A Fisherman's Tale where I get to share with you my passion for fishing through tales of my adventures chasing the big one.
One of the new editions to the tour is the Fazeley Canal for the BLAC Q9 2015. Having not fished this stretch of water personally I am looking forward to giving it a go. Having spoken to a couple of people I understand that this canal is good for perch and chub but fishes hard for any decent size pike. Good luck to all the competitors and I look forward to seeing you there.
For the full event details and how to enter please contact the BLAC team by visiting them here
The British Lure Angling Championship would not be the same with out it, the BLAC Q7 2015 will be held on the great Chew Valley Reservoir. Home to the best population of double figure pike in the UK In my opinion and not doing to badly with the perch either. In both the days I fished Chew in 2014 there was big pike and perch being caught, I am really excited to be fishing this event again in 2015 as I like all the other competing anglers will get the opportunity to land some true monsters. Good luck to all the other competitors I look forward to seeing you there.
For the full event details and how to enter please contact the BLAC team at their website here
My second major fishing competition of 2015 will be held on the river Thames for the BLAC Q3 2015. I really enjoyed fishing this event in 2014 where I did not do as well as I had hoped but look forward to conquering it this year. The river Thames has had some huge perch out recently and does have the odd double figure pike. My prediction for the BLAC Q3 2015 is that it will be won with a bag of perch as it was in 2014. Good luck to all the competitors I look forward to seeing you there.
For the full event details and how to enter please contact the BLAC team from their website here
Thats right it is back the BLAC Q1 2015 qualifier will be held on the famous Gloucester canal at the end of January 2015. I have a feeling this qualifier will test even the best anglers especially if there is icy conditions. I am looking forward to fishing in this first qualifier of 2015 as one of the four I have entered into for 2015. Believe it or not this will be my first outing on the Gloucester canal and looking forward too it. Let the preparations begin and good luck to all the competitors I look forward to seeing all the competitors.
For the full event details and how to enter please contact the official BLAC team through their website here
Its almost here and boy am I looking forward to UK Lure fishing in 2015. I have set myself a few challenges for the new year but again my focus is going to be on improving how I fish competitively and the three main areas for me will be preparation, preparation and more preparation.
So why is it all about the preparation for UK Lure fishing in 2015 for me, well as much as It helps to have the fishing gods on your side when going in to a competitive event the more questions you have answered like, what lures work, what techniques work, where the hot spots are and what the likely weather conditions will be. Having a good idea on the answers to these questions will help put you in a competitive position. Another thing about preparation is the planning as I like most of you probably find we have less and less time to do the things we love I need to be able to plan fishing into my calendar so that I can maximise my effectiveness with the time that I do have. I will tell you more about my preparation for competitive fishing in the next few posts and get back to where I see UK lure fishing in 2015 going.
So in 2014 I have read countless articles on how Lure fishing is now the fastest growing part of angling in the UK and that DropShot fishing is really taking off in the UK and contributing to this growth and I have to say I agree with most of them. Not only do I agree with them but I see these trends continuing I see more being said about how easy it is to get out for a couple of hours before, after work or at your lunch break with a light spinning rod and a small box of lures on the local canal. I expect to see more on other methods like wacky, mojo, texas and carolina rigging. I expect to see more fisheries open their doors to lure anglers and tackle manufacturers invest more in the UK market. It really is an exciting time to be a lure angler who likes competitive angling with the second year of the British Lure Angling Championship promising to be even bigger and better with more events and a street fishing league being announced earlier today. This tournament will form a big part of my focus for UK lure fishing in 2015 and am pleased to confirm that I have signed up to 4 events including the great Chew valley which are listen in my events calendar here. You can find more out about the BLAC by visiting their website by clicking here. If you like fishing competitively this is the competition to be involved in Julian Chidgey sure does know how to put together a tournament. I wonder if anyone will be able to clinch the current champ Stephen Colett’s Crown, who really had an impressive 2014 picking up awards all over Europe as well as becoming the first British Lure Angling Champion, the man deserves a good amount of respect for these achievements alone not looking further back at all his other successes.
If all the articles in the usual publications were not enough to convince you look at the brand new FREE to view publication the LURE magazine available on all your devices free of charge yes I wrote that again free of charge! Where in this day and age do you get free information? I cant think of any. Not only is it free but the content is beautifully put together with a real modern feel to it as well as being interactive allowing you to buy your favourite tackle from links straight out of the magazine online. If you have not already seen it download a copy for your iPhone,iPad, andorid or PC the details for this can be found at their Facebook site by clicking here.
In terms of the fish we target well I cant imagine we are far off seeing a new record for Perch with several 5lb fish being landed this year in various locations across the country. We may even see a Pike record tumble with one particular fish edging closer and close over the last two years. I think that the prized Zander is a way of from breaking any local records from what I read but will be interesting to see what happens who knows I may be lucky enough to have one of these record predators grace my lure in 2015.
I am no market expert so don’t take my word for it and to all my fishing family, friends and foe alike I wish you all the very best for your UK lure fishing in 2015 may your fishing lines stay tight and may your personal best records fall in 2015.
If you enjoyed reading this why not leave a comment below or follow me on Facebook here to keep up to date with my posts in 2015
Yes, thats a wrap on my lure fishing year 2014 and It has been a really exciting year for me as I had endeavoured to improve my skills as a competitive lure angler. If you read my post on UK Lure fishing in 2014 I mentioned that I had entered myself into trying to qualify for the Team England Lure Squad as well as qualification for the final of the British Lure Angling Championships by Fox rage.
