Better than the average ‘livebait’...

Predator fishing legend Gord Burton got a big shock when he netted this 2lb 1oz roach from a northern canal – while fishing for livebaits to go piking!

Using a floatfished double red maggot hookbait, he found a few small silvers before the action stepped up a notch.

“When it came to the surface I couldn’t believe such a stunning big roach was staring back at me,” he said.

After returning the redfin, Gord wetted a line for pike later in the day and was rewarded with a pair of fish to 21lb 12oz.

Whincup chalks up his second White Acres win

Guru Festival (Mon-Fri)
White Acres Holiday Park (180 pegs)

White Acres festival wins are a little bit like buses for Jon Whincup.
After years of trying to nail one, the Peterborough man finally made the breakthrough in last year’s Maver event and he followed that up double-quick by taking the first-ever Guru-backed five-dayer by virtue of a better dropped points score.
Totalling 36 points, the Frenzee/Bait-Tech man got rid of a section second to better five-times World Champion Alan Scotthorne.
Alan scored the same points but discarded a third in section, Paul Holland finishing third overall.
Jon’s week began with a section win off Bolingey Lake peg 7 as he took 105-11-0 of carp on pellet fished at 14m down the edge.
Another maximum points score followed on Tuesday with 49-0-0 of F1s and a few carp on meat fished at 16m from peg 2 on the Pollawyn Lake.
Trewaters peg 45 was next for the postman. There he bagged 79-0-0 of carp on bomb and bread to the island and pellet in the edge.
Then came his only blip of the week – a second in section – which came from Trelawney Lake peg 22 with 79-0-0 of carp on pellet at 14m.
Needless to say, a section win was needed on the final day to wrap things up and a triumphant Jon did it in confident style with a level 11-0-0 of roach from Porth Reservoir.

Overall result: 1 J Whincup, Frenzee/Bait-Tech, 36pts (dropping eight points); 2 A Scotthorne, Drennan/Sensas, 36 (dropping seven points); 3 Paul Holland, Guru, 35 (dropping eight points); 4 A Power, Preston Innovations, 35 (dropping seven points - 468-9-0); 5 P Canning, Solihull Angling Centre, 35 (dropping seven points - 369-10-0); 6 J Maddison, Mosella Quaker, 34.

Big canal zander from the murk

A heavily coloured canal didn’t deter lure fishing ace Chris Lowe, who banked this hefty zander.

The Savage Gear-backed rod turned up at a Midlands cut to find visibility at a minimum, but still tied on a ‘noisy’ Da Bush spinnerbait and bagged the fish, which he estimated to weigh close to double figures.

“By pitching it close to boats I convinced this fish to hit a lure that you wouldn’t consider to be a classic zander bait,” he said.

Fish O’ final is all set to be best ever

This year’s PartyPoker Fish O’Mania XXIII final will be the best ever, with a host of exciting new plans for the big day.
The 16-man final will remain unchanged, with half-hourly weigh-ins in front of the live Sky Sports cameras, but fished alongside it will be a six-peg International Masters.
This will see match fishing greats from England, Holland, Italy, Scandinavia, Germany and France fight it out on the Arena Pool for the trophy and a £3,000 first prize.
Spectators will have the chance to leave Cudmore quids in, thanks to a ‘guess the winning weight’ competition from Fish O’ sponsor PartyPoker.
Just sign up to the PartyPoker website, go to fishomania.net and have a shot at winning £2,000 by estimating the winning weight. Three £1,000 runner-up prizes will keep interest levels high.
“I’ve always looked forward to Fish O’ finals but this time I’m more excited than ever before,” said two-times winner Jamie Hughes, who has already booked his place in the semi-finals.
 “We are talking about the sport’s biggest tournament and this will be the best final ever, with lots of twists and turns to provide a great spectacle for another big crowd.”
The ladies and juniors will be fishing their finals on the Suez Canal on the Saturday.
To find out more visit:
www.fishomania.net

Best bream of year goes 17lb 2oz

Prebaiting paid off for Craig Woolhouse when he made an huge haul of bream topped by the best specimen of 2016 so far.

At 17lb 2oz, not only is it a lake record, but it also smashes the 35-year-old’s personal best.

