Innehållsförteckning för Issue 3645 från Angling Times

THE SPORT of angling has produced some real characters down the decades, and in this week’s issue, it’s a pleasure to have one of the biggest grace our pages in the shape of Gord Burton, a man otherwise known as ‘The Piking Pirate’. I love his infectious enthusiasm, which hasn’t waned in the slightest over the years. He’s a man who lives and breathes pike fishing, but doesn’t take himself too seriously. With Gord, there’s no hidden agenda to try and promote certain products – all he cares about is getting out on the bank as often as possible and catching a few fish. With the advent of social media (something you won’t find Gord on, coincidentally) I feel a lot of the content we see from many anglers is…

HOW TO ENTER THE DRENNAN CUP 1 CATCH a big coarse fish by design. Take a picture (no blurred or altered backgrounds please), and forward it on to us. 2 DRENNAN picks its favourites. Weekly winners receive £80, while first-time winners also get a Drennan Weekly Winner’s cap and badge. 3 AT THE end of the season (March), previous weekly winners pick their favourite catches, and the angler who comes out on top scoops £2,000 and gets his or her name on the trophy! Running since 1985, the Drennan Cup is Britain’s No1 weekly catch competition which rewards anglers who target big coarse fish by design.…

THE TEXAS RIG is an extremely simple way of rigging a lure in ‘weedless’ fashion, and lends itself brilliantly to fishing with creature baits in late autumn. At this time of year there is still a lot of weed littering lake and riverbeds, and the perch love to hang around structure – making a Texas Rig the perfect tactic to use right now. What components do you need? Well, within Fox Rage’s Strike Point range of terminal tackle you’ll find everything you need to create this brilliant rig. ROD FOX RAGE PRISM X MEDIUM LIGHT SPIN THIS brilliant rod has a fast action that’s light and balanced, and will enable you to not only feel the bite, but to set the hook effectively too. With a length of 210cm and…

THE flatlands of eastern England are crisscrossed with many drains, small rivers and canals. While at first glance their bleakness may seem off-putting, what’s below the surface cancels out any negative thoughts about wetting a line. And certainly, Lincolnshire’s Fossdyke Canal falls firmly into that category. Winding its way from the Cathedral city of Lincoln to the River Trent, the ‘Fos’ is a popular winter haunt for match, pleasure and predator anglers, as it boasts plenty of silverfish and pike to ensure bites whatever the weather. It’s an historic venue, too, reckoned to be the UK’s oldest canal, dug by the Romans back in 120 AD to link the rivers Witham and Trent for trade. Anglers are not the greatest of historians, though, so it’s all about the fishing –…

We look at the best devices to give early visual warning that a fish has taken your bait! THE addition of a bobbin helps your bite alarms work better by keeping the line under tension and centralised. This means that when a fish moves the line, even by a small amount, it registers on the alarm. They also act as a visual indicator so you can distinguish between liners and proper bites. Swingers, bobbins and hangers all offer the same function, which is to enhance the quality of your bite indication. With a seemingly endless choice of styles, colours and sizes on the market, it can be hard to decipher which are the best to use. This week we take a look at some of the very best available for…

OUR MAN ON THE BANK RIGHT now I’m having a whale of a time with my fishing. As the rivers in my area are up and dangerous, I decided to take the easy option, which was to treat myself to a few days’ trouting. I really don’t understand why game fishing has gone down in the ratings, because I reckon it’s a really exciting thing to do, especially at this time of year. Rivers over their banks and temperatures up and down like a yo-yo can make things very difficult, but when the first frosts arrive and the water temperature drops you can guarantee the trout fishing will be at its best. This month you’ll still be able to catch lots of trout near the surface, pulling a buzzer or…

When should I fish at dead depth, overdepth or off-bottom?Steven Mason, Newcastle-under-Lyme I THINK that knowing this is something that comes with experience but, as with anything, there are some general rules of thumb to follow. Basics, such as fishing overdepth for bream and skimmers, still apply, but the real trick is in knowing how far overdepth to go or, indeed, when to come off-bottom. We all miss bites, yet so many anglers rely on plugging away, thinking that the fish will eventually take the bait properly. Occasionally this will happen, but if they only thought about what was happening and made a few changes, the transition of bites to fish hooked would be remarkable! “I will mark the depth on my pole with a pen, and then experiment.” START…

THE VOICE OF MATCH FISHING TIME TO CHILL OUT! TIME for a few small local matches to keep my hand in, have a laugh with some mates and hopefully catch a load of fish too. First up was a trip to Old Hough Fishery to film a live match, and I really fancied my draw on Big Max Lake. Waggler and pellet short got me a few carp and F1s, but when I changed to long pole shallow with pellet, it went potty. I think I had fifteen F1s for 57lb in one net – they were feeding like it was summer! A lovely hassle-free day saw me plonk over a ton on the scales for second spot behind Andy Dyson. Come the weekend it was my first match on…

Hereford DAA Wye Championship (Sun) River Wye, Hereford (135 pegs) THIS massive river match is always eagerly awaited. Despite heavy rain in the weeks leading up to it, the Wye was coloured and falling, all of which pointed towards the day being about catching either bleak or barbel – and so it proved. It was hard going for those drawn on no bleak and having to rely on a few big fish turning up, but in the centre of Hereford, on the Asda bank of the Belmont section, the race for the massive silver trophy was played out between two regulars on the river who went all-out for bleak. They were Rory Jones and Brian Rigby, on pegs 59 and 52 respectively. Come the whistle, Browning rod Rory had done…

