Following a long period of bitterly cold easterly winds, the first of the Angling Trust Winter League semi finals took place at Dynamite Baits Makin’s Fishery in Warwickshire on Saturday 23rd February, and it was clearly going to be a struggle for many.
Fish in these conditions are tightly shoaled and usually disinterested in feeding, but although there were a handful of blanks, anglers generally found some bites and, indeed, weights in many sections were impressive; 14 kilos was required to make the top 15 individuals and 12 kilos was the lowest section winning weight.
Individually, it was a one horse race with Ultimate Barnsley Blacks’ Lee Harrison putting 61 kilos 600 grams on the scales from Derwent peg 25. Lee caught carp to 3 kilos steadily throughout the match mostly fishing tight across. Runner up from Severn peg 11 was Sean Balber of Maver Midlands, who weighed 36 kilos 940 grams. Again, the bulk of his catch were carp to 3 kilos caught “up the channel” on waggler. In third place was James Dent of Ultimate Barnsley Blacks, who caught 25 kilos 040 grams on the feeder at in-form Lagoon peg 13.
Team wise it was a similar result with Maver Midlands recording a brilliant card 77 points from a possible 90. They had no-one lower than third in their section. In the month lead up to the semi final Maver Midlands had put in an immense amount of time at the venue and this looks to have paid dividends. Second with 59 points were Chamber’s Champs and third place Browning Quaker with 57 points. The top three teams qualify for the Final on 6th July on the Tidal Trent.
Team Results
1st Maver Midlands 77 points
2nd Chamber’s Champs 59 points
3rd Browning Quaker 57 points
4th Ultimate Barnsley Blacks 54 points
5th Tri Cast Highfield 52 points
6th Matrix Trentmen 48 points
7th Ted Carter Preston 38 points
8th Sensas Mark One 36 points
9th Dams & Lock 27 points
Individual Results
1st Lee Harrison, Ultimate Barnsley Blacks 61-600
2nd Sean Barber, Maver Midlands 36-940
3rd James Dent, Ultimate Barnsley Blacks 25-040
4th Lee Kerry, Ultimate Barnsley Blacks 22-560
5th Craig Ebbrell, Maver Midlands 21-560
6th B Stanford, Chamber’s Champs 21-500.