He visited his targeted venue in his home county of Leicestershire the day before he began fishing and prebaited a spot at 98 yards with two tins of corn and two kilos of pellets to get the bream grubbing around on the lakebed.

His tactics paid dividends as hair-rigged hookbaits saw him land an impressive string of slabs to back up his new pb. They included bream weighing 14lb 12oz, 11lb 10oz, 11lb 9oz, 11lb 4oz, 10lb 12oz and 10lb 8oz.

“I’ve had some massive hits of big bream in the past but to catch a lake record and beat my personal best of 14lb 8oz twice in the same session makes this pretty special,” Craig told Angling Times.

“The biggest fish fell to a fake grain and a real piece of corn that was popped up about an inch of the bottom.”

During his three-night session Craig fed his way through 15 kilos of pellets, eight pints of maggots and eight cans of corn.

Shock turns to joy with a £1,000 winner

Proof that you should always go to your draw no matter how bad it may seem was served by Chris Senter in the Bank Holiday Maver Classic Final as the Worcester man turned an on paper shocker of a peg into a winner to win £1,000 first prize.

Fished by 72 qualifiers across two days at the Maver Larford Lakes complex, Shakespeare Bait-Tech man Chris scored section wins on both days to emerge as the only angler to record a perfect score. Runner-up Neil McKinnon and third-placed Max Galaszewski finished on three points each with weight needed to separate them.

Chris went into the match unsure as to how the cold weather would affect Larford, but was pleased to draw on the Match Lake for the opening day, as this would allow him to work out how the neighbouring Specimen Lake had performed.

“I had a good idea of how to approach the Match Lake and drawing peg 18 in the middle of the grass bank was handy,” he said. “I kicked off on the Method feeder with mini white boilies just past the long pole line, pinging 8mm pellets over the top. This caught an odd decent carp while feeding pellet and corn short at 6m for the final 90 minutes. It produced a good run of carp, although I also had three late on in the edge on corn.”

Those three margin fish were to be crucial as he pipped Simon Fry to the section by a little over 1lb as Chris weighed in 62-6-0. Day two dawned with peg 28 almost at the end of the burr bank on the Specimen Lake and Chris thought his chances were over. “It’s not normally that good at this end, but I saw a few fish topping” he continued. “I began on the Method but didn’t have a bite so changed to the pellet waggler fished 3ft deep with 8mm banded pellet. It was slow going in the wind but it changed direction, blowing over my shoulder, which was ideal.”

Plugging away with the waggler, Chris netted 10 big carp to weigh in 94-4-0 and win the section with over 20lb to spare.

Overall result: 1 C Senter, Shakespeare Bait-Tech, 2pts; 2 N McKinnon, Preston Innovations, 3 (191-11-0); 3 M Galaszewski, Maver, 3 (171-2-0); 4 S Harris, Little Dawley, 3 (154-2-0); 5 M Marshall, Barnsley Bait Co, 4.

Day one result: 1 M Marshall, Barnsley Bait Co, 133-12-0; 2 M Galaszewski, Maver, 112-4-0; 3 A Kinder, Maver/Marukyu, 107-12-0; 4 R Lamb, Maver, 104-14-0; 5 R Clement, Barnsley Bait Co, 100-9-0; 6 M McKinnon, Preston Innovation, 94-4-0.

Day two result: 1 S Harris, Little Dawley, 96-4-0; 2 R Lawson, Matrix Total Angling, 95-15-0; 3 N McKinnon, Preston Innovations, 95-13-0; 4 C Senter, Shakespeare Bait-Tech, 94-4-0; 5 M Jones, Tredegar Tackle, 94-1-0; 6 J Jones, Larford, 92-15-0.

Incredible roach brace tips the scales at 7lb 5oz

This is one of the biggest braces of roach in the history of angling.

The specimens, with a combined weight of 7lb 5oz, were caught by roach fishing fanatic Mark Mclennan from the renowned redfin complex, Highbridge Lakes.

Weighing 4lb 1oz and 3lb 4oz, they were tempted on 15mm Nash 4G squid boilies during a three-night session at the Norfolk fishery.

A change in tactics provided Mark with the once-in-a-lifetime catch, prompted by what he called ‘nuisance fish’.

He said: “I switched from fishing standard maggot feeder tactics to helicopter-style rigs with broken boilies in blockend feeders in order to avoid nuisance perch, which seem to have exploded in numbers this year.”

