Vote for your favourite fish!

Voting is underway to decide the UK’s first ever national fish species – and Angling Times readers are being urged to have their say.
The National Fish Vote is the brainchild of wildlife and underwater fish photographer Jack Perks, who said: “In total we have more than 400 species of fish in our seas, lakes and rivers around the British Isles, but currently no national fish. I want this poll to follow in the footsteps of last year’s National Bird Vote, when more than 300,000 people nominated the robin as their favourite bird.”
 Voting will be carried out through an online poll, with people having the chance to pick from 40 different species, including roach, tench and barbel, along with many saltwater species which have been shortlisted by groups of respected anglers and scientists.
Both anglers and the general public are being encouraged to vote, and the UK’s national fish will be announced once voting closes at the end of this month.
Angling Times columnist Des Taylor believes the carp will become the UK’s national fish.
“Carp fishing has really taken off in recent years and it’s a fish everyone can identify, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this species came out on top, but I am going to vote for the roach myself.
“The poll is a great idea, as it will be good to have a national fish and it will hopefully help improve the popularity of angling,” he said.
“The most recent Angling Times readers’ poll to find our favourite fish voted the tench as number one, but things can change and I’d encourage everyone to vote,” said editor-in-chief Steve Fitzpatrick.  

To vote visit www.btwlfishproject.com

Stella makes it a 50 four-pack!

Dan Taylor racked up his fourth different fifty of 2015 with this 51lb 12oz mirror carp caught over the Christmas break.
The Ashford angler tempted the big mirror, known as Stella, from Essex Manor and went on to land the sought-after Northern Linear at 42lb 12oz in the same session.
Describing the capture of the fifty, he said: “She was in immaculate condition and at her biggest weight, topping off an incredible year for me. It’s left me lost for words!
“I went on to brace it with one of the ones I really wanted, the Northern Linear at 42lb 12oz.”
Dan’s four fifties in 2015 came from two waters, and his latest success came during a Boxing Day session at Essex Manor.
“I had set my sights on a winter lump,” said Dan, “and with the weather in my favour I decided on a couple of nights on my syndicate just after Christmas.
“I was fishing to a reed-lined far margin, baiting with a kilo of new Amber Chocolate boilies on test from Nash Bait. After a slow, deep battle I was able to scoop Stella up first time as she filled my net!”
Dan used white 15mm Nash Citruz pop-ups mounted on multi rigs made with 15lb Nash Combilink and size 6 Chod Twister hooks.

Five new qualifying venues for RiverFest and £12,000 for champion

This year’s Angling Trust RiverFest event will feature five new qualifier venues as thousands of anglers begin their quest to be crowned champ and pocket the £12,000 top prize!
New venues for 2016 are the Warwickshire Avon at Warwick and Stratford, the River Thames at Clanfield and Culham, and the tidal River Trent from Laughterton to Dunham.
Angling Trust Ambassador and competition creator Dave Harrell added: “We haven’t closed the door for the future on any venues we have used previously. We just felt it was time for a few changes.”   
Subject to all tickets being sold, RiverFest 2016 will see 10 main prizes in the final, from £500 for 10th place up to £12,000 for the winner. Section prizes of £250 will also be paid for every six pegs on both the final days. A teams-of-three competition will run alongside the main event, made up of the three anglers who go through from each of the 24 qualifiers.
Applications for the 60-peg qualifiers will be invited towards the end of March and a computerised random draw will establish who fishes where.
The final takes place on the Wye at Hereford on November 19/20. More information at www.anglingtrust.net

