For more information on the fishery and its grand opening, please visit www.cleveleybridgefisheries.com or telephone Hazel on 07958 797117 or 01524 791637

Angling Trust National Campaigns Coordinator Martin Salter joined Charles Jardine, the legendary fly angler and Pallatrax baits boss Simon Pomeroy for the opening of the Newbury fishing superstore on Saturday June 2nd.

Experience Fishing is a new concept in fishing retail. This amazing 6,000 square foot store caters for all types of fishing including carp, match and fly fishing with specialist sections for both barbel and predators.

It has been set up by Ben Bangham, England Rivers Champion 2010, OCA guide and Level 2 coach and David Wrigley, fisherman and retail expert. All the staff are experienced fishermen and include former Kennet barbel record holder and local expert Paul Smythe and Lewis Hendrix a Level 2 coach, England fly-fishing junior and current England rivers finalist.

Experience Fishing caters for all budgets and levels of angling experience. The store is perfectly situated in Newbury, the heart of fishing country with good transport links to the A34, M4, A303 and M3.

It has everything the fisherman needs, including: bait, bivvys, tackle, clothing and a pole alley, giving people the opportunity to try out poles at full length.

In the store there are sections for fly, carp, match, pleasure, barbel and predator angling.

Martin Salter, who attended the launch on behalf of the Angling Trust, said: “At a time when tackle shops are closing how great is it to be celebrating the opening of not just a fishing shop but a 21st century Fishing Superstore that caters for all branches of our sport. The facilities are top class and the Angling Trust wishes Ben and Dave the best of luck in their new venture.”

Dave Wrigley said: "It's fantastic to be able to open a fishing shop in the heart of such a great fishing area. Things have started well and we are looking forward to getting to know both the fishing and the people better over the coming years."

Source: Angling Trust Fishing News

Event: Fishing for Heroes Countryside Event
Date: 18th June 2012
Venue: Meon Springs, Whitewool Farm, East Meon, Petersfield, Hampshire, GU32 1HW

It will be attended by a number of both well known celebrities and corporate sponsors, as well as by 2 teams of veterans. Celebrities will include Sir Ian Botham, Robson Green, Mike Atherton, David Lloyd, Adam Henson, Chris De Margary and others.

Corporate sponsors include Waitrose, Hunter, Jeep, Eley Cartridges and Hardy Greys.

There will be 15 teams. Each team will consist of 4 members, being made up from 3 plus 1 celebrity.

The ‘Cast and Blast’ competition will include both fly fishing and a sporting clay shoot. There will be excellent prizes for the winning teams, an auction held by Philip Serrell with some fantastic lots and a raffle.

The Angling Trust have been offered some fabulous private fishing, hospitality and accommodation specifically for the veterans by sponsors such as Waitrose who have very kindly donated a day at Leckford on the Test.

In July the Angling Trust are providing the instructors for 16 people in Scotland from a regiment recently returned from Afghanistan and we have one veteran who did his initial Fishing for Heroes program in January 2012 who is now approaching his Level 2 coaching qualification via the Angling Trust which is funded by Sport England.

The purpose of the day is to raise funds and awareness for Fishing for Heroes whist making it an enjoyable and very memorable day for everyone there. The organisers will be hoping to raise in excess of £20,000.

Fishing For Heroes Website

Eleven of the thirteen sections were won with over 60 lbs and a quick calculation showed that the average weight per angler was over 26 lbs, even including 46 anglers who did not bother to weigh.

Top rod was Surrey angler, Ben Emery (Marukyu/Garbolino), a previous Fish ‘O’ Mania grand finalist in 2010. The 31 year old cabinet maker drew Peg 16 on the Holbar 2 pool and caught carp to 12 lbs to put 123 lbs 5 ozs on the scales. Early on he caught fishing shallow with 6 mm pellet, but as the day went on he switched to his left hand margin to take some real “lumps”. Ben’s wife sat behind keeping score and at the weigh in she was less than 10 lbs adrift.

Runner up on Holbar 1 pool peg 9 was accountant, Peter Plant, from Stone in Staffordshire. Peter fished caster shallow all day to take 81 lbs 11 ozs of carp to 8 lbs to the scales. Third spot went to Grant Albutt fishing Covey 48. Grant weighed 78 lbs 10 ozs of F1’s and mirrors to 5 lbs taken shallow on caster and also on a short meat line. Simon Skelton took fourth place with 78 lbs 3 ozs. He was three pegs away from Grant on Covey 51 and caught a mixture of ide, F1’s and carp to 5 lbs on pellet. In fifth place was Rob Pelling on Willow 19. Rob caught carp, ide and roach for a total of 76 lbs 6 ozs on soft hook pellet.

The 14th Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier action moves to Preston Innovations Boldings Fishery, Bridgnorth, Shropshire on Saturday 9th June 2012. With only three more qualifiers to go for this year it will be interesting to see who joins the grand final line up for one of the most prestigious matches in angling for a chance to win the coveted title of Fish ‘O’ Mania Champion 2012, and the major prize pot of £30,000 on Saturday 14th July.

Source: Angling Trust Fishing News

The fishery can be found on Coole Lane, off the A530 near Nantwich and will open its doors for a fun packed day of fishing demonstrations, refreshment and family fun.

