Our new blogger Nick Speed has been in great form lately but just how did he do this week? Saturday 2/2/13.
Lindholme Lakes, Bonsai, 25 pegs.
Well yet another windy day at “Windholme”, and to make it worse I drew Peg 9 on the narrow bank, this is a good draw but the wind was going to make this a difficult day. Especially when I need to fish 15 metres tight against the island for F1s and Mirrors, if I want to stand a chance of extracting enough weight to frame.
There’s nothing Nick Speed likes more than catching barbel on the River Trent, and with more and more matches being won with these magnificent fish we decided to pick his brains to discover the best way to catch them.
Are some methods more skillful than others? Tom Scholey thinks so!I read with interest Alex Bones’s Editorial in the latest issue of Match Fishing. I have really been enjoying his pieces over the last few months, as he has spoken his mind on a number of issues - and up to now I have agreed with his points wholeheartedly. In this months magazine, he raises an interesting topic- arguing that it is not fair to put certain methods on a pedestal, and suggesting that they all require a similar amount of skill to be proficient at. Based on my own experiences, I couldn’t disagree more.
Middy's Craig Butterfield talks silver fish match rules, but are they more of a headache than a good way to stir up winter competition?Earlier this week I got into a discussion about the amount of anglers
on the banks in winter. It’s pretty obvious that a vast majority of
anglers are what I’d call ‘fair weather fisherman’ resulting in most
matches on commercials this time of year having very poor attendances or
in some cases stopping completely as they can’t even get anglers to
turn up. Carp, very much like some match anglers, don’t like cold weather. It can make the fishing difficult and venues very peggy.
The man that could end your career…A massive well done to Alex Bones, the likable dwarf and editor of Match Fishing magazine (or Captain Colgate as his team christened him, due to his regular trips to the teeth-whitening clinic), who has won the Van den Eydne/Matrix International Feeder Challenge that took place in Belgium this weekend. First thing Monday, he strode into the office with two giant trophies. One was so large, in fact, that his team were able to give him a celebratory bath in it! The thing he likes the most about the giant cups, though, is not so much the sense of victory that he got from winning such an event, but the fact that the polished silver shows up his reflection! For the duration of the day, he could be seen checking himself, because, in his words, there is no point being a winner if you don’t look like a winner. Rumour has it, he has already approached a perfume company and hopes to release a commemorative fragrance later this year.
The Ultimate F1 Fishing Guide.
Martin Stokes runs through his favourite Marukyu Products to help catch one of the most popular species of fish our commercial fisheries the F1 carp.
F1s are one of my favourite species of fish to catch throughout the year, they have now become one of the leading stockings in commercial fisheries all over the country. Due to their size and fast growth rates they have become a real winner with both the commercial fisheries owners and modern day match anglers such as myself.
The Town Welland, as the stretch of River Welland running through Spalding town centre is affectionately known, has to be THE roach venue to fish this winter. We joined local expert and England Youth international Josh Newman for a small-river masterclass.
Match Fishing’s Joe Carass has something he needs to get off his chest! F1s, F1s, F1s! I’ve got bloody F1s on the brain at the moment. I go to sleep thinking of F1s and I wake up, still thinking about them. Yes I am totally obsessed by them!
I think they get a bit of a bad rap. I hear no end of ‘star’ names slagging the poor little devils off and I can’t really think of a logical reason why.
All-round master Simon Willsmore lifts the lid on his against-the-grain feeder tactics for big-water success.
If I had to say what had given me the biggest edge in match fishing over the last 10 years, it would be using my initiative to think outside the box.
I was lucky enough to live in Italy for seven years, where some very good, but also eccentric Italian anglers influenced my fishing. I also fished some very peculiar venues, and I still carry a lot of the ideas and thinking from those days with me now.
It’s not every day us mere mortals of anglers get asked to trial a new product, that’s normally left to those at consultant level within the big companies but at the same time not all companies that are influential in the angling world are the size of the major tackle brands; so when I was asked by Andy Wootton and Nigel Malko both of Commercial Indications several months ago about trialling some new float tips I couldn’t refuse. My first thoughts leaned towards a new shape or was it the nitinol (Bendy Wire) that is now all the rage? No, it was quite simply a new colour tip or several new colours to be exact with which one is still undergoing testing as we speak, I asked Andy why they were looking at producing new colours and how they would improve my own as well as anyone else fishing from what we already know and have trust in? His simple reply to me was do I struggle to see floats or certain colours at distance? Being partially colour blind I would have to say yes, I do especially in certain lights, I was intrigued as he wasn’t giving too much away in terms of benefits in fact pretty much none, I had to just try them in differing situations, and with the winter period approaching it was a good time to try as the weather changes constantly and that hard to see glassy surface is quite commonplace on most days. He sent me a set of each colours and I wasn’t to get in touch with him until I had spent enough time trialling them; the 2 colours that were sent were neon pink and a bright blue.
On first look at each colour I could start to see they could have a potential to make the difference but only time on the bank will tell, it was quite difficult though as he asked if I could try and keep them under wraps from prying eyes especially as nothings secret these days with social media.
After six years fishing for Matrix Dynamite Trentmen, Tom Scholey is moving on….
I have Rob Perkins to thank for getting me involved with the then Fox Match Dynamite Trentmen.
I was first invited to join the team in January 2011, after a few good guest performances on the RILMAC league on the Fossdyke – although again, Rob should really take the credit for this as he showed me how to fish the venue!
I still remember my first weekend fishing for the team – it was in the Sensas Challenge at Packington Somers and Barston in March 2011. I was honoured to wear the T-shirt that Rob gave me (even if it was a little too big for me!) My performance, as I remember it, was less than heroic, somewhere near the bottom of the section both days – but things could only get better!
The next chapter was the Division One National on the New Junction Canal.
Tackling a lake that flows like a river is a daunting task for any match angler! We join Graham West as he tries to get to grips with the strangest of conditions.
Matrix sponsored angler, and former Junior Fish 'O' Maniachampion Cameron Cross ponders one of the biggest questions in modern matchfishing. . .
Whether it’s political votes, the fight against terrorism or Leicester City winning the Premier League, no subject has caught my attention of late more than anglers and the matches they choose to fish.
Webb’s World!
After offending most of the angling world with his last couple of rants, our irreverent scribe Dan Webb turns his savage tongue on his own breed – canal anglers!
It's been said that I've been a little rude in this column over the past few months. Some have even suggested that I'm a judgemental hypercritical keyboard s£&t slinger! It seems that I've slated and picked holes in every niche of fishing except the forms that I'm best known for. So then, there's nothing for it; you’re gunna get it now canal anglers!
Canal anglers are a strange breed, it's all about poles and moaning about boats and carp are seen as vermin. They look down their nose at anyone who fishes anything else other than the cut and on the rare occasion that they are seen fishing anywhere else, they make tedious jokes about No2 elastic and 28 hooks.
