A Wright Result

 Match angling unknown Clive Wright (Willis Worms) beat three former champions and two England internationals to win Fish O’Mania XIV and the £25,000 bounty.The 51year old plumbing contracts manager from near Wolverhampton, claimed the richest and most coveted title in match fishing in the first year he has been able to get a ticket.He was allocated just one precious entry to a single qualifier, but he won that and then the final, adding a £2,500 bonus for the biggest fish.Clive drew the same peg that Neil Machin had when he won last year, and he adopted the same tactic of fishing close to the bank to his left where a narrow inlet pipe juts out.But unlike Neil he found it took two hours for the fish to settle over his feed before he bagged a series of big fish to almost 15lb. This took him from ninth place after two hours to a commanding lead one hour later  and then to victory by a wide margin.His total of 51kg 920 gr was well ahead of second placed match favourite Will Raison, pegged just two to his right, who gave him a run for his money, finishing with 37,240.Early in the match it was peg 5, the other fancied corner peg, where Marc Jones won in 2005, that was producing all the action.Neil McKinnon blazed ahead from there with 12 kilos in the first hour and was still leading an hour later. But the wind that had been been blowing into that corner all week dropped, leaving the surface calm apart from the ripples from the aerator.Neil ended with 19,470, which gave him fifth place, after small fish were all he could muster in the later stages of the contest.A similar fate befell former winner Steve Jackson, on corner peg 1, who caught as many silver fish and tench as carp on pole and finished fourth with 24,100.Third place went to Steve Denmead, drawn next to Steve Jackson at peg 2, who fished the pole and pellet waggler for 25,690. 

Clive Wright landing another fine fish at Fish 'O' Mania 2007

How he really did it 

Clive Wright started on straight bomb and the fishery’s 8mm pellet out in front of him, which produced his first fish. But then he foul hooked and lost three fish feeding expander pellets shallow on pole fishing straight out in front.After an hour he tried down the edge to his left to the inlet pipe using 13.5m of pole with worm and caster and had a carp, but when he went back there again he caught just a small perch.He re-fed the spot and went back to fishing shallow straight out in front with 6mm pellet to rest the margin swim and tried again close in after another hour.This time the fish were there in good numbers and his next one was the best of the match, a common of 14lb on worm and caster.After that he caught steadily, and the only change of tactics came wheen he foul hooked and lost a few fish as they started to come up in the water.But by increasing the amount of corn and hemp he fed, he was able to get the fish back down on the deck.The Willis worm sponsored angler got through two kilos of dendrobenas, six pints of casters, a pint of hemp and six tins of corn, using a big cup to pot in and a smaleer one attached to his top two.“I watched the video of Neil Machin winning last year and he was saying he felt he needed a lot of bait, so I put a put a proper cup on instead of pussy footing around”, said Clive who fished two inches overdepth just dragging slightly up the shelf.“The very first fish ripped off  but , when I went back in the corner later, the bites were real finicky ones, just little dinks, and I’d lift and the fish would be on.”“In total I foul hooked about eight fish down the edge and lost one at the net that was hooked in the tail and three fishing shallow.”“There were a lot of fish shallow but they were hard to catch, and it was like that all week in practice, when feeder was the best method.“I’ve been here since Sunday and the weather has been poor. I wasn’t confident of catching on worm and caster shallow, which is why I went for pellet.” 

Clive Wright celebrating his win at Fish 'O' Mania 2007

Sweet 16

“Everybody wanted pegs 16 or 1,” said Clive, who admitted there was an audible gasp around the room when he pulled out 16.“ I was the sixth to draw, and when I saw 16 I thought: “That’ll do for me.”“My youngest daughter’s birthday is the 16^th, my mum and dad’s wedding anniversary is the 16^th, my brother’s wedding anniversary is the 16^th and Alan’s wife’s lucky number is 16!”

Clive's helper on the day was Alan McGuire from Gateshead, who he got to know at Ian Heaps' fishery, Holgan Farm, in west Wales, where they are both regular visitors.Alan was with Clive all week practising and helped settle his nerves on the day. "His help has been invaluable. He's kept me calm today and talked to me", said Clive. 

Clive's proud family and fans

Reigning Mania champ helped

Clive Wright won his qualifier at Browning Cudmore Fishery with a little help from last year’s Fish O’Mania winner Neil Machin.“Alan knows Neil and he rang him to ask if it was okay for me to have a chat, and Neil gave me a bit of info on the peg, and I won,” he said.“And now I’ve come here and won on the peg that he won on last year, and he was here to see it.” 

Share the wealth

Two girls in Wolverhampton are considerably richer after watching their dad win Fish O’Mania XIV.Clive agreed to give his teenage daughters ten per cent of his winnings each if he won, and they were there to see him do it. Some of the rest of his £27,500 will go towards moving house when he can sell his own, though he will be staying in the Wolverhampton area. And some was going towards a celebration straight after the match for family and friends.“We’re going out tonight to celebrate,” said Clive. The lads from work have come along and we’ve booked into a hotel, so we’ll be having a few drinks.“My usual tipple is gin or whisky, but I think we might also have some champagne.”

Fish 'O' Mania 2007 winner