This year’s Angling Trust Ladies National Championship was fished at Preston Innovations Boldings Fishery on Saturday 7th June using three of their pools, Chestnut, Sycamore and Willow with 41 ladies taking part. 

The first half of the match took place in heavy rain, but for most anglers the fish responded to their baits.  Once the rain passed and the sun shone the sport slowed down for most of the competitors and it became harder work.

The comfortable winner fishing Willows peg 5 was Kayleigh Smith (Middy/Bag em baits)who was the one angler to keep fish feeding throughout the match. Kayleigh fed casters on a short pole line and fished casters on the hook to catch 52  fish that were a mixture of F1’s, carp and barbel.   She rested her peg during the match by fishing a pellet waggler, which added a couple of better fish to her catch, to weigh 43.550 kg.

In second place fishing Sycamore peg 18 was Samantha Sim  (Preston Innovations/Sonu Baits Passies).  Samantha caught carp steadily during the early part of the match fishing banded pellet shallow.  However, when the rain stopped the carp moved out and she had to search the margins of her peg to put together a few more fish. 

Her final weight was 24.030 kg.  Third place went to Gemma Matthews fishing Willows peg 16.  Gemma stuck to a simple match plan of feeding dead red maggots at five meters and fishing maggot on the hook to have two good carp that made up almost half her weight together with some F1’s and barbel to weigh 21.625 kg.

The recipient of the Claire Dagnall Memorial Trophy for the highest placed under 21 angler was Abbi Kendall with a weight of 18.880  kgs. 

The Angling Trust and the Ladies who participated would like to offer their appreciation and thanks to Theresa Lewis who very kindly donated a new trophy for the winner of the biggest carp caught on the day which was Gemma Matthews with a specimen of 4.825  kgs.

Top Ten Individuals

1st  Kayleigh Smith – 43.550kg (Willows Peg 5)
2nd Samantha Sim – 24.030kg (Sycamore Peg 18)
3rd Gemma Matthews – 21.625kg (Willows Peg 16)
4th Abbi Kendall-  18.880kg (Chestnut Peg 32)
5th Linda Cooke – 17.650kg  (Sycamore Peg 36) )
6th Elizabeth Crew – 17.600kg (Chestnut Peg 10)
7th Rita Bell – 16.950kg (Willows Peg 11)
8th Julie Abbott – 16.825kg (Willows Peg 21)
9th Lisa Ford – 15.680kg (Chestnut Peg 18)
10th  Sonia Shaw – 15.475kg (Willows Peg 7)

The top six individuals from this National Championship will be invited to the ladies event at next year’s Fish ‘O’ Mania grand final.

In the Ladies team category Suffolk County took the winning title with a weight of 67.230 kg (Team members:- Charlotte Gore, Nula Gray, Kayleigh Smith and Leanne Knott.  In runner up position Sonu Bait Passies finished with 65.420 kg (Team members:- Abbi Kendall, Sam Perkins, Emma Pickering and Samantha Sim), and in third place saw Warrington AA Team Gold finish with 51.825kg (Team members:- Linda Cooke, Emma Drysdale, Pat Geary, Linda Locker).

The Angling Trust would like to offer their appreciation and thanks to Ed, Sue and Mark Turner for all their assistance  for the Ladies National Championship.

Next year’s Angling Trust Ladies’ National Championship will be held on Saturday 6th June at Lake View Fishery, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire.