NHS nurse is first woman to win national angling championship

An NHS nurse has made sporting history after becoming the first woman to win a national angling championship in the competition’s 120-year history.

Amanda Rowett claimed the 2026 Angling Trust Individual National Championship after catching 5.275kg – around 11lb 6oz – of fish during the five-hour competition.

The 51-year-old, from Portland in Dorset, beat prominent match angler Damien Green into second place by just 325g.

The championship took place on the Grand Union Canal in Northampton and included some of the country’s leading anglers, including competitors associated with the England set-up.

Rowett chose a peg opposite a moored barge and decided to use worms as bait because she believed predatory fish would be present.

Her approach paid off.

During the competition, she caught between 50 and 60 skimmer bream as well as a large perch weighing around 4lb.

Rowett said she had not expected to win given the calibre of the competition.

“I didn’t think I had a chance, to be honest,” she said.

“There were a lot of people there who are really high up in the sport, including members of the Team England squad.”

As the competition progressed, however, Rowett began to realise her total catch could put her in contention after hearing other anglers say they had struggled.

She said she was “thrilled” to have won and proud to become the first woman to claim the title.

The achievement is particularly remarkable given Rowett only recently returned to the sport.

She started fishing when she was 16 but took a 20-year break while raising her children. With her children now grown up, she returned to angling around 18 months ago.

Rowett also works as a nurse for the NHS.

Steve Fitzpatrick, of the Angling Trust, said her victory placed her alongside an “illustrious list” of anglers to have won the prestigious trophy.

He said he believed Rowett would not be the last woman to take the title, pointing to the growing number of female anglers competing successfully at national and international level.

Female anglers have already enjoyed significant success this year, including winning team and individual gold medals in carp fishing competitions in the UK and overseas.

For Rowett, however, the victory marks an extraordinary return to a sport she had left behind for two decades – and a place in British angling history.

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