Shimano Dynamite star Rob Wootton came top of the bunch with 135 lbs 14 ozs. Rob an Angling Consultant from Leicestershire fished long pole with worms across to the island at peg 10 on Canal pool to take a mixed net of F1’s, carp and barbel to 2 lbs.

Runner up Luke Bamford fom Sawley, Nottinghamshire drew peg 19 on Club pool where he fished corn down the side to land a succession of carp to 7 lbs for his 129 lbs 11 ozs. Third place fell to Andrew Morley from Sheffield who fished pellet shallow and corn down the edge for his net of carp and barbel weighing in at 114 lbs 5 ozs with his biggest fish at 8lbs. In fourth place was Kieron Rich a Fishing Coach from Manchester who weighed 113 lbs 11 ozs from peg 8 on Jennys pool, and Adam Richards from Billingham finished in fifth place with 105 lbs 1 oz from peg 4 on Canal pool.

With only five Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifiers remaining for 2012 the venue to watch on Wednesday 30th May will be Messingham Sands, Messingham, Nr Scunthorpe to see who will be the 12th qualifier winner to book their place in the Fish 'O' Mania grand final on 14th July 2012.

Source: Angling Trust Fishing News

The induction day training was led by Mike Heylin Chairman of the Angling Trust and Adrian Saunders who is The Environment Agencies Fisheries Enforcement Campaigns Manager. The event was a great success with anglers from right across the South East volunteering to take part.

Mike Heylin was enthused by what the scheme hopes to achieve "We know that anglers are on waters more than anyone else and can see what is happening. If they join this scheme and work with the Angling Trust and the Environment Agency we can all look forward to more and better enforcement and protection of our fish and fisheries. The pioneers who joined us this week will help us develop a fully functioning system of volunteer bailiffs across the South East and we hope to roll the scheme out nationwide as soon as we have proved how effective it is."

Adrian Saunders was also full of praise for the volunteers and the full time EA staff who will help to train them "The Environment Agency can achieve so much more when it works with enthusiastic partners such as this. With so many miles of rivers and thousands of stillwater fisheries, ensuring they are regularly patrolled can be difficult. Every extra recruit will be playing a part in protecting our waters from illegal activity"

The Angling Trust are now busy recruiting the second intake of volunteers, so anyone based in the South East of England who would like to get involved, or anyone who would like further details of the scheme should contact Angling Trust by email via bailiffs@anglingtrust.net

Source: Angling Trust Fishing News

Weather improves catches at Witton Castle Lakes

What a beautiful week its been for anglers at Witton Castle Lakes, welcoming 92 anglers who enjoyed exciting sport on the fly. With the warmer weather, the rod average has increased to 4.68. Again, regular visitors to the lakes have enjoyed catching their bag limits. David Todd and Barry Nicholson on East Lake had full bags including specimen fish of 11lb 8oz and 8lb respectively using dry flies.

Jack Pollard, 14, landed a 7lb 12oz rainbow on an orange blob on the junior day, Saturday. All juniors caught fish and enjoyed a coaching session from AAPGAI Master Paul Little. The club would like to thank Brian Russell who has donated two junior rods for the bait lake.

With warmer weather the fish are feeding on or just below the surface. Must-have flies in your box this week surely have to be: Black and olive buzzers, CDC Shuttlecocks and Black Hawthorns.

Northern heat of Greys TEFF National Bank championships will be held at Witton Castle Lakes Sunday 1st July. To book your place please contact the fishery officers.

The tagged fish still remains elusive and the prize total stands at £185, for the lucky angler who slips his net underneath it.

The lakes new website can be visited at www.wittoncastlelakes.com. It has links to Facebook, Twitter and new for 2012 Witton's rainbow action on Youtube.

Fishery officers John and Stewart can be contacted on the following Tel: 01388 48869

Chris Kendall (Yorkshire Anglers), a Recruitment Consultant from Ilkley, West Yorkshire secured the 10th Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier place into the grand final for 2012. Chris who is better known as ‘Hatman’ to his fellow anglers drew peg 20 on Railway lake where he fished method feeder with 6 mm pellets on a hair rig to net a winning weight of 153 lbs 7 ozs.

Chris Kendall said “I have never fished at Barford before and did not have much information to go on, only that Railway lake was not considered one of the ‘big fish’ lakes at the complex, but Tommy Pickering did mention to me that he thought it could produce a winning weight. A local angler told me that peg 20 was in an unfancied bit of the lake, and that was why fewer pegs were being used in the area, so I didn’t feel very optimistic. At first I caught several small F1 carp, but the average size went up, and overall the catch was mostly F1’s and small mirror and common carp, but far more larger carp from 3lb to 8lb than I thought I’d catch. Afterwards I found out that the bigger fish sometimes show in the area, but at the start of the match I didn’t even know there were many in the lake."

