The fishing tactics which won the £70,000 Maver Match This final
Matchman Rob Wootton has scooped £70,000 thanks to a last-gasp carp he landed in the Maver Match This Final at Yorkshire’s Hayfield Lakes.
The Leicester angler claimed competition fishing’s biggest prize in the most dramatic fashion, netting the valuable fish seconds after the final whistle, after crucially hooking into it just before the all-out.
The fish helped him to a total weight of 42.175 kilos, just two kilos ahead of runner-up Chris Cameron.
But for Dynamite Baits man Rob, there were no fancy rigs and secret baits involved. Instead he relied on simple bomb and pellet tactics for his bumper payday, after catching a few early carp on the pole and later on a Method feeder.
“I wanted to select the carp and avoid the skimmers and small fish in the venue, so large hard pellets were the automatic choice for me,” he said. “I started the match on the 6m pole line, and although I caught a couple of decent fish early using an 8mm pellet on a band and feeding 6mms, the fish soon backed off.”
With anglers nearby fishing the long pole and struggling, Rob decided to go straight out to a line at about 25m where he’d been loosefeeding 8mm pellets.
It was here that he caught most of his fish, with a few also falling to a Method feeder fished to the island 65m away. He said:
“Feeding is really important on the bomb and it seemed the best tactic on the day was to cast out and immediately catapult about eight 8mm pellets over the top of the rig, three times in succession. This kept the fish on the bottom.”
Here exclusively are the three rigs that won Rob Wootton that £70,000 prize pot...
THE RIG
HOOK
Not risking hook pulls in such a big match, Rob’s was a size 12 QM1. The pellet on the band was almost touching the bend of the hook.
HOOKBAIT
This was an 8mm light-coloured Skrettings pellet.
HOOKLENGTH
A 12ins hooklength of 0.18mm Guru N-Gauge was Rob’s choice. It’s long enough to keep the bait away from the lead and short enough to give a bolt effect.
BOMB
A 20g Guru Cube was perfect for a short 25m chuck. A lighter lead may have struggled to achieve a bolt effect in the deep, towing water of Hayfield.
QUICK CHANGE BEAD
The simplest and easiest way to connect both lines. The 6lb mainline is tied to the back of the Stonfo part of the bead, with the hooklink clipping into the front.
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."
BUY NOW for £2.99 on Amazon
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."
BUY NOW from £5.99 for multipacks on Amazon
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."
BUY NOW for £4.99 from Chapmans Angling
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."
BUY NOW for £10.50 from Chapmans Angling
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!"
BUY NOW for £2999 from Chapmans Angling
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."
BUY NOW for £74.99 at Chapmans Angling
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."
BUY NOW for £119.99 from Chapmans Angling