A WORLD CHAMPIONʼS ANGLE

Transcription

1 PLUS MATCH TACTICS WILLʼS WORLD COMMERCIAL PROSPECTS YOUR QUESTIONS, WILLʼS ANSWERS. Downloadable, printable, digital pdf file, in words, pics and video VA2V P A WORLD CHAMPIONʼS ANGLE emagazine download & digital video episode No FISHING FOR F1CARP MATCH TACTICS cludes 45 minute video episode

2 Welcome To Issue 77 F1 carp are the subject of this Issues feature and I hope you find the video and article useful in applying to your own match fishing. There s some great tips in there that have certainly helped me and I d like to thank Paul Holland for his input too. There are some great questions in this issue as well as advice on altering groundbait mixes mid match. I ve had a busy schedule this past month with the Fishomania ternational and the practice matches on the Gloucester Canal ahead of the Division 1 National and it s been generally a rewarding time in terms of results. Until next time keep bagging. Will Raison Will Raison s World Champion s Angle Monthly Publisher: V2V Angling Production s Ltd. Photography and copy: Brian Gay and Will Raison. Design: Brian Gay. WARNING: The contents of this publication are protected by international copyrights and may not be reproduced in part or full in any media for publication or viewing by third parties without express permission in writing from V2V Angling Production s Ltd. The magazine is a downloadable internet PDF file viewable on electronic devices using Adobe Reader or smilar suitable PDF reader. It is printable on home printers for personal use of authorised readers only and not for re-distribution in any form. #WillRaisonEmag Will Raison is a life member of the Angling Trust click the logo below to visit their web site. 3 FISHING FOR F1 CARP Match Tactics 37 Match Tactics BAIT Adjusting A Mix. 37 Match Tactics TACKLE Short Top Kits. 40 Will s World 42 Commercial Prospects 43 Your Questions Will s Answers interactive this E-magazine is interactive with video clips and live links. * internet connection required. Contents

3 FISHING FOR F1 CARP For this feature Will Raison is at Tunnel Barn Farm to run through the tips and tricks that have helped him score with F1 carp. Brian Gay shoots the video and takes the pics

4 If you have trouble connecting to the video copy this link into your internet browser

5 I have had a number of requests to do a feature and video on fishing for F1 carp and the reason why I haven t done one until now is because the venues I tend to fish in the South of England do not have a lot of F1 s in them but the recent Daiwa Masters at Tunnel Barn Farm presented a perfect opportunity. I was booked to fish the three-day event and so I had to get up to speed on targeting F1 s in quick time in order to be competitive in the event. Although I have fished it before the venue is not one I know well and with the class of angler in the Daiwa event I knew I would have to fish well to do well. Fortunately my friend Paul Holland was able to practice with me ahead of the event and give me some valuable help and I feel that I have certainly polished up my F1 fishing as a result. I won my section on the first and second days and just missed out on a section win on the third day to end up 9th overall which I was pleased with given the quality of angler I was up against. For some anglers that were in the field, most of what they do is this type of fishing so I was happy that my efforts held up against them. Jenny s Lake Tunnel Barn Farm Shrewley, Warks. CV37 7AN.

6 COME BACK So I ve come back to Tunnel Barn with the cameras to share with you all the tips and tricks that I have learned about winning with F1 carp. It s a nice day, light cloud cover to start with sunny intervals and I m sat on Jenny s Lake peg 17 which is a snake or canal style lake with about 14 metres to an island or far bank.this lake boasts a massive head of F1s, carp, some skimmers and barbel too however the main target for me today are the F1s and maybe some carp.

7 Maggots will be fed down the middle by hand on a top 6 line TWO LINES Today I plan on fishing two lines, down the middle and across to that far bank. I am overlooking the near margins simply because I know that this venue has not been producing well in the nearside margins. Top 6 Down The Middle the festival a lot of fish were caught down the middle both shallow and on the bottom, I nearly got caught out on the first day as I opted to loose feed casters in the middle on the top 6 line and the guy next to me fed maggots heavily and caught some better stamp F1s on the bottom and a few shallow. Fortunately I did enough to win the section having caught across as well but it opened my eyes to the effectiveness of maggots on that particular line. I am going to show you that today loose feeding that middle line with maggots and targeting fish on the bottom, or if they come up shallow as well.

8 Long pole to the far bank is the other line close to the earth bank Long Pole To The Far Bank The other line I will concentrate on is the long pole to the far bank, as tight as I can go looking for inches of water and a nice shelf to fish on. The success of this approach is accuracy, accuracy of plumbing, accuracy of feeding right on the plumbed spot and accuracy of placing the rig to present the hook bait right over the feed. If you can do this you will dramatically reduce the amount of liners and therefore foul-hooker s that you get when fishing for big weights in shallow water. This is so important on venues like Tunnel Barn where many anglers will be getting lots of fish and you need to make every ounce count.

9 GOOD PLACE There s about 14 inches of water close to the earth bank where I plan on fishing As it happens in this swim there is about 14 inches of water just about four inches from the bank itself. It s on a nice shelf and that is a good place to target. When you look at the nature of that far bank there are some marginal rushes but an area of exposed bare bank in between and that is ideal because it means you can fish closer to the bank than when rushes force you further into deeper water. For accuracy I ve plumbed up in line with a stone wedged in the earth and that s where I will be feeding. This line is going to be fed with a peat mix containing chopped worms and casters.

