Good Start to the Winter League

Shane Lovell made a perfect start to the winter league down in the south west.

Sponsored by Blacksilver Baits, Shane won the first match of the winter league season fishing 1mm micro pellets on the method with an 8mm pellet hook bait, to land 7 carp for 26lb 4oz, beating second place by 4lb.

Shane had tried our Match Team Green Groundbait on the 11m line but had little success, also trying dead maggot down the margins. But when he switched to the far swim, about a foot from the far bank on the method with our micro pellet, he hit into the fish. "the fishing was hard" Shane reported "a few of the guys blanked. Hopefully next week will be a little easier".

Maximum points scored and a job well done!

New Products in the Online Shop

We are committed to both increasing our product range this year and bringing our customers a wider variety of baits.

As such, we have now expanded our hook bait range to include 6mm Soft Hook Pellets and Match Team Specialist Soft Hook Paste. Both come in a range of 8 different flavours, so there should be at least one flavour that is suitable for your local water.

A new hard pellet range is being released this week, and details are being updated on the website to include Coarse Pellet, Marine Halibut Pellet, Bloodworm Pellet and Trout Pellet in the most popular sizes.

And finally, 3 new groundbaits are being released this week:

Match Team 'Gold' - the match winning formula that is taking commercial fisheries apart this summer. Proven as a winner by our sponsored angler Shane Lovell, and regulars at SAS who have used the method mix to devastating effect
Match Team 'Green' - the same great method mix as 'gold' above, but in green. Only difference is the colour, which can make all the difference on the day.
Bloodworm Method - a new blend that is proving to be a big hit locally for carp, and tench specimen anglers

Check out the website for more details: www.blacksilverbaits.co.uk

Shane Lovell - Pairs Match at Trinity Waters - 17th July

One of our sponsored anglers, Shane Lovell, fished a pairs match on Sunday 17th July at Trinity waters. The match was organised through the Talk Angling forum.

Shane came second with 41lb 12oz, all caught on the pellet waggler and on the method feeder using our Match Team 'Gold' method mix. Shane added some micros in to the mix for a bit of extra pulling power.

In Shane's own words 'your onto a winner with the mix'. After a late spring/early summer of testing, it's time we got this on sale in the shop.

Shane is coaching tomorrow at bullocks farm for about 28 kids so it should prove to be an interesting day, with mixed skill levels. Thursday he is fishing a match on Viaduct fishery and friday back down Trinity so should be a good couple of days fishing.

Canal Fishing, 9th July with Kris

I got a call from Kris on Saturday afternoon. He had decided to have a few hours on the canal in town. He got himself a pint of maggots and also took along a kilo of our Blacksilver Baits Canal Black groundbait.

The 'urgent' phone call was because of two things;

1: he was running out of groundbait, and could i drop off another kilo to him
and
2: he was having a red letter day catching roach, but Kris had forgotten his camera.

Only too happy to oblige, i went down around 4pm with both a kilo of groundbait and the camera. Glad i did, as the canal was fishing well, the best day Kris had had on there in a long time.



In four hours Kris caught 12 1/2 lb of roach, all on pole tactics at about 9 metres, 2" on the bottom on a 16s hook. He was still catching when i arrived, but soon had to knock it on the head as hook bait was running low.

Match Winner @ Walters Lake SW England Sun 3rd July

One of our sponsored anglers, Shane Lovell from Bristol, took part in a club match on Sunday 3rd july 2011, at Walters Lake, down in the South West.

Fishing the method on our new Match Team Gold method mix, with a few added micros, and a 8.5mm banded hair rigged pellet, Shane landed an impressive 66lb to take first place, a long way ahead of second place with only 42lb from the next peg along.

In Shane's report he added that "most of the fish came from the method feeder with a few bonus fish in the last hour on meat from the margin swim"

Shanes exact words about the new Match Team Gold were "the mix is a winner!"

We have a couple of details to finalise and it should be in the shop from the 10th July so keep your eyes out for the new addition to our Match Team Range!

First session of the season on the Trent 23/06/11

Our first river session of the 2011 season got off to a shaky start on the river Trent.

Myself and Kris Ventachellum, a long time angling buddy and excellent all round angler, had arranged to get up at first light and head to the Trent. Kris arrivd at 4.30am and we loaded the van and set off.

Conditions looked perfect upon arrival. Sun had not yet broken the horizon, it was light but slightly overcast, with a light breeze from the west. Excited we set about mixing up the groundbait and getting set up. We were fishing by about 5.30am.

Bream fishing is a bit of a waiting game. Rarely do you drop straight on them so we had plenty of time to set up after initially balling in our groundbait. The mix was the same as used last season to great effect; 30% Big Bream Original, 30% River, and 30% Molehill soil. We were fishing worm or red maggot, with a change bait of either sweetcorn or soaked 8.5mm pellet.

The wind had started to get up by about 6am, and the clouds were getting heavier. No problem for breaming, as some chop on the water and overcast conditions are usually condusive for a good session.

