Fish O Mania, Bridgewater Canal (101 pegs)

Cudmore backed Nigel Smith can start making plans for the £25,000 Fish O Mania final after a comfortable win on the Bridgewater Canal at Preston Brook.

It’s a sign of the times that the match was the only 100 pegger of the entire Bank Holiday weekend, but Smith made no mistake from peg 95, including a 5lb carp in his 18-2-13 winning weight.

In fact carp played a key role in the match, and one angler must be cursing after hooking and losing no less than five of them.

Nigel knew they were about where he’d drawn, and tackle up with relatively heavy gear, fishing meat and caster at 14 metres. He included chub to 3lb and some quality skimmers in his total.

Bridesmaid and just missing out on a final place was talented Keenets North West rod Lee Addy, who worked hard at no less than 17.5 metres from peg 16 at the other end of the match length for 15-5-5. Lee fished chopped worm and caster for a carp of 8lb plus skimmers, perch and roach.

Result: 1 N Smith, Browning Team Cudmore, 18-2-13 (qualified); 2 L Addy, Keenets NW, 15-5-5; 3 K Thornton, Connah’s Quay, 7-5-0; 4 R Williams, Fisherman’s Tackle, 5-14-0; 5 A Davis, Tri-Cast Highfield, 5-0-0; 6 L Clark, Warrington MG, 4-14-12.

The match is one of several 100-150 peggers which will see only one angler going through to the winner-takes-all final this year, following a change of policy by the organisers. Previously qualification was done in 300 peg matches, with two going through. But the new system allows matches to take place on smaller waters, including commercial venues.