10 BAITS For the maggot line I have brought six pints of white maggots with a few reds, this will be the bait for the top 6 sections line and I have quite a bit of bait because I want to attack that line. Big fresh maggots If the fish start to have it shallow you can get through the bait and I don t want to be caught out by not having enough with me. You may ask why maggots why not pellets? The answer is that here at Tunnel Barn and on other F1 dominated waters they do have a liking for maggots, it is a bait that is used here a lot in the winter months and as a result the fish also respond well to them in summer, so it is a better choice than pellets. However I like to stress the importance of purchasing good quality maggots, big fresh heavy maggots because these will be easier to throw by hand and they will sink well. Similarly with the casters I have a couple of pints with me to go in the peat mix but they are fresh, crisp, top quality casters. Half a kilo of worms is enough for a match but again I have some nice big fat fresh dendrobaenas, with me. When you are fishing for quality fish like these F1s you need bigger worms. These will be chopped and added to the peat mix together with the casters, and I will use worms on the hook when feeding peat. Large dendrobaena worms Quality casters

11 PEAT The peat is not only used as a carrier for the chopped worms and the casters but as a major attractant in that when it is introduced to the swim it makes a lovely dark cloud in the water and the fish seem to love to investigate it especially in venues with a green / brown tinge to the water. The cloud lingers much longer than if you used a sloppy groundbait and so it not only attracts but also holds fish in the swim. That said it is important not to feed it too often because in shallow water you don t want to get too many fish in swim at once time as that leads to to liners and foul-hookers, the beauty of the peat is that it clouds and that cloud lingers so you don t have to feed again for a while. Now peat fishing is something that a lot of people get very confused over especially what peat to use and how to prepare it. What I want to show you is that if you follow a few simple guidelines it is not difficult at all. Firstly the single most important thing is to buy the right peat, you don t want compost, topsoil, grow bags or the like, what you need is neat Irish peat and it s not always easy to find at first glance in the garden centres so make sure you ask for it and that is what you get. The peat, worms & casters mix. A big bag of peat is relatively cheap and when you get it home you need to riddle it off through a ground bait sieve to remove any unwanted debris. You ll end up with a fine light, fluffy batch. The peat mix explodes on impact clouding the water and lingers in the swim.

12 MIXING THE PEAT For a five hour match I like to mix up about 6 pints of the neat peat which should be more than enough when planning to feed it to a far bank swim like I am today. That said sometimes it can be very effective when used to catch fish shallow on the top 6 line and then you can get through a lot of it as you will be feeding more frequently so then you might want a bit more if that is your plan. For me today I am not expecting to feed the peat down the middle so the 6 pints is enough and I ll add this amount into a big ground bait mixing bucket. Then I will add water quite copiously because what I want to achieve is an over wet sloppy mix, just like a sloppy ground bait. The reason for this is because if you mix it too dry some of the peat will float and you won t get that cloud in the water, I want it to sink and cloud the water and over wetting it will achieve this. Mixing it on the sloppy side of wet ensures I achieve this. One of the great things about peat is that although it s sloppy to handle a quick rinse of your hand in some clean water immediately removes all the peat that has stuck to to your hand and fingers. TWIST When I have achieved the correct consistency in the peat it s time for a twist. A lot of anglers like to add some additional flavour to the peat some favouring Predator Plus or one of the various chopped worm extracts. Me I do something different I like to add some Old Ghost Krill Meal. The Krill Meal is a really powerful additive and I like to add a handful mixed into the 6 pints of peat. This gives the mix a little bit of flavour. I think it is more of a confidence thing but Krill for me has become a first choice when fishing groundbait in the edge on coloured water commercials. After the Krill has been mixed into the peat its time to add a good handful of the casters, the beauty of the peat is that you don t need lots and lots of additional bait crammed into it because it is the cloud that attracts the F1s. 1- Start with 3 pints of neat Irish peat 3 - Mix in the water until it s sloppy 5- Wet and sloppy is ideal 7 A good handful of casters 2 - Overwet the peat 4 - The peat washes off easily 6 A handful of Krill

13 ADD THE WORMS Next it is time to add the worms and so I will take a handful of the worms and chop them, about chops with the scissors is enough to end up with a variety of sizes. Some half-worms, some small pieces some about an inch and a few a bit bigger than an inch. The important thing is not to chop the worms too fine because we are fishing for quality fish. I want pieces of worm that give the fish something to pick out when they respond to the cloud. The size of the chopped worm pieces is designed to mimic the pieces I will use on the hook. That is a key tip when chopping worms to always chop them with regard to the intended quarry, i.e. when we are fishing for small fish we chop them really fine but when after bigger fish we want larger segments. I m looking for segments around about an inch to an inch-and-a-half in length because that mimics what I will be putting on the hook. That s the mix finished and the result is a really inviting mix, the cloud of the peat, the flavour of the krill and the pieces of worm and casters. 8 Chop a good handful of worms 9 A variety of sizes 10 The final mix

14 RIGS For today s session I have rigs to cover fishing dead depth across to the far bank and fishing an inch on the bottom and shallow down the middle. The Across Rig The Malman float Far Bank Rig Far Bank Rig Malman Malman 6x8 float 6x8 float Starting with the across rig this features a 6x8 Malman float with a nice thick bristle but it is a short float ideal for shallow water. The line diameters are interesting, in that I have 0.18 mm fluorocarbon as the main line and a short 0.13 mm diameter Drennan Supplex Fluorocarbon hook length. This may seem a big jump in diameters but it is effective because I want the finesse to achieve bites that the thinner trace gives me, at the same time I want the main rig to be tangle free and robust and the thicker diameter gives me that. At Tunnel barn and other F1 venues we are always fishing for a lot of fish and big weights so a robust rig is essential, that said I always set up a duplicate in case of a problem. The hook choice is a Gama Pellet size 16. The shotting pattern is a small bulk of shot. This rig as all the rigs will be fished in conjunction with a white Daiwa Hydrolastic which is ideal for quality F1s. This rig is set so the hook bait will be dead depth just touching bottom. At Tunnel Barn there is a rule that you must have 4 inches of line between the pole float and the elastic to line connector. However as we are fishing at 14 metres we need a bit a longer than that so I have about 6-8 inches mm diameter 0.18 mm diameter Fluorocarbon Fluorocarbon line line Bulk of No9 Bulk of No9 shot shot Tuning Tuning styls styls The across rig top kit is fitted with a PI Softcad pole cup but note that it is situated right on the very end of the pole tip. This is for ultimate accuracy because I want to be able to drop the peat right where the float is. The Gama Pellet Barbless hook The pole cup sits right on the very tip of the pole 0.13 mm dia mm dia. Fluorocarbon Fluorocarbon hook length hook length Size 16 Gama Pellet hook Size 16 Gama Pellet hook

