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Last week saw the annual Browning Teams Match and get-together at the lovely Rookery Waters in Cambridgeshire. After having to be cancelled in 2020, owing to Covid restrictions, it was great to have Browning-backed anglers together for this social day, with a sneak-peak at lots of new products for 2022, followed by a teams of seven match spread across the various lakes on the complex.

Ossett came out with the bragging-rights with a fantastic 13-point score to take the win. It was close at the top with Wickford coming a close second, Browning’s individually sponsored anglers in third and Browning West Midlands in fourth place.

Individual winner was Jim Hall with a brilliant 178lb 2oz caught on the long-pole and pellet from peg 28 on Jay Lake.

Keep up to date with all our latest match news here.

Find out more about our team of anglers here.

Visit the Browning poles website here.

Browning Hot Rods’ Kye Jerrom fishing to the far margin on Jay lake.

Rory Jones fishing for Browning’s Individuals team.

What a brilliant day at the awesome Rookery Waters and Old River Nene in March, Cambridgeshire for the second Browning Power Partner match. Fifty five pairs competed across the two venues in this unique event that sees the aggregate score for each pair across the two venues decide the winners.

As expected, it was a close run race, with several pairs in the running right up to the final whistle. In the end it was Pemb Wrighting and Graham Smith who took the title with a brilliant 6-point score. They went home with two Xitan Z9-3 16m pole packages and £2000 in cash. A big congratulations to Pemb and Graham.

Results for the Browning Power Partner Match on the day were:

1- Pemb Wrighting and Graham Smith 6 points

2- Tom Moretti and Darren Davis 10 points 

3- Jay Fensom and Ben Bray 12 points

4- Tony Waiting and Tony Waiting jr 20 points

5- James Howarth and Andy Geldart 22 points 

6- Adam Playford and Ray Malle 

6- Phil Speakman and Paul Law  both pairs had 24 points and exactly the same weight of 147lb 11oz 

We would like to thank every pair who attended and hope you all enjoyed the event. We look forward to seeing you next year.

Keep up to date with all our latest match news here.

Find out more about our team of anglers here.

Visit the Browning poles website here.

Rory Jones recently had a brilliant result winning the three day Preston river Yare Festival. Here is how he got on. 

I fished the three day Preston river Yare festival this week with Tom Scholey and Rob Perkins, fine gentlemen and great company. 

Peg 61 was a dream start, a nice steady days tip fishing down the middle of the river saw 33lb of skimmers hit the pan. Enough to win the section and the match. 

Day two and I was heading to peg 129. A mixture of feeder fish in the first hour and plenty of pole roach resulted in 16lb. Enough to secure the section and 3rd in the match. As the river dropped the fish drifted further out making the fishing more difficult. The roach seem to like both flow and depth.

The final day was spent on peg 141, a very deep pacy peg in what had been a fair, but difficult section. The first two hours were spent on the feeder chucking down the middle for a handful of small skimmers. Onto the pole edging a big rig through with caster resulted in some quality roach and a total weight of 12lb, that was just enough to sneak the section. 

Three good pegs, 3 points and a total of 61lb was enough to win the festival!

The feeder gear compromised 12ft Sphere M Feeder rods, Black Viper reels loaded with 0.8mm braid and size 12 Sphere Match hooks tied to 0.17mm fluorocarbon and a mix of Sonu baits F1 Dark and Thatchers. 

Pole gear involved No 6 solid, 2g – 6g floats, 0.16mm Cenex Hybrid Power line, to 0.9mm hooklengths to either an 18 or 16 Sphere Match hook. 

Thank you to Andy Wilson-Sutter for running a cracking match, looking forward to next year.

Tom Noton recently qualified for this years RiverFest final, winning his zone at Rolleston on the river Trent around Newark. Here is how Tom got on. 

I drew peg 29 at Rolleston, interestingly enough, the same peg I was on when I got a good hiding from Hadrian Whittle previously. So, a chance to hopefully put things right. 

With another scorcher of a day weather wise I decided that 10lb would a reasonable target. Two lines on the feeder, a worm line and pole with hemp were to be the days tactics. A slow start for all, but I managed a few dace and roach with the odd 4-5oz skimmer amongst them. I had to scale down and change things constantly to keep bites coming as the fish didn’t want to feed confidently.

I had a really good spell around 2pm when I couldn’t get in quick enough for little skimmers to 6oz. A few bites were to be had on the pole, but it wasn’t as quick as the feeder, and the stamp was small. At the whistle I finished with 13lb 4oz, which was enough to win the zone and a place in the final again. Hopefully I can go a few better this year and win it this time 🙌🏼🙌🏼 

Well done to the other qualifiers Lee Wright, Paul Goulding and match winner James Robbins

My tackle for the day was as follows – 

Browning Sphere 13ft 100 MH. I set up two of these rods paired with the Browning Black Viper Compact 855 compacts. Loaded with 0.10 Cenex Sink Braid. These rods are superb for small fish fishing. Super light and a lovely fish playing action. Hooklengths were 0.14mm Cenex Hybrid mono and a size 12 Sphere Ultra Lite Feeder hook was by far the best.

