Displaying items by tag: fishing

WIN a pair of limted edition fish prints. Approximately 6.5 inches x 6.5 inches, they would best fit into a mount (not supplied) of approximately 12.25 inches by 12.25 inches. Each print is limited to 350 copies worldwide and signed by the artist. Each print has been beautifully reproduced from a hand painted original in light-fast inks on ACID-FREE Huntsman velvet board by one of the UK's leading fine art printers.

How to Enter:

One lucky UK Fisherman reader will win a pair of hand printed fish prints. To enter, all you have to do is send us a fishing related picture that we can add to our gallery. Please also send us a brief description about the picture. The best picture received will win ... simple!

Pictures must be either .jpg, .gif or .png format and must not exceed 5mb in size.

Please complete the competition entry form below.

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• The closing date for this competition is 31st July 2013
• This competition is being run jointly with our friends at Fish South East
• The winner be drawn at random once the competiton has closed and the winner will be notified within 2 weeks of the closing date.
• The judges decision is final and no debate will be entered into.
• The competition is open to UK residents only and only one entry per person is allowed.
• Please refer to our privacy policy for details of how UK Fisherman manages data that may identify you.

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Every year, in October, the shooting and fishing industries come together at one of this country’s best trade shows. The 2011 Tackle & Guns Trade Show is scheduled for Stoneleigh Park, in Warwickshire, on Sunday and Monday, October 16th and 17th, and will attract more than 700 individual fishing and shooting outlets all looking for products for the following season.

Many of the suppliers use the show to take stock orders, while others use it as a vehicle to show their full product range and make confirmed appointments with retailers.

As well as being a fantastic showcase for angling and shooting suppliers, the Tackle & Guns Trade Show also provides an opportunity for business-to-business suppliers wanting to break into these lucrative markets.

Record number of visitors at the 2010 show | 28 October 2010

Tackle & Guns Trade Show is pleased to announce yet another record number of visitors to the two-day trade show. In total 2,013 visitors passed through the doors at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, of which 1,252 people visited on the Sunday and 761 on the Monday (people that visit both days are only counted once).

A total of 734 individual retailers visited, and of these, 211 stock shooting equipment only, 327 stock fishing equipment only with a further 196 stocking both shooting and fishing equipment.

Taking into account the crossover, this means that 407 retailers sell shooting equipment and 523 sell fishing equipment.

Source: Tackle and Gun Show 2011

The public benefits of conservation and economic generation provided by shooting and angling will become increasingly important as spending cuts come into effect, delegates at the Liberal Democrat conference in Liverpool were told last night.

Speaking at the Rural Reception hosted by the UK’s largest shooting organisation, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) and the Angling Trust, the representative body for all angling, Roger Williams MP said: “There are tough times ahead. Some public funds may no longer be available. Organisations like BASC will play an increasingly important role in the future. Well managed shoots, well managed rivers are good for the economy and good for conservation.”

Lord Redesdale said “Shooting and angling provide knock-on benefits for the whole community. Fishing is one of those wonderful things and shooting has many, many benefits for leisure, for tourism and for conservation.”

Roger Furniss from the Angling Trust expressed his concern over declining fish stocks in freshwater and in the sea. He said: “There are three million anglers in this country, and angling generates £3bn for the economy every year.” He also called for a review of the role of the Environment Agency saying: “The Environment Agency needs to listen more closely to anglers who pay an annual £26m in licence fees to the Agency.”

John Swift, chief executive of BASC said: “Shooting generates £1.6bn for the economy every year and two-thirds of the rural land area is influenced in some way by shooting management. We want to make sure that wildlife and habitats continue to flourish. We are aware that many public policy areas could be influenced by cost cutting and there could be blunt and difficult problems ahead, but as we face that reality we must find practical solutions. BASC and its members, who enjoy their shooting so very, very much want to work with you."

The Angling Trust has learnt that DEFRA and the Environment Agency (EA) last year accidentally abolished the law which created an offence of fishing in the close season. This will lead to poachers and illegal anglers caught in this spring’s coarse fishing close season getting away with lesser offences when their cases go to court.