These two tournaments were my big areas of focus this year and sitting here thinking about it I did not do too badly with those goals. Whilst I did not perform to the standard I expect of myself I have taken away from those experiences a few valuable lessons in competitive lure angling.
The year kicked off with the qualifiers for the Team England Lure Squad which I thought would have attracted a lot more anglers, the first qualifier was at Esthwaite where there was a total of 6 anglers meaning that we all automatically qualified for the final on the first day I lost a big fish which was my first lesson of the year always use trailer hooks on my spinnerbaits when fishing competitively. I had also entered for the Bewl qualifier where there was a few more anglers I think 12 in total where I finished in 6th place with 7 pike giving me double qualification for the final. The final was good fun taking place over a two day period I fished with a chap I went to school with who is now a big time Shimano team angler and who ended up making the team. I did not make the final squad and fair enough I did not have the focus for two days of fishing another lesson learnt. I supported the team as much as I could which you can see in my earlier posts on Support the team England Lure Squad and Support the Team England Lure Squad Update. I did also manage to send them a pack of assorted Quantum Specialist lures that they could use in France. They finished in 7th which is an improvement on 2013 and I am sure there will be goals to be better in 2015. Having now fished fairly regularly competitively I have noticed a few anglers that consistently do well in a competitive environment who I believe could easily give the Team England Lure Squad a run for their money. I really hope that when the trial dates are set for 2015 there will be a better response from anglers around the UK to want to make the national team. I will throw my name in the hat for these again as I really want to be able to compete at a national level and say we were able to whip everyone else.
A lot of my angling highlights came out of fishing the British Lure Angling Championships by Fox Rage. I really can’t speak highly enough about what Julian Chidgey and Fox have done for competitive Lure angling with this tournament. Which is going to go from strength to strength in 2015 and beyond. I fished in 4 of these events coming in mid table for most and then qualifying on the River Tone with a 6th place and had an awesome final coming in 15th out of 50+ anglers on the great Chew Valley Reservoir. Needless to say I am really looking forward to the British Lure Angling Championship 2015 I hope that there will be many more anglers that will get involved in the 2015 events, they really are very well organised you will meet anglers who share your passion and of course there is the competition to test yourself against other anglers.
To sum up my competitive fishing year It was very challenging at times I did not do as well as I thought I should have because of my competitive nature I want to win everything but understand that this is not realistic even the great KVD does not win all the time. Having said this I am content on now knowing where I stand and what I need to do to get better and start winning some of these competitions.
Finally I want to give thanks to all those that have supported me in my efforts in 2014 as all those close to me know how important fishing is to me to all my family and friends for their encouragement to Zebco and Quantum Specialist for their professional help and finally to my beautiful wife Justine your support and encouragement means the most to me. Thank you all thats a wrap on 2014.
I love lure fishing and all aspects of it but I especially love trying new things and recently I was able to try lure fishing from a Kayak for the first time thanks to Terry Wright. A man that is doing a lot of good for Kayak anglers across the nation.
We met up at a local reservoir where Terry ran through the safety aspects of kayaks and lure fishing from making sure people knew that we were out on the Kayaks to ensuring I had suitable life vests and flotation devices. We then set out onto the water with the idea that we would target the Perch and Pike in this crystal clear water.
I have to say I am very impressed with the craft I was on the the Jackson Kayak Cuda I am a 6 foot 3 inch 240 pound brute and not only was it a very stable platform to make casts from but it is so easy to paddle around in, it just cuts through the water with very little exertion from me even when the wind really picked up I still found it really easy paddling directly into the wind.
I really wanted to dropshot for perch but with the high winds it proved to be a lot easier for me to target Pike with slow retrieved Battleshads and replicants at depth. In the first hour or so I managed to land my first ever pike on a Kayak and I have to say even landing a pike on the Kayak was really easy because I was so close to the water I could safely remove my engulfed replicant whilst the pike was still in the water have a quick photo and the little jack was back on his way.
We carried on fishing for a couple more hours but the rain and wind really picked up which made life a little too difficult for us so we decided to pack up after around 5 hours on the water. One thing I would recommend when you go on a Kayak is ensure you have good waterproofing both for you and for your tackle I use the Quantum Specialist Bag which is totally waterproof and keeps all my gear phones, car keys and camera safe from the elements.
I was again impressed at how easy it was to transport and load the Kayaks on to the roof of Terry’s car. Not a bad day in my books a fish landed on a new water trying something new.
So kayak and lure fishing what do I think? I think its fun and I will be trying this out some more in the new year. A big thank you to Terry Wright for introducing me to Kayak angling your enthusiasm for promoting “Responsible access to appropriate water” is infectious and I left wanting to know more about it.
If you want to know more about Kayak angling visit the friendly kayak angling forum here
If you want to know more about the Kayak I was on you can by visiting the Jackson Kayak website here
At the recent Tackle and Guns show I had the opportunity to represent my sponsors as they launched the Quantum Specialist brand to the rest of the trade. I have to tell you that of all my small achievements that I have made in the fishing the two days spent at this show have been my proudest, why you ask ?
