Mark Wintles memorable matches

Reading through your article Mark it struck me that todays anglers wouldn't or couldn't even begin to understand the basics, the learning and the hard work that went into match fishing on a river, especially one as difficult as the Stour in Summer.

The art of river match fishing is a thing of the past and I doubt it will ever be resurrected. Todays anglers aren't the slightest bit interested in flogging themselves to death for a few miserable bleak and tiny dace week after week just to gain a few points for a team neither would they understand the satisfaction we matchmen got out of it. The feeling of elation after the weigh in when you realised you had won put you on a high for week was wonderful.

River match anglers were a group apart from the normal anglers and though I, like you, have suffered untold misery in the search for a few fish but I wouldn't have swapped the experience for the world.

Cracking article Mark and it has resurrected a lot of memories for me at least.

Another nice article Mark, and a nice chub. Reading all this has made me really want to give a match ago. I think I might try it!

Mark,
I enjoyed both the match reminisces articles and it?s interesting to get an insight into how the hard earned skills of angling can be acquired. There aren?t really any shortcuts to improving your catch rate and fishing through winter highlights the gulf of knowledge between the competent and the average angler. I fall into the latter group alas, but at least I can refine my tactics enough in winter to get some small success. I think that some of the anglers I see on lakes in the winter could have done with going through some of the learning processes you have Mark.
What I?m trying to say is that to me learning and improving is what it?s all about and I can?t understand people who adopt the same failing tactics and do not even try to glean anything when they see someone being more successful. The complete opposite to the recounts of your experiences.
Would you say that match fishing in the present day is a good way to improve?

Yacko

Perhaps next year now Mark, but it would be fun at sometime to have a two part "match" between FM's big fish anglers and match anglers.

There are damn good anglers on both sides and it would be good fun?

Glad you guys are enjoying the articles; at this time of year it is hard to get predictable fishing that could provide the basis of an article and for me these are simple to write at an hour to two hours a throw! Especially with a major writing project in progress.

To answer Christian and Neil (Yacko) - match fishing will sharpen up your fishing, highlight your weaknesses, and provide access to better and more skilled anglers that will help you. You don't have to do two a week but three or four club matches a year on easy venues can be enough. I learnt a load from last Saturday at GV, mainly how rusty I am at making decisions quickly in match conditions, but other things as well. Interesting that the top points scorers were the anglers sat on boxes using match tactics (not sure if Graham was on a box but was using match tactics).

Match fishing needs practice, and that is something the majority of anglers rarely do; it's that striving for improvement and refinement that makes a difference. Many of the anglers I know do that all the time and not all match fish, but they include some extremely successful anglers. The next article will demonstrate practice!

As Paul says that could be fun; Neil's suggestion of GV Gold Lake in Summer would be something else!

Your comment about practice is right. When I match fished I would practice the methods (not necessarily on the venue) hopefully with a group so we could swap views. Occassionally that would result in turning up for the match ultra confident which was one of the big hurdles to cross.

I don't do that now! All my "practicing" is done on the hoof and therefore many a session ends up perhaps not so good as it should do.

Saturday was a prime example! Yes, I know the venue and had fished the lake 4 or 5 times in the previous weeks, supposedly practicing.

But I drew a peg I've never fished and was more than a little suprised to find it was much shallower than just about anywhere on the lake. That "threw" me for a while and confusion set in. I was lucky, I chucked a lead out there for the first half hour or so and had two carp while trying to think of the right way to fish what was in front of me!

You matchies think to much!

I just thought catch livebait! and it worked!

Paul's idea is a cracker. There are indeed some superb anglers in all the various camps. Speaking to (or rather listening to) Andy N. and Wol on Saturday evening was a revelation. The application and effort (practice?) they put into their fishing is incredible.

Matt Brown is another who clearly thinks about every aspect of his fishing.

Was it Gary Player who said "the more I practice, the luckier I get"?

Nowt wrong with that Paul!

Also, it was Jeff who won it by a west country mile and probably just approached it with a clear and open mind (the b&?$$$***).

We must ban Scrumpy boilies at all FM matches!

On a serious note Neil, you must spend a weekend fishing for big bream, the workload can be phemonemol!!

Where you taking me?

Great article Mark. I can remember the early years of my match fishing which was all on rivers such as the Thames and the Suffolk Stour and today I still find river fishing the most enjoyable and rewarding although apart from club matches my dedicated match fishing days are now long past.

I've only just read that Mark and it was fantastic. Isn't it amazing how much me learn through many years of angling?

I've only ever fished a few matches, but I always used to fish as though I was in a match. As a kid I'd turn up and try to catch more than everyone else on the lake, especially if they had loads of tackle and a team name on the back of their jacket. It was a great way of measuring if I was getting things right.

Instead of real match practice, I would often read about a method that I wasn't competent in and fish in that way until I felt I had it sussed. I'd make sure I only took the tackle I needed to fish that method, for instance, waggler and maggot for chub, hemp and pole for roach, whip for gudgeon or bleak and so on). That way I wouldn't be able to revert to tactics that I was more comfortable with.

Apart from arming you with more choice on how to catch the fish, it would highlight how some methods were better than others in certain situations.

Of course there's so much still to learn...