GREATEST MATCHES Hughes at Fish O’Mania
Jamie Hughes has won the event three times, and appeared in every final for the past 11 years
DOMINANCE in match angling is a rarity, given that fishing is not an exact science.
So many variables can work against the individual or team, ranging from the weather, to the behaviour of the fish, the peg they have drawn, making mistakes, or sometimes just plain bad luck.
That’s why the feats of the likes of Alan Scotthorne winning the World Champs five times are truly remarkable. But on the home front there’s one man who can lay equal claim to such brilliance – Jamie Hughes.
In 2019 the Wirral star bagged the £60,000 Maver Mega Match This and £50,000 Golden Reel titles in the space of a fortnight, but before that he made his name by winning the coveted Fish O’Mania title three times!
Only Matt Hall has come close to matching that with two wins in this prestigious winner-takes-all match fished in front of the Sky TV cameras. To make his feat all the more remarkable, Jamie notched up the hattrick in just five years. Add to that countless other appearances in the final and it’s true to say that if ever an angler had an affinity with an event, it would have to be Jamie Hughes and Fish O’Mania.
It was on a balmy, still July day that Jamie made it three wins on the Arena Pool of Cudmore Fisheries near Stoke-on-Trent. Fishing in front of the massed ranks of vocal spectators, he had not only the fish and crowd to deal with but the opposition too. That included World Champion William Raison, Match This winner Andy Power and former Fish O’ title-holder Steve Cooke.
The draw
“This final was the first time that the field was increased from 16 to 25 anglers, so there was little room between pegs. That would only make the fishing harder and I knew that pegs 13 to 25 would be ones to avoid, because they didn’t seem to hold many carp. I was praying for pegs 5 to 12, so drawing peg 7 couldn’t have been better,” says Jamie.
“Even after fishing nine finals, I struggle to sleep the night before! The draw takes place on Friday evening and you then have all night to mull over how you’re going to fish the peg.
“I would much prefer to draw in the morning and get on with it. I struggled to get my head down and was running through too many thoughts about my peg.
“I’m not a great fan of practice for big finals and I only went to Cudmore twice ahead of this one. Lots of carp had been stocked just before the final and they were
good-sized fish too that were cruising around on the top.
“The pre-match talk was of silvers playing a part and catching 30lb of them being the target, but I felt it would be a carp job, especially after drawing in the right areas. The plan was to fish shallow, trying to mug fish that I could see on the surface.
“It’s tempting to look around and pick out who is a threat, but reputations mean nothing in these finals, as I’ve found out to my cost! Everyone is capable of winning.”
Early stages
“The first 30 minutes of the match went to plan with two carp mugged on pellet fished shallow. After that, the wheels fell off a bit. After two hours I was around sixth or seventh, but I couldn’t put any run of fish together and the hot, still, muggy weather wasn’t helping. Something needed to change, and I was hoping that the shallow pellet approach would get stronger as the match went on.
“What breeze there was ended up blowing around the island and channelling to meet in front of me. With it came a build-up of scum and rubbish, which the carp were milling about in. There were a lot of them there and by slapping the rig in hard, I could catch quite quickly once I picked a carp out and targeted it.
“Quite quickly I went into the lead, and I could still catch carp in bursts of two or three from around the scum. Once I got in front, I relaxed a little more.
“As long as I have an idea of how others are doing and what threat they are to me, I can then manage my match accordingly.
“My only bit of panic was when Andy Power put 9kg on the scales at one weigh in to close the gap on me. I felt another half-hour like that, and I’d be in trouble!
Three in a row!
“I could keep an eye on Andy because he was on peg 2, and in the final 30 minutes I knew he hadn’t caught me up and I was going to win again. It’s ridiculous when you think about it and consider how many things need to go right for you.
“It begins at the draw but it’s only a good peg if the fish are in front of you. In this final I’d seen William Raison, the best match angler in the world, catch next to nothing from one of the hard pegs I’d been on the year before.”
RESULT: 1 J Hughes, MAP/Bag ‘Em Baits, 26-900;
2 A Power, Preston Innovations, 21-875; 3 R Harold, Matrix, 21-250; 4 S Jackson, Garbolino/Bait-Tech, 20-050;
5 S Cooke, Garbolino, 13-825; 6 C Weeder Jnr, Maver NW, 13-760; 7 B Giles, Milo, 13-100; 8 T Curd, MAP/Bait-Tech, 12-350; 9 J Redgrave, Maver Gold Dynamite Baits, 12-125; 10 A Richards, Browning, 12-025; 11 L Bennett, Maver NW, 11-725; 12 M Billen, Germany, 11-575; 13 S Openshaw, Mosella, 10-650; 14 B Sharp, Maver, 7-725; 15 J Collins, MAP, 7-000; 16 S Hamilton, St Helens Angling, 6-525;
17 S Barraclough, Browning, 5-025; 18 P Blinkhorn, Culcheth, 5-010; 19 D Roberts, Tri-Cast/Bait-Tech, 4-700; 20 C Scott, Garbolino/Spotted Fin, 4-550;
21 R Chapman, MAP, 4-300; 22 W Raison, Daiwa, 4-125; 23 L Kerry, Preston Innovations, 1-825; 24 K Pentland, Colmic Woodlands, 1-525; 25 A Adams, Oakham, 0-925.