BRAID VS MONO? WHY, WHEN HOW!
Using braid in our feeder fishing can be extremely effective, but not always...
Now when we talk about putting line onto our reels there are two different types of material to use. One is mono and that is the type that most people would be familiar with. So that's just monofilament line and that is the most common material that people actually put onto their reels. However, there are more and more people now using braid. Now I'll go into the qualities of both of these and anybody that's watched my videos on YouTube will know that probably 50% of my fishing is actually done with braid. And like I say, I'll tell you why that is in a moment. Now for most people, they'll be putting mono onto their reels and that's just a great all round material to use that you can use on natural venues and commercial fisheries. But I only tend to use it when the fishery rules stipulate that we have to use mono.
The only other time I'll use mono is if I'm targeting bigger fish. If you are going to be fishing a commercial still water, the first thing I will advise you is that in my opinion, don't ever use braid for carp. I know there's lots of people out there that fish commercial fisheries, and if you're new to fishing, the chances are that the first place you'll learn to fish will be a commercial fishery. But for all our carp fishing and big fish fishing, we use mono. Now for the vast majority of my fishing, I actually use 6lb breaking strain. I find that's a great, all round, diameter to use. The Matrix Horizon line I use has a diameter of 0.18mm and as it has a breaking strain of 6lb it's ideal for the vast majority of my feeder fishing.
The only time I will step that up from, from 6lb is if I'm fishing near snags, near lilies, near reed beds, where there might be quite a bit of line abrasion. If you're going to be hooking big carp or big fish and they're going to be running into those snags or you're trying to stop them going into those snags or features, then I will step that up and sometimes and I also carry a couple of spools with 10lb line as well just for those scenarios. But for most of my fishing, even when I'm on natural venues, a 6lb breaking strain is just about right. Now, mono is quite stretchy. Again, this depends, on the brand that you're going be looking at or using. And you will find that there is some stretch in this mono and that's why it's great for carp fishing.
The downside to that is that you can lose a little bit of bite registration. So if you can imagine, say if you was fishing at 50m and you was using mono, then you've got 50m of this line between you and the feeder. Now, when a fish takes the bait or gets hooked, you've got 50m of line there with stretch in it. And what can happen is when the fish takes that bait because there's stretch, there's 50m of stretch between me and the fish so the bites aren't quite as good. So just bear that in mind , if you are fishing for shy biting fish and fish that you know barely move then braid might be a better option than mono. And that's because braid doesn't have any stretch in it.
Braid is darker in colour from most mono's and there are lots and lots out there on the market. Some are better than others and some are more durable than others and some sink better than others because that's one of the downsides to braid. It doesn't sink quite as good as mono does. So that means that if we were fishing at 50m on that same peg with braid, there isn't any stretch there. So what we find is that bite detection is much, much better with braid because there's no stretch. You see every little indication. So when you get a bite, hopefully you're going see it much quicker with braid.
That's why we use it. And when you strike, you're going to be much more direct to the fish because with mono, when you strike, there's a lot of stretch there and you might find it's a little bit more difficult to set the hook in the fish's mouth. That's why braids great for fishing at long range. However it's this directness that makes it way too direct and positive for fishing for carp and hard fighting fish. There's no stretch and that can cause some real problems and can encourage the hook to pull out of the fish's mouth. So have a really close look at the types of venues that you're going to be fishing. If you're going to be fishing more natural venues for smaller fish, then braid might be much more suitable for you.
Have a really close look at the types of venues you're going to be fishing and also have a look at the target species you're going to be targeting as well. It's important to get this bit right because if you get these wrong, what you'll generally find is that even if you're fishing in the right spot, you might have the right rig, the right rod, the right bait, and you might be hooking fish.
But if you make the wrong selection of mono or braid, it could quite easily result in you losing lots of fish or missing bites. I hope you've found this insight valuable and hopefully it will help you enjoy your fishing more and ultimately catch more fish!
STUNNING UNDERBANK!
I Managed to fit in a rare coaching day today with Terry and Ray at the stunning Underbank reservoir which always brings back fond childhood memories ❤️ The levels are high, the waters cold and clear but they’ve managed to keep a few bites coming on the feeder with a nice patient approach catching mainly skimmers and odd roach 👍 For those interested it’s still a day ticket venue and the bailiff issues you a ticket on the bank whilst your fishing 👌 Thanks for a great day lads!