Fishing just four rodlengths out, the change worked a treat, and the 55-year-old from Bedfordshire was soon breaking his previous best of 3lb 2oz twice in the space of two days, along with catching numerous smaller specimens to just over 2lb.

“I have been fishing the lake for more than three years in search of roach this size.

“Before that I took 25 years to get a 2lb-plus roach. To catch two fish like this in the same session has simply left me speechless” he added.

Mark’s winning rigs consisted of 50g swimfeeders on 6lb mainline tied to just 2.5ins Preston Powerline hooklengths with size 8 Kamasan B980 hooks.

40lb 2oz pike on the fly from Chew Valley

The incredible Chew Valley Lake has produced a huge 40lb 2oz pike caught on a tiny fly.

The bait, which measured just two inches in length, was expertly twitched along the bed of the famous Chew Valley Lake in Somerset, by London’s Derek Beagley, who won a 20-minute battle with one of the biggest-ever fly-caught specimens that the historic water has ever produced.

It’s a fish that smashes Derek’s previous personal best for the species caught on the fly that stood at 22lb, and was beaten by the 59-year-old, who was using a 8/9 Greys rod, a 20lb leader and a titanium trace.

“I was twitching the small bait along the bottom in around 8ft of water and then this huge fish grabbed hold of the bait and everything went scarily solid,” said Derek.

“When the fish broke the surface for the first time my boat partner and I just looked at each other like we’d seen a ghost, then it stripped 30 yards straight off my reel.

“We finally got it in the boat and my legs were like jelly. Ever since the capture I’ve been like a schoolboy again and so full of excitement and adrenalin.

“I’ve fished here for eight years and it’s always been a dream to catch a pike over the 30lb barrier, but this is just incredible.

Chew Valley Reservoir is regarded by many as the finest big-pike venue in the UK, and fishery manager John Harris and the rest of his dedicated team never cease to be amazed by this incredible water.

“This just goes to show that it’s not just anglers that come and fish the trials here with dead baits and lures that catch the biggest fish,” said John.

“We have loads of huge pike here caught on flies every year.”

From ashes to splashes

Two fishing companions staged the ultimate memorial to a late friend when they headed abroad for a fishing trip… and used his ashes to make the bait!

Yorkshiremen Cliff Dale and Paul Fairbrass were shocked when their bankside buddy Ron Hopper died before the three of them were able to enjoy a holiday to Jurassic Mountain Resort and Fishing Park in Thailand.

To commemorate Ron’s memory the pair created boilies nicknamed ‘Purple Ronnies’ out of his ashes and banked a 180lb-plus lake record Siamese carp.

“We came up with all sorts of ideas, but this was something out of the ordinary and as soon as we thought of it we were sure this was the best way to honour him,” said Paul.

4lb 2oz perch on bargain club ticket

Kieran Granville proved you don’t have to spend a fortune on season tickets to find big fish when he banked this 4lb 2oz perch from a club water.

The Taunton AA head bailiff visited the association-controlled Maunsel Ponds and relied on a tried-and-tested floatfished worm approach on a water better known for its carp.

It was a ploy that worked a treat within a short space of time, with the big predator soon falling foul of the simple tactics.

Tickets to join the club are currently on sale and start at £25 for adults and £10 for juniors.

20 kilos of bait for one monster perch

A mammoth baiting campaign that saw John Deprielle pile in 20 kilos of bait during a single day session ended with the capture of this huge personal best perch.

In order to feed his way through the sheer numbers of carp and get through to the big perch at his chosen commercial fishery, the Devon-based specialist introduced as much bait as some anglers would use in a month, and his reward was this 4lb 12oz specimen.

“I’d heard from a match fishing friend of mine that there were big perch in this water, but it’s also full of carp and silverfish. Every time I fed a handful of bait, the surface of the water just erupted with hungry fish.

“The only way to get through them was to keep piling the bait in, and I didn’t stop all day.

He hauled his way through more than 100 carp and countless silverfish as his endless bombardment of groundbait, hemp and pellets hit the surface at a stillwater in the South West.

Then, after hours seven hours of constant feeding, John finally set his hook into the jaws of his intended quarry – a perch that beats his previous best that stood at 4lb 8oz. It took a floatfished worm hookbait.

