Steve Freeman wins Messingham Sands Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier
The third Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifying match was fished at the picturesque Messingham Sands, North Lincolnshire complex on six of its ponds; Oak Tree, Tripp, Hollywood, Merry’s, Islands and Swan on Saturday 18th April 2015. Local information was that the winner could come from any one of the lakes.
As the 160 anglers hoping to get through to the grand final in July made the draw, several interesting groupings emerged with Andy Geldart, Tom Pickering, Nick Speed and Simon Foster drawn together on Merry’s in fancied pegs, and Steve Cooke one of the anglers on the sheltered early pegs on Oaks.
Early reports confirmed that an angler had got off to a good start with 7 carp on Oaks, but it was Steve Freeman on peg 2, with Steve Cooke on peg 3 having a slow start. On Merry’s the battle was on and the fancied pegs were producing fish from the off. Island and Swan ponds were suffering from the cold easterlies. Tripp also saw a few anglers catching well, but others struggling for bites.
As the match progressed, it seemed that the match was between Andy Geldart, Nick Speed and Simon Foster on Merry’s, with Steve Freeman ahead of Steve Cooke on Oaks, who was beginning to catch up.
The two Steves were pinging 6mm hard pellets on the pole line at 13 or 14½ metres, fishing the same pellet on the deck; lifting the float from time to time to induce a bite. Some fish were taken up in the water, but with the cool conditions the carp seemed happier nearer the bottom.

Steve Freeman, a 42 year old Glazier from Peterborough survived a quiet last hour and a half to take a comfortable win with 169-12 of carp to 7lb and achieve his dream of qualifying for the Fish ‘O’ Mania final.
Runner up was the ever popular and experienced Steve Cooke from next peg 3, who worked hard to get his swim working after a slow start, switching between the deck and shallow to keep fish coming and weigh in 133-12.
Third place went to 25 year old Luke Bamford from Ilkeston. Luke fished pellet down the edge to land common and ghost carp to 12lb, together with a few fish he “mugged” fishing shallow from peg 35 on Tripp Pond. Andy Geldart and Nick Speed finished neck and neck with 111-9 for joint fourth on Merry’s peg1 and 25 respectively; both ending up catching shallow as the fish responded to regular feeding of hard pellets.
Sixth place was taken by Shane Trower, who took advantage of local information to fish close in and weighed 109-14 from Oaks 25.