The EA has now proposed an emergency byelaw to correct the error. The announcement was tucked away behind an announcement about new byelaws relating to eels, presumably in the hope that no-one would notice. A single bullet point on the last page of a seven page document quietly proposes to: “create the offence for fishing during close seasons and close times” to correct this mistake. The eel byelaws are printed in full, but the close season byelaw is only provided on the Agency web site at http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/recreation/fishing/114281.aspx

The Marine & Coastal Access Act repealed Section 19 of the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act. This was with the intention of allowing the Agency to regulate and enforce close seasons/close times entirely by byelaw. However, the repeal overlooked the fact that S.19 also contained the only offence of fishing during the close season and close times. Government lawyers had assumed the offence was included in national/regional byelaws, but these simply set out close season dates/times and do not include offences. As a result, while all the existing close seasons and times remain as set out in byelaws, there is now no active offence of fishing during the close season or close times.

The Angling Trust understands that 14 anglers have been successfully prosecuted for fishing in the close season and that their convictions will now have to be nullified. Over 90 other cases are pending. Prosecutions of Section 19 offences will have to be halted, but some offenders will be prosecuted for other offences (e.g. fishing without a licence or byelaw contravention).

In addition, Section 35 (subsection 2) of the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act (1975) allows holders of a rod licence to require another angler to show his licence and give his name and address. Failure to produce a licence was an offence. This was a very useful tool for angling clubs and fisheries, in particular for fishery and club bailiffs or water-keepers. However, Section 220 (subsection 8) of the Marine and Coastal Access Act (2009) removed this authority, limiting it to Environment Agency enforcement officers and police officers only, by amending the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act to omit Section 35, Subsection 2.

Angling Trust will be seeking a reinstatement of this provision. In the meantime the Trust is issuing guidance to its member clubs about how to address this unwelcome change, which we are told is because the old legislation might raise issues regarding data protection requirements and the protection of young people.

Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive of the Angling Trust and Fish Legal said: “We are very concerned that such a major error could be made by the teams of lawyers involved in drafting new legislation. We also believe that the attempts to conceal the error were misconceived and that a full public statement should have been made once the error was discovered. The Trust will remain vigilant in ensuring that law-abiding anglers’ interests are protected, and that clubs and fisheries have the tools available to help police their fisheries.”
 

Fab Fishwear.com, the home of all your fishing clothing needs, such as caps, fleece, rainwear, 3 in 1 jackets, bodywarmers, polos, sweatshirts, trousers, shorts, gloves and much more.

All garments can be embroidered with your own club/association logo by sending a (.jpeg) via email to enquiries@fabfishwear.com

The 'Fab Fishwear' range which is regularly updated with new garments. Check out the tabs below for a some of the fishing clothing they supply. Please note this is only a small sample of their products.

For their full range of fishing clothing and to order online, please visit the Fab Fishwear website at: www.fabfishwear.com Alternatively you can call Fab Fishwear on 01260 270333/280990 or email them at enquiries@fabfishwear.com

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The Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifiers reached the halfway stage on Saturday at the highly regarded Stafford Moor Fishery in North Devon. Tim Bull (Dynamite Baits) aged 39 years, a Business Development Manager from Leamington is the eighth qualifier to join the line up for the Fish ‘O’ Mania final with a winning weight of 138-8-0 of Carp from Tanners 2. Tim picked up some useful information at Stafford Moor before the match and was told that Tanners would be the lake to draw as favourite in the conditions.

Unfortunately for Tim it was not plain sailing as he had quite a steady start catching smaller carp of around the 3 lb mark in the first hour or more, using a straight three/eighth ounce bomb with an 11 ml Dynamite XL pellet lassoed on his basic rig. Tim cast about 40 yards towards the far bank but the big key was to pick his moments when the wind died down to feed. As he went into the second hour the carp got bigger, but there were longer intervals between the bites. However, with careful feeding and fish of around the 7 lb mark he was building up a good weight. At the end of five hours Tim had around twenty-eight carp for his win and produced the biggest margin victory of all the qualifiers, this year, to date. After a few years of trying Tim has been very close on a couple of occasions but he will be competing in the final at Cudmore in July for the first time where he obviously hopes to emulate his brother the top commercial angler, Mick Bull who won the Fish 'O' Mania final in 2008.

