PETE BLACK, 21, became the youngest ever winner of the Fish’O’Mania title as celebrated the event’s return to Hayfield Lakes with a commanding performance, winning with a total of 51.35kg, over 12 kilos ahead of his nearest rival.
Hailing from King’s Norton, Black works at Foster’s, a Birmingham tackle shop and he will be sure to receive a hero’s welcome when he returns to work on Monday. Fourth after the first weigh in, Black stormed into the lead in the second 30 mins with a big bag and it was a position he maintained throughout the match. He was challenged at times but kept the fish flowing sufficiently to land the £50,000 prize.
He said, “You have to be confident when you’re fishing for a mega amount of money, you can’t sit down on your peg and think, oh I’ve drawn next to so and so and they will beat me.
“It is a dream to win Fish‘O’Mania. I have been putting in a lot of hard work in the last few weeks and it has paid off. Mid-match I lost my way a bit – I went on the waggler and only really caught a few.
“I said to Adam (his bank runner), if I’m going to win this I am going to carry on catch on the pole and I stayed on that then for the rest of the match.
“You have to keep your head, 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.”
In front of a huge crowd, estimated to be around 6,000, second place and a cheque for £10,000 went to Andy Power, repeating his feat of 2017.
COMPETITORS | PEG | TOTAL kg |
Peter Black | 7 | 51.350 |
Andy Power | 22 | 39.225 |
Steve Ford | 6 | 36.925 |
Scott Gollings | 10 | 31.150 |
Steve Openshaw | 5 | 28.750 |
Dave Shires | 24 | 24.100 |
Jason Brown | 19 | 20.675 |
Oliver Scotthorne | 8 | 17.725 |
Ryan Lidgard | 23 | 16.825 |
Richie Hull | 9 | 15.225 |
Jamie Hughes | 21 | 14.400 |
Adam Major | 14 | 13.925 |
Kristof de Busser | 15 | 13.875 |
Shaun Cooke | 4 | 13.300 |
Adam Richards | 18 | 12.200 |
Markus Billen | 2 | 10.800 |
Russell Berryman | 17 | 10.400 |
Dave Romain | 1 | 8.400 |
Andrew Dargue | 11 | 8.050 |
Andrew Bailey | 3 | 7.650 |
Dale Whelan | 20 | 6.425 |
Nathan Watson | 12 | 5.850 |
Dan Squire | 16 | 2.975 |
Franek Staniuszko | 13 | 1.025 |