Steve Mazza secures place in Fish 'O' Mania final at last qualifier

Steve Mazza has clinched his place at the Fish 'O' Mania final after winning the final qualifier in Epworth.

The prolific Garbolino Lindholme Lakes Fishery attracted 273 anglers and they were greeted by decent weather conditions on Wednesday. That said, whilst it was a really good match, overall there were parts of most of the lakes fished where anglers struggled to put the fish together in sufficient numbers.

Declaration of the result was seriously delayed following reports about non-compliance with the "No Wading" rule at the fishery by the angler who actually recorded the best weight of the day and after great deliberation and soul-searching it was agreed that the result should not stand and so Mazza was declared the winner.

The Leeds man fished Bonsai 29, ending with an excellent 126 lbs 10 ozs landing carp to 6 lbs after feeding pellet all day. Mazza had mixed emotions about the win and although he was happy to qualify, he would have preferred to have won outright.

Runner-up, just 2 ozs behind was Chris Kendall of Ilkley. He split his day between fishing maggot shallow and the method feeder to put together his 126 lbs 8 ozs on Bonsai 14.

Third spot went to Ben Fisk, who caught 300 plus fish on Bennys 57 to weigh 112 lbs 11 ozs, while Charles Simpson took fourth spot with 99 lbs 3 ozs from Bonsai 28.

Len Pulford was fifth with 99 lbs from Willows 5 and Dean Edwards filled 6th place with 98 lbs 15 ozs from Bonsai peg 1.