I’ve been chatting to Dave Johnson of MatchAngler.com a fair bit since he’s been back from the World Champs in Spain. It sounds like it was a great venue and I’m sad I missed it in many ways. It’s only the second World Champs I’ve not fished in the last 15 years, and the other one was in Russia!
However, the truth of the matter is that I couldn’t afford it.
To fish the world champs costs somewhere between £1500 and £2000 per person, unless of course you are part of one of the sponsored teams. There’s the CIPS membership fee, the match entry fee, the banquet fee, the travel, the accommodation, the food and of course the bait.
I did notice that 32 teams turned up this year, compared to up to 38 in previous years. It’s tough out there and CIPS are going to have to be careful – most of the members of the smaller teams I have talked to over the years who speak English think it’s a rip-off. They are right.
Remember there is no prize money or section money at all, so although it is of course an honour and you have a chance of being world champion, CIPS want to be careful they don’t kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
Unfortunately it’s one of those views that will never get real support from the powerful nations, because they are all sponsored and it’s neither here nor there to them. And when it comes to CIPS decisions, the powerful nations are the only ones that are listened to.
Anyway back to Dave Johnson. Dave commits to full coverage of the world championships each and every year, and also goes to other international events that would otherwise never get decent media coverage. Like all of us he needs to make a living, and has to charge for that content.
It’s there where he hits a brick wall – the old one of everyone expecting everything online to be free.
Now in what I thought was a pretty alarming trend this year, the weekly newspapers seemed to take less interest in the world champs than normal. Much less.
I remember when England winning gold was massive news. This year it didn’t even make the front page of Angling Times in the week that we ‘ruled the world again’, or the week after...
Okay, so deadlines come into this. But in my days on AT we would have juggled the deadlines (and paid whatever that cost) to ensure we ‘splashed’ England’s gold medal winning performance on the front. I can guess why AT didn’t do this, and this might not make comfortable reading. Even 15 years ago, the uplift in sales (and therefore revenue) didn’t really justify the cost of sending a team of journalists out for several days and the costs of delaying the press and getting journalists and subs into the office on Sunday night.
Nowadays, with sales at least 50% down from when I was on Angling Times in the early and mid 1990s, they definitely won’t.
It’s a similar story even on Match Fishing magazine – while the editor will feel he needs to be at the world championships, in pure economical terms, it simply doesn’t add up. And in what’s a very challenging environment for sales and advertising revenue, he may come under pressure from management to knock his most expensive editorial commitment of the year on the head., if he isn;t already.
So if anglers won’t pay to get top journalistic content in newspapers, won’t pay to get top journalistic content in magazines, and won’t pay to get top journalistic content online – don’t be surprised if they stop getting it at all.
And this uncomfortable truth has a potential consequences too. If the media stops covering a big event like the world angling championship in the way it used to, and anglers aren’t that bothered about accessing it anyway, what’s the knock-on effect?
I’ll tell you what it is – sponsorship disappears. Sponsors – and England’s men have had a great one in Drennan for many years – are interested in one thing; Numbers.
If even gold medal winning success can’t get you the numbers, then alarm bells have to start ringing. The England junior, ladies and disabled get next to no coverage, so really, really struggle to find any form of sponsorship. The Total-Fishing community contributed over £1000 last year to help send the juniors. We didn’t get much if anything in the way of thanks from the Angling Trust, so won’t be doing that again.
The knock-on effect is simply that they may very well end up not competing at world level (even tho they are among the best in the world), because one thing is for sure, the Angling Trust isn’t going to pay for them to go out of membership fees, and is not allowed to pay for them to go out of government funding.
For now Dave Johnson will continue to go to the world championships and provide exclusive previews and interviews that we would never otherwise see, and he’ll scratch around to try and maybe break even, and do it as a labour of love.
For now Dave Harrell will continue to send a team out for Match Fishing, and Angling Times as well. But sure as eggs is eggs, if the public don’t respond to their efforts, they won’t do it forever. The alarm bells are a’ringing.

Filming Down At The Lane
I was doing some filming at Dog Lane Fishery in Warks this week for a new tackle review based ‘Freeplayer’ schedule that will be on web based TV channel www.onlinefishing.tv , hopefully starting later this month.
Anyway, I bumped into venue owner Eddie Whitehead, who I have not met before. Eddie, who is 70 years old and doesn’t look it (therein lies a tale which you can ask his young Thai bride about...), has been busy switching fish around on his secluded three-lake complex. Some 20,000 silver fish have been moved from the Specimen Lake to the top Silver Fish Lake, including roach to a pound, skimmers to 5lb and perch to 3lb, plus he has also stocked 1,500 small F1s which will feed all year round.
Meanwhile big carp have been moved from Willow Lake to the Specimen Lake, where the average size of fish is now around 16lb.
Eddie reports the under-fished silvers lake as ‘fishing its head off’ with 30-40lb bags the norm, with pole and pellet or waggler and maggot doing plenty of damage. The water would make an excellent venue for a club booking as it’s very fair. There’s camping and caravaning available on site at Dog Lane. Contact Eddie on 07957 861733.
By the way, Eddie is getting involved in a music festival at Napton on his farm land, which he’s hoping will turn into something of a Warwickshire Glastonbury! Just thought I’d mention it...

