Richie Hoskins became the second Ross-on-Wye match ace to qualifier for this year’s Grand Final of the Fish ‘O’ Mania to be fished on July 17th at North Staffordshire’s Cudmore Fisheries. 

 Richie’s friend Steve Seaborn was the second qualifier winner, and with six rounds remaining the market town of Ross-on-Wye now have a double chance of claiming the £25,000 major award.
This tenth qualifier was fished in sweltering conditions at the picturesque Octoplus Boldings Fishery near Bridgnorth, Shropshire which was not the best conditions for fishing .  The match was a little different than in some of the previous qualifiers as the start of the 130 sellout match was quiet with the carp fully in spawning mode and not feeding especially in the early part of the match, but the action certainly built up as the match wore on. Richie Hoskins (Daiwa Gordon League) was on Chestnut 40, a corner peg, where he fed and fished caster in the upper layers of the water on three lines, out at 12.5 metres and margin swims of 7 and 14 metres, to catch carp to 8 lb in his memorable 143-3-0, his best fish going around the 8 lb mark. The 39 year old bricklayer had a comfortable match and barely used two pints of casters to catch equally from every line avoiding going deep as this resulted in ‘liners’. Unlike most of the anglers fishing he caught well early and put that down to his, and the peg opposite, were the only two pegs on Chestnut where spawning carp were not visible at the start. With such a big weight it was still quite tight as match fishing legend Peter Plant (Maver Midlands) was denied what would have been a very popular win as he put together carp to 11 lb in his 136-0-0. Peter is very well known as the Boldings venue maestro and all but pulled it off with his favoured form of attack with caster hookbaits, ironically the same tactics adopted by the winner.
Having made the long journey from Cleveland, former Kamasan Matchman of the Year Adam Richards (Bagem Baits) had carp to 8 lb on pellet fished down the margins of Stock Pool 1 for 103-13-0. Mick Bull, the 2008 Fish ‘O’ Mania Champion was fourth with 101-6-0, leaving Jon Arthur (Shakespeare) in fifth with 99-15-0 and Andy Power Wells) sixth on 98-8-0.