71lb tope shock off Norfolk coast

GAVIN Miller experienced a fishing trip he will never forget when he landed this huge tope weighing 71lb while fishing off the Norfolk coast.

The 29-year-old from Rosliston in Derbyshire, was fishing aboard Nigel Storey’s Sunbeam III out of Wells-next-to-the-Sea, when he landed the fish from a well-known mark located a few miles offshore.

Gavin, who has only been sea fishing a handful of times, said: “I have been out on a few boats from Illfracombe in Cornwall but have only caught baby tope. I’m more of a carp angler really and have never caught anything this size before - I couldn’t believe my luck.”
Fishing in depths of around 114ft, Gavin used a mackerel head on a size 2/0 hook to land the specimen which was the only tope of the trip. “I have booked up again for later in the year as I’m hungry for more fish like this. Nigel is an excellent skipper, he knows exactly where to go to catch them,” he added.

Gavin’s fish is 11lb short of the current boat caught British tope record, an 82lb fish caught off Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex by R.Chatfield in 1991.

New bait lures 16lb barbel brace

A HOME-MADE bait called the ‘boilie burger’ has accounted for an incredible run of big barbel from an ultra-tough stretch of the River Dove to a best of 16lb 8oz for Paul Garner.

And this week, the Angling Times columnist has exclusively lifted the lid on the devastating bait which he developed following what he described as a ‘eureka moment’. Using shop bought ingredients his creation has led to the capture of no less than seven double figure barbel.

Due to the large fish that reside in it, the stretch of the Staffordshire waterway comes under a lot of pressure with many anglers recording numerous blank sessions. With this in mind, the Nash Tackle consultant concocted an irresistible paste that he moulded into beefburger shaped lumps before boiling them to create a unique offering.

His innovation certainly paid off as his first bite came no more than eight minutes after casting out his hair-rigged ‘boilie burger’ in conjunction with a simple lead clip system, a 25lb Nash Missing Link coated braid hooklink and a size 10 Nash Gaper hook.

“I knew I would need an edge at this venue,” Paul told Angling Times. “It’s fished by many really good barbel anglers and reports were coming through that many of them were suffering a lot of blanks.

“To try and make sure I didn’t suffer the same fate I created a very simple and different bait that I was confident no one else would be using. The fact that I could simply tear the boiled beefburger-shaped lumps gave me a really versatile, unique offering.

“I’ll admit that at first I was a little dubious about using an ‘untested’ bait on such a challenging venue, but it did my confidence a world of good when I received a bite after just a few minutes. Since then I have averaged a couple of fish, and at least one double, on every trip including one of the river’s most sought after barbel – a fish known as Bullet Hole, which I also had at a lower weight of 16lb 3oz a few days earlier.

“This is a great achievement for me and was made possible because I decided to do something a little different with readily-available ingredients and it’s a trick that anyone can try.”

£25,000 charity boost

THE third annual Fish with the Stars event at Linear Fisheries has raised more than £25,000 for charity.

The fish-in took place on the two Brasenose lakes at the Oxfordshire complex last week and paired stars of the carp world with guests who had paid to be there. More than £20,000 has been accounted for already and donations are likely to push the total figure over the £25,000 mark.

The event, which began in 2011, raises money for the Motor Neurone Disease Association and is now one of the charity’s major national fundraisers.
Linear boss Len Gurd, whose wife Shirley died from the brain condition, said: “We raised more than £17,000 in the first year, over £23,000 last year and we’re hoping to top £25,000 this year.”

Hertfordshire angler Tania Williams, who was paired with Garth Ethelstone, raised more than £1,000 to secure her place at the event. She said: “It’s great to be able to do something you enjoy and raise money and awareness for a good cause.”

Despite a roster of stars including Lee Jackson, Dave Lane, Tom Maker, Tim Paisley, Adam Penning, Ian Russell and many more, fishing was tricky but plenty of fish to 29lb still graced the banks, particularly on Brasenose 2.

Adam Penning’s partner Trevor Birchmore, who has attended all three events, said: “It’s a great atmosphere and gives people like me the chance to fish with some great anglers.”

Month's wait pays off with pristine forty

Sam Pryor reaped the rewards of a month long prebaiting campaign with the capture of this immaculate 41lb 8oz common from a southern stillwater.

