"Pleased As Punch"

Look Closely At The picture.
you will notice how dark it is
this was taken late in the day
as we were packing up!
This was typical of my friend
John, how on earth he hid this fish from me I will never know?
These fish where caught at a place called Oak Hanger fisheries, near Crewe Cheshire, a place were we had fished for the first time

Whilst fishing, we were visited by one of the local match anglers, who suggested to us that we would not catch many fish, where we were fishing, he then went on to tell us that the swims we were fishing, produced better results during the Summer Months!.

However who was I to argue? but once we had sat down it would have been a waist of time to move somewhere else, besides we had caught some fish, although they were only small six to eight ounce skimmer bream, and roach, we were still getting bites.

As usual whilst we were talking my swim had gone quiet, and I wasn't catching much, but not long after he'd gone and as I was just beginning to think he was right, I decided to throw caution to the wind, and introduce more feed into the swim, not long after doing this bubbles appeared on the surface directly under my float.

I knew these were of course tell tale bubbles of something bigger down under, immediately I linked this to be the reason for the reduced number of bites I was getting, as it is a common occurrence that smaller fish tend to move off from larger fish as they feed, they tend to bully them away, until they have had their fill.

Or get hooked like this one did! all of a sudden my float disappeared, and I new I was into something a little bigger than what we had been catching. My thoughts were confirmed when I slipped the net under a carp of two to three pounds.

After putting the fish in my net I got off my seat, and knowing John hadn't caught anything of note, I asked him if he had some micro pellets he said he hadn't, I took some over to him and told him what I had done, he then fed his swim with a good pot full of micro pellets, and within five minutes or so landed a carp of around two pounds.

Like myself John retired from competition fishing some time ago, but is thinking of fishing some club competitions in the future, you could see by his face he was as pleased as punch to know he has not lost his touch, we both fished on the pole a method that is relatively strange to him,but a method he is mastering very well.

Although we are only fishing for pleasure there is always the pride at the end of the day, and of course something to reel your mate in with!

Having said that there was not much to choose between us, as we had identical catches , apart from the fish John had under his coat at the end of the session?

For both of us to catch double figure weights in a seemingly poor area, was most encouraging to say the least, and as a result of that visit we will be returning, next time in competition perhaps.

Having said that if John decides to fish I shall be watching him very closely.
So until next time bye for now.

"Water Under The Bridge"

This is a picture of a lake in Cheshire where my friend and I fished last weekend. If you are looking for a bridge you probably won't see one because it's a motorway bridge, you can just make out the sign in the background.
Picturesque yes, but it was also very noisy!


My first introduction into match Angling, couldn't have got off to a better start, since then, match fishing has always been my passion. Ever since the day, I won my very first open on the Leeds and Liverpool canal in Yorkshire, some thirty years ago.

This match was fished on a Saturday during the winter months,with a mild frost the night before. Seventy five Anglers took part in this event and although I had won it, back at the HQ, I was criticized for fishing it completely wrong, by one of the top local experts.

Without doubt I felt very perturbed and bemused at what was said, was this what it was always like when someone one won a match? I asked myself! However I soon discovered this was not the case and went on to make many friends since.

Still shivering with excitement from the day before, I had been told that there was another open , this time on the River Aire, a River I had not seen or even heard of, after making some inquiries where the draw was to be held ,and also having some cash in my pocket, I decided to give it a go.

A chance to prove the critics wrong I thought! a chance to prove the day before was no fluke. "Although it was in a sense", because all I had taken with me on the day was bread, I had forgot to take my other bait with me and had left this at home.

Which just goes to show that a positive single minded approach can yield results be it accidental or not. It wasn't long for Sunday to arrive and with a lack of sleep, I woke up to a very miserable day, there was snow on the ground I thought the match may be cancelled! However filled with elation and enthusiasm from the day before I turned up at the draw, to my relief the match wasn't cancelled!

To cut a long story short five hours later I was to discover I had won once again . My name appeared twice the following day in the local paper, and ever since that weekend I have been hooked on match fishing.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since those days, but it's not all about winning, you do meet a great number of people and make a lot of friends in the process. Beware though I have just invested in a new pair of glasses tight lines.

"A Friend And Comedian"

A recent acquaintance who is relatively new to the art of pole fishing, who has recently acquired a pole and is currently catching more fish with it.

Isn't it strange how some people take better photographs than others?

If you look closely you will notice how cold it was. Note the ice in the back ground.

Regardless of this we still managed to catch some fish,not very many, but his jokes more than made up for it.These days I tend to do more pleasure fishing, and have not fished seriously for ten years.

