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ack when I was a young, fresh faced 20-year-old way back in the early 1990s, my heroes were those anglers who were in the England team and those on the verge of getting in. Kevin Ashurst, Steve Gardener, Tom Pickering, Denis White and Bob Nudd were mainstays in the England team back then, and there was one angler who was tipped by many as the heir apparent to Kevin, who was at that point close to retiring, and his name was Alan Scotthorne.

I remember when I won the title on the River Erne in 1992, Alan was part of the England setup but at that point only as a bank runner. Winning big competitions like the European Supercup at Holme Pierrepont, which was a proper international event where the calibre of angler was even higher than you get in a World Championship, got him into the team the following year in Portugal and since then he’s been the first name on the list of the England management when picking a team.

In 1994 at Holme Pierrepont, Alan cemented his place in the team because he formulated a plan – fishing the waggler and clipping up for accuracy and then catapulting balls of joker in grey leam over the top – that won gold for England on home soil. Back then nobody clipped up, not even for feeder fishing, and it was Alan’s technical fishing brain that began the trend. Then, starting in 1996 in Hungary, he went on to win three

B

individual world titles in a row and he added two more in 2003 in Slovakia and 2007, once again in Hungary where he won his first title. And he’s still going strong and who’s to say he won’t add another individual world championship victory to the five he’s already got in his locker?

So, it was with great pleasure that I recently spent the day with the great man at Hayfield Lakes. You can read all about it on page 8 but needless to say, Alan’s technical way of thinking and years of experience comes across and hopefully after reading the feature, you will be armed with all the info you need to give the tactics he’s explaining a good go for yourself.

Of course, there are more great features with other top anglers inside and this month we welcome Kristian Jones and Tom Scholey to the team as our tackle testers.

Dan Webb has now ventured across to do a similar role for Angling Times and we wish him well in his new position. To kick things off this month, Kristian is testing the new Daiwa Air Z Pro pole from Daiwa, so if that’s of interest to you, turn straight to page 80.

Hope you enjoy the issue and hope you all keep enjoying your fishing and catching plenty.

justin.fox@dhpub.co.uk Tel 07813 327966

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| 05

Contents

j u n e 8 Success On The Slope

COVER STORY

We join five-time World Champion Alan Scotthorne at Hayfield Lakes where he’s keen to us how to fish an area of the swim that’s often overlooked in matches.

16 Get On The Waggler For Canal Chub Amer Jawad leaves his pole in the bag as he targets a gin clear Grand Union Canal for chub on rod and line.

c o n t e n t s

22 Andy Power’s Diary

COVER STORY

Normal service is resumed and Andy reports back on how he qualified for more big-money finals.

26 Bonus Fish The Norm Canals are full of quality fish these days and Darren Cox shows you the tactics required to get the most out of them.

92 Features Exposed Fishing to features like islands and other snags is

06 | Match Fishing

just like margin fishing and here Jon Whincup explains why.

98 Dynamite Bait Clinic All your bait-related questions are answered by Dynamite Bait’s panel of match fishing experts.

100 Garbolino Club Angler Of The Year 2021 This year’s action kicks off with the Southern qualifier, fished at big-weight venue Todber Manor.

102 Matt’s Month Plenty for Ginger Ninja Matt Godfrey to report on this month as he gets back into the swing of fishing matches.

108 A Mug’s Game?

COVER STORY

Joe Carass provides some top tips to help you out on days when you can only catch carp by mugging them.

112 Makin’s Memories More witty tales and banter from top angler from yesteryear Billy Makin.

TO SUBSCRIB E 36

TO

TURN TO PAGE 106 WH ER HAVE A BRAN E WE D-N BAIT OFFER F EW ROM DAIWA!

36 Pay The Ferry Man! We join Geoff Ringer for a feeder session at Ferry Meadows, where he talks about the changing face of bream fishing.

42

42 The ‘Catch-All’ Method Mind-Set Will Raison reveals his tactics to catch quality fish on big commercial venues in the changeover period leading into the summer months.

48 48 The Big Two Two of the most important aspects of feeder fishing on commercials are casting accurately and to the right depth, as Mark Pollard explains.

54 Feeder Essentials We check out the new Banjo XR Feeders from Preston Innovations.

54

82 New Gear

POLE FISHING 58 Fine Margins

COVER STORY

A selection of the latest tackle and bait to be released that you can now go and check out in your local tackle shop.

84 Up Close Special: Pellet Waggler Gear

58

When it comes to formulating a plan to catch carp down the edge, there a few better at it than Nick Speed. Here are some of his thoughts and secrets for targeting wary carp in the margins.

66 Fish And Whips

66

74 Venue Detective Andy May visits another top fishery that’s well worth giving a go, Aston Park Fisheries near Sheffield.

It’s that pellet waggler time of year again so we shine a light on some great rod and reel combos that are perfect for the job.

90 Pellet Waggler Competition

COVER STORY

There are plenty of edges you can use to help you win matches where small fish dominate, and here Des Shipp shows you the tricks of the trade to boost your catches.

80 Up Close – Daiwa Our new tackle reviewer Kristian Jones tests the new wallet busting Air Z Pro 16m pole from Daiwa.

74

Here’s a chance to win some of the gear you can see in our pellet waggler feature. We’ve got four prizes to give away that are worth over £750!

APR IL ISSU E Daiwa Tournament Reel Matthew Smith Billy Makin Books Barry Chapman, Martin Keen, Terry Reynolds, Warren Angell, Graham Palmer, Anthony Brown, Leslie Smedley, Anthony Rush, Joe Worrall, Paul Carlin www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 07

World Champion Tactics

Success On The Slope

ALAN SCO TTHO Age: 5 RNE Lives: Rothe8 Sponsor: D rham rennan MF sa One of the ys: all-time greats

HAYFIELD LAKES Hayfield Lane,Auckley, Doncaster,DN9 3NP www.hayfieldlakesfishery.co.uk

We join five time World Champion Alan Scotthorne at Hayfield Lakes, where he’s keen to show us how to fish an area of the swim that’s often overlooked in matches.

Alan’s feed is 4mm and 6mm pellets

Alan’s choice of sweetcorn.

08 | Match Fishing

he nearside shelf is a big feature on commercial fisheries and most anglers will either plumb up to find the bottom of this slope and fish there, or they will fish on top of the slope, which generally will be a margin line. What I’ve been doing a lot recently with quite a bit of success, is fish between these two, on the slope, and this is an area of the swim that gets ignored by most anglers. When plumbing up most will try to find a flat area to fish on and that’s why this slope is ignored, but recently I’ve been fishing on it and caught plenty of fish.

Today I’m fishing on Adam’s Lake here at Hayfield, which is quite deep, and to show you the tactics that have been working for me I’m going to fish what I call an outside line and an inside line. The outside line is straight out in front of me with five sections of pole but it’s still on the slope, while my inside line is round to my right at an angle so it’s a lot shallower because it’s further up the slope coming back towards me. On those days when the fish want to feed in the shallower water on these deep lakes, fishing in four or five feet of water can

T

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 09

World Champion Tactics

AS1 floats for the outside line.

First carp of the day.

Lighter AS3 floats for the inside line. be brilliant because that’s where the fish want to be.

In the warmer months when we get high air pressure, the fish want to be shallow and in the

the slope. I’ve seen on venues where the bottom is silty, you can often end up getting bubbles caused by fish feeding in the silt and on a sloping bottom these

we all know how far bait can spread when a doublefigure carp wafts its tail), but when the bait moves on a slope it will go further down. With that in mind,

“With five sections of pole I can control everything easily and the choice of where to fish is usually dictated by the direction of the wind. Today the wind has been blowing straight at me and when it’s like this you can fish either side.” margins, but on days like today when the air pressure is low, they want be in slightly deeper water and that’s where this area comes into play.

Golden Rule The golden rule to remember when fishing on a sloping bottom, is that bait will work its way out into the deeper water because it will trickle down

10 | Match Fishing

bubbles will often appear past your float. So, your bait works its way out and on bottoms where there’s no silt this is more of a factor, but you can’t see this because you don’t see any bubbles because of the hard bottom.

The movement of bait could be caused by water movement, or it could be caused by fish moving around in the swim (and

the golden rule is to always feed short of the float and let the bait trickle out to where you’re fishing.

Feeding short also reduces line bites, which in turn will reduce the amount of fish you foul hook.

The Outside Line On my outside line I’ll be looking to feed a pot of 4mm pellets, around 30 or 40, half a metre short of my

float and then I’ll be looking to feed pellets by hand regularly, again making sure they land half a metre short of the float. If the wind is tricky, as it has been today at times, I’ll use a small pot to introduce feed regularly.

What I’m looking to do is keep it ticking over with steady feeding of six to 10 6mm pellets every couple of minutes and then I’ll be looking to feed again with the big pot after every fish, depending on how they respond.

If I catch a carp I’ll definitely feed with a big pot of 4mm pellets straight after because they can eat a lot of bait when they rock up in the swim. I’m feeding 4mms in the pot because I’m looking to catch everything including skimmers and carassios, not just carp, and I’m feeding by hand with 6mm pellets because of the

Dropping feed in from a height is great for attracting fish.

Alan lays the rig in so it comes back to rest on the slope.

Plenty of action for Alan.

wind blowing into my face, as they are easier to throw accurately than smaller, lighter 4mm pellets.

Plumbing up is also very important and I’m looking for dead depth directly below my pole tip on my outside line. Here at Hayfield, I’ll be fishing with a banded 8mm pellet on the hook and as long as I use a float with a relatively fine bristle, I can easily tell if my bait is just off, bang on dead depth or overdepth because of how the bristle sits.

I look to fish dead depth because I miss very few bites. For me, it’s a simple line to fish and the hook is

a size 18 Carp Hair Rigger which is slightly wider hook than a Kamasan B911 that I used to use, and a bit stronger because of the slightly thicker wire. The rig itself is very simple with a either a 0.5g or 0.6g AS1 float with just a bulk with a couple of droppers on 0.18mm Drennan Supplex main line and either 0.16mm X Tough hooklength or 0.17mm Supplex Fluorocarbon if I’m expecting some big fish.

The Inside Line The outside line is very simple, but once I come round to the inside line in

the shallow water, which is the main line where I’m looking to catch the bulk of my fish, I’m going to be fishing five sections of pole.

You don’t want to be too far away from yourself on this line, you need to be at a distance where you can be in complete control of fishing on that ledge. If you try and fish too far away from yourself it can become a lot more difficult and there’s no real advantage in fishing further out anyway.

With five sections of pole I can control everything easily and the choice of where to fish is usually dictated by the direction of

the wind. Today the wind has been blowing straight at me and when it’s like this you can fish either side of you. For me, I’m more comfortable fishing to my right so that’s what I’ve chosen to do, but if the wind was blowing more from right to left, I’d fish to my left so I can easily fish with my pole tip on the inside of my float.

On this lake, the bottom is sloping all the way out to 11 metres so it’s a big slope. Most anglers tend to fish five or six pole sections straight out in front, but the line round to the side is in much shallower water

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 11

World Champion Tactics

and on a steep incline. The fish are just as happy to feed here though, and I’ve proved today that as long as I feed up the slope by half a metre, and in this case it means feeding half a metre to the right of the float rather than short of it, my bait can trickle down to where my float is.

On my inside line I’ve

plumbed up so my float is a float length overdepth.

When you fish with corn and pellets most anglers will tell you the best way to present the bait is at dead depth, but when fishing on a slope and round to the side like I’m doing on my inside line, I can lay the rig in to my left into open water and then let it settle

Sweetcorn and 4mm pellets are fed on the inside line.

12 | Match Fishing

on the slope. I’m using a light 0.3g strung out rig here (the float is a Drennan AS3) and as long as the bottom is free of debris, I can fish a very tight line to the bait so I miss hardly any bites, even by fishing overdepth.

Deadly Corn Corn is a really good bait to

Topping up on the inside line is done with corn.

fish on this line because the bait has two flat sides that will sit on the slope until it’s eaten or dislodged. Just remember, when that bait is disturbed it will naturally go further down the slope. Corn also allows me to pick out a large kernel for the hook and fish direct to it because I’m laying the rig down the slope a float’s length

A cable tie makes a great hinge for your pole pot lids.

overdepth. The size of the float is important and you really don’t want to be going any heavier than 0.3g because you want the rig to lean and a light float with a carbon stem is perfect for this.

I also place a couple of small back shot above the float because it helps me keep everything tight so as the pole tip is inside the float (between

Alan used 10-12 Bungee elastic.

the bank and the float) it’s easy to keep everything tight so I miss very few bites. My hook for fishing sweetcorn on this line is a size 14 Drennan Silverfish Pellet, which is the ideal shape for fishing a big kernel of corn, they’re really sharp and the wire is slightly flat on the inside of the bend.

This is important because I like to hook the corn through

the back, because it’s tougher there, meaning if I miss a bite I can drop straight back in, and the wire on these hooks cuts through the corn easily when I hook a fish so I bump fewer fish.

It sounds obvious but another important thing to do is pick a good far bank marker to make sure you’re feeding that same spot every

Strung out shotting on the inside line rigs.

time. It’s not a difficult line to fish but there is a degree of precision required and making sure the feed is going in exactly the right place is half the battle. You can catch anything on this line too – skimmers, carp, roach and I’ve also caught carassios on this today, are all happy to feed here. If you can imagine on a flat bottom a fish has to

Drennan Silverfish Pellets hooks are perfect for corn.

“You can catch anything on this line too – skimmers, carp, roach and I’ve also caught carassios on this today, are all happy to feed here.”

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 13

World Champion Tactics

A lean mirror carp on the corn.

rassios There were plenty of ca n carp. ee tw caught in be

upend itself to take food off the deck, but on a slope like this it doesn’t have to do that because of the angle of the slope. The steeper the slope, the less the fish has to upend to feed.

A good tip here is to mention that I like to drop my loose feed from the pot in from a height. The noise is one of the best fish attractors there is but you need to remember that once do you start getting regular bites, it’s a good idea to stop this and feed normally because it can lead to foul hooked fish.

This is perhaps one of the mistakes I’ve made in my session today. Once the fish arrived and I was getting bites regularly, I should have lowered the feed in from just above the surface because

I did foul hook and lose a couple of carp. If I’d changed the way I was feeding and sneaked the bait in once the fish were there, I don’t think I would have foul hooked any.

The Session During today’s session I began on the outside line and fished it for maybe an hour and in that time I had a couple of carp and carassios, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but matches on here are being won 80lb to 90lb at the moment so it was a decent start. I also lost a good carp that broke me off and when I inspected the rig afterwards I noticed the line was roughed up, so the fish had rubbed against a rock or something and weakened the line.

“After an hour I moved to my inside line and after a slow start the peg got better and better as the session progressed.”

Biggest fish of the day.

14 | Match Fishing

Adam’s Lake at Hayfield.

The sun’s out and the carp are feeding again after some stormy weather.

There were a couple of obstacles that were slowing the fishing down though.

Firstly, if you looked around the edges of the lake the carp were splashing in all the nearside cover, signalling that they were busy spawning. Secondly, the weather went from bright sunshine and not a cloud in the sky to threatening heavy rain showers and maybe a thunderstorm or two. These storms lowered the air pressure and definitely had an effect on the fishing.

After an hour I moved to my inside line and after a slow start with the just the odd bite from carassios and skimmers, the peg got better and better as the session progressed and I was catching a good mix of carp, carassios and skimmers.

When the carassios and skimmers were in the peg I got bites quickly but when the carp arrived I had to wait longer for bites, but I knew the reason for this was that a carp or two had moved in.

I fed corn and pellets with

A great net for Alan and the peg was still getting better when he packed up.

the big pot on this line after every carp, and then topped up with corn every couple of minutes in a small pot. I wanted a really tight feed

area on this line so I potted everything in whereas on my outside line I was happy to loose feed pellets by hand.

As I mentioned earlier, the

only mistake I felt I made was to carry on dropping the bait in from a height when I was getting bites and I think that resulted in me losing a couple of foul hookers. I didn’t foul hook any after stopping this and sneaking the bait in instead, and I finished the session with good net of fish and the fish were still feeding when I decided to call it a day.

Targeting the slope is a great tactic in the right circumstances but it’s one many anglers don’t bother with because it’s much easier to find a flat area of the swim and fish that. I’ve used this tactic here at Hayfield and on Laurels, Loco and Benny’s lakes at Lindholme too and it’s won me a few matches so far.

So, don’t shy away from fishing on a steep slope, follow a few of the lessons I’ve learnt from fishing it and use it to your advantage.

You’ll most likely have it all to yourself and that will give you a big edge in your next match.

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 15

Clear Canals

16 | Match Fishing

GRAND UNIO N Where: Boxm CANAL oo Hempstead, r, near Hemel Hertfordshire HP1 2BN www.london anglers.co.u k

Get on the waggler for canal chub Words and photos: Ste

AMER JAWAD Age: 52 idge Lives: CambrRive Sponsors: MF says: ard Waggler wiz

ve Martin

Amer Jawad leaves his pole in th clear Grand Union Can e bag as he targets a gin al for chub on rod and line.

O

ne of the knockon effects of the Covid-19 pandemic was the total lack of traffic on the UK’s canal systems, so it wasn’t a complete surprise that when Rive’s Amer Jawad arrived on the Boxmoor section of the Grand Union Canal near Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, the towpath was lined with boats and the water was so clear that you could see the bottom all the way over to the far bank. Considering the winter was a distant memory, it was a somewhat surreal picture for the time of year.

“I thought there might be a bit of colour in the water, but it’s gin clear,” Amer pointed out, as he walked the line of moored boats. “The water is so still that you can see the grey silt bottom and the weed beds clear as day, but on a positive note, also the dark outlines of a lot of chub, and that’s what we are here for today.”

There were plenty of fish, but first, where to set up, as it was wall-to-wall boats.

After spotting a particularly large shoal of chub, Amer settled for a swim between two boats that faced bow to bow, so there was less of a

chance of engines possibly being started that would completely trash the peg.

“Given the conditions – it’s already bright, the water clarity and the amount of towpath activity – I’m not even going to get my pole out of the bag. I reckon those chub would spook the moment I shipped out over their heads.

“It’s an ideal scenario for the waggler, but I’ve not made it easy for myself, as there a tree above my head.

However, my short 11ft rod is perfect for the job, but to fish across to the boats on the far side, I will have to cast slightly right to left,

rather than overhead.”

The rod Amer intended to use was a Rive R Waggler Ultralight, which had a fine tip to allow him to cast a really light setup, which was a semi-loaded 3BB Drake insert waggler that he had locked on the line with float stops, plus a No1 shot either side to complete the bulk. Three No10 droppers completed the rig. The float and shot were set on 0.16mm mono reel line and at the business end he had attached an 8in, 0.14mm hook link with a size 16 Guru Feeder Special hook.

“With the water being so

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 17

Clear Canals

A little and often loose feed approach was key in the calm, clear conditions.

here feed e s o Lo he off t fish t s e d B fee

clear, I’m trying to be as stealthy, as possible, hence the longer hooklength. The less disturbance the better, so I’m not going to plumb the depth, but start at three feet and adjust the depth if I feel the bait presentation’s not right.

“I’m also not going to feed too heavily at first, as I think too much could possibly spook the chub. Half a dozen each cast should be about right to get the fish competing for more.

That is, of course, if they want to feed.”

The session got off to a flier, with Amer netting three small chub in his first four casts. Those fish came from a line about three-quarters of the way across, but from different areas in and just off the sparse loose feed.

“I don’t feel that I need to be accurate, as with very little feed, once the fish start to compete they will find my hook bait.”

Amer was aiming his loose feed just to the right of the rear window at the stern of the boat, and casting into the light

18 | Match Fishing

spread and to the left of it. The position of the tree behind him made it too risky to cast any further to the right.

Things settled down after the initial fish rush, as the bites tailed off and it became a

Od d fro fish a m b wa oat y

waiting game. After a short lull, a surprise skimmer came from the left of the feed, but closer to the boat, and the next two chub were caught further to the left than the earlier fish.

Again, after a couple of fish,

There was an odd skimmer to be found among the chub.

everything went quiet.

The fish seemed to have completely disappeared, so to see if they had backed off the feed, Amer stopped loose feeding, reduced the length of his rig by six inches and started to explore the length of the boat to see if they hadn’t moved off too far. After another 10 minutes of casting around he had two more skimmers in two casts towards the front of the boat, but then nothing.

After feeding again, the next chub came after another short wait, and that was with a cast to within 12 inches of the hull. Another look in the same spot, and bingo!

“I had those first three chub in open water, but I believe that the commotion pushed the fish closer to the boat. It’s not surprising with the clarity of the water. What has become clear is that I get more bites fishing off the feed. That last fish was at least two metres to the left of where I fed.

“They must be going to the loose feed though, as every fish I catch has coughed up maggots, but

A short, soft-tipped rod is perfect for light rigs.

Limiting the feed kept the fish foraging for more.

for some reason I can’t catch over it.”

A pattern did emerge as the session progressed; Amer would catch two chub and then the bites would stop. He continued to feed, little and often, to keep bait falling through the water, so that there was something for the chub to see when they came back. When they did, again it was two fish

and then nothing for a short period.

“I’m not sure if the chub are actually getting spooked, or they are just moving up and down the canal and I’m catching them as they pass me. You could see the small shoals swimming up and down the length when we arrived this morning.

“You would think that

Big-mouthed small chub have no problem with double reds on the hook.

they would stay where the food is going in, but if that were the case, I would expect to be catching more regularly. I’m certainly getting a bite when I land the rig close to the boat, but not every time, so it may be that I have to tempt them out from beneath it.”

Upping the frequency of the loose feed didn’t seem to encourage more fish to

feed, nor did changing the depth of the rig tempt more bites. The chub would turn up, disappear and then reappear 10 to 15 minutes later.

“You might compare the way that I’m fishing to pellet waggler tactics on a commercial. I’m feeding and then casting, then feeding again, and then twitching the bait. It’s just

Float dotted down for sensitive bite indication Float stop Two No1 shot Float stop

3BB Drake insert waggler 0.16mm reel line

No10 dropper Keeping the main bulk around the float helps casting.

6in 0.14mm Size 16 Feeder Special

No10 dropper

No10 dropper

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 19

Clear Canals

A rod with a fine, soft tip is the ideal tool for taming canal chub.

[INSET] These strong, fine-wire hooks are ideal for the canal.

“It’s been an interesting session, and great fun to fish a waggler rather than the pole.”

20 | Match Fishing

Small chub were eager to feed from the first cast.

The best of the bunch! a matter of deciding when to recast, as the bites, when they come, seem to be within a minute of the rig settling.

“I have tried leaving it longer, but I feel that my hook bait needs to be active and mirror the loose feed.

I’ve also lengthened the rig, as it allows the bait to fall in a slower arc through the water, even though when it settles there’s a lot of line on the bottom. That doesn’t seem to prevent the chub from plucking them off the deck.”

The action continued until about three hours into the session, and then the bites dried up completely.

It was about the time the canal started to move.

