Fish ‘O’ Mania 2006, coarse angling’s Grand Prize kicked off on Saturday at The Oaks Fishery with a win for Lee Barrett of Wakefield with a weight of 23 kilo.

Winner Lee stated triumphantly, “I hope that by qualifying for the final I can go on to emulate my regular travelling partner Mark Jones (the 2005 Fish ‘O’ Mania grand final winner) and go on to win this years Grand Final in late July.”

According to match official Eric Bootland, “The biggest problem was the weather, it was cold and blowing.  We could have done with this fixture in June.”

On the day 129 anglers from as far a field as Stockton on Tees and Bridgewater, Barrow in Furness and Peterborough fished the in form Lakes Maple and Cedar.  Target fish were carp in the 1 ½ lb to 3lb range with the possibility of larger carp in the high single figures as well as barbel, bream, chub and roach.

Maple delivered 1^st, 2^nd and 4^th with the winner being Lee Barrett of Wakefield on permanent peg 62A (corner peg) finishing with 23 Kilo of carp, taking fish up to 2k, second place went to Peter Richmond from Preston on peg 63 (corner peg) with 21.650 Kilo of carp, his biggest fish going over 4 kilo.  Both anglers used pellet to target the carp down the margins.

Cedar Lake did manage to provide 3^rd spot which went to Ken Bennett from Cheshire who despite the wind managed to put together a weight of 16.810 Kilo of ¾ to1 kilo carp from peg 55 again fishing pellet at 12 – 14 metre across.

The good news for anglers on reserve lists waiting to see if they can try their luck is that Lee had drawn thirteen tickets in this year’s Fisho which means that under this years rules there will be twelve tickets to reallocate.

The National Federation of Anglers CEO Paul Baggaley asked anglers to keep an eye on the website and warned that NFA staff would be contacting the anglers concerned over the next few days.