North West Carp

Keeping Warm in Winter

2011-10-19T12:47:00.004+01:00

Judging by the quiet banks in winter most carp anglers seem to give up. The last couple of winters have certainly been harsh and I can understand why some anglers pack in fishing but winter is a good time to be out, carp can still be caught and there’s always the advantage of those quiet, angler free banks!. I think the key to winter carp fishing is to enjoy yourself and you can’t do that if you’re cold!. With this in mind I thought I’d take a look at some of the gear I use to keep myself warm on the bank in winter.

Thermal Suit. I have a Sundridge Igloo 3 to keep me warm in winter, I’ve found Sundridge suits to be excellent and the igloo 3 is outstanding. I’ve had this suit for around 6 years now and most winters I only ever need to wear a t-shirt underneath it’s that good!. The igloo 3 is actually a 3 piece suit consisting of the jacket, trousers and a third ‘sleepskin’ layer which is actually a fleece top for sleeping in. I rarely bother doing nights in winter, I prefer to fish short days so I can stay sharp and move around, I wore the third layer the first time I ever wore my igloo 3 and it’s never seen the light of day since because I was too hot!. A thermal suit will probably be the biggest purchase a winter carp angler will make and a Sundridge thermal suit should be top of the list, they are wind proof, water proof and extremely warm, just what you need on a cold winters day!.

Thermal Suits keep you warm no matter how cold it gets!

Buffalo Special 6 Shirt. Buffalo clothing has developed a cult following amongst carp anglers, the shirt is actually part of the buffalo ‘system’ of clothing and it’s the choice of shirt for mountain rescue teams, the armed forces, police surveillance and underwater search teams. Being used by such professionals is all the praise this shirt needs really, it’s a superb garment for the winter carp angler. The special 6 shirt or ‘SP6’ is designed to be worn next to your skin, it works by trapping in your body heat and if you add a layer of clothing underneath it you will actually get colder!. I know a few anglers who don’t wear anything else but a special 6 in winter, imagine that, going out and staying on the bank with a single layer on!, well the special 6 shirt is that good and if you’re going to be outdoors day and night in a bivvy then I’d seriously consider getting one of these!. I actually wear mine under my igloo jacket when the weather is particularly bad and any sane angler is indoors with the central heating on!. The special 6 shirt is incredibly light too.

Buffalo Special 6 Shirt, ideal cold weather clothing for winter carp fishing!

Thermal Fleece Hat. Most of your body heat is lost through your head so it makes sense to wear a thermal fleece hat in winter. I have a couple of fleece hats but the thinsulate fleece hats are the best by far, they are warm and comfortable to wear and I wouldn’t be without one. A fleece hat is probably the cheapest purchase a winter carp angler will make but it’s just as important as everything else when it comes to keeping warm.

Thermal Fleece Hat & Neck Warmer, both helped keep me warm whilst banking this winter lump!

Neck Warmer / Snood. Also known as a ‘snood’, for years I did without a fleece neck warmer and I don’t know why?. There’s nothing worse than getting a cold neck, in extreme circumstances it can be pretty painful as you loose the ability to turn your head when a stiff neck sets in, many times in the past I’ve been struck by a stiff neck and I’ve literally had to turn round just to look sideways because I couldn’t move it. I’m sure you’ve all had this happen at some point!. Since using a fleece neck warmer I’ve not suffered at all and they are a great addition to any anglers cold weather clothing. Coupled with a fleece hat you have some great thermal protection for your head and neck.

Sealskinz Socks. Moving down to your feet, it pays to wear two pairs of socks and I prefer a standard pair of Thermal Socks underneath and a pair of sealskinz socks on top of them. Like the SP6 shirt, sealskinz socks are actually made for outdoor enthusiasts, most notably mountain bikers. Sealskinz socks have also achieved a cult following amongst carp anglers, they are ideal for carp fishing simply because they are waterproof!, you can actually stand in the water with these socks on your feet and you won’t get wet!. For a carp angler running out of his bivvy to hit a run at 2am in the morning when it’s raining, they are perfect, no need to panic trying to get a pair of trainers or thermal boots on. I actually use Sealskinz socks in summer too, coupled with a pair of crocs they are perfect for fishing shallow margin swims where you might need to get your feet wet to net a fish safely. I find the combination of standard thermal socks with a pair of sealskinz socks on top of them really keeps my feet very dry and very warm indeed and if your feet are warm, so are you.

Sealskinz Socks, my first choice for keeping my feet warm in winter!

Skeetex Thermal Boots. A look at winter clothing wouldn’t be complete without some thermal boots. There are many different types of boots and shoes available to the winter carp angler but my choice is Skeetex Thermal Boots, when I say boots I mean the full on Wellington boot style. Skeetex thermal boots have a fleece inner lining and coupled with the two pairs of socks I’ve mentioned above, they offer excellent protection from the cold. I’ve been using skeetex boots for a long long time now and I’d recommend changing the fleece liners in them every few years, a new fleece lining feels like a new pair of boots and you’ll certainly notice the difference between new liners and ones that have seen 3 or 4 winters use.

Sealskinz Socks and Skeetex Thermal Boots, a great combination for keeping your feet warm in winter!

Extras

Gloves. As with the thermal hat I prefer thinsulate thermal gloves to keep my hands warm, I usually just put my hands in the pockets of my thermal suit but I always have a decent pair of gloves in the outer pockets of my suit, you never know when they will come in handy and if it's a particularly cold day thinsulate thermal gloves can be a big help, specially if you've got your hands wet returning a fish!.

Fleece Hoody. I’ve never bothered wearing a hoody for fishing before but a year or two back I got caught out one spring and the weather turned bitterly cold, I ended up borrowing a fleece hoody to try and keep myself warm and since then I’ve bought a few myself. I don’t buy branded fleece hoodies, just a plain one for £10 or £15 off eBay is enough, for Spring and Autumn when a t-shirt leaves you too cold and a thermal suit is too warm, I find a fleece hoody fills the gap very well and I always make sure there’s one in the bottom of my rucksack just in case the weather gets a bit chilly.

Well that’s it for keeping warm in winter, the carp are still there to be caught and they always look stunning in their winter colours. If you kit yourself out with some good thermal clothing there’s no reason to give up until spring and if you make the effort to carry on going you can be rewarded with quieter banks and bigger carp as they reach their peak weights during the winter months….and you can still be fishing comfortably!.

Tight Lines.

Yateley Sandhurst Lake - Hired for the Weekend

2011-09-18T14:52:00.002+01:00

For the last 3 or 4 years the first week in May has always been an annual trip to Sandhurst carp lake on the famous Yateley fishing complex. This year was no exception and having hired the lake for the weekend at a cost of £1000 between 14 of us (£500 per 24hrs), I was optimistic about our chances of getting amongst some big carp, after all, less angling pressure on those Sandhurst carp would surely give us an edge.

The area local to sandhurst had been suffering from forest fires in the run up to this session and a few of the lads got caught out with certain roads being closed on the way down. Fortunately for me my trusty Sat Nav took me round the M25 and despite being behind most of the guys on the way down, I actually arrived earlier than they did!.
My early arrival gave me some time to have a look around and my first impression was that the fish were holed up in front of the famous pipe swim but this was a shared trip between a group of friends and we were drawing for swims, whoever picked out No 1 in the draw got first choice of swim and so on. I’ve never had much luck when it comes to drawing for swims and I’m certainly consistent with it!, I came out 13th out of 14 and needless to say I didn’t stand a chance of getting anywhere near the pipe swim or any of the adjacent swims!. I actually chose peg 9 on the road bank, I was familiar with this swim having fished it the previous year, peg 9 is actually directly opposite the pipes and there is a large hole in the middle of the lake which is directly between the two swims, by fishing onto the edge of the hole at long range I was hoping to pick off the odd carp that might drift into this area during the weekend.

Peg 9 Looking accross to the famous 'pipe' swim

When visiting day ticket carp waters most anglers I know seem to take the kitchen sink when it comes to bait. Several different flavours of Boilie, Hemp, Pellets, particles, you name it, they take it. Much to my fishing neighbours surprise I had with me 3 handfuls of Tiger Nuts and some Yellow Foam!. I get the impression he thought I was mad bringing so little but I know sandhurst is a pressured water so I chose to avoid boilies altogether and stick to alternatives. As I was going to be fishing mainly at medium or long range I knew it was going to be a case of PVA mesh bags so I really didn’t need a lot of bait, I’ve learned from experience that most of it ends up going to waste so I took just enough to do the job.

I sent two rods out at range to the edge of the hole, both baited with tiger nuts with a small PVA Mesh bag attached to help avoid tangles. (You can see how I prepare and rig my tiger nuts Here). The third rod I fished on a zig rig baited with yellow foam. This rig has worked for me previously at sandhurst and with 3 rods in use I thought it was worth a try despite the weather not being warm.