Kris had a bite early on, and almost landed a bream of about 4 to 6lb (always hard to estimate in the water) Got it to the lip of the landing net before it pulled free. A shame but good signs....or so we thought.

I didn't get a bite for about 3 hours, and when i did they were timid bites, not what i have come to expect from river bream who usually bite so positive. By the end of the morning i had had only about 4 or 5 knocks, and i had lost a good fish at range.

Kris did better than me. He landed 3 fish in the morning, and lost a couple more. The biggest landed was 7 1/2lb, and the other two were 5lb and 6lb. A nice trio of fish. By lunchtime the wind had got the better of me. I'd had enough of what was proving to be a gale! (nearly lost my brolly as it got pulled from the ground and almost down river. By 1.30pm we called it quits.

Sporadic bites, cold blustery wind and no fish for me is not a good start to the river season. Nothing like the catches we had last autumn...but then again it is early in the season....there's always next time!

Kris's bream!

Few more pictures of SAS in Loughborough

We now have our bait stocked in Smiths Angling Supplies (SAS) in Loughborough, and we thought it might be a good idea to show you a few more pics of the shop.

It's well stocked with tackle, and is a clean modern tackle shop, with excellent live baits (maggot/worm/caster etc) and a big selection of groundbaits and pellet.

Gary's advice is excellent and is always on hand to pass on his knowledge to his customers whether you're a novice angler or an old hand, match, pleasure or specimen.

SAS - Smiths Angling Supplies Loughborough

Our baits are now stocked by Gary at SAS (smiths angling supplies) in Loughborough.

We have worked with Gary over the past 3 or 4 years on a few match mixes, and he has been kind enough to test some of our newer method mixes and groundbaits in recent months.

He has agreed to stock our groundbaits, so should you want to try a kilo or two head down to his shop.

Smiths Angling Supplies
64 Leicester Road
Loughborough
Leicestershire
LE11 2AG

His maggot and caster are top notch too.

Day at Hollows Farm Fishery

Had a decent day at Hollows Farm fishery at Thorpe Satchville in Leicestershire, yesterday (17/6/11)

Despite the weather forecast as being heavy rain and blustery winds we decided to go anyway. We are by no means fair weather fishermen here at Blacksilver Baits, but wind is just not fun to fish in. But we thought we'd risk it. As it turns out the rain came but wind did not which was great.

We have a few groundbaits on test and Stu had been given the chance to try our new 'Match Team Green' groundbait. It's a fishmeal based method mix, very light and fluffy but quite inert. It breaks down very quickly leaving a bed of groundbait to fish over. Experience at this fishery has shown us that most fish are in the margins, so Stu decided to use the groundbait by balling in rather than on the feeder. He fished at about 3m from the bank in 4ft of water. Fishing caster over the top he was into the roach almost straight away. Fingers crossed the carp and bream would move in. Despite all hopes, only one solitary bream got caught. Loads of skimmers and roach, with a smattering of gudgeon and perch.

Then at the end of the session around 4pm, he hooked into a carp. A beautiful fin perfect 4lb common. That would be his last fish of the day. At weigh in just after 4pm he had caught a respectable 16lb of fish. The 4lb carp and 12lb of bits.

I had been testing another new addition to our groundbait range, our new 'Bloodworm Groundbait' (working title). I had decided to fish the waggler at about 12m out, as i had seen another angler catching at that distance on Wednesday. Fishing hard on the bottom with a traditional set up for bream to show lift bites (ssg's on the deck), i fished caster over a bed of groundbait. Initially i balled in 4 balls of the Bloodworm Groundbait, and settled in for a spell to wait for the arrival of the bream. After about 15 minutes the float lifted before slowly sinking below the water. I struck and hit into a bream of about 3lb. This would be my first and last in that spot. I gave it another half an hour before switching to the margin swim.

As no other bites were coming on the waggler, i switched to fishing next to a small bunch of lillies, about 6ft from the bank. I had about 3ft of water under the float. I had set up a 3m whip, fishing the flick tip. i wanted roach!

I had already introduced 3 balls of bloodworm groundbait into the swim at the start of the session, so i regularly flicked in a pinch of casters about every 30 seconds or so. It wasn't long before the roach responded. The more casters i put in the quicker and more positive the bites became. Then, as the float buried, i hit into one of many bream. Strike and hit a solid fish, adrenalin surge, and hope that i could hold the fish on the whip. It's a brave option on water that holds carp and bream, but the rig held and 1 bream landed. More casters into the swim and back into the roach. Then another bream, then back into the roach.

It continued like this for a few hours while the rain lashed down onto the brolly. Then it went quiet. The float buried and it was like hitting a wall. Big swoosh and a carp roared off. Luckily the size 18 hook pulled free. I would not have stopped it on the 3m whip. Sigh of relief that i still had my rig, flick of casters into the swim and the roach started again!

In all i had about 8 bream between 2 and 3lb, and lots of roach, for a total of 26lb.

In previous tests at this fishery of the bloodworm groundbait i have had 16lb, 27lb and 42lb, all bream and roach. Tests are going well.

Rain eventually stopped play and we went to warm up with a pint!!