Paul Haines from Liverpool won this weekend’s PartyPoker.com Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier at White Acres beating a number of high profile anglers to land his place in this years final.

The match proved to be an exciting contest with all the anglers having to work hard as the fish proved tough to land. In the end it was the man from the Mersey who managed to handle the tough conditions best managing to beat off last year’s finalist and former winner of the competition Steve Cooke into second place.

Production worker Paul, is a regular visitor to the White Acres complex and used all of his venue experience to finish the match with 139lbs 15ozs. Fishing from peg number 18 on Twin Oaks, a peg which has provided a number of match winners in recent times, Paul caught carp with his biggest being 8lbs in weight. He fished a great match using a 3AAA crystal waggler, feeding pellet within a metre of the far bank. As he moved closer to the far bank he found that his bite rate quickened, helping him land his total of 35 carp.

Second placed angler was well known match angler Steve Cooke, who finished with 122lbs 1oz having fished on the long pole up to the island in front of him. Although most would be happy with such a high placing, on the day it proved to be disappointing for Steve who lost a number of fish and even had a 10lb fish jump out of his keep net which would have helped up the pressure of the eventual victor Paul.

Third place fell to Fish ‘O’ Mania regular Perry Stone from Surrey who finished the match with 104lbs worth of F1s. Perry was fishing the long pole and feeding 6mm pellets, however his biggest fish caught was only 1lb 8ozs which just wasn’t enough to take him into contention.

In was a close fought battle for fourth and fifth as local angler Paul Carpenter and Manchester match angler Karl Webster finished just one ounce apart. It was that extra bit of local knowledge that won this battle as Paul ended with 101lbs 13ozs, just ahead of Karl with 101lbs 12ozs.