Innehållsförteckning för Issue 3660 från Angling Times

MANY of the country’s rivers seem to have spent more time in the surrounding fields than in between their banks this winter, yet judging by some of the catches we’ve had sent in over the last couple of weeks there’s still been some truly excellent sport on offer. Obviously it’s imperative to get your tactics right on any given day, but when faced with fast-flowing, coloured water, fishing in an effective manner can be the difference between catching well and pulling your hair out in frustration. Carefully selecting the best time to be on the bank and using big, smelly baits which are easier for species such as chub and barbel to find is key to success, and the sheer volume of catch reports of specimen fish landing in our…

KORUM ZELOS 6000 ABOUT as cheap as you could possibly buy a mini pit for, this reel can only be described as a bargain! Great looks and a steady performance make this an ideal choice for the occasional big-fish or big-cast angler. A smooth drag system and carbon steel bearings deliver precise power, while the S-Stroke system ensures great line lay. Price: pay around £59.99, www.korum.co.uk SHIMANO ULTEGRA 5500 XSD THE XSD is the cheapest of Shimano’s Ultegra mini pit reels. The wide bull nosed spool offers little resistance when distance casting, holds both fine or strong lines well and gives plenty of cranking power – ideal for competitions, spod and marker work or light beachcasting. Featuring a line clip, super-slow oscillation and a high-speed drag, the ultra-shallow spool will…

CONGRATULATIONS LLOYD! MAY I take this opportunity to congratulate Lloyd Watson on the capture of his magnificent record fish from Chew Valley Lake. I am so pleased that the new British record has gone to a lifelong pike angler, and he justly deserves it. I know the feeling of utter disbelief he must be going through, as I did over 30 years ago when I caught my UK record pike from Llandegfedd. I hope the new benchmark he has set lasts a long time. Despite regularly looking at UK fishing news online from my home here in New Zealand I knew nothing about Lloyd’s momentous catch until a UK-based fishing friend of mine Nick Baumkotter contacted me to pass on the news. Would you be kind enough to pass onto…

TOM’S DEEP WATER ROACH POLE RIG My rig keeps tangling when fishing the pole in deep water for roach. How can I stop this? Chris Band, Warrington A What it sounds like is happening here is that as the rig settles, your hooklength is then ‘kicking’ back over the olivette and tangling, due to its heavier weight. What you need to do is create a ‘boom’ made up of five or six small shot bunched directly below the olivette. This will keep the hooklength far enough away from the olivette as everything falls through the water to stop it wrapping over. Below this I’d have three smaller dropper shot, with the olivette and boom being around 20ins from the hook with an eight-inch hooklength. Take a look at the rig…

IF ONLY... LAST week I was at Meadowlands Fishery, gearing up for the £10k Halkon Hunt/On the Flyer TV Winter Classic final, an event I’ve won twice in a row – I was hoping for a hat-trick! From the preceding two-day mini festival I learned that I needed to go down the pellet route – and draw well! A section win on day one with 47lb of skimmers off peg 15 on Lambsdown was great, but on day two I had just 16lb off peg 47 on the same lake. Another 2lb and I’d have made it into the top three. On to the big day, and I drew peg 11 on Lambsdown. A great first hour got me 10lb of skimmers on expanders over 4mm pellets long, before the…

MATCH SCENE SENSAS Hot Rods man Zak Worby-Smith won off the fancied Elm Lake with a fine 81-150. Drawing corner peg 12, Norfolk-based Zak had a brilliant opening three hours, landing 30 carp to 12lb before searching around his peg for the rest of the match. His nearest threat came from Starlets man Chris Jones on Oak Lake, peg 22, and former Fish O’ champ Kristian Jones at peg 20 on Yew Lake, the two men ending well adrift on 64-050 and 62-675. Faced with an end bank full of reeds and bushes, 22-year-old Zak kicked off by dobbing to those features, hooking a carp within 10 seconds of the start. Alternating between bread and maggots fished 18ins deep, he was soon well over the 100lb mark. “I could see…

