The Independent Angler: A catch for The Independent’s blogs

To kick off what is a new weekly blog for anglers of all kind here on The Independent website, I can announce a partnership with Fishing TV to bring you four great free-to-view video magazines here on www.independent.co.uk.

There’s one each for coarse, carp, sea and game anglers, each holding around two and a half hours of up-to-date, informative and entertaining programmes relevant to the fishing you do.

All of the content is completely free-to-view online, on iphones and on ipads, and the issues are updated with completely new content every month.  Just click on one of the links below and use the arrows to scroll through the playlist…

Carp Channel Monthly

Sea-Watch Monthly

Game Fisher’s Diary

Coarse And Match Fishing Monthly

Bigger payout for Maver Match This competition

The big money Maver Mega Match This competition is taking on a new format and will no longer be winner takes all. Organiser Phil Briscoe has considered views from the match angling community and as well as still guaranteeing the biggest purse in the sport for the winner at £50,000, the event will also pay second place (£5,000) and third place (£3,000) for the first time in 2012.

Phil commented: “We took on board feedback from last year’s event and we hope the competition will now appeal to more people to ensure it’s even bigger and better.”

The qualifiers for this year’s competition begin at Woodland View Fishery on April 7th and conclude with the final at Maver Larford Lakes on September 1st. Tickets are available online at www.mavermatchthis.co.uk .

www.tcfmagazine.com

Chew’s 40lb double

Somerset’s Chew Reservoir is a phenomenon in pike fishing circles. Usually pike are unable to stand any kind of sustained angling pressure but this venue, run by Bristol Water, appears to just get better and better.

The venue rubber stamped its reputation when the opening of the 2012 pike trials produces 11 pike over the magic 30lb mark.

That included the capture of two massive 40lb specimens in one day, the biggest of which weighed 41lb 4oz.
Paul Garner (pictured) also boated a fish of a lifetime at 37lb 15oz.

Wandle Trout on the comeback trail

The River Wandle has had a chequered history, having come back from the dead to produce wonderful fishing in and around the city of London, only to be hit by a devastating pollution in 2007 which killed over two tonnes of fish over a 5km stretch, and for which Thames Water Utilities Limited was eventually fined £125,000 in 2009.

Thames Water pledged £500,000 over a five-year period to support local environmental improvements and paid compensation to local angling clubs of around £10,000, and the work is beginning to bear fruit.

Thanks mainly to the efforts of charity group The Wandle Trust including work to weirs, improvements of spawning beds, fish passes and flow modifications, the fish are making a come-back.

Trout have been seen spawning around Carshalton and redds, areas of gravel trout clean out before spawning, have also been spotted, so fingers crossed.

HS2 looks gloomy for historic carp waters

Campaigning anglers are starting a petition after it was revealed that the HS2 rail project could destroy some of the most revered waters in carp fishing.

The venues under threat include the famous Savay Lake in the Colne Valley, plus Denham Lake and Korda, the home of the British Carp Study Group. The plans would also see the £32 billion Birmingham to London rail link pass right alongside Broadwater Lake and Harefield. It’s said the rail line would see Savay Lake ‘sliced in two’ by the new track.

To join the Save Savay Lake Facebook group click on the link below:
SAVE SAVAY LAKE

www.totalseamagazine.com

Big cod coming in

Sea anglers out there will probably already know that this is a very good year for cod – indeed I have already cashed in myself with an excellent trip in the Bristol Channel with skipper Rob Rennie on the ‘Lady Jue’ which produced some 40 cod averaging around 5lb.

However, the big boys have also been showing in good numbers and I’ve been told that this is the best chance for years of catching that dream 30lb fish.

One such fish of a lifetime came over the side when my friends from Total Sea Fishing magazine were out of Newhaven with skipper Frank Shaw aboard his charter boat the ‘Carrick Lee’.

Frank was drifting over a wreck just after the tide began to flood when a superb 34lb cod (pictured) snaffled Worthing angler Steve Woods’ tasty-sounding Rhubard And Custard Sidewinder – which is a kind of imitation sandeel. It was a personal best for Steve and will be featured in the magazine soon. Incidentally, Frank has a DVD of his wreck fishing exploits which can be viewed online at www.fishingcinema.tc.

Iceland – In search of char and salmon

Each week I’ll highlight one of the programmes in the video angling magazines here on www.independent.co.uk that I feel is really worth a look.

This week it’s the turn of the fly fisherman out there, who might want to check out the episode of Game Fisher’s Diary in which he goes in search of Icelandic char and salmon.

Some of you might recall Rae as starring alongside Geoffrey Palmer in Discovery TV’s The Compleat Angler series, and in recent years he’s been filming all over the world for The Game Fisher’s Diary.

In this episode, which is split into three parts and is free to view for another week, Rae is taken to the River Jorkla on the east coast of Iceland.

It’s a spectacular corner of the planet that is guaranteed to set the pulses of any game angler racing with its salmon, sea trout and Arctic char.

Rae’s targeting the river’s char on the fly first of all in the company of an expert guide, and the pair are soon catching fresh-run fish in the crisp, crystal clear waters.

But Rae has salmon on the brain, and needs ladders, ropes and the bottle of a mountain goat to reach the his next destination, where he’s greeted with the incredible sight of dozens of big salmon that are easy to see, but not so easy to catch…

He’s up with the larks the following morning determined to break his duck and finally catch an Icelandic salmon on the fly.

Rae finds himself at a picture postcard pool that has not been fished in living memory, and finally he has his prize salmon in the net… and his mojo back!

You can watch it here on this website, free-to-view, at www.independent.co.uk/gamefishing until February 10th. Use the arrows to scroll through the playlist… and enjoy!

gareth.purnell@onlinefishing.tv

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