2008-09-07T20:21:08Z Andrew Wedgbury awedgbury@blueyonder.co.uk Copyright 2008, Andrew Wedgbury SPHPBLOG

I have, for a while now, had a proud association with the excellent line manufacturer 'Ultima' who are taking the manufacture of fishing line to a whole new level of excellence.

I was recently pleased to find the post man at my door with a parcel from this great company and, having extensive experience of their excellent product, I eagerly opened the parcel to see what goodies awaited me. I was not disappointed. I was greeted by one of the latest additions to the 'Ultima' arsenal 'Ultima Power Carp'

The very next chance I had, I rushed of to my local lake to do battle with some carp! I tried the line both at close range which, as you know, is my personal speciality and at long range and found that it performed entirely as expected.

Knot strength, visibility in the water and the sheer confidence I felt in this line made for an excellent days fishing. The only problem really is that, when you test out 'Ultima' products, things can get very boring because you know that there is only one word you will be able to use to describe their performance! Excellent!]]> http://www.minimalistangler.co.uk/index.php?entry=entry070530-233408 2007-05-30T00:00:00Z 2007-05-30T00:00:00Z

So it's always been my intention on this site to promote the cause of a less is more approach to this great sport of our's, recently I have stumbled upon, possibly, the single most exciting way to catch fish that there is. A method that takes the focus away from the masses of tackle and lands it firmly back in the realms of angler skill!

I am talking about, what I can only call, single handed angling. My tool of choice is a greys G-Light spin rod. Designed for sea trout on lures this enables the angler to get into all those tight nooks and crannies and actually hunt for fish.

An 11lb carp virtually bent it in half but there was still enough power in reserve to battle the fish away from a nasty snag! Try it, you'll like it!

I'll report more about this new approach in future articles but, in the mean time, crack out that spinning rod in the back of your shed and go catch some monsters!]]> http://www.minimalistangler.co.uk/index.php?entry=entry070429-220507 2007-04-29T00:00:00Z 2007-04-29T00:00:00Z


Easy peasy, about sums up the capture of tench and bream this weekend. Don't get me wrong, I'm not taking the task of capturing these fish lightly, but the fish (particularly the tench) seemed suicidal today and the simple reason for this I think can be summed up in one word. 'Preparation'.

Several days of regularly feeding a very promising swim meant that I managed to fluke the tench out of an obviously fish filled swim within ten seconds of starting to fish.

Having set up a very simple feeder/float rig, I noticed that the line was wrapped around the tip of the rod. I dropped my rig into the water complete with artificial sweet corn bait and sorted out the tangle.

Upon completion, I was annoyed, to say the least, when I discovered that I had snagged the bottom... At least that's what I thought had happened but when the bottom decided to swim off across the pond, my annoyance turned to shock!

A lovely little girl tench was my reward for not fishing at all really, as you will see from the image above, she was a pretty young thing and it was a joy to have her visit me on the bank. Very next cast and a lovely bream of around 4lb joined her!

In all, a good day, and the tench and bream section of my species hunt completed! I can concentrate now on improving on the size of the specimens and, a little later in the month, doing a little fly fishing for carp!

Those readers of Midland Angler amongst you will see my latest article, in which I lament the poor start to this species quest! I am guessing that there will be a whole different tone in my next piece.

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Every now and again I go out for what I call a practise session. Currently I am trying to catch a good bream and a good tench for my on going species hunt.

Since I have a couple of months to do it in, I decided I would leave the camera at home... Big mistake! After about three tiny roach, I struck at what, at first glance, looked like one of the tiny knocks I had been getting off the roach.

This time however, the line didn't move. At first I thought I had caught the bottom until, that is, it began swimming off. Not the greatest of fights (they never are with bream) but a huge fish was landed!

I'm a little disappointed that I didn't have the camera, at a tad under 10lb, it was my personal best (for those who read my stuff, it's a bit of a theme for me, catching big fish when no one is around. At least this time I had a few passing golfers to witness my achievement).

The good news is that I now know that there are big fish in the pond, just like there were last year when I took the photo above (he's about 4.5lb).

So I am very confident that this particular challenge will be substantially easier than the whole roach thing turned out to be!
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The angling god that is Keith Arthur has, very kindly, given me the chance to do what I love the most... Talk about fishing! I've recorded a little piece for his show which, I am told, is due to be broadcast on his show on Saturday (7.4.2007).

Because such things always result in a big spike of visitors to this site I thought I would take the opportunity to point out some of the features of this available to you and, hopefully, get you using them. My main dream for this web page is that it will develop into a great online angling community based around the ideal of minimalist angling.

So, Please! Whilst you're here, go and post something in the forum, or stop by for a chat in the live chat facility on this site! Please, also, take the time to sponsor me in my year long quest to use my angling to raise funds for Birmingham Children's Hospital. You can use the online sponsorship form which is fully secure and is as easy as buying your tackle on line!

I'm going to be out fishing when the broadcast is on the air but I intend to be on line at 9:00pm tonight (7.4.2007) so if you want to say hi, talk about your fishing, or just pop by out of curiosity, meet me in the chat room tonight!

Just click on the blue text to go to each section or use any of the other liks on this page! ]]> http://www.minimalistangler.co.uk/index.php?entry=entry070406-211759 2007-04-06T00:00:00Z 2007-04-06T00:00:00Z

Sunday night and I find myself unable to sleep, ideas an tactical inspirations are, once again, running through my mind and leaving me, to say the least, a little restless. So this is my therapy, get it down on paper... or, at least, computer screen and out of my head!

