After a short break in proceedings, the 2018 Maver Mega Match This qualifier campaign resumed at the prolific Decoy Lakes complex in Peterborough. One hundred anglers were in attendance, all hopeful of securing position number seventeen in this year’s Grand Final at Maver Hayfield Lakes.

Despite slightly cooler conditions and a light breeze making things more comfortable for the anglers, the fishing (for Decoy at least) got off to a relatively slow start with very few anglers being able to put any numbers of fish together.

This didn’t last long however with the venue producing the goods once again with thirty (30) weights over the magic ton and fifteen (15) of the eighteen (18) sections needing over 100lbs to pick up section money.

Like most of the anglers, the eventual winner got off to a slow start having decided to keep things simple and feed only maggots in his margin with a top two kit only. Feeding six pints of maggots during the match on the same line and using maggots on the hook, Simon Foster (Reneshaw) amassed a total of 195-07-00 of carp to 12lbs from peg 9 on Louis to top the field by a mere 8ozs and confirm his place in this year’s final as well as the British Pole Championship final in August.

Second place went to Maver Milton Keynes sponsored angler, Ben Bell. Drawn on Beastie Lake, peg 3, Ben started on the pellet waggler and, having caught only one fish using this method, decided to switch to the long pole. Ben started on pellet before switching to caster shallow to finish the match with 194-15-00 of carp to 6lbs plus some F1’s to finish agonisingly shy of that all important first place finish. Ben does, however, qualify for this year’s British Pole Championship final for his efforts.

Finishing in third place on the day and securing the last of the automatic British Pole Championship qualification places was Garbolino-backed backed Rob Brennan. Opting to fish caster shallow using a top two kit in front and down his edge from peg 6 on Louis Rob caught steadily for four hours of the match to total 181-04-00.

Result:

1st Simon Foster (Reneshaw), Peg 9 (Louis), 195-07-00

2nd Ben Pell (Maver Milton Keynes), Peg 3 (Beastie), 194-15-00

3rd Rob Brennan (Garbolino), Peg 6 (Louis), 181-04-00

4th Graham Dack (Marukyu), Peg 2 (Beastie), 171-13-00

5th Andrew Szczupak (Sykehouse Fisheries), Peg 12 (Beastie), 169-09-00

6th Richie Hull (Garbolino), Peg 18 (Horseshoe), 169-07-00