“I used a method feeder with both micro pellets and groundbait on the feeder, and initially the hookbait was dead maggots, but a switch to a hair rigged pellet brought me more bites. Although, I’d set up to also fish pellet shallow and the margins I fished the method feeder for all but a few minutes. The peg was hard to fish owing to trees and brambles in the area, and casting was also difficult. I only lost a single hook length casting, but lost several method feeders when hooked fish found the submerged roots and branches. By the end of the match I was using my last suitable hook length and feeder. I think if a world class feeder angler had drawn the peg, and managed to cast to the small ‘sweet spot’ in the peg more often an even bigger weight would have been on the cards. I thought I was very lucky to qualify once into the Fish ‘O’ Mania grand final in 2011, but feel so incredibly lucky now. I was very nervous about last year’s final, but this now being my second time I’ll be a bit calmer, but only a bit."

Runner up was Suffolk angler Alan Tuck (VDE Angling Direct), a painter and decorator. Alan drew Peg 17 on the Match lake where he fished corn and pellet on the pole to net 97 lbs 7 ozs of carp the largest 9 lbs. Third place fell to Matthew Greening (Woodys Angling Centre) from Hereford on peg 13 on Top lake where he took carp to 16 lbs on pellet fished shallow on the pole for his 95 lb weight. In fourth place local angler Lee Carver (VA Plastics) weighed in 92 lbs of carp from peg 16 on Pleasure lake. Fifth place went to Andy May with 89 lbs 4 ozs from peg 2 on Match lake.

On Saturday 26th May 2012 the Fish ‘O’ Mania action continues at Tunnel Barn Farm Fishery in Shrewley, in the heart of the Warwickshire countryside.

Source: Angling Trust Fishing News

DELCAC angler Geoff Vallance, a builder from Crawley, became the 8th angler to qualify for the Fish O Mania final at Cudmore. Geoff drew peg 143 on Lake 4 where he fished shallow using 16metres of pole with 6ml pellets to land a haul of 172lbs 8ozs for a comfortable win over the other 129 competitors.

Dull damp conditions greeted anglers taking part in the 8th Qualifier of the 16 match series, which is managed by the Angling Trust. Weights were pretty good, given the conditions, with 7 over the magic ton and only one of the 13 x 10peg sections was won with less than 50lbs.

Runner up Danny Grimsey, a British Gas Heating Engineer from Hadleigh in Suffolk, fished peg 112 on Lake 3. Danny, who fishes for Maver Image, alternated between long and short pole using luncheon meat as bait to take a net of carp and barbel for a very good weight of 152lbs 10ozs.

3rd placed Wayne Shepherd from March in Cambridgeshire fished B32 on Bridges Lake where he fed pellets in a cage feeder with sweetcorn on the hook for a net of carp and skimmers for 124lbs 6ozs. Wayne’s biggest fish was a carp weighing 12lbs 2ozs.

4th Tony Wynnick of Maver Image with 121 lbs 4ozs from peg 141 on Lake 4

5th Dan Hull Ratby AC 116lbs 14ozs from peg 135 on lake 3

6th Perry Stone 105lbs 12ozs Peg110 Lake 3

Source: Angling Trust Fishing News

Incredibly only 250 grams separated the top two anglers. Leicester angler, Peter Marlow who fished Peg 12 on lake C placed an excellent 43 kilos 750 grams on the scales. His catch all the more remarkable as it comprised of silver fish with chub and barbel up to 2 kilos taken mainly on a small cage feeder to the island. His main baits were casters, meat and pellets. Agonisingly second was Barry Mason from March, Cambridgeshire. Barry drew Peg 24 on Plough Pool and took carp to 4 kilos plus F1’s for a total of 43 kilos 500 grams fishing corn over pellet at 16 metres.

Third spot went to another Leicestershire angler John Hall. Fishing Peg 5 on Magna pool John caught steadily through the day to record 38 kilos and 50 grams on the method feeder. He had some proper carp with his biggest going to 6 kilos. John used pellets with meat throughout. In fourth place, and opposite John was previous Fish ‘O’ Mania Champion Marc Jones on Peg 15. Marc weighed 29 kilos 250 grams with his best fish nudging 7 kilos. He caught mainly shallow on meat. Also on Magna was Hereford angler Dave Roberts who caught 28 kilos 600 grams on the pellet waggler.

The Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier action continues on Saturday 5th May at Maver Larford Lakes, Worcestershire.

