I’ve missed club fishing over the last couple of three years since I left Evesham Jubilee A.S and this was my first match with a new club, Staunton AC who fish every other Saturday, mainly on venues local to me in Worcestershire. Normally I only fish once a week on a Sunday. So the Mrs will be happy!

I got the invite to fish with them this year and as I already know quite a few of their members anyway I felt at home for my first match with them. This was the first match of their season at Court Farm Fishery. I venue I’d not fished before but I’d been looking forward to it all week.

So as this was a new venue for me a little internet research and chats with other anglers during the week was needed. The weighs in the summer are massive with well over 100lb needed to frame but with it being cold all week and still February it could be tough with 16 angler spread over the 20 pegs on the pool. There wasn’t going to be a lot of room!

Getting it all wrong at the start!

I planned to start at 13 metres and then short pole lines for later in the match with a pellets, maggots and corn but today there was a really bad tow on the water. I’d set up a 4×16 F1 Pellet because of it’s wire stem for a bit of stability but even this proved difficult to fish. The float was towing from left to right and I was unable to hold the float still even after going a little over depth to try and compensate for the tow. The rig wasn’t presenting the bait right. I knew I wasn’t going to catch at 13 metres. So I came in short but I still had the tow issues with the float still moving from left to right. Fishing the pole was going to be difficult. My options were to put on a heavier float to combat the tow or throw out the feeder. I did have my trusty 10 foot Preston mini carp bomb rob already set up with an ICM stem and I’d seen a few fish caught by the angler next to me on the maggot feeder. So after 40 minutes on the pole lines with nothing to show for it I reached for my bomb rod.

ICM Banjo Method

So my match was going to be a rod job. But with it still being February and cold I didn’t want to pile in loads of bait around a Method feeder. The Preston ICM set up is perfect for this time of the year when its still cold and the fish don’t want much food. It’s the smaller version of their inter changeable ICS system. The angler on the next peg was 15lb ahead of me now, catching on the maggot feeder. This ICM system gives you to option of fishing a small maggot feeder, bomb or method feeder. I needed carp to catch him up. So I decided to start with a small 15g Banjo XR method feeder where I could put minimal micro pellet around the feeder and fish a small micro bandum. Small baits being required at this time of year.

I cast out into the middle of the pool and it wasn’t long before I caught my first carp of the day. I was back “in the game” So it was now just a waiting game for the rod to pull round. I caught several more carp with the bites coming after 15 minutes. If I didn’t get a bite after then I reeled in because sometimes these small micro bandum pellets can come off the band and you can sit there without a baited hook. So it’s always worth reeling in if no bites have come after 15 minutes. This did happen a few times. I did play around with a 6mm Bandum but no bites came my way. The micro bandum was much better. But it was still worth trying it. I also played around with a maggot feeder as its easy to swap over to with this ICM system but this didn’t work for me and so I spent most of the match fishing the small micro bandum on the small Banjo method feeder. This was the best bait for the day and I caught 10 carp on a very cold winters day. These 10 carp weighed in at 46lb 14oz. I didn’t catch the angler on the next peg up. (He won the match with 61lb all on the maggot feeder) but I caught enough for 3rd place.

So a brown envelope came my way on my first match with Staunton AC from a new venue to me to. I went home a happy Bunny! Although it was a new venue to me, at the end of the day it was just another carp puddle but with that tow on the water my experience fishing these carp puddles over the years told me I wasn’t going to catch on the pole today. Always take your rods with you, just in case!!

The ICM set up

This was a Preston ICM system. The smaller version of their ICS system designed for fishing in winter where small offerings of bait is critical. This was set up on a light 10 foot Preston Mini Carp bomb rod. 8lb main line on a Daiwa 3020 TDR reel. A 15g ICM Banjo XR method feeder and a 4 inch size 18 banded 0.17mm KKM-B Ready rig. Bait wise I used Sonubaits Fluoro Micro Bandum Wafters.