I’d only been fishing for 4 or 5 hours when the left hand Delkim signalled a screamer, at the same time mine went my neighbours in peg 10 went as well and we both found ourselves playing carp at the same time. Last year I’d had 5 runs from peg 9 but landed only one of them and I’d not taken into account a snag in the water at around 70 yards range. As I played my fish in it found the snag and I ended up loosing it, to top this off my neighbour lost his on the same snag!. I wasn’t happy and I was kicking myself for making such a stupid error. Even though it had been a year since I’d fished there and only once before in that swim, I’d had a big enough lesson last time and I really should have done things differently. After that loss I pulled the other rod back in and re-rigged both rods with drop off leads instead of my usual inline leads. By loosing the lead on the take and playing any fish with the rod held high I would hopefully avoid the snag again. It had worked last year and I was sure it would again.

My drop off rigs were made using a Safety Lead Clip with the Tail Rubber completely removed, I simply PVA’d the back of the clip to make sure the lead wasn’t lost on the cast. I put both rods out to the edge of the hole again and sat back to wait. I had nothing during the first night and next morning I got to sit and watch two of my mates in the first and second pipes have run after run, the pair of them were racking up carp at quite a rate and all I could do was sit and watch. It was obvious the fish were in front of them and they both filled their boots.

My Trakker A-Lite at Sandhurst made for a comfy swim

Saturday afternoon we had a break and our annual BBQ in the car park, it was a weekend social after all. On one of these trips previously I was a bit under the weather and felt sick but I had no trouble this time and I put away several burgers, sausages and chicken kebabs during the afternoon, if the carp weren’t going to eat I certainly was!.

Once the BBQ was over we headed back to our swims and once again I put two Rods to the edge of the hole with the third on a zig at shorter range. Saturday evening continued the same as Saturday morning and I had to sit and watch the guys in the pipes swims catch yet more fish. I headed for the Sleeping Bag when it got dark and I slept until one of the rods on the edge of the hole signalled a run, there was no single bleeps or indication of what was to come, I woke to an absolute screamer!. I hit the rod and sure enough I finally had a carp hooked up. I knew the drill this time, I stepped backwards and up the bank to give me more height and I held the rod high above my head with the butt resting on my shoulder instead of my groin. This worked and despite being so far out I could clearly see by the far bank street lights that the fish was up near the surface. I cleared the snag no problem and kept the fish coming towards me, this carp put up a good fight in the margins and it was a good 15 minutes before I finally slipped the Landing Net under my prize.

I peeled back the mesh to see a nice mirror, it certainly looked over 25lb but I doubted it would make 30+, I left the fish in the net and set up the Unhooking Mat and camera ready for the weighing and photographing procedure. When I was ready I retrieved the fish, unhooked it and Weighed it. The mirror went 27lb exactly, not my biggest sandhurst carp by any means but I was happy enough, I took a few photos and returned my prize to the water. Recasting in the dark wasn’t too bad because I had street lights opposite and I was using these as far bank markers.

27lb Yateley Sandhurst Mirror Carp

After getting the rod back out I checked my watch and it was 4.00am. I turned in again only to be woken by my neighbour Ian a few hours later, like me, he had to sit and watch the two guys in the pipes catching whilst his rods stayed quiet but he’d finally nabbed one early on Sunday morning and I went to Photograph a 30lb+ common for him, an excellent result indeed!.

No more carp came my way despite me staying until early afternoon on Sunday, eventually I called it a day and headed for home. I was happy to have caught one in the end, coming out of the draw second to last is getting to be a bit of a habit for me but despite this I’ve still yet to blank when fishing sandhurst, I’ve had quite a few bad draws now and my bad luck can’t continue forever, sooner or later its going to be me sat on the fish and bagging up instead of scratching round for the odd straggler so roll on next time and some better luck!.

Mark.

Trakker A-Lite Bivvy

2011-06-05T20:41:00.001+01:00

At the beginning of this year I decided to upgrade some of my fishing gear. First on the list was some kind of new shelter. For the last 6 years I’ve been using a JRC Stealth Brolly for most of my fishing. It has been a brilliant shelter and I’ve certainly no complaints with my brolly, when the time comes I fully intend to buy another but for now I’ve relegated my Stealth Brolly to day only sessions where I might need to move quickly. I wanted a replacement that gave me a bit more cover than a brolly but still maintained the option of moving quickly. I didn’t want to spend a stupid amount of money on a top of the range bivvy either, I found what I was looking for in the shape of the Trakker A-Lite Bivvy.

Trakker A-Lite Bivvy has a nice open front

The Trakker A-Lite is a kind of cross between a brolly and a bivvy. It’s a pram hood style shelter but the front is quite open like a brolly and there is no door. I like this style of shelter because it offers a little more cover than a brolly but it’s open enough at the front to still be able to see the water comfortably from the Bedchair. The sides of the A-Lite roll back too offering an even better view should it be required. Fishing for carp is actually quite easy, in simple terms, you find the fish and you put a bait in the area they are frequenting and a fishing shelter that allows a good view of the lake is a big help in achieving this, I like to have my eyes on the water all the time and the open fronted A-Lite has certainly helped me to do this.

Carry bag for the Trakker A-Lite, a neat touch

The A-Lite itself is what you’d call ‘self contained’. By that I mean there are no hidden extras to buy. It comes complete with a groundsheet, all the T-Pegs, tension strap and bars to put it up. The pegs and tension bars have their own bags and the bivvy itself comes in a nice carry bag, when you get it on the bank, all you have to do is put it up which is extremely easy to do. Even in heavy winds pram hood style shelters are easy to put up, you simply put it on the floor, slot the poles together, tension it with the strap, peg the back down then lift from the front and peg down!. It’s a one man job no matter how windy it is and as someone who does overnighters even in rough weather, this appeals to me.

My Trakker A-Lite in action on a recent trip to Sandhurst

Price was also a consideration in picking the Trakker A-Lite and being made of 4oz PU Nylon instead of the more expensive Aquatex material, Trakker have managed to keep the price down to a reasonable level. Retailing at £140 all in, this is one carp bivvy that isn’t going to break the bank. There is also an ‘extra’ available for the A-Lite, an over wrap / winter skin which is available for around £100. I haven’t bothered buying the over wrap myself, the A-Lite on it’s own is plenty enough for me to be comfortable but it is nice to have an over wrap option for winter use should the need arise. The A-lite comfortably takes any size Bedchair and unlike my old Stealth Brolly, there is a lot of room overhead. It took me quite a while to get used to the extra headroom, for as long as I can remember I’ve been used to ducking down to avoid the ribs of my brolly so the A-Lite has proved to be quite a luxury for me.

If you are in the market for a shelter that provides enough cover to be comfortable but doesn’t break the bank I recommend you have a look at the Trakker A-Lite Bivvy, I’ve had mine for a while now and I have to say it‘s a top carp bivvy / shelter at a decent price. Although the A-Lite retails at £140 you can find them cheaper. I picked mine up on Ebay brand new for £130 so it pays to have a look around.

Bankside Entertainment

2011-04-12T21:55:00.006+01:00

Well we’ve finally reached April and I’ve been back to doing my summer overnighters for a few weeks now. After our prolonged cold spell over the first half of the winter I went back to the syndicate in early January and I’ve been fishing there ever since. When I started night fishing again I had a few new gadgets with me to make life a bit more comfortable on the bank. I thought I’d take a quick look at a few gadgets both old and new that can help a fisherman, particularly a carp angler, pass the time on the bank.

Portable Power Pack. One of the things I bought last year was a portable power pack, these handy power supplies are ideal for camping and that makes them useful for fishing too.

Powering Portable Power Pack

The one I’ve bought is a 40 amp hour model (40ah), it has a cigarette lighter socket for powering anything that’s 12v, that means you can plug in things like a small LCD TV and a mobile phone etc. This particular model also has a 240v inverter so you can power mains devices too!. I actually use mine for recharging bait boat batteries on the bank, I have a very good solar panel for my bait boat batteries but on days when its cloudy I can use the inverter on my power supply and charge my boat batteries a quicker way with their mains charger.

This portable power pack even does mains!

Having a portable power pack is extremely useful and unlike a deep cycle leisure battery, a power pack is quite easy to carry, granted a deep cycle leisure battery lasts longer but who wants to drag one of those around when a power pack has a nice carrying handle and can be carried with one hand. This is definitely one of those things that make you wonder how you ever got along without one!.

12v Freeview TV. To go with my new portable power pack, I’ve also got myself a 10.2 inch / 12v Portable Freeview TV!.

My new 10.2" Freeview TV

Mine is a Nikkai TV and it comes with an SD Card Slot rather than a DVD Player although a lot of small 12v TV’s come with a built in DVD Players these days. Personally I’m happy with just the TV and going fishing on a Saturday night no longer means missing Match of the Day. Watching the news is handy too because there’s always a weather forecast at the end!. These new 12v Freeview TV’s are quite good on a power supply, I’ve left my TV on in an attempt to flatten my power pack and gave up after 8 hours solid, watching TV on the bank is something I just do for a few hours after dark or if there’s a big game on in the evening, 8 hours solid is a long time and I reckon a small TV like mine will run for several days on a power pack, possibly all week if its used sparingly.

Digital Freeview TV, runs great on the power pack above

Smart Phone. I upgraded my phone over the winter too and I now have a Samsung Galaxy which is an Android powered smart phone, not only do I have a mobile phone, I have full internet access and an unlimited supply of games courtesy of the apps available on Android Market.

