Garbolino Ossett from West Yorkshire stormed to victory with a total of 54 points in the Angling Trust Winter League semi final on the Grand Union Canal, Loughborough on Sunday 24th February, with the team also having three section winners and just one blank.
Runners up were Drennan North West with a total of 50 points with one section winner, and the final qualifying spot went to Leicester Sensas fishing their home water.
The match was very difficult with just small pockets of fish feeding and many anglers struggling for a bite in weather conditions of below zero, and the water temperatures a lowly 3 degrees. This was in sharp contrast to the form the venue showed in early January when weights of five pound were common place. To illustrate how difficult the conditions were, Leicester Sensas had three blanks, but other good point scores including three section wins gave them a total of 49 points.
Tactics for most teams were very similar, fishing bloodworm and joker on very light rigs with caster or worm to target bonus perch. A few anglers also caught some small roach on bread punch early in the match.
The best individual results came from the deeper sections of the canal where a few more roach and perch fed. Most catches consisted of roach of one and two ounces caught on bloodworm although some bonus perch up to a pound in weight were also caught.
Teams results
1) Garbolino Ossett 54 points
2) Drennan North West 50 points
3) Leicester Sensas 49 points
4) Mosella Black Country 47 points
5) Shakespeare Superteam 40 points
6) Maver Bait-Tech 37 points
7) Tricast Rochdale 33 points
8) Cleveland Angling Centre 28 points
Individual results
1st T. Hopkins , Garbolino Ossett 2-360kg
Joint 2nd Darren Frost, Drennan North West 1-830kg and
Bob Greenbury, Leicester Sensas 1-830kg
4th Dean Turner, Tri Cast Rochdale 1-700kg
5th Jason Cunningham, Shakespeare Superteam 1-690kg
6th B.Taylor, Garbolino Ossett 1-680kg
