Articles

Mullet and the Greys Prodigy VX
Mullet and the Greys Prodigy VX   After my recent and extremely enjoyable Tench session, it was now time to switch my attention to salt-water, and to see how the Prodigy VX stands up to the power of a Grey Mullet!         Although strong north-westerly winds were going to be a major problem, the tides were perfect, and I thought I would make the most of this opportunity for a Mullet bash. The wind can be problematical as most of my Mullet angling is carried out ...

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Tench and the Greys Prodigy VX
Tench and the Greys Prodigy VX It has been a strange season for Tench in 2015! Fair enough, I didn’t put a huge effort into targeting them, but they are normally a little more willing than my results would suggest. Tench angling has been well covered, but hopefully there may be a few tips in this article to take away with you.       I made a huge mistake, thinking that my specimens taken last year were in mid-June, and basically relaxed, imagining I had plenty of time....

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Roach/Rudd Hybrids
Roach/Rudd Hybrids My annual specimen pilgrimage for these fellas seems to become tougher each year! Now, I realise times change and most venues have peaks and troughs over long time spans, but unfortunately, one of my favourite venues, one of many in my lifetime, has fallen victim to outside influence it seems.     I hate to harp on about our immigrant angling “friends”; god knows it now bores the life out of me, never mind you, the reader. But it is a fact that this ...

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Targeting Bream, featuring the Penn LTD 7000
Targeting Bream, featuring the Penn LTD 7000 Bloody hell! Fishing? More like that Japanese Endurance show that used to be on the telly. I feel that I’m getting to old for it all, let me explain!       I had acquired a set of Affinity LTD 7000’s, the new Live-liner reels from Penn, and an “Easy Rider” carp barrow from JRC. As usual, I wanted to do a wee write-up on the new gear. Obviously there is no use talking about an item of tackle without actual...

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In search of specimen Twaite Shad
In search of specimen Twaite Shad About Twaite Shad In Ireland, we have two species of Shad, namely Twaite Shad (Alosa fallax) and the larger but much more elusive Allis Shad (Alosa alosa). To complicate matters, it is a fact that these species also hybridise usually requiring genetic testing for accurate identification.     The Irish Specimen Fish Committee provides this service when a Shad is submitted by an angler as a possible specimen for verification. The current Irish reco...

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Large Irish Perch
Large Irish Perch A week ago Andrew Wolsey and I had a bit of a “red letter” day in the hunt for specimen Perch. With two dozen landed, all between one and two pounds, including two pushing specimen size and one over the magical 1.2 kilo, it was only natural to want to try again.       However, in my experience, and in particular with Perch, a return visit rarely produces a similar result. We caught it just right at the time. Perfect conditions, right bait correct...

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The hunt for large Perch
In pursuit of large Perch 2015 has been a slow year for me as a specimen hunter. Commitments at home have been such that time spent on the water has been somewhat limited.   Obviously, when you aren’t fishing, you won’t catch and this is the problem.       A few weeks previous, James Robbins from Shakespeare UK kindly sent over an Agility Drop Shot Rod to have a play with, and with a selection of Berkley lures, new and old, I had no excuses not to get ...

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Shakespeare Superteam Match Combo
Shakespeare Superteam Match A second product test   I enjoyed fishing the waggler with the Superteam Combo so much recently, I had the strong urge to get out again and track down these elusive Roach and Roach/Rudd specimens.     This time I tried another lake that has produced big fish for me in the past, with the pleasing company of Andrew Wolsey and Simon Gibson to join in on the hunt. Andrew off in search of large Perch Although Simon was keen to find his first specim...

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Shakespeare Mach2 match rod and reel
Product Review   Shakespeare Mach2 match rod and reel   And the pursuit of Mullet     Regular readers may remember that during the summer I had the opportunity to test the new Shakespeare Mach 2 match rod and reel. I targeted Bream and Tench and also “bagged” up around 30lb of Rudd and skimmers in my father’s pond. The rod performed faultlessly. I finished that short product review with the promise that before the year was out I would really put the r...

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Last shot on the erne
Terry’s Travels Last shot on the erne (for now)   I know you should never say never, but this is probably my last shot on this section of the Erne until the winter moves in again. We only ventured out a few times since the start of the year, and although nothing large showed, we had plenty of fish to the boat.     But soon, with the weather showing signs of warming, there will be other species to target, and Pike will be given a rest, for a while at least. On a pre...

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