Now that my children are grown up,and I have more time on my hands, I expect to be on the banks a lot more often, especially during the warmer Months.

However the urge to fish matches is slowly returning, and if I manage to keep going like my new found friend, "only one of your jokes mate" I feel quite confident of catching and putting plenty more fish in My net!!!

The Michelin man

Katerina

This is one of the many carp my daughter

caught on pole in the margins on Bay Malton Angling Club waters.

She went on to win all of her trophies there. During the same year she also finished second in the junior championships against all the lads.

As always it was down to the last match of the series, in order to decide the winner it was so close. but it was not entirely her fault she probably would have won it, had it not been for me helping her to make a wrong decision. We knew from previous visits the peg numbers where the bigger fish, such as carp could be caught in any numbers, and we also knew the poorer areas, where you had to concentrate and fish very hard in order to do well.

Unfortunately my heart sank when she drew one of these poor pegs, I knew that she would probably catch smaller fish in the open water, I also knew the fish might come up in the water to feed. So she tackled up accordingly to our match plan, this was to set up two rigs one for fishing up in the water, and one for fishing on the bottom. Then to feed three cups of chopped worms some sweetcorn and casters, it was about four and a half foot deep and the plan was to put quite a lot of feed on the bottom.

In the hope that they would stay, where they are far easier to catch, and if the fish came up to feed we would be rigged up ready for them.The plan was to fish on the bottom for at least an hour, and wait for any signs of them coming up in the water to accept the loose offerings. But what happened was the fish came up far sooner than I anticipated, "she knew this" and about thirty minutes in to the match, she said she wanted to fish up in the water, I told her to carry on with the way she was fishing, because she had already caught about six fish, and was still getting bites.

I also had it in the back of my mind that she had never fished up in the water before, and hadn't practiced how to do it, never the less she picked up her other rig and almost immediately she took fish after fish.feeding casters every thirty seconds or so to hold a pole and do this believe me takes some practice.But she certainly adapted to this method almost right away.

I had to apologise to her when the match was over, because I could see how devastated she was when she had learnt, that she had come second in the match, and also as a result ending up in the championship as runner up.

Never mind Katerina you were better than the rest. xxx

Winter Fishing

Fishing like this enabled me
to keep my hands in my pockets










Me with a smile of a recent catch

This is a net of skimmer bream and small roach which I caught, on 5th January 2008. These were caught using the quiver tip and a small open ended feeder, and single red maggot tied to a small size 20 hook. The wind was bitterly cold so I decided to fish like this rather than sit there with a pole in my hands.

The bites were very finicky but what I found out was, although you would normally think that with it being so cold the fish would not be willing to take a moving bait. This was not the case as nearly every time I moved the bait by gently lifting, and pulling the swim feeder towards me I almost immediately had a bite.

This is a tactic that is commonly used by match anglers, that can be very effective and does help to induce bites when the fish are reluctant to swim off with your bait. Although the fish were relatively small and I didn't end up with a huge weight it ended up to be a very pleasurable day.

So next time you go fishing don't sit there with your hands in your pockets, "get a move on" I will keep you posted, so until next time bye for now.

Team or individual?

Perhaps this may seem alien to some of you,but I believe there are in fact three distinct types of competition angler,that is " the team angler- the individual angler - and the natural angler". However I will make an attempt to explain, first of all it may be appropriate for me to start with the team angler, as this was what I was so closely involved in hence do have a little bit more of an understanding. It may also be appropriate for me to explain how most organizers decide on who has won what! and how team events are ran.

Most team events are commonly decided on a points system, say for instance you have four teams consisting of twenty five anglers, you would then have one hundred anglers competing, they would then be divided in to four sections, of twenty five anglers, then the person who has caught the top weight out of twenty five anglers would receive the maximum number of points available, which would be twenty five, the next weight nearest to that would receive twenty four and so on.

Until you get to the person who has caught nothing, which does and unfortunately for some can happen?. More often than not this scenario appears to happen during the Winter months. If at the end of the day there is a tie on points then the teams results are decided on the weight factor.

Of course it is no shame to catch nothing because on some waters, there are just no fish willing to open their mouths. this became clear to me during a National Team Championship, which I fished with a team of Yorkshire lads on the River Ancholme we came third overall winning a silver medal, in fact we were the only team on the day not to have a man without a fish.

This was such a memorable experience for me for a number of reasons basically because this was my very first National, and you guessed it, the man with the lowest scoring points was yours truly. But having said that I was still pleased with my efforts as we had the highly fancied smithies team on the very next peg to us, and they did no better than sixteenth. There where ten blank pegs either side of me and all I managed to catch were two minute transparent Tommy ruff which weighed a total of four drams, not bad eh!