Full internet access helps pass the time!

Obviously those anglers with an I-phone have exactly the same with their phones. Both Android and I-Phones are quite heavy on their batteries and this is where the power pack comes in handy, a 12v mobile phone car charger can be plugging into the cigarette lighter socket on the power pack and hey presto!, your phone can be used throughout your session, no need to turn it off as the power pack will keep it topped up for as long as you possibly need.

Galaxy Android Smart Phone, great for anglers!

I-Pod. I still take my ipod fishing too, this has been my main source of bank side entertainment for the last couple of years, I have a 120 gig model which has thousands of songs and a nice collection of films stored on it. I can’t see me using it much from now on but it’s still a handy device to have with you when the fish aren’t biting.

Apple I-Pod, another great gadget for an angler!

Portable Radio. Where would a carp angler be without a small radio?, I’ve had one for as long as I’ve been fishing and today’s radios are superb when it comes to battery life, my little transistor model goes for a couple of years before the batteries need changing!. I haven’t got one yet but now I have a power pack, a small DAB Radio will definitely be next on my list!.

Nintendo DS Lite. Not something I own myself but one of my mates takes a Nintendo DS Lite with him on longer sessions, he has the same power pack as me and he says a DS Lite has never flattened his power pack no matter how long he’s used it for. I’m not a big gamer but for those of you who like them, a DS Lite runs very well with a portable power pack too, you just plug it into the cigarette lighter socket on the power pack just like your phone or TV.

Well that’s all I can think of for bank side entertainment for now, I seem to have as much in the way of portable gadgets as I do fishing tackle but carp fishing isn’t just about sitting on a seat box for a few hours, it generally requires longer sessions which can mean days on the bank and its nice to have a few gadgets available to help pass the time.
Until next time, be lucky.
Mark.

Cold Water Carping

2010-12-19T16:16:00.000Z

I’m sat here writing this on Saturday afternoon a week before Christmas, I should be out fishing but there’s several inches of snow on the ground and once again we are in the grip of another deep freeze. Last winter was the same, usually November and December are very productive for me but I was frozen off my winter water during this period last year and I can’t believe it’s happened again!. There would have been a lot more material posted last winter if it hadn’t been for the cold weather and it looks like the same conditions are going to scupper me from writing more again this winter.

I have actually managed to get one short fishing session in. I hadn’t seen my winter runs water for 2 years thanks to last years freeze and I wasn’t sure what to expect when I loaded up the car and selected the lake from the favourites on my sat nav. On the journey to the lake nothing seemed to have changed and when I pulled into the car park at the lake I sat in the car for 5 minutes and watched the water for signs of fish. It was flat calm, ideal conditions for spotting any subtle disturbances made by a carp and it didn’t take long before I picked up on swirl out in open water.

In previous winters I’d chosen to bait an open water area out in the middle of the lake and just keep the bait going in so I decided my old spot would be a good place to start, I was on the edge of the slight movements I’d seen but for once I wasn’t alone on the water and I didn’t want to encroach on my fellow angler. I had no particular plan in mind for this winter so I was just going to fish with my usual bog standard carp rig but instead of going down the pellet and particle route I’d used in previous years, this time I was sticking with the mainline cell boilies I’d been using all year.

Mainline Cell Boilies, my chosen bait for 2010 and the winter ahead.

Day sessions are all I fish in winter so I quickly got to work setting up my pod and putting the rods together. A quick root through my tackle box to find a boilie needle and a few hair stops and I quickly had 2 mainline cell pop ups set up. I left them in the lake for 5 minutes then balanced them out with kryston heavy metal putty so they just sank. I set the putty 2 inches back from the hook on each rig and folded half of a foam nugget over each hook to trap the hair and prevent any kind of tangle when casting. With both rigs ready I punched out both pop ups to the old area I’d baited up in previous winters. One rod went right on the old hot spot and the other went slightly to the left as near as I dare the area I’d seen movement.

Once I’d got the rods sorted out I had a tidy up to make sure I knew where all my gear was then I settled down to wait for a run. It’s funny how some lakes just seem to be timeless, even though it had been 2 years the place looked exactly the same as I remember, the only difference I could see was the water level had risen slightly. I was hoping for one of those red letter days but sadly it didn’t materialise, the bright conditions and lack of wind meant I was going to struggle so there was no sign of the early run I’d hoped for. As I sat and watched I began to work out exactly where the bulk of the fish were, they were indeed off to the left of me but the odd fish crashed out in front and to the right during the late morning and early afternoon.

It was gone 2pm when the right hand delkim suddenly bleeped once then went into a nice steady take, the line was peeling off the spool nicely when I swept the rod back and made contact with my first cold water carp of the winter. It felt like a decent lump on the other end and despite hooking the fish around 80-90 yards out it still took some line off the clutch before kiting to the right. I began to pump the fish back to the bank once it had kited and I quickly gained line until the carp was in the margins. It put up a pretty good fight close in and it took a good 10 minutes of steady pressure before the fish popped up ready for the landing net. Everything went smoothly and I bagged my first fish from the lake in 2 years. I put the unhooking mat down, got the scales and camera ready before lifting my prize out to be unhooked and weighed. At the moment of truth I got 17lb 12oz on the scales, a slightly bigger than average carp for the water and a very decent result for an afternoons winter fishing in less than perfect conditions.

My first cold water carp of this winter, a 17lb 12oz common

After returning the fish I left the same cell boilie on and re-balanced the rig with another piece of heavy metal putty. I didn’t have a lot of time left and I’m always quite happy to re-use the same hook bait, specially if time is at a premium. Despite getting my single hook bait out to the same spot I never managed to pick up another carp. I stayed until it was near enough pitch black before I finally packed my new aqua rucksack and headed for home. I was happy enough to have caught a cold water carp on my first session of the winter and on the way home I was already making plans for my next session a week later. I had intended to take more boilies next time, I made a mental note to make sure I had my throwing stick with me next time as well. Sadly this session was a good 4 weeks ago and I haven’t been fishing since. The continual cold temperatures and snow are once again wrecking mine and everyone else’s winter carping and all I can do at the moment is hope there’s enough of a thaw to rescue some fishing between Christmas and New Year. Although, at the moment that looks in severe doubt too.

It will be 2011 before I publish my next ‘cold water carping’ instalment. I'll have to go fishing and catch something first!. Until then, I’ll just wish you all ‘all the best’ for Christmas and the New Year and I hope the lakes unfreeze real soon!.

Mark.

North West Angling Clubs

2010-12-19T15:44:00.002Z

Below is a list of Angling Clubs and Associations from around the North West. This is not a definitive list of clubs, just the ones I've come accross during my time online. If you happen to know a club I've missed out please add it via the comments box at the end of this post. It won't show up straight away as all the comments posted on this blog have to be approved first but your contribution will get seen once I've passed it.
Thanks.

Stoke On Trent Angling Society

Wheelock Angling Society

Prince Albert Angling Society

Northwich Anglers Association

Warrington Anglers Association

Winsford & District Angling Association

Lymm Angling Club

Wigan & District Angling Association

Wem Angling Club

Altrincham & District Angling Club

Port Sunlight Angling Club

Bay Malton Angling Club

Weston Angling Club

St Helens Angling Association

Newton Le Willows Anglers Association

Congleton Anglers Society

Southport & District Angling Association

Victoria & Biddulph Angling Society

Burton Mutual Angling Association

Ribchester & District Angling Club

Birmingham Anglers Association

Derby Railway Angling Club

Gardeners Arms Angling Club

Buckley Angling Association

Barnton & Frodsham Angling Club

Haig Angling Club

Weston Under Lizard Angling Club

Macclesfield Waltonians Angling Society

Nantwich Angling Society

Cemex Sandhurst Carp Session & Blog Update

2010-10-31T17:46:00.001Z

My week long carp fishing trip to Acton Burnell seems like yesterday, I can’t believe we are at the end of October 2010 already!. I haven’t written anything new since my trip to Acton back in April, this has mainly been due to a lack of time and a lack of fishing I can actually write about. Being in a publicity shy carp syndicate has it’s advantages when it comes to fishing but it certainly doesn’t help when you are supposed to be writing a carp blog!.
Just to bring my fishing up to date a little, I’ve had a fabulous year so far banking no fewer than 15 x 20’s up to 34lb+ (the common I had from Acton Burnell), most have come from the syndicate but a couple have come from a north west club water, one came from my annual weekend at Sandhurst Lake on the Yateley complex.

The Sandhurst trip was memorable for all the wrong reasons, I had a complete disaster of a trip!. Somehow I managed to loose 4 fish on the bounce, two on the Saturday daytime were missed runs, one in the early hours of Sunday morning to a hook pull and a fourth found a snag when I played it in at range from peg 10. The fish that found a snag was particularly hard to take because I knew it was a right lump. Despite the 4 losses I still left Sandhurst feeling like I’d just scored the winning goal in the cup final. I was due off the lake at 3pm on Sunday afternoon, after 4 missed chances my confidence was rock bottom, I was staring at my first ever Sandhurst blank and I wasn’t very happy!. That weekend had been one of the coldest on record in May, a freak North Easterly wind kept the temperatures bitterly cold, I believe the day time high was just 6 degrees!. I’d travelled to Sandhurst with absolutely no cold weather gear, I just had a t-shirt and a fleece jacket, both of which were useless against the biting Easterly wind. A few of the lads lent me a couple of fleece hoodies and these helped but I still had to spend most of the trip tucked up in my sleeping bag just to keep warm.