15 The Middle Bottom Rig (top 6 line) The rig to target fish on the bottom features a 4x16 Daiwa TD17 with a slim body it is ideal for this type of fishing, the F1 s can be finicky feeders they are fished for a lot and slim floats with less resistance are an aid to bite detection in the deeper water. This float is held on 0.18 mm line and is shotted with a staggered bulk of no.9 shot plus a few fine tuning styles above the shot for any minute adjustments I need to make when fishing. The rig is set with around 8 inches of line from float to elastic connector and then enough line below to offer the hook bait about an inch over depth. Middle Bottom Rig 4x16 Daiwa TD17 float The hook length on this one is 0.12 mm diameter Drennan Double Strength and the trace is 20 cm in length with the bulk shot commencing 30 cm from the hook mm dia. Rig Line The Daiwa TD17 4x16 float Staggered bulk of No. 9 shot with adjustment styls above Loop to loop 9 cm from loop to first shot Size 16 Gama Pellet hook 20 cm trace of 0.12 mm dia. rig Line The staggered bulk & the white Hydrolastic to line connection.

16 The Middle Shallow Rig If the fish come shallow down the middle then I will target them with a rig featuring the Drennan Crystal Dibber in the small 0.2 gr, size. However I have altered the floats I use for this by removing the glass stems and replacing them with a small length of alloy wire. This means they take less shot on the line to cock and will cock quicker which helps when fishing very shallow. The line is 0.18 mm diameter fluorocarbon to 0.13 mm diameter fluorocarbon hook length and again the hook is a size 16 Gama Pellet. On the line I have two small Stotz weights just above the loop to loop rig to trace knots. The line between the float to elastic connector is measured so that it is exactly 4 inches to comply with the rules while the line from float to hook is 11 inches which is one of the best depths to catch F1 s at. The hook length itself is just 15 cm long. So fluorocarbon line is a feature of all the shallow water pole rigs and this is because when fishing in shallow water or fishing shallow for F1s I want to reduce the chances of the tackle spooking fish to a minimum and fluorocarbon with it s reduced visibility in water is a big help towards achieving this. F1 Shallow Rig Measured 4 inches of line from float to elastic connector Drennan Crystal Dibber 0.2 gr. with alloy stem Three Stotz Loop to loop 4 inch trace of 0.13 mm dia. Matchwinner Size 16 Gama Pellet hook 0.18 mm dia. Fluorocarbon line 11 inches of line from float to hook

17 Short silver top kits are an important piece of the equation. I spray painted the top kits TOP KITS For me the top kits are a very important part of the equation. You will notice that they are all sprayed silver and this is because I believe it makes a difference to catches. I have spoken to divers like Rob Hughes and the feedback is that dark poles overhead are always more visible than white or silver coloured ones when viewed from under the water surface. Paul Holland and I have practiced side by side on even pegs with and without the silver kits and we are convinced the silver kits are a big improvement. My view is that if something as thin as 0.10 mm diameter fluorocarbon line can make a difference something as thick as your finger will definitely make a difference. These tops have simply been resprayed silver with a paint you can get for spraying cars. One other point of note is that the kits are shorter than normal and this is also deliberate in that a short kit means the fish will pop up closer to the bank and this makes netting fish a whole lot quicker and efficient. All the kits are fitted with puller bungs and the white Hydrolastic.

18 PEGGED BACK NETS When you are fishing F1 venues where a lot of anglers will be catching and catching well, it is important to do all you can to stack the odds in your favour by making sure not just the rigs, kits and baits are geared to getting you plenty of bites but that your bank side set-up is at it s most efficient too. One thing I have taken to doing here is attaching cords to the bottom rings of my keepnets. When the nets are placed into the water the cords are pegged down into the bank along the margins with a brolly peg. This keeps the nets secure and prevents them drifting around in the water in front of me. This may seem a trivial issue but believe me when you have 50 lb of fish in a net they can and do move the net around. This can easily interfere with netting fish and indeed result in losing fish at the net. Pegging the nets back eliminates this completely. Pegging back the keep nets is a big help in making sure there s no difficulty landing fish.

19 START ACROSS Hopefully we can get off to a good start fishing across so to start the session I am going to start off by not actually fishing but shipping across to the far bank with the pole cup loaded with the peat, chopped worm and caster mix. This is deposited into the swim right in line with where I have plumbed up to that stone. I start things off with a pot of the peat mix across. A good thing with peat is that it sticks in the pot very well so you can ship out quicker than with baits like hard pellets this helps with speeding up the catching process. Despite the fact that it sticks it only takes a couple of little taps on the butt section of the pole to knock the peat out of the pot and it creates that lovely cloud.

20 PROCESS Then I will start the process of feeding the middle by loose feeding a couple of handfuls of the maggots before baiting the hook on the across rig with an inch piece of a worm head, plugging the pole cup with the pet mix and shipping out again. I take care to make sure I line up the rig with that far bank maker, i.e., that stone, and then tap in the peat mix right on the spot. One important tip I can give you is that after you have tipped the bait in bang on the spot, I like to then just push the float slightly further across to the backside of where I am fishing, that way I can eliminate most of the liners and most indications will be from proper bites. The peat is released from the pot with a firm tap on the butt section of the pole Accuracy is the name of the game.