Amer surmised that it was activity at the lock to his left, as the water was pushing from left to right. Sure enough, about 10 minutes later, a boat passed, and as it did it churned up the bottom and

coloured the water.

Once it had passed, Amer failed to get another chub.

“It’s been over 30 minutes since that boat and I’ve not had a bite. I guess the chub have been properly spooked. Who knows, that might have been the first boat for weeks. I’ve had a good explore all along the boat and off it and even increased the loose feed, but nothing wants to feed now.

“It’s been an interesting session, and great fun to fish a waggler rather than the pole,” Amer concluded.

“I’ve only caught small chub today, my best being about 1lb 8oz, but I’ve seen bigger ones, even when walking the stretch this morning. Those are far wiser fish, but they are caught regularly, but not when conditions are like they were today.

“It’s been a puzzle as to why I could only catch a couple of chub at a time,

Almost 25lb of quality canal chub, and a great way to spend your birthday! but having watched them move up and down the section before I set up, I think it’s safe to say that I was mugging fish as they passed, rather than them spooking.

“That being said, I did catch better the closer I cast to the boat, and off the

loose feed, but all the fish had mouthfuls of maggots.

I’ve actually fed almost two pints of maggots today. That makes me think that they turned up, munched on the freebies and then picked up my hook bait as they went.

“On second thoughts, it’s still a puzzle!”

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 21

Andy Power

ANGLER FILE • Age: 31 • Lives: Wells • Sponsors: Preston Innovations, Sonubaits • MF says: Always in the big matches

It’s nice to know that after all the lockdowns some things haven’t changed, as Andy Power sets off to fish the big matches again… t’s a nice feeling to be reflecting back on a whole month’s worth of match fishing again! This year has been a little different from last year’s first lockdown, in that this time we went straight back into match fishing! Since I had nowhere to fish “locally” during lockdown, my first proper session of the year was straight into the deep end, for the Golden Rod Final at Larford! I have also managed to fish plenty of qualifiers for the big events too – here’s how it went!

I

Golden Rod Final The Golden Rod final was arranged at very short notice. Normally 60 anglers qualify for a two-day final

A Larford lump.

22 | Match Fishing

at Larford Lakes, in a feeder only event. However, because of the lockdown only half the qualifiers were actually fished, so the event went ahead with 26 anglers.

We were told a few days before that we would fish the Match Lake on day one. This lake is full of carp and F1s, so there was no need for any natural baits, as a simple Method feeder approach would do. Then for day two we were to fish the Speci Lake, which has a lower stock of some very large carp, as well as plenty of bream and skimmers. So, maggots and worm may be needed, depending on how it fished.

I had actually left all my natural bait in the fridge

at home ready for Sunday.

But I turned up on Saturday morning to find out that we were now split with 13 on each lake – I was not amused! Luckily though I drew on the Match Lake, so I had all the bait I needed!

There was actually a practice match the day before, which I could not fish. My peg, 21 on the grass bank had been fished by a certain England international, who only weighed 30 odd pounds, so that was a little worrying.

My section ran down to end Peg 30, and normally the closer to the end the better, so I felt a little up against it!

We were all pegged on one bank, so I had plenty of open water to go at, as well

as a far bank at 75 metres away. Luckily, I had packed a 12ft Distance Master rod in case the pegging changed, as it did! Realistically though, I knew I needed to catch in the margins to be able to compete with the other pegs further down the lake.

I set up a couple of 10ft Supera rods, the 12ft rod, and a feeding rod, which was a 10ft Korum Opportunist and a big Bait-Up feeder. I then had some ICS Method feeders in small and large to fish with.

Hooklengths were four inches of 0.17mm Power, to a size 14 KKH-B. Then I had a range of Band’Ums for the hook. For feed, I had 2mm fishery pellets, which were

soaked, to which I added Power Scopex Booster Liquid. I asked Sonubaits to make this a while back, and I have been very surprised how well it seems to work!

I also had some bigger 4 and 6mm pellets, and some Power Scopex Groundbait to feed in the margins.

The match started off very slowly. I could catch a very occasional F1 or small carp, 20 metres out.

But soon I was trying the far bank 75m line. This took a bit of courage after not fishing a feeder for five months, along with a nasty crosswind, but luckily Mick Vials next door gave me a nine out of 10 for my first cast! This produced a fish straightaway, but I found it was best to keep alternating between the two lines to keep the bites coming.

With an hour and a half to go I had around 60lb on my clicker, and to be honest I felt like I was only beating one angler in my section. I had fed my margins with pellets and groundbait, and I just had to hope they would turn up for me.

With 45 minutes to go, later than I would have

liked, my wish came true and I started to catch, very quickly! I was loading the feeder, plopping it down the edge, and before I could put the rod on the rest I would more often than not be attached to a carp! After what was a hectic last 30 minutes I weighed in 139lb, which ended up second, in a tight section. My section was won

by Steve Rocke from the end peg with 143lb. Although I was so close to winning, I

11. With not many carp getting caught I felt I would need to catch bream and skimmers. The trouble was lots of top anglers claimed they struggled on openended feeder tactics. But in the back of my mind, I remembered the Silverfish festival back in December. In that Brian Clarke had a 70lb weight from Peg 24, where Alex had won from, and I had some 40lb weights in the same area I had drawn,

“With 45 minutes to go, later than I would have liked, my wish came true and I started to catch, very quickly!” was just happy to turn my match around so quickly. It was certainly a stand-out weight from my area.

Elsewhere, Steve Ringer drew the other end, Peg 1, and won with 200lb! On the Speci Lake Alex Dockerty had won his section with 38lb on Peg 24, one off the end, then Jason Morris had 81lb from Peg 1.

Day two on the Speci, I drew permanent Peg

so surely that was still achievable?

I had 30 minutes at the start of the match looking to catch a carp on a Method feeder. Nobody had caught one, so I switched to fishing 15 metres with a small Preston open-ended feeder, a 10ft SL Supera, 0.12mm Absolute Braid, with an 8lb shockleader, and 0.11mm Power hooklength with a size 16 SFL hook. My

groundbait was a mix of Thatchers and F1 Dark.

I caught small fish on this straightaway, with maggots being the best hook bait. With not much happening around me I just kept myself busy, putting small skimmers in my net. Most bites came quite quickly. I was just feeding tiny amounts of worm, with a few maggots every cast. Fortunately, every now and again a few better fish would move in and I would catch a bonus bream of 2 or 3lb. It was quite simple fishing but hard work, catching lots of small skimmers. Apart from a couple more casts on the Method, with no joy, I stayed on this line right until the end. I had a really busy day and weighed 82lb of skimmers and a few bream, to easily win the lake!

Out of day one’s winners it was only Alex Dockerty who won his section, from Peg 2, on the Match Lake, so a massive well done to him!

That meant I was next best, coming second overall! I have had a lot of seconds in my time now! As it turned

.

The carp have arrived in the margins

I’m really into my additives at the moment.

My favourite hookers on the Method.

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 23

Andy Power

???.

???????

Another Larford beast.

?????.

My peg at JCB.

Bait Booster is great for binding micros.

out another 10lb or so on day one would have won it for me! But I had no real regrets, I was happy with the result, and it was a nice welcome back to match fishing!

Feeder Masters Qualifier, JCB Lakes Carrying on the feeder fishing theme, this month I fished my first Feeder Master Qualifier of the year at JCB Lakes. I fished this match a couple of years ago and drew what turned out to be the wrong side.

This time however, I found myself in the right area after drawing Peg 76, outside the JCB World Headquarters!

I was on an end peg, with a point of an island 40 metres away, then another island at around 100 metres plus! It looked lovely! This lake contains mainly large carp, so it was another day on a Method feeder.

24 | Match Fishing

Lots of feeder fishing this month.

Apparently, the previous match was only won with around 40lb, so that was potentially only three or four bites!

I set up an 11ft 6in Supera, with some 10lb Sinking Feeder Mono for the point of the near island, as it was quite rocky. Then I had some Distance Master

The top three from JCB. I kept it simple on the hook and used some 8mm Power Scopex Band’Ums. On my first cast to the point of the island, and not really expecting much, my rod bent round with a powerful carp that I just could not stop in time before it reached the line clip and the hook pulled

“It was the first time fishing the pole this year, and it showed! I caught 149lb, but I had more than enough fish on the hook to qualify!” rods for further out if it was needed. For feed, I had soaked a mixture of Pro Feed and Fin Perfect pellets, to which I added plenty of Scopex Power Bait Booster, and even some Haze to colour my pellets slightly.

With the water quite clear,

out! Numpty! My next two bites came from two bream, which to be honest I didn’t know were even in there! I then had to wait until the one-hour mark before I caught my first carp. I was ready to unclip this time!

Halfway through I had

caught three carp, and after trying further out in my peg, I was struggling and falling behind. I could see Matt Wright further down to my left, who seemed to be constantly playing carp.

He was catching next to a round island with flags on. I decided to try and make something happen so I opened a tin of F1 Corn and fed half a dozen cage feeders full of corn and pellets to the point of the island, and left it alone for 20 minutes.

When I went back on it, I caught straightaway. But looking back I think it may have coincided with some fish turning up, as those around me started getting bites too! In the end it was a simple match, fishing to the point of the island with an ICS Method feeder. Most of the fish were around 10lb, so I still needed a bit of patience. The final hour was

My peg at The Glebe.

My net from JCB.

Another carp on my way to qualifiying for the Feeder Masters final.

when I really caught well.

At the end I had around 14 fish, to weigh 147lb and win the match, and qualify for the Final. Coming second in my section was Matt Wright with 100lb. Also qualifying with me were Eddie Bridon and James Place, so well done to them. If only it was always that easy to qualify!

Maver Match This Qualifiers I have also fished plenty of Maver Match This qualifiers this month. It started off with a match at The Glebe, where I drew on Uglies Pool. It was the first time fishing the pole this year, and it showed! I caught 149lb, but I had more than enough fish on the hook to qualify! The fish on this lake don’t have the best mouths, hence the name “Uglies”, so looking back, if I had fished with lighter elastics I think it might have made a difference! After lots of

miles, I had to wait for several more attempts before a got a very realistic chance after drawing Peg 1, again at The Glebe!

This is a peg I have always wanted to draw!

It’s an end peg, with an inviting looking far bank to fish to. It was a bright day, with little wind, so I was hoping the pellet waggler would work!

I fished with an 11ft Supera Float rod, 5lb Float Max, an 0.15mm Power hooklength to a size 16 GPM-B hook, with an 8mm pellet on the hook, feeding 8mm Fin Perfect Pellets.

I then swapped between different sized wagglers depending on the wind.

It was a great day, with plenty of small carp that seem to hold up at this end of the lake. It was still cool and early in the year, so I didn’t have to feed much at all. But it was important to keep a few pellets hitting the water.

I caught well for most of the match and had a good

spell down the edge on the pole with F1 Corn, to finish with around 60 carp!

I weighed in 255lb, which turned out to win the match and qualify for my ninth Maver Match This Final!

Hopefully there is more good fortune to come this year! Good luck if you’re out on the bank this month!

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 25

Towpath Tactics

Bonus fish the norm!

DARREN C OX Age Lives: Strat : 55 ford-uponAvo Sponsors: n Garbo Mainline lino/ MF sa A class all- ys: rounder

Canal fishing has changed over the years, and Darren Cox the off. demonstrates the new tactics of targeting the big fish from HATTON FLIGHTS, GRAND UNION CANAL, WARWICK

26 | Match Fishing

Darren’s Feed Chopped worm with maggots and casters is full of amino acids.

Micros even work on canal venues now.

Groundbait is essential when there is plenty of boat traffic.

or many years our network of narrow canals up and down the country have been considered small fish waters, where the odd pegs threw up some bonus fish such as bream, carp or chub. It was normal to spend most of your match building a net of small fish in the hope that you could set up a swim to trap an odd ‘big bonus’ late on in the session to get you in the money.

On a lot of the waterways the tables have now turned and the hordes of tiny gudgeon, roach and small silvers have now been replaced with a much better stamp of quality fish.

Everywhere in the country now has canals full of big perch, skimmers, proper bream, carp and huge chub.

Fishing for bigger fish has largely become the norm as it is the only way to make the frame in most matches on canals nowadays.

This approach needs a totally different thought process from the tackle and bait we need, and the tactics we use, from old style canal fishing.

The Grand Union Canal around Warwick is the perfect place to demonstrate exactly what I mean. Many years ago the canal was full of small fish but when the zander arrived they wiped out a lot of the small fish, also gudgeon and ruffe just disappeared from most of our rivers and canal systems for some unknown

F

“Bream and skimmers are now plentiful in this part of the canal, and it is the perfect place to brush up on your canal fishing.” reason (but likely due to water quality) and are rarely seen on any water any more. These two changes devastated the canal fishing scene, and

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 27

Towpath Tactics

Feeding one of the far bank swims.

for many years they were left unfished by most. This neglect also allowed other fish to thrive. Bream and skimmers are now plentiful in this part of the canal, and it is the perfect place to brush up on your canal fishing.

The one constant in canal fishing is the lines where you can expect to catch the fish. Canal contours don’t change and neither do the fish’s feeding habits.

The most obvious feature packed swims are usually still the ones that hold the fish. Features such as trees, reeds, overhanging brambles and weed all provide the perfect cover and feed traps, as well as refuge in the far bank shallower water from boats, bikes, and walkers.

Don’t neglect swims with even the smallest features in relatively bare areas as they usually hold fish well

across.

The ‘track’, as it is called, is always a great area to catch bonus fish when the boat traffic is light. Bream and skimmers especially like the extra cover that slightly deeper water gives them, and I have always found that pushing slightly up the far shelf from the deepest part of the canal is best. It is not as silty or snaggy here, and I’m sure the fish prefer to feed on the

cleaner bottom. By setting up several swims over these two key lines you can cover a lot of options and maximise your chances.

The two lines will work at different times in the day.

When boat traffic is heavy the far bank shallow swims come to life, but when there are fewer boats the fish will wander to the deeper areas to feed. Even the bigger fish need to move around a lot on canals; as boats pass by

Darren’s Floats For The Canal

DC C32 for deeper water.

SP M43 for when the canal is moving.

DC 12H, more usually used for commercial silvers.

DC C41 for dragging line overdepth.

“Just be mindful on busy canals like here today that your bait can move a lot, and you don’t want it travelling into an area you cannot reach.”

28 | Match Fishing

A back shot is essential for fishing tight across.

and locks open and close, levels drop and rise, lots of changing elements in their environment keep them on the go, and that’s why multiple lines are so important.

My target fish today are skimmers and bream.

My ‘go-to’ bait for these is most definitely worms and casters; they love this combination, but I will also introduce a groundbait line with chopped

worms, maggots, pinkies and casters to try and understand exactly what is in the swim. Most fish will come over this and I tend to feed it in the deeper water initially and gauge the response. The neat worms, casters and dead maggots go into the shallow water tight to the far bank cover.

By feeding these different particles I can try so many different combinations on the hook, but once I find out

Feeding several lines requires a good bait selection.

A quality skimmer to start the session.

Chopped worm became more important as the session progressed.

Gone are the days of No2 and No3 elastics on canals.

Darren’s choice of hook.

Another big skimmer caught tight across on the worm.

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 29

Towpath Tactics

Biggest skimmer of the day.

Double white maggot.

Single worm section.

what it is they want most I can focus on that bait.

I try and set the lines up across so that I can fish them whichever way the flow is moving. Just be mindful of this on busy canals like here today. Your bait can move a lot, and you don’t want it travelling into an area you cannot reach.

Rigs are very important and are not what we used

help do the same, and they are also so much easier to see! I prefer strung out shotting patterns, which I feel fish better especially overdepth, and ‘anchor up’ perfectly when required to get a still presentation, which is so important for these better fish.

I also like to use heavier main lines as they are stiffer and easier to control

Garbolino Fine Match Wide Gape is perfect. I love the yellow 1.5mm hollow Fighter elastic for this, it’s so forgiving but enables me to get a good hook-hold and be in control of big skimmers and bream without bullying them. With this elastic they stay under the water surface and make less splash on the strike in the shallow water,

“By feeding multiple lines, and I mean at least two across and two into the deeper water, I can keep rotating the swims regularly, taking an odd fish from each, topping up and moving on.” to fish on canals. Slightly thicker, more buoyant 1.25mm hollow tipped Garbolino DC C41 floats in 0.10 to 0.30g are perfect.

Years ago we used dibbers as you could drag line on the bottom well overdepth to slow the rig down, these days the hollow tips can

30 | Match Fishing

underneath trees across; along with a No8 back shot and a short line between float and pole tip I can gain brilliant presentation. The hooklength for bream and skimmers does not need to be thick, 0.10mm, or at most 0.12mm Garbolino Super Soft with a size 16 or 18

something I think reduces the chances of spooking others in the swim.

My rigs for the deeper water are also strung out as again they respond better to the variable flows. I use a DC C32 in 0.20g for this, and when the canal is moving more a 0.30g SP

Double worm sections.

M43, and the shotting is more of a strung out bulk, which holds the hook bait tighter to the bottom in the flows and enables me to hold it back enough to get bites even in messy conditions. The tips on these floats are a bit more sensitive than my far bank rigs as I can use a bump bar here and hold the rigs back perfectly.

My hook baits are also more often casters or maggots on this line too.

Even skimmers cannot resist a big double white maggot bait, along with perch and big roach that you often find on this line. Again an

18 hook is usually a good starting size for most baits.

Feeding small amounts of feed is very important. Feed too much at once and you can get totally wiped out when boats pass. Just take it steady and feed to the response.

Aside from the more standard natural baits, there are also a lot of fish caught on many canals on pellets. This is an extremely selective bait in these circumstances and can be ideal if small fish are a nuisance. I have caught lots of bream and skimmers on this canal on expanders over micros, but today they didn’t work. I think the water temperature was still too cold after a lot of rain, but I’m sure that in a few weeks they will catch a lot more. After no response on this line today I topped it up with some neat chopped worm and immediately caught a few fish on bits of worm over it.

By feeding multiple lines, and I mean at least two across and two into the deeper water, I can keep rotating the swims regularly, taking an odd fish from each, topping up and moving on. It keeps them alive longer and ultimately catches me more fish over the session.

A change of hook bait is always a good bet to catch an extra fish. Don’t be afraid to chop and change between single and double maggots in different colours, as well as single and double caster. By far the best bait today has been small pieces of wriggly dendrabaena.

The water is quite coloured after a lot of rain, and they just seem to be able to hunt down the amino acids that worms emit. Once they have found it, it usually results in another fish in the net.

Today has been a great day. I caught steadily for most of the day once the

Boats and locks can provide some challenging fishing.

Another quality fish on the worm.

A great canal bag for Darren.

skimmers had found my bait. I caught on three of the four lines I fed, and switching around became very important once I had a few boats come through. At one point it got very busy, but eventually the fish got used to it and settled down again. I have ended up with 14 decent skimmers up to 2lb, which would certainly have framed in most canal matches around here.

Fishing for better

quality fish in matches used to be considered extremely hit and miss years ago.

Nowadays it is arguably a much better proposition if you want to pick up more brown envelopes on your local canal circuit.

Venue: The Hatton Flights section of the Grand Union Canal can be fished on a £5 day ticket, or £22 annual membership purchased online from https:// lureanglerscanalclub.co.uk – over 30 miles of Midlands canal stretches are available.

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 31

O £3 N .9 LY 9

WITH NICK SPEED THE ONLINE VIDEO MAGAZINE FOR THE THINKING ANGLER

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Nick Speed is at Lindholme Lakes for a fascinating insight into how to plan a match when F1s are the target species.

TOPICS DETAILED: - Formulating a match plan - Tactical thinking - Finding the fish - Signs to look out for - Bait and rig selection - Swim management

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Events

2021 Events Match Fishing’s events for this year are bigger, better and more popular than ever – the Sonubaits Veterans match sold out long ago, the Garbolino Club Angler Of The Year events are under way and the brand new Preston Innovations UK Pole Championship qualifiers kick off soon. So, if you want to get in on the Subscriber Classic action, act now!

The Match Fishing Subscriber Classic is back, on Friday,September 24th, 2021 at Tunnel Barn Farm – don’t miss your chance of glory!

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his popular event is open to subscribers of Match Fishing magazine, with anybody holding a valid subscription number able to enter, with 160 pegs available.

Winning the event would see you adding your name to a star-studded list of previous winners and will be no mean feat, with an impressive line-up of

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34 | Match Fishing

anglers gracing the bank year after year.

The Subscriber Classic match allows us to give something back to our readers, in what is always an enjoyable day on the bank at a fantastic fishery.

The event wouldn’t be possible without the support that our faithful subscribers give us so it is another way to say thank you to them.

To enter, head to www.shopatdhp.com.

Tickets cost £35 with an optional £10 super pool on the day.

www.feeder-fishing.co.uk

36 PAY THE FERRY MAN! When it comes to match fishing on Ferry Meadows, Geoff Ringer has had his share of payouts. Here’s his take on the changing face of bream fishing.

42 THE ‘CATCH-ALL’ METHOD MIND-SET Will Raison reveals his tactics to catch quality fish on big commercial venues in the period leading into the summer months.

48 THE BIG TWO Quite simply, accuracy and depth. Mark Pollard proves how important it is to cast accurately to the area of any commercial fishery swim that’s the right depth.

54 DUELLING BANJOS It seems that every other brand has a range of feeders out these days, but what is it that sets Preston Innovations’ new range of Banjo XR Feeders apart?

www.feeder-fishing.co.uk

| 35

er Photos: Mark Park

E H T Y PA !

N A M FERRY eterborough’s P n o g in sh fi h of matc hen it comesstohad more than his fair shagreand w t a th t e cr se o in a h It’s n ce of bream fish s, Geoff Ringer Ferry Meadow’s his tale of the changing fa payouts. Here me King of the Meadow! how he’s beco S FERRY MEADOW CAMBRIDGESHIRE WS/ PETERBOROUGH, .UK/FERRY-MEADO ETERBOROUGH.CO WWW.FISHINGINP

think it is fair to say that if the young Geoff Ringer of 50 years ago witnessed how I am targeting bream today – on a big open water like Ferry Meadows – he’d have had me sectioned!

He would have stood in awe, wonderment and undeniable amusement at the fact that there is not a single squatt, worm or

I

36 | Match Fishing

ounce of sickly sweet groundbait to be seen anywhere on my side tray. If that same young man had then taken the time to look at the rigs I’m using today, I think his mind would have melted!

In those days, we thought nothing of fishing open-ended feeders or bombs, with a 3 to 5ft hook link, all the while staring

intensely at a target board, in case the tip moved 1/64th of an inch!

This said, yes, bream fishing has moved on hugely in the past half-decade, but when it comes to the principles of targeting these most stately, browsing and slow-moving eminent fish, that has stayed very much the same in my eyes. The idea of

putting down a bed of bait, the possibility of having to wait one, two or even three hours prior to getting that first bite are all the same as they were. The only difference really is the tackle and what we feed that has changed.

