FREE DVD! ON SALE: MAY 19 - JUNE ??, 2010, ISSUE 233 – £3.25
New Matt Hayes DVD inside... Exclusive: Never seen on TV!
coarse L! L A W NE
Improve your
ON SALE: MAY 19 – JUNE 16, 2010 ISSUE 233 – £3.35
FISHING FREE
Britain’s Best Selling Fishing Magazine
DVD!
Get more bites! PLUS: Spring bream – catch your biggest
Make crucians ‘fizz’ for your bait now...
Dream Destination Belvoir Castle
Prepare to do
Battle at
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With Shane Willmore >> Part-time Belvoir bailiff and venue expert
If you love fishing, scenery and wildlife you haven’t lived until you’ve fished Belvoir Castle on a £7 day ticket Pictures: Lloyd Rogers Words: Mark Parker
the castle
IYCF May 19 – June 16, 2010
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Matt Hayes & Mick Brown’s
FISHING ENCYCLO
Inside... TARGET Over the next four weeks you should be aiming for stillwater bream PAGE 42
BAITS Focus on luncheon meat and how to use it with gravy! P46
RIGS Get your feeder out to an area you’ve already fed with a spod PAGE 44
HAYES Matt describes great days with carp PAGE 48
BAITS Which potions do Matt & Mick rely on? PAGE 51
BROWN The 7lb stillwater chub which had Mick plotting its downfall PAGE 52
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IYCF Issue 233
MICK & MATT’S MONTHLY TARGET
Big spring
There’s slabs aplenty to be caught especially w The big switch on May is the month when bream get going and pellets are top of the menu
Fishing’s most famous duo is back together ...and here to make YOU a better angler
OPAEDIA bream time
Know your target...
when you use pellets and fishmeal groundbait
Getting ready Fish like this one sporting spawning tubercules have to feed up in preparation
THERE are three reasons who fished for bream did why May heralds the big so with plain brown bread switch-on time for bream. crumb or sweet groundbaits Rising water temperatures packed with pinkies, spark a bloom in natural squatts, maggots or casters. food and encourages activity How times change. On mixed fisheries where in fish that have been fairly dormant in winter. carp fishing has seen an The climatic change also onslaught of pellets, an signals the imminent kickunexpected side-effect is off of spawning duties and that bream have become you’ll start to notice rough addicted to them. bumps, called tubercules, In fact, bream like pellets appearing on the heads and more than carp do! bodies of mature bream. As If Mick and I go bream they gear up for breeding fishing we never leave the bream feed harder. house without arming Finally, the onset of ourselves with groundbait spring also sparks an made from crushed pellets. increase in angling activity For me, it’s Total Fishing and this brings with it the Gear’s Crunchy Fish and ingredient that’s probably Sweet Pepper mix. For Mick most responsible for greater it’s Dynamite Baits Marine feeding – anglers’ bait. Halibut Method mix. And the fuel that We boost them by adding fires bream SPRING small halibut into feeding pellets and on most BREAM TIP waters is a to succeed Mick Brown laces combo of with bream his hookbaits with pellets and you must pineapple flavour, a fishmeal use pellets great additive for groundbait. and pellet big bream groundbait. Well into the 1990s Over the page almost everyone we show how.
Key feeding times ● Bream feed best in low light, especially in the evening and at night when a build up of bait has taken place during the day. Start a night session mid-afternoon so you have time to build the baited area before darkness. ● Early morning is particularly good if you prebait a swim the evening before. Even though much of the feed is eaten overnight fishmeal will taint the area and the water will be coloured up. Bream know coloured water comes from feeding so they’ll investigate. ● On well stocked waters where the water is permanently coloured feeding times are less defined and bream may feed any time. Fish in these waters tend to be permanently ‘on the move’ and looking for grub.
