Les Is Not More.

Black Country angler Les Thompson made a valiant attempt to lift the coveted £25,000 winner takes all televised Final of Fish-O-Mania.

Quarry Bank based Les was holding his own with the two leading anglers in the big money event up until the halfway stage when a lost large carp put paid to his chances of taking the most coveted prize in angling.

Les could only add just two kilos of fish every half an hour after that lost big fish and finished a creditable eighth.

Staffordshire’s Cudmore Fishery, proved to be the ideal new venue for anglings premier event, as a crowd of 10,000 braved the poor summer weather to watch the 16 anglers battle it out in front of the Sky TV cameras.

Another Midlands based angler, Warwick’s Mick Bull, won the £25,000 cheque for a catch of 29.64kg of mainly barbel. The Birmingham Mainline Canal at Tipton.

Mercurial match organiser, Lee Woodhouse, has just a few places left on his annual teams of three winter league, on the canals around the Black Country.

The Hankat Winter League, attracts top canal anglers from around the country to the area, with top catches from the regions industrial waterways.

Details as follows: Saturday November 22 Birmingham Mainline Canal Saturday December 20, 2008, Birmingham Mainline Canal Sunday January 4, 2009, Walsall Canal Sunday January 18, 2009, Birmingham Mainline Canal Sunday February 1, 2009,Walsall Canal Sunday February 15, 2009, Birmingham Mainline canal Only teams in league will fish.

No extra teams taken on any rounds No bait bans No pike to be weighed in.

No pike to be harmed.

£36 per team entrance fee in advance Pools £45 per team per match Points will be on a high points best system with 20 for a section win down to one point for 20th Lee Woodhouse on 07518 581441.

Fishery Round up.

Hunnington Fishery: www.hunnington-coarse-fishery.co.uk Ever reliable Hunnington Fishery has provided some cracking days fishing for pleasure and match anglers in the last few weeks.

All the pools have now warmed sufficiently and a lot of fish are being caught in the upper layers.

Pellet fished shallow is taking fish of all sizes, remember to constantly keep a stream of feed pellets going in, to keep those fish in front of you.

Family fishing days can be had on all the pools, but ring in to ask about peg availability.

Info: 07887 - 845098 Shatterford Fishery Kidderminster: www.shatterford.com Probably the best big fish day ticket water in the area at the moment, Shatterford is providing catfish to 66lbs mirror carp to 25lbs, Common and grass carp to 20lbs, along with excellent roach, bream and trout fishing.

New Owner Ivan Norman has improved the fishery beyond all expectations in such a relative short space of time and the people who are benefiting from all his hard work are us anglers!

Please ring to book in, as the venue is proving to be more popular each season, ask about general tackle requirements also for tackling these ’monster’ sized fish.

Info: 01299 861597 Solhampton Fishery Stourport: www.solhampton-fishery.com Having acquired a sponsorship deal with midlands based Tackle Company MAP, Solhampton is finally getting the recognition it deserves.

Match weights to 200lbs, and big carp to 25lbs, are proving to be excellent attractors to the regions anglers.

Pleasure angling the venues pools in the summer evenings is your best chance of one of those Solhampton specimen sized fish.

Info: 01299 828074 Patshull Park Wolverhampton: www.patshull-park.com Trout Fishing The fish are mainly moving around Lodge Bay and occasionally having a trip to the outlet.

Depth is still more important than the type of fly, with the fish taking buzzers fish static at nine feet and Bill Stevens’s big black and green lures stripped back on a fast sinking line.

Ian Lovett was fishing by the middle buoy in Lodge Bay and caught on a floating line using an olive nymph.

Chris Taylor, Bill Stevens and Charlie Brown all caught by following fish as they moved around Lodge Bay and towards the outlet.

Patshull Flyfishers Friday evening match.

Dave Bull and Rowland Dudley fished in Lodge Bay and kept moving with the fish. Bull caught on a gold head black and green Okay Dokey fished static at nine feet and was the winner 17 catches. Even after pinching the same fly out of Bull’s box and using the same method Rowland could not get a touch and finally caught using a gold head Olive Vibrator Daddy. Bob Charity caught following fish from the end of the bay towards the outlet on a floating line using an olive damsel.

Info: 01902 700774 www.terrycphotography.com