Fish O’ Mania off to a flyer

It’s a record breaker! Just days after going on sale, every ticket for this year’s new-look Fish O’Mania qualifiers has been snapped up as Britain’s match anglers bid for the £50,000 top prize.
Organiser the Angling Trust has revealed that it received a record 7,200 applications for the 4,380 tickets available last week, dispelling initial fears that a format change for this year’s event would hit the number of applications.
Instead of a one-day match, for the first time Fish O’ will see a 32-peg semi-final at Staffordshire’s Cudmore Fisheries on Friday, July 8, followed by the final the next day which will again be fished by 16 anglers.
“We had over 1,200 individuals apply for tickets, with a total of 7,200 entries applied against tickets,” said Angling Trust competitions & events manager Sandra Drew.
“Every qualifier is full and there’s a long list of reserves, some running into the hundreds on the more popular venues.
“The change to qualification is radical, but gives more anglers the chance of winning Fish O’ as now more than one person goes through from each eliminator. The competition has been so popular that it made sense to enlarge it to offer more chances to more people.”
This year’s figures compare favourably against those of 2015, when 6,000-plus entries were received. The news comes just days after the Maver Mega Match This event reported an increase in overall sales on the same time last year, showing the healthy state of British match angling when it comes to big-money competitions.