Well if we go back to 2011/12 I was just getting into predator fishing here in the UK and was looking for Quantum Specialist gear at all the usual retailers with no joy, why Quantum gear well because I had grown up using there stuff in Zimbabwe. Fast forward to October 2014 I am a Quantum Specialist team angler and you can now purchase Quantum Specialist gear from most of the leading retailers in the UK.
The Tackle And Guns show is an annual trade show put together to give all the companies in the Fishing tackle and Gun industry a chance to show of their products and new catalogues to the rest of the trade. This year the decision was taken by Tim Wildermoth Zebco Europe UK sales director that we would have a stand and it would be dedicated to the Quantum Specialist brand and what a fantastic stand it was.
We were able to show off the majority of the products in the Quantum Specialist catalogue including some of the exciting new additions for the 2015 range such as the third generation Crypton Shotgun rod range. This range of rods has to be one of, if not the most popular in the Quantum Specialist line up and has been for a few years thanks to its affordability and great specification. The new version has improved eyelets new rod graphics and a changed butt design, it is sure to be even more popular in 2015.
Have a look at the album below of some of the new exciting products for 2015.
During the course of the show I had the opportunity to have a cast on the Lure tank that was stocked with Pike and Perch to demonstrate some of our great products to the other show goers. I demonstrated a range of our lures from the trusted Battleshad to the newer Spinnerbaits. I have to say the Pike were not interested at all but the Perch were all over the lures especially the spinnerbaits.
If you are in the tackle trade this is the event to be at. For further details please visit their website by clicking here
If you would like to no more about the Quantum Specialist range or would like to know where you can get it from feel free to contact me here
If you would like to receive updates from A Fisherman’s Tale please sign up with your email address here
On Sunday November 9th my fishing partner and I will be taking part in the inaugural LACC Predator Pairs Open.
Set to be a very exciting friendly fishing competition with trophies going to the top three teams for longest length of fish which can include Pike, Perch, Zander and Chub caught during the day. To my knowledge this is the first of its kind in the UK and will be the first that I will be fishing in. Part of the fun of this competition is not only being able to fish in a team but being able to select a team name as well as exchange some friendly competitive banter over social media.
My fishing partner and I have called ourselves the Quantum Battleshads after our favourite lures and whilst this event is classed as a friendly one there will be some serious competition and we are looking forward to pitting our angling skills against a field of very experienced anglers. “WISH US LUCK” . The stretch of water we will be fishing is known to produce good numbers of Zander Perch and Pike so should be good.
Please visit the LACC website for the full details on the event by clicking here
If you would like to receive monthly updates on my fishing experiences please feel free to sign up with your email address by visiting my home page or clicking here
On the 4th October 2014 I competed in the inaugural British Lure Angling Championship Final and what a day of competition it was. In order to qualify for this event I had fished in 4 of the 10 qualifiers that had been held around the country eventually securing my spot for the British Lure Angling Championship Final by finishing 6th on the River Tone.
In the final I was going to be fishing against 59 of the countries top lure anglers for the top prize of £1000 and most importantly the opportunity to be crowned the first Lure Champ in the UK. The final being on Chew valley was going to take place on boats, prior to the day our boat partners were drawn and I was lucky enough to be paired with local angler Alan Buckingham. A man vastly experienced on this body of water and who I thank for putting us on a fantastic spot for the majority of the day.
I started out by casting a large silver spoon to mimic the huge balls of bait fish that were in our area, Alan very kindly suggested that I revert to the tried and tested method of casting replicant type baits allowing them to sink and then very slowly retrieving the lure. Now we were fishing in about 15-20 foot of water approximately 60 foot off the main slipway for the sailing club. Alan was first to land a fish however only after loosing his first one right at the boat, I followed this pattern loosing my first fish right at the boat then landing the next one. It quickly became apparent that we were on the right pattern when we both started trading blows catching fish for fish which was really fun. Alan soon overtook me though as at one stage he had 3 fish in as many casts. I was becoming an expert “Net Boy” the way Alan was catching them. As the morning went on it was clear that the other boats saw how well we were doing quite a few boats started to edge closer to our area which I was not to bother about but Alan was not having any of it and was very quick to point out the rules and send the other boats on their way. Take my word for it Alan is an absolute gentleman but get on his wrong side at your peril.
As the break neared it was apparent that the boys fishing for perch were doing well as the media boats were focusing on Ben Humbers boat which was near enough that I could see the size of some of the perch he was landing with an alarming regularity, I remember thinking “man he has to have caught a really decent length of fish”. I decided to switch up to one of the lures that I trust the most a Quantum Specialist Battleshad specifically the 12cm Rainbow pattern version on a 20 gram jighead to get the lure down quickly. My hope by downsizing from a 6 inch replicant was that this lure was still big enough to tempt the pike but also small enough to tempt the larger perch. Well it did not take long for this to work as I landed a decent size perch which would be my last fish of the morning session as the sound of the airhorn came through the air and it was time to head back to the clubhouse, the first session of the British Lure Angling Championship Final 2o14 was over.
The lunch break gave me the opportunity to catch up with the other anglers and see how good or bad I was doing and from the conversations that I was having I must have been doing really well at least in the top ten at that stage which I was really happy with. Lunch was very kindly supplied by the Polish Angler Association it was Polish sausage served hotdog style and man it was very enjoyable thank you to all at the Polish Anglers Association I really enjoyed that. I did use that last 10 minutes of the lunch break to clear my mind and think up what my tactics might be in the afternoon session.
