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Dynamic duo Ian Ralph and James Hall had a brilliant result in the Interservice Pairs competition recently at Lindholme Lakes. Drawing peg 39 on Bonsai lake, Ian has won the lake with 138lb 3oz, whilst over on Benny’s Lake James has put 203lb 7oz on the scales for third on the lake, giving the pair a combined score of 4 points, and the win amongst the 27 teams competing. 

Craig Edmunds has a great result last week winning the five day festival at Ivy House Lakes. Here’s Craig’s day-by-day run down of how he got on. 

Day 1 – Willow, peg 21. 

Spent the first couple of hours mugging as I had no indications short early. This resulted in four fish. It appeared that few people were catching, so it was nice to get off the mark.

I then noticed a bit of mud come up at 13 metres over a spot where I had been pinging a few pellets and had three carp on this. With two and a half hours to go I fed my edges and the carp immediately came in.

This led to what I can only describe as possibly the most hectic edge fishing I have ever ha. In the last hour and a quarter I filled two and a half nets to finish up with just shy of 300lb and the win. 

Big potting a mixture of maggots, micros and corn after every fish was the way to go, with a couple of worms on the hook. They were feeding so aggressively and mopping up the bait so quickly that I didn’t foul-hook a single fish. I went away thinking what might have happened if I had started feeding down the edge earlier! 

Day 2 – Peg 11 on Heron. 

I started short on pellets for 10 fish, but noticed a few swirls on the shallow line and spent the rest of the day at 11-metres on pellets for 150+ F1s for 194lb and another win. The fish were keen to come right up and 8-inches deep proved to be the right depth on the day.

Day 3 – Peg 10 on Old match lake. 

Spent most of the day at 16-metres to the island catching stockies on pellets and a few on the Method feeder, before a few better ones caught late down the edge on worms over casters and maggots. My 115lb was good enough for a section 2nd. 

Day 4 – Peg 46 on Kingfisher. 

The previous three days on this lake had all been won fishing shallow with casters, so that was the main plan of attack, however it didn’t quite go to plan. 

I have only fished this lake twice before and for some reason thought the stamp of fish were bigger, so spent too long trying to catch quality shallow when I should have caught quantity, as I could catch plenty of smaller ones on the deck under my shallow line on worm heads. 

I finished up with 93lb for 4th and with a 95lb and 101lb ahead of me I was kicking myself for being far too positive too early, instead of feeling my way in. I did the opposite of what I try to get across when coaching, so only had myself to blame. At this point I thought that was the end of my chances of winning. 

Day 5 – 22 on Heron. 

I had a dozen carp short on pellets before that dried up. Switching to my shallow line, again on pellets, didn’t bring any signs, so it was time to change again. Coming back short I change to feeding casters and this worked better. Would the same approach work on the shallow line? 

Going back out I spent the rest of the day at 11-metres catching on a banded caster for 146lb, which won the section. Jamie Read, who is a cracking angler, needed a third in section to win, but faired a similar fate to me the previous day on Kingfisher, and could only manage a 5th, which meant I won the festival. 

I felt for Jamie, and speaking to him after he also said that he couldn’t catch shallow, yet when he changed to fishing on the deck with worms he caught plenty of smaller fish, but when you are already behind you always feel you have to be positive to claw it back, so I completely understood his mindset. Decision making in fishing is everything.

A brilliantly run festival by Andy and Karen, with the complex fishing its head off all week; testimony to the hard work they have put in. A different approach is needed for each lake with F1s and stockie carp in Heron, big carp in Willow and a mixture of stockies and bigger carp on Kingfisher and the Match lake, with plenty of silvers to go at, which can make a big difference with natural baits being vital to score decent section points. It certainly is a fishery going from strength to strength! Well done to all the framers and all that took part in a lovely friendly atmosphere.

Craig ‘Trigg’ Edmunds

Despite the cold weather this April, Browning-backed Danish angler Peter Hansen has been enjoying some great rudd fishing sport, and recently landed an absolute giant of 45.5cm and 1.85kg.

Peter had already visited the lake several times this Spring, catching some nice rudd to around 1kg, but it was on his latest trip that he struck gold. 

Feeder fishing at 50-metres in two metres of water, with a bunch of maggots on the hook, the huge rudd couldn’t resist Peter’s succulent carpet of bait, consisting of 3/4 Champion’s Choice Big Fish and Champion’s Choice Black Magic, laced with sweetcorn and maggots. 

