Heronbrook Fisheries, Slindon, 13th May 2017
Angler's Name
Weight (lbs/oz)
Peg # / Lake
Damian Bracken (Garbolino)
166-14-00
27 (Meadow)
Jamie Hughes (MAP / Bag 'Em Baits)
153-13-00
23 (Meadow)
Andy Christie
138-04-00
39 (Canal)
Matt Arnold
129-10-00
21 (Match Lake)
Mark Fox (Maver Midlands)
111-02-00
2 (Meadow)
Gerald Lees
103-00-00
19 (Match Lake)
Steve Openshaw (Lingmere Fisheries)
100-00-00
14 (Island)
Simon Symcox
97-04-00
31 (Meadow)
Qualifiers for Maver British Pole Championship: Damian Bracken, Jamie Hughes & Andy Christie.
Eighty-seven (87) anglers lined the banks of New Canal, Canal, Meadow, Bridge, Island and Match lake for this latest Saturday qualifier event. Conditions on the day were cool to begin with due to plenty of cloud cover and a stiff breeze making things feel a lot colder than during the week leading up to the match. By mid-afternoon, however, there was plenty of sunshine, which brought the resident carp and F1s up in the water where they obliged on pellet and casters.
Whatever happened to hailing in bait? Is there no fun in fishing any more? Dan Webb delves into the art of frugal-feeding F1ers.
I’m an angler that likes to feed. Yes, I fish a lot of canal matches and smaller venues but I love nothing more than turning up at great big wild venues with a baby bath full of groundbait and filling it in!
Maybe it’s just my inner child, which got me into fishing at a very early age. It’s not just the catching of fish and being outdoors, it’s the casting a long way and using big catapults! To me, that’s an important part of fishing.
Team Lindholme romped home to victory in the Commercial Stillwater Championships on their home water in Epworth, nine points clear of their rivals.
A huge turnout of 280 anglers from around the country made their way to the venue on a cold morning, but were treated to a busy day's fishing.
Team Lindholme took home a cool £2,500 with two firsts and two seconds in sections backed up by a string of top 10 finishes to tally an impressive 108 points.
Second on the day were Drennan Barnsley Blacks with 99 points who narrowly edged out Team Garboilno on 98 points.
Throw out the rulebook and forget everything you’ve ever read about winter carp fishing baits. Matrix man Deane Swift has been cashing in on meat in freezing temperatures! No joke. Here’s how…
Going against the grain doesn’t always pay when it comes to fishing, but Deane Swift is a man who has won many a match on his local circuit and has a particularly fearsome record on one of his local waters, Puddledock Farm in Essex, where we are for today’s shoot.
Usually, the big 100-peg snake lake is used for matches, but due to it being frozen over (an indication of just how cold it is today) Deane has sat on the Road Lake instead – a pond he is far less familiar with.
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Master The Method
Even though the Method feeder is incredibly popular Dynamite Baits' Nick Speed believes most anglers are still getting some of the basics wrong
"All anglers at some point have probably used a Method feeder. And, as a tactic, its devastating fish-catching capabilities are well documented. "
Old VS New
What's better for bream - the open-ended or the pellet feeder? We've ventured to Butterley Reservoir to find out!
"Bream fishing has been dragged into the modern era recently and with this style of fishing becomingever more popular, the tactics are being increasingly put under the microscope. "
Sticky Success
Lee Kerry explains why a tactic rarely seen in the UK could be the key to unlocking your local commercial water
"Stickymagis a term most of you will have heard at some stage but I doubt there are many of you out there who have given the bait a try.
Matt Godfrey takes Maver’s mid-range marvel for a spin at a very testing Lindholme Lakes!
Poles in this price bracket really do have their work cut out. You can expect to pay around £1,200 for the 14. 5m package or £999 for the 13m version. In my experience, you see poles of this ilk in more situations than any others.
Here's your opportunity to win!
What You Can Win
• Worm Fishmeal - £6. 49• F1 StikiMethod Pellets 2mm - £3. 49• F1 StikiMethod Pellets 4mm - £3. 49• Band'um Pellet 5mm - £3.
Top Kamasan Starlets team man, and Preston Innovations brand manager Scott Geens explains how the key to consistency often lies in targeting multiple species…
Good anglers win matches, but great anglers win leagues. I have always really enjoyed league and team matches as you always have something to fish for – whether it be one point or ten the incentive is always there for you to keep going.
As much as I enjoy the occasional open match too, they are often very predictable, with certain boss pegs or fliers dominating proceedings, if a good angler happens to draw them. There are also ways that you can turn average pegs into winners, but often these involve fishing in a feast or famine type way – which isn’t conducive to consistency.
On Saturday I had a trip to Fir Tree Fisheries in wigan, to take part in one of the charity qualifiers in association with Adlington Angling centre and Adlington Angling Club to help raise money for Christies.
Fir Tree is a venue I had only fished once before, about 6 years ago, and had a shocker to honest. Today I drew peg 34 which meant nothing, with alot of anglers fishing, I knew fishing the far bank at 16m on the pole would probably be my best bet of catching a few.
Started across on an Marukyu's Amino Focus 6mm pellet, feeding Fishery pellets flavour with a bit of Marukyu's Scopex Amino, within minutes I hooked a 4lb mirror which I lost at the net, the next few hours were slow, nicking to odd small carp and a few stocky F1s, but nothing over a pound.