Lunch was soon over and we were in the boats waiting to head out. Such was the enthusiasm of the anglers to get the best spots Julian had to come out and round us back up into the holding area before he would sound the horn which kicked off the final session of the British Lure Angling Championship Final 2014. Fortunately for me Alan put us back on the good spot.
I kicked things off after lunch landing two fish in quick succession on the Battleshad. Alan then caught his final one from this spot. We fished this hard for the next hour with no further success we made the decision to try some drifting around the back of the island. I brought up the anchor and we were on the way, after making 3 drifts we with not a bump from anything we moved to an area where in the qualifying event my boat partner managed to land a 17 and at 19lber in short succession. Again this proved fruitless and we made our way over the cages where it seemed the other 30 boats were all holding. Not wanting to annoy the other anglers we stayed on the top end of the cages in about 20-25 foot of water casting the replicants again the proved fruitless and time was running out. Alan took us over to an underwater culvert that he knew about this was more promising as I lost another fish right at the boat and landed another junior Alan chipped in with his final fish of the day before the klaxon went and we were headed back to club house for the presentation. The afternoon session had proved a lot harder for us than the morning session with only 4 fish being landed. As we were unloading the boat it was clear that other boats had a much better afternoon session than us. Frustrating but thats that nature of competitive fishing its all about making the right decisions and having the right knowledge.
With out cards all handed it it was time to put an end to the speculation and announce the winners and put an end to the first ever British Lure Angling Championship Final 2014.
Biggest Fish went to Ben Tregoning 35+lb pike caught on a 4.5″ shad which we will never know the true weight of because there was no scales available. Anglers pay attention to this ENSURE YOU TAKE SCALES WITH YOU ALWAYS
The Top 20 Were
1 | Steve Collett |
2 | Ben Humber |
3 | John Horsey |
4 | Paul Parnell |
5 | Shane Close |
6 | Rado Papiewski |
7 | Marcin Kwasniewski |
8 | Ben Church |
9 | Andy Charmer |
10 | Mariusz |
11 | Alan Buckingham |
12 | John Cheyne |
13 | Adam Kirby |
14 | Matt Boast |
15 | David Watkins-Smith |
16 | Ben Davis |
17 | Jakub Potrykus |
18 | Dan Sissons |
19 | Greg Bafia |
20 | Slavomir Perzynski |
I managed to finish in 15th place and my Alan finished in 11th had I not lost the 4 fish that I did and Alan not lose the 6 fish he did I am sure we would have been right up there in the top 10. I am still happy with that achievement and I am sure Alan is too.
I learnt many lessons this year and made even more friends along the way to the final and have to say what Julian Chidgey and Fox Rage are doing for the sport of Lure fishing is a long time over due and I want to thank them. So Julian and Fox thank you for putting together this fantastic Tournament I am looking forward to the 2015 tour schedule.
If you would like to automatically receive notification of my new posts and news on this website please sign up by clicking here it will take one minutes and all you need is an email address. The sign up is in the middle of the page.
On Sunday 7th Septmeber along the River Tone I managed to scrape out a 6th place finish and seal my place in the inaugural BLAC Final 2014 to be held on Saturday 4th October on the famous Chew Valley Lake.
I have to say I am over the moon to have finally been able to crack one of these qualifiers having already fished in two qualifiers previously and come up badly short on both those occasions. I could not help but think that I may not actually make it to the final well that thought is now a distant memory as I start laying out my preparations to land some mammoth pike, but before I get carried away with telling you all about the final I will tell you all about how I qualified.
The 7th round of qualifications was held on the river Tone and for me that represented a 334mile round trip and with my schedule I could not make it a day trip so needed to travel up the evening before and stay in a local B&B. What a little gem of a place I found for a cool £45 I had all the comforts that you could ask for, it is called The White House and I would definitely recommend a night there if you are in the area and need a well kept, clean friendly place to stay.
After a good nights sleep I was up showered in the car looking for a coffee shop as the meeting point was only about 30mins drive from the B&B. With my cup of coffee in hand I was soon registering for the event and it looked like this was going to be a very well attended qualifier with well over 20 anglers registered to attend. The draw was done and I was very pleased to be paired with Martin Ferret the owner of the Lure Lounge a fantastic online store that stocks some really great tackle from the likes of Zman, Fiiish and Trokar if you get a chance to I would recumbent a visit to his online store at www.lurelounge.co.uk or click on the image below.
Once we were paired Martin and I decided to travel up to the north weir with the idea that we would work our way back down targeting the chub, perch and pike. In terms of my tactics for the day I had done my research before hand and I was very comfortable with my plan. I think it is fair to say that this stretch of water is known for its big schools of chub and on the right day you could be bagging 10-30 of these easily on small crank baits, but I did not want to limit myself to only being able to target the chub so I took a variety of tackle so that I could target Chub, Pike and perch with different lure presentations should the right conditions present themselves. I know that I was probably carrying more tackle and rods with me on the day than most the other anglers but it paid off for me because I am not local to the area and had not fished this stretch of water before and if something did not work I needed to be able to try something different especially if I wanted to be able to qualify for the BLAC final 2014. I can tell you that all my tackle was geared up for small to mid sized fish with three rods all loaded with Quantum Quattron Low Stretch from 5Lb to 12lb line. I had a selection of crank baits, rubber lures, spinnerbaits and jigs for the day.