The 22-year-old Ferndown-based engineer kept a spot baited with Sticky Krill boilies and before long started to regularly see fish in the area.

He said: “I knew it would be beneficial to leave the spot, though, and wait until the carp were really there in numbers. Over a period of time the area was getting clearer and clearer so I decided to do a few overnighters and just fish over a handful of bait.

“On my latest trip I saw several carp including a very large common which I was woken up by in the early hours of the morning when it picked up my Krill cork ball pop-up.

“I’ve now managed both the big commons from the lake so hopefully some of the big mirrors will make an appearance soon.”

Sam used a short 1ins chod rig tied with a size 4 Korda Choddy hook and 20lb Mouthtrap.

Bag Up On Four Top Lakes At Wrightington

Wrightington Fisheries, Wigan, Lancashire

Anglers in Lancashire are spoilt for choice when it comes to picking a commercial fishery but one which is proving more and more popular this year and making headlines is Wrightington Fishery near Wigan.

The venue’s Canal Pools have just witnessed the first 100lb plus match weight this summer and pleasure fishing sessions at the four lake complex have been even better with the pre-stocked carp bream and silverfish making up the bulk of the weights. Numerous tactics work on these pools including meat or pellet towards the far bank at 14.5m. However, paste at 4m as well as corn and 4-6mm pellets in the margins also pays dividends. If you get plagued by roach and gudgeon then use corn instead of the latter. The vast majority of fish are under 4lb including the carp, although bonus specimens can turn up at any time so 0.16mm mainline and an 0.14mm hooklink to a medium wire size 16 hook are advised. Depths on these two canals vary with one being deep, 10ft in places and the other averaging just 5ft so make sure your rigs cater for this.

Rivington Lake on the complex is also worth a visit this summer with nets to 80lb coming out. Carp averaging 4lb but topping 12lb as well as bream to 6lb make up most of the weights here and anglers are currently finding that fishing shallow is the way to go, using 6mm pellets or casters as feed with a 6mm banded pellet on the hook. This pool is wider and the fish sit further out, so anglers tend to fish the pole or waggler at around 14.5m. It is also worth fishing the shotgun feeder or Method tight to the island on here where some of the bigger fish can be found. Worm can be a good alternative to pellets on this lake, as feed and on the hook.

TIP: If you get your feeding right the fish will turn up in big numbers so to help you spot line bites from genuine indications, keep quite a bit of float bristle on show.

Prices: Day tickets available on the bank priced at £6 for adults and £4 concessions.
Contact: 01257 451352
Location: Mossy Lea Road, Wrightington, Nr Wigan, WN6 9SA.
Rules: Barbless only, no keepnets, no boilies, no nuts, no trout pellets
Facilities: Toilets

Eel rumours result in an 8lb specimen

A rumour of the presence of large eels in a Kent gravel pit was all the incentive that Mark Boyle needed to have a go for the species – and his efforts were duly rewarded with this 8lb specimen.

Seven years ago the Sidcup-based stockbroker  caught his previous biggest eel of 6lb 2oz but while struggling for bites from the resident carp he was chasing in the tricky venue he decided to dust off an old barbel rod and try and find out for himself whether there was any truth behind the claims.

“I certainly wouldn’t class myself as an expert on the species, so I went about catching one the only way I knew how – a link leger rig with an air-injected lobworm hookbait tipped with a piece of fake corn. I fished this over two pints of live and dead maggots down the marginal shelf of a large silty bay,” explained 30-year-old Mark.

His tactics proved effective when he received a take out of the blue at 1am. “I can only describe what followed as the ‘ruck of a lifetime.’ On its initial run it stripped over 30 yards of line off the reel and for the first five minutes I assumed I’d hooked a carp. When it flashed under the light of my headtorch I was met with the sight of a huge eel and I had to endure a further 10 nerve-wracking minutes before I netted it.

“Thankfully, it behaved itself on the bank and I was blown away when the scales settled on 8lb as there is every chance that this fish would be around 80-years-old. I’m certainly going to be having a few more sessions after the eels, because if the rumours are to be believed there are even bigger to be had in the venue.”

Mark got the fish to the bank with a size 6 Solar 101 hook attached to a four inch 15lb Avid Captive coated braid hooklink with the outer coating stripped off and a 2oz bomb on a 15lb Amnesia link.