21 LANDING NET TIP Here s another great tip to help improve efficiency when catching a lot of fish quickly. Choose a landing net to suit the stamp of fish First of all I use a slightly smaller landing net head this makes it easy to net and handle the fish, secondly I have one of the new Guru feeder rests designed for feeder rod butt sections, but I have it set-up beside the front of my seat box. This grips the landing net handle perfectly and with a pole roller set up just beyond me I can simply place the landing net handle onto the butt rest, drop the rear of the handle into the roller, lift the hooked fish from the net head, unhook it and I don t have to touch the landing net again until the next time I need to net a fish. A small detail, bit the small details all add up. The net & handle sits perfectly to hand. This is something I learned from all the fishing I have done abroad fishing for bleak and when I need to catch lots of fish quickly.

22 It is important to take the opportunities to loose feed that top 6 line, but not at the expense of compromising presentation on the long line. AS AND WHEN It is worth noting that while I will feed the top 6 line quite heavily, it will only be as and when, by that I mean as and when I get the opportunity - for example when playing a fish on the long pole or when I have landed a fish. I m not so worried about ensuring a regularity of feeding intervals down the middle because when I am starting on the long pole it is more important to concentrate on maintaining accurate feeding and presentation there rather than interrupt the fluency of it. Clearly holding a 14-metre pole with a short rig accurately placed in shallow water demands the most concentration. I m not prepared to sacrifice that across presentation to keep up a regular feeding pattern on the top 6 line. Of course if I start catching regularly across it gives me regular opportunities to feed the middle anyway.

23 Hook bait for the long pole It s fish on almost straight after feeding NO TIME AT ALL When you are fishing across to a shallow far margin at distance, there are lots of nooks and crannies so it is essential that you find that spot to feed and feed it accurately waiting for fish to find that cloud and the hook bait. It can take a while to start catching across but that is not the case today as first cast I get a bite on an inch piece of worm and an average sized F1 is hooked. See how close to the platform the fish come up with the shorter top kits.

24 6-METRE FEEDING TIP The F1s are clearly up for it today as that far line is producing every cast in this first hour with indications coming straight away the feed goes in and hooked fish soon after that. The fact that I am catching enables me to demonstrate another good tip and that is to take the opportunity to feed the top 6 line while playing a fish hooked at 14-metres, however if you wait until you have shipped the hooked fish back to the point where just the top six sections are in front of you, you have something to aim your loose feed at accurately. Again a small tip but a great one to feed that top 6 line accurately. A good time to loose feed the top 6 line with maggots is when you have shipped back to 6 metres after hooking a fish across.

25 INTO THE GROOVE I m in the groove already and everything is clicking, all the small details are coming together. This really is a lovely way of fishing cupping in the peat on the long pole, the fish are switched onto that cloud of bait and I am convinced in coloured water that little bit of krill flavour does make a difference. The bites are quite positive on the short rig and then it is important to remember to loose feed a couple of handfuls of maggots onto that top 6 line while playing the hooked fish. The fish are lively, and mostly nice big F1s but they are not that brutal a fighter so you can get away with the 0.13 mm diameter fluorocarbon traces. The F1 s are having it today and I soon settle into a rhythm. Short kit up she pops Make sure the feed and rig are placed accurately and you should avoid foul hooked fish.

26 FIRST 90 MINS The first 90 minutes has been very good fishing across with a string of decent F1 carp coming to the peat cloud. I ve kept my eye on the top 6 line and while I have noticed a few bubbles down the middle there haven t been many swirls. Of course they could come shallow and the swirls are what I look for as a giveaway to try a shallow rig. The fish are lively but easily manageable on the ligher hook lengths

27 Some bubbles showing down the middle A couple of perch came in the quieter spells. QUIETER SPELLS I have had a couple of quieter spells across where I caught a couple of small perch. When that happens what I do is to alter the amount of loose bait that I am putting into the peat, upping the number of casters and chopped worms in each pot of the peat mix. This produced a real good response from the F1s, and I ve also had a couple of barbel too! Some better stamp fish respond especially after upping the partciles in the peat. A couple of barbel showed up among the F1 s

28 DON T BE TOO EAGER TO STRIKE Keep a tight line and the proper bites will hook themselves With this style of fishing long pole to the far bank it is important not be too eager when striking as you will get liners and you do not want to waste time striking at them. What a lot of these F1s do is they go right up to the far bank and then come back and pick the bait up. So if you can keep a tight line they will pull the float and elastic down when they take the bait giving you a proper take in which they will often hook themselves. Be very careful not to foul hook fish and ruin the swim. I m consistently using about an inch long head of a decent fat worm, and all I am doing is feeding a little blob of the peat mix about 4 inches off the bank, then I m pushing the float slightly past the feed and this helps me eliminate the foul hookers. Roughly inch long pieces of worm for the hook Push the float a little bit further out after dropping in the feed to keep the float bankside of the hook bait, this also reduces the chance of foul hooked fish

29 DOWN THE MIDDLE With the far line producing so well if this was a match I would not be prepared to try the middle but this is a practice session and so I am going to have a look on that top 6 line. There has been a very occasional swirl from decent fish down the middle but not really enough to suggest it is worth fishing shallow for them so I will be having a look on that top 6 line with the bottom rig to see if I have built up another catching zone. I will bait the hook with double red maggot. Because it is so productive I would not change from the far line if this was a match, unless I saw others catching better down the middle.

30 The deep rig only produced small silvers so I quickly switch to maggots shallow down the middle. MIDDLE SHALLOW It doesn t take long for the bottom rig to produce but there is no quality there as the fish are very small skimmers and roach. With four small fish in quick succession I decide to try the shallow rig on that top 6 line. I will use the double red maggot on the hook and I will also be tapping the pole which you are allowed to do here at Tunnel Barn. Constantly tapping the surface of the water while loose feeding maggots at regular interval is the way I will attack it now. When fishing shallow I will be tapping the water with the pole tip.