With Tanners dominating this event local angler Mark Hayman (Stafford Moor) used his experience on the venue to make the most of his peg Tanners 34 draw, catching carp to 10 lb in his 84-2-0 of carp, with tactics being bomb and pellet. In third place from Tanners 6 was Trevor Senior (Vespe Army) from Salisbury with a weight of 76-4-0. Harry Marsh (Maver Farnborough) from Reading took fourth place from last year’s winning peg Tanners 18 with a weight of 73-2-0. In fifth place from peg Woodpecker 21 with 70-1-0 was one of last year’s finalists Andy Power (Preston Innovations Thatchers) from Wells Somerset.

The conditions on the day were not ideal, cold and overcast with rain forecast for later in the day. The weather played a big part in the results, with many anglers who were catching from the start seeing their swims die after a few hours as the wind moved the fish around and pushed them on to the pegs that had not had such a good start. In the end the result was a close run thing, all through the day the predictions were changing from one peg to another and into the final hour it could have gone either way between the top 5 anglers. Tim made the most of his peg and took his chances to leap ahead and win as it turned out quite comfortably, with the other four places separated by 4 or 5 fish.

It was back to ‘winter mode’ for the third qualifying round of the XVII Fish ‘O’ Mania at Dynamite Baits Makins Fishery, Wolvey, Warwickshire. A sharp overnight frost and a cooler day than of late made it difficult to tempt bites in areas; the lowest ten peg winning section was 26-8-0 which was quite acceptable given the tough conditions.

The third name to be added to the eventual sixteen targeting the £25,000 first prize in the Fish ‘O’ Mania final is Sean Huggins from Wigston. It was a hop over the Leicestershire border for Sean to Phases Two and Three where the larger lakes, Lagoon and Lizard were well fancied by those ‘in the know’.

The self employed painter and decorator was actually on the reserve list to fish this match – in fact he was thirteenth reserve! The dreaded number 13 was looking unlucky again as Sean drew on Severn 25, a peg that had good form in the distant past but certainly not in recent times. He started off on 6 ml punched bread fished quite shallow towards the feature island catching the odd carp here and there until halfway through the match. As the fish started ‘backing off’ at this point he introduced minimal amounts of pellets, literally three or four via a small cup every now and then. He caught a few more on punched bread and the odd one on paste before a final change of tactic to the pellet waggler. This final move in the last hour kept even more carp coming and he ran out a very worthy winner with just over thirty carp for 95-15-0. Sean has a happy knack of doing really well in the bigger competitions and must now be one to fear in the Grand Final. The former winner of the UK Championships has fished a few Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifiers before and was keen to get in this one because Dynamite Makins is a local venue to him.

Runner-up Ben Emery of Garbolino Banstead fished method feeder and pellet, right in the grass stalks of Lagoon 13 to net carp to 4 lb 8 oz in his 78-1-0. Paul Law of Trabucco South East was third with carp to 6 lb, skimmers and roach for 68-10-0 from Lagoon 4. Former River Trent legend John Allerton of Tri-Cast was fourth with 49-15-0 followed by David Bacon 49-4-0 and Matt Hall of Sensas 49-0-0.

The fourth match in this series of Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifiers is on Leicestershire’s Lakeview Fishery this weekend and it will be interesting to see who will join Ray, Steven and Sean in the line up to the final.

Bury Hill see’s huge catches of tench, bream and crucian as weather improves! The general fishing on all the lakes saw a marked improvement this week as the weather picked up with anglers fishing the Old Lake catching big bags of bream to 100lb, which included good numbers of tench.

In turn Milton Lake also saw some incredible sport with quality tench and crucian making up the bulk of the catches with good numbers of specimen roach and rudd to 2lb and perch to 3lb also showing in nets to 100lb plus. Not to be left out, Bonds Lake has also seen some cracking ton up sport with anglers bagging up to 25 carp.

Bradley Gibbons aged 12 is always pleased when his Dad John books him in for a coaching lesson with our tackle shop manager Russ Evans as it always guarantees a successful day's action. Fishing the pole on Milton lake and demonstrating how to catch finicky feeders like crucians and tench using light tackle and correct feeding, Bradley had his best day ever catching a net full of tench, crucian and silvers on maggot and pellet. With crucians up to 2lbs, tench from 3-4lbs and some quality roach and rudd plus the odd bream and carp young Bradley's total was impressive to say the least finishing his day with 39 crucians, 18 tench, 1 skimmer, 3 roach, 3 rudd and 1 carp which overall totaled around 100lb. Well done Bradley.

