Once again, the weather played its part in this the penultimate round of the 2012 Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifying matches at Woodlands Lakes, Thirsk on Saturday 16th June 2012. With heavy rain and thunder storms in the days leading up to the match it was the current Fish ‘O’ Mania Champion Shane Atkin (Billingham Angling Club) who took the honour’s on the day. The 31 year old angler from Billingham, Cleveland drew peg 23 towards the far end of Skylark Lake to put 78 lb 12 oz of common and mirror carp in his winning net, fishing method feeder with a banded 6 mm pellet on the hook he caught steadily throughout the day to secure his place in the Fish ‘O’ Mania grand final for the second year, and hopefully duplicate last year’s grand final result.
Second place went to Fish ‘O’ Mania regular Greg Norris (Garbolino/Bagem baits) who drew peg 16 on Curlew Lake, Greg from Birkenshaw; Bradford fished paste at 6 and 13 metres to land carp and skimmers to make up his 74 lb 15 oz weight with his biggest carp going to 15 lb. The most unfortunate angler on the day was John Pease from Doncaster, pegged 15 on Skylark. John fished method feeder to put together a weight of 74 lb 14 oz of carp, but missed his net with one carp of around 4 lb mark that might have put him in main contention for a place in the Fish ‘O’ Mania grand final. In fourth place was Paul Burton (Anglers World Holidays) from York fishing method feeder from peg 6 on Kestrel finished the match with 69 lb 4 oz. Fifth place was taken by Rob Minikin (Sonu Baits) with 61 lb 9 oz from Partridge 27 fishing pellet shallow at 14 metres.
Garbolino Lindholme Lakes, Epworth, Doncaster will be hosting the 300 peg final qualifier of the year on Wednesday 27th June 2012. This will be a last chance for anglers to compete for that final place into the grand final at Cudmore Fisheries on Saturday 14th July 2012 to win one of the most prestigious titles in angling, ‘Fish ‘O’ Mania Champion’.