Because of the need to keep out of the wind I’d left packing the bivvy until the last minutes before leaving and it was whilst I was packing this item of tackle away that one of the delkims signalled one final run, it was a screamer too and I quickly made contact with another Sandhurst carp. After the rotten luck I’d had all weekend I can tell you my heart was in my mouth for the duration of the fight. Even under the rod tip I was praying the carp wouldn’t escape, thankfully it didn’t!. I actually had to unpack my scales and camera in order to weigh and photograph the fish. It wasn’t massive by Sandhurst standards, a scraper 20 common weighing 20lb 6oz. It was so close to packing up time I didn’t even recast the rod, I simply packed it into the holdall and carried on packing up. 20 minutes later I was pulling out of the car park still with a massive grin on my face, a small fish that common may have been but it saved me a blank and a last minute winner is always a sweet moment in carp fishing.

20lb 6oz Common Carp from Cemex Sandhurst Lake

Apart from Sandhurst and Acton, the only other time I’ve left the syndicate was for a handful of short sessions on a famous north west club water in mid October. I love this type of hit and run carp fishing, keeping the sessions short and working hard to get your baits under a carp’s nose. These were the tactics I used the other week and they worked a treat. In 5 trips I banked 3 fish, another two 20’s and a high double was a cracking result for a water were 5 fish per year is the norm!.

22lb 10oz Mirror Carp from a Famous North West Carp Water

Switching to short sessions mid October has brought an end to my night fishing for 2010 and I’m back to the short sessions I usually do throughout the winter. I’ve written this piece to update the blog a little and to say I’ll be writing some more about my winter carping this year. My writing won’t be as prolific as it was in previous years but there will be some more new material coming during December and January as I take a break from syndicate life.

Until then, tight lines.

Mark.

Acton Burnell Carp

2010-05-02T17:58:00.008+01:00

It’s been a while since I wrote an update for this blog, I’ve been enjoying syndicate life this past year so I’ve pretty much had my hands tied as far as updating this site is concerned. I’ve had some cracking fish though, 2009 was one of my best years for numbers of twenties and I managed to bank a couple of northern thirties too. Being in a syndicate is proving to be a good move on my part, I like the peace and quiet and being among like minded anglers sometimes opportunities arise and one such opportunity was offered to me earlier in the year, a week long trip to the famous Acton Burnell carp syndicate water in Shropshire!.

I’d seen Acton Burnell on a few of the Matt Hayes fishing programmes on Sky and I’ve seen the place documented many many times, the waters at Acton have been fished by some very famous anglers so when the offer was made I did my sums (it was expensive!) and when I realised I could afford to go I duly accepted!.
Despite what you see on TV, I wasn’t sure what to expect as the Sat Nav took me towards Acton Burnell itself, a few short minutes later I arrived at the lakes and my first impression was that the lower lake was actually quite small. Things always seem to look bigger on TV and the upper lake, although much bigger, still looked a little on the small side compared to the impression you get from the TV.
I was going to be fishing Acton Burnell Upper Lake and as I walked around I liked what I saw. The upper lake was stunning, it’s around 18 acres in size, a typical estate lake dammed at one end with an overflow to control the water level similar to Capesthorne Hall.

We’d had a draw for swims and my bad luck at the draw continued, I came out second to last and had to watch as every swim I was interested in disappeared!. In the end I was left with very little choice and I opted for a swim known as the ‘Pot Beds’. My swim was at the dam wall end of the lake and the fish were crashing and rolling up the other end so I knew I was in for a hard time on this trip!.

Pot Beds Swim at Acton Burnell Carp Fishery, my home for the week.

My bad luck continued after the draw when I managed to lock my keys in the boot of my car within a few hours of being there!, I put them there for safe keeping not realising there was a safety feature on my car whereby it locked after 60 seconds if the keys are in the car!. I couldn’t settle on Saturday night and following a blank night I had the AA out on Sunday morning. If you travel any kind of distance I can’t recommend the AA highly enough, they were with me in 20 minutes and I had my keys back 5 minutes later!.

After my drama with the car keys I was able to settle down to my fishing, I was restless and wanted to move on Sunday but there wasn’t anywhere to move too so I was stuck. I must admit I hadn’t done a lot of preparation for this trip and little did I know that the wind was going to change and push the fish down the lake towards me!. After a blank Sunday the wind whipped up south westerly and I began to see fish in my area. Just because you can see them doesn’t mean you can catch them, these Acton Burnell carp seem to be masters in avoiding anglers and on a typical week long trip, a few anglers would catch 1 carp each with maybe one lucky angler bagging a brace. Facing that kind of odds I was going to have my work cut out tempting one of these Acton carp despite them now being in my swim!.

The pot beds swim is opposite the dam wall at Acton, it’s a short cast to the dam wall and it seems the standard tactics in this swim is to cast a lead weight
onto the dam wall then go round and tie your rig on and place it with the use of chest waders and a landing net pole, this way you can actually get your rig and bait under the trees and you can bait up with pinpoint accuracy. I’d already done this and despite fish being in the area I couldn’t tempt a carp to pick up my bait on Monday or Tuesday.

Dam Wall at Acton Burnell, cast over and place baits your with chest waders!

Half way through the week and no fish, I had already began to ring the changes in my rigs, one thing that had attracted my eye recently was the Korda Sinkers. I never usually bother pinning down a hook length but these Acton Burnell carp really had me thinking about everything to do with my presentation. I put korda sinkers on my hooklength to pin it down and I ended up using a combination of normal backleads and Flying Backleads to really nail my mainline to the bottom. I wanted everything on the deck and out of the way because these fish were exceptionally cute!.

Wednesday night I finally managed to trip up an Acton Burnell carp. I’d placed a Mainline Cell Boilie under a bush on the dam wall and put a light sprinkling of cell boilies around the rig, I did this early on Wednesday morning to try and avoid any disturbance to my swim, the day had been quiet with just odd fish rolling in open water to my right during the evening. It was 11pm when the left hand delkim bleeped a couple of times then quickly developed into a full blooded run.

I picked up the rod, wound down and struck lightly. Sure enough my rod arched over and my first impression was that I’d hit a brick wall, a sure sign I was into a lump!. My heart was beating out of my chest by this time and I kept muttering ‘don’t blow it’ to myself. I kept the pressure steady and made slow progress bringing this fish in. Acton Burnell is in the middle of nowhere and with plenty of cloud cover it was a black night, I couldn’t see anything and I was literally relying on the direction the rod was being pulled to work out where this carp was. Eventually I had the fish under the rod tip but I couldn’t seem to lift it up in the water to net it, for 10 minutes it circled round in front of me and all this time I had to keep talking myself into not applying too much pressure. It’s so easy in a situation like this to just try and apply more pressure and the result is usually a hookpull or a breaking of the main line. I’ve lost a few big carp at the net due to panicking which is why I talk to myself whilst I’m playing a big fish, I find I can keep a level head if I do this and it works for me!.

Eventually I managed to get the fish into a position where I could actually net it, this was a crucial point and as the fish slowly edged into the landing net I lifted the mesh around my prize. I didn’t quite breathe a sigh of relief until I’d lifted the net and checked my prize was inside, it was so dark I’d just been going by the disturbance to the water to judge where the carp was. I checked inside the landing net and sure enough, there was my first Acton Burnell carp, a lovely looking common that looked well over 30lb in weight.

I secured my net and left the fish in the water whilst I got to work sorting out the camera and scales so I could weigh and photograph my prize. Acton Burnell supply unhooking mats, they are standard in every swim so I used the mat provided rather than my own as their mats are massive!. I placed my carp on the mat and unhooked it quickly, my rig had done its job and the fish was well and truly nailed in the bottom lip. This common was a long fish and it looked massive on the mat, I wondered how big it would go as I zeroed my scales ready for weighing. I hoisted the fish up and the scales gave me a weight of 34lb 2oz. I was delighted with that, my first Acton carp was a 34lb+ common!. Acton Burnell also has buckets for pouring water over the fish and after a quick bucket of water I cracked on with doing the pictures as best as I could in the pitch dark. I kept my headlight on for all my pictures simply because it allowed me to see roughly whereabouts both myself and the fish were on my G6' flip screen. With the pictures done I released my prize back to the lake and the fish swam off strongly.