Peter’s set-up comprised a 60g Xenos Pro Cast Feeder, to a size 10 Sphere Beast hook and 0.28mm hooklength, to give Peter a good chance of also landing any of the lakes resident carp. 

A truly stunning fish. Congratulations Peter! 

The Browning Youth team recently became the first youth squad to compete in the National Commercial Fishery Championships, and despite being up against some of the strongest anglers in commercial fishing, came away with a brilliant result!

Team Manager, Paul Etherington, gives us an insight into how the match unfolded.

We entered this event as the first ever Youth only team to compete at this level, no other youth or junior squad has ever attempted this event. We wanted as a team to compete at the highest level and against the best anglers in the UK as a team. 

Our team has a mixture of experience, youth, and determination to succeed. The other differing factor with our team compared to others is that we are split across the North and South of the UK. So, unlike other teams, who have more time to practice, we are more limited by school, college and for a few now, work getting in the way.

The draw was made live on the Angling Trust competitions page the day before the event. A random draw for the teams, and then a second draw for our peg set, which is a defined set of pegs across all lakes being used. 

We were handed peg set 8. Fortunately, our manager Carl Shepherdson knows the venue, and we also have two Lindholme regulars within the main Browning UK Team in Jim Hall and Rich Kerridge so they both gave us valuable information on how to approach each lake. 

We had a chat amongst our group and we all agreed mid-table would be a fantastic achievement and a good target to aim for, especially knowing the calibre and company we were in.

As it usually does, the weather wasn’t too kind to us with a hard frost overnight. It looked to change the mood slightly among many when turning up in the morning, but we didn’t let that bother us as we were focussed on getting the job done for each other. 

In our peg set we didn’t have any pegs that were deemed to be ‘run as fast as you can’, like-wise, none that wanted to send you ‘wheel spinning out of the car park home’, it was a good steady set of pegs. 

The plan was to just fish a steady match and keep the bites coming from whatever species was happy to feed at that point – it’s valuable to think of the team points rather than individual glory in events like this.

Come 4 o’clock the nerves started to increase as we all started to message each other to try and work out how we had done. Both our managers Carl and Paul Etherington were keeping up-to-date and posting via the Angling Trusts scoring website live online. 

The first lot of results to come through left several of the team towards the top half of their sections, which was good and the team were placed 7th. We then started to think it wasn’t going to be, as a couple of lads had a really hard day. What we thought were bad results turned out to be, over a couple of sections, decent results, it’s just unfortunate only your 11 or 12 peg section counted for points.

Ninety minutes after the all-out the weigh-in was complete. As with all National events the top three in each section and top 10 overall are not announced to allow the staff to check and ensure any points and monies to be paid out are correct. 

We had Matt Mollart, Will Marchant, Charlie Sibley and Tommy Clark each in the top three of their sections, and we knew by this point that 7th was the lowest we could come, but had to wait nervously to find out the final result.

Come 6.30pm and the final results were in. We had done it, coming 7th overall as a team out of 23 on our first attempt against some of the best teams in commercial match fishing. We were only one point away from 6th, something we felt we could have achieved, a couple of lads ruing some lost fish, but every team could say the same. 

We couldn’t believe that we had made the top 10 in the Commercial National, and not only that had Matt, Charlie and Tommy finishing 3rd in their sections and Will coming 2nd in his. Overall, from 230 anglers, Matt Mollart who had only turned 16 a few days prior to the event came 20th, Charlie Sibley 24th and Will Marchant 40th. One of our other team anglers Josh Derry fished for his adult team on the day and also came 2nd in his section and 25th overall. We couldn’t believe we had beaten our main Browning UK Team as well, who had one of the strongest line-ups in the field, so we feel privileged.

Each of us played a huge part and for our first event as a Browning backed team, we hope this is the start of many more to come. 

We would like to thank Simon Henton for giving us this opportunity, George Kenrick for the product support we have received, Jim Hall and Rich Kerridge for the info to help us to this result and each other for coming together and ensuring we work as a team.