There is no big secret that even though my family is well known for our commercial carp

large.

Ferry Meadows bream are usually

“I would much rather catch a big net of bream than any other British coarse fish, if I’m honest.”

success over the years, as well as Phil selling a very successful carp-based bait range, bream always were and still are my favourite fish.

I would much rather catch a big net of bream than any other British coarse fish, if I’m honest.

I think it all harks back to that fact that a bream was the first ‘big’ fish I caught, when I was

only 10! At just over the 3lb mark, it wasn’t a monster by today’s standards, but this salad days’ experience burnt heavily into my psyche and my dreams have been bream shaped ever since!

Of course, in those days, we started fishing leads over the top of our beds of feed as feeders weren’t commercially available,

Geoff’s feeder choic e.

but like I said earlier, even though the tactics have changed, the way we fish is still exactly the same in many ways.

GOZZERS, BOARDS AND MARKSY! Today on Ferry Meadows, my first choice of attack is ideally the Method feeder. And, like those days of yore, I still use

open-ended feeder tactics here too. The difference being that I tend to use 12 to 18in hook links rather than the 3ft-plus ones of yesteryear. We used to use target boards, looking for tiny, almost imperceivable movements of the tip, striking at the slightest movement, which I later realised were line bites. It took me a long time to

www.feeder-fishing.co.uk

| 37

realise that a proper bream bite meant that the fish was already hooked.

Ivan Marks I reckon understood this and that’s why he was so good. His saying of: “Sit on yer hands, me duck!” meant that he didn’t strike at these liners and that waiting for the rod to get pulled along the rest was the only time he would pull into the fish. Once this penny dropped, my bream fishing was transformed.

The other thing at the time was no one dreamed of using fishmeals for bream. Even when we (Steve, Phil and I) did use it, we used it exclusively for targeting carp. That said, we did realise very quickly that bream

Geoff as a young Ferry Meadows’ buck!

“Over the years I must say that Ferry has been very kind to me and I have recorded a large number of wins on here.”

Another slab in the pan.

38 | Match Fishing

loved fishmeal too and it’s safe to say that the lads and I have used it successfully in our approach for well over 25 years.

Originally, we were using a 50:50 mix of brown crumb and fishmeal, very crude by today’s standards, but being new then, it was devastating. As the three of us used it, we started to experiment and refine the approach, adding things like krill and Special G. You have to remember that at the time – 25-years ago or so – it was radical thinking. It was this I think that saw pellets becoming the next natural progression in the food chain. They are unarguably the new squatt.

When I first started fishing for bream, you’d never dream of fishing without at least a

pint or two of squatts, both reds and natural. I even used to spend hours breeding gozzers on pigeon and chicken breasts.

The best ones were raised on all the trout we used to catch from Pitsford at the time and I reckoned that ‘trout gozzers’ were a little bit special and a real edge! It seems somewhat laughable now, but that was the way to bream fish. But, once we really got into fishmeals, pellets and the refining of the mixes, the rest as they say is history.

By the time we, as an entity, hit Stanborough Lakes regularly, we had all been exclusively fishing carp-style for bream for a good while and we were almost unbeaten for a long time.

KING OF THE MEADOW… Fast forward to today’s session, I am here practising for an upcoming match that we are running at the weekend, although there are matches all through the year on here. So the tactics that I’m employing are equally relevant to other competitions on Ferry Meadows or any other large open water that is primality big bream fishing.

Over the years I must say that Ferry has been very kind to me and I have recorded a large number of wins on here.

Looking at the place it does indeed scream traditional tactics and that would no doubt be true 25 or 30-years ago, but not now.

I remember sitting here one year, on a peg a few down from me today, in the early 70s – that’s peg number not decade – with the old target board and a single pinkie on a 4ft hook link and a size 22 hook trying to catch in the winter. Absolute madness really, but to be fair the 60s and 70s have always been consistent pegs on Ferry, even after all these years. Albeit the fish weren’t as big then. A 4lb bream was a monster, you were really fishing for fish between 1.5lb and 2lb.

Move this on to today and look at me now. I have a power feeder rod, 34g and 38g Kobra Method feeders with a size 10 Guru QM1 and an 8mm Ringers wafter. I have found that an 8mm or 10mm is generally

perfect for the size of bream we’re catching these days. That said though, I do remember a couple of years ago catching a bream that was trailing a rig.

In its mouth was a short braid hook link, a size 6 hook and the biggest boilie I have ever seen! It had to be all of 20mm.

I use 8mms and 10mms as a confidence thing, but they obviously take larger, so if you are looking to target the really big fish, a couple of chucks with a much larger bait on the hook seems to be not entirely out of the question?

GETTING THINGS STARTED Like I say, bream fishing tackle has changed a great deal, but the way we fish for them has stayed very similar. For example, putting a lot of bait in at the start to create an area.

My initial baiting mix has changed ever so slightly in the past four years. Today, I use a 50:50 mix of Ringers Original and Dark. This is just a good combination that has worked well for me over the years.

Confidence plays a big part in fishing as this mix gives me that.

To this I then add the same quantity of moistened micro pellets – the new squatts! These I always do the night before to allow them to soak fully. To this initial mix I then add casters, meat, 4mm pellets and corn.

Although there is no real recipe, I tend to add round about the same quantities every time.

It’s equal parts of micros to groundbait, then half a pint of casters, half a tin of corn, a good handful of 4mm pellets and a handful of meat. But, if there’s slightly more groundbait to pellets or three-quarters of a tin of corn, I don’t lose any sleep!

It is more about getting a good bed of loose feed on the lake bed to allow the fish something to graze on when they rock up, and hold them in the peg also.

The one thing that has left this mix in the last few years though is worms. Five years ago I would never have gone bream fishing without at least a kilo of worms, these days, if I’m pleasure fishing I don’t bring any, but I still bring some for match fishing.

The reason being is that I felt it

Braid main line helps with distance casting and bite detection.

Geoff’s baiting up feeder.

The rod choice.

Geoff’s Method setup.

www.feeder-fishing.co.uk

| 39

Launching one out.

Bream love the Method.

A typical Ferry Meadows bream.

wasn’t bringing anything to the party.

The only time I use it now is when I’ve not had any bites for a couple of hours and I will cast in two or three feeders packed with finely chopped worms as a kind of stink bomb, to add loads of flavour and taste into the water. This can get you a bite or two, but it doesn’t always work!

Hence the reason for taking it out of my initial mix.

I also have a second mix ready, that is just micros and groundbait. This is there in case the day turns out to be very hard.

This way, if you’re only looking for a couple of fish in the day, with this mix there is very little substantial bait to eat so the hook bait becomes the target.

FISHING ON THE MEADOW When it comes to a place like Ferry Meadows, or anywhere like it, the buzzword for me is to be positive.

You aren’t after one bite on here, in fact it’s easier to blank than to catch just one bream I find, as when they come into the swim they bring a few friends with them.

Today, though has

Geoff’s main ingredients for his bream mix.

40 | Match Fishing

been pretty typical. Although the conditions aren’t great, for the first two hours I’ve not had a touch but then it’s been five fish in five chucks. That’s big water bream fishing for you.

Even though I knew today could be hard, I still put a dozen feeders of loose feed in at the start. Ideally, on a good day, I’m looking for 10 fish in the course of a five-hour match. Really that is a big weight for Ferry Meadows, as regarding the size of the fish 10 bream can very easily give you well over 60lb.

The great thing about this style of fishing for me is the fact that I’m not in the first

flush of youth, so being a much more sedate approach I am still able to fish at the top level, whereas on many of the modern F1 fish race waters, I’d have no chance. Bream fishing reflects the species itself, it’s a much slower pace, allowing for 15-minute casts so you don’t risk spooking the shoal.

Regarding the tactics, I fish the Method mostly. The reason being that especially on Overton, the weed can get quite bad, so one, I feel that I’m always fishing and two, the fish come through the weed so much better on the Method as there is less to snag up, unlike an open-ended feeder.

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You don’t need many for a good weight.

That said, I still fish both as there are days when the Method doesn’t work, but the open-ended does… why, who knows, that’s bream fishing for you!

From here, the fishing is very similar to any other feeder work, only at a slightly slower pace. The one thing I always train myself to do is to always expect to catch. If you feel like this you often do, whereas if you expect it to be difficult you can end up fishing negatively and almost talk yourself into blanking.

The Ferry bream move around all the time, so keep the faith.

I remember the Feeder Masters in 2019. After two and a half hours I was blanking, while all those to my right had caught. Out of the blue, I had a bite and went on to catch six in six casts before the swim died.

Those to the right stopped catching as soon as I started, indicating that the shoal had moved to the left. After my half-dozen the swim died again, but I did have three in three in the last 30 minutes.

That’s how this place goes.

You can go hours with nothing then they turn up in numbers and you have a few.

This is why I’ve always loved bream fishing. You’re never truly out of it until the ‘all out’ is called.

After today’s five-hour practice session, I’ve had seven good fish, all caught from a water into which they had never been stocked, using a bait that is supposedly total anathema to bream and bream anglers!

It is things like this that have helped fan the flames of my bream fishing passions.

May that flame never burn out!

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H C T A THE ‘C ETHOD ALL’ MSET MINDtch quality fish ca to s ic ct ta is eals h ver period Will Raison reevrcial venues in the changeo on big commthe summer months. leading into

ate spring and early summer herald the changes when the feeder angler needs to maximise his/her chances of putting a weight of fish in the net.

The warmer days will kick-start the sluggish commercial species – carp and bream – but with night-time temperatures still dropping to low single digits, even into late June, to target one species only could result in a missed opportunity.

Top commercials like Barston, Larford and today’s venue, Gold Valley don’t all ‘wake up’ at the same time. It’s a scenario that England ace Will Raison knows only too well, and to find out how he approaches these conditions, we joined him on the venue’s Gold Lake to discover how he targets the lake’s carp and bream.

“It’s a proper warm spring day, but after a similar day yesterday, last night the

L

42 | Match Fishing

temperature dropped to around 4ºC,” Will pointed out, as he made his first cast of the session to within a metre of the boundary rope to the right of a small island.

“The depth is about seven feet, just off the island, and at this time of the year I have found that the fish are comfortable at that depth. That’s not to say that they are on the bottom. They are more likely to be higher in the water, so the trick is to draw them to the feeder.

“I’ll reveal my little secret later, but for now I’m just casting and waiting for a bite to develop.”

The hook bait and feed that Will had chosen for his session were Daiwa Advantage Scopex-flavoured micros and 10mm yellow Daiwa Advantage Semi Buoyant Hookbaits. The combination is his go-to option for the time of year when the

water has started to colour slightly.

“For me, when I’m not expecting to bag up, it’s important to fish with hook baits and feed that I’m confident with, and these pellets and hook baits have served me well over the last few years on venues where big fish are the target.

“There are other flavoured micros in the range – Red Krill, which I might fish in really coloured water, and Green Betaine, but the choice I’ve got today is always my first pick when fishing the Method feeder.”

And then, as to prove the point, his tip jagged round and Will was into a good fish.

It was no F1 or bream, and after a short battle, he landed a chunky, double-figure mirror.

“That’s a bonus this early, but it does bring me to the gear that I’m fishing with today. The rod is a 10ft N’ZON Method

www.feeder-fishing.co.uk

| 43

The winning combination on the day.

Bigger skimmers will snaffle a 10mm hook bait all day long.

Place the hook bait so that it rests in the created hollow.

Cover the bait with more pellets and firmly squeeze.

Feeder 10020 with an N’ZON 5000S reel loaded with 10lb Daiwa ST mono. It’s the setup that I use when targeting bigger fish at distances up to 60 metres.

“You catch a lot of big fish on commercials, so for me, I want my tackle to be durable, so I feel I can get away with the stronger, larger diameter line. Any further, then I

44 | Match Fishing

would fish 6lb line with a 10lb shockleader.

“When it comes to feeders, I prefer the Guru X-Safe Hybrid models. They are extremely versatile, as they allow you to add as little or as much feed around the hook bait, and the shape flies well over a distance.

“I always fish an elasticated feeder, if allowed, especially over a distance, as it ‘pulls back’ when a fish takes the bait, and

“At this time of the year, it pays to wait for a bite to come.” sets the hook. If I see the rod tip bounce, I know the fish is on, and I can then simply wind into the fish.

“Also, keeping to the durability theme, my hook link is four inches of 0.205mm of the new Daiwa Tournament fluorocarbon hook line. It’s very supple for the diameter and has excellent knot strength. My hook is a size 10 Guru QM1 with a hair-rigged bayonet for the soft wafter-type baits.

“I know that I’m going on about durability and robustness, but I want to give myself every chance of catching every time I cast out, so a wafter-type hook bait is unlikely to get ‘worried’ by smaller fish, so I can have confidence that the bait will be perfect when a bigger fish

turns up.

“Other, softer baits like corn, meat – where allowed – or dead red maggots, are liable to get ripped up by small fish, which could see you fishing with nothing on the hook. Also, those baits can get damaged when you cover them with feed, which could result in them coming off before a fish picks it up.”

Will is interrupted once again when a second carp snaffles his yellow offering. A smaller common this time, it’s a good start.

“That’s better than I expected so early in the session. I did see a few liners before the second fish, so that’s encouraging.

“One of the key points I want to point out is about timings.

When you are on a load of fish

The carp seem to love Will’s big The bigger the hook bait the better, yellow hook baits. but it pays to have options.

Will had oodles of confidence in his fluorocarbon hook links. in the summer, then yes, it’s good to recast regularly to keep the bait going in and making the noise. However, at this time of the year, it pays to wait for a bite to come. I won’t leave it for the 40 or 50 minutes that I would in the winter. Fifteen minutes is plenty before I will recast.

“That’s not a hard and fast rule though, as in a match I will be watching those around me, and if I saw someone catching two or three fish quickly, then I’ll recast more often to see if I

can pick up fish quicker.”

Will had a chunky F1 just after the first hour and then it went quiet.

“All the indications are that there are fish in the area.

I’ve seen one fish roll and I’m still seeing the odd liner. The conditions have also changed.

It was cloudy earlier, but it’s brighter now, and it’s warmed up. That tells me that the fish will have moved up in the water.

“The trick now is to stick to the plan but try and pull them

down to the feeder. It’s too far to loose feed accurately with a catapult, so it’s better to think along the same lines, as if you are feeding a pole line with a Toss pot. You want to create a column of feed falling through the water, down to your hook bait.

“I do this by reducing the amount I compress the micros on top of the feeder, so once it hits the water, some of the pellets fall away. This creates that falling column, which, in

theory, will pull the fish down.

It might take a few goes to get the pressure right. Don’t get put off if some of the looser pellets fly off at first. It happens to the best of us.

“I won’t fish the looser pellets every cast. Just every so often, as I don’t want too much feed falling through the water. That would just keep the fish up in the water. The micros have to be just right too, so that they stick when a softer pressure is applied.

“The micros I’m using are

“In my opinion, if you keep it simple and do the basics well, you are going to keep fish coming to the net.”

and ll Isl Sma

pe ry ro nda Bou

Cat chi ng dep Zone th 7ft

Accurate casting was key to the day’s success. www.feeder-fishing.co.uk

| 45

It’s great to start off with a big carp.

[INSET] The pellets come with a bottle of flavour/colour included.

There are three flavours of micros and two groundbait options in the Advantage Method range.

really easy to get right. The tubs come with a bottle of colour/ flavour and to prepare them you added the whole contents, plus the same again of water. Close the lid and give the pellets a good shake to ensure they are completely covered.

“You need to leave them for at least an hour, but they get better the longer you leave them. I prepared mine early this morning, but the evening before is better. Just fridge them once you’ve prepared them, and in the morning they will be perfect.”

Three more F1s and another common carp were netted during the second hour, where Will would recast after between 10 and 15 minutes if he didn’t get any action.

“There is a temptation, when it’s slow going, to maybe add groundbait to the feed pellets, or just feed groundbait. I’m targeting carp and bigger bream, and groundbait would just encourage small skimmers and other silvers, and I don’t want that.

“I would add groundbait to my pellets, as an impact feed, if I’m on a lot of fish, and if I’m fishing close to a feature. Think about how groundbait acts in the margins – it gets the carp grubbing around. It’s the same idea. The downside would be more bream, if they are around in numbers.”

Will stuck to his guns for the

46 | Match Fishing

remainder of the session, and although he failed to tempt any more big carp, he was kept busy with action from Gold’s bigger F1s and the odd better skimmer to finish with around 40lb in the net at the finish.

“It’s been clear that the conditions, as it became brighter and warmer, affected the fish.

By the end you could see one or two big shadows swimming around on the top. Would I have switched to a pellet waggler in a match? Possibly not, unless I saw others catching on it.

“You can waste time chasing bites when there’s more of a chance of a bite by keeping it simple. Once you start to loose feed big pellets, it all but nullifies the feeder line, and if you don’t catch on the waggler, that can be the end of your match.

“In my opinion, if you keep it simple and do the basics well, you are going to keep fish coming to the net. Fish with a hook bait that you have complete confidence in and don’t try and complicate matters by chopping and changing with different colours and wondering if it’s the right bait.

“The important thing is not to be impatient and to keep your casting accurate, so that when a fish does feed, it finds that ‘dinner plate’ with your hook bait standing out in the middle of it.”

Not a bad short session haul, including that double-figure lump.

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O W T G I THE B

ve Words and pics: Da

Wesson

e on a new venug to an n io ss se g in sh castin der fi ollard for a fee eries, accurately We join MarkkePon many commercial fish ccess. where just li e right depth is the key to su area that’s th

hen I first worked for Match Fishing magazine and went out on features back in the late 1990s, one angler I always used to enjoy spending the day with was Mark Pollard. Now the opportunity had surfaced again and after speaking with Mark on the phone it felt like nothing had changed and we were arranging to go out of one of our monthly features like we used to do many years ago. A lot has changed in the world since then, but I’m pleased to say Mark Pollard hasn’t. Yes, the hair’s a bit thinner and what’s

W

48 | Match Fishing

left is grey, but it’s still the same Polly and even after 20 odd years it felt like it was only a couple of months since we last went out. His enthusiasm and love for match fishing is still as great as it ever was and like all top match anglers, he lives, breathes, eats and sleeps fishing and can’t get enough of it.

Over the years Polly has seen a lot of changes in the sport and he’s had to move with the times to stay at the top of the tree.

One area that’s developed more than others in recent times is feeder fishing, so that’s what we decided to concentrate on for this feature. Commercial

fisheries have had a big impact on fishing and these venues have spawned feeder designs that no angler would go fishing without these days. Method feeders, pellet feeders and Hybrid feeders have all proved to be deadly fish catchers and Method and Hybrid designs in particular are so good they are now a common sight on natural waters too where carp and bream are the target.

Polly is a big fan of fishing locally when his schedule allows, and there’s new venue close to Bedford that he was keen to show Match Fishing readers. It’s called Twin Lakes

MARK POLL AR Age: 57 D Lives: Bed Sponsor ford Hinders Bais: Matrix, ts, Sta Sports njay MF sa Makes it lo ys: ok easy

and by the time this magazine hits the shelves, it will be open for business.

“I started coming here about five weeks ago because the owner started running some ‘behind closed door’ matches for about 20 anglers,” he explained.

“With the fishery opening at the end of May, we wanted to see what the fishing was like in match conditions and whether the stocking and species density was right prior to the fishery opening its doors to the public.

I’ve fished three matches so far and it’s great because the fishing is very good and it’s only a few miles from home.

Polly’s bait for the day.

It should be 2lb but weighs nearer 4lb!

www.feeder-fishing.co.uk

| 49

“I want to be fishing right on the edge of the shelf where it drops off because it’s deeper, so casting has to be very accurate.”

Polly swaps to left-handed mode to net another carp.

“There are two lakes on site, Jack’s and Sam’s (named after Andy the owner’s twin sons), and Jack’s is the match lake while Sam’s is exclusively for pleasure anglers. There are 30 pegs on Jack’s and there are a couple of islands, and in some pegs you can reach the island with a pole but on others you can’t and it’s a short-chuck feeder approach. That’s what I’ve got today because the weather is horrendous with some heavy showers and a very strong wind, so I’ve gone up the far end of the lake to Peg 14 to sit with the wind off my back. It’s a bit wider here to the island so I’m going to be

50 | Match Fishing

fishing the feeder.”

Even a 16m pole would leave Polly well short of the island at this end of the lake, and though the spring weather is still cold enough to make fishing down the shelf into the deeper water a viable option, Polly wanted to show his feeder approach to the island because that provides a more accurate reflection of how the fishing will be when the lake opens.

“This lake is quite deep and both the nearside shelf and the shelf across to the island, drop off quickly into about eight feet of water,” Polly explained.

“It’s very deep and both shelves go out about one to one and a

half metres before they drop off quickly into the deep water.

Obviously if you reach the island with a pole this isn’t really a problem, but on the feeder it’s more of a challenge because I want to be fishing right on the edge of the shelf where it drops off because it’s deeper, so casting has to be very accurate. I reckon it’s between 20 and 22 metres where I’m casting today and I’ve got to be careful not to overdo it, because if I do, the line will hit the clip hard and ping the feeder back towards me and into the deep water.”

The target species are carp, which go to about 3lb, although

there are some chub and barbel to 1lb as well as a few skimmers, but in the matches so far carp have been needed to win. On the match last weekend, Polly won the silver fish prize with 38lb 10oz of barbel, so even if the carp don’t feed, or you draw in an area that doesn’t have many carp, you can still win some money and have a great day’s fishing by targeting the barbel and chub.

But today, carp are the target and with the carp in the venue still used to being fed on pellets, that’s what Polly is going to use on the feeder.

“Today I’m using a Matrix Horizon Pro Commercial 10ft

A simple inline rig.

No shortage of feeders to ?????????? choose from.

feeder rod with one of the new 25g Open Alloy Feeders,” said Mark. “I’ve got a 1.5oz tip in the rod and I’m not tightening down on it too much because even though the fish in here are new, they still drop the bait if the feel any resistance when they first pick it up. My hook is a size 16 and the hooklength is four inches of 0.16mm and I’m going to be using a banded fishery pellet on the hook or a wafter. You can band any pellet on the hook but you have to use fishery pellets for feed.

“I’ve got some 4mm, 6mm

Polly loads the feeder with a few squeezes of his thumb.

and micros with me and I’ll start with a 6mm on the hook and then take things from there.

I’ll be casting one and a half metres from the edge of the island and that puts me right on the edge of the shelf where it drops down into the deeper water. We’re well into spring now but it’s still more like winter fishing. I would expect that as the water begins to warm up, the tighter you’ll need to cast to the island to catch carp.

“As I said earlier I’m using fishery micros on the Alloy feeder but I’ve also mixed in

some of my favourite Hinders C-Food Expander Mix groundbait because I like to do this to add fine particles into the swim, which the fish will feed on without it filling them up.

If there were loads of small fish in here I might have problems using groundbait because I’d get pestered by them, but that’s not a problem at Twin Lakes and I always like to use a bit of groundbait if I can.”

