Record catch is no Dud for Les

Fish 'O' Mania: Third winner through

Dudley angler Les Thompson booked his first ticket to a Fish 'O' Mania final as Barford Lakes hosted the third PartyPoker.com qualifier.

Despite cold and overcast conditions, Les became the third man through to the Browing Cudmore final in July - and landed the biggest weight in the competition so far with 157lbs.

The Preston Innovations angler had only fished the venue once before but had obviously had done his homework, as he dominated the middle of Pleasure Lake, fishing the pellet waggler with 6mm pellets at 4 foot depth. The tactic paid off - Les drew peg 15, one of the favourite pegs at the fishery, and caught 21 carp, the biggest measuring 14lbs 8ozs.

But he was pushed to the finish by Colchester's Simon Colclough. Browning Wickford angler Simon fished the same technique from peg 7 and was always only a few fish behind eventual winner Les, finishing with 144lbs 3ozs.

"I went out to dominate the middle of the lake fishing the pellet waggler which worked well, but it was a nail biting finale knowing that Simon was only a few fish away," said Les.

"It's my first time in the final but I know Browning [Cudmore] quite well so would like to think that I may be in with a chance. However, it will be a strong field on the day and, of course, nobody will know exactly how it will fish, so it will be down to what happens on the day."

Third place went to local expert Jim Barrowman, who fished long pole with pellet, caster and maggots from Colton Lake, producing a final catch of 137lbs 9ozs. In fourth was last year's nearly man, Kieron Rich of Daiwa, who pulled out 121lbs from Top Lake. Fifth was Paul Gardiner of Browning Pownalls with 120lbs 2oz from Pleasure Lake.