Lucky Local angler, Andy Power (Preston Innovations Thatcher’s), a trainee electrician from Somerset, had contemplated a lie in on Saturday 6th April for the first Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier of 2013, but proved his luck was in. Andy was showing as 17th place on the reserve list on the day, but due to a no show Andy went on to win at Viaduct Fishery, Somerset.
Drawing peg 97 on his local water Andy made contact with his first fish within a matter of minutes of the all-in. Fishing bomb and pellet he took several fish before switching to the pellet waggler with 10m pellets fished at depth. He never looked back taking 19 carp to 16 lbs to record a fantastic winning weight of 179 lbs 14 ozs off Cary Lake.
Adam Rumble (Maver Gold Bag-em baits) of Featherstone came second on the day, again an all carp catch from peg 114. Taken on the bomb with 8m pellets, Adam took fish to 15 lbs to record 120 lbs 07 ozs.
In third place was Adam Mitchell (Browning West Wales) of Swansea on peg 115 fished with both bomb and waggler mainly with bread to tip the scale at 103 lbs 08 ozs. David White of Bruton and a member of Viaduct Select fished the pole, and pellets to take fourth place with 101 lbs 12 ozs. In fifth place was Adam Smith (Keynsham AA) who also fished the bomb with pellet from his favourite peg at Viaduct 125 to record a weight of 100 lbs 09 ozs.
Qualifier number two will be at Preston Innovations Boldings, Bridgnorth on Saturday 13th April 2013, when the next Fish ‘O’ Mania grand finalist will be decided.
