Pete Goodwin, a Chemical Plant operator from Cheddleton in Staffs, was the winner of the latest Fish-O-Mania qualifiers at Heronbrook fishery. He drew peg 54 on Match Lake and set his stall out to fish the Pellet method feeder with meat on the hook and was rewarded with a weight of 43.750 Kgs and a place in the final.
His catch was made up of Carp in the 4 to 6lb class with a single specimen of 18lb. Pete was visibly shaken with his win and could only comment “Amazing” after the match.
A beautiful day, temperatures up into the lower 20’s and a cooling breeze greeted the 130 competitors in this, the 10th qualifying round of Fish-O-Mania 2009.
Expectations were that Meadow pool was the place to be, as this lake had been producing more consistently that others, with over 800lbs of fish being caught from this lake last weekend, between 50 anglers, and four weights over the 100lb barrier.
Fish-O-Mania regulars, Kieron Rich, Grant Albutt and Marc Jones all drew the favoured Meadow pool with Grant drawing end peg 57, Kieron drawing favoured peg 27 and Marc drawing peg 5. Kieron and Grant were made pre-match favourites with the draws that they had made and so all eyes were on this pair of anglers.
There was however, to be a surprise in store.
With the weather being as warm as it was, and had been for a couple of days, this had warmed up the temperature of the water in the shallower lakes sufficiently enough to turn the fish off feeding and to turn them on to thoughts of spawning.
What greeted a lot of anglers when they got to their respective pegs, particularly on Island, Bridge, Canal and Meadow pools were the sheer numbers of fish on the surface and crashing about in the reeds and rushes. This didn’t auger well for many of the anglers, as there would only be a few fish that would feed, particularly on the favoured pool.
The big surprise, but not to some, when they saw what was happening on the shallower pools, was the winner, once again coming from the Match Lake, as it did some 2 years ago under similar conditions.
In second place, for the second time in as many matches, was Kieron Rich from Meadow pool 27.
Kieron spent the first 45 minutes fishing the pole with not a single bite.
He then switched to a small method feeder over his pole line, fishing 3 dead maggots on the hook and finished up with a weight of 38.850 Kgs, which many thought, would be sufficient to win the match.
Third place went to Chris Gorrell, from Meadow pool 32 with a weight of 33.000 Kgs fishing the pole tight to the far bank using maggot.
In fourth place was Marc Jones from Meadow pool peg 5 with 28.400 Kgs and in 5th position was Grant Albutt with a weight of 27.700 Kgs from end peg Meadow 57.
