After heavy overnight rain and with further cold and heavy rains forecast throughout the day, the Oaks Fishery at Thirsk welcomed the anglers for the ninth Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifying match on Saturday 10th May.
A lot of questions were being asked of local anglers following the inclusion of the popular 40 peg on Alder’s lake for the first time, with it being pegged every other peg this would give the additional space needed for this 150 peg match.
One of the early competitors to draw was Lee Kerry who had been advised that you couldn’t do better than to go for peg 38 on Alders which is just what he did when it came to his turn to draw, with Kieron Rich drawing the always favoured peg 1 on Maple everyone thought these could be the two to watch, but as the forecasted weather started to set not long after the match started the bitterly cold rain seemed to put the resident carp off from feeding.
Drawing peg 36 on Alders, just two pegs away from Lee Kerry was the long-time Fish ‘O’ Mania regular Steve Cooke who fished meat across to the island to take carp and ide between the rain shower, it was as the final hooter sounded Steve managed to scoop his net under one last carp to finish the match with 42 kg 400 grams and take yet another place at the Fish ‘O’ Mania grand final in July.
Following his day long tussle with Steve, Lee Kerry on peg 38 on Alders opted to fish meat shallow and caught carp steadily despite the weather as he put together his final weight of 41 kg 650 grams, just one carp short to snatch the converted Fish ‘O’ Mania final spot away from Steve.
Third spot went to another Fish ‘O’ Mania regular Chris Kitchen from Rothwell near Leeds, Chris draw peg 10 on Beech, one of the complexes newer lakes which were starting to throw up regular good weights in the open matches. Chris elected to fish maggot over pellet down the margin to bring to the scales 37 kg 850 grams.
Fourth place was taken by Dean Kenworthy a decorator from Castleford who was on peg 6 also on Beech, Dean fished paste short to tempt F1’s and carp to 5 lb to give him 37 kg 150 grams. Fifth place was Normanton’s Mark Wainwright who weighed 33 kg 550 grams drawn on peg 14 on Beech. With James Hughes pegged 24 on Sycamore who weighed 31 kg 400 grams for sixth place slot.
Competitors will be travelling to Barford Lakes at Norwich for the next Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier on Saturday 17th May.