41lb 14oz mirror carp from under his rod tip

Martin Pick proved that you don’t need to cast to the horizon to catch big carp when he landed this cracking 41lb 14oz mirror from virtually under his rod tip.

The Leicestershire-based Trakker consultant fished his first session in over five weeks on Wellington Country Park in Berkshire and on arrival found a group of fish in the end of a long finger arm.

A fish of 27lb graced his net that evening but the rest of the night passed without event. “I had a walk round and found some fish in a different section of the lake,” said Martin. “I moved my gear and then suffered my first loss of the year on the venue after I hooked a fish and it powered in to a set of lily pads. I was a little bit disappointed to lose one but the following morning, just as it was getting light, my other rod burst in to life and I landed the forty.”

Martin put his faith in a 15mm DT Silt Busta pop-up which was flicked to the bottom of the marginal shelf in 4ft of water over a couple of handfuls of mixed DT Baits N-Blend and Cold Water Mix 15mm frozen and readymade boilies.

Clubs sets to bid for £40m of Sport England funding

Fisheries and clubs are set to benefit from a £40m pot of funding that has been released by Sport England.

Bosses at the organisation have revealed that the huge financial injection will be made available to angling societies, with money handed out to those intent on improving facilities to increase participation in fishing through venue improvements and coaching schemes.

The move is an extension to Sport England’s hugely successful Inspired Facilities grant – a scheme that has already seen over £70m invested into local sports projects, with a series of fishing venues benefitting since its launch two years ago.

Lancashire’s Fir Tree Fishery is among those to have taken advantage, receiving £47,000 to improve pegging and access. Owner Martin Taylor said: “We do a lot of work with young offenders and people with disabilities so we were delighted when we were awarded the grant.”

“We worked hard to prove that our developments would have a big impact on the local community and as a result Sport England were extremely helpful. I’d encourage anyone who has a genuine desire to help push angling on to the next level to apply for the funding.”

Officials at Nottingham AA succeeded in gaining almost £10,000 towards improvements and Secretary Dave Turner believes it has helped boost the amount of people on the bank.
“One of our fisheries was very muddy and it put a lot of people off from visiting so we decided to build two new car parks,” explained Dave. “Since the work was completed the number of anglers visiting the complex has shot up. The application process was tough but worth it when you see more fishermen taking advantage of the facilities.”

Bidding for the cash is set to be conducted in a series of stages between 2013 and 2017 and a spokesperson for Sport England said: “The fund is designed to improve facilities for clubs of all sports and angling associations are invited to apply during the next round which will open on October 21.”

How to apply
Sport England has put together a list of criteria to help fisheries and clubs. Applicants will need to prove:
-How the project will attract more people into the sport.
-Demonstrate that it is wanted by the local community.
-Explain how its running costs will be met and how it will remain open for years to come.
To find out how you can launch your bid visit www.sportengland.org/inspiredfacilities

Sport England angling grants handed out in 2012/13
-Ramsbottom AA – £10,000 to buy new tackle for coaching schemes.
-Burton Mutual AA - £50,000 to create a new clubhouse to conduct indoor tuition sessions.
-Bourneville Village Trust - £29,000 to de-silt, restock and develop disabled friendly pegs at Birmingham’s Rowheath Pool.
- Port Sunlight AC - £43,000 to develop a club pond and attract hundreds of new juniors into the sport.

Angling Times set to sponsor Northern Angling Show

Britain's biggest selling fishing weekly – Angling Times – is to sponsor the Northern Angling Show this December.

The huge, two-day extravaganza will be staged at EventCity, in the Trafford Centre, Manchester on Saturday and Sunday December 7 and 8 and has the full support of fishing’s biggest brands – Angling Times, Improve Your Coarse Fishing, and UKCarp magazine.

The Northern Angling Show launched in early 2013 with what has been described as ‘the best fishing show for years’ and this December the event will be bigger than ever.
Angling Times Editor Steve Fitzpatrick said: “I was very impressed with the inaugural Northern Angling Show and I’m delighted to be able to put our full strength behind this year’s event.

“With the power of Angling Times and our sister titles Improve Your Coarse Fishing and UKCarp, plus the passion of the Northern Angling Show organisers I’m positive this event will grow in popularity. I look forward to seeing you all there in December!”

