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I know ecactly how you feel mate. I was the Match secretary for Vauxhall ac for 4 years and your right lots of people tell you where your going wrong but never any volunteers to help. I use to have to drive an hour to the river on a saturday afternoon and then spend 3 hrs pegging 50 pegs ready for the sunday morning. One guy in particular use to moan continually about the pegs being in wrong places etc. He lived about a mile from the venue. After one match i told him he was pegging the next match since he knew best. He never commented again once he realised how problematic it was getting that many pegs in a weed filled river. When i retired as secretary i gave up match fishing aswell.

This might just be me and my experiences, but when i'm roach fishing a river i like to purposefully move the roach up and down the swim. by changing where i put feed or quantity. A lot of rivers i've fished i've found if i try to keep the roach in one area a pike moves nearby and starts spooking them. By moving them up and down the swim a bit i find they stay a little more confident. Saying that when roach fishing rivers i've never used groundbait and prefer smaller baits like hemp caster and maggots. In the summer any where between a dozen to a handful of freebies every cast (Handful if chub are around) In thewinter as few as 6 per cast.

Its going back about 4yrs now but i picked up a 3 man dome tent from tesco's in Camo colours for £17.50 great light weight bivvy for the summer months and still going strong,

I tried that bit of Kit years ago when i was working in engineering. We were never that impressed the tool life was rediculously short and the acuracy wasnt to good either.

The same happens on the upper ouse during the summer and early autumn we caught everything roach,dace,bleak perch etc. Come the winter winter matches you either caught a cpl of big chub or absolutely nothing. Part of the reason i gave up match fishing. In the winter you fished for 5 bites knowing they would be 4lb+ chub (still using maggots on a stick or waggler) 5 bites usually won you the match.

I find lots of clubs have web pages. The quality of most leaves a lot to be desired though. Many are just never updated or at best once or twice a year. The good ones i know in my area are Milton keynes and Luton AC both of these are regulary updated. Bad ones i could name are Vauxhall AC and Northampton Nene AC Information is so out of date its virtually worthless. I know a lot of clubs that when i've searched for them just dont appear.

Dales you might like this article i came across. http://tcfmagazine.com/news/item/243-11lb-12oz-zed-banked Want to meet up there in a few weeks?

Like others the first thing i need to do is thank mark for all his hard work organising the event. It was great to put faces to names and have a good chin wag inbetween catching fish . I did manage to catch a pike but chose not to weigh the specimen. deciding it better to return the fish safely back to grow even bigger. Maybe dales will do me the honour of posting the pic on here for me. After this little taster i'm fairly sure i'll be back on the fens for another crack at the zander. Thanx again mark and i hope to meet up again for another try.

I'll be there hoping to arrive around 4/5pm though. Really relying on someones expertise on catching lives lol as i doubt i'll have time.

Having never targetted them before and it being a good few years since i actively targetted any preds. I thought i might ask some tips of you guys. At the moment my intention is this 3 rods 2lb test curve ( drennan tench/bream rods ) 11lb mono snap tackle 30lb trace wire. My thoughts at the moment are to float fish one rod live/dead roach and to ledger 2 dead baits. one far bank one near i'm also going to grounbait an area just to one side of each of the ledgered baits.

I had intended on attending the entire event but now have to work saturday morning. But this will not be stopping me, i will be there but probably not until late afternoon evening so save me a good peg and catch me some bait ready for my arrival.

Soak the pellets for 5 mins the night before , drain and leave in an air tight bag. Next morning the pellets will be nice and soft and can be moulded around a method feeder. If you really Kneed them you can turn them into a pellet paste a trick i've used in the past is to make a pellet paste put this on the method feeder then add normal pellets to this squeezing them into the paste so you have a mixture of pellets and paste.