Bite A Chuck At Ashwell Sluice
I’ve had my pole in for repair with Scott Essery of Esselle, which has meant I’ve been limited to only nine metres of pole for a couple of weeks.
 As this co-coincided with a need to balance some rigs up in time for the Division Two National on the Erewash, and get some rustiness out of the system, I popped into Ken Wade’s tackle shop in Fletton, Peterborough and asked him if he knew anywhere where I could practice squatt fishing and get a few bites at nine metres.
Ken put me onto a venue I had never heard of let alone fished, called Ashwell Sluice at Whittlesey in Cambs, and run on a day ticket or club book basis by Whittlesey AA.
It’s just past the Manor Leisure Centre on the way out of the town, and I pulled up to find two old boys struggling with the pace of the water below the sluice under the roadbridge, so I went above it, where I was able to park directly behind my peg. As I was setting up and fishing I got chatting to plenty of the locals, who told me that this was actually part of the Old Nene and that further up there are a few pegs which hold some really big chub over 5lb, which is unusual to say the least for the Old Nene. There are also by all accounts plenty of zander in there (I saw a few fish leaping clear of the water that were being chased by something), and some carp to go at too. Further down below the sluice where it slows down a bit, there are some noted tench pegs too.
The reason I’m mentioning all of this is that for me it was a bite a chuck. Fishing three quarters across with light rigs and squatt over groundbait it didn’t have a single run down without a bite of some sort. If I fed groundbait and fished it out I’d get roach, perch and skimmers (to 10oz) – if I loosefed there were a lot of bleak about. I bumped into the bailiff Simon who told me that the club wasn’t getting many anglers down there as most of them want to fish commercials. It’s a shame. Okay the fish weren’t huge but if you like to keep busy and like plenty of bites, and like fishing fine and light for silvers (which I sometimes think is a dying art), the fishing at Ashwell Sluice is fun and is worth a go – and I was able to park right behind my peg!

Suspicious nettings at Luddington
Angling star Jan Porter has been left shocked after finding a 20-metre gill net stretched right across the Warwickshire Avon at Luddington, scene of Dave Thomas’ world championship gold medal in 1981. Jan arrived at the stretch early with fishing pal Steve Simpson only to find a group of three men ‘acting suspiciously’. The Environment Agency was called to remove the net, but the perpetrators had by then disappeared. “It was obvious they were keen to get the nets out before anyone arrived to fish,” said Jan.

Steve calls the Toone   
Gale force winds and a gin-clear river made it a struggle for most in Sunday’s Evesham Festival Qualifier on the Warwickshire Avon, but a 7lb barbel, landed in the last 10 minutes of the match, helped Steve Toone to victory in the latest Abu Garcia Wychavon Championship qualifier.
Drawn at Peg 31, Mill Tackle grouped Steve elected to tackle the nine feet deep swim with strong pole gear and chopped worm and caster with worm on the hook.
The big fish, added to a few small perch and eels caught earlier in the match, boosted his catch to a winning 8-14-0. Another big fish, this time a 4lb tench caught on pole and worm close in at Peg 4, helped runner up Mark Bowerman (Sensas A4) to a 7-5-0 total.
Performance of the match went to Tony Marshall, who followed up his previous day’s second place with 6-9-0 of hemp caught roach at 16 metres from Peg 63, just above the ferry.

Matt sees a barbel brace
Solihull angler Matt Nunn bagged a brace of double figure barbel from the Warwickshire Avon on his first ever trip in pursuit of the species. Matt, who is partially sighted, was fishing with his dad Roy at on the first peg down from the weir at Anchor Meadow on the Harvington stretch when his legered meat offering was picked up by barbel of 13lb 5oz and 11lb 2oz. Dad also chipped in with another fine fish going 12lb 8oz.

Tough in the low pegs at Boddington
The latest qualifier for the British Waterways Champs held at Boddington on Saturday was a bit of a curate’s egg – good in parts! For while Nicky Dean had a good day in E section on peg 74 to win with over 121lb, at the other end of the match, Anthony Brooker won his section and qualifed for the final with just 25lb. In fact the fishing was so bad in the 30s that the likes of Steve and Phil Ringer spent the match either practising casting, or reading the paper. Other qualifiers included Mark Jennings, Richie Hull and Kevin Wright. The next round is at Clattercote on Saturday 31st July with the draw at the Cross Tree pub in Byfield at 9am.

