WITH Fish ‘O’ Mania celebrating its tenth anniversary this summer, promoters Matchroom Sport can announce that 8 of the 14 qualifying heats have SOLD OUT!
Despite having been on sale for a little over a month, the following 100 peg matches are now fully booked up:

Drayton Reservoir, Northants
Hallcroft Fisheries, Retford
Tunnel Barn Farm, West Mids
Carr Mill Dam, St Helen
Moorlands Farm, Nr Kidderminster
Gold Valley Lakes, Aldershot
Attenborough Gravel Pits, Notts
Stainforth & Keadby Canal, Thorne

That means that only the following venues have pegs available and with some of those selling fast, anglers would be well advised to book now to give themselves a chance of landing the £25,000 top prize on August 2nd:

Sat 19th April   Barford Lakes , Norwich           100 pegs
Sat 26th April   Mid Kent Fisheries, Chilham, Kent         100 pegs
Sat 14th June     White Acres, Newquay, Cornwall          100 pegs
Sat 22nd June    Grand Union Canal, Leighton Buzzard, Beds  200 pegs
Sun 29th  June    River Tees, Yarm, Stockton                100 pegs
Sun 13th  July     River Soar, Kegborough, Leics              200 pegs

Commented Matchroom Sport’s Barry Hearn, who devised the tournament back in 1993: “This is a glowing testimony to the enduring appeal of Fish ‘O’ Mania. In its ten-year history, I don’t think we have had so many sell-out so quickly.
“Every competitive angler in Britain knows about this event so hopefully we will sell out all 1600 pegs by July. That will be a first for Fish ‘O’ Mania but I’ve a feeling that after a decade, 2003 will see a very special event indeed.”
To grab a ticket anglers need to write to the National Federation of Anglers at Halliday House, Egginton Junction, Derbyshire, DE65 6GU or call on 01283
734 735.
Also in the planning stages is the idea of staging a unique Fish ‘O’ Mania Champion of Champions fish off on the afternoon/evening of Friday 1st August. The match will feature all nine previous winners in a short format event filmed by the Sky Sports cameras.

* Keith Arthur has started a thread on the poor response to the river qualifiers on the Coarse Forum.