31 STARTED SWIRLING The shallow rig doesn t take long to produce and ironically as I started fishing it and feeding it more with the loose fed maggots the fish started to swirl and it s a fish a bung there at the moment. If you can catch fish shallow its a great way of fishing because you tend to foul hook less fish and the bites are better if you adopt the right approach. Suddenly it s lift off on the maggot shallow and it s an F1 a bung.

32 LET THE ELASTIC PULL OUT a similar fashion to across it is important not to strike every time the float goes under but to wait for the elastic to pull out. You will get a lot of indications and the float could go under times before a decent F1 actually has the bait in it s mouth. When it does with such a short line it will hook itself and the elastic will pull out. You will waste valuable time if you strike when the float goes under. That raises an important point about fishing these bagging F1 waters and that is you need to be fishing for as long as possible, i.e. your baited rig needs to be in the water the maximum amount of time that you don t actually have a fish on the end! Strike at all the dips you get on this shallow rig and you will spend more time in the air than in the water. It is important to keep that loose feed going in because you never know when you will need that bottom line as these F1 fish can be very fickle changing quickly from being shallow, to the far bank, then on the bottom in the middle in a matter of minutes so it pays to keep your options open. The float will go under plenty of times but this will be false bites or bites from nuisance fish so do not strike. Just keep tapping and wait for the elastic to pull out which will happen on such a short rig when an F1 picks up the bait.

33 COMING & GOING I ve had a good spell shallow catching decent F1s but the sun is high in the sky, the wind changed and they seem to be coming and going on the maggot now. So as it s a practice session I m going to do something that earlier I said I wasn t going to do today and that is to try the peat shallow down the middle. I am going to throw the peat and fish shallow with a head of a worm, just like I did across with a decent sized piece of worm. I will be tapping the water with the pole a bit but the key with this method is to throw a small ball of peat accurately so that it lands right on top of the float. That way the splash of peat and the subsequent cloud is what attracts the F1s. Throw the peat accurately

34 WORKING WELL That change has proved good as it is working well, perhaps not as good as the maggot shallow was to start with but better than when the maggot line was fading. With this peat mix it really is vital that you learn to be accurate, what you must avoid is throwing it 2 ft, to the left, 2 ft to the right 2 ft too far, you absolutely want it to be as close to the float as possible. If you can be fairly accurate i.e. within a foot of where you are fishing you can always lift the float out and drop it into the cloud, but really my best advice is to practice until you can hit the float most times. The peat shallow is working well with a combination of tapping & throwing the peat.

35 USE THE CLOUD Once you are feeding accurately you can easily use the cloud to maintain accuracy of feeding, because that lovely black plume is an easy target. This is particularly useful when feeding while playing a fish. Ok your float isn t there to aim at but the cloud is. These are decent F1s down the middle shallow some of them up to the 3 lb mark, a bigger stamp than across. Some decent fish to 3lb fall to the shallow rig. Be accurate with the peat, it s so inviting the fish will home in on it.

36 CONCLUSION I decided to have a few casts back across on the long pole towards the end and it took a few cups of feed to rebuild the swim before a string of F1 s followed. Actually that emphasises a point I made earlier and that had this been a match the way I was catching earlier I would not normally have come off it to try the middle line. On venues where you have to catch a lot of fish for a big weight never neglect a line that is producing for one that you don t yet know about. The only time I would do that is if I could see that other anglers around the lake were on a different line and were either catching bigger fish or the same but faster. However if I am doing well and there or thereabouts I won t blow the line by coming off it, you have to keep that accurate feeding going especially on a long pole far bank shallow margin. Leave it for any length of time and it will take time to get the fish back there to the same catch rate as before. One positive thing I learned today is that when that far line did start to slow up by really upping the amount of casters chopped worms in the peat made a massive difference and the sport actually got better. I ve only lost 2-3 fish across and that s a great rate considering I have landed over 50 from the 14 inch deep swim and it underlines why accuracy of feeding, rig placement and waiting for an elastic puller is so important as you really do reduce lost fish counts. Funnily enough it has just not happend on the bottom down the middle but that just shows that one day something can be best and on another day its a different line that will produce. Tnnel Barn is an awesome fishery and I feel I have learned a lot from my time practicing and in the festival and I can t wait to come back and fish it again. I hope you can take something from what I ve learned and apply it upping your own strike rate when tackling F1 venues. WR. Just part of a big haul the result of meticulous preparation, accurate feeding and rig presentation and an organised set-up. Tunnel Barn Farm Shrewley, Warks. CV37 7AN. House: Shop:

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38 MatchTactics -Bait Adjusting a mix. Tips to alter the consistency of your groundbait mid match xx Tips We all try to ensure that we mix a groundbait correctly in the first place but there are those occasions where you need to make a change mid-match. Maybe it s gone too dry, maybe you need to make it heavier, perhaps you want it to cloud more. What if the fish are coming to it but not staying long? Here Will gives some tips on how to quickly adjust a mix 1 When it s dried out I always keep a 3-pint bait box filled water on my side tray for a multitude of reasons one of which is to re-wet a ground bait mix. The wind and sun can dry out an otherwise perfect mix so I m prepared with that bait box of water to re-wet the mix to dampen it back to the right consistency. I do this simply by cupping a palm full of water and mixing it through the drying mix. 2 To increase the weight of a mix If you find the mix you started with needs to be a bit heaver to get down to the bottom quicker this is where it pays to have some soil, molehill soil or something like Terre De Riveierre with you in your bait bag. A sprinkling of this on the mix and worked through will add the weight you need to get the bait down. 3 To lighten a mix so it clouds If you realise you want the mix to cloud more than to is then I would advise separating some of it into a second bait bowl and using that bait box of water over wet it until it becomes really sloppy. This will then cloud better and you still have some of the less active mix preserved as well. 4 To make a mix hold the fish better If you find that the fish come quickly to the feed but equally quickly disappear this is probably because there is not enough attractants in the mix to hold the fish in the swim. this situation I would look to add some more of the particles to the bait. For example if up to that point I ve been putting a few casters, pellets, chopped worms, dead maggots etc into the mix I will increase the amount of them to give the fish something more to hold them in the swim. 5 To make the mix less filling Conversely it may be that fish are coming to the ground bait and you are getting liners but few actual bites. this situation it could be that the mix has too much food in it and so I d look to cut out the particles in the bait so when the fish come to the feed they are more likely to find your hook bait than the loose particles. You can also dull down a ground bait mix by adding soil because the soil has no food value. WR.