LAST CAST WITH DOM OF ALL the certified red alerts an angler can face, one of the worst is the last-minute discovery of a shredded keepnet. So you can imagine my alarm on discovering that my trusty old silverfish net had been given the Swiss cheese treatment. Thank goodness it wasn’t a match day! As I checked the garage, this was only the start of the drama. Several bags of bait were riddled with holes, along with piles of droppings. Most horrifying of all, though, was opening an old seatbox, only for my heart to jolt as two mice leapt out! How had I not noticed earlier? There are few streets in England without a few mice – but with my road in Exeter being cat central, they’d always seemed…

THANKS for joining us, Gord. You’re not the easiest man to track down, especially as you don’t do social media! Is that a conscious thing, to protect your piking these days? That depends. On my local waters, I keep a low profile – because you don’t know how experienced the next angler might be. With the big waters, like Lomond, it’s different. Here you can’t just turn up and catch – and I like to think I’ve promoted pike fishing the right way. I enjoy helping people and getting anglers enthused. And are you as keen as ever? There can’t be many who have fished as hard as you for pike. Pike still have that sense of the unknown and they still excite me. I’ve been to almost every blue…

WHETHER you’re fishing the pole or casting a feeder at range, where carp are concerned it’s no good getting everything right, only to sit there and struggle, wondering what you might have done wrong. Quite often, at this time of year, it’s something as obvious as what you’re putting on the hook that’s to blame for the lack of activity. Although carp will eat almost anything, once thing turn colder, they can become very picky. Fortunately, the list of winning baits for cooling, clearing water isn’t that long, and my choices are often based on visibility. Carp in clear water feed by sight, and so anything that stands out once on the bottom is more likely to be picked out. This is especially true when ‘dobbing’ – fishing a single…

USING large lures offers several advantages in pike fishing. First, they mimic the natural prey of these freshwater apex predators, such as larger fish and even waterfowl. Second, bigger lures create a commotion and disturbance in the water that can trigger the predatory instincts of even the most wary pike. Lastly, these larger baits often enable you to single out the bigger specimens. Casting big lures requires specialised tackle to handle the weight and resistance these baits generate. Thankfully, you can find everything you need in Daiwa’s Prorex range… PROREX X LT 4000C REEL THE 4000-sized X LT reel is the perfect partner for the 8ft spinning rod, and offers exclusive Daiwa technologies at an outstanding price. The LT stands for ‘Light and Tough’ and, by incorporating this technology, the…

FISHERIES ON FIRE • Local know-how for bumper nets• Your tried & tested top waters• Expert venue tactics BRIDGEWATER CANAL, WARRINGTON, CHESHIRE Warrington AA controls the full length of this canal, where carp, tench, and chub are all present in pockets, and skimmers are found throughout. Contact: Warrington AA, 01925 637525 NEW JUNCTION CANAL, DONCASTER, S YORKSHIRE The New Junction Canal holds quality bream and perch. Pole and feeder both score, with worm a winning bait. Doncaster and District AA controls the fishing. Contact: Independent Tackle and Bait, 01302 376689 LANCASTER CANAL, LANCASHIRE You’ll find good bream, as well as big pike, to target here in the colder months. Contact: www.pacgb.com LOUGHBOROUGH CANAL, LEICESTERSHIRE Big perch and chub can be found on the stretch controlled by Loughborough Soar AS. Tickets…

TO GIVE you a little back history, in 2010 I was fishing at a Colne Valley club water and had moved on to some showing fish. I hastily got the rods out, and a short while later I received a take and landed a nice common. After sorting the fish out, it was evident that my rig was lying flat in the margin instead of sitting up as a chod rig should. I checked my baits and realised that, in my rush, I had mistakenly put on a slow sinking hookbait instead of a pop-up. I logged the capture in my mind but didn’t think that it was anything other than a random weird occurrence. This really shows me up for the twit I am – I should have immediately…

It’s no good getting runs if they don’t translate into fish in the net. Here’s the remedy... WE SPEND ages trying to get things right. Bait, location, rigs – all vital parts of the jigsaw, but even when we’ve got stage one all sorted and we get the bite we’re after, stage two can all go horribly wrong. Poor line lay can have a huge effect on indication, clutch control can affect how the carp is hooked and played and, of course, knowing the lie of the land (or, rather, water) in front of you can make a huge difference to knowing where the weedbeds and snags are. This month we take a look at a couple of key areas that can make a huge difference to your catch rates.…

FIRST CARP AND A PROUD GRANDMA! MADISON Goodall looks delighted, and no wonder – this 5lb 1oz mirror was her first-ever carp. Fishing at Tom’s Pond in Otley, West Yorkshire, the 11-year-old tempted the fish with a cube of legered Spam on a size 16 hook. Madison’s grandma, Diane, told Angling Times:“She listened so well and baited up accurately, and was thrilled when she got the take. “She played the fish gently, and carefully brought it all the way to the net, where I was able to scoop it up for her. “I think her smile tells the whole story, and I’m one very proud grandma,” she added. SEND IN YOUR PICTURES Email us your child’s details, including their name, the weight of the fish, where and how they caught…

PERCH POLE FLOAT RIG FANS of big perch have never had it so good, as the species is now present in all sorts of venues, from rivers and canals to reservoirs and intimate ponds, and in ever greater numbers. But it’s commercial fisheries that have provided the biggest surprises – the current joint British record of 6lb 2oz came from just such a venue! Like all predators, perch will drop a bait if the rig offers too much ‘resistance’, so one of the best ways to target them in lakes is with a pole float, fished via a pole or rod and line. The margins are the best area to target, especially if there’s cover from platforms or bushes. Plumb up so that the bait is slightly overdepth, and have…