Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 3662 i Angling Times

LAST weekend I embarked on a task which I dread and look forward to in equal measure... the spring tidy-up of my fishing kit! As my carp tackle hadn’t been out much since last autumn I always fear what I’m going to find festering in a bucket somewhere and, with all the gear out of the garage and spread over the lawn, I invariably have to justify to my wife that every item is, of course, essential. And yes, invariably I will have to go to the tackle shop and get some more bits! This is also a good time to sort out the gear I’ve been using over the winter and to give it a clean and a wipe-down before it gets relegated to the back of the garage…

THE REVAMPED Barbel Masters match seems to have gained a huge amount of traction and sparked an interesting conversation recently. The thick end of 300 barbel anglers want to compete in the 2024 competition. Barbel fishing is growing, and a competition is a great way of offering a new string to people’s angling experience. Across all disciplines we are seeing competitions and matches set up, so why should barbel angling be any different – especially with a cool £2,500 up for grabs? Big-money match fishing has been a thing for quite a while now. In match angling circles it’s fully accepted. In carp fishing it has become completely normal, and the British Carp Angling Championships paved the way for a whole sub-discipline of carp fishing to emerge. One that’s hugely…

DO YOU NEED RINGER’S HELP? Send your question to: askringer@anglingtimes.co.uk How can I stop carp backing off when I’m fishing a snake lake? CLIFF REID, WIDNES THE carp back away from any disturbance because they aren’t yet really hungry and coming to bait. This is why having loads of room can work against you – it gives the fish too much space to retreat into. KEEP QUIET! So, what’s the answer? First, try to keep disturbance to a minimum. If it’s a match, sneaking your keepnets in rather than throwing them can make a big difference. The quieter you are, the better. Don’t be in a rush, and try to avoid getting up and down off your box or chair as much as you possibly can! CREATE A SAFE SPACE…

CHALK AND CHEESE! MY TWO matches last week showed the way F1s feed on different types of water. The first trip was to Cheshire Oaks Fishery for the midweeker, my first ‘proper’ carp match of the year. It was on a snake lake, and I expected the fishing to be fair all the way around, but the F1s had different ideas. After a promising start dobbing, I caught nothing for the second half of the match. Feeding bait was useless. My 52lb was fourth, and showed how things can vary from day to day. Next came the weekend rover at Lingmere. These are open-water pools where I always feel you can draw F1s into your peg – and thankfully that proved to be the case. After a good start on…

EVERY day’s fishing is a unique challenge. You can only catch what’s in front of you, and one day’s modest catch could be a great achievement at a different time or on another venue. Match fishing is a wonderful leveller for this. It’s not like being on social media, where you might compare your measly weekend day ticket with what somebody has just hauled from a syndicate. In a match, everyone is equal at the draw bag. Some cats get the cream and others get the litter tray. Weirdly, though, I quite enjoy trying a swim I’d never usually pick, as was the case in our last match. Baz Barrell had played a blinder by securing parking at his workplace, which meant the Tiverton gang could try a new stretch…

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW FROM THE WORLD OF FISHING AS THE curtain fell on the river season, anglers across the nation signed off in style with some truly memorable catches. But one man enjoyed a run of fish that might just top the lot. Hertfordshire angler Steve Fenton spent his final weeks on the Lee Navigation – a canalised section of the River Lea, running from Hertford all the way to London. He was targeting chub, using a breadflake hookbait alongside a feeder packed with liquidised feed, and had caught a trio of six-pounders in what had already been a very productive campaign. On his next trip, though, his catches reached a different level, when he hooked and landed a 41lb 6oz carp. “I knew this was no chub…

EVERY now and then a fishery will experience a stunning run of form, and Southend Farm is no exception to the rule. The Essex complex has long been regarded as a gem by anglers in the region, but its reputation has spread wider since a jaw-dropping 1,300lb of roach and skimmers were banked in a recent match. Just 16 anglers took part on the day, with winner Dave Wilmott having 122lb 5oz, and the last-placed angler weighing in 55lb! Nor was this a one-off, either, as 80lb-100lb hauls of skimmers soon followed it up. There are four lakes to go at, but it’s the 32-peg Match Lake that has been hitting the headlines recently. While silvers have been dominant all winter, this lake is also home to a large head…

SAY CHEESE! WITH one last day available to me to fish my local river before the end of the season I decided to target chub, as I figured they’d give me the best chance of a bite or two in the up-and-coloured conditions (can anyone else remember the rivers being anything different at any point this winter?). I normally fish for them with a link-legered piece of cheesepaste, but after reading Mark Murdoch’s article in the March 5 issue of Angling Times I decided to try a piece of Red Leicester on the hook, along with the cheesepaste (left), as I thought it looked that bit different. It worked a treat and I had my best chub session of the winter, banking seven fish to just under 4lb from various…

THIS ONE-OFF practice match for the big Angling Trust/ZeroFit Silverfish final saw all 30 finalists trying to get a steer on how Barston Lakes would fish 24 hours later on the big day – and the consensus seemed to be ‘very well’! There were plenty of skimmers to be caught, and taking the lion’s share was former Fish O’Mania champion Kristian Jones, who narrowly missed out on the ton with a superb 99-6-0 haul of fish to 2lb off end peg 121 on the golf course bank. Chasing him all the way on peg 47 of the opposite bank was Sam Collett with an equally impressive 86-12-0, leaving England man Sean Ashby to round off a fish-filled top three on peg 118 next to Kristian with 75-8-0. The winner takes…