LONGSTANDING PB FINALLY BEATEN Duncan Hayward – 30lb 3oz pike WHEN he was just 12 Duncan Hayward caught a 21lb 4oz pike on a lure, and it remained his PB for many years. But following a recent tough campaign on the Thames, during which he endured cold and muddy banks, plus countless blanks, he finally beat it with this fine fish of 30lb 3oz. Duncan caught what he describes as “the pike he’s dreamed of for nearly 30 years” using a roach livebait, fished in the margins. He added that his float was ‘going mad’ for 10 minutes before signalling the take, and reckoned the pike was stalking his bait during that time. EIGHT-HOUR ROUND TRIP REWARDED Chris Mutton – 16lb 5oz barbel THE THAMES is one of Britain’s premier…

GARBOLINO HORIZONTAL MULTI LEG DOUBLE MATCH ROLLER 3R WHAT THEY SAY: Garbolino’s popular Double Match Roller is now more versatile than ever. Supplied with two sets of telescopic legs, allowing the roller to be used flat to the ground, with the short single telescopic legs or their long double telescopic equivalent – basically, they cover every height and bank gradient the modern pole angler is likely to face. The 700mm-wide rollers are made from high-density EVA foam and run on ultra-smooth ball-bearings. WHAT WE SAY: We love this idea! Rather than use leg extensions which need to be removed for storage, simply clip on the legs you need for the venue you are fishing and away you go! Price: £189.99, www.garbolinouk.co.uk BAIT-TECH CRITICALS WAFTER HOOKBAITS WHAT THEY SAY: A 5mm…

FOX COOKWARE ESPRESSO MAKER Price: £16.99 Consider yourself a coffee connoisseur? Wouldn’t dream of drinking instant coffee? Then you’ll definitely want to add one of these new Espresso Makers to your brew-making kit so that you can enjoy really fresh coffee on the bank. Made from lightweight aluminium in a matt khaki finish, it’s both easy to use and simple to clean. Available in 300ml (six cup) and 450ml (nine cup) sizes. www.foxint.com KORDA COMPAC DARK KAMO MESSENGER BAG Price: £44.99 If you regularly take your laptop or tablet with you to the bank, this is the perfect carrier for it. Initially used by Korda staff, it has now been made available to all as part of the Compac Dark Kamo range. It’s made from hardwearing water-resistant fabric and is…

OUR MAN ON THE BANK LAST week I spent three days in the Cotswolds. They say this region has more water than the Norfolk Broads, and I can believe it, because everywhere you look there’s a gravel pit. These beautiful, clear waters are home to abundant wildlife – an angler’s paradise, you might think, but sadly that’s not the case. Large areas of land surrounding the pits are now totally closed off to us. Now, I’m not naïve enough to believe houses will never be built in such places of beauty but, compared to walkers, sailing enthusiasts and bird watchers, we anglers are getting a raw deal. Lots of these waters have massive houses along their shores, sailing clubs and nature reserves, but not many places where anglers can strut…

What reel is best for feeder fishing? And should I use the clutch, or backwind? Andrew Grahame, Leatherhead THIS is a question I get asked an awful lot on my social media pages. My answer to this is personal preference. Some will disagree, but I’ll tell you what I use and what works for me. The reels I pick have served me well at home and abroad, from fishing on small commercial pools to huge lakes in South Africa! BALANCE IS KEY In simple terms, for 10ft and 11ft rods I will use a 4000-sized reel. Some prefer a 3000, but I feel a bigger reel balances the rod better and gives me more winding power, which is a real advantage when feeder fishing. I will add here that I…

SINCE winning Fish O’Mania in 2016, the trophy cabinet of Andy May has been a little empty, but that’s no longer the case after the effervescent Preston Innovations took out last weekend’s Halkon Hunt/On the Flyer TV Winter Classic title – and the £10,000 winner’s cheque that goes with it! Lining up at Meadowlands Fishery against one of the strongest fields ever seen in UK match angling, Andy got stuck into the roach and skimmers from peg 47 on the pump bank of Lambsdown Lake to take 45-4-0 to the scales, getting the nod ahead of England Feeder man Adam Wakelin’s 43-4-0 from peg 18 on the same lake. Third spot went to Steve Forster with 36-0-0 from Warren Pool, peg 5. Andy takes up the story... AT THE PEG…