And it’s not just new tackle which will be showcased - there will also be the chance to learn new skills with hands-on demonstrations from the country’s top anglers.
Northern Angling Show Director Jamie Clossick was delighted with the exciting partnership.

"We are very happy to have Angling Times on board to help us grow the show into all genres of angling.

“With the ever growing popularity of the carp scene I do worry that the young anglers coming into our sport are missing out on some of the fundamental skills of fishing. Float fishing, pole fishing, quiver-tipping, spinning and all the other methods are equally as important for people to learn but I fear it is a dying market unless we show the younger generation that there is a lot more to fishing than just carping."

Adding to the already impressive line up from event one, Northern Angling Show2 looks set to be a much bigger and busier show featuring brands including Fox International and Matrix, Garbolino, Century, Solar, CC Moore, Delkim plus many more new additions.
Show organisers, Lee Spence and Nick Maddix, commented: "We're really excited to be working alongside so many great brands from the first show as well as all of the new additions for the second one.

“With support from the likes of Angling Times plus other major angling titles and brands we will see this event grow incredibly quickly in the next few years and reach our goal of having the largest general angling show in Europe.”

**For more information on the show visit www.northernanglingshow.co.uk or check out www.facebook.com/NorthernAnglingShow

Big Simmo from holes in weed

Ian Warner targeted small holes in the weed to bank Monk’s Pit’s Big Simmo at 48lb.

The Welling, Kent-based rod found small gravel clearings in a swim known as the Swamp and was rewarded with two 20s and the big mirror during a 48-hour session.

The telecoms engineer, who has enjoyed a fantastic season banking a string of big fish, was fishing just his fifth session at the Cambridgeshire venue.

The specimen mirror came at 6.30am and was the fourth bite of a session which also saw two fish lost.

Ian told Angling Times: “To be honest, I thought it might have been one of the lake’s big commons because it was an absolutely crazy fight, it was all over the place. But then it weeded me up and I had no idea what I had got in the net until I removed a few handfuls of weed.”

The 47-year-old was fishing to a couple of clearings in the underwater vegetation at about 60 yards and presented his Denham Baits’ Element snowman rigs on soft braid and ACE curved-shank hooks.

Each spot was baited with 30 free offerings and the fish were tamed on Free Spirit rods.

Licence cheats cost us £1.55m

Rod licence dodgers cost our fisheries an estimated £1.55m in investment last season alone.

That’s the staggering sum of money the Environment Agency states the sport was deprived of by anglers fishing without legal documentation, with a similar sum expected in 2013-2014.

The huge amount would potentially fund the breeding of 1.9m fish from Calverton Fish Farm, regenerate 100 venues with new platforms, fish stockings and improvements to access, or even cover the whole of the EA’s enforcement and prosecution costs on its own for a year.

Early season blitzes by EA officers between April and June this year caught 1,907 people fishing without a rod licence from a total of 28,467 checks, giving a national evasion rate of 6.7 per cent. It means that as many as 86,000 adults could be fishing in England without any kind of licence altogether. 

Garry Jones, Fisheries Adviser for the EA, told Angling Times that rod licence evasion represents a ‘huge loss to fisheries.’

“Every penny of rod licence money is reinvested in angling. This includes a whole range of projects to improve facilities for anglers, fish stockings, invasive species eradication, and schemes which help introduce people to the sport,” he said. “Despite finding a small minority of licence dodgers between April and June 2013, our intelligence led and targeted patrols show that the vast majority of anglers do carry a valid Environment Agency rod licence. Please encourage others to buy one from the Post Office online, by visiting any Post Office branch or by calling us on 0844 800 5386,” he added.

According to the EA, when concessionary and day versions are taken into account, the average sale of a licence generates £18 for fisheries. This figure, multiplied by those 86,000-plus anglers who are potentially on the banks illegally, would provide a massive £1.55m in revenue. The EA has pointed out that this figure is at the higher end of the scale as it expects the true evasion rate to be slightly less, given that most of its checks are done on known evasion ‘hotspots’.

Furzebray's first forty is landed

Furzebray Lakes has produced its first 40-pounder and one Devon’s biggest fish in the shape of ‘Charlotte’ at 41lb 12oz.

Motorbike racer Ryan Pryer caught the new personal best just three days after coming out of hospital following a knee reconstruction.

