Despite having no fewer than nine former Fish ‘O’ Mania Champions take part in the Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier at Woodlands View Fishery at Droitwich, Worcestershire on Wednesday 27th April 2011 there was only one name in the spot light. Tim Nash (Browning Hotrods) a landscape gardener/builder from Cambridge who took the qualifying winning title with 125lbs 6ozs of carp from peg 18 on Ghost pool with his biggest fish landed in the match weighing in at 9lb.
After 1 ¾ hours Tim was struggling to catch on pellet feed with another angler close by being 40lb ahead, so made the decision to change to casters to fish up in the water to catch steadily for the rest of the match especially towards the end. Tim’s experience and confidence shone through on caster and hook catching half a dozen roach on maggot and a few skimmers and never lost a fish which made all the difference to take the lead by just 1lb. Tim has only fished two previous Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifiers, Makins and Lakeview making this Tim’s first appearance in the Fish ‘O’ Mania final line up.
Tim Nash said “I was lucky to get six tickets for the qualifiers this year and only fished three of them so far. I loved the venue at Woodlands View and when I drew my peg I knew that 500lbs had came off the lakes the day before so I was trying to think tactics whether to change baits knowing that all the pegs were being fished, so limiting weights caught. I felt sorry for Steven Openshaw being just 1lb behind me when the results were read out and can imagine how gutted he was to come so close. I am really looking forward to the final and I know some say the prize money doesn’t count, but as well as the money it is excellent to be a part of the experience”.
Runner up Steven Openshaw a Fishery Manager from the Wirral was close behind with a weight of 124lbs 8ozs of carp with his biggest fish going to 12lb taken on pellet with some on the tip and the rest fished shallow on long pole from peg 36 on Arles pool. In third place with 118lbs 2ozs from peg 11 on Barley pool was former Champion, Steve Ringer who had 24 carp with the biggest fish landed in the match at 8lbs on his pellet feeder rig. In fourth place was Tom Pickering, England World Feeder Manager who also fished pellet feeder from peg 17 on Hay pool to take carp to 10lbs.
Another former Champion Mick Bull also used the feeder and pellet from peg 11 on Hay pool to land 100lbs 15ozs of carp to 6 lbs for fifth place in the qualifier.
The qualifier was fairly even with all but 2 of the 10 peg sections needing over 55 lbs to win them. The fifth Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier will take place over the bank holiday weekend at Packington Somers, Meriden, Coventry on Saturday 30th April 2011 when the next finalist will be decided for the Fish ‘O’ Mania grand final in July.