THIS WEEK JUST a few weeks after Britain’s biggest-ever pike was landed, two records of a much smaller kind have been rattled. Mark Schoultz was fishing a stretch of the Shropshire Union Canal in Market Drayton when he landed a bristling ruffe of 5oz (pictured left). It’s just 4 drams off the current record – that’s about the weight of two paperclips! “I was lure fishing with a small creature bait, trying to catch perch, on a trip with my friend Darrell Carter,” Mark told us. “I’d never caught a ruffe before, so didn’t think it was anything special when I landed it. Darrel was far more excited by it, however!” A few days later, Simon Beal was on his local river when he tempted a plump…

HOW many anglers can boast huge match wins alongside decades of top-class tackle innovation and fisheries development? Such was the huge drive and creativity of Roy Marlow, who has sadly passed away at the age of 76. A key figure in the golden era of domestic match fishing, his talents were quickly spotted by fellow Leicester AS legend, Ivan Marks, who snapped him up for the formidable “Likely Lads” team in 1966. From there, he went on to major individual and team success. In 1971 alone, Roy took individual first in the Nene Championships while also playing a key role in Leicester’s famous Severn National win. His other individual wins and titles were so prolific it was hard to keep track, but included the Angling Times Winter League, Welland Summer…

DEAD maggots are a key part of my fishing, whether that’s potting big helpings into the margins for summer carp or fishing one on the hook for skimmers in colder weather – and I always prefer to kill them off myself. ‘Why not buy them already frozen from the tackle shop?’ I hear you ask. Well, there’s nothing wrong with that, but over the years I’ve found that the quality of dead maggot that you have makes a big difference to how well you catch. Frozen deads are fine for carp in the margins when feeding large amounts, as these big fish aren’t too fussy once they get their heads down. But change the scenario to the feeder for skimmers and you need a better quality bait, something plumper and…

KNOWING what to fish for when the weather is constantly changing is key to success at this stage in the angling calendar. Given the extremes we now face, the constant yo-yoing between cold and warm, ice and rain, it’s more important than ever to keep abreast of the situation by constantly monitoring river levels and referring to weather apps. If you leave your angling to chance, you’ll seldom be in with a shout, and even if you put in the effort it’s still easy to get it wrong. That was the situation I found myself in on a couple of recent trips in pursuit of a specimen perch. On the first occasion the river was close to turning into a block of ice and, although I did catch a single…

SEND IN YOUR PICTURES Email us your child’s details, including their name, the weight of the fish, where and how they caught it, along with a photograph, to kingfisherclub@anglingtimes.co.uk • Open to children up to 16.…

BAIT CLINIC Honest advice to help you to catch more fish on every trip, without breaking the bank BARBEL fishing at this time of year can be a tricky pursuit, although when we get it right the reward can be fish in super condition and at their top weight. The problem is often one of timing, as feeding spells can be quite short, sometimes lasting only a few hours. Happily, the lengthening days mean that it’s often possible to venture out for short sessions when the conditions are right. This winter, in particular, there has been so much rain falling on already sodden ground that the rivers have broken their banks and been just too high, but as they recede we are in with a great chance of catching! This…

ABC Baits/Hereford DAA Winter League (Sun) River Wye, Hereford (72 pegs) THE Wye was fishable for this final leg of the league, albeit still carrying extra water. The six-man Woody’s team all but had the league sewn up, but they didn’t take their foot off the gas, scoring second on the day behind winners Wizards, to lift the title with an overall score of 66 points, 14 clear of runners-up Cotswold Angling. Leading them home were Lee Edwards and Hadrian Whittle, taking second and third individually to score a section second and first, backed up by Dave Roberts with third from the bottom end of the river and Rory Jones with fifth off peg 83. Scott Geens and Rob Brennan struggled from hard areas, returning with three and five points…

OF ALL the filthy angling trips I’ve been on – and there have been lots – last week’s takes the biscuit. The very thought of going into the garage to clean up my gear is daunting, such was the amount of mud sticking to everything. Granted, it’s my own silly fault for going fishing in horrid conditions, but I always see a silver lining in heavy clouds. For one thing, the fishing can be excellent, and frequently the venues are nearly deserted – presumably because most human beings are sensible. The original plan had been to floatfish on a local lake, but with heavy rain and gusting winds forecast, hiding under an umbrella and watching a quivertip seemed like the smarter option. “Eventful” is probably a polite way of summing…