The 21-year-old, who lives 10 minutes from the South Molton venue, said: “It wasn’t until I tried to lift it out of the water and could barely move it that I realised it was a special fish. I was absolutely over the moon – I was speechless.”

Ryan hooked the mirror on the second day of a 48-hour session after spotting fish in a shallow area of the lake. He said: “I started up in peg 10 where I had seen fish, but a couple of hours later the wind changed and the fish had clearly moved down to pegs one and two.

“I went for a look and saw peg one was free and there must’ve been about 20 fish in the area, so I moved my gear down there. After putting a bit of bait out, the swim was quiet for the next 24 hours so I rested it for a couple of hours while I had a doctor’s appointment and came back to see lots of fish including a couple of real chunks with their backs out of the water.”

Ryan cast a bare lead to the far bank before walking round, attaching his hooklink and gently lobbing a small PVA bag of crumbed boilies on to a shallow spot, surrounded by a scattering of whole baits.

“The swans were a nightmare and about three hours later I was debating whether to reel in when the bobbin flew up and the rod bent right round,” he said.

“I was absolutely amazed when I got it in and over the moon with a new PB.”

The fish fell to Furzebray Lake’s own-brand boilies fished KD style on a lead-clip system.

High thirty highlight of surface duo

A day's floater fishing proved productive for Wesley Coggleshall who took two fish off the surface from the Lea Valley’s North Met Pit – the highlight this chunky 38lb 8oz mirror.

The impressive specimen was taken by the Kent-based ventilation engineer no more than 10 yards from the bank of the 53-acre gravel pit using a trimmed down 16mm Krill pop-up from bait company Sticky.

The 33-year-old used the same tactics to also land a 22lb 2oz common during the trip, with both fish beaten with 10lb Pro Clear mainline attached to a size 10 G-Force Wide Gape hook.

Big summer barbel on the feed

The seemingly endless stream of big summer barbel being produced by rivers nation-wide has shown no sign of slowing up this week with a host of anglers smashing their personal bests.

League One footballer Tommy Rowe continued his fine run of River Nene specimens with this new personal best 15lb 9oz fish from a stretch of the waterway at Elton, Cambs.
Fishing a spot close to where a small backwater joins the main river, the Peterborough United skipper used his favourite polony hookbait on a size 10 barbless hook over crushed boilies and pellets. 

“The water was very clear so I used a long hooklink to avoid spooking the fish,” said the 24-year old, who originally hails from Manchester. “Like most of the other barbel I’ve caught from the river, it’s a real hook-and-hold job as there are so many snags.”
Also cashing in on the action was Barry Jarvis who smashed his personal best by 10lb when his two-and-a-half year quest to catch a barbel from the River Ivel ended with the capture of a 16lb 4oz specimen.

Targeting a stretch in Bedfordshire, he used a bait dropper to introduce a bed of hemp, pellets and broken boilies then presented a simple running lead rig baited with two trimmed-down 16mm Mainline Squid boilies mounted on a size 8 hook over the top.
“I went to bait the river up with my brother and the intention was to put a bit in, get a good night’s sleep and return at first light, but he insisted on going straight home and getting the gear. I wasn’t too keen at all.” Barry told Angling Times.

“But at 1.30 am I changed my tune when the water erupted and the best fight of my life ended in the capture that has really shocked me.”

“There aren’t many barbel in this small stretch of river, which is why it’s taken me over two years to get one! The average size is incredible, though, and I know there are much bigger fish here.”

Stunning 40lb mirror carp from weedy swim

Thick weed growth failed to stop Terry Dempsey continue his scintillating form at Kent’s Wingham syndicate.

The once-reclusive carper, who only began talking about his captures with the recent publication of his Urban Myth book, has banked a string of large carp from the venue in recent months.

His latest success was this 40lb 12oz mirror, which was the result of a lot of hard work in a weed-choked swim.

Terry, who now runs Urban Baits, told Angling Times: “I caught the fish, which as you can see is an absolute peach, on a 48-hour session from a small hole in thick weed over 2kg of my Nutcracker bait.

“When I arrived in the swim the close-in weed was horrendous, so I spent the first afternoon of the session raking a channel to get my line lying nicely. I also lost two big fish in the weed during the session. One of them straightened my size six hook and the other was stuck fast in the weed before it came off.

