Jamie Hughes wins Fish 'O' Mania

Jamie Hughes became only the second angler in the 22-year history of Fish ’O’ Mania to win the title twice as he led from the early stages to win coarse angling’s most prestigious prize at Cudmore Fisheries.

He now stands with Matt Hall in British fishing’s most exclusive club having taken this title for the first time in 2013.  The 32-year-old from Merseyside claimed the £30,000 top prize as well as the trophy.

Hughes winning weight was 16.600kg, which put him 4.050 ahead of his nearest rival, Connor Barlow.

Hughes, fishing off favoured peg 4, found his feet early and caught consistently. By the half-way stage he had built a clear lead and as he caught F1s, two tench and plenty of small carp and skimmers.

"It is an unbelievable feeling! I always said I would love to win it twice but I didn’t think it would happen," said Hughes.

"The match went a lot different than we planned. We all thought we would be catching a lot more fish. Perhaps the disturbance around the lake scared some of the little fish and it has fished completely differently."

With the weights generally low, there was always a chance Hughes could be caught if he slowed up and one of the chasing pack made a move. However, he never lost his grasp as he roared to victory.

Hughes added: "You had to be really busy rotating your lines and catching fish. It made it a good match but it was nerve-wracking at the end with it being so close.

"My bank runner was keeping a track of what was going on all of the time. There are fish big enough in this lake that Connor could have caught that up within two fish, so up until the last 15 minutes there was always a chance he could have caught me.

Second-placed Barlow from Manchester took the £5,000 prize while Wayne Taylor bagged the trophy and £1,000 for the biggest fish – a 2.100kg carp.

Samantha Sim, from West Sussex, became the first woman to collect four Fish ’O’ Mania Ladies’ titles as she came on in the last hour to take the title ahead of Elizabeth Crewe.

Sim’s winning weight was 6.630kg, 1.470 ahead of her nearest rival and she netted the top prize of £1,000. The win gave Sim her record-breaking fourth title, ahead of Emma Pickering and Sandra Scotthorne who have both won three.

"I had a complete change of tactic in the last hour and ended up fishing with ground bait, soil and worm," said Sim.

"Earlier than that I was fishing a method feed tight to the island. I fished the pole lines with worm and caster. We started off on the pole but the fish moved off as the time went on, so they went to the island."

2015 Fish ’O’ Mania XXII – Full Results

Final Result

1. Jamie Hughes (4) 16.600kg

2. Connor Barlow (2) 12.550kg

3. Wayne Taylor (10) 10.525kg

4. Kerry Kirkwood (11) 10.075kg

5. Josh Pace (6) 9.875kg

6. Eddie Green (12) 9.250kg

7. Matt Hall (9) 8.625kg

8. Steve Freeman (8) 8.500kg

9. Simon Colclough (3) 8.100kg

10. John Harvey (16) 8.050kg

11. Dale Shepherd (15) 7.475kg

12. Roland Lucas (7) 6.425kg

13. Frank Donachie (5) 5.550kg

14. Dave Roberts (1) 4.625kg

15. Perry Stone (14) 2.575kg

16. Steve Mazza (13) 2.200kg

Ladies

1. Samantha Sim (Peg 4) 6.630kg

2. Elizabeth Crewe (3) 5.160kg

2. Abbi Kendall (6) 4.010kg

4. Kayleigh Smith (5) 3.590kg

5. Gemma Matthews (1) 1.360kg

6. Linda Cooke (2) 0.825kg