The sun came out and there was expectation in the air, as the anglers went to their pegs at Maver Larford on Saturday.  As it turned out, with the top six anglers all breaking the 100lbs barrier, the expectation was justified and it was the fish that were lost that made the difference in a closely fought contest.

The three lakes at Larford, Match, Specimen and Arena had all performed well in recent weeks with Arena appearing to be the most promising and the preferred draw for most of the anglers. 

It was Match Lake however, that produced the winner with Jamie Hughes, a scaffolder from the Wyrrel, weighing in with an impressive 142lbs 3ozs from permanent peg 31.  Jamie fished the match shallow, with a consistent feeding pattern, using pellet as hook bait.  He managed to keep the fish coming for most of the five hour match, catching F1’s, with his biggest being a carp of 4lbs.

Jamie was elated after booking his place in the 2008 PartyPoker.com Fish ‘O’ Mania final commenting, ‘what an amazing days fishing, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it’.

Any one of the top six could have won the match had it not been for lost fish.  Ritchie Hull, who finished second with 129lbs 15ozs, fishing Arena lost a big fish with an hour to go spooking the rest of the fish in his peg and making life difficult for him for the rest of the day.  Third place went to Steve Mayo on Match Lake peg 56 with 124lb 10ozs who also lost fish with fourth and fifth places going to Barry Mason with 108lbs 9ozs and Simon Jones with 106lbs 5ozs respectively also on Match Lake.

Only five more anglers can book their place in the final at Browning Cudmore Fisheries on the 19th July, let’s hope that its as exciting as this qualifier.