Tough fights to seal Fish O’Mania places

It was a tough weekend around the fisheries as following a warm and sunny Good Friday, howling wind and torrential rainstorms descended upon the UK.

That made the two Fish O’Mania qualifiers held at Lakeview Fishery and Gold Valley Lakes a case of feast or famine, with some anglers drawing on a few fish while others packed up early or blanked!

However, there had to be two qualifiers for July’s Semi Finals and those men were Maver-backed Sam Brown at Lakeview and local lad Darren Millis at Gold, both taking 100lb-plus weights to get those all-important golden tickets.

Sam was first up at Lakeview where he swept all before him. The 24-year-old weighed-in 149-14-0 from peg 17 on the Oasis Lake, made up of carp to 14lb taken on very light gear with dobbed triple red maggot across to the far bank and then maggot down the middle into the deep water. Closest angler to him was Wayne Heywood with

124-5-0 from peg 14 on the same water where a bad last hour cost him dear.

The bandwagon then headed south to Hampshire and a blustery Gold Valley where there was an even more emphatic winner in Darren. The Angling For Heroes man weighed-in 105-0-0 to win with over 40lb to spare. He pulled out peg 99 on the Middle Lake and used long pole with meat and corn, taking a few early carp including a 15lb specimen before changing to bomb and meat to pick off a few more carp. A change back to the pole late on sealed the deal as he found another run of fish.

Second went to a man who is familiar with playing the bridesmaid on Fish O’Mania qualifiers, Grant Albutt. He finished in the same position at Gold a few years back and was second again this time around, although he was some way off the pace. He took

59-8-0 of carp on pellet waggler and Method feeder and pellet from peg 116 on the Syndicate Lake.