Rob Hughes is one of the leading anglers in the UK and you can pit your wits against him in single player events in The Catch: Carp & Coarse. Having represented England at world championships and hosted his own angling TV series, we wanted to find out how Rob got in to fishing.

It would be the late 80s when I properly became a carp angler. I’d chased them before that with varying degree of success but the bivvy and bed chair arrived around 1988.

Standing in the water in my wellies at Middleton Pool near Oswestry in Shropshire trying to catch gudgeon...and not let the water go over the top of said wellies.

I’m primarily a carp angler but my TV series takes me to all sorts of places to fish for all sorts of things. I love small rivers and also light lure fishing for perch and LRF fishing in the sea.

It’s so wide and varied, both in what you can do and what you get from it. I love competing internationally for my country, it’s a real buzz, but equally I love the solitude and adventure of wild waters...Man v fish.

Catching the most sought after carp in the world at the time, a fish called Bernadette at 63lbs (29kg), from the Mecca of carp fishing, Lac de St Cassien in France is my most memorable individual capture, but becoming World Champion takes a lot of beating, then being appointed England Manager and steering the national team to it’s first Team World Championships title will be my angling highlight.

At what point did you realise you could make angling your career?

After Simon Crow and I won the World Cup in 1996 the offers started to come in to make a career of the sport, and in 1999 I took the plunge having finished my legal studies and qualified as a lawyer.

What’s your number 1 tip you give to new anglers?

Think! About what you do, why you do and how you do it. Don’t overcomplicate things, but do think. Automatic fishing doesn’t get automatic results.

What gaming experience do you have?

In my teens I used to love it and then life, career and family took over. My son is really into it and I have a dabble now and again. I’m looking forward to playing the son though.