The tricky thing on this peg is getting the cast right as it’s too far for an underarm cast, and too short for a normal cast.

Polly is an expert though, and makes it look easy. Raising the rod and beginning to push the rod behind as he normally would when winding up for a traditional cast, he then stops the rod when it’s vertical above him, pauses for a second to let the feeder swing behind, and then pushes forward with the rod to gently send the feeder out. Then normal service resumes as he pulls the rod back towards him when the feeder is in the air ready to cushion it when it hits the clip. I say ‘normal’ but it’s not quite normal

Another perfect Twin Lakes carp.

Ready for casting.

www.feeder-fishing.co.uk

| 51

You can see how new the venue is.

e stamp.

This is the averag

with Polly because he casts left handed and after the feeder hits the water he swaps the rod back over so he’s holding it on the reel seat with his right hand.

He’s become so efficient at this that unless somebody pointed it out you probably wouldn’t even notice! He swaps the rod over to net fish left handed too!

“It’s taken 10 minutes and five casts to get my first bite and fish,” he said. “On this type of venue at this time of year, I only leave the feeder in for two minutes if I don’t get a bite.

This ensures the peg is being fed regularly because you need to keep bait going in just like you would if you were fishing the pole. After the first fish though, the feeder is rarely in for two minutes because bites are coming every cast.

“I love the fish in here, not only are they absolutely immaculate, they’re almost the same shape as big perch as they’re more round than long and they really do weigh heavy for their size. I reckon I’ve had fish today that are the same size as a 2lb fish but weigh 4lb!

I wouldn’t describe the fishing as easy because you have to put the feeder in the right place to catch and casting closer to the island, or shorter and dropping the feeder down the shelf, doesn’t produce many bites.

“On most commercials fish like to be at a certain depth

52 | Match Fishing

Accurate casting into four feet of water has been the key today.

at various times of the year and on the edge of the shelf it provides the depth the fish want to be at. Being about one and a half metres short of the island, I reckon I’m fishing in around four feet of water today.

Obviously as it gets warmer they will look for shallower water but even against the island there’s still a good depth

of water. This will make for some interesting fishing this summer, especially on these feeder pegs that are too wide to fish across on the pole.”

This would be exactly the same if Polly was fishing the margins on the pole. The best place to fish would be out from the bank in the deeper water because even though it’s the

beginning of May, the water still hasn’t warmed up much from winter temperatures. By the time you read this, it could (and should!) be a lot different as air temperatures begin to rise and are more in line with what they should be at this time of the year.

Watching Polly fish was a joy and even with his unconventional technique of swapping hands, he never made a bad cast and landing the feeder in the right spot meant a bite was pretty much guaranteed. Once thing I’ve learnt about feeder fishing on commercials over the last couple of years is just how important it is to cast accurately. An angler that casts accurately will generally catch more fish than an angler that doesn’t (obviously there are exceptions to that statement, before I get loads of emails!) and as an experiment Polly made a couple of casts tight to the island and a couple a metre short and the difference was chalk and cheese because of the difference in depth.

If casting isn’t one of your strengths when it comes to feeder fishing, practise it and keep practising until you get good, because it will dramatically improve your weights. Knowing where you need to cast then becomes the hard bit!

PRESTON INNOVATIONS BANJO XR FEEDERS

DUELLING BANJOS

It seems that every other brand has a range of feeders out these days, but what is it that sets Preston Innovations’ new range of Banjo XR Feeders apart? n its highly successful and equally popular ICS range of interchangeable stems and feeders, Preston Innovations includes maggot feeders, cage feeders, Method feeders, distance Method feeders, pellet feeders and match cubes – a pretty comprehensive range to be all things to all commercial fishery feeder anglers. Well, almost.

There is also a Banjo feeder in the range, but the Preston development team thought this design could do with a shake-up and has radically transformed it.

The original Preston Banjo feeder was born a while ago now, and its creator was, yes, you guessed it, the one and only Andy Findlay. Looking like, well,

I

54 | Match Fishing

a banjo really, Fin’s idea was a simple but clever evolution of the flat Method feeder.

Where the flat feeder has a flat weighted base with a few narrow ribs to stick groundbait or pellets on to, the Banjo had a similar base but with a round bowl built on top of it. A

vertical side wall ran around the disc of metal forming the base of the feeder, so packing it with bait was easy as the bowl effectively retained the feed and protected it from the force of the cast and the impact of the water, allowing all of your bait to hit the bottom. It was easy to load and versatile, enabling you

to use as much or as little bait on the feeder as you wanted. For a while it swept all before it – yet another success for the Fin. Following on from that came the ICS Banjo feeder, and as with all things it evolved and improved, with a shape that had become somewhat more aerodynamic. Slightly elongated in the front part of the body it nevertheless retained that certain roundness; with ventilated base and made of zinc alloy it came in a range of sizes but now with all of the advantages of the ICS system.

Now though, in its latest incarnation, the Banjo XR’s shape has been made beautifully aerodynamic, with a rounded nose weight melding into a thin, solid base that carries a robust plastic case and sidewall that help hold the payload in on the cast and on impact with the water. With plenty of weight at the nose the feeders fly through the air like missiles on the cast – XR stands for Extreme Range – while the metal base ensures they land right side up on the lake bed every time.

There are no bars or ribs on this design of feeder, so there is nothing to obstruct the hook bait when placed in the mould and the feeder is filled. And with no ribs to get in the way, the hook bait is easily accessed by carp as they compete to be first to the food. As with previous Banjo feeders it can be used with both pellets and groundbait, or a mix of the two.

This latest evolution of the popular Dura Banjo feeder is the perfect option for carp, skimmers and F1s when you want to protect your feed more than on a standard Method feeder. Suitable to be used at any distance, the weight forward design means they can be fished at extreme range with ease, while the plastic and lead combination ensures that all of the weight can be positioned in the perfect area of the feeder for distance and accuracy.

As part of the ICS System the Banjo XR Feeder allows the angler to alternate feeder sizes and weights without disassembling the entire rig.

There is a separate mould available for each size of Banjo XR feeder.

Available in a range of three sizes and weights: • Small, 20g, 30g and 45g • Medium 20g, 30g, 45g and 60g • Large 30g, 45g and 60g • RRP: £2.99 • Mould RRP: £3.79

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 55

EAST ANGLIA’S Secluded away in the Cambridgeshire countryside, this complex consists of seven lakes, on-site tackle shop and café, caravan site and holiday lodges. All lakes are exceptionally well stocked with carp, F1’s, tench, roach, rudd, perch, and the odd ornamental, providing good sport for all match and pleasure anglers. There is a lake to offer sport for anglers of all abilities and ages, with staff on hand to make sure you pick the right lake for you.

As well as excellent fishing, the on-site café offers a freshly cooked Full English breakfast every morning, made with local butcher’s sausages – a big hit with the local anglers and non-anglers.

The café also offers a selection of sandwiches, snacks, hot beverages and even bottled beer to keep you going through the day. For club matches, the staff in the café can organise an after-match meal, followed by a presentation with tea and coffee.

Unlike many tackle shops located on commercial fisheries, Tackle & Bates offers the visiting angler the complete package. Not only do we carry a large stock all major brands, including rods, reels, nets, seatboxes and accessories, plus all terminal accessories that you’ll need for your next session, we also have a huge selection of brands for the more select match anglers, including Hayabusa, Colmic, Tubertini and Cresta to name just a few.

For all café and accommodation enquiries please call Becky on 07884 180 768 The new self-catering holiday lodges at Rookery Waters offer a great, relaxing breakaway with, of course, great fishing included in the price.

Situated overlooking the oldest lake on the complex, you can fish right outside your front door with views of the Cambridgeshire countryside beyond. All lodges have two twin/double bedrooms, kitchen, living area and bathroom. Rookery Waters also has a caravan site, each pitch has its own private fishing platform in-front, electric hook-up, water and Wi-Fi.

As well as offering a huge selection of tackle, we also have in store a comprehensive selection of groundbait, hook baits and liquids from all major brands including Sonubaits, Sensas, Ringers, Van Den Eynde, Spotted Fin, Dynamite Baits, Mainline, Match, Hinders and more.

We also supply fresh baits including maggots, pinkies,

squatts and worms, while our casters are produced daily in store by our experienced bait team.

As well as over the counter sales, Tackle & Bates now has a very busy eBay store; to find us, please look up our selling page – tackleandbates1989 – for reliable and fast service.

If you are looking for an item and don’t use eBay, you can order over the phone and we accept all major

PLEASE CALL 07824 878492 TO SPEAK TO OUR EXPERIENCED STAFF FOR ALL ENQUIRIES OR TO PLACE AN ORDER. ROOKERY WATERS, ROOKERY FARMS, FEN ROAD, PIDLEY, CAMBRIDGESHIRE, PE28 3DF www.rookerywaters.co.uk

58 FINE MARGINS When it comes to catching carp down the edge, there are few better at it than Nick Speed. Here are some of his secrets for targeting wary carp in the margins.

66 FISH AND WHIPS There are plenty of edges to help you win matches where small fish dominate and here Des Shipp shows you the tricks of the trade to boost your catches.

74 VENUE DETECTIVE Andy May visits another top fishery that’s well worth giving a go, Aston Park Fisheries near Sheffield.

80 UP CLOSE Kristian Jones tests the new Air Z Pro pole from Daiwa.

You’ll want to phone your bank manager for this one!

POLE FISHING www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 57

POLE FISHING

s n i g r a M e Fin HALLCROFT FISHERY Notts DN22 7RA .uk www.hallcroftholidaypark.co

58 | Match Fishing

rp down the edge, When it comes to catching ca nagement than ma there are few better at swim his thoughts and of me so Nick Speed. Here are in the margins. secrets for targeting wary carp

NICK S P Ag EED Lives: e: 49 S h effield Sponso rs Dynam : Shimano, ite Bait s M Class a F says: ct and thinker a big

t commercial fisheries, margin fishing, especially during the warmer months of the year, is without doubt one of the most important approaches for producing a large percentage of your overall weight in match conditions.

Looking back over the years, it’s interesting to note that this is a part of my swim management that has helped me win countless matches on the commercial scene. More importantly though, on days when all else has failed this has been one approach that has elevated my position from zero to hero on more occasions than I can remember.

As with every commercial venue across the country, it’s in the nature of fish to gain confidence as the day progresses and explore the margins for food. However,

A

what’s so intriguing to me with this style of fishing is understanding that these specific ‘edge investigators’ have seen it all before, and this is one area of angling that is really testing your fishing intelligence and timing against the cleverest strain of carp in the lake.

I’m sure it’s a story we’ve all told: “I’ve not really caught a lot down the margins late on, but after the match finished my edge lines were solid with carp, cleaning up!” This is frustrating, but the perfect example of how intelligent these fish really are and a true testament to why we as anglers, understand very little about their awareness to our presence on the bank.

It comes down to one of the only facts that we truly understand, which is that end pegs, or pegs with space, provide fish with the confidence to move in

and investigate earlier in the day compared to pegs without as much space.

And by understanding the above it really does help you understand how, when and where to target the margin dwellers, which, if executed correctly, can really fool those large, wary carp to feed down the margins a lot earlier.

I wanted to share my thought process on this paramount discipline that undoubtedly every match angler needs in their armoury, so what better place could I think of to demonstrate this process?

None other than Hallcroft Fishery near Retford, as this is the perfect commercial venue that demonstrates how margin fishing can be a real game changer in your match results.

I’ve sat myself on the Moat Pool, Peg 105, which as location goes is one of

the most consistent areas on this 188-peg lake. Looking to my left I can comfortably see down the bank to the next platform, but to my right, although it looks inviting, I’m going to have to think carefully where to fish as this particular platform is a lot closer.

Ideally I’m thinking about actually fishing over the top of it where there’s a small clump of reeds just beyond.

But as always in match conditions, swim management is dictated by how much space you have so let’s put this in a match scenario. My first job after arriving at my peg is always accessing what is actually my peg or zone.

Now as a general rule it’s halfway between you and the next angler, but often it’s the case you may have more space on one side than the other, so in this instance the next angler

“This is one area of angling that is really testing your fishing intelligence and timing against the cleverest strain of carp in the lake.”

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 59

POLE FISHING to fish, as this alone saves you masses of time looking for the correct depth with a plummet. However, you can also easily detect other key factors like what the substrate is like, are there any snags or hidden

obstructions, but above all this helps you decide how you’re going to feed your peg and in what way. As it turns out this particular area is virtually identical in depth (just over two feet deep) regardless of which

Test the depth and the bottom with a landing net pole. to my right is three pegs away. I can’t stress enough how important it is to make the most of this extra space. What I mean by this is not necessarily fishing further down the bank, but actually feeding this area a lot earlier in the match (and possibly in a different way) than the left hand line where my next angler is only two pegs away.

My next step is to approximately measure the depth down the margins with a landing net pole in the areas I’m intending

“With this approach it’s about making the most of even the smallest window of feeding fish and often even the closing minutes of a match.”

… and here it is.

60 | Match Fishing

side I fish, and this makes it easier when it comes to rig selection and how I’m going to feed and with what bait.

The next job is to select and prepare the bait and with this style of fishing

First carp of the day successfully steered into open water…

preparing your groundbait in advance is paramount if you’re to get the best out of it. When it comes to groundbait choice for margin carp, especially during the spring months when the water clarity is still reasonably high, I’m a big believer in using quite a fluffy, dark mix, especially in depths up to two and a half feet, and for this reason I use a recipe of Dynamite Green Swim Stim, Feeder Formula and Black Milled Expander.

To me, this mix does exactly what I want it to do and during the spring months I want to create a cloud, as opposed to a bed of bait, as this extra colour and resulting camouflage

really does help speed up the process of fish investigating and feeding in your feed zone. I also add micro pellets to this. However, during the warmer months when the fish are feeding more confidently, I rely on a more dense mix of Green Swim Stim and Marine Halibut, as this inert mix helps create a bed of feed as opposed to a cloud. The key though (in my opinion), is the hook bait and choice of particle feed, if any!

Today I’ve gone for my go-to sweetcorn and maggot approach, as both these baits are extremely efficient in their own way. Sweetcorn is my number one edge bait as it’s bright, which acts as a contrast bait, it’s heavy,

The UK’s No.1 match bait

NICK’S MARGIN HOOK BAITS Single corn.

Bunch of maggots.

• Unique formula & exclusive feed triggers • Contains Koi Technology

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RECYCLABLE PACKAGING Double corn.

• The best selling Groundbait, Pellets & Liquid range

POLE FISHING

A typical margin fish for The Moat.

Nick’s groundbait with micro pellets. which helps create better bait presentation, and it’s of a soft texture, which carp love.

More importantly though, it’s a brilliant ‘priming’ bait as it’s so versatile for feeding by hand and making lots of noise if you really want to ring the dinner bell. However, the only disadvantage to corn is it doesn’t sit efficiently on your hook, and by this I mean it moves position, which often results in poor bait presentation. When you’re sat there catching steadily down the edge sweetcorn is great, but as soon as more fish arrive I want a more efficient hook bait that not only creates great bait presentation, but also allows me to stay in the water for

62 | Match Fishing

Number one bait is sweetcorn.

longer between each proper bite. In this instance a bunch of maggots is my only choice.

Rig choice is next and because I now know approximately what the depth is, I can immediately pick the correct rig, which for this particular depth is a cut down 4x14 Malman Adam on 0.21mm Aero Slick Silk 0.21 and 0.19mm hooklength to a size 12 Tubertini 175 hook.

The weight of the rig is my first consideration as I want a rig that is stable, especially where large edge carp are the target, as it’s in their nature to create a vast amount of water movement as they waft their massive tails around as they search for food.

For this reason, I want a float that allows me to

determine the difference between a false indication and a proper bite, and even in depths of 12 inches a heavier float like 0.5g really does enhance bait presentation.

With this approach it’s about making the most of even the smallest window of feeding fish and often even the closing minutes of a match, so for this reason a no-nonsense positive rig is paramount.

Swim Management As I said earlier regarding the space to my right hand line, this is where I’m going to target first as it looks the most inviting, but also I’m a big believer in only feeding one side initially. The interesting point I want to make is that it’s amazing how many times

Heavy lines are a must. the side that looks the least inviting is usually the side that produces best on the day, so always bear that in mind, and it’s for this reason that I always try to find the same depth either side when possible as this gives me the option of rotating if I need to. As a golden rule though, always start by feeding the side with more space.

When I plumb this swim up, I find that the area to my right just past the platform has a level clear bottom, whereas on my less inviting left hand side, the shelf is slightly more acute.

I immediately begin to feed the right hand side with a few helpings of corn to initially make some noise, and after leaving it for 20

Nick’s rig.

minutes I then feed one large pot of groundbait with micro pellets and just a few grains of corn mixed in. This is followed by my rig straight in over the top, which to no surprise produces no signs of fish present after a biteless 10 minutes. At this point, especially in match conditions, I would make the immediate decision to rest it a little bit longer, as I’m a big believer that speeding up the process of fish moving over the feed is helped by not having a rig in the water. Initially, as fish start investigating, they only come into the trapped area in ones and twos and at this point,

when they’re present in small numbers, carp are extremely wary.

I always regard this principle as similar in habit to feeding ducks. Try and feed one duck and it’s extremely cautious, but as soon as his mates realise there’s some food up for grabs it’s a completely different story as they’re confidently getting closer to you and waiting for the next helping. It’s nearly always beneficial to refrain from fishing down the edge waiting for them to arrive, as I believe this delays the time it takes for those larger, wary carp to gain the confidence needed to feed because I’m

“I’m a big believer that speeding up the process of fish moving over the feed is helped by not having a rig in the water.”

www.matchfishingmagazine.com

| 63

POLE FISHING

convinced they know there is a rig in the water.

After another 20 minutes rest, I decide to feed again with another cloud of groundbait, followed immediately by my rig, and this time within 30 seconds of the rig settling I’m into the first edge fish of the day, a cracking common carp around the 8lb mark.

Not a huge fish, but a great stamp to catch. This is the interesting part as most anglers would immediately drop straight back in to try and catch another, thinking that they’ve arrived. But, as I stated earlier, this is the critical time and if you try to push your peg too early it will cause a delayed response. For this reason I re-feed my peg once more, but this time I leave it alone for another 10 minutes as this is the critical point where I’m trying to attract more than one fish into my peg and resting it again often pays dividends.

Ten minutes later I repeat the process, which results in another very quick bite, but more importantly as I hook into the fish, I can see several other carp spook from the vicinity, which shows they’re really getting interested. I now feed another pot

Part of Nick’s margin haul from Hallcroft.

of groundbait immediately, which results in another immediate bite. I suppose in a way, the beauty of fishing is never really knowing what might happen next and in this instance this is exactly the case. Just as I feel the swim is getting stronger I’m

They’re not all massive, but at times they take some catching.

64 | Match Fishing

then faced with zero signs of fish willing to move over the feed so I decide to feed my back-up line to the left.

Not forgetting that I’ve fed zero bait on this particular line up to this point, I feed one pot of groundbait containing a few grains of corn with the intention of leaving it for 10 minutes.

However, after only a couple of minutes I glance down to the left to see at least one carp over my bait. This goes to

show that no matter what we think, there are certain areas of your peg where fish prefer to feed, regardless of how it looks, but in my opinion I think the quiet, untouched side has a lot to do with it! For this reason I start to concentrate down the left hand side as it’s so obvious which side the carp feel most comfortable feeding on, and within a short space of time I’m catching a carp nearly every time after re-feeding the peg. The interesting point I want to make is I occasionally feed my right hand line just out of curiosity, and it’s no surprise that this only produces one more lone carp whereas the left hand side was absolutely solid!

So, for all the above reasons, it’s always important to keep an open mind when targeting margin carp and having a back-up line wherever possible, which can often turn out to be the most successful area, even if it’s in the closing stages of a match.

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POLE FISHING

FisAhnd

DES S HIPP A Lives: Yge: 52 a Sponso te, Bristol rs Innova : Preston ti Sonub ons, a MF say its One of s the ver : y best

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can adopt to help There are plenty of tricks you fish dominate you win matches where small tricks of the and Des Shipp shows you the ur catches. trade to boost yo

o demonstrate the art of whip fishing, I’ve come to a fantastic venue called Durleigh Reservoir, which is just outside Bridgwater in Somerset. It’s a big, natural venue and the reason I’ve come here is because natural venues are making a bit of a comeback with anglers, and it’s also full of small fish so it should be ideal for what I want to

T

66 | Match Fishing

show you today.

Durleigh is a large, open expanse of water and not knowing the venue well (I last fished here about 20 years ago), I’ve decided to head down the left bank about halfway along and after a quick look I decide that it’s as good as anywhere! The water up by the dam wall is obviously much deeper, but around the edge the depths are

DURLEIGH RESERVOIR 2AW Bridgewater, Somerset TA5 01278 424 786

quite similar, as you can see from the sloping bank, before dropping off into deeper water further out.

I can see some small fish plimping on the surface in this area and every now and then there’s an eruption of small fish as they try and escape what is obviously a hunting pike or two. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that pike don’t give me too much trouble today!

Groundbait Before I go into detail about the baits in general, it’s important to spend some time explaining the groundbait I’m using, because a good mix is crucial for catching small fish on the whip. I’m not too sure what species I’ll be catching today but normally on this type of venue small roach and skimmers will be dominant so that’s what

Mix on the wet side initially,

Des’ mix.

Particles added and ready to feed.

“Normally on this type of venue small roach and skimmers will be dominant so that’s what my mix is aimed at.”

my mix is aimed at. I’ve got three bags of three different groundbaits with me and they’re all going into the bucket together to form a 3kg mix.

The first bag is Black River, which as the name suggests is a dark mix.

It’s also quite sticky so it will bind everything else together and allow me to add plenty of loose particles to it and still be able to

mould a ball with a firm squeeze. I’m also adding a bag of Lake, which has coriander in it, which I love.

I use this groundbait on rivers too and it’s always in my overall mix when I’m targeting silver fish.

Finally, I’ve got a bag of Pro Thatchers Original and this has fishmeal in it, which I think is needed on a venue like this that sees plenty of pellets etc introduced by

carp anglers.

I don’t want a dry mix so I add two pints of water in one go straightaway and after mixing that in I know immediately that I need to add more. So in go another two pints of water in one go, which I mix in and then leave it for 20 minutes. After that time I add a touch more water and put it through a riddle and the resulting mix is perfect.

Other Baits I’m just going to run though the other baits I’ve got with me today, starting with corn. I’ve a got a tin on my side tray and I’ll add a few kernels to my initial groundbait that I’ll be feeding at the start of the session. The plan is to start on an 11m pole with a short line and I’ll also regularly feed the whip line and move on to it as soon as I

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POLE FISHING

Casters are for feeding only. think it’s ready. Next up is a tub of worms and I’m not really expecting to feed any today, I’ve just got some with me so I can fish with the head of a worm on the hook. This is a great hook bait for small fish because it allows you to catch several fish before the bait needs changing.