50lb 2oz Mommon best of 10 carp in two nights

Everything fell into place for James Ellis as he managed a common, a mirror and a leather over 45lb in a two-night session.
Top of the bill was a 50lb 2oz common, followed by a 45lb 14oz leather and a 45lb mirror. The 10-fish hit at Fryerning Fisheries’ Main Lake also included a 38lb common and a 37lb 8oz mirror.
Although the common, called the Mommon, had never topped 50lb before, it was the leather, known as the Netted Fish, which James really wanted.
The 36-year-old roofer said: “I was over the moon with them all, but it was the Netted Fish that I really wanted. A 40lb leather was always top of my hit list and it just rounded off a great session – I was blown away.”
The Mommon is now the third 50-pounder in the lake, which James has been a member of since 2012. “I’ve been a member for four years and had some wicked sessions there but I think this tops the lot,” said the Londoner. “It was like clockwork. I’d bait up at 8am, get a bite at 10am, then again at 1pm and 5pm – there was no action at night.”
He added: “It’s actually the third time I’ve had the Mommon – I had it at 40-something, then at 45-something to set a lake-record common, but that’s the thing at Fryerning, you’re always fighting for your record back because the fish keep growing. There’s always something to look forward to, even if you have caught the fish before.
“It can be hard fishing, but you’re always in with a chance of a session of a lifetime.”
James fed Nash Key boilies in various sizes to a firm area amid silt about 50 yards out from the Box swim.
He presented his hookbaits on rigs made with size 6 Nash Fang Twister hooks and 15lb Nash Missing Links, and cast them out with PVA bags of crumbed boilies.

3lb 12oz roach earns place in history books

The only bite of a five-month campaign to catch a huge redfin resulted in Josh Fisher banking one of the biggest river roach ever caught.
Weighing 3lb 12oz, it’s a fish that the experienced all-rounder has spent four years targeting. In that time he has dedicated thousands of hours in his quest to bank a roach over the magical 3lb mark.
All the Norfolk specialist’s hard work and dedication paid off when he targeted an ultra-tough southern river that he’s been visiting for the last five months without a single bite from a big roach.
“The fact that I hadn’t had a bite for so long just proves how tough these fish are to locate, let alone catch,” Josh told Angling Times.
“To catch this roach has been an ambition of mine for so long I can’t believe I’ve actually done it, and when I first saw the fish in the fading light I thought I’d hooked a big chub.”
The tattoo artist baited his swim with mashed bread before returning later in the day to flick a small feeder filled with the same bait out into the river.
He didn’t have to wait long before a sharp pluck on his quivertip signified that the fish of a lifetime had taken a piece of breadflake folded around a size 14 hook tied to 3lb line.
It’s a fish that beats his previous personal best for the species that stood at 2lb 5oz. He said: “I’ve always wanted to catch a 3lb roach and a 3lb rudd from running water and I’ve done it in one season, which is one hell of an achievement.
“I’ve had experts look at the picture, and they all reckon it’s a roach, but there are some out there who claim it could be a hybrid.”

68lb 1oz 'Parrot' smashes carp record

The British carp record has been smashed by a mirror weighing a colossal 68lb 1oz.

The fish – known as ‘The Parrot’ – eclipses Oz Holness’s capture of Two Tone at 67lb 8oz in 2008.

Dean Fletcher caught the huge specimen from Cranwells Lake on the Wasing Estate in Berkshire just an hour after setting up.

Speaking to Angling Times with the fish still in the retaining sling awaiting photos, the 53-year-old greengrocer said: “It’s a bit surreal!”

Mark Hibbs, the fisheries manager and head gamekeeper at Wasing, said: “We weighed it on two sets of scales – Reuben Heaton digitals and traditional dial scales – and they both read 68lb 1oz.”

The Parrot is a well-known fish that has been caught a number of times over 60lb and up to 64lb 8oz.

New unofficial record-holder Dean told Angling Times: “I’ve been on here for three seasons and I’ve been after this fish in particular because I’ve caught everything else in here.

“I didn’t care how big it was going to be, I just wanted to catch it. To have it at over 68lb is something else!

“I’d witnessed it on the bank before. My friend Roy Allen caught it in the spring at 63lb and another friend had it in the summer at 64lb.”

The fish was caught January 13 just after dusk. Dean baited lightly with Pete Regan Meat Two boilies and presented a matching pop-up over the top.

The Reading resident, who runs the Tippings Lane syndicate in Woodley, said: “I baited with just a few chops, it being January, and fished about 50 yards out. My rig featured a size 4 Atomic Claw hook, Atomic Jel-e-Wyre and a 4oz lead.