In Pursuit Of a 40...With Dessie
Brummie big fish angler Des Taylor has a new DVD out in which he goes in search of his first 40lb UK carp. Featuring top stars like Chris Tarrant and Matt Hayes, the 60-minute programme is as much a journey into the mindset of the man who has written a controversial weekly column in Angling Times for 20 years, as it is about catching fish, and all the better for it.
“To my mind fishing is getting too serious and we are getting away from the true values of the sport. That’s what I have tried to capture in this DVD.” The DVD, titled ‘In Pursuit of a 40’ can be bought at www.sbsbaits.com and it may also be available online on a soon to be launched fishing DVD vault called FishingCinema.com . Does he catch one? You will have to watch the DVD to find out...

Barbel At Bridgnorth
There are not that many pleasure anglers on the River Severn by all accounts, which has been clear and low for a while now.
However, the match anglers fishing the Bridgnorth AS match at Linley Bank showed that the barbel will feed in numbers in the day at the weekend, with the top six anglers all weighing in over 35lb. Topping the pile was Severn veteran Johnny Stockton, who fished pellet feeder on peg 30 on the Island Shingle for a fine 59lb bag made up of small barbel and a single chub.

Collett Filmed Cracking The Barbel
One man who knows how to crack the barbel in the low and clear conditions is Steve Collett, who bagged two double figure fish at 13lb 2oz and 11lb 12oz while filming for an episode of OnlineFishing.tv’s Session series. Steve feeder fished a stretch of the Warks Avon with boilie over fishmeal groundbait and capped a great double header by winning a match at Boddington Reservoir the next day with over 300lb.

Nunn Sees Double
Solihull angler Matt Nunn bagged a brace of double figure barbel from the Warwickshire Avon on his first ever trip in pursuit of the species. Matt, who is partially sighted, was fishing with his dad Roy at on the first peg down from the weir at Anchor Meadow on the Harvington stretch when his legered meat offering was picked up by barbel of 13lb 5oz and 11lb 2oz. Dad also chipped in with another fine fish going 12lb 8oz.

Gill Nets At Luddington
Angling star Jan Porter has been left shocked after finding a 20-metre gill net stretched right across the Warwickshire Avon at Luddington, scene of Dave Thomas’ world championship gold medal in 1981. Jan arrived at the stretch early with fishing pal Steve Simpson only to find a group of three men ‘acting suspiciously’. The Environment Agency was called to remove the net, but the perpetrators had by then disappeared. “It was obvious they were keen to get the nets out before anyone arrived to fish,” said Jan.

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Shakespeare Championship Qualifier, Evesham Town Waters and Hampton Ferry, Saturday (60 pegs)
Ian Sutherland, Land Rover AC, 14-8-0, peg 35, chub on small maggot feeder; Tony Marshall, Quorn VDE, 9-2-8; Darren Davies, Drennan, 8-9-0;  Richie Reynolds, Quorn VDE, 8-0-0.

Lanes Bait Opens, Meadowlands
Tues: Joe Roberts, Sensas, 91-0-0, straight lead at 30 yards and pole in the margins, peg 23; Mick Bull, Guru, 56-4-0; Wayne Sharman, Lanes Bait, 49-12-0; John Ricketts, Swanns Bait, 47-2-0.

Garbolino Tunnel Barn Farm, Shrewley, Warks
Mon, House Pool: John Perrelli (Just Oxford) 151-5-0, F1s, pole and banded pellet at 6m fished high, peg 5; John Berry (Coventry) 106-7-0; Brian Edwards (Youngs Tunnel Barn Farm) 88-9-0.
Wed, House Pool 2: Pete Rice (Bag Em Baits) 110-7-0, F1s, roach, bream and tench, pole and pellet fished high at 8m to the island, peg 37; Pete Hancox (Birmingham) 97-11-0; John Foster (Kiverton Hall Fisheries) 83-5-0.
Sun, House Pools 1 and 2 and Top Pool (48 fished): Dale Sheperd (Hemsworth Angling Club) 137-11-0, F1s and bream, pole and banded pellet at 6m, peg 7, House Pool 2; Pete Hancox (Birmingham) 124-1-0; Stuart Naylor (Nathans of Derby) 118-2-0; Pete Rice (Bag Em Baits) 111-7-0; Nick Crooks (Hemsworth Angling Club) 110-10-0; Paul Bick (Shakespeare) 108-3-0.

Packington Somers, Meriden, Warks
Wed, Molands Mere: John Burchell (Sensas Packington) 57-8-0, carp to 6lb and skimmers, pellet feeder and pole and pellet, peg 8, £200 bonus peg: Lee Myers (Quality Baits) 50-4-0; Dean Young (Tornadoes Angling Club) 46-6-0.
Sat, Molands Mere: Craig O’Brien (Maver) 55-0-0, carp and skimmers, Method feeder with pellet on the hook, peg 18; Steve White (Kobra Feeders) 51-14-0; Ms Suzi Smith (Kobra Feeders) 49-1-0.
Sun, Gearys Level: Mick Bull (Dynamite Baits/Guru/Shimano) 65-12-0, carp and skimmers, pellet feeder and meat/pellet hook bait, peg 20, £200 bonus peg; John Johnson (Youngs Tunnel Barn Farm) 60-15-0; Steve Edwards (Packington) 60-7-0.

geepster