Next are some mainly red maggots with the odd white in there too and I’ve probably got just over a pint of these, which I’ll be using on the hook. I

Hemp for feed and tares to try on the hook. may have to feed some if the fishing is harder than I’m expecting and that’s why I’ve got more than I need for the hook. I’ve also got a couple of pints of casters and I’ll be adding these to the groundbait as well as loose feeding them. I doubt I’ll be using these on the hook because they’ll just get smashed by small fish.

Finally, I’ve got some hemp and tares and the hemp is a great bait to use in your groundbait and for

A better stamp fish!

Maggots are the main hook bait.

Worms can be great on the hook.

loose feed, while the tares are there as a hook bait option if I feel there are one or two bigger roach in the swim but I’m struggling to get to them with maggot on the hook.

I’ve tried not to overcomplicate things today but I’ve still set up four whips! That’s what I’d do in a match so I think it’s important I show you that today.

I’ve got two 4m and two 3.5m whips set up but the rigs are actually pretty simple and it breaks down to a light and a heavy rig at both lengths. All my whips are set up with a short length of either 0.22mm fluorocarbon or braid on

the fine carbon tips and this line is attached on the end of the tip with a blob of glue and then a short length of silicone tubing is threaded on to this and slid on to the end of the flicktip.

The result is about four inches of fluorocarbon or braid hanging from the end of the whip with a knot in the end, and this is what I attach my rigs to.

So, the heavy rig on my 4m whip has 0.18mm main line and a 1.5g Inter Carbon float, which is heavy for three feet of water but when there’s a swim full of ravenous small fish I might need this rig to get my bait down to the better fish on the bottom. Incidentally, for any rigs where you’re fishing to hand, always use a carbon stemmed float because they don’t wrap over in the air like a wire stemmed pattern would do. Further down I’ve got a 1.25g olivette that’s held in place with some No8 shot, and I’ve then got two No8 shot on the hooklength knot, which is six inches of

“I drop each ball in from a height to make some noise and I’ve squeezed them quite firmly because I want them to go straight down without forming a cloud.”

68 | Match Fishing

Des gets into the swing.

The light float.

The heavy float.

0.12mm fluorocarbon to a size 14 Natural N-10 hook.

Fluorocarbon is great when you’re catching lots of fish because the line stays straight and doesn’t kink like traditional mono.

My lighter 4m whip features a more traditional whip style float and it’s a Sensas 4x16 pattern that gets used a lot when I’m away on international duty on venues where small fish are important. Main line is again 0.18mm and the shotting is simply a neat bulk of No8s on the hooklength knot, which is four inches of 0.12mm fluorocarbon and again to a size 14 Natural N-10 hook.

It’s a lighter rig but it’s still very positive.

The heavy 3.5m whip rig has the same line and hook as my 4m rigs but it has a 0.75g Inter Carbon that’s shotted with a neat bulk of No8 shot with two No8 shot on the hooklength knot. The light 3.5m whip has the same Sensas float as my light 4m rig, but because I’m fishing closer in with a shorter length of line I’ve gone for a lighter 4x14 model with a bulk of

No8s on the hooklength knot. Lines and hook pattern are the same as my other rigs.

The main thing I want to catch on today is the whip but I don’t know really know what’s going to happen so I’ve also set up an 11m pole, and this is what I’ll start the session on while I build the whip line up. I’ve set up a light and heavy rig for this line too so starting with the light rig, which has my favourite No6 Slip elastic, which I love for small fish.

The float is a 4x16 Inter Carbon on 0.18mm main line and the shotting is a positive bulk of No8s just above the hooklength knot – very similar to the whip rig. Hooklength and hook are the same as I’m using on my whip rigs.

My heavy rig has a 1.5g Inter Carbon float and the lines and hook are the same as all the other rigs.

Shotting is a 1g olivette locked with No8 shot and I’ve got two No8s sitting on the hooklength knot. Right, they’re my rigs, let’s get fishing!

First thing I’m going to

do once I’m sat on my box and ready to fish is get the groundbait ready for feeding on my 11m line. I take four good handfuls of my mix and place it into a separate bowl and then I add all the particles I want to feed. I don’t measure the particles, I’m just adding a good handful of casters, the same of hemp, a handful of corn and finally just a few tares to finish it off. Once all the particles are added I’ve got enough in my bowl to mould four balls and I’ve made them just the right size to fit snugly in my pole cup.

I drop each ball in from a height to make some noise and I’ve squeezed them quite firmly because I want them to go straight down without forming a cloud and the fish will have to headbutt the groundbait to get the particles out. I add more groundbait to the bowl after feeding the 11m line and add more casters, hemp and corn… this is the mix I’ll be plopping in on the whip line.

I’m going out with my 1.5g rig to start with and it does look wrong in the

shallow depth of water. But I need to be positive and get my double red maggot hook bait down to the bottom fast, so the smaller fish in the upper layers don’t get the chance to attack it on the way down. I get indications immediately and even with the heavy rig on, there are still fish attacking the bait on the way down and holding the float up! I manage to hit a few bites though, and a succession of small roach and skimmers are quickly added to the keepnet as well as the odd larger skimmer, which I’m still able to swing with the No6 elastic.

All the while I’m fishing at 11 metres I’m feeding small balls of groundbait on the 4m whip line, and if the number of bites I’m getting at 11 metres is anything to go by, it’s going to be too slow compared to the whip if there are this many fish about! It’s a fish a chuck to begin with, with roach ranging from 1 to 3oz, and small skimmers, or ‘pommies’ as they’re also known, averaging 2 to 3oz so the stamp of fish isn’t too bad.

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POLE FISHING

Durleigh Reservoir.

A typical stamp of roach.

“If you can unhook a fish a second or two faster, the time saving over the course of a five hour match is huge.”

One a bung in a setting like this… does it get any better?

70 | Match Fishing

TOP TIP If you’re serious about your whip fishing it’s worth investing in a hard case to carry them all in. Because I fish whips quite often when I’m on England duty, I own quite a few and I keep them all in a single hard case with rigs attached so I can literally take the rig off the winder, extend the whip and I’m ready to fish. All my whips are telescopic so it’s really fast to extend them and just as quick to pack them away. You can class this is a very specialist bit of angling luggage, but there’s nothing better for storing your whips in ready to go with rigs attached.

I’ve been fishing for about 20 minutes now and the fishing so far has been unbelievable. What I’ve done to help me get the bait down even faster and hit more bites, is move the bulk down the line so it’s now sitting with the two No8 droppers on the hooklength knot. It’s crude but it’s working and I’m not getting many hold-ups at all now and the float is settling as the bulk gets down through the fish unscathed.

I’ve had a couple of 4oz fish but to be honest, I’m really itching to get on the whip because if there is the same number of fish close in as I’ve got at 11 metres, it could be a real bagging session. But that’s what the whip is for, it’s for catching small fish quickly close in and if they are there in numbers I can show you some of the tricks that I’ve learnt over the years fishing in the World Championships. I’ve been feeding small balls of groundbait on the whip line since the beginning of the session so there’s no reason why the fish shouldn’t be there waiting for me.

TOP TIP Always use a long shanked hook for whip fishing. The Natural N-10 pattern is perfect and the long shank is beneficial for two reasons. Firstly, it’s brilliant for threading a single maggot up the shank so the bait still looks as natural as possible – a shorter shank would squash the maggot on the shank so the bait would look compressed. Secondly, a long shank is easier to find and hold when you’re unhooking a fish. If you can unhook a fish a second or two faster compared to using a shorter shanked hook, the time saving over the course of a five hour match is huge. Again, it’s a small thing that makes a big difference.

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POLE FISHING TOP TIP

Des’ swim.

Hook the maggot through the pointed end.

Push along the shank.

This will catch several fish.

TOP TIP What I’m also doing at the moment, and I’ll be doing this when I go on the whip, is threading a single maggot up the shank of the hook.

This is great tip for catching small fish quickly and you need to do it because when maggots are hooked in the traditional way, they get ragged easily and you’ll find

72 | Match Fishing

yourself putting a fresh bait on after each fish. What I do is push the hook point in the narrow end of the maggot and thread the bait carefully around the shank of the hook. Because the hook is now inside the bait, it takes a lot longer to get ragged and I can catch up to 10 fish on the same bait before it needs changing. Yes, it takes longer to bait up, but it’s so much faster than having to rebait after every fish. Older, tougher maggots are also better than fresh bait for this type of fishing.

I’ve started fishing the whip with my 4m light rig and the first few minutes the float doesn’t even look like settling as the bait is intercepted as soon as the rig hits the water. I miss a few bites to begin with but then I start catching fish because I’ve learnt to recognise the bites and I’m catching steadily. The fish seem a bit bigger than they were on the 11m line too so now I’ve got to feel my way into this so I can find out the best depth, the best shotting, the best rig and the best feeding technique to get myself into a rhythm of catching. I want to be coming back with a fish every cast and it might take me a short while of fishing to get a feel for it and figure out the best way to really get these fish coming fast.

This is great tip that I’ve learnt when bleak fishing in the World Championships. When it becomes a small fish race, as bleak fishing often is, every second counts. If you can save a second every time you catch a fish, that will equate to a lot more fish in the net at the end of five hours. You can do that by unhooking the fish and then, before you drop it in the keepnet, hold the bulk in the same hand you’re holding the fish and cast out. Then, once the rig is back in the water, you can drop the fish into the keepnet. This saves a lot of time over five hours and in a small fish race, you’ll be faster than anglers who don’t do this. Takes a bit of practice to do, but it’s worthwhile if you can master it.

I fished with the 4m whip for about 15 minutes before changing to the 3.5m whip and the light rig. There were plenty of fish there and all the while when I was fishing at four metres, I was deliberately feeding short of the float so I could fish even closer in. You’d be surprised at how much easier it is to fish a 3.5m whip compared to a 4m one; it’s only a 0.5m difference, which doesn’t sound a lot but when you switch from one to the other the difference is huge.

Threading the maggot up the hook shank is working a treat and I’m catching seven or eight fish before I need to change the bait and sometimes I can catch that many in a minute! It’s full of fish and every now and then the surface erupts with small fish as they try and evade a pike (or two) that has been in the swim and chasing fish since I started fishing. I did have one on earlier when I was fishing at 11 metres but it bit me off and although they’re in the swim, it certainly isn’t slowing bites down.

The great thing about the whip is that I can lift fish straight out of the swim when one is hooked before a pike has time to lock on to it.

That’s a lot of fish!

I’ve been fishing the 3.5m whip for 90 minutes now and it’s been absolutely brilliant. The roach are all about 2oz each, there is the odd smaller one, which is as good as it gets really when catching fish this quickly so close in. You soon knock up a weight when there are two or three fish coming every minute (sometimes more) and it’s great to feel that things are working well.

What I’ve now done is come a foot off the bottom and group all the shot on the hooklength knot, because I want to be coming back with a fish every cast. Another great tip is not to strike, I’m using a short but firm lift instead so if I do miss a bite, the rig is still in the same area and I can let the float settle again to have another bite of the cherry. Again, saving a few seconds by not having to swing the rig in and cast again makes a big difference.

It’s been an hour since I last checked in with you and the fishing hasn’t relented, it’s been brilliant. I even had one or two bigger 6oz roach, which prompted me to try a tare on the hook and although I can catch fish on it and they are of a bigger stamp, it takes much longer to get a bite. It’s important that if you do want to try something a bit different that you don’t give it too

long because it can seriously disrupt your catching rhythm. Give something new a couple of minutes maximum and if it hasn’t worked in that time you need to change back quickly to whatever you were doing previously. I’m not feeding as much groundbait now and since I shallowed up to a foot off bottom I’ve been loose feeding mainly with hemp and casters.

Well, what a session this has been! Once I got on that 3.5m whip there was no looking back really and I’ve managed to catch a fish-achuck for three and a half hours. It was good to begin with but when I made the change to fishing a foot off bottom and loose feeding with just the odd ball of groundbait, the peg got even better. It was then a case of really concentrating on trying to catch a fish every cast and not trying to do things too quickly. Whip fishing is all about getting into a smooth rhythm and using those few little tricks I showed you to refine your fishing even more and spend more time in the water, which equals more fish in the net at the end of the match.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this feature and got plenty out of it, I’ve loved it and can’t wait to get the whips out over the next few months on some silver fish matches!

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Andy Power

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This month Andy May visits Aston Park Fisheries, a very popular venue on the outskirts of Sheffield.

Where To Visit

ASTON PARK FISHERIES

Set in over 25 acres of parkland in the Sheffield area ,with over 240 pegs available Aston Park is highly regarded as a premier fishery with a wide variety of species over seven lakes, and offers pleasure, match and specimen anglers an unrivalled choice for all their fishing needs, in one ideal location, close to the M1, A1 and M18.

All of the lakes have large stocks of fish, including various carp to 30lb plus, tench to 3lb plus, bream to 4lb plus, roach, perch, barbel, ide and crucians.

There are open matches every week and the fishery can also accommodate your match event for your business or club with ease, for a memorable day’s fishing. Aston Park have also run successful Fish ’O’ Mania qualifiers and NJA Junior National events.

Aston Park Fisheries Aston Way Off Mansfield Road Aston, Sheffield S26 5EP Tel: 07743 845737 www.astonparkfisheries.co.uk

74 | Match Fishing

haven’t a clue what’s happening with our weather! Freezing cold nights and then Hawaiian Tropic sun cream required through the day, whaaaat!

My hands and head are a lovely colour but then that’s where it ends, it looks like I’ve got gloves on when I wear a Tshirt! The wind has been pushing from

I

the east for what seems like forever and that’s really putting a chill into the days and as a consequence the fishing has been very difficult the last few weeks, with fish not playing ball until much later in the day. Most of my matches have just been back into winter mode dobbing bread, and I’ve even just sat

Andy May is a hugely respected, allround match angler, a silver medallist for England at youth level and threetime Matchman Of The Year! He is now arguably the top angling coach in the country and can be booked online at www.fishingcoaching.co.uk.

• 2016 Fish ‘O’ Mania champion • Three-time Kamasan Matchman Of The Year • Youngest ever Matchman Of The Year • World youth individual silver medallist • Full-time angling coach • All-round nice guy!

This is no chub!

“The place is just lovely with lakes dotted about here and there to cater for everyone.”

there slapping a pellet and not feeding anything! I know, me, not feeding anything… how dare I! So, now that I’ve got the excuses of the weather out of the way I’ll tell you where I’ve brought the Match Fishing cameras, ha-ha! You join me at the beautiful Aston Park Fisheries in

Bill’s Lake in the middle of shot.

Sheffield. I love this place, having only previously fished here twice before and I was proper giddy about coming to do my Venue Detective here. Alex Mitchell has done an amazing job in building this fishery up to be one of the best in the country. The place is just lovely with lakes dotted about here and there

to cater for everyone – you’ve got open water lakes and snake lakes and even a speci lake.

Also, I must say the food here is possibly the best I’ve ever encountered at a fishery, make sure to try the breakfasts folks, oh my days, amazing!

Alex has also got possibly the best

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It’s narrow but that’s perfect for the majority of anglers who visit.

ASTON PARK FISHERIES

Even the fishery pellets are attractively packaged.

Nothing complicated bait-wise.

Seven or eight pellets at a time is all I fed.

Best hook bait for chub.

76 | Match Fishing

stocked tackle shop I’ve ever seen at a fishery, he even has a pole alley where you can have a good waggle before you decide to buy. All the major brands are in stock so if you’re in need of anything then give Alex a call as I’m sure he will have it in.

On to the fishing then, and after asking some locals on where to go, as soon as one mentioned chub I had to go on that lake, best fish in the world aren’t they!? In previous visits here I’ve fished the Lily Pond, which is more of a speci lake and caught loads of ide, and also the Split Pond where I caught F1s and ide on a silver fish qualifier.

This time I decided on Bill’s Lake on Peg 23 as Alex advised that a few chub reside here, plus the lake is also full of carp and F1s. It’s a great concept in that the lake is no wider than 10 metres and it’s kind of within another lake called Butts, which is slightly larger. The idea was that everyone can compete on this lake and reach the far bank and it’s proved so popular. Average depths of four feet down the middle sloping up to inches across and with fish topping

everywhere despite the freezing cold weather – I couldn’t wait to get started.

BAIT Another nice and simple bait tray today, some 4mm and 6mm fishery own pellets along with two pints of red and white maggots, again from the on-site shop, were to be more than enough for a lovely few hours’ fishing.

RIGS I’ve set up three rigs today, one to fish across into 18 inches of water, where most of the commotion seemed to be coming from, and two shallow rigs. A conventional through the water rig and a jigger rig. I’m using a 0.4g float for across where the shelf is really steep so I’m making sure to pay attention to my markers, so I get in the same spot every time. I’m using 0.16mm main line and a 3in 0.12mm hooklength, hook is an 18 Guru SLWG with a little tiny band on a hair rig and I’ve got a bulk of five No8s just above the hooklength.

I’m using a small 0.1g float on my main shallow rig, again with 0.16 main line

Superb looking carp.

This new MAP elastic was perfect.

First chub of the day.

and 3in 0.12mm hooklength; the hook is the same size 18 but a spade end to use maggots straight on the hook. I’ve shotted this rig with three No11 shot and I’ve got around two and a half feet of line; if it’s like everywhere else I’ve been lately you get two or three fish maximum off one line and then have to change depth or swims, so that’s why I’ve set a jigger float up, which again has the same line and hooklength and five No8 shot just above the loop to loop.

I’ve set this float around three feet so I can search the water column. All the top kits have our new MAP Hybrid elastic 8 to 10 through them; this is lovely and forgiving and perfect through short top kits.

THE SESSION To start with I give it a good three feeds down the middle by hand with around 30 maggots to try and get those lovely chubs competing; I’m not interested in fishing on the bottom today, instead just want to concentrate on fishing shallow for them as, I’m not sure if most of you are aware, I do quite like to fish shallow, wohooo! I ship across with a few 4mm pellets in the pot and tip them in as accurately as I can get them with the wind; back shot are essential today, as too is a longer line from pole tip to float to try and avoid moving my float too much. Five minutes in and I’ve not had a bite so come back and re-feed; I’m already beginning to think I should have

just gone down the maggot route as the wind is playing havoc with presentation.

But I persevere and two minutes later hook my first fish of the day, an absolutely stunning looking mirror carp around 3lb, wohoooo! I’m feeding maggots down the middle around every two minutes, only around 15 to 20 but keeping them going in. Next go in across and again I’m into a lovely carp around the same size, in fact, I manage six in six put ins, all stunning little fish. I wait 10 minutes and don’t have a bite so decide to come back and re-feed, again another five minutes and no bites so I come off this line and try down the middle.

First slap over and I get a bite immediately but miss it, errrr, must have

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ASTON PARK FISHERIES

Chub on the jigger!

were It was tough but there ht. ug ca be to sh fi ll sti

Another carp heading to the net.

been a liner! Then next slap over as I go to hold the line tight, green elastic starts streaming out of my top kit, goooo on the chubs! Again, it’s an absolutely stunning looking fish around 1lb, lovely start. I’m fishing around two feet deep to start with, but the bites came within 12 inches of the surface, so I quickly shallow up to around 16 inches. Next go in as I feed and slap the rig in, I’m expecting an instant response but don’t get a bite, that chub I’ve just had must have been the same fish.

Realistically I’ve gone on the shallow

78 | Match Fishing

swim a little early, but the prospect of catching some lovely chubs proved to much for me to resist. I catch another two chub both around 1lb over the next 10 minutes but I’m going to change back to the far side and do some more priming on this line as it’s too slow.

Back across and the wind is getting stronger, I catch another carp and then an F1 straight after it but feel as though maggots will be better so make the switch. As I tipped around 20 maggots in through a small Toss pot my double white maggot got snaffled as soon as they touched the bottom – an angry chub was the culprit, shortly followed by three F1s and a carp; what a difference maggots have made. But, as so often has been happening in all my fishing over the last few weeks, you can’t catch any number of fish on one line, so I come off the far side again and try the shallow swim. Luckily this time that extra 20 minutes’ rest seems to have worked and I manage 15 chub in as

many put ins before the swim goes quiet again. I try the jigger to really search the swim but only manage one fish on it; I really thought I’d catch more on that.

To be honest the jigger isn’t a method I’ve used lots, so I think more practice is required with it.

Back across and another little run of fish before that swim goes quiet. I can’t resist one last fish down the middle and catch another lovely chub straightaway before we call it a day. My eyes are streaming so much from the cold wind and I can’t feel my hands as they are so cold, I’m going softer as I’m getting older!

To be honest, in just over three hours’ fishing it’s been great and I’ve around 40lb of fish, all in absolutely stunning condition and very angry. There was an open match on the lake in front of me on Butts today and they all seemed to be catching too; I may have to make a trip and fish some opens on here as it’s an awesome venue with lots of bites to be had. I can’t wait to come back soon.

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Up Close

UP CLOSE: DAIWA

FLAGS OUT FOR THE NEW FLAGSHIP! Kristian Jones casts his doubts aside as he takes the new Daiwa Air Z Pro Pole to the bank.

I

’m always sceptical when I see a tackle company release a new flagship pole that claims to be a big step up in quality from its previous model.

So when I saw the news that Daiwa had released the new Air Z Pro pole I couldn’t wait to have a go to see how it compared to its predecessor, the Air Z. Today I have plonked my box down on Peg 9 on the Island Pool on Heronbrook Fisheries, which is a peg that holds lots of fish but more importantly it makes for the perfect testing ground for a flagship pole, as you can reach the central island with a full 16 metres. This pole is exceptional when fishing at 13 and 14.5m lengths, as expected for a pole that has a price tag circa £7,000, however it isn’t until you add the final butt section that you are able to see quite what this pole is all about.

Shipping across to the island with a medium pole-mounted pot full of 4mm hard pellets what is instantly noticeable is there is very little tip bounce that could cause you to spill some bait on the way out. This is a problem you

80 | Match Fishing

find with most poles when fishing at long lengths, especially when using a power top kit with a decent hollow elastic running through it, like I am today. With the Air Z Pro there is no such issue and all my bait remains in my pot, ready to be deposited in the area I’ve chosen to fish, which today is across to a small set of pampas grass where there’s a lovely flat plateau of around two feet in depth.

As I wait for the first fish of the session to make an appearance it gives me a chance to have a good feel of the pole. One of the things that jumps out at me straightaway is just how light this pole is at full length. Daiwa claims this pole weighs 1,090g at 15.5 metres, which is nearly 300g lighter than the original Air Z Pole This massive improvement in weight has been achieved due to new NanoAlloy carbon technology, which has allowed Daiwa to create a super high-performance pole that makes fishing at long lengths more effortless than it’s ever been before.

One concern I did have when I read the specifications of this pole was that

the massive weight decrease would also coincide with a decrease in wall strength; however, I was proved wrong as I had a quick feel of the sections and they felt absolutely solid and I’m sure that this pole will prove more than strong enough for the vast majority of all pole fishing applications.