“I had only been here about an hour when I got a couple of bleeps and then it slowly tugged line off. I bent into it and it didn’t feel all that big, it was just kiting.

“There’s a sunken tree in my swim so I got my waders on and in the water to get round it. It was coming straight in and then all of a sudden the fish started bubbling and buried into the bottom.

“That’s when my knees started going a bit and I thought maybe it could be a big one.

“It came in with a bit of weed over it and I said to my mate it could be one of two fish, either Floppy Tail (a mid-forty mirror), which I’ve already caught, or the Parrot. When we got it in it did look bigger than its previous captures.

“This is my third season on the venue and I’ve had 87 captures.”

River rudd on worms

These are two of the three rudd over 2lb caught by Phil Tayor on the stick float and worms.
He broke his personal best for the species three times when he netted specimens of 2lb, 2lb 5oz and 2lb 11oz when he paid a visit to his local river in Lincolnshire.
All three fish fell to dendrobaena hookbaits in conjunction with 4lb Drennan Double Strength line and a size 14 Korum hook. Phil loosefed the swim with red maggots.
“I had the biggest fish on my very first cast, which is incredible. I’ve caught rudd from this river before, but nothing of this size,” said Phil.

Huge pike is tipped to be new British best

Take a look at this incredible picture of a 46lb 8oz pike that’s tipped to set a new British record.
It was banked by Darren Clark when he fished the famous Wykeham Lakes near Scarborough, and it falls just 5oz short of the current British best.
A legered herring injected with flavouring produced the take from the new personal best that became the largest pike ever to be landed from an English water in 2014 when it was taken at its heaviest weight of 46lb 11oz.
And many believe that due to the condition of the specimen and the quality of the fishery management at the venue that operates the predator fishing on a syndicate basis, it’s a case of when, not if, this fish will smash the current British best.
“It’s a privilege to see and catch such an awesome fish,” Darren said.
“This pike had not been seen for 23 months and many people assumed she was dead. She looked in good condition, with no signs of old age.
“There are several other big pike in the trout lake. They go missing for several seasons at a time and some have had weight gains of 5lb a year.  
“There really is a mystery with the pike fishing on the trout lake. Only this summer a trout angler foul hooked and landed a 35lb pike that was last seen four years ago.”

Bread and pellet seal it for yates

Doncaster Fishing Centre Winter League (rnd 6)
Garbolino Lindholme Lakes, Bonsai Lake (32 pegs)

Third on the day for Paul Wright saw him keep up his lead at the top where, with seven points, he is sitting two clear of Steve Donaghue.
Top rod was Paul Yates at peg 78, the Drennan man fishing long pole to the island with bread and pellet to weigh in 72-3-0 of carp and F1s.
Second-placed Steve Collingson was on peg 61 and opted for bomb and corn or bread to the island to reply with 46-2-0 of carp and F1s.
Result: 1 P Yates, Drennan, 72-3-0; 2 S Collingson, Doncaster Fishing Centre, 46-2-0; 3 P Wright, Halkon Hunt, 42-7-0;
4 R Brown, Welfare, 41-1-0; 5 N Storey, Doncaster Fishing Centre, 40-2-0; 6 K Ridley, Doncaster Fishing Centre, 39-14-0.
League: 1 P Wright, Halkon Hunt, 7pts; 2 S Donaghue, Daiwa Dons, 9; 3 P Riley, Doncaster Fishing Centre, 11.

Huge pike latest in a run of specimen fish

Lee Chatfield continued his excellent winter form with this 23lb 12oz pike.
The Sussex rod snared the predator on a legered smelt deadbait from an unknown water on the Sussex marshes near his home.
Lee also bagged two other fish weighing 18lb and 15lb 14oz during the same session, a catch which follows a string of river roach over 2lb netted by the Sonubaits-backed man from last November onwards.