39 Match Tactics - Tackle More on the short silver top kits used in this issues feature. Short kits to success. I know several of you will be intrigued by the silver top kits I used in this month s feature and so I want to talk a bit more about them. I touched on the fact in the feature that as well as being silver in colour they were also shorter than my normal top kits. The shorter top kits are assembled from the normal No.2 sections that come with the usual power kits and terlastics, but the no 3 is substituted with one of the new short No.3 sections that Daiwa have introduced this year. There is no. No.1 section so the overall length of the top kit is shorter than a typical power kit or match kit. The shorter kits are more efficient when fishing shallow venues or with shallow rigs for smaller fish like F1s and venues where there are small carp. Obviously being shorter you won t be able to have as much elastic in the kit as normal but then as you are not fishing for bigger carp that s not an issue. Being short they are good because the fish will come up closer to you and be easier to net. The new No.3s are interchangeable with all the Daiwa range of poles from G50 up. When it comes to the silver colour I just sprayed them up with a can of Honda Satin Silver that I purchased from Halfords. The reason I chose this colour came about after my initial conversation top specimen carper and diver Rob Hughes. It was while watching a match where one of the anglers was using a white pole kit. Rob said he can t understand why they have not caught on because from a diver s perspective anything dark really stands out. I asked Rob if he was a match angler would he use a light coloured pole kit and said he would, definitely.

40 Match Tactics - Silver top kits cont. The mind boggles why no one else has tried them So I mentioned this to my dad John, he s an astute person and he said he wasn t surprised. I asked him what colour he thought would be right, white, sky blue, light grey and he said what colour is the underside of a heron because they are one of the best fish hunters around. It s a kind of silver so I selected the colour that I thought best resembled the underbelly of a heron. If you still think it s a gimmick consider this, my pal Mark Goddard has borrowed the top kits off me because I ve been concentrating on other styles of fishing in recent weeks. He has fished a dozen matches at Moorhouse with those top kits and my rigs and he has won 9 of them. credibly no one has bothered to try and copy the kits. Mark is that good an angler that if he says something to me I trust his judgement and he trusts mine so when he asked me if I thought these silver kits really were so effective and said yes he took me at my word, borrowed them and never looked back. The mind boggles why no one else has tried them in those matches. However I think it s too easy for people to write them off as a gimmick but one reason why I think I m still at the top is because if you like I don t think I am. By that I mean I am always open to learning and trying something if it appears to give me an edge. I wouldn t ever look at white or silver kits being used and think they are silly top kits, what a load of rubbish. I would rather try them to prove for myself if they are of use and that s what happened here. It is actually a good point that if I ever see someone catching better than me or doing really well first I will analyse what they are doing, then I d analyse what they are using as bait and then I d analyse the tackle they are using. I d then adjust anything I learn to what suits my own fishing. So don t ever diss something out of hand, and don t ever diss someones good form as just drawing well as you could easily miss a trick or two. Another big advantage of these short kits is that you don t have to break them down, I keep then in a dedicated holdall with the rigs attached the kits ready to go. I ve just got t get them back off Mark now. WR. Are there tactics you d like Will to cover? your suggestion using the link below: will.raison@v2vangling.co.uk

41 Will s World Fisho & a cut above. WELL it s been a really hectic few weeks starting with the Coral Fishomania ternational pairs event and once again it was a great result for Des Shipp and I to win against some fine international class anglers. I m not going to go in detail about it now as there will be a more detailed article in the next issue. Aside from that I ve turned my attentions to the Gloucester Canal in the practice matches for the Division 1 National Championships. I ve fished five matches there now and really enjoyed it even though the results have been topsy-turvy. the first match I drew peg 622 and came 5th in the peg match with 43 lb of bream, 11 slabs on the pole from a swim about 50 from Saul junction. The next day I drew 71 at Rea in what turned out to be a terrible area. I turned up a bit gung-ho after the first day and thought I d fish for bream again feeding the pole and feeder lines positively for them and I ended with just 7 oz! That match was a big learning curve and a wake up call for me because even though I caught more than those around me it made me realise that there are swims where you can t target bream and have to target bleak and little I have been enjoying the matches on the Gloucester Canal in the lead up to the National Team Champs More on Fish O next month fish. That stood me in good stead for the following weekends matches. The first was on the Friday in the RAF National and I drew 455 at Saul jct, in a section that was a bit narrow. I fished the tip for big fish and caught just one 6 oz skimmer so I switched to the pole allow at 10 m and caught 141 bleak for That was really good although the best weights in my section came from a turning bay. Ironically I was next to England team mate Sean Ashby and we tied on weight. Everyone else in our area managed around 3 lb so I was pleased with the result form the peg. On the Saturday I drew 230 at Rea on the S-bends an area I have had some past experience of and knew that I d need bream and skimmers to do any good. The trend that was coming out from these matches was that you had to get to your peg and make decision as to whether you would fish for big fish or bits. If you were going to fish for big fish then there is no half measure you have to commit to it all match. So on this peg I committed to fish for bream and caught four on the feeder for 4 kilos and although the lad next to me had five bream for 6 kilos I was happy because my weight would have been top ten in the section in a National team event.

