Great river tips for summer fishing!

AS ALWAYS I’m really looking forward to getting back on some river matches now the new season’s begun. I nipped out for some pleasure fishing on two midlands rivers on June 16.

Now I know many of your reading this blog rarely fish matches, if at all. So here, to start my first blog for Angler’s Mail, are some top tips for everyone!

• Keep mobile to find the fish – can be difficult to locate fish after the closed season break. A mobile approach roving approach is often best so travel light.

• Target shallows  – fish the shallows to start with if possible. These swims will often hold  fish as the water is more oxygenated. Also the fish will have congregated in the shallows for spawning and maybe cleaning themselves in these areas.

• Fish early or late – long day light hours this time of year make quick sessions viable. Also target these periods as fish will be feeding more confidently than in the middle of the day

• Focus on big baits – Small nuisance fish can be a problem with maggots and casters this time of year. I like to focus on bigger traditional baits like bread flake, lobworms and luncheon meat for early season chub and barbel sessions.

• Pre-bait – if possible pre-baiting will give you a great advantage and result in bigger bags of fish. Use cheap baits like brown crumb groundbait, hemp and corn.

  A chub in the shallows…keen to take floating bread. Great fun!

   

Back to the competition scene, and I’ve already got a hectic schedule of matches booked through the summer and into the winter league season. My main team commitments are focused on the Division One National on the Trent with the Shakespeare Superteam guys. We won last year on the Trent and Mersey Canal and we want to defend our title.

The Shakespeare Superteam in 2013

Given favorable conditions I think the Trent will be a great venue and I can’t wait to fish the practice matches and obviously the National itself. For me the buzz generated at the Div 1 is still awesome and the pinnacle of team fishing in the UK.

I’ve entered into ten Riverfest qualifiers and think this competition has given a great boost to river match fans like me. I qualified for the final last year and would love another crack at the final on the Wye again this year.

First qualifier for me is on the Severn at Lower Lode and I’ve not fished this venue for over 10 years so it will be interesting to see how it fishes. The matches always used to be dominated by bream so if the rivers carrying some colour, a groundbait feeder will be my main and probably only attack.

However despite our enthusiasm, the start of the season can sometimes be tough and I’ll bear that in mind on the first few matches. My aim will be to catch whatever I can on these matches and do the peg justice,  I know a lot of the qualifiers last year went through with much lower weights than expected!

In between these Riverfest and the National I plan to focus on the opens at Evesham on the Avon. These matches are really well attended and most sold out last year (70 pegs). Evesham really is a tough venue with some serious competition but I enjoy the opens and the Festival weekend.

Last year we came second in the team event behind Dorking and we’ll be fighting hard to go one place higher this year!