Source: Angling Trust Fishing News

Following a successful England trial for the U23s that was held on the Gloucester canal on Saturday 14th April 2012 Mark Downes, Drennan team England Manager, was looking for all round skills, and the ability to feed and fish two lines on the pole in the five hour session. The anglers did not disappoint with some great talent on the day.

The Drennan U23s England team for 2012 will be an unchanged squad from last year’s World Angling Games held in Italy. They are; Matt Godfrey, Matt Derry, Frankie Gianocelli, Cameron Hughes and James Dent.

Mark Downes, Drennan U23s team England Manager added “This is a good team, full of experience and I feel we will do well on this particular venue”.

Steve Sanders, Sensas U18s team England Manager held the U18s England trial on Saturday 28th April 2012 at Gold Valley Lakes, Aldershot to select his squad for Slovenia. The team will consist of; Jake Dye from Worksop, Notts. Age 17, Luke Wrzosek from Normanton, Yorkshire Age 17, Matt Barnett from Liphook, Hampshire Age 15, Sam Hughes from Coleford, Gloucs Age 16 and Matt Oliver from Hertford, Herts Age 16.

The World Championship venue on the River Sava, Radece Slovenia is a good venue and one where Drennan Team England took the bronze medal in the European Championships three years ago. This prolific venue is a deep and at times powerful river, and the target species will be Nase, a dace like fish with a bulbous nose, vimber, roach and barbel and it will be a predominantly 13m pole event, but the bolo and slider may come into play.

Source: Angling Trust Fishing News

There will be cash prizes for adults, and vouchers for juniors, aged 15 and under. 

• Registration and entry fees from 8:00 on the day and the competition runs from 8:30 until 3:30
• Heaviest fish and normal fishery rules apply
• For the second year Northumbrian Water have offered a ‘Golden Ticket’ to win a 2013 Northumbrian Water Explorer season permit, valued at £834
• Each competitor will receive one free entry and there will be the opportunity to purchase additional tickets

After three consecutive years of podium finishes the England Veterans team failed to win a medal in the World Angling Games in Italy last year to finish in sixth place, but they are determined to regain their number one seeding.

The squad has only one change from the last two years, with Joe Roberts replacing Stan Binge. The squad is; Don Slaymaker, Roger Marlow, Dicky Carr, Terry Lancaster, Joe Roberts and Dick Clegg OBE (Manager).

Unfortunately the Veterans team have no sponsorship again this year and must cover their own expenses to participate in the World Championships.

This particular venue where the Veterans are competing has been very lucky for England in the past, with the ladies winning both team, and individual gold.

The flow of the river is controlled by a dam upstream of the venue and the main species of fish, Borga is one of the most difficult of all fish to catch. Bloodworm and joker will play a major part in the Championship and local knowledge is also important, so the England Veterans team will have to beat a strong Portuguese team on their own soil to win gold.

The Angling Trust wish the England Veterans team the very best of luck in competing in the World Championships in Portugal and every success at bringing home the medals.

Source: Angling Trust Fishing News

Despite all this the ever reliable Woodlands View still provided some excellent weights and a close finish with several anglers all in with a chance going into the final hour. The top five anglers all recorded over 80lbs and the lowest weight to take a 10 peg section was 36lbs.

Winner was Jamie Hughes (Maver and Bag em Baits) aged 28 years of age from the Wirral who put 118lbs 1oz on the scales from peg 5 on Barley Pool. Jamie fished pellet feeder all day with meat on the hook to take an all carp catch with fish to 8lbs.

Jamie Hughes said “I kept it very simple during the match to fish one pellet feeder rod to the far bank as it was terrible conditions and very windy. This was my first qualifier fished so far this year with three more to go so I am made up to get through to the final, which will be my second time".

Runner up from peg 4 on Arles was Jon Arthur with 101lbs 15ozs. The bulk of his fish were taken shallow on the long pole. He caught a few better fish in the afternoon on the short pole. Jon had carp to 10lbs in his catch. Steve Rothery almost made the long journey from West Yorkshire really worthwhile to record 90lbs 5ozs for third place from Arles peg 8. He caught some 20 assorted fish on the waggler topping these up with fish on the pellet feeder and later on to the short pole with his best fish being 6lbs. In fourth position was Craig O’Brien who caught 86lbs 5ozs on the feeder from Barley 15. Peter Goodwin took 82lbs 11ozs down the edge on maggot from Ghost peg 22.

On Saturday 28th April 2012 the fifth Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier heads to Lakeview Fishery at Holwell, Leicestershire.

Source: Angling Trust Fishing News