Fish O Mania Southern anglers get raw deal at this year's
WHEN this year's Fish O Mania qualifiers were publicised there was one thing that stood out, lack of southern venues.
It has caused a bit of an uproar, especially as the prize money has gone up to £30,000 from £25,000 winner take all for the first time since its creation by Barry Hearn and his match room company.
Over the years the southern match venues have fallen by the wayside in the shape of Wylands, near Hastings, Stubpond, near East Grinstead and recently Willingshurst, near Shamley Green in Surrey.
The main reasons why these fisheries have been dropped are because anglers failed to show up in conjunction with the fisheries in poor form to hold an even contest. So I guess it was decided to find alternative venues with the Midlands anglers benefiting from the replacement qualifiers being held in their neck of the woods.
With the entry fee going up and petrol costs sky high along with bait costs, the Angling Trust membership and for some the need for an overnight stay.
Fishing just one qualifier is a good £100 plus and when you consider you are travelling a long way at a high cost in the hope of being lucky at the draw bag I am sure many anglers will, like myself, be reconsidering whether to enter this year.
The entry process is already opened via the Angling Trust website and with Monk Lakes really being the only option for me unless I pop off down to Devon or Somerset to fish in the other Southern based matches I don't really have much option.
Last season I applied for four tickets receiving just two at Monks and Willinghurst and really I was disappointed as I was hoping I would get tickets for the other two despite them being a bit further away.
Willingshurst was fishing so poor I was one of the 31 anglers who did not show up and in buying a ticket as I had I had already wasted money and judging by the weights and blanks it was a wise move not to fish on the day.
At Monks I wasted my time and money on this one as I drew peg 119 on Lake Three and with every peg in it fished poor with just 82lbs winning the match from my favourite peg 56 on Lake Two.
I had brought along lots of bait as each lake and some of the pegs need different requirements and as I pulled out 119 I might as well have just brought along 30 maggots for the good it was going to do me. I walked around the car park for 15 minutes trying to convince myself the need to get the tackle out of my car and have a go, but I did just in case and after five minutes with 7lbs in the net I was thinking I had made the right choice until all went quiet for me and all those around me on both banks. Anglers started to pack up after 90 minutes and I was not far behind them.
That day last May did something to me as I am such a big fan of Fish O. I felt conned by the whole scenario and started to think I had more chance of winning the lottery than drawing a good peg to compete on a level playing field. To really have a good chance of drawing a good peg you need to fish at least eight matches in the 16 match qualifying series in the hope that you may draw a good peg at one of them. But the cost involved and the travelling expenses far out ways in my opinion, the fingers crossed approach of having a good peg to compete from.
I wish all the anglers well this season but my hopes of making a Fish O final will not be an option this year and probably not until a new format is brought in where smaller matches are introduced bringing more fisheries into the mix and reducing poor pegs in the draw bag.
With a bit of planning I'm sure this could be done even if it meant semi-finals needed to be fished.
The last qualifier this year will be a 300 pegger said to give even more anglers a chance to fish, more like to help make up the extra £5,000 to boost the winners £30,000 first prize.Read More ...
0 comments:
Post a Comment