The difference between an individual and a team angler as I see it, is the manner in which they approach their fishing, with regards to feeding the fish, that may or may not be in front of them. More often than not you will find that the team angler has practiced on the water they intend to fish as a team, then hold a meeting to discuss what each of them has learned about the water. For example where the good and the bad areas are, this is important to them as every angler relies on one another to catch a fish, no matter how big or small in order to gain points for the team.

There is a common accepted philosophy in fishing, which is, you can't take out what you have put in, in other words if you throw, or put to much feed in to the water where you intend to fish. Then if there are not many fish there you are certainly going to fill them up, or even worse they won't necessarily get to your bait.

Therefore the little and often approach for the team is most often employed, specifically on hard fished waters such as the ordinary navigational canals. Having said that it does also work on some commercial fisheries now that they have been established and more regularly fished.

This tactic is not so important to the individual angler as their approach is quite often more positive, were as they tend to introduce large quantities of feed initially. Both approaches do work but having said that knowledge about were you intend to fish is with out doubt the key to being successful.

Trent & Mersey Canal & Tetton Lake.

I think most of you will agree it has been a miserable year for fishing during 2007, I can't ever remember taking off my winter gear. However I did have a reasonable amount of success during the early part of the season, I believe this was largely due to the fact the fish had spawned and were rather hungry.

I have found this to be quite common on most waters after the fish have spawned, they seem to be somewhat easier to catch, never the less as usual my big catches dwindled as the season progressed.

After winning a number of small local matches on one of my favorite venues which I can't mention, as the angling club which I am a member of, has very stringent rules with regards to any publicity.

However I did have further success in the two open matches I fished, on waters that I had only fished on about two or three occasions some ten years ago. With these waters being in the same proximity, I figured they would hold the same species, as it turned out my theory was
proved right as I won both matches with similar fish which were bream and crucians.


The first of which was the poppy day match which had a full turn out of 50 anglers quite a prestigious match to win in the old day's, although many years ago they used to have some 300 anglers arriving on the banks.

The usual venue was the Trent and Mersey canal but more recently and unfortunately since the lack of interest in the hard fished navigational canals and the ever increasing commercial fisheries cropping up these waters are far less occupied. With the reduced numbers turning up for this event Tetton lake was chosen for the venue in Sandbach.

However I was delighted to have found that I had won this match for the second time, as I had been knocking on the door for a number of years prior to winning it. Further to my delight I found I had won more money, than when I had won all those years ago even with far fewer anglers taking part.

After not having competed in matches for some ten years or so, last year has brought back some very memorable times on the banks, and I intend to do a lot more fishing now my children have left home, hopefully the weather will improve next season.

Just for the record the matches I won last year were won using the pole, the way most anglers fish these days it's a great feeling doing something you love,"the rewards are a bonus".

Fishing Facts

It has been sometime since I have been able to write in my blog, this is largely due to the fact my daughter tends to hog the computer? However in my first blog I left off, talking about the importance of feeding the fish, "in order to catch more fish" First of all various venues do sometimes require a different approach.

The first thing I would do is to aquire as much knowledge about the water I intend to fish, ie: were the most popular spots are, what are the most dominent species what is the average depth, I would attempt to create a mental picture about the contours of the bottom of the venue, this would give me an insight as to were the most likely fish holding arears are likely to be, such as shelves were the water is deeper or even shallower.

Having fished for a great number of years now in serious competition, and alongside some of the best anglers in the country, it appears to be common knowledge that fish do inhabit these areas at certain times of the year. For example during the winter months it would be reasonable to believe the fish would be in the deeper water. The theory being that Given a greater volume of water it would therefore take longer for it to drop in temperature. On the other hand if the sun comes out even during winter months this can warm shallower water quicker, so can contradict this theory somewhat?

One thing is for sure is that, personaly I would rather be warmer than cold, another thing that comes to mind is that contary to popular belief that when the sun is out during the day, in the summer months the water will be warm , I have found this not to be the case, infact what does happen is that the water temperature increases conciderably during the early evening. During my early years as an angler I did a great deal of night fishing, and it wasn't until I fell in that I discovered this!.

On a more serious note now, I personaly believe that this change in temperature encourages the fish to feed later in the day, quite often you here anglers say the fish just switched on all of a sudden, meaning they started feeding late during the competition, this change in temperature however, maybe the reason for this in winter and summer. So keep one eye open for the sun and if you have a thermomitor It would not be a bad idea, to take it with you mostly in adverse conditions, during the colder months.