Just out of curiosity and since i'm planning on targetting the Zeds for the first time ever. Is there a max rod limit on the venue? Space to set up a bivvie Suitable tackle rod wise? I was thinking of using 2lb test rods but i have a cpl of 2 3/4 test would these be more suitable? Do you use snap tackle for zander or single hooks? And i assume you do use wire traces?

I intend coming and am hoping to target Zander as its a species i've never fished for before. So waiting to see who's going to get advice from and hopefully a fish on the bank.

I live 2mins from drayton but have never fished it. I keep meaning to but just never got around to it. I tend to know the Gu canal a lot better south of MK as thats where i grew up fishing. But i know around bugbrook is meant to be good. Or around the Braunston tunnel. If you ever want to meet up for some tips or even a day out just pm me i drive so could pick you up on the way to some of my better known haunts.

I'm in Daventry. More than happy to meet up some time.

Motherhen most of my canal fishing is done early morning you'll rarely find me on the canal in this area gone 9am. Any method is good. If you going to stalk i suggest taking some chub mixer (floating dog Food) fire freebies 4/5 at features as you go watch for the fish to start taking them and offer a piece of freelined crust and hold on. Some of the carp in this area would put some of these specimen lakes to shame. So make sure you have a big landing net. Another good time for this method is an hour before dark into darkness.

Any update on the wireless alarms? I'm looking at buying a set of 4 very soon and was wondering if yours are about to be released for sale.

I'm interested and i own a van anyway. Not sure i own the rods/reels for the big french carp yet though.

Which canal did you have in mind? Normal tactics for the canal are size 20/18 hooks to a 1.5/2 lb hooklength small waggler approach. Assuming you dont own a pole. Single maggot or pinkine loose feeding 6-10 maggots/pinkies every cast. This is if your targetting what evers there. The canal near me holds carp to 30+lbs good head of bream aswell so sometimes you may find you need stronger tackle than you think.

Although Carp fishing isnt my cup of tea i'm now of the view that if commercials and carp pools hadnt become so predominant then a lot of what we take for granted as bait , tackle and tactics wouldnt be readily available now. I've never made my own boilies have a rough idea how but just never have. Its just so much easier to go buy them. The same actually applies to maggots and casters how many of us have bred our own maggots. I did it a few times years ago much to my mums annoyance. I'm old fashioned as i think a lot of the present day anglers hav'nt served the "apprenticeship" catching small fish and building up to being specimen hunters. But if i was honest would i have tried for instant glory when i first started if it was an option?. At the end of the day it boils down to the question each of us have been asked by a non fishing friend. """ Why do you go fishing? , its Boring "" We each have our own reasons and should accept others reasons with equal respect.

Are you stick float fishing or Waggler?. From experience if your stick float fishing and try to overhead cast you'll get a lot of problems. With waggler its hard to describe a basic shot pattern but try this. number 8 shot 6 inches from hook a number 6shot 13 inches from hook then another number 6 27 inches from float the remainder of shot around the base of the float. The thing you'll notice is at each shot the line will swing like a hinge so the hook wont reach any of the shot. Another thing that helps a lot is if you "Check" (stop the line with finger on spool) just before the float lands this helps regardless what style of float fishing your doing.

I dont tend to go round your bit on the few times a year i fish the canal i fish the "running water" area near braunston tunnel. Great for bream and carp there.

Hi what time you going? it may be worthwhile calling in heyfords and getting some maggots. fish around 3/4s of the way across so your bait is at the bottom of the main track just where it starts sloping up. and just keep trickling bait in. Theres alsorts in the area tench,bream and carp from experience i dont tend to particulary target any of them and fish for what turns up. if you use groundbait i start with 3 tangerine size and egg sized ball after each boat or 20 mins which evers first (guarantee its the boat during the day) Look for far bank cover over hanging bushes etc rather than the plain bank sections. I might pass by and see how your doing.

Buy a cpl of cheap whips a cpl of pole rigs and you've got the canal on your doorstep if you just want to catch anything.