Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 3669 i Angling Times

“I FELL FLAT ON MY BACKSIDE!” Kevin Sanders – 3lb 3oz rudd “I RECENTLY went for a day’s rudd fishing in cold and windy conditions. “Starting on the Method feeder with a yellow pop-up hookbait, I had a lovely rudd of around 1lb 8oz first cast, before a run of tench and bream followed. “I was starting to think the rudd weren’t really up for it when I had a jittery take, typical of the species. Unfortunately, the fish came off, but not long after that I had another bite from what turned out to be a 2lb 12oz rudd. “Next came a drop-back bite, and I lifted into a fish that plodded around in typical breamy fashion. “It got snagged in a lily, but I wasn’t worried – it…

TIPS & TACTICS IF YOU TRY ONE THING THIS WEEK... PLENTY of cover may be the first feature you look for when pencilling in a margin line on a commercial fishery. But Matty Dawes reckons that the contours of the bottom are far more important. The reigning Fish O’Mania champion has watched ‘the edges’ come alive recently as temperatures have slowly crept up and, while others are pinning a rig tight to large beds of reeds or lilies, he’s let his plummet make the decisions for him. “Some margins have a very steep slope that doesn’t give you anywhere to lay down a bed of bait,” explained Matty. “I’ll put my plummet on and try to find a flat area with the same depth and roughly the size of a…

FAULT FIXERS Expert help to give your match fishing the edge THE TUTOR DARREN COX Garbolino UK boss and England feeder man with a long and distinguished match angling CV on natural and commercial waters THE LESSON 1 CREATE A TRAIL Building up a tight pile of feed may seem key but it can actually lead to you missing out on the bigger fish. Quality bream may shun the zone in favour of items that have drifted a little way off it, so only gently pack your groundbait into the cage feeder to allow this to happen. 2 FIND ‘THE SPOT’ The stronger the tow, the further away from your feeder the groundbait that exits on the way down will land. If the tow is gentle, that may be just…

IT SEEMS to me that to be successful in the modern carp angling era, a vital prerequisite is to be able to adopt an ‘unpredictable’ style. We are now at the stage where most carp anglers fish essentially from the same blueprint – that includes the type of rig , the type of hookbait and, largely, the type of spot too. Not only that, but because we are now firmly in the ‘information era’ many anglers are fishing the same spots as each other, due to concise measuring and mapping using wrap sticks – and, of course, this information is often shared. BEING DIFFERENT WILL PAY OFF When you look at this stark reality, it’s perhaps not hard to see why carp fishing is largely getting harder instead of easier.…

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW FROM THE WORLD OF FISHING WE DIDN’T think that things could get much better on the specimen bream front this spring, but Lee Snow’s capture of a 20lb 2oz giant has proved us wrong. And, in another remarkable week for the species, a huge slab weighing 19lb 4oz was also landed by Geoff Aspinall from Sandhurst Lake, Yateley. These fish are the highlights of what’s been an historic run of massive bream over the past month, with more giants already reported than in the whole of last season. Lee’s fish, from a Midlands gravel pit, caps a scintillating start to the Leicester angler’s campaign, which kicked off with bream of 17lb 2oz and 17lb 1oz a few weeks ago. “When I joined this water in…

P ICTURE the scene. You’ve cast out your float or feeder, put the rod in the rest, and settled down in your chair to take in the beauty of the surroundings. Nothing ‘fishy’ happens for half an hour, your mind starts to wander and your concentration begins to wane. Then, out of nowhere, a big patch of pinprick bubbles erupts right over the top of where you’ve cast. It’s like a jolt to the senses. You sit bolt upright, your heart skips to a quicker rhythm, and you’re suddenly back in the zone, prickling with anticipation. Knowing that a fish is grubbing around close to your hookbait is a magical feeling – but is that what’s really happening each time, or is there some other ‘natural’ explanation? BUBBLE SOURCES THERE…

MAP ELITE Z36 MK2 THIS second incarnation of the Z36 features a stunning blue frame that’s been beautifully crafted and features machined aluminium blocks that keep weight to a minimum, yet offer superb strength. The stacking system allows deep or shallow tray units to be stored beneath the box in any order, without the need for a runner on the bottom tray, and can be removed from either the front or rear of the box. The PU fully moulded and waterproof pole seat has an aluminium base frame, preventing pressure being added to the drawer units below when sitting on the box. The footplate features two removable threads that enable it to be fully detached. WHY WE LOVE IT: This is an incredibly lightweight box for its build quality, made…