Nemo found at 43lb 3oz

Detailed reconnaissance helped former Royal Marines commando Martin Goddard land a venue record on only his second visit to Bury Hill Fishery.
The 43lb 3oz mirror, known as Nemo, came from Temple Lake at the Surrey complex and is the venue’s biggest-ever fish.
“It’s made my year, surpassed my fishing experiences to date and smashed my pb, and I’ve made some cracking mates along the way,” beamed Martin, who caught the fish during a 24-hour session just before New Year following his first visit to the venue only nine days earlier.
He added: “After walking around the lake and taking charge of my notes and the conditions I settled into peg three along the Road Bank, where I had fished the week before.
“I’d found three hard spots with very little effort as I’d had a feel about previously. Taking notes and always scanning the environment will give you clues, and I had a really good feeling about being on the lake and was extremely confident about a potential capture.
“At 10.15am I had a screaming run, which I successfully struck into, and I soon realised that this was a very good fish. It kited towards the top end of the lake and then fiercely headed for the reeds to my left-hand side.
“Following a very tough 25-minute battle I eventually slipped the net under one of Temple’s best-known residents, the stunning linear mirror known as Nemo.”
Martin fished a whittled-down Mainline Cell wafter on a 7ins combi rig with a small PVA bag of mini boilies.
He added: “Only my second visit to Temple and I banked the big girl – no fluke, as I work very hard on all my carp fishing, driving my other half bonkers when all I want to do is tie a new rig and hatch a plan of action to capture these beautiful creatures!”

Record winter crucian brace

This is the biggest-ever winter brace of crucians, topping the scales at 4lb 4oz and 3lb 12oz.
They are usually associated with the summer, but specimen ace Mike Lyddon became yet another angler to make the most of the mild winter when he set a new personal best for the species.
But it wasn’t plain sailing for Mike, as his session at Godalming Angling Club’s Marsh Farm Fishery coincided with the tail end of a storm, followed by a cold overnight snap.
Gale-force winds, torrential rain and plummeting overnight temperatures didn’t dampen his spirits, as he followed in 10 spodfuls of krill groundbait with a small Method feeder baited with artificial casters on a size 16 hook.
“I had originally planned to go zander fishing on the River Severn, but it was across the fields, so the trip to Johnson’s Lake was last minute to say the least,” said Mike.
“It had been so mild, but all hell broke loose in the aftermath of storm Frank and it was so cold in the night that my landing net froze to the ground. Despite this, I persevered and I’m so glad I did.
“The session started with a few smaller crucians, but then just after midnight I had a new personal best, closely followed by the 3lb 12oz fish.”
The Woking specialist’s Method feeder tactics also produced a 7lb 8oz tench. All Mike’s fish came from a deeper area of the lake that he found with the use of a marker float.
“Most anglers think that you can’t catch these fish when it’s cold, but they hole up in the deeper areas, so the key is to do your homework and find them,” Mike continued.
“Along with the marker float I also used an old map of the venue that shows the make-up of the lakebed.”

Early bird catches 2lb-plus river roach

A river roach over the 2lb mark is on the hit list of many anglers, so Lee Chandler was celebrating when he landed this 2lb 4oz specimen.
He arrived on the banks of a small southern river before it was light, and the fish of a lifetime made an appearance on his very first cast.
He used traditional tactics including a centrepin reel and a 13ft float rod to achieve his long-held ambition.
“I fed for 30 minutes when it was still dark and then, when it was finally light enough to see my float, I made my first cast and just a few minutes later my first two-pounder was in the net,” said Lee.

Now comes a 35lb barbel!

There aren’t many people out there who wouldn’t like to swap places with this angler and his huge 35lb barbel.
Spain is famous for producing monster catfish and big carp, but Justo Ramos proved that it’s capable of much more when he won the battle with this impressive comizo barbel from Extremadura.
This fish, which is recognisable by its elongated head, measured over a metre long and was taken by the guide for holiday company Extrema Fishing Spain when he fished a Savage Gear lure, which also fooled 15 pike during his session.
If you’d like to catch a fish like this visit: www.extremafishingspain.com

