The previously forecast rain didn’t materialise for the 5th Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier held at Moorlands Farm Coarse Fisheries in Hartlebury on Saturday 25th April 2015, and the competitors had quite good conditions for catching fish being mainly overcast and a slight breeze to ripple the lakes.
For most though the fish were slow to respond and not till the latter stages of the match did the majority of fish get caught. Early contenders were Grant Albutt who caught a few carp early on from Bank 22, but unfortunately couldn’t keep them coming, also Tony Williams on Meadow 53 caught carp early and steadily throughout on the pellet waggler cast to the aerator. The fish moved from Grant across the lake to previous finalist Ben Emery on Bank 7 who caught really well on the pellet waggler for the last half of the match taking carp up to 13lb.
Almost unnoticed in the corner of Moors on peg 12 was Josh Pace, fishing pole and pellet or meat down the edge into the corner of this renowned peg he was steadily filling his net with F1’s and the odd carp. With an hour to go it was a three way battle between Tony, Ben and Josh. With 20 minutes to go a 20lb plus carp caught by Tony in the margins seemed to swing it his way but Josh and Ben were still catching till the end, it was going to be very close. At the weigh in Tony’s lunker took his catch to 81-8-0, Ben Emery’s catch bettered that, just, at 82-4 but Josh outscored them both with a terrific net of fish weighing 95-8-0. Josh Pace is the 5th qualifier who is on his way to Cudmore for the grand final, no doubt with the support of his Sensas Mark One squad mates.
The Angling Trust would like to thank fishery owner Mark Foster and fishery manager Dave and their team for a well organised day.
1st Josh Pace (Sensas Mark One) 95-8-0
2nd Ben Emery (Capel) 82-4-0
3rd Tony Williams (Newquay) 81-8-0
4th Anthony Martin (Saxmundham) 74-7-0
5th Chris Cork (Dudley) 71-0-0
6th Robert Jones (Neath) 67-9-0