Thirty two anglers fished the Angling Trust & Canal & River Trust Stillwater qualifier at Boddington Reservoir on 16th July in hot, and still conditions. The early pegs proved difficult to tempt the carp to feed, with flat calm water.
The later pegs had more ripple on the water, and carp soon came to method feeder with pellet at range, and a mixture of pellet waggler and bomb at 30-40 yards.
Early leader was Lee Carver who set up his stall in the water between the trees on peg 98, and fished pellet waggler to land 10 carp in the first 90 minutes. Most of the others in the later pegs had only managed 4 or 5 fish by this time, and early pegs were struggling for an odd fish.
As the match progressed Lee kept up his catch rate, working hard feeding pellets constantly, moving his float around the swim and varying the depth. His lead looked unassailable as he moved to 17 fish, but then the wind moved round slightly, and this pushed the fish to his right, where Nigel Franklin on peg 101 had been catching carp steadily, feeding 6mm pellets, but fishing an 11mm to avoid the roach. Nigel’s catch rate built, with carp coming by switching between pellet waggler and the bomb.
Then the fish moved to Nigel’s right and Brendan Fowler on end peg 102 upped his catch rate dramatically in the latter part of the match, with Nigel looking on anxiously and Lee thinking what might have been if the wind had not changed.
The result was close at the final whistle, with Nigel Franklin from peg 101 putting 28 carp on the scales for the top weight of 93.160 kg, just holding off Lee with 92.460 kg, and Brendan with 87.860 kg.
Paul Cooke had a great run towards the end of the match, comfortably winning C section with 71.420 kg. B section was much tougher with Graham Dashwood just edging it with 19.550 kg from Warren Cave on 18.900 kg, and Philip Copley on 17.900 kg.
A peg to peg battle in A section was finally won by Steve Openshaw on peg 56 weighing 25.800 kg to pip James Hipkiss on peg 55 with 24.800 kg. James had the consolation of qualifying for the final in September as Steve had already qualified
Qualifiers
A Section James Hipkiss peg 55 24.800 kg
B Section Graham Dashwood peg 70 19.550 kg
C Section Paul Cooke peg 85 71.420 kg
D Section Nigel Franklin peg 101 93.160 kg
The action continues on 26th July when the next qualifier heads to Blythe waters at Solihull. There are tickets still available for this qualifier please contact 0115 9061 301 to book on.
