The 9th Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier took place at Lakeview Fishery near Melton Mowbray on 3rd June 2006 with Jon Arthur claiming a closely fought victory.

 

Lakeview gave us a tight event with the top three anglers being separated by only 3 lbs and the top five anglers on the day all coming from different lakes.

 

Once again the weather played its part, but this time, instead of being wet, miserable and cold it was completely reversed by being hot and bright all day, with barely any breeze blowing to give a ripple on the water. The conditions proved a refreshing change from the previous 2 weeks, which had a detrimental effect on the fishing and the anticipated weights.

 

Winner Jon Arthur, drew on the fancied Lagoon Lake, drawing Peg 10. He fished and fed Pellet for the first hour on the deck and then switched to Caster shallow for the remainder of the match. He caught consistently on this method bringing home Carp and F1’s to 2.5 lbs netting a winning weight of 76lbs 4 ozs. He also did well financially collecting £240 in winnings from the pools on the day.

 

At the presentation when asked to complete his “Angler Profile” form he stated, “This is the first Fish ‘O’ Mania I have fished and I haven’t stopped shaking yet, so I need to settle down before I complete the form”.

                                               

Runner-up on the day was Steve Goodliffe a builder from Peterborough, who drew ‘Serpent peg 13’, and weighed 73lbs 4ozs, just 3lb 10ozs behind the winner. His catch was a full house of Carp with his biggest catch being 3lbs.

 

Darrell Taylor was in 3rd place from ‘Marina peg 4’ with a weight of 72lbs 4ozs which showed just how close this contest was. Darrell success was hindered by Ducks on the water, stating “there were major problems with Ducks who kept diving on the bait”