I also set up the Black Viper 3 14ft 120g to cast across into the main flow, but fortunately never needed this rod. I paired this rod with the super powerful Black Viper 870 reel and the same braid setup as the other rods. I opted for much stronger 0.18mm Cenex Hybrid mono hooklength and a size 12 Sphere Ultra Strong Hook on this outfit as there was a good chance of hooking a big fish.

I set up a pole which was the ever faithful Xitan Z16 for my 13m groundbait line, and also a short 6m chopped worm line. A nice strung rig for my long line for baits like maggot and hemp with 0.14mm Cenex Hybrid mono down to a 0.10mm hook length. The perch line was up with a bulk down rig with 0.18mm Hybrid mono down to 0.16mm for perch and eels. 

My groundbait mix was a 50-50 mixture of Black Magic and Quick Skimmer. A lovely mix for this sort of fishing. It smells great!!

On the hottest weekend of the year so far Browning’s Nick Crooks fished a brilliant two days on the river Tees to win the Covid delayed 2020 Northern River Masters final. Here’s Nick’s story of how the even unfolded. 

Day 1 – Bowesfield peg 42

I had never seen this part of the river before, but my peg on the inside of a bend looked stunning. I made a couple of phone calls before the match and it became apparent that I had drawn a very good area. 

Plumbing around the peg I found two lines on the pole; one in 10.5ft of water at 7m, where I fed four balls with pinkies and a few casters in. The second line was at 13m in 12ft of water, where I fed six balls containing worms, casters and dead maggots in the hope of some skimmers. 

I also set up a Sphere 13ft 80g feeder rod to feed a line at 58m at the start, but never had to pick this up during the match. 

It was a pretty simple match in all honesty, just rotating lines and swapping hookbaits kept the bites coming for most of the match. It was never solid, but just good enough to be patient and know that when I caught a fish it was of a good stamp. I lost a big perch of over a pound and a big eel did me in a snag, which wasn’t ideal and could of been decisive.

I weighed 13lb 14oz. This was enough to win the match so the perfect start. 

Day 2 – Yarm peg 192

End peg in the match, although not a great area for skimmers recently, but I was hoping I could catch some small fish and keep busy. The target was just 5lb, as I knew it would be rock hard again in the 30 degree heat. 

I fished three pole lines this time, and a feeder line at 45m touching the far side grass. 

The peg was deep, and in all honesty, when I plumbed up I really didn’t fancy it. I managed to find somewhere to fish in 10ft, this had been the best depth recently, but my long line was in 16ft plus. 

The day was spent rotating lines just trying to catch anything that might come over one of my lines, as topping-up with more feed was the kiss of death on the river. 

I phoned Ian Rodger ‘roachy’ Rockgod Exley who I knew had caught. 

He said you need another 2lb 7oz to beat me. I told him it was close but I really did think I was short. Luckily my fish went 3lb. 

My total of 16-14 was enough to pip Ian and take the title and a nice £5k cheque too. James Dent took third too so well happy for him, Iv spend all weekend with him and without his help along with Alan Le Patourel and Michael Bower I wouldn’t have come close to winning. 

Big thanks to the Northern RIVER Masters team, it’s been hard to get this final on with all the stuff that’s gone off in the last 12 months.

Loved spending the weekend on the bank with my dad as I never get to do it, that for me has been the highlight of my weekend.

Browning’s Tom Noton recently qualified for this years RiverFest final on his beloved river Trent. Here’s Tom’s story of how his match unfolded.

Last weekend I fished the qualifier for the RiverFest final on the river Trent around Newark and I only went and qualified! I was drawn on peg 29 at Rolleston. Interestingly, the same peg I was on when I got a good hiding from Hadrian Whittle previously. So it was a chance to hopefully learn from that previous match and put things right.

With another scorcher of a day weather wise I decided that 10lb would be a reasonable target on the day. This would hopefully come from two lines on the feeder, a worm line, and pole and hemp. A slow start for all, but I managed a few dace and roach with the odd 4-5oz skimmer amongst them. I had to scale down and change things constantly to keep the bites coming.

I had a really good spell around 2pm when I couldn’t get in quick enough for little skimmers to 6oz. I had a few bites on the pole, but it wasn’t as quick as the feeder and the stamp was small.

I finished with 13lb 4oz which was enough to win the zone and gain a place in the final again. Hopefully I can go a few better than last year and win it this time – slide on brothers.
Well done to the other qualifiers Lee Wright, Paul Goulding and match winner James Robbins.