34lb 2oz Common Carp from Acton Burnell Upper Lake

I couldn’t get my bait back under the bush on the dam wall so I hooked my rig up to the butt ring of my rod and left it on the rod pod until the morning. I didn’t mind doing this, I’d managed to achieve my goal of catching an Acton Burnell carp and with my target met I could just chill out and enjoy the last few days of my trip. When the morning came I put my rig back under the same bush on the dam and began the wait for another Acton carp.
I should just point out that if you ever use chest waders to place baits or land fish or for any other reason, please wear a life jacket too. You never know what’s on the bottom of a lake, a soft patch, a branch from a tree, literally anything could see you loose your footing and if you fall over and get your waders full of water, you could find yourself in real trouble. I can’t speak for everyone else but I value my life far more than the price of a lifejacket and I simply won’t go in the water without wearing one, lifejackets aren’t just for boats!.

If you use chest waders always wear a Life Jacket!

I was nice and relaxed on Thursday and Friday of my trip, the wind was still pushing straight into my swim and there were fish around but they were proving difficult to tempt. Although I’ve mainly concentrated on the dam wall I was busy all week dropping baits into open water areas where I was seeing fish roll, I even tried another swim for a few hours after I saw a couple of lumps roll there. One thing that quickly became apparent was that a lead weight landing in the area the carp were rolling was a killer, every time I tried casting at rolling fish they’d stop and I wouldn’t see them for the rest of the day. I even took to leaving baits in areas I’d seen most fish, in the hope they would come back the next day but even that tactic failed to produce a result.

Waders at the ready in the Willow Swim at Acton Burnell Carp Fishery

As I was packing up on Saturday morning I saw a fish roll and I was straight into my chest waders so I could cast to it, I didn’t give up trying to the bitter end but I just couldn’t tempt another Acton carp. I was happy with the one I had though, Acton Burnell is a difficult carp water and my week on there had been enlightening to say the least. It had been a while since I’d chased carp that were this wary of anglers and baits. Acton proved to be a tough water and overall I was happy just to bank a fish. Out of the 8 of us that fished the Upper Lake, one guy had more than one fish, 4 of us had one fish each and 3 blanked, coming out second to last in the draw I’m actually surprised I didn’t blank too so I’m well happy with my result and I believe we had a slightly above average week by Acton Burnell standards!.

Mark.

Carp Tackle Box Pt2

2009-11-15T11:27:00.002Z

Last time round I started to take a look through the tackle box I use for my carp fishing. As I said then, my tackle box is actually a storage container from B&Q and it looks exactly like a medium/large fox tackle box but costs a lot less!. I try to keep the amount of tackle I carry to a minimum but despite this the sheer amount of items I carry means that this simple look through my tackle box has spread to more than one diary entry and in all honesty its likely to go further than that as there’s a lot of bits and pieces.

My Carp Tackle Box and Tackle Bits and Pieces

Kryston Mantis
I’ll continue this look through my tackle box by looking at another hook length material, this time it's Kryston Mantis, a coated braid that comes in very handy for me in certain circumstances. If you’ve read any of my previous blog entries you’ll know kryston silkworm is my all time favourite hook length material. Silkworm is a very supple material and its not the best material for avoiding tangles at range. If I have to fish at any kind of range I generally change to Mantis. I leave most of the coating on and just strip back enough to make the hair and maybe an inch or two extra behind the hook to create a hinge. By using Kryston Mantis for my long range fishing rigs I find I can avoid tangles a lot more and you really need to know your rigs are sitting right at range. Mantis does this job really well and I’d recommend you give it a go on your long range setup, as with all Kryston products Mantis is very well made and completely reliable.

Kryston Mantis Coated Braid, my second choice after Silkworm

Kryston Heavy Metal Plus Putty
Whilst we are on the subject of Kryston products, I have to say I’m a big fan. I’ve been using Kryston fishing tackle for as long as I’ve been carp fishing. My next item in the tackle box is one of theirs too and that’s Heavy Metal Plus Putty. I tend to fish a lot with pop-ups and baits that are critically balanced so they sink very slowly and heavy metal putty is excellent for balancing out buoyant baits. Heavy metal grips braided lines like Silkworm and Mantis very well and it’s a pretty dense material compared to most rig putty on the market today so you don’t need to use as much of it, which is a bonus. I use pop-ups so much that I’d never not have a tub of heavy metal in my tackle box, it really is a great product.

Kryston Heavy Metal Plus Popup Rig Putty, excellent!

Carp Rig Tubing
Rig tubing is very much a personal thing and I tend to avoid branded names. The rig tubing photo here is Franks Leads own brand and I’m quite happy to use this even though it doesn’t say ‘korda’ or ‘ESP’ on the packet, it is after all the same thing. The other place I get my rig tubing from is Dave's of Middlewich as they have their own rig tubing too. Both Franks and Dave's rig tubing is excellent and it’s a lot cheaper and convenient buying from Frank on Ebay than buying korda rig tubing from a tackle shop. Both Dave's own brand and Franks rig tubing sink well and thread quite easily and I’m happy using these products, they work well and unlike branded rig tubing, neither of these two products will break the bank!.

Carp Rig Tubing from Franks Leads, you don't need an expensive brand!

Lead Weights
You’ll notice my tackle box doesn’t have many lead weights in it. When you’re travelling light ditching lead weights from your tackle box and rucksack is a real saver on weight. You can end up carrying round pounds and pounds of lead if you’re not careful and I’ve fallen into this trap myself in the past. These days I almost exclusively use Franks Leads Ebay Shop to buy my lead weights and my rig accessories like rig tubing, swivels and tail rubbers. The leads I use are Franks inline square pear leads in 2oz camo green or brown, these do me for the majority of my fishing and I won’t change them unless I really need to fish at range, in which case I switch to a more streamlined distance bomb. I used to make my own lead weights years ago and I still carry the odd one with me today. Making your own leads is actually quite easy to do but it can be messy and its not without its problems safety wise, if you‘d like to know more about making your own have a look at my Making Leads Blog Entry from a year or two ago. As Franks Leads are quite cheap I tend to use his these days rather than do them myself, one things for sure, if you are after lead weights, the last place you should buy them from is the tackle shop!, if you buy lead weights from your local tackle dealer I guarantee you’ll get ripped off, take a look at Franks, his leads are excellent quality and you won’t go wrong using them.

Franks Leads Square Pear Lead, my favourite lead weight

I’ll have to stop this continuing look through my tackle box for now as this entry is starting to get a bit long, in the next few weeks I’ll continue looking at my tackle in detail as there are some other useful bits and pieces that I carry with me, I haven’t looked at hooks yet either and I’m wondering if that wouldn’t make a whole entry on its own!. Next time I sit down to write in a couple of weeks time I’ll see how things go and if I can keep my comments on hooks to a minimum I’ll include them in my tackle box series, otherwise a look at hooks will come as a separate entry at some point in the future.

Until next time, tight lines.

Mark.

Tackle Box for Carp Pt1

2009-10-04T11:22:00.002+01:00

One things all carp anglers have in common is their tackle box. I was fishing last weekend when one of my mates popped round for a chat and a brew. I’d not long finished setting up and my own tackle box was out in full view. As he sat down on my guest chair he commented that all anglers like routing through other peoples tackle boxes and promptly started routing through mine whilst I made a brew.

I’ve actually got no secrets as far as my carp tackle box goes, it’s a pretty standard tackle box that just contains the bare essentials and little else. I like to keep my fishing simple and my tackle box is reasonably small on purpose. There’s nothing worse than carting round a whole lot of tackle that you’ll never really use and by keeping my carp tackle box to a single layer medium size I can just carry the rig and end tackle bits I need without getting carried away!.

B&Q Storage Container is not unlike a System Fox Tackle Box!

My carp tackle box itself is one of those storage containers you get for nails and screws!. I’d really recommend anglers have a look in B&Q before you go and spend silly money on a system fox box or similar tackle box. My tackle box actually looks just like a medium fox box from the outside, the only real difference was the price!. Whilst a fox box will can set you back anything from £20-£50 depending which one you buy, my B&Q version was just £4.95!. That’s not a miss print, four pounds and ninety five pence was how much my tackle box cost!. I’m sure I’m not the only one that’s latched onto B&Q storage containers, I regularly see tackle boxes on ebay and they look just like mine, if you can’t be bothered heading for your local DIY store then the old faithful ebay is well worth a look if you're considering a new tackle box or you’re on a budget.

For the next couple of blog entries I’m going to be taking a look at exactly what’s in my tackle box and I’ll start with Mo‘s Co PVA String. Mos Co has been around for quite a while now and Mo has built himself an excellent reputation for quality PVA string and mesh. I always have a spool of Mos PVA knocking round in my tackle box, it’s ideal for making stringers and it’s cheaper than anything your local tackle shop can offer!.

Mos Co PVA String, it's cheaper than the tackle shop!.

Kryston Greased Lightening Turbo Juice. Greased lightening is a cracking treatment for your mainline. If you ever find yourself in the position of needing every last single yard to reach the fish this stuff can help, it actually reconditions your mono and cuts down on friction as your line passes through your rod rings, the result is extra yards on your cast and this can mean the difference between success and failure. Greased lightening has certainly helped me put a few bonus fish on the bank over the years!.

Kryston Greased Lightening Turbo Juice for extra yards on the cast.

