Golden Reel Qualifier No 24, final qualifier Partridge Lakes Saturday 17th August 2019.
The last of the 2019 qualifiers took place at the superb Partridge Lakes Complex.
A considerable amount of rain had filled the lakes to capacity adding colour and a water temperature reduction.
Temperatures of just 14C and a stiff breeze was looking like the 64 competitors were going to face a tough match.
How wrong can you be, 34 weights of over 100lbs were recorded on the day.
Winner overall, and grabbing the last qualification place was Connor Barlow (Guru).
Connor drew peg 109 on Covey 5 and chose to fish maggot shallow landing quality F1’s for the first four hours of the match.
Later switching to his edges, catching on pellet netting bonus carp to 8 lbs. At the whistle, Connor had netted a superb 195-8-0 making his way to the Grand Final at Larford Lakes on Saturday 14th September.
Howard Kelly (Matrix / Bait Tec) secured second place just 10lbs behind the winner with a weight of 185-4-0 from peg 25 on Covey 2.
Howard’s approach was caster shallow for the first two hours and later down his edges with worm over ground bait.
Third placed Les Marshall (Dynamite) has been unlucky not to make the final, knocking on the door with a number of top 3 placings in previous qualifiers.
Again Les framed with 178-9-0 from peg 23 on Covey 2. An all out attack down his edges was the plan, fishing dead reds over ground bait netting a mixed bag of F1’s and quality carp.
Dale Shepherd secured 4th place from peg 15 on Covey 1.
Dale has also been very unlucky not to make the final with a number of top 3 placings during the campaign.
Dale fished his match for the full five hours down his edges with live maggot hook baits and feeding the same to finish the match with 172-4-0.
Fifth placed John Jones (Colmic N/W) drew peg 39 on Covey 2 landing 168-3-0 of carp and F1’s.
John fished maggot shallow and dead reds down his edge over ground bait.
Sixth to the frame was Matt Hale (Dyamite) with 159-6-0 from peg 151 on Covey 6.
Matt fished maggot shallow and dead reds over ground bait down his edges.
Partridge concludes the 24 2019 qualification rounds.
So listed are the 24 finalists who will go head to head on Saturday 14th September 2019 for the title of Golden Reel Champion 2019 and that all important £50K first prize.
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