The 20-acre site, surrounded by the beautiful Cheshire landscape boasts a number of lakes with the three-acre specimen Carp Lake well stocked with carp up to 27lb in weight, and three smaller one-acre fishing lakes. The fish have been carefully selected and have had time to grow on for the past two years.

The new fishery represents a professional, yet friendly face of modern angling, with modern luxuries such as the soon to be completed custom designed Anglers lodge, which will provide refreshments and an eating area, a comfortable lounge area with TV, a bait and tackle store, showers and even a dryer for fishing kit for those more typical English summer days! Brian and Bianca look forward to welcoming you to their fishery.

For more information on the fishery and its grand opening, please visit http://www.cooleacresfishery.co.uk or telephone 01270 446553.

Product Description:

Review:

The weather decided not to play fair on the day we chose to try out Duck Sentinel with wind and rain making fishing uncomfortable at best. Despite the weather, the Duck Sentinel certainly seemed to live up to the manufacturer's claims. The wind didn't seem to trouble us and we were able to be pretty accurate with casting. Also, our surface baits were never troubled by the occasional passing duck and we were able to leave our bait in the water whenever one appeared.

Unfortunately we didn't catch any fish using the Duck Sentinel. In fact we caught very little using any method that day. That's fishing I guess. The following reviewers (taken from the Linjazro website) had more luck:

I saw Duck Sentinel on eBay and thought it would be a great accessory – why had no body ever thought of this before!! November is not the ideal time to catch on the top but gave it a go.  The carp seem to be attracted to the Sentinel which was a good start and I managed to catch three in an afternoon session on a rod, close in the margins.  The ducks came after my free offerings as usual but were unable to get at my bait.  Like all great inventions – simple but effective.
Fred from Uxbridge (London)

I was told about Duck Sentinel by a fishing buddy as I had not seen it advertised.  I obtained one on eBay and tried it on my local lake.  I fished initially in open water and managed to cast it with a controller float filled with water to where I saw fish feeding on the surface about 75 yards.  There were some ducks around, but they did not get my bait.  I managed to land a 6lb mirror, which was great for late November.  Good bit of kit – Mr Inventor.
Keith from Bedfordshire

The sentinel is a fantastic piece of kit that I must say I was a bit sceptical about it but believe me - it works! I used mine for margin fishing on my pole and had 20 carp over a 4 day period in the evenings mostly. I caught carp from 8 lbs to 14 lbs and had no trouble with the ducks, coots and swans getting to my bait-they picked off my freebies but were 100% unable to take my bait-I was using bread and oily floaters. I also found that the carp were interested in the flotation foam and this appeared to encourage them to keep coming back for more!
The other anglers were not happy with me - a mere female catching far better than they were!!
Tina from Nottingham

Score:

Prices and where to buy:

Duck Sentinel is available to buy online at linjazro.co.uk/prices

• Duck Sentinel ready assembled with 8 x 16mm flotation Kiwi colour boilies, a bag of 8 x 16mm Pineapple coloured flotation pellets, a metre length of PVA string and 10 dumbbell stops:
  Price: £7.95
• Duck Sentinel THE COMPLETE SYSTEM comes with all seven sets of coloured boilies and seven sets of coloured pellets, including dumbbell stops and PVA string
  Price: £19.95

Though weights had held up over recent matches, it was felt by the locals that if the carp could be persuaded to get their heads down and feed that some good weights could come from anywhere on the complex. As it turned out the top five anglers had nearly 800 lb of fish between them. With four of the top weights coming from the Swan Lake it was down to Warren Martin (Barford Tackle/Sensas), a 36 year old Quantity Surveyor from Lyng in Norfolk on peg 9 on Merry’s Lake, (the smallest lake used in the qualifier) who took the winning qualifier lead. Warren fished 8mm banded pellet shallow on a pellet waggler and caught over 120 small carp and ide to finish the day with 178 lb 10 oz.

A Fish ‘O’ Mania atmosphere surrounded second placed angler, Robert Morris from Lincoln, on corner peg 1 on Swan, and a number of spectators watched as he put together his weight of 168 lb 10 oz carp all on the pellet waggler and fished shallow up to the corner vegetation.

Third place angler was Fish ‘O’ Mania regular Steve Rothery pegged 3 on Swan, who fished 8mm banded pellet on bomb and pellet waggler to finish with 150 lb 9 oz, with his biggest carp coming in at 14lbs. Fourth place went to Huddersfield’s based Colin Wood, pegged 57 on Swan fishing long pole shallow down the margin on 11 mm pellet and pellet waggler into the corner bay, and took nearly all his weight of 122 lb 8 oz in the last two and a half hours of the match.

The match was tinged with sadness as the original organiser for the Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier at Messingham, and a regular Messingham angler, and match organiser Brian Turner passed away after a short illness just a few weeks before the event. The Angling Trusts’ Competitions Committee, staff and Board of Directors would like to express their condolences to Brian’s family and friends at this sad time, and Brian will be remembered by everyone that knew him.

The next Fish ‘O’ Mania qualifier moves to Partridge Lakes, Culcheth, Nr Warrington on Saturday 2nd June 2012.

Source: Angling Trust Fishing News

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