The long and the short of it!
It’s been a good week for Joe’s Match Fishing Drawbags team and here he tells all!
Well it’s been another week and yet another winter league round at Tunnel Barn Farm. You may recall last week that we had suffered at the draw bag. Well this week we were hoping to get our campaign right back on track, which meant Jon Arthur taking up the reigns as the drawbag!
One thing I didn’t expect though was his keenness! In fact I arrived at 7. 55AM (20 minutes before the official draw time) and Jon had already drawn and was walking around the lakes! Luckily, it was decent news this week and I don’t mind admitting that my peg was the worst of the four in House 14, but it is a peg I've always fancied drawing so I wasn’t despondent at all! Steve Ringer was on Extension 34, which has been a decent area of late; Paul Bick was on Club 11 – again a good draw.
Anging Trust hit back at critics.
The Angling Trust has hit back at critics, who slammed the £1. 8m funding package secured for angling from Sport England. The amount of funding each sport received was announced on Monday, with angling ranking 35th out of the 46 sports awarded funding, despite being among the country’s largest participation sports.
I was privy to a sneak peek at the company’s latest tackle gadget some time before the T&G Show – its micro match lead clip. But before you say you’ve seen it all before, this is something a bit different! Having designed the micro version for the Guru range I know a little bit about lead clips, but this version is better as it features a slot along the underside, allowing it to be removed from the line in under a second! Nifty, but consider that the existing Method feeders, and the soon-to-be-launched pellet feeders, feature the same slotted attachment system and you begin to see the result – an ultra-versatile system that allows you to change between all styles of presentation without breaking your rig down completely. A major benefit for some will be that you don’t have to set up multiple rods when you want to fish the bomb and a feeder on the same session. That also means carting less kit to the bankside – something I’m all in favour of! Plus, the rigs are all super-safe when they’re assembled as intended!The arm of the clip will easily house a swivel, meaning you can mount a lead, open-ended or blockend feeder onto it with ease.
Korum get behind award winning 'Angling Projects' scheme.
Club Korum has joined forces with Les Webber’s Angling Projects in a bid to get even more youngsters hooked on fishing in 2013. I Heart Fishing ambassador, Nigel Botherway, visited Angling Projects' Wraysbury headquarters to present Les with Club Korum fishing kits to help them with future angling events. The float, feeder and pole packs include a How To DVD featuring Nigel and former world champion, Tommy Pickering.
The Preston Innovations stand was extremely impressive as always. The Absolute Station was a real standout product in my eyes but I loved the GXR 3600. I have used a Preston pole for two years now and my current One XS model is by far the best I have used. I must admit, though, that I thought the new GXR 3600 was something special.
I have been very impressed with Marukyu bait over the past two years and have had some very memorable days when using the stuff. This bait, however, is something completely different to what Marukyu has produced before in that it is specifically designed to target silver fish. I have been fortunate enough to be involved with this mix before it was released. I have used it on several occasions after Roy Marlow showed it to me on a feature I shot with him several months ago.
Disappointment at derisory sum.
Anglers have reacted with anger to the news that their sport will receive just £1. 8million in funding from Sport England over the next four years. Over the same length of time, badminton will receive £18 million, netball £25 million and golf £13 million.
Northern and Southern venues set. Two of the four Angling Trust Winter League Semi Final venues have been confirmed. The Loughborough Canal will host a northern semi final – along with an unconfirmed commercial. Gold Valley Lakes will host the southern commercial round, but organisers are still on the hunt for a natural venue in the bottom half of the country.
Loads of match related news inside!It has been an eventful week in the angling world. For the first time in eighteen years, the former European Champion and World Champion, Will Raison has announced a change in sponsors - moving camps to join Old Ghost. We tell of exciting changes to Advanced Carp Fishing Magazine, with two new top name columnists, and a new consulting Editor. Then, there is the controversial story of the Warwickshire venue that has banned a bait - just because it is too effective, and anglers didn’t want to compete against it!There is good news for fly anglers, in the shape of a new chalkstream charter - and exciting plans for new lakes at Cheshire Partirdge Lakes complex.
World Champ wins two big matches on the bounce!Sean Ashby has proved just why he is World Champion, after winning the last two rounds of the Thorne Individual League in consecutive weeks. Fishing against a field of the UK’s finest bloodworm and joker anglers, including Alan Scotthorne and Lee Kerry, Sean made no mistake in commanding the win, from two different parts of the match length. “The canal has certainly changed a lot from the last two years – but the fishing is still very good. Both of these results saw me catch a steady procession of roach, fishing joker on the hook over a bed of groundbait, leam and joker.