“Many anglers might have given up because it seems like a lot of work and bait to try and catch a perch, but when the reward is a specimen like this it makes it all worthwhile,” John continued.

“There are so many commercial fisheries out there that contain big perch, but they are hardly ever caught because people just don’t fish for them.”

Big roach on a boilie

Catching the UK’s biggest fish is all about being dedicated, as Rob Thompson proved when an eight-hour round trip produced a huge brace of roach.

The bigger fish scaled 2lb 11oz and came after a switch of tactics from the float to legered boilies paid off at a southern stillwater.

Early in the session the waggler produced several roach to just under the 2lb mark, but with darkness imminent, the Leicester specialist changed to legered mini boilies and was instantly rewarded with a 2lb 7oz specimen.

That was the end of the action for the night, but moving swims at dawn reinvigorated the session, with the maggot feeder helping him fool the biggest of the trip.

Pods hit the River Trent

River anglers will be able to night-fish in style on a stretch of one of our most popular rivers this summer, thanks to an ambitious project being set up on a newly opened day-ticket fishery.

In what is believed to be the first of its kind for a running water venue, 10 portable glamping pods will be available to book from June 16 on a prolific 600 yard stretch of the River Trent in Newark, Nottinghamshire.

The pods, which run on solar power and offer a charging point, a USB port and a socket for a kettle is the brainchild of fishery manager Joe Fox, who is building more of the pods for other fisheries to rent.

“River anglers don’t get the comfort of their stillwater counterparts so these will allow them to enjoy a night session in comfort,” said Joe. To book a session at the fishery or ask about renting pods, visit Joe’s Facebook page: Maltkiln Lane Trent Fishing.

Finally, it’s a Bait-Tech festival win for Geldart

Bait-Tech Festival (Mon-Fri)

White Acres Holiday Park (140 pegs)

Andy Geldart has quite a record on these Cornish festivals, having won three plus the Parkdean Masters down the years but the Leeds angler had never been victorious in the Bait-Tech, the opening festival of the season at White Acres

– until now.

Scoring 32 points after dropped section scores were taken into account, the Matrix/Dynamite Baits angler and former Fish O’ champ ended in front to take the £1,600 top prize ahead of a cluster of anglers on 31 points. England man Callum Dicks proved the best of them to finish second by virtue of a better dropped score.

Andy’s week began on peg 6 of Trelawney Lake, where he weighed in 97-8-0 for a section win. He took F1s and the odd carp on meat at 5m plus around 20lb of silverfish on chopped worm and caster in the margins. He followed that up with more of the same on Tuesday at Trewaters peg 27. His 132-8-0 of carp saw him take second overall on the lake as he caught on bomb and bread and waggler and meat to the island and meat shallow on the long pole.

Wednesday proved to be Andy’s blip as Acorn Lake

peg 3 delivered a third in section with 89-0-0 of F1s and carp on meat at 6m. Thursday saw him back on track with a lake second and section win, thanks to 142-0-0 of big carp on meat fished at 7m and 5m from Bolingey Lake peg 42.

That set him up for a grandstand finish on Friday – and Pollawyn Lake peg 34 delivered with a section win to seal the title.  Using bomb and bread and long pole and meat, his 66-0-0 was made up of five carp plus skimmers.

Result: 1 A Geldart, Matrix/Dynamite Baits, 32pts;

2 C Dicks, Maver, 31 (dropping six points); 3 P Holland, Guru, 31 (dropping four points – 547-6-0); 4 N Cornwell, 31 (dropping four points – 514-14-0); 5 R Wootton, Shimano/Dynamite Baits, 31 (dropping four points – 496-2-0); 6 J Howarth, Tri-Cast, 31 (dropping four points – 480-15-0).

Jeremy Wade to the rescue!

One of the world’s most famous anglers helped save the life of a fellow fisherman who was stranded on a remote island and was apparently ‘preparing to die’.

The incredible story unfolded during filming of the next series of River Monsters with Jeremy Wade around a group of uninhabited islands off the coast of Australia’s Northern Territory. There the crew found a ‘castaway’ who’d been without water or food for almost three whole days.

“We were filming for an episode of Series 8 called ‘Death Down Under’ and headed to the opposite end of the island because the waters where we’d originally planned to be were far too choppy,” said episode director Stephen Shearman.