Many years ago my friends and I used to take some very respectable catches of fish during the night and I seriously believe this was largely due to this fact , coupled with the fact that there is less disturbance on the bank.

Katerina

My daughter the fishing prize winner.

Pics of me Fishing!

Here are some pictures of me fishing














These photo's were taken many years ago before digital cameras were available as you might well of guessed!! but I couldn't leave them out as this brings back some very happy moments from two trips to the Emerald Ilse's and some big nets of bream.

This was a trip which was organized by the Irby Angling National squad and sponsored by the Irish tourist board, the trip was arranged for a week with a total of three competitions to be fished on two lakes.

The first was on lake Killykeen and the other two where on Lake Ramor.There were five trophies up for grabs , one for each match and the others were for the best aggregate weight , and the best specimen fish.

With the knowledge I had from previous visits there and the enormous amount of bait you needed at that time, I was able to win the first two competitions and in doing so took the specimen fish trophy, and also finished with the top aggregate weight, therefore returned home to collect four of the five trophies not bad eh!!

My best weight of the week was 92lbs of bream this was the photo of that catch were I am lifting them out. Perhaps the one thing I should have done is taken another net, so if you intend going there it would be wise to double up with everything.

Just for the record the first match was won, on Lake Killykeen using the pole with 52lbs of bream using an eight gram pole float in approximately 15 foot of water, which you needed in order to get the bait down to the fish and hold it still.

The other was won on swim feeder tactics at approximately 40yards out, I chose to fish on the swim feeder because the Lake was shallow, both matches were won with a cocktail of worm and red maggots, fished over beds of sweetcorn and loads of casters, mixed in a fifty- fifty mix of brown and white bread crumb, nothing special!!

I can recall being laughed at when I boarded the coach with my over sized lunch box. But I think I had the last laugh, It just goes to show the more you know the more you catch! one things for sure is that if you sit amongst the vast shoals of bream in Ireland, is that you will certainly find it difficult to over feed them.

To sum it up this was a very memorable trip bye for now.

Fishing obsession

My first interest in fishing came about when I used to visit a park with my parents, when I was around 9 years old there was a large lake in this park, and it appeared to hold a large head of fish there were men catching, plenty of small fish with long fishing rods. I remember thinking what were these fish called? The only way I could describe them, is that they looked very silvery when they flashed in the sunlight, when the anglers swung them in with these long rods. It wasn't until many years later I was to learn that competition anglers of today call these fish Silvers. Of course at that time these fish appeared big to me, I remember being very excited at the numbers of fish being caught, whilst all this was happening there were lots of kids fishing with nets and jam jars, full of tiny fish called sticklebacks because they had sharp spines on their backs. Although we knew them as Jack Sharps which may give you a clue as to where I am talking about, yes this was Sefton park. Liverpool where I was born. My Mother and father saw how excited I was at the mystique of fishing. I pleaded with them to buy me a fishing rod, times where hard on my parents in those days so they could not afford to buy me a proper rod, but they bought me the nearest thing which was a fishing net on the end of a piece of bamboo cane.

My parents promised to take me there the very next weekend, I couldn't wait to start catching fish and the thought of collecting them in jam jars and being able to take them home was even more exciting. However we arrived at the park, I had so much fun catching these tiny little fish some of them had red underneath them, and we called them red breasts. We took these home with us and admired what we had caught. Some years later when I was older I used to visit the park with my friends. Whilst we were catching these fish once again, we noticed that some of the kids were scraping the mud around the margins. And collecting these little red worms that lived in the mud. We also noticed one of the boys had a piece of cotton on a stick with a match stick attached and used as a float. They tied the worms about one foot below the float, and was catching these fish a lot easier. So naturally we were curious at this, and we tried it ourselves. And low and behold we emptied the lake of fish.

During my teens I was a bit of a tearaway, I stayed out late with my friends, fishing ponds. By this time we had proper fishing rods. We didn't only catch fish, we also enjoyed the challenge of catching things that had the opportunity to escape including for example Mice, Rats, Butterflies, and even Ladybirds. Needless to say the Ladybirds were the most challenging and elusive, with this in mind I stuck to fishing. With the number of times we went fishing I can recall thinking the neighbours thinking we must be potty. And that we as teenagers should be catching the women. I may add this didn't happen until many years later. I enjoyed my fishing so much and still do, so much so that when I started working I was taking time off to go fishing alone. Something I don't do today of course. However many years later I still found myself going fishing with working at times, I could afford to purchase more and more fishing tackle. I also discovered I could catch more fish than most people. I was becoming bigheaded. I didn't realise this at the time, but then began to wonder why I caught more fish, after reading magazines it became clear, it was down to the art of feeding the fish.