Another angler to do well was Keith Hampson who also enjoyed his best days fishing to date when he also had a days coaching lesson on Milton Lake with Russ Evans. Adopting a sensitive waggler and maggot approach, Russ got Keith catching a good mix of species including two new pb's, a cracking 2lbs 4oz crucian carp and a 1lbs 5oz roach. Keith also caught some nice tench to 4lb and rudd for a 45lb catch. Keith's breakdown for the four-hour lesson was 13 crucian, 12 tench, 8 roach, 3 rudd and a perch plus a few that got away.

Russ is available most days in the shop and is always happy to give advice to help improve your catches, just ask. Alternatively, if you fancy a one to one with Russ which is guaranteed to improve your catches, please call him on 01306 883621.

Turning to the Old Lake, Bury Hill regular Mike Head had another brilliant days sport on the long bank this week catching 31 bream to 4lb and a bonus tench of 3lb for close to 100lb. Fishing peg 41, Mike fished a small open end feeder packed full of ground bait and 3mm pellet catching on 8mm soft pellet. This was Mikes second visit this week catching 19 bream and 2 tench during his earlier session when he alternated between feeder and pole catching on pellet, mini boilies and maggot.

Whilst pleasure anglers have been enjoying some great fishing on the Old Lake, local clubs have also seen their fair share of action as Hackbridge AC found this weekend with bream and skimmers domination the catches. With 30 plus anglers drawn on the front bank and early pegs along the long bank, match organizer Dave Johnson won the day with 75lb of bream, which he caught from peg 1 fishing the tip with corn and maggot. 2nd place went to Neil Jaks who weighed in 48lb 12oz of bream and skimmers, which he caught on the pole and pellet whilst Andy Ryan who bagged 39lb 10oz from peg 19 also catching on the tip and pellet took 3rd place.

Fishing for pike on Lough Derg can be done using several methods of which trolling and casting are the most widely practiced.

Trolling: With the engine running as slow as possible, a bait (a plug, spoon or dead bait fish) is towed approx. 20 meters behind the boat. This can be done by putting the rod (or rods) into a rod holder, although a hand held rod is often more productive because of the extra action one can transfer onto the bait. The choice of bait is a very important one. In shallow water (say up to 15 feet / 4,5m) use shallow running baits or be prepared to get stuck in weeds or rocks. In deeper water, say from 15 to 30 feet, use deeper running lures. A depth finder (sonar) is a great help and most pike fishermen wouldn't go out without one. Not only does the depth finder show you the depth, it also shows you plants, rocks, drop offs and shoals of fish. In deeper water you may even see individual fish on the screen.

Seasons: Around the beginning of June, pike fishing on Lough Derg slows down and the summer months are not the best time to plan a pike fishing holiday. Things pick up again as soon as the lake starts cooling down, mostly around mid September. The best months to plan a holiday would therefore be April and May and again from mid September until November. More specifically, April and October are the top months. In spring, concentrate on depths of 10-17 feet / 3-5 m, in autumn depths of around 20 feet / 6m should be more productive.

Some tried and tested trolling baits:
Springtime: Rapala J-14, Rapala Super Shad Rap, YOZURY Chrystal minnow, mann's minus, several thin-bladed spoons, bucktail spinners.

Autumn: Super Shad Rap, Mann's 15+ and 20+, several fairly heavy rubber baits like 10 and 12 inch Bulldawg, rubber shads with 30 grams (1 ounce) leadheads.

Casting: Casting for pike can be done either while anchored or from a slow drifting boat. Location is very important. Pike like the vicinity of plants, so you should position your boat in such a way that the drift takes you along the outside of weedbeds. When anchored, the same applies: anchor the boat in such a way, that you can just reach the plants on your left or right. While drifting or at anchor, try to cover the water in a fan shape instead of casting to the same spot over and over. Several lures can be used but make sure they run shallow, because you fish close to - or sometimes in- the weeds. Wether you use plugs or spoons, always play the bait. Just reeling in is far less effective than a stop-go movement.