“We saw this blue cooler box on a rock and the team joked that Tom Hanks might pop out of nowhere like in the film ‘Castaway’. Then this guy came running out of a cave and on to the shore, screaming for help and water. He was in a very bad way.”

Jeremy and the crew rushed to the aid of the man, called Tremine, and gave him water and hydration pills following a harrowing ordeal that saw the experienced hobby fisherman from Borroloola NT go without supplies for 60 hours.

The human body can survive only 72 hours without water, and this, coupled with blistering temperatures averaging 110ºF at Barranyi North Island – 60 miles from the nearest township – meant that the River Monsters crew were the roofer’s only chance of survival.

As he recovered in one of the team’s boats he told his rescuers that he’d already said his final prayer and was ‘preparing to die’.

“Tremine had left his boat and after a few hours digging for oysters took a wrong turn, got beaten by the sun and spent the night on the beach,” Stephen continued.

“It was just lucky that we decided to film somewhere else, otherwise we would have never found him. Myself, Jeremy and all the crew have been truly humbled by the experience.To save someone’s life under such incredible circumstances is something that none of us will forget.”

Tremine stayed with the River Monsters team overnight at a lodge that they used between filming, and the following day he was fit enough to return home.

- Series 7 of River Monsters with Jeremy Wade is currently showing on ITV1.

First double figure tench of the season hit the bank

This stunning underwater image captures the species that thousands of anglers will be targeting this weekend as popular tench waters bring big catches and huge specimens.

Species enthusiasts from every corner of the country will be looking to catch the iconic tincas as we enter what is historically the traditional tench fishing season – and they have every reason to be rubbing their hands in anticipation of the weeks to come.

EastEnders star Scott Maslen banked one of the biggest tench of the season so far in the shape of this impressive 10lb 2oz specimen (pictured) from Oxfordshire’s Linear Fisheries, a water that’s hit top form for this fair-weather species.

The fishing fanatic, who plays the character Jack Branning in the hit BBC soap opera, banked the fish using a white Mainline Baits pop-up while fishing for carp with good friend Kev Hewitt who also landed an 8lb 5 oz tench.

Scott and Kev are just two of the many visitors that have been taking advantage of the vast tench stocks at the Oxfordshire complex.

“Tench are on the feed in all our lakes and anglers are now cashing in on the action,” said Linear Fisheries head bailiff Ian Roper.

“We’ve had the two biggest fish from the complex this year, Scott landing his 10lb 2oz fish and another angler specifically targeting tench on the Manor Lake who recently banked a cracker of 10lb 3oz.

“This is the time of year when tench start going on the feed not just here, but at waters across the UK, so there could be no better time to get out there and have a go for them.”

Mike Lyddon is one of the UK’s most respected specimen hunters and he proved why you should be giving one of your local day-ticket waters a go this weekend when he banked over 150lb of the species in a single session.

The Gardner Tackle man was fishing the Oak Pond at Three Ponds Holiday Park in Sussex and banked 25 tench, with the best three weighing 8lb 7oz, 8lb 5oz and 7lb 10oz.

After locating a small bar at 30 yards he spodded out a mix of hemp, pellets, corn, maggots and broken boilies to pull the fish into his swim.

He fished a single boilie over the top on a rig made with 10lb mainline, a coated braid hooklink and a size 8 hook.

Shock zander – on a boilie!

John Lam accidentally hooked this 11lb 10oz zander while targeting an urban stillwater.

Carp were the Yorkshire angler’s target at his local venue but they refused to take his boilie hookbait.

With time running out, he started to pack up – then one of his alarms signalled a bite.

After a short battle Jon got the biggest surprise of his angling career: “I’d never landed a zander before so to get off the mark with such a huge fish was a massive surprise,” he said.

“Even though predators weren’t my intended target, this fish definitely made the session one to remember.”

Divers unlock the mysteries hidden beneath the surface

Behind the masks of these two fearless divers are the faces of fishing fanatics eager to reveal the secrets of lakes and stillwaters across the UK.

Jodie Calladene and Mark Barrow come closer to fish than most anglers can only dream of, while offering their free service to angling clubs and fishery owners.

