A brave eight (8) anglers turned out for this fourth and final round on our winter league series. This final round was expected to be tough with it being on the Island pool, but to make matters worse, conditions on the day were very cold with water temperatures also being very low and the water had lost a lot of colour in the week in the lead up to the fixture. One thing was (hopefully) for sure - the carp had shut up shop.
Winner on the final day was the ever consistent Max Galaszewski. Max drew peg 12 opposite the far island and started his match fishing caster shallow to find roach in numbers, but of a smaller than expected stamp. Max ventured out to 13m on the long pole, again with caster, but introduced groundbait in an effort to find the better fish. Again, Max was only able to find smaller stamp fish, before carp and F1s moved in. A return to his short line late on produced more small roach and some bonus perch before the all out was called. At the end of the five hours Max offered 14-15-00 to the scales to win by a comfortable margin on the day.
Second place was taken by Jeff Rush from opposite peg 2. Jeff had a relatively slow start to the match but eventually found small roach and odd skimmers willing to feed on pinkie at 11m. However, a long quiet spell mid-match interrupted Jeff's flow before a late flurry of small fish gave him a final 6-14-00.
Rounding off the top three finish on an extremely tough final round was Josh Sutterby, who drew peg 10. Josh caught mainly roach with a few skimmers and perch on maggot fished over groundbait at 9m for most of the day to end with 5-03-00.
Come the end of the four rounds, Max Galaszewski confirmed his place at the top of the leader board with a total cumulative weight of 70-02-00 coming from three victories and a third place finish on round three. Max received £100 for his overall victory plus an additional £135 in prize money from each round.
Allan Cox was the man best placed to topple Max heading into the final round, but had a lot to do from a difficult draw on peg 15. Allan fished a superb series securing a second place finish on round one, followed by a third place finish on round two as well overall victory on round three, which really took the fight to Max for the final round. However, Allan could only manage a 7th place finish on the final day adding just 1-05-00 to his total weight, but managed to hold on to second place overall to receive a well deserved £70 plus £65 in prize money each round.
Jeff Rush took the third and final main frame position picking up £50 in the process. Jeff also showed his consistency amassing two runner-up finishes and a third place finish marred only by a fourth place finish from round three. Jeff also picked up an additional £50 in prize money from each round for the above mentioned results.
A special mention also goes to Dan Hart, who had a very difficult opening round, but managed to climb the leader board to fourth place (up from seventh after round one) to finish just outside the main top three finish on the day. Going into the final round, Dan was right behind Jeff, but a very harsh draw on the final round of the competition saw Dan's hopes of completing what would've been an amazing comeback dashed. Bad luck Dan, but still a great finish!
1st M. Galaszewski, Peg 12, 14-15-00, Caster on the long pole over groundbait & caster short
2nd J. Rush, Peg 2, 6-14-00, Pinkie on the long pole
3rd J. Sutterby, Peg 10, 5-03-00, Maggot short over groundbait
Overall after RD4
1st Max Galaszewski, 70-02-00 (£100 + £135)
2nd Alan Cox, 52-08-00 (£70 + £65)
3rd Jeff Rush, 50-08-00 (£50 + £50)
----------------------------------------
4th Dan Hart, 41-05-00 (£25)
5th Josh Sutterby, 39-07-00
6th Gerry Rush, 35-05-00
7th Ben Hughes, 29-15-00
8th Nigel Hart, 21-10-00
Max Galaszewski with his final round 14-15-00 catch from the Island pool
Top three overall finish (left to right): Max Galaszewski, Jeff Rush & Allan Cox
Comments