Russ Evans blog 3 Horse and Country TV
23rd January 2011
A text vote away from success
In my last blog I mentioned that I had been nominated for SPOTY for the Surrey Awards, voting has already started ending on Friday 4th February at midnight. However a couple of days ago Text Voting started as I bid to put Angling on top of the tree against my four other nominated sports candidates from Rugby, Kick Boxing, Triathlon and Formula 2. It would be great to win and help my aim to carry on promoting angling in everything I do and these are the details if you wanted to plug me your vote which would be very much appreciated. By simply typing in SU sport 081 (exactly as printed with blank spaces) and sending to 65100 you and your friends can vote as many times as you like but please note each text costs 50p.
Southern anglers get a raw deal with this year’s Fish O
When this year’s Fish O Mania qualifiers were publicised there was one thing that stood out, lack of Southern venues this year. It has caused a bit of an uproar in the South 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 falled 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 mainly 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 be like myself will 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 3 and with every peg in it fished poor with just 82lbs winning the match from my favourite peg 56 on Lake 2. 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 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 5 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 but as I walked back to my car 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 8 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 fishing a Fish O final will not be an option this year and probably the year after that until a new format is introduced 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 am sure this could be done even if it meant some semi-finals needed to be fished and I am sure I am not the only angler who thinks this.
“Tight Lines”
Russ Evans
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