21st April - Moira Furnace canal

I decided to get back to the Furnace and get back to doing better than my first trip there a few weeks earlier . The match run by those Starlets , last years 2018 AT Pairs champions , Paul Middleton and David Gough.
At the draw it was great to meet up with Lee Bennet and Carl Lynch plus Tim Kinson and the draw gave me Peg 9 which i was happy about as it was almost car to the peg .
The peg was approx. 9 metres across and it appeared to be a steady 3.5 feet deep the water had some clarity to it but overall a nice tinge of green in the water .


The days office

To my right into the basin

To my left

All set up in the shade at the moment but the sun is expected to beat down later so suntan cream was administered .

Decided to fish all different floats on 4 tops and two whips

All set up with a small mix of Green Swimstim and 3 pints of pinkies/maggots and caster

1.5 metre whip with Maurizio Schiepatti Mercury 0.3gr

Floats for halfway to three quarter were a SENSAS Jeff 2 0.2 gr and a Maurizio Schiepatti Venus 0.2 gr

Bagging rig (hopefully) is a Maurizio Schiepatti (Carbon) 0.4gr with tight string of no 10/12 STOTS

Far side was an EXNER 0.2gr Anette

4.5m whip with a 0.3gr EXNER Nelli 

David Gough - 2nd on the day

Paul Middleton - 1st on the day

Charlie Gooch - 3rd on day

8-7 for me and 4 oz short of the section - should have fished close the whole match really

Also discovered the snagging ?? 

Most photos of the framers courtesy of Middleton/Gough photo media productions

 Next match on 12th May - This time i will be all systems go with tactics.

BIG ONE show Stoneleigh April 13/14th

I had been planning for this show for a few months stealing time in between my main stream work over in Denmark. Much of the work was checking my stock and making sure of the pricing as i control 3,200 parts in my Montage of products . Finally the 12th April appeared and Carola and i drove to the exhibition halls to set up the tables and carousels with both of us suffering with bad colds and Carola's cold now supported with antibiotics . After an afternoon of setting up 5 carousels we departed for home and rest ready for the next days opening action.

On the Saturday we entered the hall and exchanged opening encouraging words with Sean Ashby and Lee Harries later to see Aiden Stokes, all of us were full of great expectations , will it be so ? . We had one carousel to get ready and just when we thought it would be done the organisers let everyone in 30 minutes earlier , great !The start was quite encouraging and first 3 hours were good but by lunch there was little going on and that remained the same into the afternoon. The same pattern was for Sunday also .

 Poor Carola she had been with cold for 2 weeks and still working at school

Good friends John and Katey Kilby

David Mellors also was there collecting his Halkon Hunt we recently purchased.

Trevor Newey

Paul Taylor and Joe Oakes

Phil Mattock

Colin Talbot in the centre

Well well , a blast from the past , last seen in 2011 in the Swedish Scandanavian Masters , Klaus Fix .

Did not recognise him with his shirt on !!!

Sam Merry and son no1 turned up

A right pair of bouncers

Mark Pollard floats compliment on display

Rogues gallery

For me as a small outlet i would say the show was an average success as i have more recognition through my online customers . The show has time to grow for next year as its been years since last shown in the Midlands .

2019 - 27th February , practice on the Sutton Soar with Dean and Colin

You could be forgiven thinking the three of us today were in June instead of February such was the strange warmth and total sun we endured. As part of the 'river' team in readiness for the competition for March 10th we decided to meet up with Captain Dean Cherrington and use the B+J . Under Deans's scrutiny we applied our measurements of ground bait / soil / leam / so much joker and we all fished in a line using same methods which was all pole at 11m to 14m .

Well ! less said about the first 2 hours as neither of us gained a bite ! However Dean started to lay on and fished a rig over depth with 4 blood worms and he extracted a decent 1.75lb Perch . He took another later with a decent roach a bit later . Colin and myself were fish less at this point and i started to walk the bank looking for inspiration.

It was later in the afternoon that i took a rest and laid my pole down at 5m and i had a bite on red maggot . Tried again 15 minutes later and float down and a decent 5oz roach came out . I started then to fire consistently 7-10 maggots over the balling line and went out on my light 0.5gr SENSAS Abbieville float with shot spread but tight and 20's SENSAS 3405 hook and as the sun got lower in the sky the fish came on , be it slowly and all three of us took 10 plus good roach up to 8oz .

Conclusion of the day where we fished on pegs 62-63-64 , dont draw these pegs and the need for a cloudy day would somewhat help .


3 x top 5's with Maurizio Schiepatti 0.75gr , Abbieville 1.0g and later 0.5gr , MAS-Sam Merry special.

Office for the day

Early morning mist and cold cleared and we were soon in T-Shirts

Dean fine tuning rigs

Colin also tuning

Dean master class in getting the b+j correct

End of day - very slow start and near the end we took some good weight builder roach.

Dean with a large Perch , roach and skimmer