RECCE TRIP TO
SPAIN!
During April we took a short trip to Merida in Spain which plays host to this year's World Feeder Championships in early May. The reason for the timing was that there was a 3-day feeder event taking place on the same stretch so it was a great opportunity to get a feel for the venue and put things in place as regards the logisitics of competing in Merida.
As it turned out the venue fished far better than we'd expected with some weights in excess of 60kg. We return at the end of April for the championship.
If you'd like to follow our progress through the event then make sure you follow the England Feeder Team and Drennan Facebook pages and I'm hoping to update you at stages through the event on my Catch Fishing Channel on YouTube.
If the fishing remians as good as it was on the 3-dayer it's going to be an incredible event!
A STRANGE END TO THE LINDHOLME WINTER LEAGUE!
The final round of the Lindholme Bomb & Feeder Winter League took place this month but as this match was re-scheduled due to an iced over venue back in January I was unable to attend due to a clash of dates as I was at Larford Lakes covering the Golden Rod Feeder Final!
It's the first time I've had to miss the final round of any league which was a shame but even with my absence I managed to finish in 4th place overall from the field of 60 anglers which could have been a lot worse I guess. Having finished 3rd last year I was hoping to frame again in this strong field but once again it was a throughly enjoyable league. It's been another breath of fresh air to fish the whole league with just a bomb rod and a feeder rod with just a few pellets, wafters and a couple of tins of sweetcorn and minimal prep and considering it took place through the depths of winter the fishing has been really good.
Below are the top 10 anglers from the league and I'd like to say a big well done to Elmo on winning the league well done mate!
1st Elmo 421.6
2nd Sean Cameron 372.11
3rd Mickey rodgerson 365.4
4th Jamie Harrison 349.13
5th J snedker 347.11
6th R Cardiss 340.3
7th D smith 339
8th M Benwell 337.7
9th S Topley 336.4
10th Si Bowman 327.10
Well done all the framers!
2024 PUKKA
LARFORD
SILVER FISH
FESTIVAL
I made it no secret that I really wanted to win this one again this year but having not fished a match on the venue for a couple of years I just hoped that a 'quality' Bream approach coupled with some decent pegs would be enough! Because of that my mix for the week was 100% Sonubaits Super Feeder Sweet Fishmeal...
Day 1 I drew in the right area in C section on the chalet bank and by fishing a 1 line approach at 14m with a soft 3.3m Horizon Slim rod and 6lb Horizon mono on a new HX Pro reel and free-running rig it worked lovely and my 31kg was enough to win the match which was a great start!
Day 2 was definitely a draw in the right area in front of the chalets but it went far from to plan! For some reason I never had an indication for the first hour then after 3 carp in 3 casts I then started catching skimmers?? Do they all swim together??
I managed to catch in spells again at 14m to put another 21kg on my tally which was another lovely days fishing :)
Day 3 was my first visit to the Burr bank and having drawn in-form peg 3 the plan just didn't work! I fished the same as the previous 2 days but going into the final 2 hours it was clear that this section was fishing harder so I had to slow things down and after setting up the 14m line for the final 45 minutes I managed a late run of Bream to put 9kg on the scales and as the final day was also to be on the Burr bank it was an interesting insight into how we might have to tackle it...
Day 4 was the final day and with a slight change in plan it was again obvious that this section was fishing quite hard. A throw-away line at 30m only produced 1 big skimmer so all of my other fish came at 16m (I pushed that line a bit further out as it was flat calm) but everyone to my right was getting waaay more bites than me??!! So banking on worm producing bigger fish I set my 16m line up with an hour to go and with 20 minutes to go I got my first proper fish and I've ended up netting over 5kg in the final 20 minutes
This gave me 12kg which was enough to hold on to 2nd overall in the festival with a 75kg total behind Paul Greenwood's 88kg who's fished brilliantly all week great job mate!
The silver fish sport on Speci lake is incredible and we'd all like to say a huge thank you Pukka for sponsoring the event and to Ian Giddins and Chris for running a flawless match with speedy results and to all the lads taking part for weighing in etc awesome lads!
