Fish to Win 2009 came to a climatic close on Sunday 25th October 2009 at Lake John in Waltham Abbey where the 20 finalists battled it out for the top prize of £3000….lots of debate was going on before the draw about which peg would win, the general feeling was peg 32 in the corner or the Island pegs also in the thirties, with the way the wind was blowing Series Organiser John Bell and Lake John Owner Colin Bartlett fancied peg 41.

It was Mike Evans (Lords Leisure) on peg 41 who took the early lead netting about 15lb of Bream and Tench in the first hour but after that the peg just seemed to switch off, Jason Collins (Browning – Wickford) and Robbie Taylor (Preston Innovation – Delcac) on pegs 13 and 11 then seemed to take over the mantle for the next couple of hours catching roach and skimmers at regular intervals, however after a slow start Alec Roberts (Middy) on peg 14 who fed two lines, one at 4 metres on maggot and the other at 7 metres on caster started catching better quality Bream and Tench and also landed three bonus carp and Geoff Vallance (Preston Innovations – Delcac) on peg 35 fishing a 6mm banded pellet on a bomb towards the Island seemed to be the one’s to beat.

Prior to the weigh in the general consensus was that Mr Middy – Alec Roberts had scooped the £3000 1st place prize so the race was on for 2nd and 3rd place and this was between Anthony Parnell (Passies Sonubaits) on peg 26, Chris Vandervleit (Maver – Van Den Edyne) on peg 28 and Geoff Vallance (Preston Innovations – Delcac) on peg 35

Picking up 1st Place and the £3000 was Alec Roberts (Middy) who tipped the scales with 43lb 8oz of Bream and Tench a 9lb carp and 20lb for the other two carp under the 10lb rule finished with a total weight of 72lb 8oz,

In 2nd place and £500 came Geoff Vallance (Preston Innovation – Delcac) who weighed in with 52lb 4oz of Bream.

In 3rd place and £250 came Anthony Parnell (Passies Sonubaits) who caught 19lb 2oz of skimmers and three bonus carp for 30lb under the 10lb rule weighed in with 49lb 2oz

The four section winners were Chris Vandervleit (Maver – Van Den Edyne) 42lb 4oz, Kev Parker (Pulborough AS) 31lb 4oz, Robbie Taylor (Preston Innovations – Delcac) 29lb 12oz and Barry Oliver (Maver) 22lb 12 who picked up a keepnet courtesy of SPRO.

The overall match result is as follows:

1 Alec Roberts (Middy) 72lb 8oz
2 Geoff Vallance (Preston Innovations – Delcac) 52lb 4oz
3 Anthony Parnell (Passies – Sonubaits) 49lb 2oz
4 Chris Vandervleit (Maver – Van Den Edyne) 42lb 4oz
5 Jason Collins (Browning – Wickford) 32lb 8oz
6 Kev Parker (Pulborough AS – Apollo) 31lb 4oz
7 Robbie Taylor (Preston Innovations – Delcac) 29lb 12oz
8 Barry Oliver (Maver Image) 22lb 12oz
9 Mike Evans (Lords Leisure) 20lb 8oz
10 John Coster (Bowlers) 17lb 14oz
11 Dave Sandford (Map – Medway Tackle) 16lb 12oz
12 Tony Lock (Garbolino – Apollo) 16lb 8oz
13 Chris Nicholls (Garbolino – Apollo) 14lb 4oz
14 Rob Bishop (Map) 14lb 2oz
15 Zac Brown (Preston Innovations – Delcac) 12lb 8oz
16 Dave Vincent (Browning – Wickford) 12lb 4oz
17 Russ Berryman (Garbolino – Apollo) 10lb 12oz
18 Pete Upperton (Trabucco South East) 9lb 8oz
19 Barry Upperton (Passies – Sonubaits) 9lb
19 Peter Steward (Browning – Wickford) 9lb