MAS rod Vince Callaghan took first spot in the opening Evesham Angling Festival Evesham Championship qualifying match of the season on Evesham Town & Ferry Waters, where 83 fished on Saturday.
After drawing the fancied end peg one at the top of the Crown Meadow, Callaghan, of Windsor, adopted a positive approach throwing in ten balls of groundbait on his pole line and fishing worms and maggots over the top. He tempted four good bream, plus a host of smaller fish for a 17-14-0 total.
In second place was Drennan ace Dan Varney, who drew peg 36 below the mouth of the River Isbourne and caught several chub, chublets and perch on a light running rig fished on the long pole, with some fish also falling to chopped worm fished on a short pole line.
In third place was another Drennan angler, England international Steve Hemingray, who drew peg 71 at Hampton Ferry and landed ten eels on pole fished maggot.
Results: 1 Vince Callaghan (MAS) 17-14-0 (peg 1); 2 Dan Varney (Drennan) 10-14-0 (peg 36); 3 Steve Hemingray (Drennan/Sensas) 10-8-0 (peg 71); 4 Leigh Gardner (Shakespeare Superteam) 9-8-0 (peg 83); 5 Mark Lindsey 8-8-0 (peg 6).
Qualifiers: Vince Callaghan, Dan Varney, Chris Smith.
VICTORIOUS Drennan rod Dan Varney remarkably drew the same peg that he finished second from in the previous day’s Evesham Championship qualifier as he won Sunday’s Wychavon Championship Qualifier on Evesham Town & Ferry Waters in which 78 fished.
This time Varney went one better than his previous day’s performance, winning the match with an 11-5-0 net of chub, chublets and perch. Again, he caught most of his fish on maggots fished under a light float on the long pole.
In second place was Evesham junior Owen Robinson who caught a good bream on groundbait feeder to take second place in the match and secure himself a place in the final.
Third place went to Evesham regular, Daiwa Gordon League ace, Ian Shepherd, who caught good quality roach on hempseed from peg 30 on the Corporation Meadow.
Results: 1 Dan Varney (Drennan) 11-5-0 (peg 36); 2 Owen Robinson (Evesham Youth) 5-13-0 (peg 1); 3 Ian Shepherd (Daiwa Gordon League) 5-10-0 (peg 30); 4 Ray South (Ferrymen) 5-6-0 (peg 66); 5 Tony Bench (Shakespeare Superteam) 4-13-0 (peg 26).
Qualifiers: Owen Robinson, Dan Varney, Ian Bullock, Simon Pickering.