“I caught the fish using 16lb Kryston Snide mainline and using my Century Fat Boy Slim rods.”  

England earn No1 world ranking

THE wave of success experienced by the nation’s teams has been rewarded after England was announced as the undisputed world match fishing champions.

After analysing results from the past five years, officials from FIPSed – the sport’s international governing body – revealed the new world rankings, and the numerous gold medals and podium place finishes has led to the country topping the pile in six of the 10 match fishing categories including the men’s, junior, club and veteran’s.

There was also reason to celebrate for England’s ladies, carp and feeder teams as each were placed in the top three of their respective divisions.

The news comes less than a fortnight after the under 18 squad made history by winning the World Championships in France with a record breaking score.

International Events Manager Dick Clegg has heaped praise upon the efforts of everyone involved and said: “A lot of people have contributed towards this accomplishment and it shows we have the best managers and anglers in the world.”

“It's about time that the government handed us some funding to help us push on even further. I can't think of any other sport that is as successful as we are and yet we don't get the recognition that our achievements deserve."

Those sentiments are shared by current world champion Sean Ashby who believes the continued success is down to a number of factors.

“England teams always put in a lot of preparation and are extremely professional. The mentality gets passed on throughout the squads and rubs off on everyone,” he explained.

“Other nations have a bigger backroom staff than us and are better funded. It makes it even more impressive that we win so many medals on such a low budget,” he added.

Angling Trust chief executive Mark Lloyd is confident the high standards that have been set will remain in place for decades to come and he told Angling Times: “The new Talent Pathway programme to develop young anglers is already generating new Team England squad members and this scheme will help maintain these levels of performance in the future.”

**The new FIPSed Rankings**
• Nations - No.1 (sponsored by Drennan)
• Under 23 - No.1 (sponsored by Drennan)
• Under 18 - No.1 (sponsored by Sensas)
• Euros - No.1 (sponsored by Drennan)
• Clubs - No.1
• Veterans - No.1
• Ladies - No.2
• Carp - No.3 (sponsored by Korda)
• Feeder - No.3 (After 2 years competing in this competition, sponsored by Preston Innovations)
• Disabled - no ranking (unable to fish every year due to lack of funding.)

**England’s world ranking in other sports**
Cricket – 3rd
Football – 15th
Hockey – 4th
Rugby League – 3rd
Rugby Union – 4th

**England’s Key victories**
Mens team (Word champs) – 1st
- Sean Ashby bagged individual gold in the World Championships in 2012.
- Team gold in 2008 and 2010.

Mens team (Euorpean champs) – 1st
- A team bronze in Slovenia in 2009.
- Team silver in Portugal in 2010 and Spain in 2012.

Under 23s – 1st
- Callum Dicks took individual gold in the 2008 World Champs in Serbia.
- Back-to-back bronze medals for the squad in the 2010 and 2011 World Champs.

Under 18s – 1st
- Record breaking team gold in 2013 World champs.
- Individual gold for Matt Godfrey in Belgium in 2008.

Clubs (World Club Champs) – 1st
- Kamasan Starlets secured bronze in Slovakia in 2009.
- Daiwa Dorking landed bronze in Portugal in 2012.

Veterans – 1st
- Team silver in 2009 and 2010 World Champs.
- Joe Roberts took individual gold in 2012, with the team also finishing in first place the same year.

Record Weights At Viaduct Fishery

While UK temperatures have soared, sport at Viaduct Fishery has been equally as hot with impressive match weights across the venues five lakes. Last week Adam Wakeling recorded the highest UK Champs match weight ever with a huge 239lb on this venue, in a match that saw 70 anglers average over 100lb in weight across four of the lakes.

But it’s not just carp making the headlines at Viaduct with bags of skimmers on Spring Lake (27 pegs) reaching 90lbs. As a pleasure angler you can target these fish by fishing the pole or wagglerat around 9m, using a 4 or 6mm banded pellet over a bed of 4mm or soaked micros, feeding a few helpings via a small pot or catapult every cast. These fish go to 5lb and with plenty of carp to 27lb in this lake theres no need to fish too light. Use 0.14mm mainline with a puller bung in your pole in case you do hook one of the lakes beasts. This lake is the complex’s specimen water, with a huge head of carp from 15-25lb so if you want to catch one of these, fish a lead with big 12-16mm pellets tight to the island.