To unlock the secrets that lie beneath the surface of some of our most popular venues, the Yorkshire pair strap on their diving kit and venture into the unknown. This has revealed the location of pike and carp to over 30lb, and taught them more about angling and fish behaviour than they could ever have imagined.

Mark, who has dived in salt and freshwater for over 30 years and fished rivers since he was a boy, says the service has dramatically improved his fishing skills while helping fishery owners understand their venues much better.

 “I started fishing at eight and always had a fascination for what lies at the bottom of a river. When I started diving it blew me away that the mental image I had of a river or lakebed was completely different to how it actually is,” he told Angling Times.

“The dives have taught me so much about how fish move, how far they travel and how they feed – observations which have improved my angling fourfold – and we’ve been passing this information on to fishery owners and clubs for free because we love what we do.”

Jodie and Mark’s project, Beneath British Waters, was launched in 2014 but it only recently have they started to take requests to take photographs or shoot underwater videos.

They have covered the rivers Derwent, Wharfe, Eden, Esk and Liddle, plus dozens of stillwaters, in order to find out more about their stocks.

However, not all their weird and wonderful sights have been down to nature.

As well as some stunning fish and fantastic plant life, the guys have seen all sorts of strange things, from river crossings used by soldiers to escape the battle of Marston Moor in the English Civil War to sunken vehicles at the bottom of lakes. One object will stay in Mark’s mind forever: “I was doing a solo night dive on the River Wharfe. We swam into this 4ft deep pool and there, staring back at me, was a fully dressed mannequin in a blue dress, all made up as if she was going out on a date – it was the most creepiest thing you could ever imagine,” he said.

The pair, who fund all their dives from their own pockets, are not stopping there. Dozens more trips are planned for the coming months as more and more fisheries request their services.

For Jodie, a carp angler from Morton, in North Yorkshire, it’s all an education: “At the end of May we have been invited to a water that holds 35lb-plus pike, so we are hoping to get these fish on film, as we have been working on a pike production for the last 12 months,” he said.

“This year will also see us doing vidoes of barbel and freshwater eels and we are hoping to hit the salmon run underwater – which will be amazing. We are even considering filming carp taking an angler’s bait.” 

Watch the videos online

Mark and Jodie’s videos and images can be viewed on their Facebook page and on their YouTube channel. Search for Beneath British Waters.

And if you’re interested in them paying a visit to your water, email: beneathbritishwaters@gmail.com

Irish roach glory days here again

A river thought to be well past its best is being hailed as Europe’s greatest roach fishery after it produced a series of huge catches to over 100lb.

Closed-season restrictions don’t apply in Northern Ireland, where the upper River Bann has seen an incredible silverfish revival.

The waterway was a major attraction to UK anglers during the 1980s, but then the giant shoals of roach almost disappeared.

Now the glory days have returned, with UK match fishing star Klaus Fix cashing in on the recent resurgence.

On the Shillington stretch of the Bann at Portadown he enjoyed fish-a-chuck action, ending the day with this massive net of prime roach.

 “I’ve been lucky enough to fish some of the best silverfish waters in Europe, and the action here is well up there with anything I’ve ever experienced,” he said.

“I used pole to hand for more than 500 roach in a session. It’s easy to see why the Bann is drawing back the anglers just like in the glory days.”

Local expert Phil Jackson was on hand to witness the catch, and insists that the achievement was far from just sheer luck.

He told Angling Times: “In its heyday 100lb catches of roach were nothing to rave about, and it looks like we could be getting to that point again.

“I’ve heard of loads of catches over 70lb in the last few weeks with several into triple figures.

“Anglers used to travel to Northern Ireland to experience what the Bann had to offer, and its recent form proves that they wouldn’t be wasting their time if they made the journey over now.”

Huge canal perch

Predator fishing fanatic Danny Esox became the envy of specimen anglers across the UK when he hit the jackpot with this huge canal perch.

At this time of the year many anglers target stillwaters for the species, but the 39-year-old businessman from Yorkshire continued to show the potential of canals when he used the popular drop shotting tactic at a venue in the South.

He fooled the mint-conditioned predator with a Savage Gear 3D Bleak, a 6lb braided mainline and a 4lb fluorocarbon leader.

“Me and my mate Ant Glascoe Jnr don’t weigh the perch we catch,” said Danny. “But this was a certainly a huge fish.”