bag of silver fish and had a total weight of 61-00.
The lake winner was Keith Pearson (pictured right). He fished a great match, mid-water with meat and pellet and weighed in 102-14 of carp to 10lb. Keith had an unlucky tackle with one of our Pleasure Lake carp which stripped his pole out in the last hour. Keith ended finishing 3rd overall but could still manage a smile!
Other good catches were Mark Illingworth (Southampton) with 67-02 from peg 28. Alan Turner on peg 16 had 64-03 and Bob Bradford (Fox Match Triangle) had 52-07 from peg 8. Congratulations Bob on becoming a Grandad to baby Ethan and also best wishes and congratulations to his son Daniel and Louise on becoming new parents!
Stephen Humphrey on the 'swing tip!'
Barford's bailiff Kevin Ford (pictured weighing in above) had 47-10 from peg 5.
On the Match Lake Nathan Watson on peg 2 looked like an early contender to qualify but weighed in 71-02 in the finish. Graham Dack also caught well on peg 21 and weighed 73-06 for 6th place overall. On pegs 8 and 9 were Fox Match Triangle team mates Alan Tuck and Dave Reeve (pictured left). Both fished mid-water for the duration of the match and they both had a good weight but there just wasn't enough fish to share between them for one of them to qualify. Alan (pictured below right) weighed 92-14 for fourth place overall and Dave (pictured below left) weighed 108-12 for 2nd overall; just one fish away from qualification. Talk about the worst match in the world to come second... Unlucky chaps, we would still be celebrating if one of you had qualified!
On the far side of the lake was Lee Carver (Norwich) who was very pleased with his peg at the draw. He fished peg 24, mid-water with corn spraying pellet. Lee caught fish consistently throughout the day but unfortunately managed to find most of the smaller carp in the lake. He took carp up to 6lb and finished 5th overall with 87-08.
The top five anglers on the day were (From left to right):
- Lee Carver (5th place with 87-08 form the Match lake)
- Alan Tuck (4th Place with 92-14 from the Match Lake)
- Chris Eves (Winner with 112-12 from Colton Lake)
- Dave Reeve (2nd place with 108-12 from the Match Lake)
- Keith Pearson (3rd place with 102-14 from the Pleasure Lake).