I love this sport of angling but when thoughts of fishing, in this case tench and bream fishing, invade my thoughts I find it infuriating. The constant running through of tactics and methods drives me mad sometimes.

So here's the plan, the bream are definitely starting to feed more heavily now it is getting warmer and, although I have only really seen skimmers over the winter months, I am sure the bigger fellers are starting to wake up a bit. I am equally sure that, soon, the distinctive pin prick bubbles of feeding tench will start to appear amongst the larger ones of the bream.

In my experience, at least in the small water that I intend to fish, bream and tench are creatures of habit. From Tuesday I'll make a regular visit with a bit of sweet corn to feed my planned swim. I won't feed too much because it is important that the fish are searching for the tasty morsels of sweet corn. This, I believe, builds competition amongst the more dominant (bigger) fish for the new food source and pretty soon they are bullying the little fish away in a bid to get the best pickings.

Come 5am on Good Friday, the best pickings are going to have my hook in them. Or, at least, that's the plan.
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Looking forward, the Bream and Tench are next on the hit list to receive the minimalist angler treatment. Both are personal favourites of mine and neither requires me to venture to far from home.

Of course, tench are a little weather dependent but I am expecting a productive couple of months and can see no obstacles (weather excluded) to this particular part of the year.

Soon, I am sure; we will see warmer weather and those tiny bubbles will appear, once again, on the surface, along side lily pads and lush green weed growth.

The spring and early summer is one of the most magical times of the fishing year and is sure to furnish me with many a fishermans tale.

Come back soon to see how I get on with the early part of this particular quest.
]]> http://www.minimalistangler.co.uk/index.php?entry=entry070325-174955 2007-03-25T00:00:00Z 2007-03-25T00:00:00Z

I spent the day at the GoFishing show today and I'm glad to report that the show is as great as ever! Many thousands must have been invested in the Angling Times Super theatre and, in my humble opinion, it was money well spent. The whole line-up of excellent shows was presided over by one of the greatest names in angling, Keith Arthur, who I was supposed to meet to get some much needed advice on the advancement of my angling writing career.

However, Keith's popularity meant that, by the time he had spoken to his hordes of admiring fans, he was being ushered away to start his next show and the meeting didn't really go according to plan! I went back a few times but couldn't find the heart to separate the great man from his fans. I know Keith reads this site from time to time so, if you are reading Keith, maybe another time?

Later I was taken totally by surprise when I was recognised by Henry Aiken of the great fishing line manufacturer Ultima. For someone who has ambitions of a career in the angling industry it is a great honour when someone from the industry recognises you and takes the time to come and say hi! Unfortunately, in spite of years of sales experience, and having to talk to new people on a regular basis, I think I was more star struck by this chance encounter than I was with some of the angling celebrity encounters I had during the day and I failed to say anything constructive in the short conversation we had! Again, I know Henry visits this site from time to time so... Sorry Henry and any chance of a job? :-)

Keith Higginbottom and Tom Legge (The brains behind the excellent Midland and Southern Angler magazines) were doing a great job of promoting the publication which takes the best possible regional approach to our sport. Tom was so busy and popular with everyone that we didn't get chance for a long chat and the sudden realisation that I had to rush off because of baby sitting duty at home meant that I was forced to accept his cup of tea and rush off... Sorry about that Tom!

It's worth mentioning that soon a Northern magazine will be joining the same stable!

One thing that I did want to mention, on the way to get the tea, tom was doing his bit of chatting to pretty much anyone (the guy is popular) when suddenly someone caught his eye, presumably an old friend, Jan Porter... Now, I don't do hero worship, during the day I chatted briefly to several of the sports celebrities but, for some reason, I found myself rooted to the spot as Tom chewed the fat with an angling great! Jan Porter is one of our sports best exponents and probably the coolest dude in the sport! Any chance of getting me a few lessons with the great man Tom??

So, in summery, I didn't manage to speak with Keith Arthur, found myself lost for words when Henry Aiken recognised me, Cut and dashed after Tom Legge brought me a cuppa and stood there, probably looking like a gormless dork, when I saw Jan Porter but I had the greatest time being totally unprofessional!
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So, I'm calling the carp fishing session a success. Ok, no monsters but four or five fish of around 4lb made the day very enjoyable thank you.

My mission statement was to catch a decent sized fish of each species but, with the variation in skills required to catch each species of fish, I am starting to understand why specimen hunters usually specialise in one species of fish.

Each of our course fish has a specific set of skills and tactics associated with it and each is a lifetime's work for someone.

Another attempt will be made at the carp in my local pool next week on Sunday but I am pretty happy with the fish I have taken. Remember that very few lakes are blessed with 30lb plus monsters and, although I have caught a 25lb fish from my local pool such creatures are the exception and not the rule.

Who knows, a monster may bless me with its presence next week but there is more to angling than catching fish and a few hours quiet contemplation fishing is reward enough for me!


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It's carp weekend, although I would like to be out on the rivers for the last weekend of the season! I guess that it's the lake for me tomorrow.

The water is very coloured on my local lake so I am going to be depending on strong smells to bring the fish tom me, I have opted for a combination of almond essence and cod liver oil, both of which are great fish attracting smells.

I'll be using my own formula Jelly bait and using simple feeder techniques. Hope I can bag a decent fish tomorrow because the commitments we all have in life means that I wont have time to do much fishing again this month!
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