(* indicates an anagram) ACROSS 1 Flexible end of long pole, replacing elastic (*lift pick) (5-3) 6 ___ Pits, Suffolk: a four-lake fishery (*boomer) (6) 9 Breakfast cereal, good bait mixed with water (6)10 Canal water at Cheshire's Partridge Lakes (*lean pike) (4,4)11 Hybrid carp with metallic scales (*is Goth, OK?) (5,3)12 Early life stage of e.g. fish (6) 14 Simon ___ /Simon Mottram, Canal Pairs champs 2014, 2021, 2022 (6)16/19dn. Jim Murray's scheme to help us protect our waterways (*vintage cars list) (8,7)18 River Mersey flows in this direction (8) 21 It's mostly used to catch trout, grayling etc (3,3)22 Set-up of small, buoyant plastic bait/rounded jighead (*red gin) (3,3) 24 County location of Innis fly fishery (8)26 __ Lake in Notts., specimen carp water (*worm cell) (8) 28…

WHEN we think of specimen groups, it’s easy to imagine they’re little more than a handful of enthusiasts sharing whispers of big fish and reminiscing about the ‘good old days’. But that’s not true of the Tenchfishers. Founded in 1954 by Richard Walker, Maurice Ingham and John Ellis, they started as a secretive, invite-only society. Early members would write letters to one another – much like the famous Carp Catchers Club, which came into being at much the same time. Over the next decade the Tenchfishers flourished, and membership swelled before then dropping to just a dozen individuals in the 1990s. Those remaining met in the pump house at Sywell Reservoir in Northants, once Britain’s premier tench venue, and considered folding the group. Thankfully, they didn’t, and a few years…

GET READY WITH WILL RAISON MOST anglers think about narrow and shallow venues whenever canals are mentioned. But such venues are just part of the story – wide and deep shipping canals, such as The Aire & Calder, and Gloucester, being the other side of the coin. These are packed with fish and require a unique set of tactics. There’s nothing overly complicated about the best approach, though. A little analysis of the conditions that you are likely to face will help you make the right decisions. Consider the depth, tow, and disruption that any large boats are likely to cause. Then set up appropriate rigs and have a feeding strategy that will provide the best possible presentation to put more fish in your net. GIVE IT A GO 1…

MAY is reckoned to be the best time to fish for specimen tench. What better way to spend the day than targeting a fish whose emerald flanks are bursting at the seams, and whose huge rudder is ready to test your tackle? Tench send up pin-prick bubbles and a witch's cauldron of fizz and foam as their snouts root through the sediment. They’re likely to roll, too, slapping their paintbrush tails on the surface to give away their presence in a widening circle of ripples. All this takes place in daylight, a huge bonus for those of us who enjoy our beds! On the many gravel pits I fish, prime time for tench is 9am onwards. This article will help you catch a big tinca, now more so than at…

THIS MONTH’S HIGHLIGHTS: • Top catches – some of the best big carp you've landed recently• Adam Penning on why avoiding obvious gravel spots can be wise• New Gear: 6 great spod reels• Part 2 of Rob Hughes' casting masterclass: baiting up accurately BIGGEST CARP EVER CAUGHT BY A FEMALE ANGLER IN THE UK 72lb 12oz – Naomi Turner THE BIGGEST resident in Holme Fen Fishery has been banked at a whopping 72lb 12oz by Naomi Turner, making it the largest carp caught by a female angler in the UK. It came after a change of swims 48 hours into her session on the 26-acre Cambridgeshire venue. Two spinner rigs tied with 25lb booms and size 4 Korda Kamakura Wide Gape X hooks were cast over a small hump surrounded…

A FEW years ago I made an underwater film illustrating casting and baiting accuracy. Using poles, I marked out a target on the bottom of a lake, put a marker float above it and got a pal to cast at it to see where his hookbait and loosefeed ended up. We looked at where the lead was landing , the amount of swing-back, how the bait fell and all sorts of other variables. It was really helpful and, at the time, answered a lot of questions. Even now, though, one of the questions I still get asked the most is: “How far past the marker float should I be casting so that my rig lands on my baited patch?” Time has moved on and, like everything , new information and…

‘BIG PIKE’ HOAX, 2001 THIS is a fairly recent ‘archive’ item, but it was thought to be the first time anyone had used computer software – in this instance an early version of Photoshop – to ‘enhance’ the picture, and size, of a fish. “The old chub record has been caught up and overtaken by reality” Anybody who follows social media can’t fail to have seen plenty of false images, knowingly or not. And, given the huge improvement in the old Adobe software – now available as an app – I’m amazed our British Record Fish Committee hasn’t been bombarded with 12oz gudgeon or similarly outrageous claims! Please don’t think this is anything new, though. I recall WAY back, probably the 1960s, a story about a monster pike, in a…