For a net of carp over 200lb head to Lodge Lake (21 pegs) where the corner pegs have loads of over-hanging trees which are worth fishing under with the pole for carp to 15lb. They average around 8lb in here and can easily be caught in good numbers using the pole with pellet or meat, feeding little and often. If its lumps to 20lb you want, there is Cary Lake (36 pegs) where a straight lead approach with an 8 or 11mm pellet at around 40 yards should provide plenty of action, as will the pole with paste.

Top tips

Small balls of soaked micro pellets make excellent feed for skimmer bream

For skimmers try fishing a little past your feed where you’ll find the better stamp of fish but also get more positive bites on a regular basis.

Prices: £7 for one rod, £9 for two rods. Concessions and evening tickets also available.
Contact: Call 01458 274022. Visit www.viaductfishery.com
Location: Cary Valley, Somerton, Somerset TA11 6LJ
Rules: Barbless only, no nuts or boilies, no braid or fixed rigs, no lines over 12lb
Facilities: Clubhouse, tackle shop, café, toilets, Norwegian lodges

Triple Figure Bags At Worcestershire's Larford

An excellent Summer Festival last month at the venue, which saw over 24,000lb of fish caught over five days, with an average of 100lb for each man, is evidence that the fishing at Larford has been fantastic this year.

Situated in the heart of the Worcestershire countryside Larford consists of three lakes with a total of 250 pegs and 80 pegs on some of the best barbel and chub fishing on the River Severn.
The complex has become a firm favourite with pleasure anglers because there are huge stocks of smaller carp, roach and skimmers which mean you can get bites all day long.
Triple figure bags are commonplace during every month of the year and recent weights on the venue’s Specimen Lake have been mighty. This lake is around 20-acres in size and is stocked with a wide range of species including roach to over 2lb, chub to 7lb, bream to 15lb, large perch, crucians and tench to 9lb. The lake is most famous, however, for its specimen carp with the venue record standing at 38lb 8oz. All methods are successful, with waggler, pole and tip accounting for many of the bream and smaller carp. Boilies, particles, meat and paste are the best baits for the bigger carp, but also work well for the specimen bream and tench. At the moment the biggest weights are being taken on the chalet bank using three tactics: meat in the margins, 6mm banded pellet shallow at around 13m while feeding casters as well as dead maggot over groundbait in the margins.

Every peg on this six-acre Match lake is capable of producing massive weights of F1s, common and mirror carp, roach, tench, bream, chub, perch and rudd. Pellet is generally the most productive hookbait here, but paste, maggot and caster also regularly account for some big bags. Fish are still being caught shallow but as the temperatures drop presenting your baits on the deck will be more effective for nets over 200lb.

Arena is the smallest of the three lakes on the complex, and only opened in April 2005. Large stocks of mirror and common carp have been introduced along with bream, roach, rudd, tench and perch. The Arena is already producing large catches and promises to deliver similar, if not better, sport than the famous Match Lake. Pellets, particles, meat and maggots are the main hookbaits. This lake is for floatfishing only, and pole short is the best method for large weights.

Contact: 01299 829373, www.larfordlakes.co.uk
Location: Larford Lane, near Stourport, Worcestershire, DY13 0SQ
Prices: One rod - adults £8 per day and concessions £6. Two rods - £16 per day and £30 for 24 hours.
Rules: Barbless hooks only – maximum size 10. Maximum of four bags of pellets per anglers and all feed pellets must be purchased on-site. All nets must be dipped. No cat or dog meat, bloodworm, joker or macaroni. No floating hook or feed baits. No PVA bags or artificial baits.
Facilities: Car park, café, toilets, disabled access.

A day in the life of an EA officer

Britain is experiencing one of the hottest summers in memory - fish stocks are under threat, and more anglers are on the bank. As a result this is the busiest time of the year for Environment Agency officers.

Angling Times were recently given exclusive access behind the scenes with Darren Bedworth – a fisheries and biodiversity team leader - to discover just what they get up to on a day-to-day basis and how your rod licence money is spent…

Everyone who buys a rod licence wants to see EA officers on the bank, just as people like to see a bobby on the beat. In answer to these calls a number of fishery marine patrol units were set up to in a bid to stamp out illegal angling and fish theft.

