Broken pole not enough to stop £1000 match win

Bait-Tech’s Gareth Lennox ended his weekend £1,000 better off after winning the Fish O’Maniac Final at Devon’s Stafford Moor complex.

He saw off the 17 other finalists on Tanner’s Lake with 173-2-0 of carp, the win coming despite Gareth snapping his pole.

After a qualifying match the day before, the 18 finalists lined up and Gareth got peg 20 from the bag.

Starting on pellet short he caught only a few skimmers. That meant a change to fishing at 16m down the margins to pick off a few carp – then he broke his pole!

With no spare section, he picked up the bomb rod and cast down the edge with worm on the hook over loosefed pellets.

It worked like a dream as the peg got stronger the longer the match went on to see him home. The win follows Gareth qualifying for the Golden Reel Final – quite a productive spell!

A broken pole didn’t stop Gareth from securing the win at Stafford Moor

Second on peg 16 was England ace Des Shipp, who went for a pellet attack at 6m and in the margins to land carp for 157-1-0.

Result:

1 G Lennox, Bait-Tech, 173-2-0; 2 D Shipp, Preston Innovations, 157-1-0; 3 L Werrett, Middy/Bait-Tech, 155-12-0; 4 A Lee, Banstead, 153-2-0; 5 A Allen, Stafford Moor, 133-13-0; 6 M Heard, Stafford Moor, 126-11-0.