After a couple of minutes a quick dink of the float is followed by red elastic pouring out and the first carp of the session is hooked. Today we are experiencing another day of torrential rain and hail, which is following the theme of the weather we have had all through April and now into May, and one problem you can encounter when fishing at long lengths in adverse conditions is the pole sticking to your hands when shipping in and out.

However, the Diamond Satin finish on this pole eradicates this issue, making you much more efficient when shipping. As I get back to my top kit a couple of strips on the puller kit and the fish is under control and a common of around 6lb graces the net. A great first fish on the new Air Z Pro pole.

POLE SPEC Daiwa Air Z Pro 16M RRP: £6,999 SSP: £4,795

After feeding the peg a few times I have started to get quite a few line bites, which is often a problem you encounter when fishing with hard pellets but this is where having an ultra-stiff pole like this can massively improve your fishing, as it allows me to quickly lift up into a bite. Then, if I miss the bite I can then drop my rig immediately back into position as the tip recovery on the pole is so fast.

Often today I have missed a little bite and then dropped it straight back and hooked a fish soon after, which can give you a massive advantage during a match.

The kit package supplied with this pole is as comprehensive as you would expect and all the work is done for you as all the top kits are the same length (2.6m) and they all come pre-bushed with high quality pure PTFE bushes and a PTFE nose cone in the No3. This means you can have elastics all the way from a single No2 solid all the way up to a red Hydrolastic running through the same length kit, which is ideal for the angler who likes to fish a multitude

of venues. As well as this all the Interlastic kits come with a side puller bush already fitted, so all you have to do is thread them up with elastic and you are ready to fish.

If I’m honest, for the angler such as myself who fishes almost exclusively on commercial venues I do feel like the Interlastic Power Top kits are slightly too long and could make it difficult to control fish when looking to build a big weight quickly, due to the increased length of elastic. However, that is being very picky about an otherwise phenomenal pole from Daiwa and there are lots of extras such as the F1 Speed kits that you can buy to overcome this issue.

Overall it has been an absolute pleasure to fish with the Daiwa Air Z Pro here today at Heronbrook; in a couple of hours I have caught around 50lb of carp and big F1s, all fishing at 16 metres across to the island. Without doubt this pole is the best I have fished with and the only negative thing I can say about it is that I can’t afford one for my own personal use!

PACKAGES: More Power 2 x Match Top 4 Kits 6 x Interlastic Power Kits 4.7mm 3 x Interlastic Power Kits 5.8mm More Match 2 x Match Top 4 Kits 5 x Match Top 3 Kits 2 x Interlastic Power Kits 4.7mm 2 x Interlastic Power Kits 5.8mm Features • Interchangeable with all other UK-made Daiwa Poles • Diamond Satin Finish on 9,10 and 11 • ITS on 5,6,7 & 8, Hyper MSG Nanoplus Carbon • Bias Carbon V-JOINT • Section Alignment System Stated length: 16m Actual length: 16.2m (with PHEX 5) Topkit opkit length: 2.6m Top op four length: 4.1m Puller kits fitted? Yes on Interlastic Power Kits Pre-bushed? Yes Cupping kit supplied? Yes Holdall supplied? Yes

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New Gear

MATCH FISHING CHECKS OUT THE NEW PRODUCTS YOU WANT TO TAKE A LOOK AT THIS MONTH…

BENWICK SPORTS | DRAKE CANAL WAGGLERS www.benwick-sports.co.uk These lovely balsa wagglers are handmade in the UK and are perfect for casting across small canals and drains or using on whips when fishing to hand.

This model is basically unloaded with a small aluminium base, which has a micro waggler attachment fitted.

Available in: 1.5BB/0.6g, 2BB/0.8g, 2.5BB/1g, 3BB/1.2g, 3.5BB/1.4g, 4BB/1.6g, 4.5BB/1.8g RRP: £2.40

MATCH FISHING | CAP www.shopatdhp.com Support your favourite magazine with this smart, navy blue cap embroidered with a yellow logo. The hat also has a classy white sandwich strip on the peak.

One size fits all, with comfortable fabric adjustment strip at the back with metal buckle.

Price: £9.99

SHIMANO | AERO PRO MULTI NET HANDLE www.fish.shimano-eu.com Designed to accompany the new Aero rod range, this versatile and lightweight four-piece handle can be used at a range of lengths between three and four and a half metres, depending on the way you assemble the sections and utilise the extension piece. The sections are tapered to push the balance to the butt end, making the handle feel even lighter.

It has two screwed ends and is remarkably slim and strong.

Supplied in its own bag.

RRP: £169.99

MIDDY | SOFT-LAND PELLET STUBBEE BROWNING | XENOS SLOW SINKING FEEDER www.browning-fishing.com This is the same design as the Xenos Feeder, but with an innovative twist in that you can control the cage’s sinking speed to catch fish near the surface or in midwater, something not possible with conventional cage feeders. This method can be extremely effective for carp fishing on commercial fisheries.

A floating device attached to the bottom of the cage replaces the lead weight and features a small opening closed by a plug, by which you can balance the body with shot so that it will sink slowly or quickly. The cage floats if no lead is added.

Available in 25, 28 and 32mm sizes.

RRP: £1.90

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www.middytackle.com Soft-Land Pellet Stubbee floats have been designed by Lee Thornton and create minimal water disturbance when fishing up-in-the-water tactics, thanks to their reversed weights and extra light AAA-balsa construction.

Recommended for use with lighter lines and longer 12ft or 13ft rods to achieve good casting distances, but with a super-soft landing and very little splash! On venues where fish have become wise to the splash sound of a float entering the water, these are definitely good to try.

Available in three different weights: 1SSG (1.6g), 2SSG (3.2g) and 3SSG (4.8g).

RRP: £2.49

BAIT-TECH | PRO NATURAL GROUNDBAITS

SONUBAITS | POWER SCOPEX BAIT BOOSTER www.sonubaits.com Bait Booster has been around for a while in various flavours and is a big favourite of the likes of Des Shipp, Lee Kerry and Joe Carass. This new Power Scopex version is Andy Power’s flavour of choice and has helped him to numerous match wins.

All of the Bait Booster liquids in the range are incredibly sweet tasting and give your bait an added boost of flavour or can be used to fine-tune your pellets or groundbait. Added directly to feed pellets, groundbait, hook baits or feeders they give an instant hit of powerful flavour and help add a degree of stickiness to your micros when looking to load them around a Method feeder.

Supplied in an 800ml bottle.

RRP: £8.99

PRESTON INNOVATIONS | PRECISION PELLET WAGGLERS

www.bait-tech.com Bait-Tech has used all of its 25 years of bait manufacturing experience to develop Pro Natural as the number one choice for targeting wild fish on natural waters.

Designed for rivers and natural stillwaters, this versatile sweet range can be used to target all silvers. The Pro Natural Range is rich in coconut, molasses and hemp and will hold feeding fish in your swim for longer.

Available in 1.5kg bags in: Pro Natural – the original, its ingredients are designed to bind well and break down fast. Ideal for carrying plenty of feed particles this easy to mix groundbait is perfect for rivers, natural lakes and canals whether feeder and float fishing.

Pro Natural Dark – perfect for natural waters where the water is clearer. The darkening agent is a pure, natural ingredient that fish love and it won’t wash out.

Pro Natural Extra – developed to help carry more bait and bind better when used in deep water. Perfect for balling large volumes of bait.

Pro Natural Fine Lake Dark – an enhanced Pro Natural milled finer and made dark with a natural pigment, which means this groundbait holds its colour.

Pro Natural Bream and Pro Natural Bream/Dark – a classic bream mix, packed with sweet brazem, this easy to mix, sweet blend meets all your feeder and pole fishing requirements, available in natural or dark versions.

RRP: £5.19.

www.prestoninnovations.com Precision Pellet Wagglers are designed to eliminate the ‘wobble’ you often get when casting loaded pellet wagglers. They fly straight, and go where you cast them, making the smaller sizes perfect for ‘mugging’ large wary carp. Another bonus is that they don’t dive as soon as they hit the water, which can be a problem when fishing really shallow.

Made from 10mm diameter balsa with an extremely bright and visible tip, the soft rubber coated loading with built in swivel pushes on to a short cane stem to ensure it sits in the optimum position, right up against the float.

Available in 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6g sizes.

RRP: £2.75

COLMIC | F1 SPIDER LINE

DYNAMITE BAITS | XL LIQUIDS

www.colmic.it This premier line has been developed

by Italian match legend Jacopo Falsini alongside the Colmic development team and is best used as a reel line or a main line for pole rigs.

Incorporating Colmic’s NXGEN Fluotec technology, similar to that of fluorocarbon, it has high knot resistance, low stretch and is superstrong with good abrasion resistance against shot damage.

Available on 100m spools, the diameters most useful to UK match anglers include 0.097mm/2.86lb, 0.116mm/4.29lb, 0.135mm/5.56lb, 0.152mm/7.37lb and 0.168mm/8.91lb.

RRP: £4.99

www.dynamitebaits.com Available in 14 classic proven flavours there’s a flavour for every angler and every fish in Dynamite’s XL range of liquids. When glugged on to hook baits or added to mixes they provide the perfect boost for pellets, groundbait, maggots, corn or meat.

These three new super strength competition varieties are: Sweetcorn & Hemp, a classic combo for every occasion; Garlic & Cheese, which will find favour with river anglers after barbel; and Chocolate Orange, deigned to complement the new Big Fish groundbait of the same flavour.

Each recipe allows easy use with no concerns with over flavouring, and should you need it they are all PVA friendly.

Supplied in a 250ml easy squirt/resealable bottle.

RRP: £4.25

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Up Close

UP CLOSE SPECIAL: PELLET WAGGLER GEAR

WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR BOAT This is the time when the pellet waggler can play a large part in your catches, so we shine a light on some great rod and reel combos for the job in hand!

N

ow that things are really starting to warm up and the fish are swimming about higher in the water column, what better way is there to catch them than on the pellet waggler? Whether it’s a 10 or 12g beast hurled out at maximum pellet catapult range on big waters like Boddington, Meadowlands or Larford, or more delicate 2 or 3g affairs for dobbing cruising carp or landing lightly on the surface to tempt wary F1s, you need tackle that’s right for the job.

There are various ways of fishing the pellet waggler too; on some days you have to cast, feed pellets around the float, twitch it, retrieve and repeat if there’s no bite, on others you have

84 | Match Fishing

to feed first then cast into the slowly sinking pellets. Sometimes the fish will take as soon as the float lands, sometimes letting the pellet sink to its full drop pays off, and on shallow waters leaving it in at full depth for a while can work well, rather like fishing a bomb and pellet upside down. You can also use the waggler as an extension of the dobbing technique, casting light floats quietly ahead of cruising carp that might be just out of pole range. This requires accuracy and the ability to land a float without spooking the fish.

Whichever method the day demands, if you’re casting over and over to the same point in your peg your rod must

be up to the job, able to accurately cast floats in a variety of sizes any distance up to maximum catapult range, yet not so stiff that an enthusiastic strike or greedy carp tearing off with the pellet on impact will cause breakages, and strong enough to cope with playing carp up to double figures. The reel you choose will certainly take a beating too,

as the float is retrieved several hundred times during a session or match, and the drag system must be efficient to cope with lunging, angry carp on the way to the net.

Generally, the most popular length for pellet waggler rods is 11 feet, although some anglers favour a 12ft model, and on narrow canal style waters a 10ft rod can be best, particularly if the target is mainly F1s.

These are usually teamed up with a 3000 sized reel, although bigger waters and floats may be best tackled with a beefier 4000 model.

Many of the top brands have several different rods and reels in their ranges that will do the job, and at various price points. Match Fishing asked them for their choice of rod and reel to put in front of you; let’s see what they’ve come up with…

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Up Close

PRESTON INNOVATIONS 11FT IGNITION PELLET WAGGLER ROD www.prestoninnovations.com Ignition is a comprehensive range of rods that are perfect for any commercial fishing as well as natural waters. The seamless actions and high-quality components make them unbeatable value for money. There is a rod in the range for any situation.

Two pellet waggler models are available, in 10 and 11ft versions. The 11ft is the ideal length for all round pellet waggler fishing to around 35 to 40 metres and has a powerful action to subdue match sized carp with ease.

Casting weight 4-10g.

RRP: £54.99

INERTIA 320 REEL The Inertia reels are perfect for the angler who is constrained to a tight budget. The 320 might be lower budget than Preston’s more expensive reels, but don’t be fooled – this smooth and sweet reel still incorporates the high quality that Preston reels are known for. Stylishly decked out in matt black trimmed in blue, it looks the part too.

Weighing in at just 291g the Inertia 320 is the perfect match for the Ignition rod and is ideal for smaller casts of up to 40 metres, light waggler work and snake lake fishing. The nice shallow spool takes 150 metres of 0.26mm line and with a gear ratio of 5.0:1 the reel retrieves 75 centimetres per handle turn.

RRP: £44.99

VANFORD C3000 REEL

SHIMANO AERO X5 11FT PELLET WAGGLER ROD fish.shimano-eu.com Light, responsive and strong, manufactured from Shimano’s high modulus carbon + HPC + Nanosheet blanks, the Aero X5 is fitted with super light Seaguide XOG anti-tangle single leg intermediate guides for a smooth, effortless performance.

With a Shimano DPS reel seat on a cork plus EVA handle at 148g this rod is light and comfortable enough to be used all day without effort and has a casting weight up to 15g.

SRP: £134.99

86 | Match Fishing

The Vanford from Shimano is the new ‘entry-level’ Magnumlite Series reel designed for sensitive and finesse techniques.

Featuring a Ci4+ body and MGL Rotor, plus Micromodule II gear for ultra-sensitive, lightweight rotation and SilentDrive for ultra-smooth, ultra-quiet operation, even under pressure – such as when repeatedly casting a pellet waggler or reeling in large carp.

With 7+1 ball bearings Shimano’s HAGANE Gear and X-SHIP provide efficient, powerful performance and the Long Stroke Spool increases casting distance while Aero Wrap gives excellent line lay. An interesting feature is the lack of a back wind facility on Vanford reels – everything is played off the drag.

The C3000 weighs in at 180g, with a 5.3:1 gear ratio retrieving 78 centimetres per handle turn. The spool has a capacity of 210 metres of 0.25mm and the reel has a maximum drag of 9kg.

SRP: £199.99

DAIWA N’ZON Z PELLET WAGGLER ROD www.daiwasports.co.uk Daiwa produces some of the most technically advanced angling equipment available, and these Limited Edition Pellet Waggler Rods are no different. One of three models, this 11ft rod is designed to offer a wide line rating range of 3lb to 10lb, meaning it is extremely versatile and can handle a wide range of situations, serving the commercial water angler for all styles of float work.

The N’ZON Z rods are designed to suit all types of commercial waggler fishing and offer a great playing action while retaining plenty of power to handle the largest fish. The rods are made from HVF Nanoplus high quality grade carbon fibre, making them extremely lightweight and with a fast action for increased casting distance and accuracy, while Daiwa’s innovative V-Joint bias carbon technology delivers the perfect balance between flex and strength.

The rods are furnished with Seaguide LS guides and a Fuji K-DPS reel seat with EVA foregrip. The two-piece design is ideal for ready rod holdalls. Weights: 10ft 160g, 11ft 175g, 12ft 180g RRP: £160

N’ZON LT5000S-CP REEL Designed for short to medium distance feeder or float work, this N’ZON LT reel has a 4.7:1 ratio to improve the winding of heavy loads. This is enhanced further thanks to Digigear and four ball bearings, plus it retrieves 79 centimetres of line per handle turn.

The reel delivers the power and durability required for pellet waggler fishing – distance and accuracy are easily managed thanks to the soft high impact line clip and the double lip LC ABS spool improves casting smoothness.

The reel’s toughness is balanced by weight saving through the DS4 Air Rotor and body cover as well as the machined forged aluminium LT spool.

QD Quick Drag is also an asset for ‘open water’ fishing where aggressive, running takes are expected, while the reel carries a maximum drag rating of 12kg.

The aluminium one-touch folding handle with ‘T’ shape handle knob makes carrying the setup in ready rod mode easy.

Weight 310g, spool capacity 150 metres of 0.28mm.

RRP: £175

GURU N-GAUGE 11FT PELLET WAGGLER ROD www.tackleguru.com A lightweight and balanced two-piece rod, with ample backbone for punching out pellet wagglers and playing commercial fish and with the length to allow anglers to fish greater distances. Its fast and crisp recovery can hit bites and cast accurately, with a 15g casting weight that can punch out even the heaviest of wagglers without any issue.

With a forgiving through action for playing fish, but with power in the bottom end of the blank for ultimate control!

Lightweight single-leg reversed guides offer balance and lightness, with a cork and Duplon handle and Guru finger butt grips.

RRP: £104.99 NO REEL ON THE MARKET YET

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Up Close

BLACK MAGIC FD430 REEL This is a good quality and durable front drag reel with all the advanced features needed when targeting quality fish. The ultrasmooth and powerful gear set is reliable when the pressure is on and won’t let you down. The graphite body has a classy, subdued finish and the reel features a finely BLACK MAGIC CFX WAGGLER ROD adjustable front drag with continuous antiwww.browning-fishing.com The CFX is the latest Browning rod range to carry the famous Black Magic reverse, computer balanced CNC stainless steel name. The CFX Waggler rod is an 11ft, two-piece rod designed for the pellet handle and rotor, anti-twist line roller and a thick bail arm for optimal balance. waggler or conventional float fishing for bigger fish like carp. The new The aluminium spool has a hardened front edge for longer casting high-modulus carbon blanks are slim, but also tough and durable – in fact distances, S-curve line distribution and a capacity of 120m/0.22m. The the rods perform well beyond what their price would suggest. reel is supplied with a spare composite spool.

The fully parabolic action provides the power needed to land hard Features four ball bearings, a 5.1:1 gear ratio retrieving 62 centimetres fighting fish but is still soft enough to minimise hook-pulls. of line per handle turn and a maximum drag of 10lb. Weighs 275g.

Casting weight 20g, line rating 3 to 6lb, weighs 202g.

RRP: £49.95 RRP: £44.95

BROWNING

RIVE SUPER PELLET WAGGLER ROD www.rive-fishing.com Available in two lengths – 10ft 6in and 11ft 6in – the Super Pellet Waggler rod has a casting weight of 8 to 20g. The 11ft 6in model weighs 151g and comes with 12 Seaguide rings on a high quality Japanese carbon blank. The WEBO reel seat and part cork handle is very comfortable, which is an important feature as pellet waggler fishing requires a lot of regular casting and holding of the rod, so it’s important to have not only a nice lightweight blank but a comfortable reel seat.

The super progressive action is ideal for regular casting as well as being powerful enough to tame the largest of carp.

RRP: £164 and £174

88 | Match Fishing

MF PRO 4000 REEL The mid-range model of a range of three, the MFPRO 4000 comes with 9+1 stainless steel ball bearings to provide a super-smooth action and fantastic winding power, and less strain on the main gearing of the reels.

The main gear and shaft are stainless steel and rust and corrosion free, while the main body is made with an aluminium body and rotor.

All spools are aluminium and come complete with two metal line clips, so two distances can be clipped up. The inner part of the spool is made with graphite, which eliminates any need for washers for the perfect line lay.

A reinforced pickup, anti-twist line roller and high velocity and micrometric brake aid the smooth turning of the spool. Weighs 320g and comes with one deep and one shallow spool, with capacities of 230 metres of 0.23mm and 150 metres of 0.18mm.

RRP: £149

MIDDY REACTACORE XZ MINI COMMERCIAL 10FT 9IN WAGGLER ROD www.middytackle.com Middy’s Reactacore XZ Mini Commercial 10ft 9in Waggler rod is built using Quad four-layer carbon technology, providing excellent strength and rigidity, while also creating an incredible fast-response and reactive parabolic action to subdue commercial carp.

The rod also has special Maximus weave wrap joints to increase the strength even further and enable a little less overlap, which in turn makes the rod very lightweight.

With an exceptionally slim feather-light blank and handle, top class fittings such as SCX smooth cast guides and hook retainer and an S-Line style ergonomic reel seat, this two-piece rod has a 10lb main line rating, 8lb hooklength rating and a casting weight guide between 4g and 20g.

Supplied with a high quality fully-padded Middy MX-Series rod case.

RRP: £199

GFD4000 REEL This lightweight, compact and modern polymer bodied reel is designed for carp commercials and incorporates plenty of superb features, including an instant-response clutch and handle, SmoothCast alloy machined spool, super-sensitive front drag, stainless steel shaft, balanced rotor oscillation system, mono-friendly line clip, lightweight polymer body and low-friction line roller.

The handle is ambidextrous to suit any angler and easily folds with one touch. The 4000 size is perfect for pellet waggler fishing and the reel is supplied with an additional/spare SmoothCast alloy machined spool in the box and has 6+1 ball bearings and a 5.2:1 gear ratio.

Line capacities: 0.25mm/135m; 0.30mm/110m; 0.35mm-95m RRP: £69.99

HORIZON X 3000 REEL

MATRIX HORIZON PRO 11FT WAGGLER ROD www.fishmatrix.co.uk This ultra slim parabolic action rod blank has been constructed using ultra-high modulus carbon to enhance the playing action, with premium lightweight guides designed to enhance the rod’s performance.

With a matt taped finished applied to the blank and unique flat top A-grade cork and EVA composite handle and Fuji IPS reel seat, the two-piece rod breaks down equally and weighs 119g.

Supplied in a protective rod sleeve RRP: £169.99

Developed for float and feeder fishing, this reel has 5 + 1 stainless steel ball bearings, a carbon anti-flex body and advanced bail arm shape for quicker line pick-up. The multidisc front drag provides ultrasmooth performance and the rotor brake prevents it moving when casting.

Weighing 255g and supplied with single and double handles the X 3000 has a gear ratio of 5.1:1, retrieving 83 centimetres per handle turn and the spool has a line capacity of 150 metres of 0.28mm.

RRP: £89.99

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| 89

Competition

TOTAL PRIZE VALUE £753.88!

WIN GREAT PELLET WAGGLER GEAR Now you’ve seen a little of what’s on offer in your local tackle shop, here’s a chance to win some of it for free!

W

e are offering up some great tackle prizes to win, and it’s all free to enter!

The first winner out of the hat will receive the Daiwa N’ZON Z Pellet Waggler Rod and N’ZON

LT5000S-CP Reel, worth a total of £335.

The second winner will receive the Middy Reactacore XZ Mini Commercial 10ft 9in Waggler Rod and GFD4000 Reel, worth a total of £268.99, while the third winner will receive a Browning

Black Magic CFX Waggler Rod and Black Magic FD430 Reel, worth a total of £94.90.

Fourth prize is a Shimano Aero X1 11ft Pellet Waggler Rod worth £54.99.

That’s a total prize value of £754.88!

HOW TO ENTER For your chance to win, simply visit www.matchfishingmagazine.com, click on Win and answer the following question. Good luck!

Q A pellet waggler is best used for which fish?