42 Will s World Match Winner You have to commit to small fish or big fish On the Sunday I drew 817 at Purton and as the word was that you wanted to be I was happy with the draw. Its at the opening of the timber ponds an area I area knew I would have to commit to big fish again, so I did. I landed three tench to 5 lb 8 oz, four bream and two big skimmers 9 bites 9 fish and 27 lb 14 oz enough to win the 80-pegger all on the tip. Ian Didcote and Callum Dicks both have a very good knowledge of this venue and they both advised me not to fish light. Well fishing too light is not in my vocabulary so I set-up with 0.17 mm diameter trace to a size 13 Kamasan B711 and I know if I had fished any lighter all three tench would have broke me. As I write we have yet to fish the National itself and my Daiwa Dorking team certainly have the anglers capable of winning but I reckon it will depend on who draws where because we have some guys who you don t want on the scratching bleak pegs so its a case of drawing well but also drawing the right anglers on the right pegs. WR. If you fancy a day s one to one tuition with me give me send an to me at will.raison@v2vangling.co.uk charge is 200 a day if it is at Gold Valley and that includes day ticket bait and use of keepnet. I can travel and expenses will be extra. WR. If I get a bag this in the National I will be a happy man!

43 CommercialProspects Trendy summer. IT is always interesting monitoring trends and each year different tactics arise and just lately I ve noticed that the method feeder definitely doesn t seem to be firing on all cylinders. Whether the fish have had a gut full of it over the summer I don t know it just doesn t seem to be working consistently. Yes it will catch odd fish and is still scoring when targeting islands or banks you can cast to, but in open water it is not catching. Perhaps the carp have started to wise up to it. That said a couple of new trends are emerging both involving feeder fishing. One is to fish the method with a longer hook length of around 6-7 inches with a hard pellet. Alternatively a big cage feeder filled with 8 mm pellets and a hard pellet on the hair of a 12 inch hook length has been working well for carp and bream mixed nags, in fact it is starting to take venues apart. fact it is starting to take venues apart So if you are finding that the method feeder has gone a bit on your waters try a longer hook length or the cage feeder and hard pellet option. WR.

44 Your Question s Will s Answers Towing away from you, how to deal with it? Will I faced a difficult situation the other day in that the peg I was on was at the narrow end of the lake the wind was hitting my bank hard but the undertow was pulling the rig away from the pole tip out towards the middle of the lake quite hard. I was fishing 13 metres in 6 ft. of water and could only get odd bites. I think I wasn t able to make sure my rig was over the feed. How would you advise dealing with this situation, where would you feed in relation to the rig and where would you put the rig in. Also would you fish with a longer line to allow it to trip further? Greg Tidball, UK. Will say s: It s always difficult but what you have to try and do is to build up a mental picture as to where the bait is settling on the bottom so you can judge how long a line you need from float to tip and then have a bit of pole behind you so that you can feed it out to make sure you are on top of the fed bait. The fact of the matter is that this will only come with experience but you should find that most bites will occur a certain distance away from where the feed enters the water so that is where you need to gear the rig to WR. SOLUTIONS Line clip for straight lead accuracy I m a novice angler and not overly confident at casting accurately all the time. I was wondering when I am casting a straight lead over the waggler line would you advise clipping up so I hit the same spot each time, or will it not matter if I m a metre or two either side, shorter or longer? Carl Matthews, UK. Will say s: Accuracy is the main thing and clipping up obviously aids you to achieve accuracy if you are not good at casting accurately unaided. However a lot of times in the year you won t actually be fishing for lots of bites because of the size of the target fish and that gives you the time to cast the lead out two or three times to get it into the right place. You can cast past the spot and wind back to the right place then clip-up and cast out again to the clip so your baited rig lands in the correct spot. You can then take the clip off ready for any battling carp to take line. the long run though there is no substitute for accurate casting skills WR. Hooking hemp What s the best way to hook hemp for roach on the river, I never seem to get the stuff to stay on. I ve read about using it through the flat bit and out through the split bit but often it just disintegrates in my hand. I have tried hooking unslit pieces but struggle. Am I right in thinking that fake hemp is not allowed in English match fishing? All I want is a simple and efficient way to keep the hemp on the hook Ted Foster, UK. Will say s: First of all fake baits are not allowed in matches under Angling Trust rules. The best way to hook hemp is to use the point of knot picker tool to punch a hole in the side of the hemp then push the point of the hook through and back out through the actual slit, this is very quick as far as time is concerned and you can be confident it will stay on. I like to select a big piece of hemp but one that has not fully opened out as it will retain a bit more strength than a more open piece. That helps with the durability of the hook bait. WR.

45 Your Question s Will s Answers Worm shallow quantities and hook bait sizes When fishing the worm shallow what sort of quantities of bait would you recommend for 5 hours. Groundbait and loose particles to go in it as well as amount of worms? Larry Palmer, UK. Will say s: Aside from all the tips in this month s feature this is one of those subjects I could write 100 pages on. To boil it down to basics when using worms relate it to the venue you are fishing and what other baits are known to work there. For example if you know hemp or corn works then fish the worm in conjunction with those baits, if casters work on the venue fish worms with casters, if like at Tunnel Barn peat works then fish worms with the peat. The beauty of worms is that they can be added to a multitude of other baits and work well. For example you can add them to groundbait, peat, hemp, casters, corn etc. it really depends on the venue in question. Likewise for the amounts that will depend on the venue if you are fishing for a lot of fish less fish and what size those fish are. WR. SOLUTIONS Cooking hemp Would you advise that it it is better to cook your own hemp or is the stuff you buy in tins good enough to use as feed and hook baits? James Ruddick, UK. Will say s: Most good tackle shops will cook their own hemp, we certainly do at Gold Valley. What I tend to do is use tinned hemp for feed and the hemp we cook for hook baits. The reason for this is if you buy freshly cooked hemp it will come in bags and have a shorter life. On the other hand the tinned stuff if not opened can last for months and months. So you can always keep a tin of it in your bag. So my tip if you know you are going to fish a seed venue by all means use tinned as feed but buy some fresh cooked for hookers WR. Really big expander instead of paste? Do you reckon a really big expander pellet, say a 10 mm would be a viable alternative hook bait to paste? I don t know anyone who fishes with big expanders but reckon it could be a new way to catch carp. What do you think? Dave Hunter, UK. Will say s: The trouble with expanders, even 8-10 mm ones is that they are a soft bait and as such are highly susceptible to being pecked apart by little fish like small skimmers and roach which is mainly why expanders are a better winter bait when everything is a lot harder to catch. If your venue does not hold a big head of silvers then yes maybe they would work but be aware even big expanders suffer from unwanted small fish attention. There are other problems for example expander s don t sink to the bottom quickly and that means the hook bait will be in the right part of the swim for a shorter time. Also because it sinks slower it will more likely attract that unwanted small fish interest. Paste is heavier and will sink quickly. WR.