The Browning Youth Commercial National Team are:

Ethan Etherington

Josh Paling

Charlie Sibley

Matt Mollart

Adam Tollitt

Owen Newman

Tommy Clark

Will Marchant

Tyler Bird

Joe Peake

Team Managers

Carl Shepherdson

Paul Etherington

NEW PRODUCT LAUNCH

A specially designed feeder for fishing in moderately fast-flowing rivers, where extra weight is often required. The stainless steel cage is extremely durable and casts straight and true for improved accuracy.

This feeder is available in a range of different weights and has a diameter of 3cm and a length of 3.3cm. The mesh size of 6mm ensures that your bait reaches the river bed intact before it begins to be released. 

The rounded corners of the feeder give improved stability and help the feeder cut through the air improving casting distance.

Available in weights from 80 grams to 140 grams.

The shape has been designed to give improved distance and accuracy.

The cage size is ideal for most river fishing scenarios.

Introducing the new Xitan Extreme Margin 9.5m pole

Looking to catch BIG carp in the margins this year, but also want a power-pole that can be fished at range? The new Xitan Extreme Margin is the perfect partner for all existing Xitan poles, giving you the option of using it as a dedicated margin pole, or as a partner to your main Xitan pole.

The Xitan Xtreme Margin 9.5 is a high quality and very strong pole for margin and “short” fishing. All sections have increased wall strength and a visible spiral carbon reinforcing, yet the Xtreme Margin still weighs less than 500gr at 8.7m, making it one of the lightest margin poles available. This light weight has also made the pole very popular with anglers wanting a good quality and excellent value “all-round short pole” for general fishing. 

This latest version is supplied with large bore power kits fitted with Browning’s unique Duo-bush. This PTFE bush allows the tip size to be adjusted to take a wide range of elastic sizes – including thick hollow grades. 

The top kits are now also pre-fitted with our directional pulla bush, so just fit elastic and you are ready to fish! 

The Xtreme Margin is fully section compatible with all current and past Xitan poles so is the perfect summer partner or back-up pole for Xitan owners. 

• The first choice for anglers needing a good quality, strong, but remarkably light, “short” pole for margin or general fishing

• Built to the same quality standards as other Xitan poles with special carbon reinforcing to add strength

• Supplied with a reversible Pole Protector section which fits the final two sections to add strength and protect from damage 

• Supplied with large bore “pulla” power kits, pre-fitted with Browning’s unique Duo-bush, 

which accepts the heaviest elastics without cutting

• Fully section compatible with all current and past Xitan poles so a perfect summer partner or backup pole. 

• Elastic rating 20+
• Supplied in a dedicated pole holdall

Find out more at: www.browning-poles.com

Join Craig Edmunds as he enjoys a lovely days fishing at Hill View Fishery in Tewkesbury.

Starting on the long pole, Trig looks at the baits he likes to use at this time of the year, before moving onto his margin line later in the session in search of some proper beasts!

You can watch the video below now, or find it on the Browning Europe YouTube channel.

https://youtu.be/u0pYg60YM9Y

The Browning Power Partner Classic 2021

Fancy bagging a flagship Browning Xitan Z9-3 EACH pole for you and a mate?

The Browning Power Partner Classic is back with a bang!

Last year Ben Holmes and Pat Daley became the first winners of this prestigious competition, and for 2021 we are travelling south to the lovely Rookery Waters and surrounding Cambridgeshire Fenlands.

One angler from each pair will fish Rookery, and the other will fish the Old River Nene. The event is scored on match points, with the winner of each venue scoring one point, down to 60 points for a last.

The date for your diary is October 23rd 2021, and tickets are £100 per pair.

In terms of match specifics, we are keeping our options open for now with regards to Covid, and competitors will be notified of draw arrangements and fishing times closer to the match dates.

In addition to the pole, the event boasts a 100% payout, which will be as follows subject to entry:

1 – £2,000 (plus poles)

2 – £1,000

3 – £800

4 – £700

5 – £600

6 – £500

7 – £400

There will also be an optional superpool covering individual money.

Book on now via the Scorefishing website to reserve your ticket. You don’t want to miss this one!

In this new video over on our YouTube channel Justin Watkins enjoys a brilliant Spring session in search of bream on the helicopter feeder at Bagshot Lea.

Click on the play button below to watch now.

We have some great new products hitting our Retailers’s across Europe in the next few weeks, and you can find details of the new Xitan Z9-3 Advance Pole, the Hyper Carp HC40-2 pole and our new one-piece top kits in our new product guide below.