Thoughts of 2018

2018 has been quite a strange year for me.

Fishing wise, I had a great summer run on Open matches, these ranged from 8 to 30 peg matches, as in there was 8 to 30 anglers fishing the matches.  Some anglers reports make we laugh, as they lie on the numbers, i.e. 30 pegger when only 10 fished.  Not sure why people do this?!

"Chasing the dream matches" (Golden Reel, Fish O Mania and Maver Match This) have been very disappointing for me, I honestly believe ALL the draws I had, had no chance of winning.  A bit gutting, but will chase it again more this year.

Todber Manor 

A new venue for me, Todber Manor.  Wow what a venue.  Its solid!!  Only fished 3 matches at Todber Manor, had two seconds and a match win and qualified for the King of Manor, so job done.  Would love to go there more, but it 2 hour drive there from my house.   I would HIGHLY recommend this venue.  Why?  Not many rules, no silly rules, clean, tidy, use your own pellets and catch loads of fish hopefully.  Will go more in 2019 for sure.

Ivy House Lakes

Only fished Ivy House lakes 5 times this year, as we are lucky to get so many different venues to fish, if anything there is too many venues..... At Ivy House lakes I had 3 lake wins, Won Silvers and a 4th overall.  Not bad, really enjoy the new canals and don't know why I shied away from them.

18lb of mainly roach on the Christmas match

I would like to add that Ivy House Lakes will be mega soon.  They have dig another lake, which looks awesome.  Also Willow and Match Lakes are one lake again, which is nice.

Alvechurch Fishery

Really do enjoy Horseshoe Lake, set a new venue record of 212lb in 5 hours and came third in my Dad's Memorial match Final.  A good friend, Jon Walker won that.  Thursday afternoon /evening matches are simply awesome.

Sponsorship

Sponsorship does seem to be loosly used these days, when I was in my twenties there wasn't many sponsored anglers, and if you were, then honoured.... Now 15 years on many anglers have individual sponsorship and team deals.  Can't think why tackle shops are struggling and shutting down......

My Colmic boss Francesco Corrente left the company the end of 2017, which was disappointing as he is a good man and is truly missed.  So we were appointed a new boss, Nicola Bonora, which I never meet or spoken too.  There was loads of rumours of Phil Briscoe taking the UK Sales role, but nothing come of it, never realised how many experts there are on Facebook.  In February 2018 I was asked to stand down as a Sales Rep for Colmic after six years, but Colmic wanted me to stay as a sponsored angler still, as my roles were a promoter and part time role as Sales Rep.  So I decided to leave Colmic, as I felt this was an insult, especially of what I had done in promotion and paid for stock that was damaged in Evesham Tackle fire (another story, Id like to stress that I did get my money back from Colmic) so my contracted ended in March 2018.

The biggest issue of me leaving Colmic was the final collapse of the group.  Our group had done well and we are all friends still.  Frank Donachie went to Mosella in January 2018 and few other lads like Glen Picton who went to Garbolino and Mark Malin who went to MAP to prior to Frank leaving.  Also Rob Guppy decided to leave and went to Guru.  This left myself, Liam Dennick and Gary Donachie from individual sponsorship and Devizes Match Group, which I advised them to stay with Colmic, which they all decided to leave, without my influence.  Which for me was disappointing after what was built up.

I joined Mosella in spring and it was good to be soley a promoter along side Frank Donachie and now Gary Donachie.  This meant i could spend more time on my own fishing, which I really hadn't done for a few years.

Another highlight of the year is getting sponsorship through Spotted Fin, who do make good quailty products and give a fanastic direct customer service.  So looking forward to 2019.

Marukyu UK

Marukyu was very good to me, and I am very grateful to Howard Kaye who supported me right from day one.  Not all their products were fanastic, but the Animo pellets and EFG150/EFF151 without no doubt helped me catch more fish.  However, Marukyu decided to stop trading in the UK.  This was disappointing, Marukyu released a press report....

Change of career

I also had an interview with Zebco (Browning) for the Sales Rep job for the South, which I unfortunately didn't get.  Congratulations to Ryan Gibson on getting the job, I wish you well.

YouTube

I'm a little disappointed in myself of not doing more videos on my YouTube channel, this link is below:

Chris Telling YouTube

Therefore in 2019 I will do more videos, as i believe people don't like reading and people sooner press play.  So I will have a proper go this year.

2019

I'm looking forward to 2019, as shouldn't have any more family issues, as theres hardly anyone left.  Been a bit rough the last 3 years.  Also only working one job now, I'm able to spend time soley on myself.

Would like to get on the

Rolfs Festival in Easter or Heronbrook

Manor Farm Leisure in May

Chasing a few big matches, Fish O Mania etc

Get my motivation back for team fishing with Devizes MG.  Be nice to win the team and individual winter league again and be nice to do well in the Spring League on the Kennet and Avon canal.

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