IBERIAN MASTERS 2023
We are pleased to announce that we will once again be competing in the 2023 Iberian Masters which takes place this March in Spain!
Over the last few years this has proven to be one of the best organised high profiled events in Europe and whilst the fishing is usually demanding the excitement of the trip, friendliness of all of the competing anglers and enjoyment is almost unrivalled.
Having taken part in this event for the last few years I'm pleased to let you know that we will once again be filming the trip but in a bid to get you more involved we'll be doing it in a slightly different way this year. We will be uploading 'vlog' style videos / live streams from the event EACH DAY so that you can follow all of the twists and turns as they are happening! The filming will be a more in-depth look at the event, interviews with other competing anglers and it will include more behind-the-scenes footage.
The vlogs will be uploaded to YouTube on our FISHING LIFE channel so if you haven't already make sure you SUBSCRIBE and click the notification bell for the channel using the link below and that'll make sure you get notified of all of the uploads and you won't miss any of the action!
For your interest below are all of the details of the event as well as a full list of competitors...
WORLD
CHAMPIONSHIPS
SILVER
MEDAL!
(October 2022)
In October our Preston Innovations England Feeder Team headed over to Belgium to compete in the 2022 World Championships and after what has been a lot of time and effort we managed to secure the silver medal on what was a very tough and diverse venue!
With a poor run of draws we actually eneded up 6th overall going into the final day but with 23 peg sections we knew that our approach of targeting the roach, perch and bream could mean that we avoided any 'big scores' and whilst the draw wasn't favourable, our approach secured the silver medal beaten only by a superb performance by Serbia who deserve the huge congratulations for taking home the Gold medal!
Throughout the event and training week we kept everyone in touch with how the week was progressing through YouTube videos on the Fishing Life channel and on Facebook via our Preston Innovations England Feeder Team page.
If you'd like to watch the playlist of videos from the event as it happened please click the link below...
Photo Credit: Preston Innovations Facebook Page.
IMPROVE YOUR WINTER COMMERCIAL VENUE FISHING!
With winter just around the corner it's the perfect time to FAST-TRACK your commercial venue fishing skills and that's exactly what our 42 video course is designed to do!
If you'd like to learn more about this and our other online fishing courses please click the link below...
FEEDER MASTERS FINAL 2022
(September 2022)
This event is still regarded as the most prestigious individual feeder fishing event in Europe and once again it was held at the wonderful and unique Upper Tamar Lake!
The water levels were painfully low and whilst the fish on the venue are often well-spread out we thought that the draw would play a key roll especially if you needed to catch skimmers in order to give you the best possible chance of winning the event.
It really was a match of two-halves for me as day one was spent targeting skimmers and in complete contrast on day two I was forced to target roach!
Day 1 - 34lb Section Win
I drew peg 26 which turned out to be one of about 20 pegs where the skimmers would feed and by taking it steady on the 18m line I managed 60 skimmers which won the section and put me 3rd overall going into the second day
Day 2 - 17lb Section Win
The draw bag gave me peg 46 which wasn't the place anyone wanted to be and after a fruitless first 45 minutes going for skimmers I decided to consolidate and go for small fish short for the rest of the match and my 82 roach, 30 perch and 3 skimmers went 17lb to win the section which gave me a total of 51lb 9oz and the £500 for 15th overall.
Kit wise it was all short range work so I've used my favoured 11ft Horizon Slim rods with the Horizon 3000 reel, 0.10 submerge braid and mix choice for both days was Sonubaits F1 Green.
If you'd like to watch the more detailed download video which was published to the Match Fishing Channel please click the button below.
Huge congratulations to Zak Williams on taking the title, Steve Ringer for his 2nd place and to Rich Wilson taking 3rd place. A big thank you has to go to the Tamar fishery staff, Preston Innovations for sponsoring the event and to Lee Kerry and the Feeder Masters team on yet another flawless event.
Roll on the winter campaign!
Photo Credit: Preston Innovations Facebook Page
2022 FEEDER NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!
(August 2022)
It's no secret that our Ringerbaits team were gutted about our result in the 2021 World Feeder Club final in Bulgaria. We'd put a lot of time and effort into qualifying for that final so when it was announced that the Angling Trust Feeder National Championship would determine which team would once again represent England again in this years World Club Final we made it our mission to focus heavily on the chosen venue, the mighty river Trent!
