“THE WIND DROPPED... IT WAS TIME FOR ACTION”
Last hour switch to mudline found the big fish lined up
ACHANGE in the weather was key to Connor Barlow booking his place in this summer’s Fish O’Mania final, the Guru ace reacting to a drop in the gale force winds of last weekend to win in what turned out to be in a relatively comfortable fashion. Turning up with 99 other hopefuls at Cheshire’s Partridge Lakes, Connor took 190lb to beat Kieran Marsden’s second-best 159lb. He owed a lot of that success down to a final hour blitz on his far-bank mudline spot. Drawn on peg 137 of Covey Canal 6, it was hard going until the wind died off and he caught a fish-a-chuck.
A few fish from the mudline early, plus some on maggots at 4m and a good hour and a bit of catching in the margins, had put venue regular Connor in contention. He needed a great final hour though, and he got it by revisiting the 14m line to the far bank.
There he found the fish lined up and he made hay, taking over 90lb in the final throes of the five-hour match.
The upcoming showdown is Connor’s second Fish O’ final and he can have another crack at the £50,000 top prize.
At the peg
“Drawing beforehand allowed me to know the rigs I was going to use and what bait to take,” he told us. “I’m a regular at Partridge and I knew the peg gave me a chance of winning, so I had a plan to fish maggots over micros and groundbait across to the far-bank mudline and in the margins and a third swim at 4m with maggots.
“It was very windy, and I thought the mudline might be tricky, so I wanted to fish at 4m as well, to keep fish going into the net.
“There was 14ins of water tight to the far bank, but the wind made presentation difficult,” Connor adds. “I only caught the odd F1 there on three maggots fished under a 0.4g RW Muddy float.
“This is where the 4m line came in and I caught around 50lb, but it wasn’t great. The maggot line was fed every three minutes with two helpings of 25 maggots apiece to try and stop the fish coming off bottom in 5ft of water. It was obvious, though, that I needed to look in the margins.
“It was around halfway through the match when I moved there, fishing and feeding the same way as I had on the mudline at 9m down to some rushes. This was really good
and over the next hour or so I caught 20 fish, a mix of carp and F1s. It was never solid, but I was adding to my weight.
The wind drops
“With just over an hour to go, the wind dropped and my mudline looked like it would be easier to fish. I went back across at 14m and it was absolutely solid – I couldn’t get the float in fast enough!
“Presentation was miles better and I caught one-a-chuck. They were carp too, not F1s, between 2lb and 5lb, and I was motoring. You expect the margins to get stronger in the last hour, but it was the mudline that actually came good.
“I forgot to use a clicker to work out my weight, so I didn’t have a clue! My rough guess was that I had a good 100lb-plus and when the scales got close to my peg, 140lb was top so I knew it would be close. Then, Kieran Marsden, a few pegs away from me, put almost 160lb on the scales and I was worried.
“To weigh in 190lb was a lot more than I thought I would get. It just showed how much that last hour mattered and how not giving up on the mudline is important.
“I’m just pleased that the wind dropped enough to let me get on it and catch!”