Faced with the prospect of violent thunderstorms and frequent heavy showers throughout the day the anglers were pretty apprehensive as they came to the draw for this latest Angling Trust & Canal & River Trust Stillwater Championship qualifier at Earlswood Lakes, Earlswood, Solihull on Saturday 7th June. 

Despite long periods of rain during the morning there were no further storms and, in fact, the weather improved significantly in the second half of the day.

Earlswood, of course, is renowned for its big fish and it did not fail to produce some huge “lumps” up to 9 kilos throughout the match length. The pellet waggler was clearly the overwhelming first method for everyone and went on to produce the most fish, although quite a number also used pellet and method feeder tactics.

Top rod on the day by a substantial margin was Chris Hill from Erdington. Chris, who knows his way around the Earlswood venue, fished the waggler all day at peg 58 to take around 20 carp to 8 kilos for a brilliant total of 95 kilos 500 grams. 

Just a few grams separated the next two anglers. Leys angler, Terry Winstone, just nicked it with 54 kilos 860 grams from peg 74 from Ian Fisk of Burnley who weighed 54 kilos 280 grams at peg 21. Ian’s weight included almost 20 kilos of bream. Fourth was Steve Ringer who weighed 48 kilos 900 grams from peg 20.

The four section winners going forward to the grand final on 20th September at Blythe waters are; Ian Fisk, Maurice Williams, Chris Hill and Terry Winstone.