I have to say the day started out promising for me as I managed to land a Jack on a 8cm Purple moon battleshad within the first 30 mins of fishing, once Martin had helped me measure the fish I really thought that this was going to be a heavy hitting day as this fish had come out of the first swim that we had tried and Martin had said that he had a follow on his Zman Chatterbait from a sizeable Perch. In the next two hours Martin had landed a nice chub on one of the Fiiish black minnows but the pair of us had not been able to tempt a sniff from anything else. Knowing that we had both only caught one fish each was starting to play on my mind as I did think that other anglers had to have been landing several fish in the first couple of hours. My mind was was soon put at ease when we started moving down the river and passing other anglers who were reporting catching no fish at all.
Whilst we were walking up the river we passed one of our friends Aaron Sokhi who was busy landing a lovely chub on a small crankbait and we decided to fish the area near by in the hope that Aaron’s Chub’s mates would be hanging around. Well it did not take me long to find these “mates” and I started casting my small crank baits and surface lures past the fish and bringing the lure through the school of fish which were swimming up and down the margins in the shaded areas, as fishing quite often goes frustratingly they were not interested at all in any of the cranks that I cast at them. I changed to the 8cm Purple moon battleshad to see if that would tempt them and “man oh man” I very nearly hooked what looked like a good 35-40cm chub right in the margin in what could have only been about 10cms of water. How I had tempted this chub was working the battleshad just under the surface of the water with a steady retrieve I watched the Chub turn and follow the lure towards the bank and at the last minute lunge at the shad. I made the error of trying to strike before making sure the fish had totally engulfed the lure which resulted in me pulling the lure from the fishes mouth and not getting anything, leaving me wide mouthed as I watched the water churn up and the fish dart away. Although very frustrated with allowing myself to miss such a great opportunity the way the fish were swimming up and down the margins in the shallow water did give me a clue that they would be hanging around shaded areas which would later help me land a fish.
Martin had by now noticed the schools of chub in the margins and we agreed that we would try to move across to the opposite side of the river and cast at the schools of fish to hopefully entice a bite, I think all we managed to do was scare the fish off with our lures landing on the water around them.
It was now lunch time and we had passed a few anglers that had caught a couple of fish but by no means was this water performing as good as we thought it would be. Martin and I had decided after moving back up the river to the weir we had originally fished earlier in the day, that we would move through town to the lower weir. As we came up to the car park there was a stretch of water that did not look very enticing as it had high banks and not a lot of structure around but we gave it a go as you never know what may turn up. We fan casted the area for a while and using the knowledge that I had come across earlier with the chub hanging around the shaded margins I made a cast along the shaded side of the bank again with a 8cm battleshad this time in the Rainbow pattern and BOOM… I had a decent jack on this one of about 40cms in length again Martin helped me land the fish and witnessed the catch for me. There was definitely a pattern emerging here.
As we moved into the afternoon session of the qualifier and in my efforts to make the BLAC 2014 final we cam across huge schools of chub just below the surface and like all the other anglers we became very frustrated with the fact that we could see the fish but could not get them to take any of our lures and we tried everything, they were just not interested. In my opinion this was because the sun was high it was very warm and the chub were enjoying sunning themselves. Martin and I worked our way right down to the bottom weir but could not get a sniff. At this point I was skipping a weightless 4″ Zoom Swimming Fluke in Smoking shad over the tops of cabbage patches to get the lure into the deeper water on the opposite side of bank to try and tempt these chub to taking something a little bit different just below the surface. It was at that point that the sun started to move behind some clouds and we started to notice the Chub start taking insects of the surface of the water. Martin and I were fishing the final bend before the stretch of water that goes past the park with all the children’s jungle gyms, and what I was doing was waiting for the Chub to boil on the water and casting my Fluke as close as possible to that boil in the hope that the chub would react to the fluke, and it worked on one occasion Martin pointed out a boil to me to which I casted and before I could click the arm bail over the fish at tightened up the slack in my line and jumped full out the water with my lure engulfed in its mouth I did not need to strike but did just in case and reeled in a decent 25cm chub BOOM…. I was really pleased to get this fish towards the end of the day but more pleased because of the way I caught it and that is what lure fishing is all about. Trying different things out until you make something work for you which is what it did for me on this occasion.
As Martin and I headed back to car park for we discussed the days events and both agreed that this water had fished harder than we thought it would as did most anglers. Martin was adamant that from what we had seen during the day I had done enough to qualify I was not to sure but it was all confirmed when my name was read out as having taken the last spot at this days qualifier. I could not have asked for a better way to end a great day of challenging fishing I had great company through out the day with Martin so thank you buddie I look forward to fishing with you again in the future.
As I wrap this story up the more I think about it the more it is obvious to me that catching that Chub in the unusual way that I did was what made it possible for me to qualify and like I said this is what lure angling is all about trying different things and using the clues that you get from the day to make the fish bite.
A big thank you to Julian Chidgey for arranging this event as usual it was well organised and ran like clock work even though you were not there and thank you to my angling sponsors Quantum Speciailist of Zebco Europe your ongoing support helps me catch more fish, more often period.
