Conditions for the Angling Trust & Canal and River Trust Stillwater Championship first qualifier for 2014 held on Sunday 13th April at Boddington Reservoir were quite challenging for the 39 competitors taking part as an over-night frost was followed by a bright sunny day with a chilly breeze.

This meant that most of the carp caught were from distance and on the bottom. Method feeder tactics dominated, and although some anglers tried the pellet waggler it didn’t produce any fish.

The most productive area was the shallower high numbers where in contrast the deep water by the dam was quite poor with several anglers blanking.

Dave Perry on peg 100, who unlike most of the other competitors decided to fish with a PVA bag filled with micro pellets with a high-vis boilie on the hook.  Dave landed a total of 23 carp for a weight of 81.800 kilos.  In addition he lost seven good fish on a bad snag, otherwise he would have topped the one hundred kilo mark.

Runner-up on peg 97 was Barry Bush ( Lingmere Fishery) with a weight of 49.300kg. Barry fished a method feeder at distance with boilies as hook bait.   Third place went to James Hipkiss (Ridgmere) with a weight of 44.400kg on peg 96.

 James had thirteen carp also caught on the method feeder and boilies.
Section Winners

Peg 4   Maurice Williams    (Chilton Baits)       10kg

Peg 11   Richard Bedder (Maruku)   27.400kg

Peg  61  Stephen Openshaw (Lingmere Fishery)  32.100kg

Peg 73  Phil Ringer  (Ringer baits)   20.900kg

Peg 76  Paul Urban      17.600kg

Peg 88  Frank Hayhurst     29.800kg

Peg 96  James Hipkiss  (Ridgmere)   44.400kg

Peg 100 Dave Perry      81.800kg

The four qualifiers going through to the final in September are; Richard Bedder,  Stephen Openshaw, Frank Hayhurst and Dave Perry.

The next qualifier takes place on Sunday 11th May at Boddington Reservoir.