Stuart Ballard (Maver Midlands Dynamite), a Construction based Manager from Walsall was crowned the winner from the Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier held at Willinghurst Fishery, Guildford, Surrey on Wednesday 16th June, 2010. Stuart drew peg 7 on the unfancied Cherry tree Lake, so had to work hard, pole fishing paste at 13m and 14m in 5 different areas to catch bream and carp to 6lb sporadically through the match. Stuart caught his first carp, a 4 lb fish, after twelve minutes with his catch rate steady throughout, although he did have a lean spell mid match. Stuart went on to catch fourteen carp, the best being 6 lbs and around 12 lbs of skimmers to 2 lb to win with 68-4-0, which proved to be enough to finally win a place in the Fish ‘O’ Mania final after years of trying.
Unfortunately the fourteenth Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier at Willinghurst Fishery left its mark for some of the wrong reasons, because thirty anglers failed to turn up on the day, which left those that did turn out, and the Angling Trust organisers, with several logistical problems. It led to too many vacant pegs, of which nine were considered to be potential match winners. Thirteen anglers from the reserve list boosted the turnout to one hundred and thirteen but that still left a shortfall of seventeen on the day.
The stiff breeze made it difficult to control long poles on some of the lakes, which may have had a bearing on the overall result. The big weights of previous Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifiers held at Willinghurst just did not materialise, and only 52 anglers troubled the scalesmen and one whole section also failed to weigh in.