Korda Hybrid Extenda Stops. Korda developments are probably the biggest tackle manufacturer in carp fishing today, despite this I’m not a big fan of korda tackle, it’s mainly their leaders I have a problem with but credit where it’s due, these extenda stops are a fantastic little invention. They allow you to change the size of baits on a hair rig without actually re-tying your rig. I doubt I’ll ever be without a couple of different sized packets of extenda stops in my tackle box, for once korda have got something absolutely right.

Korda Hybrid Extenda Stops, an excellent addition to your tackle box.

Kryston Silkworm Braided Hooklength. I’ve reviewed kryston silkworm before on this blog. There’s nothing more I can add to my origonal review of this hooklength material. It’s simply my favourite hooklength braid and has been for the last 15 years. My confidence in this material is absolute and despite many other hooklength products coming onto the market, silkworm has remained my number one hooklength braid.

Kryston Silkworm Hooklength Braid, total confidence for me!.

Sometimes it’s difficult to keep my blog entries to a reasonable size and trying to cover what’s in a carp tackle box in one go just isn’t possible so I’ll stop writing here and continue looking through my tackle box next time.

Tight Lines

Mark.

Screaming Reels Pt3

2009-09-06T10:20:00.000+01:00

Following on from Screaming Reels Pt2, I was so tired I couldn’t face putting a rig back in the water, as soon as I dropped in I’d barely get 5 minutes before a run would occur. After releasing that last 14lb mirror I left the rods out of the water and got my head down for a while. The peachskin sleeping bag was very comfy and I was soon snoring my head off. Unbeknown to me Barry started catching after I took my rods out and he started to experience the same prolific action I’d been having, he did come to wake me up to do some photo’s for him but when he heard me snoring he left me alone which was very good of him because I was knackered!.

I woke up at 3am to the sound of a car alarm, I couldn’t tell if it was coming from the car park or the local housing estate so I told Barry I was going to investigate, I grabbed my head torch and walked up to the car park in the dark just in case it was one of our cars. Fortunately it was coming from the housing estate and our cars where all safely locked up with no sign that anyone was around. I headed back to my swim and decided to start fishing again. Barry made another brew and I dropped the rods back on the same spots again and topped up the swim with bait just as I’d done before. Haiths red band pigeon conditioner and pellets on one rod and just pellets over the other.

It was a good half an hour before anything happened, the right hand ‘pellet’ rod fished straight out in front of me rattled off and after a short fight I netted what turned out to be my smallest fish of the night, a common of 8lb 8oz which I didn’t bother photographing. I baited the rod and under armed it into position again. Thankfully the next run felt like a decent fish and it gave me a decent fight in the margins before slipping into the landing net after 10 minutes or so. It was another common in the same weight range as the two 17’s I’d caught earlier and after hoisting the fish up on the scales I settled on 17lb 2oz, my third 17lb+ fish of the night.

My red letter night continues with a 17lb 2oz common

After a third 17lber things went a little quiet for a while, I heard what sounded like a big fish crash along the margins to my left. In the still of the night it sounded like someone had thrown a pig into the water and I sat waiting for my next run hoping that some of the lakes bigger fish were finally moving in. Surprisingly it was a good half an hour before the right hand delkim finally burst into life with another screaming run. The fish didn’t take a lot of line, twice it kited to the right but some heavy side strain kept the fish from going into Barry’s swim. In front of me the fish just kept deep in the margins and it took a considerable time to bring this particular carp to the surface. Despite a long and protracted fight in the margins it still didn’t register that I might be attached to a big fish and it wasn’t until the carp went into the net that I actually realised. I switched on my head torch to be greeted by a stunning looking common, it was a long fish with a girth that instantly said 20lb+!.
I knew I had one of the fish I wanted and I quickly got to work setting up the camera ready for some photo’s. When I actually lifted the fish from the water I knew it was well over 20lb and the scales gave me a weight of 23lb 14oz. I was delighted to have caught such a big fish for the water and it certainly made the trip worthwhile for me. Barry was on hand and a lot of photo’s followed before I returned my common to the water. As the fish went back I couldn’t help wondering if this fish was the carp I’d heard just along the margins half an hour earlier.

Another Big North West Carp weighing 23lb 14oz

That was it for me, I finally got the big fish I was hoping for in what was probably the last hour of darkness, I put a fresh pellet on and topped up my swim with freebies again but the desire to keep working and keep pulling fish in was gone now I’d got the result I wanted. I planned to be off the lake around 7am, I had a long drive home and I was tired so I decided 7am seemed a decent time to leave, there would be very little traffic on the road at that time which would be just as well as by now I was fighting to keep my eyes open again!.

As it got light the lake had one more surprise in store, this time it was the left hand delkim that signalled another screamer, the fish hadn’t really gone for the red band pigeon conditioner in a big way, I was actually expecting this rod to do the most fish but this turned out not to be the case as the majority of fish came to the pellet rod. It was well away this time though and the spool on my infinity reel was whizzing round as the line peeled off. I hit it and the rod hooped over as an angry carp tried to get under the tree in the margins. I quickly applied some heavy side strain to keep the fish away from a snag and once I had the carp in front of me I felt I’d gained control of the situation. A few minutes later I netted my 14th carp of the session. I quickly got the fish onto the mat and weighed it at 15lb exactly, a nice fish to round the session off with.

A nice 15lb Cheshire Carp to round off a fantastic session!

Bearing in mind I’d slept for 3 hours I‘d still had a red letter session, in that time Barry had racked up another 7 doubles to go with his earlier fish and I reckon I could have easily had that many again had I not had a few hours on the bedchair. My other mate Steve who was further down the bank finished up with 11 doubles of his own. Between the 3 of us we’d had some superb fish but I’m not sure I could face another night on such a prolific water. I won’t return to this lake again until winter at the earliest, I find the lake is more of a challenge just fishing days through December and January so I’ll return then for another look at this prolific carp water.

Tight Lines

Mark.

Screaming Reels Pt2

2009-08-23T10:10:00.002+01:00

Just picking up from Screaming Reels Pt1, I’d started fishing at 15.00pm on the afternoon of Saturday 1st August and by 19.45pm I’d racked up no fewer than 6 doubles. The carp were coming at a rate of more than 1 per hour, bearing in mind you have to play the fish in, weigh and photograph them before re-baiting and re-casting, you can understand just why I wanted a base camp set up!. After that sixth carp I wound the second rod in, packed everything away and lugged my gear a hundred yards further up the bank and dropped in next to my mate Barry who’d arrived a few hours previous.

The first thing I did was get the stealth brolly up, as I was doing this Barry shouted over to ask if I wanted a brew, what a star, I’d not had time to think about eating or having a drink so I gratefully accepted Barry’s offer and cracked on with getting my gear sorted out. Once the stealth was up I got my bedchair and my trakker sleeping bag set up then pushed them both under the brolly. The rods and pod were all quickly set up and within 5 minutes I was settled down and ready to start fishing again. Barry was literally 5 yards away from me as we were occupying adjacent swims and he popped his head round the brolly with a nice steaming cup of tea just as I was hair rigging a bait on my first rod. As I was fishing the margins casting and baiting was easy, the left hand rod went just off an overhanging tree in the margins and the right hand rod went straight out in front of me, the left rod had a small bed of red band pigeon conditioner with a few pellets fed over the top and a pellet on the hook whilst the right hand rod was just pellets, one on the hook and 20-30 scattered around the rig itself.

I managed to eat a bit of food whilst I was having my brew and I stood chatting to Barry about our chances for the night ahead. As the light faded we were both expecting a sleepless night, it was just a case of how many we’d catch rather than would we catch anything at all!. Barry was in first, as we stood chatting one of his antique Super XL bite alarms burst into life and he began doing battle with a decent fish. Like me Barry was fishing the margins so his fish took off like a rocket and gave a really good account of itself. It was another common and a decent fish at 18lb plus a few ounces. The fish was documented and returned to the water and not long after my left hand delkim gave a single bleep. This was the rod that was fished over the red band pigeon conditioner and I guessed it was a line bite. I didn’t have to wait long after that, just a few minutes later the left hand rod was away with a blistering take!. I was on it quickly and just like Barry’s fish a few minutes earlier, this one gave a really good account of itself as it bored up and down the margins for 5 minutes or so. With 15lb big game line on my spools there was no way any of my fish were going to get away and it was just a case of wearing the fish down until it was ready for the landing net. There were no problems and I netted my seventh carp of the session. The move next to Barry was looking like a good one when it came to the size of the carp, along with Barry’s 18lber, I’d also caught my biggest of the session so far, a common weighing 17lb 6oz.

Cheshire carp fishing again, 17lb 6oz

An upper double each was a good start to the night ahead, my 17 had arrived at 21.30pm and I had to wait another hour for any more action. I could hear carp crashing all over the lake and I was literally sat on my hands waiting for another bite. It was the right hand rod this time, this was the rod that was just a pellet fished over more pellets. There was no warning, the alarm just went off and the spool on my infinity baitrunner reel just fizzed, I have my delkims on low so the sound of my spool ticking is as loud as the alarms themselves and under cover of darkness a full blooded run still sounded like it could wake the dead!. This fish played out just like the last one, it felt slightly heavier than the carp I’d caught during the afternoon and after a good scrap in the margins my thoughts were confirmed when I weighed and photographed another 17lb fish, this one was slightly heavier than the last at 17lb 12oz.