A Gudgeon B Carp C Eels Competition Terms erms and Conditions: To enter visit www.matchfishingmagazine.com. The winners will be selected at random from all correct entries received between midday Friday, June 11th, and 11am Friday, July 9th, 2021. The editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

90 | Match Fishing

JULY ISSUE

2021

MK19 COMPACT

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PASTE PERFECTION TOP ADVICE FROM ANDY FINDLAY, THE KING OF PASTE FISHING VENUE DETECTIVE ANDY MAY VISITS THE PROLIFIC COB HOUSE FISHERY, NOW UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT GET INTO THE SWING STU REDMAN SHOWS HOW TO CATCH BIG NETS OF SMALL FISH CLOSE IN

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Fishing To Features

Photos: Mark Pa

rker

S E R U FEAT

D E S O P X E e r snags, is just lik e th o d n a s d n la is s, like ked Fishing to feature kons Browning and Bait-Tech-bac c margin fishing, re incup. Here he explains why… angler Jon Wh

n match fishing, when you draw a swim like this one today – reed lined, an island and tasty margins – all within a few metres of the bank, your mouth starts to water at the amount of possible fish on the cards, as opposed to an open water swim, which even at this time of year can be devoid of fish for large lengths of time, as there is nothing really to hold them there.

When you have a swim bursting with features, it’s like all your birthdays have come at once!

But, hold your horses kids!

Just because you have lots to go at and plenty to target, you still need to fish these types of swim well. Just because snags and structure are very often bursting with

I

92 | Match Fishing

resident fish, this doesn’t make them a pushover or easy to catch.

Commercial fish are fished for hard, week in, week out, so they are very streetwise, even when they are feeding in an area where they feel supremely confident. A poor approach can kill the best swim in the world within minutes of fishing. So, I’d like to show you how I approach featurepacked swims to get the most out of them with the minimum of effort.

Features When it comes to the draw, you get what you get. So, if you’re faced with purely open water, you need to make your own luck I reckon as they are often harder swims to make the

In the net!

“Just because snags and structure are very often bursting with resident fish, this doesn’t make them a pushover or easy to catch.”

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Fishing To Features

most of. The fish don’t really want to be there as there is nothing to hold them, so how you feed is very often the key to a big weight.

There will be spells when the fish feed hard, but they can so easily back off when a few of them get caught.

With feature-laden swims, there is a lot going on, so the fish tend to be resident or, if not, they are certainly more amenable to hanging around as they have safety and structure.

But, again, if you get things like the feeding wrong or you target the wrong areas, you can mess things up very quickly.

Feed-wise, as the fish like to be in these areas, if you overfeed you can soon have too many fish in the swim at once and so end up with foul hooking problems etc.

Just because you have a great looking peg, it doesn’t always mean a win is on the cards. Take today, I’m fishing on Four Islands at Decoy Lakes in Peterborough. As well as the reed bed to my right, one of the lake’s islands is right in

front of me and this is where I’m looking to fish.

It’s all about pellets through a pole pot for Jon.

Just Like The Margins Islands on all complexes differ greatly. Some, like this one have a steep slope, giving you a few feet of depth to play with. Others slope up steadily, to a few inches. These are the type of area where anglers fish the ‘mud line’. This can be great and it certainly produces a lot of fish on the right day, but I much prefer the latter.

If I can, I’m ideally looking for two feet of depth, with a flat bottom, or certainly a patch of lake bed where I can present some loose feed and a hook bait without it rolling away.

If the island slopes up, you could use two or three rigs, fishing one into three feet, one into two and the final rig into 12 inches.

Then you allow the fish to tell you where they are most comfortable feeding.

This is something I will do if there is no alternative, but really, I’ll try to plumb around until I find an area I’m happy with as it makes

Jon’s bin end pellet hookers.

“I look at island fishing in the same way that I look at margin fishing, only this swim is fished a lot sooner.”

A chunky Decoy F1.

94 | Match Fishing

A dream swim!

Jon’s shotting pattern.

A simple bait choice. things so much easier on the day.

I look at island fishing in the same way that I look at margin fishing, only this swim is fished a lot sooner and it is in front, not down the side. When you have two feet to play with, I think the carp feel much safer, as they have a bit of water over their backs.

But, I don’t like to give them too much depth as to allow them to come up, causing presentation and possible hooking problems.

Fishing up to an island is no different from fishing to the next peg down, in my eyes.

Snag Rigs It’s surprising how often I see anglers fishing to feature swims with the most overloaded rigs you could want to see. As I’m at Decoy, like many UK commercials, there are lots of F1s and silver fish in these lakes, as well as carp well into double figures.

So, yes, you don’t want to lose one of these big girls, but that said, if I’m in a match, I want to get every fish hooked, safely into the folds of my keepnet.

This then requires a bit of a balancing act regarding the terminal setup so I can control the lumps, but not bump the smaller fish.

Also, by going a little lighter, but having balanced tackle, you are able to ‘walk’ the fish out of the snags before they even know they are hooked, rather than trying to drag them out on ultra-heavy lines and forceful elastics.

From the top down, my

Lines and elastic.

setup starts with Browning Green Microbore elastic.

This has a rating of 13 to 17, so it is pretty heavy, but being a microbore – meaning there is a small hole through the centre – it allows the elastic to act more like a hybrid; not as abrupt as a solid, but more aggressive than a pure hollow. This elastic is quite soft initially, but it powers up very quickly, to control the brutes. But, I still have a puller kit on the top kit if needed. The beauty of this hybrid style is that I can very easily land doublefigure carp, but rarely bump F1s or even skimmers.

The main line is 0.20mm.

This is something I use on all my summer rigs. I find the stiffness of 0.20mm offers a lot of advantages.

Firstly, it is much more robust, especially when I’m bagging and the line is rubbing on the rim of the landing net all the time. The stiffness sees the rig tangling less and the thicker line also sinks slower, so I feel I get a better presentation too.

The best thing is that I can use any hook link too.

All I need to do is quickly swap to a lighter or heavier one and I’m back fishing within seconds, rather than needing a different rig. For today’s session I’m using six inches of 0.16mm to a size 16 Browning Beast hook and a hair-rigged bait band.

I like a medium to heavy gauge hook in these circumstances as you never know what lurks beneath the surface when fishing up to islands and snags.

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| 95

Fishing To Features

Another stunning Decoy F1 about to be scooped.

My float is a slim bodied 0.5g model with a 2mm bristle. I again like the combination of a slim body for positive bites and a thick bristle, which you can easily see when fishing close to the foliage. It also helps to register ‘proper’ bites as well as allowing me to use bigger hook baits if needed.

The shotting is a strungout bulk of No9s, an inch apart from the top of the hook link. I’m not looking to catch on the drop, but I still want a pleasing drop of the hook bait.

This setup is also very simple and tangle free.

The rig is set to fish around one inch overdepth so the pellet is just touching bottom, giving me very positive bites.

Feed And Feeding This style of fishing calls for all particles. Or, in my case, a mixture of pellets and corn as a back-up. I prefer pellets to groundbait as I like to have a ‘clean peg’.

96 | Match Fishing

My feed today is BaitTech 6mm Carp & Coarse pellets, straight out of the bag. I’m not one for flavours, glugs and sprays, but, if you are, then I see no problem with using them.

Fishing has no rules and it is all about confidence and what you think will work well.

If I were faced with a lot

kernel of corn or another type of pellet.

I have a small tub of old ‘bin ends’ that I use for hookers. This contains all sorts of old pellets and so offers me nice alternatives.

Feeding

When you’re fishing open water swims, it is a case of feed it and hopefully they will come. With features the fish are carp.

Decoy typical a and Jon there already.

Dumping big cupfuls of groundbait in – if the rules allow – can be good, but I find that it can very easily be kicked up into suspension, which can lead to gill feeding and foul hooking problems.

This is where a lot of anglers go wrong on these types of swim.

Most anglers would think the more fish they have in their peg, more F1s, I’d use 4mms; the more they’ll catch. alternatively if it were all Nothing could be further just big carp – 6lb plus – I’d from the truth. Believe it step up to 8mm pellets. or not, maintaining just On the hook, I either a manageable handful of ‘match the hatch’, using a fish in your swim, rather 6mm pellet or I will use a

than having it heaving and bubbling like a pan of chips, is the secret between bagging a 20lb net, or filling your boots with 100lb plus.

The only way to maintain a manageable amount of fish in front of you throughout a five-hour session is to feed correctly.

The fish in these swims are resident, so by trying to feed pole cupfuls to bring more fish into the swim, all you end up doing is creating a feeding frenzy, leading to fish flying around the swim at all levels, foul hooking, gill-feeding fish and ultimately a spooked shoal.

By carefully feeding – through a pole pot – you should be able to keep a handful of decent fish in front of you, which will give you every chance of catching them all and then, by carefully topping the swim up with a measured amount, entice a few more into the swim, where the process can be repeated.

If you bang in the bait like there’s no tomorrow and have dozens of fish frantically ripping up the bottom to get at the grub, all you’ll end up doing is ruining all your previous hard work of bringing fish

Put Jon on fish and there’s no stopping him.

controlled manner.

I find it is always better to feel your way into a session than try to force things. Then, if I start to get liners or funny bites, I know I need to cut back on the loose feed as I Part of Jon’s 70lb. know how much I’ve fed every cast. A clean peg is much easier to manage.

Today, after just a couple of hours’ fishing in front of the cameras I have had well over 70lb or carp and F1s with relative ease.

Treating the swim with the respect it deserves and not trying to force the issue has seen me pretty much getting a bite every cast.

The rules of margin fishing transfer perfectly to island feed it to keep the catch fishing. By using a little rate at a premium. This is watercraft, managing the also a reason why I much swim and allowing the fish prefer a particle approach. to tell you what they want I do on occasion use will see to doing well, a catapult to ping a few every time. pellets over as this often My only problem now gets fish feeding well, is how to get the draw bag but mostly I tend to use to be kinder to me, every a pole pot, drip feeding time! loose feed in a slow and into the swim in the first place.

For me the key to success is to be constantly thinking about what the fish want, what I’m feeding and when I should

Bait Clinic

GET YOUR QUESTIONS IN! Check out the Match Fishing Magazine Facebook page regularly for your chance to enter your questions for our panel of bait experts!

WHAT YOU CAN WIN! The top question wins a Dynamite bait package worth £25.94, and three runnersup each receive a pack worth £12.97.

Bait Clinic We’ve teamed up with Dynamite Baits and its team of top anglers to answer your bait-related questions and help you catch more fish.

MEAT TIPS Had a good match at the weekend and framed, fished luncheon meat the whole match. Any tips on how to add that little edge to keep the fish in my swim?

Dave Hughes

AIDAN MANSFIELD SAYS The great thing about meat is it can be fished in so many different ways. When fishing in shallow water, adding Swim Stim Green groundbait to 4mm and 6mm meat mixed 50/50 and then creating a sloppy meaty mush can keep the

fish feeding in your peg for longer. On venues where groundbait is banned, micro pellets can be used instead.

Meat shallow can be another great way of using the bait and generally speaking it’s a case of pinging 6mm meat via a catty when fishing long shallow. Alternatively, fishing riddled meat slop mixed with Amino Original Milled Expander groundbait mixed 50/50 and fed via a flexi pot, or when fishing short fed by hand, can really boost your catch rate.

The final way you can look

EXPANDER ANSWERS When I fish expanders, I empty the water out so the pellets don’t take in as much water. Is this a good/bad idea?

Tom Quick

ALEX DOCKERTY SAYS Personally I think to retain the texture of an expander pellet and prevent them drying out and splitting, you need to have a liquid on the pellet. However, rather than using water, which means they continue to swell until they have taken all the water in, I prefer to opt for an oil based solution, which creates

98 | Match Fishing

a firmer textured and denser pellet, a handy trick I learnt from fellow Dynamite man Nick Speed a few years ago.

1ST PRIZE WINNER

at getting more out of your meat fishing on venues that have a strict limit, is bulking your feed out with hemp.

Every carp in the land loves chomping on a combination of meat and hemp on the short line!

RUNNERPRIZE UP normal then remove all the RUNNERPRIZE UP liquid and place them in a small tub and fill with your chosen liquid to the level of the pellets. If you do this the night before you will get a better quality of expander.

The beauty of doing it in this way is that you get a more robust hook bait with the added flavour boost from your liquid as well.

It’s definitely worth a go if you’re worried about the durability of your expanders, I prefer to use either the F1 or if you’re looking for a little Pellet Syrup or the Scopex added attraction for your or Krill XL liquids. Simply hook baits. Hope this helps! prepare your expanders as

MAGGOT BOOST Is there any way I could give my maggots an edge over plain maggots?

Mark Watson

RUNNE PRIZRE-UP

THE PANEL

JACK DANBY If you are talking about dead maggots then I recommend using some Krill Liquid Carp Food and giving them a good shake.

The maggots will be coated with the liquid flavouring, adding a layer of attraction that fish love. For live maggots you need to be careful as most liquid flavourings can affect the maggots and even kill them. With this in mind, groundbait is helpful. I would suggest just coating them lightly in some Evolution Oil and then adding a sprinkling of groundbait like Swim Stim F1 Sweet or

NICK SPEED Speedy is not only a top angler but also a high-level chef.

Red Krill. If you are worried about affecting the maggots too much than adding the groundbait the night before or earlier to give them time to absorb some of the flavour is fine.

ALEX DOCKERTY Young angling coach who is forging a great career in angling

STAND-OUT HOOK BAITS When fishing the margins is it best to ‘match the hatch’ and use the same hook bait as my feed or go bigger and brighter and use something like a wafter?

Steve Tremmett

TONY CURD SAYS Hook bait choice can be a vital element of getting results when fishing in the margins, but that decision is largely decided by what you’re feeding. If you’re fishing in deeper water and feeding baits like pellets, corn or meat, then I’d always go for a match the hatch

style approach – but with the hook bait slightly larger than the loose feed to give that element of a target bait, which is so important when fishing down the edge.

For example, if you’re

RESCUE ATTEMPT Is there anything you can do to salvage groundbait that’s been overwetted?

Philip Lloyd

adding some dry groundbait can help soak some of the WILL McCRANOR SAYS water up. Try Overwetting your groundbait and do this fairly quickly isn’t an ideal situation, but before the it is possible to salvage. overwetted One thing to note is that groundbait will often absorb groundbait a lot more water than people soaks all of the the water think it will, so although it up, so the dry groundbait may look ruined when you first add the water, with time can still take some of the moisture out. One thing that it will dry out.

I do to avoid overwetting my However, if you are groundbait is never adding sure that your groundbait more than a pint of water is definitely overwetted,

ROB WOOTTON A serial big-match winner, Rob is one of the very best anglers around

feeding 6mm meat or pellets I’d look to fish 8mm baits on the hook, or perhaps double corn. If you’re fishing in shallower water and going with a groundbait attack, you’re then introducing a big volume of attraction into the swim but with little food content in the way of particles. The main objective is to get a bite as quickly as possible, so fishing larger hook baits that really stand out over the feed such as worms, bunches of dead maggots or double corn would always be my approach.

RUNNE PRIZRE-UP

JACK DANBY Top angler from Nottingham who also works for Dynamite Baits

TONY CURD Been around for years and one of the best attacking anglers out there

AIDAN MANSFIELD Rising match star destined for the top of the commercial fishing tree

WILL MCCRANOR Top young angler and former junior Fish ‘O’ Mania champion

BEN FISK No stranger to the big-money finals, can do it all

to a 1kg bag of groundbait at first. Being cautious like this reduces the risk of overwetting the groundbait and if I feel I need to add more, I will slowly add a small amount at a time.

EDDIE BRIDON A top all-round angler, knows his stuff on rivers and stillwaters

ANDY GELDART Been there, done it, won it

| 77

Southern Qualifier, Todber Manor, Dorset Wednesday, May 26th saw the first 75 club anglers descend on the prolific Todber Manor Fisheries to fight it out to be the first 12 qualifiers for the 2021 Garbolino Club Angler Of The Year. In 2020, the Southern qualifier was held at Todber for the first time and after a superb match we quickly booked the venue again for this year’s event.

W

ith 75 anglers fishing, this year saw the inclusion of the top and bottom lakes at White Post as well as the sections used in last year’s event on Ash, Hill View and Homeground lakes. There was the usual buzz at the draw and the good thing about Todber Manor is you can never

really predict where the winner will come from. The right angler on the right peg on the right day will often prevail, but there are fancied pegs like Pegs 89 and 90 on Homeground, the higher numbers on Ash (72 to 75) and the high 40s on Hill View that everybody wanted to draw. But the main aim was to win a qualifying place

Dan Warman nets a carp on Peg 73 on Ash.

Bela Bakos on his way to qualifying.

White Post was used this year.

100 | Match Fishing

in this year’s final and with all section winners earning a place in the final at Barston Lakes (the match was split into 12 sections), there was everything to play for.

A couple of hours into the match and things were becoming a lot clearer to see.

The sections on White Post were fishing harder than the lakes on the main complex

and on Ash there were good battles developing at both ends of this straight, canal style lake. On Pegs 63, 65 and 66 Jamie Foster, Ben May and Mathew Banks were catching well and going fish for fish.

At the other end of Ash it was Richard Bedford on the end Peg 75 who was doing battle with Dan Warman on 73 and both were catching

Jack Stamp plays his match winning fish.

well and had forged ahead of all the other anglers in their section.

On Hill View Dave Willmott on Peg 40 and last year’s Southern qualifier winner Stuart White on Peg 46 were both catching well. On Homeground Jack Stamp, a late addition to the line-up after Mark Ord had to withdraw at the eleventh hour after being injured at work, was setting the pace and looked to be on course for a big weight.

Once the whistle sounded for the all-out, it was hard to predict who had won as several anglers had caught

Dan Warman was second with 212lb 11oz.

fish consistently throughout the day. Notable battles were on 63, 65 and 66 on Ash where Jamie Foster (63) weighed in 173lb 4oz, but was then just beaten by Ben May on 65 with 174lb 03oz!

He too was then edged out

by Mathew Banks on 66, who weighed in 176lb 9oz to win the section and qualify for the final.

At the other of Ash Dan Warman (73) weighed in an excellent 212lb 11oz but word was that Richard Bedford on end Peg 75 had more. Unfortunately for him, the scales at Todber bottom out at 66lb so if you have

Richard Bedford shortly before one of his nets was knocked back to 50lb!

more than this in one net it gets knocked back to 50lb, and this is what happened to Richard. One of his nets bottomed the scales out so he had a lot more than 66lb in it, but it counted as 50lb only and he ended up weighing in 196lb 2oz in the end to miss out on qualifying and maybe winning the match overall.

On Homeground late 1st 2nd 3rd

addition Jack Stamp caught really well in the last couple of hours and a 4lb carp that he landed after the final whistle boosted his weight to 214lb 12oz to narrowly pip Dan Warman for top spot, so a big well done to him. Overall it was another great match at Todber, what a superb venue it is.

Jack Stamp Stamp, Peg 89 on Homeground Dan Warman Warman, Peg 73 on Ash Richard Bedford Bedford, Peg 75 on Ash

QUALIFIERS Roy Penkethman Steve Hunt Tim Goodson Greg Welsby Dave Willmott Stuart White Dave Burns Tony Picton Mathew Banks Dan Warman Bela Bakos Jack Stamp

118lb 2oz 101lb 14oz 46lb 94lb 160lb 10oz 188lb 122lb 2oz 110lb 12oz 176lb 9oz 212lb 11oz 161lb 2oz 214lb 12oz

214lb 12oz 212lb 11oz 196lb 2oz

(White Post, Peg 4) (White Post, Peg 7) (White Post, Peg 16) (White Post, Peg 26) (Hill View, Peg 40) (Hill View, Peg 46) (Hill View, Peg 54) (Hill View, Peg 60) (Ash, Peg 66) (Ash, Peg 73) (Homeground, Peg 76) (Homeground, Peg 89)

Match winner Jack Stamp with part of his 214lb 12oz.

The top three – Dan Warman (left), Jack Stamp (middle) and the unfortunate Richard Bedford.

The 2021 Southern qualifiers.

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| 101

Matt Godfrey

It’s A R ocky R oad!

It’s been a real mixture of matches for the Ginger Ninja this month, some fantastic, and some absolute growlers; at least we know it happens to everyone!

We couldn’t have a team picture when we won this year, so here’s an old one!

satisfyingly win the section for the team, and more importantly it was another gold medal added to the cabinet with the Barnsley gang!

More Close Calls!

Commercial National Champions!

Let us start with a big positive, winning the Commercial National at Lindholme Lakes with my Drennan Barnsley Blacks squad was AWESOME. It’s quite a funny story really, because we didn’t think that we had won. In fact we thought we had done poorly as a couple of lads had results in the bottom half of their sections. We did however, discount that eight out of the 10-man team were all in the top three of theirs!

With Covid-19 etc there was no presentation, and it was only on my way to the pub with non-fishing friends that night that I got the message to say we’d done it! It was tight, and we drew with Daiwa Tackle & Bates on points, but beat them by 800g on weight – scary close over 10 anglers!

Personally, I had a great match and managed to win my section for the team! I

102 | Match Fishing

Celebrating the National win with non-fishing friends!

must admit, I really was chuffed to bits and proud to do it, as the Lindholme regulars Alan Scotthorne and Nick Speed said that Peg 33 on Benny’s was very poor, and I needed to be ‘the best of the rest’ from there.

However, I had a nice bit of luck in the sense that the wind had spun around and blown towards my peg the day before and continued to do so for the whole match!

It was a proper simple one,

as I fished the short pole with pellets feeding micros and fishing an expander for the first two hours. When bites dried up, I simply chased the fish out and was a little more patient, fishing a Mini Hybrid Feeder with micros and a maggot on the hook, which was great for eking out odd fish.

In the last half-hour they returned short and I had another little run on the pole with pellets. My 36kg odd was enough to really

As if the tight Feeder Masters Qualifier at Decoy Lakes wasn’t enough, I had a very similar situation at Hallcroft on one of the later matches!

I really fancied Peg 12 on Moat Outer, and although it was going to be tough, I knew I had a good chance. I kept it simple – an attacking line down the middle where I planned to bosh it with a big Bait-Up feeder and lots of particles, then a patience rod across to the far bank platforms to pick off anything that might be hanging there.

It soon became obvious it was going to be mega-tough, and halfway through my two carp and a skimmer were looking good in the 20-peg zone! Darren Cox to my right had sneaked odd fish, and so had James Dent (aka ‘Mr Patience’) on the far bank. A few more skimmers followed towards the end, plus two more big carp over the line where I kept feeding heavily with a Bait-Up Feeder.

However, Coxy next door had a brilliant run of small carp by casting across in the final hour, and Mr Patience opposite had five good carp and a skimmer. It was going to be a close one, and when the scales arrived at me Denty was winning with 37lb 12oz! There was also another weight of 37lb 6oz too, and when I tipped my fish on the scales they went 35lb odd… so close but not enough! To

Canal Peg 8.

