Midlands venues dominate the 2011 Fish O Mania heats, with Tunnel Barn Farm, Packington Somers, Makin’s Fishery and Woodland View all set to host qualifiers.
The event will also see the prize money raised, with the Fish O Mania champion set to walk away with a cheque for £30,000 – the biggest prize in UK match fishing.
Tickets at £25 each go on sale through the Angling Trust website on Monday January 17th at 9am and entry is expected to be massively over-subscribed, with a ballot used to decide who gets top fish. As previously each heat will see just one qualifier go through to the 16-man final at Cudmore Fishery, and the last one at Lindholme Fishery will be a 300-peg affair.
The reigning Champion is Shakespeare’s Neil McKinnon, whose come-from-behind win over crowd favourite Tom Pickering was one of the greatest ever Fish ‘O’ Mania finals.
The Midland dates for the diary are Weds, 20th April (Makins Fishery); Weds 27th April (Woodlands View Fishery); Sat 30th April (Packington Somers) and Sat 21st May (Tunnel Barn Farm).
In addition, due to the customary over-subscribed demand for match tickets, organisers the Angling The event is backed by sport group Matchroom, whose chairman Barry Hearn commented: “At long last we’ve put the prize-money up! I don’t think though, that winning Fish ‘O’ Mania is necessarily about the money.
“Although 30 grand is always nice, this is more about going down in history as a winner of the biggest event in fishing.
“The tag ‘Fish ‘O’ Mania Champion’ will stay with the winner forever and put him onto an exclusive club with many of the best match anglers in Britain.
Full list of Fish O Mania 2011 qualifiers: /forum.aspx?g=posts&t=33758