New Fish O ticketing system recieves lukewarm response
The new ticketing system for the allocation of places in this year’s Fish O’Mania qualifiers has received a lukewarm reaction from anglers with praise for ensuring that every entrant receives two guaranteed places but disappointment over the lack of mystery generated by the random draw plus the scrapping of the reserves list.
Tickets go on sale on Monday January 30 with a new on line booking system, making the allocation of places quicker, easier and significantly more efficient and it will also ensure that applicants get a maximum of two tickets for the event and then book, pay and receive tickets instantaneously.
Released in two rounds, the first batch of places will be open from 10.30am on January 30 until midnight on Thursday February 9, round two kicking off at 10.30am on Tuesday February 14 and then remain open until the final qualifier in June. In this second round there will be no restriction on the number of tickets anglers can book.
The reserve lists have also been scrapped with cancelled tickets to be re-listed via the online system and sold on a first come first served basis and to flag up re-listed places, a ticket news subscription option is available. However, the changes that at face value look good, have not been given a unanimous thumbs up from match anglers.
“It’s good that all applicants will get two tickets and it’ll stop the moaning on line from people who apply for 12 tickets and get none!” said double Fish O champ Jamie Hughes. “However, I think that it may backfire on the moaners because they might get tickets for a venue that they don’t want to fish. Say you live where I do in the North West and your two tickets are for monk Lakes and Viaduct! That’s a mega trek. And then what are the chances of the on line system crashing?”
“I personally enjoyed the old system as you never knew what you would get and the luck of the draw made it exciting. We’ve seen a lot of changes to Fish O in recent years and I just hope that this is not going to be another one year special when we revert back to how it used to be in 2018!”
Darren Cox is an agreement as well. The England international has graced several Fish O finals and believes that the former system was better.
“This way of applying doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be fishing where you want to be and I think it is a little unfair because it is still first come first served,” he said. “True, you do get two guaranteed tickets and that’s a good thing but at 10.30am on January 30 not everyone will be able to get on line and book. They may be on holiday or at work.”
“The second round of tickets is then just like the old days when an angler can buy 20 tickets if they want and it becomes a bit of a bunfight. I also personally liked the reserve list as if you were 20th on it, you could turn up and be confident of getting on but now, you’ve got to have your phone in your had all-day to react quick enough and grab a ticket that gets re-listed.”
Canal Pairs qualifier dates revealed
The Angling Trust/Canal & River Trust Canal Pairs Championship returns for 2017 with qualifiers taking place across the UK including Scotland, Wales and Ireland as anglers team up to go in search of the big cash prize at the culmination of the event.
Launched a couple of years ago, the competition has now firmly established itself as a bespoke big money competition exclusively for canal anglers with many qualifiers selling out and over 100 rods turning out for the final, won in 2016 by Sensas Black Country duo Simon Nickless and Steve Dudley.
There’s 13 qualifiers in total, taking in established match venues including the Grand Union, Gloucester, Leeds-Liverpool and New Junction Canals plus the Llangollen in Wales, Newry in Ireland and Forth & Cylde in Scotland, which will allow anglers a shot at making the final wherever they are based.
Tickets are priced at £40 per pair with an online booking system in operation once the event goes live on Monday March 13 and an entry-dependent £16,000 will be on offer in the October grand final to be shared between the top four pairs. Depending on how many anglers fish each heat, up to five pairs will qualify from each match with anglers each fishing a 50 peg mega section, top weight scoring the maximum number of points available. Then, the combined totals will be added to decide the qualifiers.
“The aim of the competition was and still is to inspire match anglers to experience the great fishing that can be found on their local canals,” said National Fisheries and Angling Manager for the Canal & River Trust John Ellis. “The 2016 event was a great success and proved really popular with anglers from across the country and I’m expecting 2017’s Pairs to be just as big a success.”
To find out more about the Canal Pairs Championships including how to enter, go to www.anglingtrust.net
Dates, venues and host clubs for the qualifiers are as follows:
Saturday 1 July - Leeds-Liverpool Canal Liverpool AS waters
Saturday 15 July - Forth & Clyde Canal Scottish Federation for Coarse Angling waters
Sunday 16 July - Basingstoke Canal Basingstoke Canal AA waters
Saturday 29 July - Grand Union Canal (Aylesbury Arm) Tring Anglers waters
Sunday 30 July - Newry Canal Edenderry AC waters
Saturday 5 August - Shropshire Union Canal Hodnet AC waters
Sunday 13 August – Shropshire Union Canal Hodnet AC waters
Sunday 20 August - Kennet & Avon Canal Reading DAA waters
Monday 28 August - Aire & Calder Canal Boothferry Joint Angling Committee waters
Saturday 2 September - New Junction Canal Doncaster AA waters
Sunday 3 September -Trent & Mersey Canal Pride of Derby AA waters
Sunday 10 September - Gloucester & Sharpness Canal Winget AC waters
Sunday 24 September – Staffs/Worcester Canal Wolverhampton AA waters
Saturday 30 September - Grand Union Canal Northampton Nene AC waters
Saturday 7 October - Llangollen Canal Hodnet AC waters
Sunday 8 October - Trent & Mersey Canal Middlewich DAA waters
Grand final: Saturday 21 October – Erewash Canal Long Eaton Victoria AS waters