Carr Mill bids to rival UK top silvers waters

A legendary fishery is to undergo a huge makeover in a bid to turn it into a competition fishing venue capable of producing 200lb nets of bream.
Officials at St Helens Angling Association have drawn up ambitious plans to turn Merseyside’s, Carr Mill Dam into a venue which will rival some of the best silverfish waters in the land.
The club has earmarked tens of thousands of pounds for the project, which will see the stocking of £20,000 worth of fish and dozens of new platforms built on the 55-acre fishery in a bid to attract match anglers from all over the UK.
With the popularity of natural venues back on the rise, club committee member Andy Burrows believes now is the right time to breathe new life into the venue.
“We want to improve sport on the lake to get it back to the glory days, when we had 100 anglers in every match catching three-figure nets of bream on the feeder,” said Andy.
“Anglers travel down to places like Ferry Meadows in Cambridgeshire, but we have this fantastic venue on our doorstep which we believe has the potential to hold some big events and even international competitions.
“Natural venues are becoming more and more popular again, especially with the rise of outfits like the England International feeder team.
“We want to emulate that, and so by improving Carr Mill we are giving them exactly what they want,” he added.
The project will be kick started next month with the stocking of £20,000 worth of bream, and officials are already organising festivals to be held on the lake this coming summer to run alongside a round of the UK Feeder Championship, which is taking place at the venue later in the year.
England International joint team manager Mark Addy, a regular at Carr Mill, is made up by the prospect.
“The project is great for anglers like myself who fish the venue quite often, and hopefully it will also attract more pleasure anglers back,” he told Angling Times.
“There’s a growing number of people returning to natural venues, which is great for the sport and the future of the England team, and projects like this will only encourage it further.”

Seven carp headed by 53lb 10oz pb at Grenville

Paul Bennett bagged his third personal best in a year and his first British fifty during a session at Cambridgeshire’s Grenville Lake.
Deciding to fish on the back of strong south-westerly winds, the fishery officer baited heavily and reaped the rewards with this
53lb 10oz mirror (below) and others of 35lb 4oz, 27lb 10oz, 26lb 14oz, 20lb 9oz, 20lb 7oz and 20lb 4oz.
He said: “What a winter carp session! I’m simply blown away, and I will be for some time to come.”
After a quiet first night, Paul introduced 10kg of Mad Baits boilies at lunchtime on his second day and didn’t have to wait long for the big mirror to make an appearance.
He said: “At about 1.30pm I received a single bleep on my middle rod so I was out of the bivvy to see what was happening – the bobbin hit the rod with two more bleeps and it was away. The rod hooped right over and stayed there. For a few seconds it was as if I’d hooked the bottom!
“I then felt very heavy movement as the fish suddenly decided to take some line and I thought it felt a good one. It wasn’t until it was roughly 20 yards out that I got my first glimpse and I thought it was possibly a big thirty. It went absolutely berserk in the deep margin but I eventually netted it after a 20-minute battle.
“On looking at my prize filling my net my reaction was, ‘Oh my God, that is big – very, very big!’.”
Grenville boss Paul Ward was summoned to witness the fish and confirmed it was now the lake’s second-biggest carp and one that was last caught 18 months ago at 44lb 4oz.

Tough match on rain-hit canal...

Basingstoke Canal Winter League (rnd 1)
Basingstoke Canal, Barlow Mow (32 pegs)

Conditions were far from ideal, with rain and wind gusting down the canal throughout the match, which kept weights on the low side in this first round.
On the individual front it was Tony Woolford who took the honours as he fished breadpunch from peg 1 to take roach and skimmers. His weight was boosted with a big perch on worm to see him put 5-14-0 on the scales.
Teamwise, it was Sensas Oakwood Angling leading the way with 10 points.
Result:1 T Woolford, Tubertini Old Boys, 5-14-0; 2 S Kendal, Old Windsor, 5-2-0; 3 M Shepherd, Sensas Oakwood Angling, 4-12-0; 4 R Pearson, Old Windsor, 4-3-0; 5 S Keifer, Drennan Bordon Angling, 3-12-0; 6 D Green, Tubertini Old Boys, 2-14-0.
Teams: 1 Sensas Oakwood Angling, 10pts; jt2 Tubertini Old Boys and Old Windsor, both 14; 4 Drennan Bordon Angling, 17.