Now because the final round of the highly prestigous Feeder Masters Super League was also going to take place on the 'Trent' we knew that we'd be spending time on the river and it soon became apparent that because the condition of the river was low and clear and with little rain forecast we strongly suspected that targeting small fish could prove key and that's exactly what happened.
Our team of Phil Ringer, Steve Ringer, Adam Wakelin, Rob Wootton, Grant Howie and myself simply fished 'for bites' for most of the match and whilst some better quality fish were caught in certain sections, it was the small fish that made the difference especially in some very tough areas. Our team finished with 44 points which won the event beating Derbyshire Angling Federation team by 4 points and they too will be competing in the World Club Final in 2023 which is planned to take place in Ireland well done lads!
The World Final is due to take place in April so we fully expect the venue to fish hard but with our experience of fishing in Ireland and the fact that it's so close to home we'll be working hard to bring the Gold medal home :)
If you'd like to watch the video story of our build-up to the event please click the button below...
1-1 COACHING DAY PACKAGES
OUR MATCH FISHING CHANNEL EVOLVES!
Over the last 3 years our membership video channel Patron TV has gone from strength to strength and as a result of it's popularity we had to make certain changes in order to maintain the level of experience of our members. The channel now boasts 312 videos and because of this growth we made the decision to limit the membership numbers to 250 members because with that number I can still respond to personal messages and interact with the channel in a totally committed and professional way.
However, over the last year it's been very clear that the vast majority of the members join the channel to learn more about match fishing tactics, methods, baits, watercraft, decision making and listen to feed back from a lot of the events I'm fortunate enough to take part in.
So, as we move into the next phase of combining my own match fishing, YouTube channel, members channel, coaching and online coaching courses together, it's the best time to make this merge.
As of October 2021, our exclusive in-depth fishing video membership channel is now known as the Match Fishing Channel . As well as the current extra videos it produces each month, live streams, members invitational matches, group coaching invites and other perks, it will be producing more match footage from the bank and after-match analysis and downloads.
The success and support that this channel has already received has vastly assisted the main YouTube Catch Fishing Channel to produce lots more content and uploads and this new phase is another huge stepping stone to making this channel even bigger and better!
Thank you once again to everyone who has joined this channel and if you'd like to learn more about it please click the button below for more information.
Tight lines everyone and we hope to see you on the bank real soon!
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FEEDER MASTERS GRAND FINAL 2021
The mighty Upper Tamar Lake didn't disappoint!
After qualifying for this final I couldn't wait to get to this lake as I honestly felt that the type of fishing would really suit my style but the biggest draw was because of the shear amount of fish in it!
It was an incredibly interesting event and whilst I thought I had the tactics sorted after the practice match it quickly showed me how diverse the venue was with an almost disastrous Day One but a change in tactics on Day Two shot me up the leader board from 29th to 3rd overall and take home the £2,500 cheque!
It was once again an incredibly well organised event by the Feeder Masters team and if you'd like to follow all of the twists and turns then sit back and enjoy the full film over on the Catch Fishing Channel which goes live at 7pm on the 30th of September by simply clicking the link below...
A week of BIG Money Finals!
July 2021
The final week of July 2021 has seen me clock-up an incredible 1000 miles travelling all over the country to compete in qualifiers, filming days and conduct 1-1 coaching session. During this week I've managed to qualify for both the £12,000 Feeder Masters and the £10,000 Feeder King finals!
First up was the Feeder Masters qualifier which involved a mega journey down to Kent where we fished Nickolls Pit which I've never had chance to visit before. It was rumoured that it would be a Carp match but for some reason they decided not to feed so I focussed my attentions on skimmers and thankfully my 19lb taken on a short-range cage feeder was enough to qualify which made the 5.5 hour drive home a little less painful!
Then it was off to Southfield Reservoir for the latest Feeder King qualifier and as the reservoir has been fishing VERY hard we knew it wouldn't take many fish to qualify. I drew an unfamiliar area in the shape of peg 12 which is the second peg out of the corner and with the wind off our backs we feared the worse. At the halfway stage I'd got a couple of small skimmers but as we'd seen 3 Bream caught 2 pegs to my right I needed to make some changes. I tweaked my approach slightly and in the last 90 minutes I managed to net 3 good Bream and some smaller skimmers which tipped the scales at 16lb which was enough to qualify and was 2nd overall in the match!