17lb 12oz North West Common

I re-baited my rig and a gentle underarm cast had another pellet back in position, I topped up with another 20-30 pellets and sat back to await the next run. This was my plan for the night, keep the traps reasonably small and fish for them one at a time rather than bait heavily, I was only fishing the margins anyway so it was very easy to keep just a little bit of feed in the swim, enough to get them on the bait but not enough that I might have to wait long for a bite!.

After my second 17lber I didn’t have to wait very long for another fish, I think we knew things would most likely kick off big time and no sooner had I dropped my rig back in when it was away again!. Being out in the Cheshire countryside it would have been pitch black if it wasn’t for the moon which was just about giving enough light to land my fish. Like the two 17’s this fish fought really well in the margins and it was great to see these fish taking line off the spool rather than just wallowing into the net from long range. I eventually netted this fish after playing knit one pearl one with my left hand rod. I’d positioned my unhooking mat at the back of my brolly and just left it there, I didn’t see the point in hanging it up to dry when I knew full well more fish were likely to follow so by now I had a system going and was able to get through weighing and photographing pretty quickly. I switched my head torch on to unhook my fish and noticed that I’d caught another mirror my third of the session in all, it weighed in at 14lb even which was the same kind of weight range as the previous two mirrors I’d had in the daytime.

14lb South Cheshire mirror carp

It was getting ridiculous, every time I dropped in I barely had chance to get in the sleeping bag before one of the alarms would start up and the reel would scream. Another common of 11lb 6oz quickly followed the mirror and after I returned it I felt like I was completely shot!. I couldn’t cope with any more runs and Barry was having a quiet time next door. It just seemed that I was intercepting the fish as they came along the margins and with my bait being the first they came across I was getting most of the runs. Just before midnight I decided to wind in and have a bit of a kip, I was tired, my back was aching and I just felt like I really needed to close my eyes so I dived in the bag and settled down to a few hours sleep.

This story seems to be turning into an episode of war and peace (lol) so I’ve decided to split it into 3 as there’s more to come, until next time, tight lines everybody.

Mark.

Screaming Reels Pt1

2009-08-09T11:16:00.001+01:00

If you are a regular reader of my north west carp blog it won’t have escaped your notice that there haven’t been as many updates this year. Going back to my last winter entry, Winter Carping Pt7, I was thinking of changing waters and starting on my new syndicate early. It was the syndicate that stopped my writing in its tracks simply because there is a strict publicity ban. I did indeed ‘go syndicate’ and I’ve spent late winter, spring and most of the summer time quietly trying to get amongst some decent syndicate carp. My fortunes have been mixed, I haven’t struggled to catch fish but I have struggled to catch any of the big ones and I’ve only managed a couple of big carp since February. There has been one major milestone to happen on the syndicate and that was the capture of my first north west 30. The 30lb barrier is a target I’ve been trying to reach on 'home soil' for 13 years now and one day in July I finally slipped the net under one of the only remaining targets I actually had in my angling life. It was a special moment and one that meant a lot given the amount of time I’d been chasing this particular goal.

Following the capture of my first north west 30 I started to think about my fishing a little, after 6 months solid fishing on the syndicate I was ready for a break so I organised a bit of a social session with a couple of mates. Steve and Barry were up for a trip to a runs water so we decided to have a night on my winter runs water, it was always productive in the cold and we expected some serious action from the carp hence the ‘Screaming Reels’ title for this entry!.

It had been 6 months since I’d last visited Cheshire and I must admit I’ve missed the shire a lot, Cheshire has some stunning countryside and some nice lakes and I was happy to be back in this carp anglers paradise. My sat nav still had all my old haunts programmed in so I plotted my usual course to the lake and set off just after 1pm on Saturday 1st August. The journey to the lake was only delayed by some road works but that didn’t matter, I had the rest of the day and all night and I knew full well I wasn’t going to blank on such a prolific north west runs water.

I arrived literally a minute before Steve, as he arrived I was sitting in the car scanning the lake for signs of carp. There were plenty of fish crashing everywhere but one area in particular was looking like a Jacuzzi with all the fizzing that was going on, occasionally a carp would poke its head up and roll before a mass of bubbles would hit the surface. That area meant an easy choice of swims for us and Steve took one side of the bubbling area and I took the other.

I started off fishing just as I do in winter, a pellet bottom bait with another couple of pellets in a pva mesh bag cast right on top of the hot area. I had both rods in by 15.05pm, it had started to rain a little so I moved my tackle underneath a tree to help keep it dry, I only got my rucksack moved when the right hand delkim let out a series of bleeps, I turned round to see my monkey climber just reaching the floor so I jumped on the rod, wound down and hit it!. Sure enough I had my first carp of the day on and despite the fish being hooked 50 yards out I quickly gained control of the situation and made easy headway when it came to getting the carp into the margins, in fact my first fish didn’t fight much at all and after a few minutes I landed a nice common that looked roughly average size for the water. I got my unhooking mat, scales and camera out and quickly weighed and photographed the fish before returning my prize to the water. My first fish was a common that tipped the scales at 13lb exactly. I jokingly shouted to Steve next door that he should pull his finger out as I’d already had one within 3 minutes of getting the rods out but it turned out he’d had one too and he’d hooked his quicker than mine!.

13lb Common, my first fish of the day

With my first fish caught I quickly baited my rig with another pellet, added another pva mesh bag and whacked the rod back out again. With so many fish bubbling up in the area I was literally sitting on my hands waiting for the next run to come. It took another 45 minutes before my left hand rod rattled off, no drop back this time, just a screaming reel as the bait runner fizzed away. I was on it straight away and the carp gave me a little trouble as it kited to the left and tried to get beyond an overhanging marginal tree. I reacted to this quickly and applied some moderate side strain to keep the fish on my side of the tree and when I saw I’d accomplished this I eased off on the pressure and just played the carp in with no trouble, I saw the fish was a mirror as it slipped into the landing net and it looked a little bigger than my first fish. I quickly ran through the weigh and photograph routine and my mirror turned the scales to 14lb 8oz.

14lb 8oz Northern mirror carp

Things went a little quiet after the mirror and I actually managed to sit down for an hour or two, I got the stove out, made a brew and contemplated the night ahead. I really wanted to fish the margins during the night and I decided not to set up the brolly until I’d moved later in the evening. I planned to just leave the rods out until Barry arrived then pick a more comfortable margin swim when he was settled in. Having decided on a plan of action I just sat watching the carp bubbling away and I wondered why my third run hadn’t come, there were fish all over the area and with 2 carp caught inside the first 50 minutes I expected more. I had to wait two and a half hours for any more action and it was the left hand rod that melted away again. It was a bit like groundhog day as this fish did exactly the same as the last one trying to get the other side of the marginal tree. I was having none of it and more side strain kept the fish coming to the waiting net. It was another mirror roughly the same size as the previous 2 fish and after a quick trip to the mat I weighed it at 13lb 14oz, a very pretty mirror it was too!.

13lb 14oz Scaley cheshire mirror carp

That 13lb 14oz mirror kicked off an intense feeding period, the mirror arrived at 18.30pm and I followed it with commons of 12lb, 10lb 4oz and 10lb 6oz all in the next hour, it was getting to the stage were I couldn’t keep my rods in, I just seemed to be either playing or weighing and photographing a carp!. By 19.45pm I was knackered, luckily Barry had arrived and set up so I wound in and looked at moving swims. I felt like I needed my stealth brolly up with my bedchair under it, I’d been literally standing up for the last few hours and I really needed a base camp. With this in mind I dropped in next to Barry for the night and what a night it turned out to be!. I’ll continue with Part 2 of ‘Screaming Reels’ for my next blog entry, until then, tight lines.

Mark.

Burton Mere Carp Syndicate 1992

2009-07-26T12:38:00.002+01:00

The last time I wrote a blog entry about my early carp fishing years I wrote about my first brace of twenties which I caught in 1995, this was part of my 'red letter days' series which first appeared on 'Anglers Diary'. This is really part 6 of that series and I’m going back even further, to 24th September 1992 to be exact. I actually started carp fishing in June 1989 on a local pond, those first few sessions produced carp for me and a couple of PB’s including my first double which came off the top on anchored surface crust!. Right from the word go local anglers kept saying Burton Mere was the place to be to catch carp. It didn’t take me longer than a few weeks to pay my first visit to the woodland pool on Burton Mere and 3 carp including a new PB mirror of 12lb 6oz on my first trip had me hooked on the place!.

There are more red letter days to come from my early days at Burton Mere, I cut my carp fishing teeth on woodland pool and later the syndicate ‘mere’ itself and during my time on the water I caught a lot of carp. This particular story relates to my first ever session on the syndicate pool. I wasn’t actually a member of the syndicate at the time but I was allowed to fish it on a day/night ticket basis for which I was charged £8 for 24hours. I’d watched the carp in Burton mere pool closely whilst fishing woodland pool and I couldn’t resist having a go for them. The mere held around 8 x 20’s at the time and the back up doubles were much larger than the average sized carp in woodland.