46 Your Question s Will s Answers Corn juice useful additive or sticky hindrance Do you use the juice that sweetcorn comes in and add it to your ground bait at all? I know it s sticky to touch but it seems to make a lovely cloud. I d love to know if you just tip it away or add to your baits. Tom Heath, UK. Will say s: No I never use the juice and the reason is because when I select and choose a groundbait I do so because I want the ground bait to the job I ve selected it for so I tip corn juice away. WR. Got a question for Will? your question using the link below: will.raison@v2vangling. co.uk SOLUTIONS When a peg is nearly good enough but not quite! What is your mindset when you draw a peg that you know has a reputation of being nearly good enough to frame but not quite, the sort of draw where a decent angler tends to end up one or two out of the main frame on it. Do you attack it harder or go a bit easy on it to try and eek out that little bit extra. Is it worth going against the grain on such pegs and trying something completely different? Mark Brabyn, UK. Will say s: This is a very good question, I always try to do as good a job as I can from a peg of this type especially on commercials because if you get it right the results can be massive. For example its possible to catch six fish in edge on a peg where a lot would only catch three and that can be enough to make the frame. So instead of thinking it is not good enough to win I like to approach the peg with the mindset that I need to do the right things absolutely spot on to win. A good angler on the best peg should win by a mile but put the best angler on the worst peg and they will do no good. However put a good angler on an average peg and they can still win. I certainly don t believe you should do something completely different no that s shooting yourself in the foot. That just means you would likely completely blow any chance you had on the peg, whereas with a bit of luck on the day and doing it the right way, the way you should do it can win you the match. I ve seen good anglers on these sort of pegs win matches by doing a really nice job. People might be messing up the fliers and if they are then a good angler on one of these nearly pegs will have a great chance WR.

47 Your Question s Will s Answers Very silty bottoms I fish a pond with a really silty bed and I m never absolutely sure of my plummet readings. The bigger plummets do come back caked in silt and debris and the really light ones even pick up some of the silt and this makes it really difficult to decide how to set the float when trying to fish at dead depth. It doesn t matter where you plumb there are no real hard areas of lake bed. Can you suggest how I can plumb it up and be sure that the rig is set to dead depth. Lewis Rayner, UK. Will say s: I mean you never can be totally sure so what I tend to do is I will always be prepared to re-plumb during the match because these types of bottoms are always moving. That said I am 100 percent sure there will harder areas especially if you come back towards the near bank as the lake has got to go from shallow to deep and that means some kind of drop off. Silt and debris always settles in the deepest part it won t settle on that area of drop off and that s where you will find the hard bottom. To help you identify it, use a big heavy 30 gr, plummet and drop it from 2 ft off bottom and note how it feels when it hits bottom. If it feels as if it is attached to double sided sticky tape i.e. it takes a bit of a pull to free the plummet then you are on silt. If the plummet lifts of freely without any resistance then you are on a hard bottom. That s where you want to target fish. WR. SOLUTIONS Is it better to tire a fish out with the longer pole or to get it down to the top kit and play it on that? With hard fighting carp is it better to get the fish down to the top kit as quick as possible and play it on the puller kit or is it better to use the length of the pole as well as the elastic to tire it out? Allan Durraces, UK. Will say s: I get asked a lot about playing fish and it is all about controlled aggression, to pull as hard as you dare without getting snapped or pulling out. It s like Lewis Hamilton can get in a car and push it to it s limits and not crash, that s through practice and experience. Playing carp is the same knowing how hard you can pull and how far you can push the tackle comes with practice and experience. That said the be all and end all is actually landing the fish so err on the side of caution until you have the experience. It is one of those aspects of fishing that you cannot read and go and do, it is one things in fishing that is an earned skill. By all means try and get down to the top 3 puller kit as quick as you can but not too quick that the fish is still out in middle as you will probably end up pulling too hard and getting broke. I always use the pole as well as the elastic to play fish, at metres the pole can bend from butt to tip as much as 2-3 metres and that s a lot for a fish to pull against so use everything in your favour. Often the pole bends a fair bit before the elastic locks up. The main thing is that if the fish is still running keep everything low to the water. WR.

48 NEXT TIME IN A WORLD CHAMPIONʼS ANGLE Digital Video Episode VA2V P FISH O INTERNATIONAL Will s Story No.78 Look out for notification when Will Raison s A World Champion s Angle, No. 78, will be available for download Brian Gay V2V Angling Productions Ltd Find us on Facebook #WillRaisonEmag

49 Ready to subscribe? Choose from three options Monthly, Annual or Legacy Click on a Sign-up link below, complete the form, online payment and start downloading from our library. Hours of match winning info in video and articles for you to view across your electronic devices. View on your computer, smartphone, smart TV or tablet.