I was invited to spend the day with Whiskey 520, a patrol unit on the River Mersey in Warrington, Cheshire. The team, who wouldn’t look out of place on an episode of the A-Team, had a military appearance and carried equipment including night-vision goggles, hand-cuffs, communication radios and stab vests. If you thought that fisheries patrol was lightweight think again.

Every member of the squad is a keen angler and as intimidating as they looked, they explained that heavy handed tactics are rarely required.

The team, which is part of the North-West Enforcement for the agency, rely heavily on intelligence, as pointed out by Darren, who regularly joins the patrols as part of his duties. “It is not just a case of going along the river checking rod licences,” he said. “We work closely with angling clubs, councils and the public as well as the local police - who often partner us on patrols or when we make a discovery.

“There is no point checking areas which have been covered two or three times in the same year unless it is a noted hotspot for illegal activity. We prefer to concentrate our time on checking areas where criminals think they might get away with it,” he added.

The work is certainly paying off, and in three years the unit has checked 700 rod licences on the river’s Dee, Weaver and Mersey with dozens of anglers fined for fishing without the required documentation. Two men were recently fined hundreds of pounds in court for using gill nets after a surveillance operation by the team.

As well as spending time with Whiskey 520, Darren, also based in Warrington, is one of a handful of officers who work hard, day in, day out in a bid to improve fisheries and support angling activities.

Many of the waterways in the North of the UK have for years been blighted with pollution and fish stocks have suffered as a result. But thanks to the work of Darren and his team, some of these rivers such as the Ribble, Mersey and Irwell are now thriving.

EA officers have worked closely with the authorities and water boards to help improve the quality of water as well as being on the look-out for signs of pollution and work on fish habitats. Darren has also overseen a massive re-stock of venues like the Irwell which has been boosted with over 10,000 new fish in the past three years alone.

“Due to the work we are involved in and the government’s Water Framework Directive, which ensures water quality is legally kept to acceptable levels according to EU guidance, rivers like the Mersey are far better than they were a decade ago. We have monitored fish populations which have increased dramatically as a result,” he said.

Officers like Darren are also well aware of the problems caused by migrants who come to the UK for work, and in the past few weeks teams from his region have visited dozens of work places which employ Eastern European workers to hand out leaflets explaining UK catch and release laws. They have also placed adverts in specialist publications which have a high readership of migrant workers. “We are not blind to the fact that many problems concerning poaching are due to the large influx of Eastern Europeans but the solution is in education as well as enforcement, so we fight it by being intelligent about it.”
Other tasks undertaken by officers like Darren include building anti-predation devices such as floating islands, stillwater surveys - of which Darren estimates he has been involved in around 200 since 2005 - tree planting, climate change impact research, as well as pollution and fisheries response - something which has kept officers busy this summer due to the heat which has seen thousands of fish in distress as a result of oxygen levels crashing.

EA officers daily duties include:
- River patrols
- Rod licence checks
- Educating migrants
- Fish rescues
- Construction of anti-predation devices
- Stillwater surveys
- Climate change impact research
- Habitat improvement
- Pollution and fisheries response
- Providing fishery management advice for local clubs
- Removal of invasive species

Sitch record broken by surprise mirror

RH Fisheries’ The Sitch produced a surprise 40-pounder in the shape of this 44lb 6oz mirror for Rob Hird.

The 26-acre estate lake is known for its head of 20s and low 30s, but threw up its first 40 during the recent heatwave.

Scaffolder Rob took the fish at 4pm on the third day of his three-night session, having introduced a total of about 4.5kg of boilies to an island spot at about 90 yards.

The 44-year-old from Newcastle-under-Lyme told Angling Times: “I was in a peg with fish all over me and was getting liners, but couldn’t get a hook up until the Friday afternoon.
“The bite was more like a liner and I initially thought I was hooked on a snag, but halfway in it turned and I knew it was a big fish. When I got it to the edge of the reeds it went ballistic.”

Rob, who presented Quality Baits’ HG42 boilies on a snowman setup featuring a Korda Kaptor Kurv Shank hook tied to a Nash Missing Link hooklink, has been a syndicate member since the water opened and had previously held the venue best with a 33lb common.

He added: “The Sitch hasn’t done a 40 before so when I got it out I thought it was 30lb to 35lb. It was a big surprise when the scales went well past that.”