On Wednesday  January 27th the four winners of Angling Direct’s King of the Catch competition were awarded their crowns.

The ceremony took place at Angling Direct’s head office and whilst the winners were there they were also given an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the venue by members of the management team to see what life is like at the UK’s leading tackle retailer.

All four winners have stated how much they enjoyed the experience:

Charlie Coppolo, Carp category winner: ‘Catching the fish in the first place was such an honour and being crowned King of the Catch has only made that more special to me’. He received 858 votes after catching a 30lb 8oz mirror carp.

Reece Grey, 13 yr old Coarse and Match category winner: ‘I can’t stop smiling. It’s my personal best and I’m so happy to have been crowned King of the Catch with it!’ He received 707 votes for a 13lb carp.

Albert Lennox, Sea category winner: ‘Catching this tope and winning King of the Catch is the pinnacle of my fishing career. I’m absolutely over the moon!’ He received 1044 votes for his 45lb tope.

Barry Fisher, Predator category winner: ‘Blown away, I’m going to run around the village screaming now. Thank you so much!’ He received 714 votes and caught a 5lb 11oz eel.

In total, over 16,000 votes were cast for over 850 entrants. This made the King of the Catch the biggest fishing competition of its kind, with no entry fees and over £20,000 worth of prizes on offer. King of the Catch was voted for entirely by the public.

The prizes: first place in each category won a fishing holiday for two in exclusive locations around the globe, as well as a fishing pack including a Daiwa rod (tailored to their category), a GoPro, and Angling Direct memorabilia (hat, mug, pen, hoody). Second place were also rewarded for their efforts with a £1000 gift card to spend at Angling Direct. The competition also included tackle prizes from 29 sponsors (see list below).

The competition ran between June 16th and  September 16th 2015, with the winners drawn on September 30th. It was the inaugural year of the annual competition and this year’s competition is set to be announced shortly. Once again, it is expected to run from mid-June to mid-September, with the winner voted for towards the end of September.

List of sponsors:

Abu Garcia

Advanta

Aqua

Avid Carp

Carp Porter

Carp Spirit

Chub

Cygnet

Daiwa

Dynamite

Greys

Go Pro

Guru

Hardy

JRC

Korda

Korum

Leeda

Map

Nash

Penn

Preston

Rapala

Shakespeare

Shimano

Sonubaits

Taska

Trakker

Wychwood