Considerably warmer weather compared to the previous round greeted anglers for the final round of our silverfish series. Going into this final round, all anglers were chasing Max, who had managed to hold on to a slim advantage over Dan Hart. Jeff Rush was also by now putting some serious pressure on Josh Gaunt for third place and fifth placed Josh Sutterby still having an outside chance of improving on his final position by a single place.
It really was too close to call between the top two, especially after the draw, which saw Dan draw favourably and Max not so much.
Making the most of his favourable draw saw Dan finish top of the field with a weight of 22-01-00 from peg 3. Dan started his match fishing the long pole offering maggot before switching to his edge later on. However, Dan's catch rate was spluttering midway through the match, but Dan placed his Ace card and switched to the waggler and offered maggot up in the water to maintain a pretty hectic catch rate to end the match strong.
Second place was secured by the man next door, Jeff Rush. Jeff opted to fish maggot and caster short at 5m to find some quality silvers, but was pestered by carp towards the end of the day to offer 19-05-00 to the scales.
Max Galaszewski rolled over the finish line in third place and, by his own admission, had endured a tough day and wasn't confident he'd done enough come the weigh in. Max opted to fish maggot for the full five hours both to depth and up in the water to end his final outing of the series with 14-07-00.
POSITION | ANGLER | PEG | WEIGHT | METHOD |
1st | D. Hart | 3 | 22-01-00 | Maggot on long & short pole and shallow waggler |
2nd | J. Rush | 2 | 19-05-00 | Maggot & caster short |
3rd | M. Galaszewski | 5 | 14-07-00 | Maggot on long pole shallow & to depth |
LEAGUE STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 6
In what was a photo-like finish, Max Galaszewski managed to hold on to top spot by the skin of his teeth and retain the Woodside silverfish series title. Despite losing ground on the final two consecutive rounds to both Dan and Jeff, Max did just enough on the final round to finish just 2lb 15oz ahead of Dan!
Max commented: "I can't believe I've done it. I really struggled on the last round and I had to make every bite count. I've never had to work so hard before. I genuinely didn't think I'd done enough to beat Dan overall. He caught really well".
Jeff Rush also finished his series strongly with a super final round effort which saw him leapfrog Josh Gaunt and snatch third place righ at the death. Josh Gaunt had a very difficult last round and was beaten up by carp on peg 11 which saw him finish in 6th place on the day ultimately costing him a podium finish.
The remainder of the table stayed the same with Josh occupying fifth place, Allan in sixth and Nigel in seventh. However, it must be said that Nigel was unable to fish the final two rounds due to work commitments.
POSITION | ANGLER | WEIGHT RD6 (lbs / oz) | CUM. WEIGHT |
1st | D. Hart | 22-01-00 | 109-04-00 |
2nd | J. Rush | 19-05-00 | 86-09-00 |
3rd | M. Galaszewski | 14-07-00 | 112-03-00 |
4th | J. Sutterby | 14-06-00 | 67-10-00 |
5th | A. Cox | 04-10-00 | 44-06-00 |
6th | J. Gaunt | 03-05-00 | 79-02-00 |
7th | N. Hart | DNF | 19-03-00 |
FINAL LEAGUE STANDINGS
Overall it's been a thoroughly enjoyable series from a neutral perspective with it being too close to call at the end of it all.
I would like to thank Max, Dan, Josh S, Josh G, Allan, Jeff and Nigel for making the league possible and for the top level banter throughout.
From a fishery point of view, it's been really rewarding to see the level of silverfish sport that's been enjoyed over the six rounds with most anglers weighing in double figures most rounds with the exception of round 5. I've seen numerous perch over 2lbs, roach pushing 2lbs and some cracking bags of mixed fish in general.
Well done again to Max and everyone who took part. Your support is genuinely appreciated.
POSITION | ANGLER | CUM. WEIGHT |
1st | M. Galaszewski | 112-03-00 |
2nd | D. Hart | 109-04-00 |
3rd | J. Rush | 86-09-00 |
4th | J. Gaunt | 79-02-00 |
5th | J. Sutterby | 67-10-00 |
6th | A. Cox | 44-06-00 |
7th | N. Hart | 19-03-00 |