Below is a list of the Rod set ups I used for the day
Quantum Lady Like Drop shot rod – 7ft – 5-20 gram casting weight – Paired with the EXO spin reel
Quantum Hypercast -7ft – 5-20 gram casting weight – Paired with the Quantum Tennacity 2 spin reel
Quantum Hypercast – 6ft -2 -15 gram casting weight – Paired with the Quantum XR2 rear drag spin reel
I made the final….finally
I made the cut on the 7th round of qualifying on the river Tone with a total length of fish of 98cm and three fish. You can read more about that day and what I needed to do to catch those fish by clicking here.
At the start of they year I put through my thoughts on how promising the year ahead was looking for competitive lure angling and how much I was looking forward to fishing in these events and I have to say that they have lived up to and exceeded my expectations so far. I have fished in 3 or 4 of the qualifiers and they have all been very well attended, very well organised and the anglers have been all very passionate about the sport. Having achieved my goal of making the inaugural final I am looking forward to fishing with all the other qualifiers in what will be a field of the best of the best lure anglers in the country and see where I can finish. I can tell you now that I am gunning for the win and my preparations are well under way.
The British Lure Angling Championship 2014 final is going to see me end my competitive fishing for 2014 where it started on the famous Chew Valley Lake, renowned for producing many thirties and a few forties a year it is sure to be a slug fest with some of the biggest names in the industry taking part. The event is sponsored by Fox International and is being covered by Sky Sports which in my view is fantastic as the coverage will help encourage more people to get involved in lure angling and grow the sport which is what we all need.
I look forward to seeing you all there and thank you to Julian Chidgey and Fox International for putting this fantastic tournament together.
This years PAC Annual Convention and tackle show is going to be big….really big
If you don’t know who PAC are and you go fishing for Pike anywhere in the UK you need to find out who they are. PAC short for the Pike Anglers Club of Great Britain is the recognised body that is “Fighting for the future of pike and pike fishing” in the UK. In my view they do a fantastic job of promoting pike fishing, pike welfare and the future of pike fishing. Since I started pike fishing in ernest they have been a great source of information and I have been a member for the last few years.
This PAC annual convention will have the three following speakers on the day.
Steve Younger
Bob Roberts
Andy Black
As well as over 30 tackle stands from all your favourite Pike fishing tackle stores this is for sure an event to attend to meet like minded anglers and possibly pick up a bargain or two.
British Lure Angling Championships Qualifying Round On the River Tone
This event has recently been added the the qualifying rounds for the British Lure Angling Championships. I have been assured that this event is going to fish very strong with some predicting winning lengths over 10 meters. With a river full of chub, perch and pike this is sure to be an event that will be filled with excitement. I am certainly really looking forward to this event and have started my preparations as I am determined to make the cut in this event and get the opportunity to fish in the British Lure Angling Championship final on the great Chew.
For the full details please visit the British Lure Angling Championship website by clicking here
Support The Team England Lure Squad Update
This is a Support Team England Lure Squad update, recently speaking to a member of the squad it had been mentioned to me that the best way now to support your team is either by making a donation directly to them via the contact details on their website here. Or if you are a keen angler yourself why not enter yourself for a fishing competition they are hosting on the 9th of August called Zandermania details on their Facebook page can be found here.
In my previous post I mentioned you could enter via their pledge page however this has now been taken down. From what I understand preparations are well underway and the team are raring to go for the World Champs in October. Below is a quick reminder of why they need your support.
So why do they need support you ask? Well simply at the moment the anglers are going to be funding themselves including all the travel accommodation and tackle to compete in the event, from conversations with team members it sounds as though this is going to be in excess of £2500.oo each. It would be great to see more funding come in from the local Angling authorities but there is just not enough to go around for all the representing national teams and as this is one of the newest national angling teams they fall farther down the list. We need to support our guys as much as possible so that they can represent our country with pride and deliver home the best results possible and demonstrate that the anglers in the UK are some of the best in the world. Thats why your nation needs you to Support The Team England Lure Squad.
You can follow The Team England Lure Squad Facebook page by clicking here
Support The Team England Lure Squad
Help Support The Team England Lure Squad as the 6 man squad prepare to compete in the World Championships over October 4th & 5th 2014. This Years event will be taking place in France on the Lake Bourget around the town of Aix-Les Baines. This will be the second year a national team is sent to the champs and I can tell you they are are going to be more prepared than ever to take on the rest of the world. Speaking to Mike Skipper the manager of the Team England Lure Team I understand the squad are going to be taking part in a host of pre tournament fishing events on lakes around the UK to hone in on the possible tactics they could use during the championships.
I have personally fished against all the anglers in the trials as well as the finals and I have to say these guys are going to be a very hard team to compete against. They seem to have a very balanced team that has both experience and youth and to compete at these high levels you will need both. Not only do they have a great team but they will benefit from having the use of their own boats kitted out with all the latest technology needed at this level. I know I will Support The Team England Lure Squad in what ever way possible.
So why do they need support you ask? Well simply at the moment the anglers are going to be funding themselves including all the travel accommodation and tackle to compete in the event, from conversations with team members it sounds as though this is going to be in excess of £2500.oo each. It would be great to see more funding come in from the local Angling authorities but there is just not enough to go around for all the representing national teams and as this is one of the newest national angling teams they fall farther down the list. We need to support our guys as much as possible so that they can represent our country with pride and deliver home the best results possible and demonstrate that the anglers in the UK are some of the best in the world. Thats why your nation needs you to Support The Team England Lure Squad.
