Jake Marshall

One of my first memories of fishing was when I was around five years old and was at White Acres complex in Cornwall with my Mum, Dad and Brother. Me and my Dad were walking around the lakes on the day before the ‘festival’ was due to begin. We stumbled across one of his pal’s and sat with him for a while as he practised on Pollawyn.

My Dad, Adrian, took one of his top kits, took a box of maggots and altered the rig. He swiftly began to catch small bits and pieces and gave me ago, the first fish I caught was a small perch around 3oz, I was over the moon, and from then on my fishing really kicked off! After a few years I became a very keen football player however, I began to get really into my fishing, going maybe once every two weeks to the local vineyards.

One day after football training just before we was about to set off fishing my Dad asked me to make the decision; fishing or football, as doing both was getting too much. I obviously chose fishing, and from then on we was going once, maybe twice, or sometimes even three times a week. We used to practice down the local Vineyards on their lake as it was free of charge, catching small carp, roach and rudd on casters. This got me rather accustomed with pole fishing and I soon grew to love it even more.

I was soon learning to cast and began to have a little dabble with waggler and feeder fishing. I would go with my Dad every week to watch him compete in high standard matches at venues like Gold Valley, Willow Park and Stub Pond. As the standard of fishing at these venues was quite high I would constantly be sitting behind superstars like; William Raison, Steve Gardener and Ben Leach who were all friends of my Dad’s and therefore them knowing who I was meant they wouldn’t mind me sitting with them and asking questions.

My Dad would always encourage me to sit with them and ask questions so that I learnt, and I most definitely did, picking up tips every weekend.On another of our visits to White Acres I asked my Dad if I could fish the residents match, my first ever. I remember the day well and caught loads of roach, rudd, tench and the odd carp fishing the same tactics i had learnt at the Vineyards. I managed to win the junior prize and was third overall against the adults, I was overjoyed and couldn’t wait to fish some more matches.

I then began to fish in adult matches, however, not paying the full pools as my Dad knew i didn’t have a chance of winning, this way I was fishing against high quality anglers therefore was always learning. After a few years i began to compete with them and eventually would be picking up money with the odd section win.My next big venture was into the Junior National scene. I joined Farnborough when I was 12 and am still fishing for them to this day. We have a good laugh and have had numerous victories along the way! This got my name and pictures in the paper quite a number of times and I was soon asked to come to the England youth trials.

The first year I trialled i didn’t get into the team however for the last two years I have and have fished two brilliant venues in Portugal and Czech Republic, where we picked up a bronze and silver medal respectively. Nowadays I fish the Angling Times Winter league every year gaining good experience on a mixture of different venues which has helped my fishing improve vastly. I have also been mixing with some of the best anglers in the country and have picked up some tips off of them on the way. I fish numerous leagues and open matches throughout the winter and summer making sure I get out at least once a week, therefore never falling behind with my fishing and always making sure I know what is going on.

I will always try to fish a league that is full of the best anglers, e.g. Dorking lads such as Steve Gardener, Gary Hamilton, Mark Goddard etc. this way I am constantly learning off of them and picking tips up, I feel this has been one of the best things my Dad has encouraged me to do. I also make sure I can always take some time out to fish for my club Farnborough in the numerous junior nationals nowadays so that we can keep doing the team and our manager Colin Dance proud.

Finally, my international fishing ALWAYS comes first, I make sure I take at least a month out to prepare and practice for trials and if/when I get in the team I will always make sure I have more than enough tackle and preparation complete.

So that’s the biography of my fishing and I hope you enjoy my blogs and articles!