These 2 big finals have now made September a MEGA month which also includes a 4 day festival at the mighty Tamar Lakes! Perfect :)
Our Latest Media Project - June 2021
Our latest media project was an aerial filming and photography package for the prolific Messingham Sands fishery!
This package featured aerial photos of all of the lakes and 2 aerial videos showcasing all 11 lakes along with soundtracks for them to add to their website and social media platforms.
To learn more about this fishery visit www.messinghamsands.co.uk
One of the videos is featured below.
Coaching Day 25/06/2021
Luke travelled over 4 hours for this session which took place at the fabulous Lindholme Lakes complex!
The aim of the session? It was for him to see how we rotate through lines during in a match and to get a good idea of how to approach this lake for his big match on the same lake in just 3 days time! We fished peg 6 on Beeches lake and we decided to just focus everything around pellets. He had a slow start at 5m on the bottom with just a couple of small fish but after building up his 11m shallow line out in the open-water he was soon catching some big F1's on hard pellet. As he'd never fished the pellet waggler before we took the opportunity to set it up and after a few minutes of feeding he was soon catch on that too with most bites coming in the first 2 seconds!
We then focussed on the margins and after priming them for an hour he was into Carp and F1's almost every cast right until the end of the session.
On the day of his match he drew peg 14 and fished exactly the same way and managed to finish 3rd overall and if it wasn't for a couple of lost fish he would have easily won but he did a great job!
To learn more about this fishery visit www.lindholmelakes.co.uk
Staunton Harold Coaching Day 11/06/2021
Matrix SUBMERGED Filming Day 10/06/2021 - Packington Somers Fishery!
With the huge success of the Matrix Submerged series of videos we continue to produce videos giving some intriguing insights into what actually happens under water!
For a very special edition which will be released at Christmas 2021 we headed off to the wonderful Packington Somers Fishery in the Midlands. We had a great team on the bank of Mark Pollard, Jamie Hughes and myself in front of the lens and media maestros behind the cameras were Matrix media team Craig Butterfield and Adam Firth with underwater filming expert Rob Hughes taking care of things filming the underwater footage.
If you've ever wondered what really happens underwater then this series with definitely be of interest to you and this will once again be another eye-opening and thought provoking episode!
If you haven't seen any of the videos in this series yet, click the button below to take a look at what all the fuss is about...
Photo courtesy of Matrix on Instagram @matrix_fishing
Ferry Meadows - Group Coaching Day 06/06/2021
Dean Barlow and I were asked to put together another group coaching session which focussed on the tactics and approach for targeting big Bream on stillwaters so we couldn't think of a more suitable venue to host the session than Ferry Meadows!
However the venue had been fishing hard in areas but the lads on this session really dug deep, showed lots of patience and stuck to the plan of setting lines up, ringing little changes and making the most of any visits they got from the Bream. It turned out to be another fantastic session and to be honest, it was one of the clearest sessions we've had were certain things would almost guarantee you a fish when done at the right time.
The lads caught some big Bream and with a couple of personal best fish caught it was another very enjoyable session with some great people and we can't wait for our next session which takes place on the mighty river Trent at Burton Joyce!
Preston Innovations Feeder Masters Qualifier - Barston Lakes 05/06/2021
My quest to qualify for the big money final continued and after my near-miss in the last qualifier at this venue I was hoping to go one better this time!
Peg 91 was drawn for me which wasn't a great area for this zone but if the rest of the bank fished hard there was an outside chance we could catch a few. However, blazing hot sunshine and a flat-calm lake greeted us and it looked like every fish in the lake was cruising around on the surface which wasn't exactly ideal for a feeder match!
It was tough going and at the 2 hour mark I'd caught one skimmer but we heard the section was fishing very hard so I focussed solely on the Open Method feeder to try and ensure that if we were only going to get a few bites then I wanted them to be from big fish!
I managed to catch 5 Skimmers, an F1 and this big Carp which gave me 29lb 6oz which put me 3rd in the 20-peg zone and just 5lb off qualifying which was definitely achievable so it's going down as another near miss.
The quest continues...