How can you support your team I hear you ask? Right now the easiest way to support the team would be to visit their Pledge Sports web page by clicking here and making a donation of what ever amount you can to support the team. I know I will be making a donation myself at the end of September. If you can go further than making a smaller donation you can contact the team from their website here.
I know the team would be very grateful for any support you could offer them. So what are you waiting for?
SUPPORT THE TEAM ENGLAND LURE SQUAD
I fished in the Team England Lure Squad Trials Llangorse Lake the grand final over the weekend of May 17and 18th its hard to believe that it has already been a month and a half.
Having qualified for this final from the last two events at Esthwaite and Bewl the national lure team would be selected from this grand final and looking at the lineup a mixture of the seasoned lure angler and the up an coming lure anglers the competition was set to be a real fire cracker set on Llangorse a body of water known for good numbers of hard fighting jacks. For this event I was fortunate enough to be able to fish with one of my school buddies Daniel Brackley a qualifier from the Esthwaite event. Daniel is a great all round fisherman with a particular passion for lure fishing and the proud owner of a fully kitted out Skeeter boat probably the only one like it in the UK. Luckily for me I was going to be fishing off this purpose built fishing platform.
With my day job commitments I could only get away on the Saturday morning so had to leave Milton Keynes at about 4am to ensure I was at Llangorse lake side cafe for registration 8am sharp. I remember the drive being really easy as there was no traffic and before I knew it I was greeting Daniel and loading my rods and lure boxes into the back of his boat It was at this point that I really got excited as I got to glimpse my competition for the first time. It was really great to see the other boats the one of particular note was Gary Palmers a full time fishing guide, again a fully kitted out purpose built lure fishing boat have a look at some of my pictures and you can see what I am talking about.
We had soon gone through the process of registration boat launch and were waiting for the go ahead to get day one of the Team England Lure Squad Trials Llangorse started. Mike Skipper gave the go ahead and we set off for our spots. Both Daniel and I had been out to Llangorse lake for a scouting trip a few weeks earlier and it is fair to say we both had a pretty good idea of where the fish were going to be. As Daniel had actually spent a couple of days out there I agreed to go with his prime spot which turns out was the best spot for us. The area we were fishing had some great bottom structure and depth changes where the bait fish were holding. It became apparent as the weekend went on the key was finding these balls of baitfish as it was attracting the Llangorse pike. What made me questions things was the weather conditions it was flat calm with bright conditions, not exactly the most conducive to catching pike. With these conditions I started to think about what lure presentation I was going to start with as my previous idea of surface fishing with Spro frogs and burning spinner baits are not as effective in these conditions. I made the decision to switch things up slightly and instead of having five rods on the deck of the boat I set up four and took a more finesse approach.
The first day of the Team England Lure Squad Trials Llangorse started really well for me as I had hooked into and landed two fish on the 12 cm Quantum Specialist Battleshad rainbow pattern within the first hour. After another hour I had not landed another fish and Daniel had landed three I believe two of his were on the same size and pattern Quantum Specialist Battleshad. By now it was evident that this was going to be the lure of choice. During the day we went through periods where the pike where smashing bait fish near the surface when this happened I would quickly change over to my Quantum Smoke Baitcasting set up to burn my Battleshad just under the surface I had two fish on doing this but managed to lose them as I was swimming the lure with out a trailer hook, I do this because it helps keep the lure stable and as there was a a fair amount of weed in the area this presentation helps minimise the snags. I would however recommend that during competitions you use trailer hooks on all your baits. This is what fishing is all about for me learning from my mistakes.
I have to tell you a real funny A Fisherman’s Tale as told by Daniel Brackley on day one of the Team England Lure Squad Trials Llangorse. Daniel was recalling a story to me from a previous trip that he had to my local waters of how he had a bite that reminded him of a Bass bite from back in Zimbabwe, Daniel was showing me with the rod in his hand how he had a slack line and the line went “Donk” and as Daniel said “Donk” his line went “Donk” I could not believe it as Daniel struck into a great fish. I laughed long and hard as every now and again you hear of stories like this from other anglers. I just could not believe Daniels luck on this occasion. From this little bit of action I should have noted that the fish were biting the slower moving bait as I was still fishing relatively fast and not getting any bites.
I have my own story from the day albeit it not a “lucky fish story” more a “good deed done story” It was later in the day I had landed four countable fish and thought I was into my fifth pike on my Quantum Exo Spin set up fishing slow I had a soft take and an even softer fight from the pike however on reeling in I saw my lure come up with no pike on the end? I could not understand this as I could feel a fish fighting as I brought my line closer to the boat I could see what had happened I had picked up some trailing line and at the end of that line was what could have been my biggest fish of the weekend a 98cm double figure pike. As we netted this pike we could see why the pike had a trailing line. The poor fish had not one set but two sets of treble hooks lodged in its mouth Daniel and I quickly removed these hooks as we had the proper tools to hand. It really does surprise me that in this day and age there is still anglers out there that do not fish using the right equipment. On the one set of trebles there was not even a wire trace just tied straight to a week mono mainline. It just means that all of us as anglers need to do more to educate anglers on fish welfare especially if we want our future generations to enjoy the sport we love. We released the pike ensuring it had a strong kick, had we not been able to remove the treble hooks I have no doubt that the pike would have expired within a couple of days.
