Peter Black has taken the angling world by storm, becoming the youngest ever winner of Fish’O’Mania and adding a cool £50,000 to his name.
The young buck from Brum, fished a match far beyond his years after drawing peg 7 (permanent peg 20). Pete fished an incredibly tidy match on the long pole, shallow for his match winning 51kg 350g.
The Fosters of Birmingham employee had a slower start than some, as he built the cruising carp and Carassio’s confidence. However, he stormed into the lead after just 30 minutes and never really looked back from that point. A quick dabble on the pellet waggler meant he had time to rest his pole line and once Pete came back on the pole, he put fish in steadily for the rest of the match. Winning tactics were pinging 6mm pellets on regular basis, with a triple slapped light rig, set around 18 inches deep to fool the wary Hayfield carp.
Pete commented “It’s a dream to win Fish‘O’Mania, you have to keep your head and it’s a fishing match at the end of the day. Everybody here is good enough to win so you have to just enjoy the day. I will enjoy quite a bit of the money and probably look at buying a house.”
The ever-present Andy Power took second place honours on the opposite bank peg 22, with hard earnt 39kg 225grams. Andy also kicked off on the pole, but as the crowds grew behind himself and Jamie Hughes, he had to follow his fish out onto the pellet waggler. Andy caught steadily across different sized wagglers from 15yds all the way out to 35, mainly on 8mm pellet.
Andy commented “Unfortunately as the match went on there were just fewer and fewer signs of fish. Still, I gave it everything and I have no regrets, I’ll be back”
This is the second year in a row ‘The Power’ has finished second and surely it’s only a matter of time before he lifts the coveted trophy.
Rounding out the top three was Steve Ford, who drew next to Peter on peg 6 and narrowly missed out on the 10k second prize, carding an impressive 36kg 925grams. Steve covered a lot of tactics for his weight, fishing pole shallow, pellet waggler, and late on he had a few fish across to island on bomb and pellet.
Steve was disappointed but thoughtful after the match “I can now see why so many have for years, chased getting into Fish’O’Mania final, what a brilliant event at a lovely venue.” Commenting on Peter’s achievement “he’s a lovely kid and that will start his young life off nicely for him, well done to him.”
A huge thanks first and foremost must go to Matchroom Sport and Sky Sports for their organisation and coverage of the match. Secondly to Robin, Noelie and the team at Hayfield for hosting an awesome final! Thanks, must also go to all the Angling Trust team at both the final and the qualifiers. Last and by no means least, an immeasurable thanks to all the anglers out there that fished the qualifiers, all the fisheries and staff that hosted them, and finally to all spectators on Saturday. It really was a Fish’O XXV to remember.