Over the last four years I have fished quite a lot for sturgeon. Recently, I visited the Blue Rock Fiskepark day ticket lake with my team mate Bjarne Johansen, who had never caught a sturgeon before in Denmark. We were lucky to have nice summer weather. 

Because the sturgeon in this lake grow to around 90kg in weight we use substantial gear for them including,

Black Cat, Shadow Spin 880 rods, Black Cat, Passion Pro DX Spin 270 Headline reels, loaded with 0.45mm Black Cat line, with 2.5m Black Cat 70 kg Rubber Coated Leader, to protect the fish. A 60g lead packed with pellets attracts the sturgeon, and our hookbait was a 20mm Smashed Fish pop-up. 

We fished at a distance of around 35m, in about 10m of water.

Although sturgeon are big fish, they are very careful when taking the bait. We therefore fish with running rigs and are very aware of the smallest movements around the line and bite detectors. It is important to strike at the right time – and it can be difficult to hook the fish.

The fishing on this trip, a nice summer evening, gave us eight sturgeon of between 18kg and 51 kg. Brilliant fishing for these impressive and very powerful fish. 

Peter Hansen

The lovely Blue Rock lake – home to big sturgeon.

The tackle and bait we use for big sturgeon.

Tidal Trent Three Day Festival

I had the pleasure of fishing the Cadence Fishing UK tidal Trent festival recently. I was out to defend last years win, but as always, with an incredibly strong field it was going to be a tall order! 

Day 1 – Dunham down peg 7. Not ideal, but this is what I love about big natural venues. You never know! It was a very tricky start on the feeder, but I managed to catch some roach on the bolo for 8lb. Andy Starkey’s bream catch and John Smalls roach weight beat me, but third in the section was not a disaster. Although it did put the pressure on with two section wins required now.

Day 2 – Peg 14 Laughterton. Not an area I fancied but I feel Laughterton is quite fair. Again the feeder was rubbish, I did catch a skimmer at the top of the tide, but I was going nowhere. I’d been feeding the float for a couple of hours and thankfully they were waiting for me when I went on it. There was some nice big fat roach amongst them on the bolo, and I finished up with 15lb – enough for the all important section win and 4th in the match.

Day 3 – Peg 26 North Clifton. This area has not fished very well this year and with the better pegs to my left I had work to do. The rascal Tom Scholey on the end caught a nice skimmer early which had me worried. The section fished really, really hard. It was a case of constantly changing things to nick the odd fish, but they were all tiny. I finished up with 7lb 6oz, enough to win the section again. This left with me five points overall. 

Back at the draw I was really pleased to find out I’d managed second overall. Beaten to the top spot by my mate and all round angling legend Matt Godfrey. Awesome Angling mate! Big well done to Gavin Butler for third also.

A great weekend away with the lads with plenty of beer and laughs. Finally, a big shout out to Alan Henry and Ryan for running a faultless festival. 

Tom Noton

Craig ‘Trig’ Edmunds and his partner Pemb Wrighting had a brilliant result at the two-day event at Moorlands Farm last week. Here’s Craig’s write-up of the event. 

Over the last couple of days I fished the pairs match at Moorlands Farm with my partner Pemb Wrighting.

On the Friday I drew peg 9 on Middle, which is a lake that I had never fished before, so wasn’t sure what to expect. 

I had been told that it was mostly F1’s, with a good head of skimmers and with some carp to go at too. As it turned out, I had plenty of bites to end up with 73lb, made up of around 45lb of F1s, with the rest being small skimmers caught on worm. It was really enjoyable fishing, and I finished up second in the section. 

Pemb did brilliantly to win his section with 133lb on Island peg 2, so a really good start, and all still to play for on day 2. 

Day 2 and I drew peg 19 on Moors. Again, a lake that I had never fished before. I had a few fish on hard pellets early, before catching some skimmers and F1s on casters shallow. I then had a good run of F1s short on meat, but felt I needed some carp to frame, so spent the last hour down the edge for seven carp on meat or corn for 98lb, to win the lake. 

Pemb did what Pemb does and had a superb 166lb of F1s on peg 46 on High Meadow to win his lake. This gave us a total of 5 points which was the same as Kieran and John, but we managed to edge them by 40lb on weight to win overall. Well done to the both of them, who put in brilliant performances each day and to the other framers. 

A really enjoyable two days. It was proper thinking fishing, which I love, with you having to chop and change to keep bites coming. Thanks to Simon Jones and the Grant Albutt family for putting on a great little event with plenty of laughs especially the Friday evening watching the football. 

Moorlands was the first commercial I fished over 25 years ago as a young lad so it’s great to see it in good hands. It will definitely be one to put in the calendar for next year! 

Craig ‘Trigg’ Edmunds