Day one ended of the Team England Lure Squad Trials Llangorse and I was sitting mid table for my 4 fish and Daniel was sitting comfortably in the top 6 for his efforts. We stuck to our plan and it payed off for both of us we were right where we needed to be. It was at the end of the day as I was un-loading my gear from Daniels boat that the tiredness hit me I really needed to get an early night to ensure that I would be awake and focused on day two.
Day two of the Team England Lure Squad Trials Llangorse came and I was awake at 6am going through my tackle and lures as I wanted to take a few different lures on the boat as the weather conditions had changed from day one where we had high sun and no wind we now had over cast windy conditions. In my mind I was saying “bring on the spinner baits and power fishing” I could not wait to get back on the water. On both days the take off was exciting as Mike bellowed start the engines were slammed into gear and we blasted off reaching max speeds of 10mph, It was odd as it was almost an anticlimax with the excitement of the day starting we were not getting anywhere fast with the speed limits imposed for health and safety. Daniel and I agreed we would go back to our original spot that produced all the fish on day one.
I started off the day in cracking fashion landing a pike within the first 10 minutes on my Quantum Exo spin set up, have a look at the video.
http://youtu.be/chAhMvrVxHg
With the high winds we used the trolling motor a lot more to stay in our area which was not producing as well as the first day. Both Daniel and I had a feeling that with the wind there would be a current that would push the bait fish out of our key area into deeper water, well as the day progressed we found out thoughts to be correct. As Wayne Fletcher and Ron Dalton moved into the area and started catching fish almost immediately. The area we worked out they were fishing had a couple of really nice humps before dropping off gradually into deeper water. We needed to move spots and did so to the inlet at the top of Llangose where Daniel had found some good drop offs using his Lowrance units in pre tournament practice. It paid off for Daniel as he was able to land two good fish in quick succession on the Quantum Battleshad 12cm Rainbow pattern again. Speaking to Daniel he was fishing the lure slowly over the shallow water and then letting the shad drop as it came to the edge of the drop off. It was on the drop that Daniel was getting his bites. I tried to replicate this but could not get the fish to bite my lures in this area. We decided to move again to fish a large area of lilly pads that was relatively flat and shallow my idea was to burn through the area fishing with spinnerbaits I had the new 20gram Quantum Specialist spinner bait on in Bloody offspring pattern on my Quantum Exo bait casting set up and as well as the 32 gram Savage gear Da bush yellow hollo on my Quantum Smoke set up. It did not take long for me to hook into a decent fish on the Bloody Offspring but that was about it for the 30min we spent in this spot.
We then moved to a spot that I had marked on my Humminbird in pre tournament practice where I had found big shoals of bait fish and some really good bottom structure. With in the first couple of casts I frustratingly had a follow right up to the boat from a really good fish but could not get it to bite my spinner bait. I was still convinced that spinnerbaits where going to be the key bait. Daniel managed to land two really good fish using the new Spro Firetiger spinnerbait from this area. The next move would prove to be the pivotal moment for Daniel as up to now he only had four fish in the boat and we only had about on hour to go. We decided to move to our original area in the hope that this fish had moved back and that Wayne and Ron had not caught all of the fish. As we drifted into our key spot Daniel was into another fish again on the Battleshad fishing it slower, again I tried to replicate what Daniel was doing but could not catch the fish as he hooked into another fish 5 minutes after the last one. This went on a further 4 times as we drifted around our area and around Wayne and Ron who also seemed to be having a great day on the water. We called time cleared up our tackle and put our rods away. On the way back to the docks we gave Wayne and Ron a tow to help them get back quicker and get the boats off the water. We needed to get ready for the presentation and selection announcement. Team England Lure Squad Trials Llangorse was officially over.
Llangorse lake is beautiful the competition was fun and fishing off Daniels Skeeter brought back memories of Bass fishing in Zimbabwe the tournament overall was a fantastic experience for me as an angler and I had done my best but knew that I had not done enough to get into the top six because of the quality of the other anglers. I helped Dan take his boat off the water off loaded my rods and tackle back into my 4×4 for the long journey home. I could see the anticipation from the other anglers as we gathered back at the camp site for the announcement from Mike Skipper. The team selection could not have been a better one from the anglers present and I do believe that they will perform brilliantly for England at the World Champs in France later this year. You can read a more detailed report on the official web site from the weekend by clicking here. The team selected is as follows
Gary Palmer (Captain)
Sam Edmonds
Eric Edwards
Daniel Brackley
Rikki Cooper
Gary Edmonds
Evaldes Skablauskas(Reserve)
Ron Dalton(Reserve)
I must thank the Angling Trust and Mike Skipper for putting these selection tournaments together it takes a lot of hard work and time to organise these trials and I really enjoyed meeting all the anglers and having the opportunity to fish against the best of the best. A big thank you to my tackle sponsors for the ongoing support Quantum Specialist and Zebco Europe with out you I would not get the opportunity to use the best performance tackle on the market, and finally to my beautiful wife my rock solid foundation of support and encouragement you listen to my boring fishing tales with enthusiasm at the end of each fishing day because you know how important it is to me and wish me luck when I am heading out at 3;30am whilst you are still wrapped up in bed you really are the best. To all the other passionate lure anglers out there I would encourage you to participate in the 2015 trials it really is a great experience especially if you take tournament fishing seriously. I will certainly be back and I will be better prepared.
Please help support our National team by clicking on their webpage here