Jerk baiting: Jerk baiting is done with a short, very stiff rod with a multiplier reel and heavy braided line (+/- 50 to 80 pound breaking strain). The lures used generally have no diving vane like ordinary plugs. The action under water is transferred into these baits by the "jerking" motion of the rod tip. This works best when you stand on one of the seats in the boat and jerk downwards, which explains why these rods are so short (approx. 6 foot / 1.80 m). A solid steel leader helps to avoid the bait getting tangled in the trace or mainline. The heavy line used is necessary, because of the weight of jerk baits (sometimes up to 6 or 7 ounces / 180 - 200 g) and also to eliminate the chance of a fish breaking the line, which would leave the poor creature with a large bait with big treble hooks in its mouth, possibly resulting in a slow and horrible death.

Some tried and tested jerk baits:
Suick, Buster Jerk. Phantom, Striker plus several rubber lures like bulldawgs and toads and fairly heavy bucktail spinners and spinner baits.

Some general tips for pike fishing on Lough Derg (or anywhere in Ireland):
Always use a steel trace of at least 30 cm long and with a minimum breaking strain of 30 pounds. Make sure the connection to the bait consists of a good quality snap like a Cross-Lock or a Coast -Lock snap. Too many pike are lost because inferior snaps are used.

For all your pike fishing, use braided line. Because of the lack of stretch in these lines, you will have a more sensitive combination which enables you to feel every movement of the bait and provides you with a more secure hook-set. The use of nylon (monofilament) lines for pike fishing is really something of the past.

Always carry adequate unhooking tools with you: A long nosed pliers and a good quality wire cutter are essential. Sometimes hooks can be deep down a fish's mouth and can only be removed by cutting the hook and taking the bait out through the gills.

A marker buoy is a very useful piece of equipment. Throw it overboard when you start a drift and you will know exactly where to start the next drift, say 30 meters left of right of the marker buoy. This enables you to fish a certain area more accurately. It can be very easily made out of a big (5 liter) water bottle. Cover the bottle in black and yellow insulation tape for great visibility even at a distance. Attach 5 meters of string to the bottle and at the end of that a heavy weight (+/- 10 ounces / 300g). Wrap the string around the bottle and lower it overboard when starting your drift or at the spot where you anchor. You now have a perfect point of reference that will tell you how the boat drifts and how to correct the drift- direction with your next drift. Don't forget to collect your bottle when you leave the area !

Fish with barbless hooks - better for the fish and easier for you to unhook. When you keep constant pressure on the fish, the hooks won't come out. Another advantage is the easier removal of hooks that might happen to get stuck in one of your body parts.

Fly fishing for pike: Lough Derg has many spots (invariably weedbeds) where fly fishing can work very well. Use a 9 or 10 weight rod with an intermediate weight forward (WF) line and streamers of 15-20 cm long.

The pike in Ireland are a protected species, all pike over 50 cm in length must be immediately returned to the lake.

Angling Trust is seeking nominations for the England team for Anglers with Disabilities and for the Veterans England team. Successful applicants will represent Team England in this year’s World Championships taking place on the 7th & 8th August in France for Anglers with Disabilities, and in Belgium on the 10th & 11th July 2010 for the Veterans.

England Team Manager Joe Roberts has arranged for two separate trials to take place to identify anglers of international calibre who are experienced in fishing with bloodworm and joker. Both trials will be fished to FIPSed international rules, and fishing to 11 ½ metre limit on pole for roach and skimmers. Fishing will take place from 11.00am-3.00pm for both trials.

The trials will take place at Packington Somers Fisheries, Somers Road, Meriden. CV7 7PL. The first trial will be held for Anglers with Disabilities on Saturday 22nd May. The trial for the Veterans is for anyone who is 60 and over at the date of the trial on Sunday 23rd May.

The venue, Packington Somers, is considered one of the most successful and varied commercial coarse fisheries in the Midlands, if not the UK.
Any angler who would like to take part in the trails are requested to contact Sandra Drew, Competitions & Events Manager, Angling Trust on 0115 9061 301 or email sandra.drew@anglingtrust.net by no later than 10th May 2010 with their nomination.

Joe Roberts, England Team Manager believes that after last year’s qualification rounds that the teams were very successful in gaining medals in both categories and this year the teams will be looking to go one better and win gold.

Dick Clegg, OBE, International Coarse Events Manager stated that “I support Joe’s decision to hold these trials and it is an opportunity to find some of the highest quality anglers in the country to compete at international level in the World Championships. Anglers who represent Angling Trust in the World Championships work exceptionally well together, and I am sure they will have an excellent chance of coming away with a medal”.