In this blog I hope to pass on hints and tips based upon my match fishing exploits with my team Sensas Mark One. Based in the Cambridgeshire fens we fish almost exclusively on natural waters as a team, on the rivers and drains of our area, and further afield on the Trent, Yare and to a lesser extent the canals around Doncaster or the Grand Union Canal around Milton Keynes.
Having written for a number of angling publications over the years I hope you'll find some intersting insight into the variety of methods and approaches needed to compete on the waters that we fish.
We have been involved in the Sensas Challenge in the Uk since its inception, fishing to CIPS rules and bait limits we really enjoy fishing against the very best anglers in the country (some would argue in the world) and try very hard to blood our youngsters in this very challenging environment.
On a personal level it scares me to think that I have been match fishing for over 35 years and have been fortunate enough to have learned my craft during what would arguably have been the heyday of large open match fishing.
I started out at Luton AC when I was twelve, fishing against a number of brilliant juniors, but most notably Mark Pollard, with whom I fished throughout my teenage years. Having fished for the Blackhorse match group, I was then involved in setting up Image Angling Products with Mark Bird and Barry Cowley, Polly soon joined us, but I left the company after some 18 months and have been in the motorsport composites industry pretty much ever since 1990. Team Image were very successful during the early to mid nineties and were spawned from the Blackhorse Match Group, I eventually moved on to Keenets Central and Browning Hotrods before settling at Mark One in 2002.
On a personal level I have been fortunate enough to have won a number of large events, but probably my best individual result happened quite recently in 2007 when I won the Angling Times winter league final on my local River Nene with 37-14-0 of feeder caught bream ( a good day as I was pegged next to Will Raison!!).
Over the years I have won events on every type of venue, in the Uk and Ireland, with my biggest individual win coming on a 500 peg Embassy pairs qualifier a few years ago on the Gloucester Canal. I have qualified for three Embassy Finals and the old Daiwa DFDS challenge final way back in the 1980's. My national record is good and I have managed to win 10 medals over the years mostly with teams but I did manage a fifth and a section win on the Gloucester canal back in 1991.