Continued over page... ● What rigs you need ● Where to locate bream ● How to ‘spod’ for slabs
IYCF May 19 – June 16, 2010
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CARP RIG OF THE MONTH Inline lead systems are unbeatable on hard, gravel or clay bottoms
Bottom lip hooked A shrink tube as a line aligner will help the hook to turn, nailing the fish in the bottom lip everytime
Give them a ring The use of a ring swivel will allow the hooklength greater movement in the swim
DEADLY BOLT EFFECT
No.2 The Inline rig Darrell Peck, the captor of Two Tone at over 60lb, uses the inline lead all the time and believes it’s one of the most effective lead systems you can use... INLINE lead set-ups are excellent self-hooking bolt rigs because when a fish sucks in the hookbait and straightens your hooklink, it feels the full weight of the lead quicker. This is due to the hooklink exiting directly out of the heaviest part of the lead weight. This compares against a swivel lead, where the whole lead needs to be lifted before the fish feels its full weight. Inlines are ideal when fishing over hard to firm bottoms. However, they are not so suited to fishing in deep silt or weed as they often bury in the debris and pull in the hooklink.
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You will require a Safezone Swivel leader, an inline lead and a pack of Tail Rubbers, preferably all in the same Safezone colour
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Slide a Stik Needle through the inline insert, as shown
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Place the loop of the leader into the Stik Needle’s latch, moisten the leader and then pull it through the inline lead
THINKING CARP IN ASSOCIATION WITH
Tail-ender A Korda Tail Rubber helps to neaten the presentation and greatly reduces hooklink tangles on the cast
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Continue to pull it through, moisten the swivel and then carefully pull the swivel into the lead until it ‘clicks’ so it works safely and effectively
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Follow the inline lead with a matching Tail Rubber, once again sliding it on to a needle and then down the leader
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Moisten everything and then slide the Tail Rubber over the plastic insert of the lead like this
AS SEEN ON
Follow the leader A Hybrid Safezone Leader will help keep the line above the lead pinned to the lakebed
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The hooklink can then be attached to the ring of the Safezone Leader’s ring swivel ready for casting
IYCF May 19 – June 16, 2010
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Gear On Test: Dave’s award winner
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TURN OVER... for more new gear Mitchell Mag-Pro Lite reel (RRP £129.99)
FAST AND FABULOUS
Mitchell produces a masterpiece it can be proud of, says DAVE WOODMANSEY...
W
HEN i was a schoolboy my father bought me a Mitchell Match reel that gave faultless service for over 20 years until i accidentally kicked it off a concrete sill into a deep weirpool and lost it forever. That fabulous reel was one of the early, metal bodied, blue coloured models, built in france to the highest quality. in two decades i never oiled it once yet it was always butter smooth and still purred like a kitten when you cranked the handle. i bought another, foolishly expecting it to be the same. The replacement Mitchell Match was black, plasticky and made in the far East. My heart sank the moment i opened the box.
Performance guaranteed Whether you’re after shy-biting bream or big carp, this reel performs to the highest standards
Since then, i have never seen another Mitchell reel to compare with my original Match – until now. The new, Japanese engineered, Mitchell Mag-Pro Lite is a stunning bit of kit. it looks fabulous, is feather light, is as smooth and fast as my beloved old reel and has an outstanding clutch system and winding power. Ten, high performance, corrosion resistant ball bearings make it hum sweetly and a 6. 2:1 retrieve ratio skips a waggler back across the waves like it had wings. Strap the Mag-Pro Lite to a modern match rod and you hardly know it’s there, thanks to the lightweight magnesium body and rotor construction.
The double anodized, machined, shallow aluminium spool with its drilled vent holes and smart gold trim looks awesome and has been designed to be filled to the lip with 200m of 0.20mm diameter (6lb) line. A slightly deeper aluminium spare spool (capacity 200m of 0.25mm line) is supplied for bigger fish duties. Hook into a decent fish and the sweet drag ticks away almost musically without the slightest hint of snatching. The mere sound of it will leave you smiling – it did me. it’s not cheap but i like everything about this reel, the justifiable winner of my Product Of The Month Award for May. More at www. mitchell-fishing.co.uk
Look at me! The Mag -Pro Lite is an absolutely stunning looker
‘Got a question?’
Please email me at: dave.woodmansey@ bauermedia.co.uk and my direct line is: 01733 395139 iycf May 19 – June 16, 2010
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Fibre Paste Great new hookbait
With Andy Findlay >> He invented it!
Pictures: Lloyd Rogers Words: Mark Parker
Paste that sticks at it! Here’s a fantastic new paste which stays on the hook even when cast long distances. ANDY FINDLAY shows how... IYCF May 19 – June 16, 2010
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