The fishing tackle and bait which won Jamie Hughes Fish O' Mania for a third time
Jamie Hughes won the Fish O' Mania final for a record-breaking third time on July 8 2017 on Arena Lake at Cudmore Fisheries with 26kg 900g of carp and silvers.
Now we've got the lowdown from the man himself on the exact tackle, bait and rig he used for the third title. This is how you can fish like a three times Fish O' champion, in his own words...
FLOAT
"I caught most of my fish up-in-the-water with these MAP SF2 foam floats, which have a diamond body and short fat bristle. I had a lighter 4 x 10 (0.1g) and a heavier 4 x 14 (0.4g) set up. Both had a 5-6ft length of line above them to keep the pole away from the fish near the surface. I either slapped my rig in or swung the rig out to cruising fish."
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HOOKS
"Hooks were my favourite Kamasan B911 eyed in size 16. I tied a knotless knot hair-rig with a small microbait band to mount the hookbait, a 6mm pellet."
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LINE
"A great tip when pole fishing shallow is to use a much thicker mainline than your hooklength. I used 0.18mm MAP Power Optex because a thicker diameter is stiffer to avoid tangles. My hooklength however was a much lighter 0.12mm Optex to bring more bites."
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POLE ELASTIC
"Wherever I can I always like to use light hollow pole elastic and Fish O' Mania was no exception. My choice was the pink grade 6-9 MAP Twin Core Hollow Elastic. I expected to catch everything from silverfish to carp up to 5lb. A light elastic means that fish cause less disturbance in the peg when you hook them, as they don't bolt off."
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BAIT
"I catapulted casters as I initially expected to catch silverfish. But it brought a few carp into the peg instead! On the hair-rig I fished a bigger, selective bait the carp could pick out, a 6mm Bag 'Em Matchbaits Super Natural feed pellet. I put all my shot under my float so the rig could swing out easily and the bait could fall naturally."
POLE
"There's only one choice for me, the 16m MAP TKS 901 2G. It's won me a lot of money!"
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POLE ROLLER
"On venues with a raised bank behind you, such as the Arena Lake at Cudmore, you need a pole roller which you can extend to a decent height. I have a couple of MAP Dual Pole Rollers with telescopic legs which are perfect and the rollers themselves are very free moving and smooth, so I can fish at speed."
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LANDING NET HANDLE
"Pay attention to your landing net handle choice and don't compromise on one which is too short. I prefer a 4m version, a Parabolix, because it enables me to net a fish as soon as it pops up, even if this is 4m away! It definitely saves you time in competitions."
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