Steve Ringer
How my positive approach on a tough venue reaped the rewards
The tricks that helped him win the Ivan Marks Memorial match
THE Ivan Marks Memorial at Ferry Meadows is a match that I always look forward to although, over the years, it’s safe to say it hasn’t always been that kind to me.
That said, it’s a trophy I’ve always wanted to get my name on.
With 52 high-calibre anglers taking part on Gunwade Lake this year that wasn’t going to be easy, so the first job would be to get a half-good draw to give me a chance of a few fish.
At the draw I pulled out peg 88 which, I have to admit, I really fancied. It’s only three pegs away from the famous ‘fence end’ peg, and there are always bream around that area.
Now I don’t think it’s any great secret that Ferry Meadows hasn’t fished as well as normal this season – conditions for bream fishing have been absolutely dire, with bright sunshine and a flat calm surface on every visit.
On arrival at peg 88, though, the first thing that struck me was that conditions were quite literally bang on. Not only was it overcast, but there was a strong wind blowing straight in my face.
If the bream in Gunwade were ever going to feed, then it had to be today!
SETTING UP TO ATTACK
With the wind being so strong the first thing I decided was not to fish too far out.
My normal chuck in this area is 60m-plus, but this year I’ve felt I’ve gone over the fish on more than one occasion. With half a gale blowing straight into my face I saw no need to try and go too far. A quick plumb with a 1.5oz bomb showed a decent clear spot
at 48m. With the wind gusting as strongly as it was, I reckoned this would be further than most other anglers would fish, and still give me my own patch of water.
At the same time, this was a distance I felt wouldn’t have me casting past the fish.
I set up two 12ft Daiwa SLR rods which were teamed with Castizm 25QDA reels loaded with 0.10mm Tournament Evo braid.
This area can be quite bad for zebra mussels, so I opted for a long shockleader of 0.30mm Guru Shield line to my normal running paternoster rig.
Hooklength to start with was 50cm of 0.17mm N-Gauge to a size 12 Feeder Special hook.
The only difference between the two rods was that the second one had a 30cm hooklength on in case I felt the bream were coming closer to the f eeder.
On top of the two SLRs I also set up a Daiwa Longbow spod rod, purely for feeding with a large, 30g Guru baiting-up feeder used to kick the swim off.
POSITIVE BAITING
With the conditions being absolutely perfect I decided to really attack the swim at the start, so in went 12 big baiting-up feeders absolutely packed with particles. I knew this was a risk, but I just felt if I was going to win then I had to go for it.
With the initial feed in, I kicked off by fishing a 40g, four-hole Guru X-Change feeder containing lots of particles.
My plan was to cast every three minutes for the first hour to keep the bait going in. I could then reassess the situation an hour in.
A couple of early small fish in the form of a hybrid and a perch were my first enquiries, both falling to three dead red maggots on the hook.
Then, out of the blue on the 35-minute mark, the tip pulled round and a 3lb Ferry skimmer was soon in the net.
This was a really good sign and I have to admit I expected another next drop in but surprisingly it was another 30 minutes before the tip went around again as a 4lb bream nearly pulled the rod in.
A couple more small perch followed, but despite chopping and changing hookbaits I couldn’t find another bream.
This was really odd, as it felt as though I should be getting a bream every cast, the conditions were that perfect.
With this in mind I decided to stay on the big feeder and keep casting – I really felt at some point the bream had to get their heads down and start feeding properly.
Sure enough two six-pounders in two casts on the two-hour mark gave me hope. That soon faded, though, because I then went biteless for the next hour.
It was really odd, as peg 88 is in a relatively shallow area and yet there were literally no signs on the tip at all.
VARY IT UP
During the dead spell I tried mixing things up a bit and cut worms out for half-an-hour just to see, but with no response I soon put them back in again.
Chopped worms can be a funny bait for bream. Sometimes they go mad for them, but on other occasions they can be like poison.
As I felt I should be catching more I just wanted to check I wasn’t killing the swim with too much chopped worm.
Even after the biteless hour I still felt there were bream there, so I decided to stay with the threeminute casting tactic. If they did turn up, at least I would have the bait in the swim to hold them. My next bite came with just 90
minutes to go, and at around 7lb it was most welcome.
Even more interestingly, I had two indications before that fish which made me think things were starting to happen.
Sure enough, the next cast produced another 7lb bream and all of a sudden things were getting interesting.
The next cast didn’t produce a bite, but I did have several indications in the form of line bites so I quickly picked up my second rod with the 30cm hooklength on and cast back out.
Well, I had barely put the rod in the rest before the tip was going round again and another bream was slapshing its way towards the landing net.
This was the start of probably the best last hour I’ve ever had on Ferry, as I put 12 more bream in the net to finish with 19 fish. All fell to three or four dead reds and that short 30cm hooklength.
WOULD IT BE ENOUGH?
At the weigh-in the word was that Gunwade had fished really well,
with my brother Phil having 16 bream and Rob Wootton 15.
I had several bream around the 3lb-4lb mark in my 19-fish catch, so I knew it was going to be close.
Rob was first to weigh, and when I heard he had 77lb I reckoned I could beat that.
I was next up, and my two nets went 98lb 4oz to take the lead.
It was then a waiting game but eventually the news I’d hoped for came in. Phil had weighed 94lb and I finally had my name on the coveted Ivan Marks Memorial trophy – not before time, I’d add!
Looking back, I feel tactically I got it bang on by being very aggressive in how I fished.
I think when the bream fed late I had more bait in than anyone else around, and therefore reaped the benefits.
Of course, such a bold approach won’t always work but on this occasion, taking the conditions and the draw into account, it just seemed right.
I always feel the only way to win a big match such as this one is to be positive, and so it proved.