The second Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier of 2017, at Heronbrook Fisheries in Staffordshire, saw 142 anglers in the draw looking for a good peg.

Going into the match the favourite was a previous Fish ‘O’ winner Jamie Hughes, who drew peg 1 on Bridge Pool, especially when the angler next to him decided not to fish.

However, it was well know fishery owner Stephen Openshaw who took the honours and qualified for the final with 121lb from Bridge Pool peg 23. With this peg being on the corner, it gave Steve plenty of options and the majority of his F1 fish were caught fishing shallow on maggots, the best being 4lb.

In second place was Dave Brown who drew peg 15 on Meadow Pool. Despite having a good start on pellet at 5m catching a few F1s and a couple of carp, this line soon died and Dave started to fish across to the far bank picking off odd fish. Having primed an edge line all match a good last hour down the side resulted in a total of 35 fish up to 6lb for a final weight of 109lb.

Jamie Hughes started long fishing across to the willow tree and was into F1s straight away. By feeding multiple lines and fishing pellet, Jamie managed to catch fish regularly to 3lb throughout the match. This put him third overall with a weight of 107lb.

Fourth place was Steve Hughes on Match Lake 4 with 95lb 12oz. In fifth place was another previous Fish ‘O’ winner Matt Hall with 88lb from Island 9. Last in the money from Bridge Pool 37 with 82lb 12oz was Johnothan Fairhurst.

The next Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier heads to Tunnel Barn Farm, Shrewley, Warwickshire on Saturday 25th March.

RESULT
1. Stephen Openshaw 121lb
2. Dave Brown 109lb
3. Jamie Hughes 107lb
4. Steve Hughes 95lb 12oz
5. Matt Hall 88lb
6. Johnothan Fairhurst 82lb 12oz