On Friday I attended a Cheshire Maver Club Match on Heronbrook, I drew peg 10 on Meadow, a good peg but with the wind blowing down to peg 1, and the peg being flat calm didn't fancy it too much, Spent the first 30 minutes on the feeder, didn't have a bite, had a look on my shallow line, had a couple of F1s, but then nothing, tried fishing deep shallow again you would nick a couple then they would dissappear, think the peg really needed a ripple for them to settle properly.
About 3 hours into the match had about 30lb and was going nowhere, watching a few other anglers catching steady shallow. At this point in the match I decided to get my head down and fish for carp, as it was the only way I had any chance of getting back in the match.
I started feeding groundbait some big pots of EFG131 mixed with Luxus Active down the edge and fishing paste over the top, and then started catching some decent carp, the stamp of the fish were averaging about 6lb so, Spent the rest of match down the edge on corn and paste, feeding another big pot after every couple of fish, to finish the match with 15 F1s and about twenty proper carp for 155lb 8oz, which was good enough for second in match, just behind the winner who weighed in 159lb.
Middy-backed matchman Kieron Rich reveals his against-the-grain tactics for tackling ‘The Mud Line’…
The warmer the weather, the more inclined carp are to investigate the very shallowest areas of lakes. If you have ever fished or walked around a fairly clear lake you will often observe carp lying in shallow water in the margins. You will also see them colouring up the water as they root around for food items.
In a match, the far banks and islands of lakes become very favourable areas to target, as the pressure and disturbance from anglers around the lakes pushes the fish out to these features and cover.
John Allerton unveils a modern innovation for shallow fishing that is simple, cheap and wins him lots of matches!
Like last month, the only bait that graces my side tray today is a bag of 4mm fishery pellets, and a few slightly bigger pellets for the hook. This minimal bait menu has won me hundreds of matches at this time of year, especially when I’m planning on fishing shallow. What I want to show you today, however, is a method of fishing shallow that is a little different to the norm.
I often hear anglers refer to shallow fishing as a method that they often try during a match, but if it isn’t a fish-a-chuck pretty much straightaway, they dismiss it quite quickly.
Closed-faced reels are the subject for the Dorset Bard this month, as he extols his love of a certain model that’s been a regular in his armoury since 1989!
When I started out match fishing, the rod and line ruled and if they were float fishing, the majority of anglers would either ‘dab’ or ‘ping’ before they cast out! I know what you’re thinking… “What’s the idiot talking about this month?”
Well, unlike today there wasn’t a massive choice of reels available and I reckon in a competition around 90 per cent of the field would be using either a French-manufactured Mitchell Match or one of the Swedish Abu closed-faced models, the 501, 503, 505, 506, 506M or the bigger 507. I’d go as far as too say that during the 1970s and 1980s everyone who match fished would have, at some point in time, owned one if not more of these reels!
Now, all these reels had something in common: you didn’t have to manually lift the bail arm to cast. The Mitchell you dabbed, and just like when a mouse touches the cheese on the trap (although I’ve found a dollop of peanut butter equally attractive!) the bail arm would ‘thwack’ over, releasing the line? On the Abus, depressing the front button would make a lovely ‘ping’ sound, causing in a similar result. I can clearly remember an old advert in the angling press back in the 1980s for the Mitchell Match, stating that using its finger dab would save a second a cast, which would in turn equate to minutes gained each match to catch your prey!
Now being the confirmed tackle tart that I am, you’ll know that I had at some time or another examples of all of these reels.
Who better to join for a lesson in flowing-water waggler fishing than Garbolino’s river connoisseur and Welsh international, Lee Edwards?
When you’re sat biteless during a match on a river, there are probably hundreds of quality fish in front of you. It’s a bold and crazy statement to make, but one that I strongly believe in. The venue where we’re fishing today, the Warwickshire Avon at Evesham, is a perfect example. Three big matches pressure the 87-peg match length here most weeks, and the fish are incredibly wary.
Jake Fowles gets to grips with the powerhouse of the Browning Xitan range.
I am finding myself increasingly impressed with what tackle manufacturers are able to introduce to the market; the advancements in what bang we get for our buck has improved drastically, even in the 10 or so years since I was working as a sales assistant down at my local tackle shop.
Although most of these developments span right across the board, there is no one area that impresses me quite as much as the mid-range pole market, such is the standard of what is now available, and despite it being, in my opinion, the most competitive and difficult to conquer price point for poles.
It is the £1,499 priced Browning Xitan Z7-2 (Power Special) that I have at my disposal today, a pole that slots itself nicely into the mid-range pole bracket.
Joe Carass gets an early look at the fantastic new Frenzee Precision 6E FXT flagship pole.
Frenzee is a brand that just keeps on producing the goods. I have been so impressed with the products it has brought to the table in recent years; it always likes to do things its own way and always has some interesting ideas and innovations that set its products apart from the rest.
We managed to get hold of the first-ever model of the brand-new Precision 6E FXT.
Another £320,000 is being made available this summer to the Angling Improvement Fund (AIF) to support anglingfacilities and access improvements on rivers and at angling venues around the country.
The Angling Trust, which administers the fund on behalf of the Environment Agency, is seeking applications from clubs, commercial venues, councils, charities and community organisations by 20th September, for grants worth up to £5,000. The grants are only available for projects benefiting angling for coarse fish and non-migratory trout.
The themes in this round are:
Fish protection and predation management
Around 20 awards will be offered for fencing, fish refuges and other non-lethal measures to protect fish stocks from unsustainable predation by otters, fish-eating birds and other wildlife.