Lamborghini carp-parked in club lake

A fishing lake in Northamptonshire had £200,000 added to its value after a couple plunged their prized sports car into it.
Members of Higham Ferrers Angling Club watched in horror as rescuers winched the 5.2-litre Lamborghini Huracán from their lake after the couple who were driving it lost control and crashed it into the water.
The white-coloured supercar, which can reach speeds of 204mph, smashed into a central reservation barrier on the A45 near Rushden before spinning off the road and plunging into the margins.
No-one was injured in the incident.

New weapon in fish crime fight

A schoolboy has created a mobile app that allows anglers to fight crime from the bank.
‘Project Poacher’ will revolutionise the way anglers can report incidents at fisheries across the UK, and is another step forward in the battle against fish thefts.
Free to download on most smartphones, the app allows users to send on-the-spot reports to the police while automatically pinpointing the location of the incident using the phone’s Global Positioning System (GPS).
The new technology is the brainchild of 15-year-old Aaron Christiansen, who developed it on behalf of Cheshire Police for a new nationwide anti-poaching initiative on all wildlife crime.
Set up by the England and Wales Poaching Priority Delivery Group (PPDG) to fight rural crime, the initiative is a partnership between a number of national organisations including law enforcers and the Angling Trust, all of whom have endorsed the new app. 
The Trust’s National Enforcement Manager, Dilip Sarkar MBE, believes the new technology is the way forward in the war against poachers.
He told Angling Times: “We still want people to call in when they see something illegal on the bank, but the app is another great tool as it provides another way for anglers to report incidents which in turn will help authorities to catch more offenders and build up a greater wealth of intelligence.”

DOWNLOAD APP
The app is available from the Apple Istore, Google Play and Microsoft Windows. Visit www.projectpoacher.com for more details.

New match series almost sells out within two days

When new matchfishing events are launched, it can often take a few years for them to build in popularity, but not the Preston Innovations Feedermasters series.
In this, its first year, 80 per cent of qualifier tickets for the series have been sold within days of them becoming available, organisers have revealed this week.
The brainchild of England internationals Mick Vials and Lee Kerry, the event now sits along-
side RiverFest, Parkdean Masters, Fish O’Mania and the Maver Mega Match This events in offering British match anglers big money to fish for in 2016, with a guaranteed £12,000 going to the winner in September’s grand final.
Fished on both natural river and lake and commercial carp venues at home and abroad, both men have been astonished at the rapid take up of interest but pleased that their idea – to offer a match that anyone can win – struck a chord with anglers.
Venues, including Ferry Meadows, Barston Lakes, Southfield Reservoir and Bough Beech Reservoir, have already started erecting ‘sold out’ signs.
“I think we knew that we had a good concept as people like the fact that the matches have basic rules and that qualifying is within reach of everyone, not just the match winner,” Lee said.
“Also, by distributing the money through the final there’s a lot to fish for, with a further £12,000 being paid to second place downwards on top of the main prize.
“Why is feederfishing so popular? I think there are a number of reasons,” Lee added. “The success of the England Feeder team is, without doubt, important, but so is the basic concept of feederfishing. You can turn up with one rod and win the match and don’t need masses of bait or tackle to fish several methods. Even my dad, who hasn’t fished a coarse match for years, is fishing a few qualifiers. He knows he can chuck a feeder and catch some fish, so he feels he has a chance!”
“We’ve sold tickets to anglers in seven countries over three continents – Ireland, England, Holland, Germany, Denmark, Australia and even Malaysia!” Mick said. “We’re stunned!
“The idea was to create an event that would appeal to everyone as in other big competitions finalists can be overwhelmed by fishing against the stars of angling in front of live TV cameras and so on. We didn’t think Feedermasters would get off the ground so quickly, but it promises to be a great final as more tickets sold mean an increased payout.”
If you’re interested in getting one of the last handful of tickets on offer, call Sandra Drew, at the Angling Trust, on 01159 061301, and you must be an individual member of the Trust to fish. Reserve lists are also operating for sold-out matches, so you may just get in if there are some no-shows.