[INSET] Maggots were great on Canal Pool for all species!

add to the party, Coxy tipped on 36lb odd – there were a few sighs and groans at the weigh-in. At least I got to see my mucker the Dent Dog qualify, good luck in the final mate!

Festival Fun! I really enjoyed the first Weston Pools Festival of the year, in good weather and company, and managed to sneak into the frame too! The first day, on the Clay Pit, was interesting, on Peg 25 with every peg in around me. The whole lake was very hard, and fishing for section points I needed a good start and finish after hearing that’s when the fish feed on there.

The start on a short pole with pellets was good, and I managed to keep catching steadily at six metres putting skimmers in the net while the rest of the lake was very slow.

In fact at the end of the day my skimmer net went 29lb, not a bad little kick-off!

Interestingly though, I’d fed casters at 14 metres all day, and I didn’t get a single bite on it until about 40 minutes to go. Then, some HUGE F1s arrived and I caught 40lb in that final part of the match to end up with 88lb, which I was made up with from there – third on the lake and second in the section. It just shows, never give up on a line – those big wary fish often feed

last off, and most other anglers had stopped feeding it at that point!

Day two saw me on Canal Peg 8, an area I like! It was super-simple and I had a cracking day fishing maggots on the bottom at 13 metres, catching a right old mixture of fish for 107lb! However, there were two other bigger weights, and I thought I’d have done a lot better than third in the section with that weight, to be honest! Nevertheless, my five points got me in the money in eighth place out of the 70 anglers fishing, and it was a great weekend’s fishing… unlike the next festival that was up and coming after a serious weather change!

Festival Doom!

I was absolutely buzzing for the Guru Weighmaster Festival at Weston Pools

Weston Spring Festival winner Andy Mann!

this month after the first one a few weeks earlier, but unfortunately it didn’t turn out as good as I was hoping.

The weather on the lead-up was SHOCKING, with frosts at night, and low daytime temperatures mixed with cold rain. The draw for both days was done the night

before, and unfortunately I drew on the Clay Pit, which hadn’t been fishing well at all. However, I was in for some interesting learning at least.

I drew next to Steve Openshaw, a commercial master and lovely guy.

Anyone who knows the Clay Pit will realise it’s not just deep, it is bottomless.

I’ve honesty never set up a rig to fish with on the long pole, it’s that deep!

This particular day though, I noticed Steve set one up next to me. To cut a long story short, the fishing was rock hard, and two hours into the match Steve had caught five carp on the long pole on the bottom, while nobody else on the lake could get a bite! In true monkey see, monkey do style, I got up and set a rig up to do it myself too, and thankfully it worked!

The Clay Pit = deep.

A typical Weston side tray.

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| 103

Matt Godfrey

guess what. He went on to catch 98lb on the long pole on the bottom to make it to the final!

It was a great three days to see something different, and what a performance from Jamie… I hope he wins it again, what an angler!

Rudyard = STUNNING

Fish ‘O’ Mania Frolics!

d I’d like to go back to Rudyar r. yea of e at a better tim

The canal next to Southfield is SOLID, but the fish can’t get into the res!

I ended up copying Steve and catching five carp in about 17 feet of water, a full top five of pole, for 29lb that got me third on the lake.

Steve pipped me of course with 33lb, and someone on the far bank won with 39lb.

Nevertheless, it was amazing to see and do something totally off-the-wall on such a strange and interesting lake.

Unfortunately, the next day I was on an even worse peg, and it was actually even deeper on the long pole, over a full top six depth at 13 metres, so the same tactics didn’t work. I ended up

104 | Match Fishing

catching 39lb on a waggler, but a long way off enough to frame in the festival. It was won by the little Guru legend that is Rob Swan, a great angler and deserving winner with two great performances!

Interestingly however, Steve Openshaw drew the same peg the second day, and fishing long on the bottom managed a staggering 80lb – a superb performance by a great angler, and awesome to see. What’s more, the next day Steve’s protégé Jamie Hughes was on the Clay Pit for the Fisho qualifier, the lake everyone said you couldn’t win from… and

I don’t like to be negative about fishing at all, but I’ve fished quite a few big qualifiers recently, and I do find it a little disheartening at times. There’s a different feel on them from a festival, team or league match, and don’t get me wrong, I know exactly what I’m going into.

It really gets me down when I see amazing anglers like Kristian Jones and Kieran Marsden not going to their pegs because they know they can’t win.

On a recent qualifier at Weston Pools I drew what I thought was a good peg, number 16 on Canal! I pushed and pushed and pushed the peg through the day, and was probably too positive in the end but I knew to catch enough to win, I needed to catch in certain ways. As it turned out, the peg was flattened and I ended with 40lb, which was enough to win the section.

But when you look at the weigh board, there are just so many anglers who don’t weigh-in, or don’t turn up, and it’s got a negative vibe to it in my opinion.

On an open, or league match, or team match, you’d be there fighting for the section, trying to get an extra point, making every fish count. I know it’s a different kettle of fish altogether and of course I’ll keep doing them because I want to get in the finals, but there’s such a different feeling to me on the big qualifiers compared to most matches.

Cheque Book And Pen Weekend!

I’ve got to write about this latest weekend, I promised you it was a rocky road

month! I think it could go down as the worst two matches in a row I’ve ever had. The Saturday was a Sonubaits Feeder Masters Super League team match with my Drennan Barnsley gang at Rudyard Lake.

Let’s get one thing straight – WHAT A STUNNING PLACE! It’s one of the most picturesque venues I’ve ever been to in the UK. However, I think we went a little early for the fishing!

Second cast, I had a tiny 3oz skimmer-looking fish, and that was my day. Very few people broke 1lb, with Rob Wootton taking the match out with 4-14-0, but most people didn’t break 1lb! I was well down in the section with my 3oz (but not last I may add!) and the team failed miserably in round one. Oh well, at least I had Southfield to look forward to in the next day’s Feeder Masters!

The Sunday saw me drive (slowly and depressed) to Southfield Reservoir. Now this place is stuck in a rut at the minute, because normally fish can swim in and out from the canal. However, the canal is low due to bank repairs, and fish can’t get into the res! So, there’s basically not many in there! Five hours passed, and myself plus all the anglers around me never had a movement on their tip – BLANKETY BLANK! However, because the whole section blanked, the section was drawn out of a hat. It pains me to say it, but I won the section on BINGO! Better to be lucky than good hey? I did witness an awesome display from Gaz Lambert further down, who was blanking with 20 minutes to go, and caught an eel and three bream in the final 18 minutes to not only qualify and win the zone, but win the match too! The man is a bream machine, get that final won captain Gaz! Now, roll on June 16th and the rivers opening, and roll on some better weather and fishing.

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Mugging Carp

A MUG’S GAME! Joe Carass shares his 10 tips on how to catch the carp that are swimming around just under the surface, by mugging them!

1 – Observation Is Everything Call it watercraft if you like but on those hot days when mugging is THE best approach, reading the water and observing the fish is the most important element to the method.

Fish will always have patterns that you can observe if you spend the time watching them on a match. Quite often a pattern will emerge and by that, I mean the fish will swim in shoals or small groups and will often swim along the same channels repeatedly.

Let’s take today as an example; the fish are swimming bang down the middle of the lake and coming from left to right. They then sweep along the far bank and circle back round again. Because I have observed this, I can make sure that I get my rig in the right place at the right time when the fish circle round again.

On your day the pattern may be different but there will be something in the carp’s behaviour that you can capitalise on.

108 | Match Fishing

2 – Patience!

It seems counter-productive, but time spent with your rig OUT of the water is more important than the time spent in it for mugging! Creating a safe zone of your peg is what will encourage the fish to push into yit and while angers around you are fishing normally or chasing them around, if you are prepared to sit with your rig and pole out of the way, the fish will naturally feel safe and push into your swim.

What I like to do is sit with the pole assembled and resting over my lap with just a few metres out in front of me. I will then watch and learn what is going on and unless the moment or opportunity is there I won’t ship out. This takes a patient mind-set because you feel like you aren’t working your peg. But when mugging, less is definitely more, and having the pole away from the fish is crucial. That is unless you draw on an absolute pile, like one of Des Shipp’s pegs.

“You will often try to mug fish after fish with no success then suddenly catch four in four attempts.”

3 – Commit To It

4 – The Weather

I think one of the mistakes I made throughout learning how to mug was thinking it was an approach you could just tag on to your normal methods.

However, after some very unsuccessful (and frustrating) matches where I didn’t give mugging the respect it deserves, I went back to the drawing board and looked at what the good ‘muggers’ were doing!

The penny dropped when I watched Joe Oakes, who at the time was dominating some local waters by mugging and it wasn’t until I drew next to him that I realised what the game was. Mugging was his number one approach, not an afterthought. So, he geared the whole match around it rather than just tagging it on to other approaches. That meant he made the most of the ‘bite times’ when they came along. Because even when mugging, the fish only actually take the hook bait in short, sporadic windows. You will often try to mug fish after fish with no success then suddenly catch four in four attempts, then back to nothing again.

Therefore, committing to the approach is imperative. If you were fishing other methods, you would miss that chance. So, if mugging looks to be the best tactic, then commit to it as your primary attack!

Undoubtedly the weather plays the biggest part in deciding whether mugging is the key tactic or not. Hot sunny conditions are number one, but also high-pressure days with intermittent cloud are good. Coming out of winter throughout spring and early summer are the best times, I have found. Fish are only interested in warming up after winter and will spend every opportunity they can to sunbathe. When conditions are like that, you simply must try and mug the fish.

There are days though, even when it is overcast, where the fish want to be just below the surface. Flat calm hot days will see the fish come up even under cloud cover and mugging will also be an option on those days too.

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| 109

Mugging Carp

6 – Top Kit 5 – Sunglasses I can tell you about all the wonderful fishing tackle available but if you take one bit of advice from this article then please get some polarising sunglasses! They are essential. You just cannot spot the fish well enough without them.

I have always had confidence using grey top kits so it will come to no surprise that I use them for mugging. But it is personal preference. The biggest thing though is the actual top kit, you need a proper power kit rather than an F1 style top kit. You often hook big carp mugging and sometimes they shoot off when you hook them, so you need a decent length of strong elastic to maintain the hook-hold.

Typically, I will use 13 Dura Slip through a Carp Kit but will not hesitate to use 15 Dura Slip if targeting bigger fish.

7 – The Rig Rigs for mugging are simple affairs. I use a Carp Shallow float in 4x10 up to 4x14 and put all the shot directly under the float for casting weight. I then fish roughly 15 inches deep as I have found this to be about right.

Crucially I have one metre of line above the float to allow me to swing at the fish but also maintain good control. Tackle is nice and strong and matches with the venue but always err on the heavier side as you can hook some real beasts doing this!

I use a size 16 GPM-B for normal venues and a size 16 KKH-B for venues where the fish are really big. A micro bait band completes the setup to allow me to try different hook baits.

110 | Match Fishing

8 – Bait Choice There are lots of effective baits for mugging, but my main advice is to find something that works and stick with it. I have found good fish observation and timing to be more important than the bait itself.

The two that I rely on are Robin Red pellets in 4mm or 6mm or 6mm Wafters. The new Power Scopex variety come

with some lovely deep red hook baits in the pot and those can be deadly!

Importantly the 6mm will pop a size 16 GPM-B up so I trim the ends of the Wafter until it sinks super-slow. These can be fantastic when the fish are swimming slowly but seven times out of 10, I will have a Robin Red in the band!

9 – Get Ahead Judging where to land the hook bait is of critical importance and needs to be worked out on the day. Some days you need to land the hook bait right on the fish’s nose and other days you need to land the bait one metre away. It is generally a case of working out how fast the fish are swimming and judging it on the day.

10 – Sneak It Or Slap It The final piece of the mugging jigsaw is working out whether the fish are responding to noise. On some days the fish will not look at a bait that has been snuck in front of their noses and you have to slap the bait as hard as you can in front of them.

Start by sneaking the bait in ahead of them and judge the response and if it is not working try slapping the rig in front of them. Just be careful though, and start cautiously because the last thing you want to do is scare the fish.

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| 111

Billy Makin

BEFORE

TIME PA RT

BEGAN

2 6

Billy Makin is a writer and novelist now semi-retired in Thailand, where he owns and runs a couple of ‘girlie’ bars for ex-pats and holidaymakers.

During his teenage years he became known as “The boy with the golden arm” and later became an iconic match angler of the 1970s and 1980s, winning both Matchman Of The Year and becoming BBC Hooked Champion. His commercial float-making business produced the famous Canal Grey and his fishery, a first of its kind, was the catalyst for the commercial water revolution. Still called Makins Fishery, it is no longer owned by Billy but is still a premier water to this day. Each month, Billy recounts his life and stories from the golden age of match fishing in these pages for us to enjoy.

I

suppose that the year would be around 1980, give or take one or two years on either side.

I was excited. I had just opened a letter inviting me to take part in the BBC angling championship under the series name of Hooked.

At the time, it genuinely appeared that match fishing was about to take off as a TV sport, and shortly afterwards I took part in a few ProCelebrity programmes… more later.

The venue for the first series was to be Edgbaston Reservoir around Birmingham, and as I had won a couple of matches there the previous year fishing caster and feeding long-range with casters in groundbait, I was pretty confident of not disgracing myself in front of the cameras; thoughts of winning it though, were

112 | Match Fishing

tempered by the sheer quality of the field.

The big boys were out in force, and along with the rest of the country Edgbaston was no longer a caster venue. The lake had fallen to the charms of the bronze maggot – any other bait being completely ignored by the quality roach that would

the fastest loser, giving a sixman final on the afternoon of the third day.

I had drawn in heat five, so was due to fish the last match before the final. The opposition in my heat was formidable – positively knee-trembling – still, I had a puncher’s chance if I drew well.

tiny arm at the end of the reservoir and stood zero chance of qualifying – there was no room to work and no quality roach in it.

I had a feeling of deep foreboding about the swim.

I again went along on day two, and as had happened in both the previous day’s matches, bronze maggot at

“I wasn’t exactly flying but the anglers to my right appeared to be struggling, so I kept my head down and continued plugging away at the small stuff.” be essential to winning.

The format of the tournament was relatively simple. Thirty anglers had been invited, and five matches of six anglers were to be held, morning and afternoon. The winner of each match went through to the final accompanied by

I went along to the first match as a spectator to check out the form. The match went entirely as expected, every weight coming on the bronze maggot fished at range under a waggler.

There was however, one major flaw in proceedings; Peg 1 was boxed into a

range took all the fish. Peg 1 again threw up sweet Fanny Adams.

I didn’t stay for the afternoon match, I had too much on my mind. Peg 1 haunted my thoughts. I just knew that the cursed bottleneck held my destiny in its barren depths and I

had to come up with a game plan – something that no one else had tried in the other qualifiers.

I spent the entire afternoon and most of the evening wandering around the streams and ditches of Hinckley trying to scrape together enough bloodworm to give me a sporting chance if and when I drew the dreaded number 1 bottleneck.

The next morning, my hand went into the draw bag and out came Peg 1. Sod and his law can be a real pain in the nether regions sometimes.

The starting whistle sounded, and unlike the five angling superstars in my heat, I didn’t toss out the waggler; instead, I fished canal style. A dozen small roach on the breadpunch, 20 or so on the pinkie, followed by a decent run on the bloodworm came my way during the first hour. I wasn’t exactly flying but the anglers to my right appeared to be struggling, so I kept my head down and continued plugging away at the small stuff.

Word came that Dave

Thomas on the end peg was emptying it on the bronze maggot. I had no chance of beating him, still, there was the fastest loser spot to play for. A TV camera appeared behind me, and a noisy and eternally smiling Bernard Cribbins waded into my swim and stood, microphone in hand, inches from my float.

––––––––––––––––––––––––– It was perhaps a couple of years later that I again met up with Bernard, who was both a comedian and comedy actor, having appeared in the Carry On films and Fawlty Towers series. We had just finished a day’s filming for a Pro-Celebrity series at Nottingham and were well into several noggins of free hotel drink provided by the TV company, accompanied

by Vince Hill the singer, and Terry Biddlecombe the jockey, when this gorgeous young female of around 25 appeared and introduced herself as Bernadette.

Terry’s eyes grew large as he licked his lips and invited her to join us; he then spent

the rest of the evening plying her with drinks and uttering some of the most outrageous chat-up lines I had ever heard. I would guess that it was around two in the morning when Terry suddenly keeled over, and being unable to stand up again, had to be half-carried to his room by Bernard and Vince, leaving me alone with the beautiful Bernadette.

“Would you like to learn how to catch gudgeon on the Oxford Canal?” I asked.

“Love to,” she replied.

“What’s your room number?”

She proved to be a willing pupil and positively swooned when I demonstrated my waggler technique.

Ah Bernadette… sweet memories.

––––––––––––––––––––––––– Now, where was I? Ah yes – Bernard Cribbins had just waded into my swim, the notorious Peg 1.

I had been having a decent run of fish and now Bernard was stood inches from my float. He splashed forward and speaking into his mike

said: “And here we have Billy Makin of Hinckley – how are you doing Billy?”

He then thrust the mike under my nose.

“I was doing very well Bernard, until some blithering idiot waded into my swim,” I replied.

He smiled, stepped back a few paces into the lake and said: “I think we will try that again Billy.”

Again he stepped forward, this time making as much disturbance as he possibly could, and once again spoke into his mike.

“And here we have Billy Makin from Hinckley, how are you doing Billy?”

I put on my best camera smile and replied in beautiful upper-class Queen’s English: “Very well Bernard, I’m having a jolly good run of fish at the moment old boy.”

He then clambered out of the water, gave me a wink and a big grin, then playfully slapping the back of my head said: “I knew you would see it my way sooner rather than later, Billy.”

I was now in Queer Street.

Dave Thomas already had

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| 113

Billy Makin

the match wrapped up. The guy on Peg 2 was beginning to catch a few and was now on the verge of overtaking me, and there was I, sat staring at a swirling pool of mud courtesy of Mr Bloody Cribbins. I pulled a couple of loops of line off the centrepin and flicked my Canal Grey just beyond the mud cloud.

It barely had time to settle before I struck into a decent perch – a proper Billy Boston. For the rest of the match, fishing the same line, I caught a small perch almost every chuck. Up to that nice Mr Cribbins wading into my swim I hadn’t even seen a perch. I can only assume that they were attracted by the disturbance and had come to investigate.

Decision time.

My net of canal tactics’ fish went just short of 5lb, more than half of which had come immediately after Bernard had left the water. This was second in the match, and by a margin of 1oz I was the fastest loser and had qualified for the final, to be fished in a little more than two hours. Without that wonderful man wading into my swim I would never have made it.

Better to be lucky than lovely.

––––––––––––––––––––––––– There was one hour before the kick-off to the first ever angling equivalent of the FA Cup. The National Championships had by now become an out and out team event and little prestige was now attached to the individual champion.

I steadied myself… destiny beckoned. My skeleton had left the closet; peg number 1 would never again darken my horizon. My Golden Arm positively tingled as it plunged into the draw bag.

One piece of cardboard stuck to my fingers – it wouldn’t let go. I knew that this was the one for me. With trembling hands I opened the folded cardboard and breathed a sigh of relief. Peg number 1 had moved on to another poor soul, I had drawn number 4. I was well pleased with being in the middle of the mini-match length as I had noticed a pattern emerging over the previous two days. The morning match favoured Pegs 5 and 6 as the fish gradually moved into the feeding area; the afternoon match (same pegs), favoured the middle to lower numbers.

I had a cunning plan, hatched out the previous evening after I had returned cold, wet and exhausted from several hours of bloodworm scraping.

Having closely studied three of the four previous matches, I noticed that on many occasions, the anglers were coming back with a burst or shredded maggot without having seen a bite.

This spelt one thing only to me – the fish were intercepting the bait on the drop, and the peacock quill wagglers were not sensitive enough to register this. This was to be the edge that I had been searching for. I had the perfect tool for the job – a float that I had been working on to solve a similar problem that I had found at Kingsbury gravel pits.

Instead of the peacock waggler used exclusively by the rest of the field, my waggler was a threestage construction. The base consisted of a small balsa body into which was inserted some six inches of neutral buoyancy cane, not much thicker than a toothpick, and sitting on top of the cane was a small balsa

All of Billy’s seven books and novels are available from Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk

114 | Match Fishing

sight bob.

The simplicity of the setup was its beauty. An AAA shot either side of the float sank the balsa body, at which point six inches of cane sat proud of the water. Down the line were two dust shot spread well apart, each one sinking the cane stem some three inches until only the tiny balsa sight bob was visible.

Now I am sure that you can see quite clearly through the plan; not only could I see every drop bite, but I was also about to adapt my entire feeding regime to encourage them.

The whistle blew for the all-in. Five peacock wagglers sailed out followed by five pouchfuls of bronze maggots. My waggler stayed dry; instead, I played around with canal tactics as I catapulted small numbers of bronze maggots with twice the frequency as the rest of the competitors.

Wayne Swinscoe grinned sympathetically at me as he slipped his net under his second quality roach. Dickie Carr, a couple of pegs away, was beginning to show.

One hour into the match and it was now time for me to make my move. Unlike the other five swims, mine had been rested - the fish should now be confident, more importantly, they should be looking skywards for the next meal, a meal that was being delivered on a 20-second timeline.

Out went the bodied waggler. It sat proud for some five seconds, then slowly sank to half its length as the first dust shot settled.

I counted to five. The second shot didn’t come into play. I struck, and my first half-pound roach was in the net.

Wayne looked anxiously across – I winked. My theory had proved correct, I now had to establish a rhythmic feeding and casting pattern in order to keep the fish up in the water.

Try to visualise this pattern: I fed half a dozen maggots, waited 20 seconds, and again fed another half a dozen. I now waited some five seconds for the maggots to partially sink, then I cast into the middle of the feed pattern, trying to get my bait to sink among the feed bait. Almost every fish that I caught came on the drop, the float doing the job I had designed it for to perfection.

I had come through my greatest test, and as I was the reigning Matchman of the Year, I now held two of the three most sought-after titles in match fishing. I was growing in confidence – I felt unbeatable.

Unknown to me, in a far-off land, in a distant farflung corner of a once-proud empire that encompassed half the globe, a dark cloud was forming in a town close to Mansfield. The cloud grew in both its size and malevolence, and gathering malicious intent, moved in my direction, consuming everything in its path. That dark cloud was known as John Dean – a name that in years to come would sit comfortably among the likes of Saddam, Osama, Les Prust and Vlad the Impaler.

An unholy alliance was formed with Maxi Winters, and the next year Mad Max and John Dean stole both of my titles, once again relegating me to the ranks of the also-rans. I was destined to ply my trade whittling pieces of balsa into Canal Greys, and to dig holes in Mother Earth; holes that were to be filled with water and stocked with the unholy abominations known as carp – the all-conquering spawn of Lucifer, Beelzebub’s buddies, Satan’s soulmates.

I was soon to become an outcast from society, a pariah, eternally condemned for destroying a once-great sport.

Still… I had my memories, and what memories they still are. Ah Bernadette… such sweet, sweet memories.

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