Heronbrook Lakes played host for the thirteenth round of Fish’O’Mania XXVI and in contrast to the superstition, both the best weights and weather blessed the anglers on this mid-week qualifier. Ninety three anglers made their way to the midlands bagging mecca, but at the draw it was a real toss up as to whether Match or Meadow Lake would provide the winner.

It was Fish’O regular Lee Riley that squeaked home and secured his spot in the final in July. Drawing peg 6 on Match Lake, Lee rotated three lines expertly; feeder across, fishing caster shallow, and finishing off on pellets down his edge. It was certainly this late run of carp to 18lb down the margin that secured the victory and saw Lee hoist a massive 233lb 8oz onto the scales.

The ever so close runner up was venue regular Dave Brown Snr, who drew on Meadow Pool, peg 34. Dave also fished casters shallow, putting together a great run of F1s and carp, he then switched to fishing meat down his margin and landed some better-quality fish to 10lb. After the five hours It was an agonising set of weighs that saw Dave come up just short, with 231lb 2oz.

The third double ton of the day went to previous Fish’O finalist Steve Openshaw. Peg 37 on Meadow was Steve’s home for the day, and he went about a simple match fishing caster shallow. At the all-out Steve had amassed 211lb 11oz of carp to 10lb.

The Angling Trust would like to thank Neil and his staff at Heronbrook for all their help with the qualifier and Dave Watkins for organising another seamless qualifier.

We move eastwards for the first ever qualifier at Decoy Lakes, for which tickets are now only available on the day. It’s worth noting; as always we close the tickets on Wednesday before a match at 15:30, so make sure you visit the booking site to guarantee a ticket for Partridge Lakes this weekend.

Results

1st Lee Riley 233lb 8oz
2nd David Brown Snr 231lb 2oz
3rd Steven Openshaw 211lb 11oz
4th Barry Bush 176lb 0oz
5th Jason Redgrave 166lb 14oz