SO MANY youngsters and families are facing tough times that it can be easy to fear for the future. But a pioneering new group in Nuneaton are using fishing to get kids out of trouble and put smiles back on their faces. With their motto “pick up a rod, not a knife”, the Reel Rod Squad was started by a group of busy parents – Jo and Lee Stroud, along with Matt and Emily Whitmore – who wanted to make a difference. “It all began with my son LJ’s birthday party fishing trip,” said co-organiser Jo. “It was such a success, we thought we’d start something bigger, because there was very little organised fishing for kids locally.” Garnering support from local fishery Packington Somers and sponsorship from local shop The…

ONE THING that I see a lot of anglers fishing the long pole struggle with is feeding with a catapult. The balance of the pole is all over the place, the feeding isn’t accurate and they end up getting into a real tangle with bait all over the floor or the pole falling into the water! Getting it right can be a bit of a ‘Eureka’ moment, when suddenly everything falls into place, and you wonder why it took you so long to crack it. Practice is key, and this is something that you can do at home in the garden. The mechanics of feeding on the long pole are pretty basic, and the hardest part is being able to balance the pole correctly. Do this, and everything else will…

FOX RAGE TR REELS WHAT THEY SAY: The highest-quality reel Fox Rage has ever created is available in two sizes in the new TR series. There’s a 1500 size for light work and the 2500 ‘all-rounder’, both with features aimed at the lure angler. Both offer silky smooth rotation and retrieve, thanks to their 10+1 ball-bearing systems. A low-profile, sleek bail-arm gives snag-free casting, and there’s a high-grip spool band for slip-free braid attachment, rounded off with a super-strong yet lightweight magnesium body. WHAT WE SAY: Constructed using a carbon-reinforced rotor for increased rigidity even under heavy loads, this front drag reel has enough power to cope with big fish and big lures alike. Price: £149.99 to £159.99, www.foxrage.com FOX SUBMERGE ORANGE SINKING BRAID WHAT THEY SAY: The bright orange…

• Local know-how for bumper nets• Your tried & tested top waters• Expert venue tactics VIADUCT FISHERY, SOMERTON, SOMERSET Cary Lake is home to big skimmers and some huge perch. Use maggots for plenty of bites, but pellets and casters are better for the bigger fish. Contact: 01458 274022 TOWNSEND LAKES, UPWELL, NORFOLK On Kingfisher a sunken island is an easy feeder chuck for lots of skimmers. Pole anglers will also catch bream, big barbel and roach on maggots or pellets. Contact: 01945 774008 DRENNAN LINDHOLME LAKES, SANDTOFT, NORTH LINCS All the lakes hold good numbers of silvers, but Beeches Lake is best. Ide dominate, and a pole or waggler with maggots is the best bet. There are also lots of skimmers and roach. Contact: 01427 875555 ASTON PARK FISHERIES,…

OUR MAN ON THE BANK WELL, that’s the river season finished for another year. If I’m honest, I’ve never seen the rivers in worse condition, and never seen so much rain and so many floods all over the country. But let’s think positive and look forward to a good spring, pleasant fishing and some decent catches. I’ve spent the last three days at the Big One show, and that’s already put me in a good mood, as I reckon it was the best show I’ve attended for many a year. The trade needed a good marketplace and, listening to people who took stand space there, they were pleased with sales. Attendances seemed to be up, too, especially on the Saturday. If I had to pick out one negative, it would…

STEVE RINGER World Feeder champ and a constantly successful matchman PAUL GARNER Angling Times columnist and all-round bait expert MARK POLLARD England international and an expert on natural water fishing TOM EDWARDS Fenland-based fishing coach and commercial match ace ADAM ROONEY Guru brand manager and feeder fishing expert JOE JAGGAR Feedermasters finalist and England Feeder squad member MATT WRIGHT NuFish-backed Yorkshire match angler GRAVEL PIT BREAM RIG What’s a good rig to use for gravel pit bream that are in the 4lb-8lb range? Geoff Robinson, email A All you need really is a simple Method feeder rig, and although the one I use might look like a standard carp feeder set-up, it’s slightly different, and designed specifically for catching bream. The main change I make is to lengthen the hooklink.…

Honest advice to help you to catch more fish on every trip, without breaking the bank AMONG my favourite fish to target in early spring are bream. If you want to get plenty of bites and put a big weight together, bream are a great choice, and until water temperatures rise they can be much more reliable than carp. I adopt a softly-softly approach to spring bream. There’s no need to use large amounts of bait, in fact this can work against you. Bream are quite happy to feed in low water temperatures, but they don’t need to eat a lot to fill them up at this time of year. Try to concentrate the fish in a small area by baiting accurately, as this will reduce the amount of bait…

MATCH SCENE Golden Rod Angling Champs Qualifier (Sat) Drennan Lindholme Lakes, Loco, Benny’s & Bonsai Lakes (48 pegs) THIS was the final qualifier for this popular winter feeder event, with the final at Larford Lakes being just days away. Leading them home with the only triple-figure weight of the day was local lad Jamie Snedker with 113-4-0. The Stainforth Angling man drew fancied peg 2 on Benny’s Lake and netted big F1s and the odd carp on Method feeder tactics with wafters and hard pellets on the hook to win the match overall as well as his zone. Second spot went to Fabian Arpad. The Feederland boss made the long drive from down south pay off as he, too, won his zone, topping the weights on Loco Lake with 98-2-0…