My first night on the syndicate lake turned out to be productive, I knew I had to go looking for the carp and I found them fizzing up in a swim known as ‘the giles’, so named after a guy called Giles who fished it regularly in the 1980’s. Giles was a clever carp angler, the bloodworm beds in front of the peg where immense and I watched intently as fish fizzed everywhere in front of my chosen swim.

On the left hand side of the swim was the remains of an old abandoned boat house, the brickwork was still in place but the boat house itself was long gone. Having had a couple of casts around the swim with a marker I quickly found a channel that ran from the old boat house, directly across the swim cutting through open water and heading out towards the corner of the first island that was in front of me. This channel was a good 18 inches deeper than the surrounding area and it went straight through the middle of the fizzing I was watching, it didn’t need a rocket scientist to work out that the carp were feeding heavily in this channel so this is where I placed both of my rigs. The left rod went in the channel half way over to the island and the right hand rod went three quarters over into the same channel. I scattered a few boilies round each rod and a few more in between both baited spots which were about 10 yards apart. Obviously Giles the 80's carp angler had latched onto this channel and I didn't know it at the time but I'd found the holy grail in terms of hotspots in this swim!.

With my traps set I settled down to my first ever night on the syndicate lake, my PB at the time was a mere 14lb and I hoped at some point to break this on the mere. Despite the daytime fizzing I couldn’t buy a bite during daylight but an hour or two after dark things changed for the better. I was actually trying to get off to sleep but being my first night on the mere I was too wound up to sleep so I just sat watching the isotopes in my monkey climbers. Like most carp anglers I can’t concentrate on one thing for too long and eventually I started to drift off to sleep. It was as I was just nodding off that my left hand rod tore off, the sound from my super compacts and my bi tech viper sounder box was more than enough to make sure I was wide awake in a shot and I quickly jumped up and hit the rod.

The fish kited left and tried to make its way to the main pads in peg 19 so I applied some side strain to make sure it didn’t reach them, the pads were quite a way away and with 15lb big game line on my spools the carp was never going to reach sanctuary. I turned the fish and eventually managed to get it back to the same place I hooked it. Another 5 minutes later I had the carp circling in front of me and without the aid of a light, I sunk my net deep and waited until the carps nose touched the spreader block before lifting the net. The manoeuvre worked and I netted my first carp from the syndicate lake!. Despite being in my learning years, even back then I always had a plan and a way of doing things, I knew where my scales and my torch and other things were so I got my prize onto the unhooking mat and weighed it in at 13lb 2oz. Not massive by today’s standards but back then it was only 1lb off my personal best so it was a great fish for me!. My mate Phil did the pictures and once my catch was documented I returned my mirror to the water and sorted out my rod.

13lb 2oz, my first carp from the Burton Mere syndicate lake in 1992

I recast the rod and topped up the swim with a few more of my home made boilies and settled down again. Things went quiet after that first carp and it wasn’t until the early hours of the morning that the next run came. A steady ‘one toner’ on the right hand rod had me scrambling off the bedchair to grab the rod. A quick strike and I was in again. This carp felt a little heavier than the last one and it gave me the run around for 10 minutes before finally giving up, this fish just chugged up and down the margins so there was never any trouble apart from a few occaisions when the fish came close to my other line. Once again I dropped the landing net deep and waited for the carps nose to hit the spreader block before lifting and engulfing my prize. This fish was a prize too, a fully scaled mirror, one of 3 that was known to inhabit the mere, I weighed this fully scaled at 16lb 12oz, a new PB and a lovely looking fish!. The fully scaled was a known fish called spike due to the front of its dorsal fin just being a spike, the carp was always well known to the syndicate members but later the fish found fame when it was caught by carp fishing duo Rob Hughes and Simon Crow when they visited Burton Mere as part of their day ticket series for carp world a few years later.

'Spike' the fully scaled at a PB of 16lb 12oz from Burton Mere

Naturally I was over the moon with my new PB and I sacked it up in the margins for a few hours as I had no camera man around to do any pictures. Once the sack was secure I recast the rod, I knew when I sacked the fish that I’d be up all night to keep and eye on it and it was logical to carry on fishing. The recast was only out half an hour when it was away to another flyer. Once I was into the fish I realised it wasn’t as big as the fully scaled mirror I had in the sack and when I lifted my landing net from the water I guessed this one was my smallest fish of the night. It was my smallest fish of the night but it was still a special one, I peeled the landing net mesh back to find a common!. There were very few commons in Burton mere and this one, weighing in at 11lb 9oz, was actually a PB common by a couple of ounces!.

PB Common of 11lb 9oz topped off my first session on the syndicate lake

I sacked this fish too, when my camera man turned up at first light I had two PB’s to photograph and I was on cloud 9 for the few hours up until daylight. No more runs came my way and in the morning I dealt with my two fish and returned them to the water. I was a little uncomfortable sacking my fish for a few hours and I took the photos at first light rather than wait a bit longer for the best light. Once my two fish were safely back in the lake I headed back to my old fox supa bivvy and crashed out for a few hours before packing up and going home. My first taste of the Burton mere syndicate was a positive one and as soon as I got home I found myself plotting another visit.

Tight Lines
Mark

Insect Repellents for Fishing

2009-07-12T19:27:00.000+01:00

One of the worst things about fishing in summer is getting bitten by mozzies. These horrible little midges seem to inhabit every piece of water in our country and if you’re unfortunate enough to get bitten you can expect to see a nice red bump on your skin which will itch like mad for a few days. That is the best case scenario for an insect bite, if you are unfortunate to have an allergy things can be a lot worse!.

Having fished for such a long time now I’ve got to the stage where I’ve tried so many insect repellents I’ve actually lost count, the reason for me trying so many is that midges seem to like me….a lot!, and I suffer quite badly in the height of summer which is why I’m writing this short piece about insect repellents for angling.

Avon Skin So Soft Dry Oil Body Spray, an excellent insect repellent.

Over the years I’ve found the best 2 angling insect repellents to be Avon Skin So Soft which is a dry oil body spray from Avon cosmetics and Jungle Formula insect repellent which contains deet. Avon Skin So Soft is so good as an insect repellent they actually dish it out to the armed forces. The active insect repelling ingredient in Skin So Soft is citronella and this is why I’d recommend anglers carry both of these products, because if citronella doesn’t work then deet usually does and vice versa.

Jungle Formula insect repellent, very effective against insect bites!.

Depending on what insects you are being bitten by, either the citronella based Skin So Soft or the deet based Jungle Formula will work. I’ve yet to visit a water where both of these insect repellents have failed, one of them always seems to do the job and since I started to carry both of them in my rucksack a few years ago I’ve reduced the amount of insect bites I get considerably. Years ago I used to get eaten alive at this time of year but today I may get just an odd bite during the summer when I’ve forgotten to apply one of these two repellents.

You can buy both Avon Skin So Soft and Jungle Formula quite easily, Jungle Formula is available from every camping shop I’ve ever been in and everyone knows an Avon lady!. As usual there are also cheaper places to buy both of these insect repellents and I get mine from ebay, you can actually buy both of these repellents cheaper on ebay than you can in a camping shop or from your local Avon lady so it makes sense to save some money if you can.

Tight Lines

Mark.

Viper Icon Bait Boat

2009-06-21T13:30:00.002+01:00

Bait Boats, like them or not they are now a big part of the carp fishing scene. There are a lot of anglers out there that don’t like bait boats but I believe it’s the user that’s the problem, not the boats themselves. Owning a bait boat doesn’t give you the right to fish anywhere the boat can reach, you should always stick to the confines of your swim and not venture into another anglers water, if you stick to this simple rule then you will avoid crossed words with other anglers, I’ve actually been the angler without the boat and I certainly didn’t appreciate some knob thinking he could fish in my swim as well as his own, if you own a bait boat, please don’t be that knob!.

Viper Icon Bait Boat

Last year I joined a syndicate lake, the lake in question has 3 sets of power lines running parallel down the lake, it quickly became obvious that the carp where regularly sitting in safe areas of the lake which couldn’t be reached by casting. Any attempt to cast to these fish holding areas always meant a brush with the power lines so I avoided these swims and really struggled to catch. The lads who where consistently putting fish on the bank where all using bait boats and simply sailing them under the power lines and onto the fish. I had no choice in the end, it was either join them or keep on blanking so I had a look at what bait boats where available and eventually settled on the budget Viper Icon Bait Boat.

The viper icon bait boat has a single hopper.

The Viper Icon bait boat is a cracking little boat, ideal for fishing in the UK. There is only one hopper on the Viper Icon so its one trip per rig when getting baits into position. A bait boat is simply a tool to be used when necessary so I only use the Viper Icon when I need to get my baits under the power lines, if I can actually cast to a chosen spot then I will, so one bait hopper is plenty enough for me. Its rare to actually put out more than 2 rods with the bait boat as I usually cover the margins and fish over bait with my third rod.

The battery compartment on the viper icon bait boat

Bait boats all suffer from one problem, they really do hammer the batteries. The Viper Icon is no exception and the battery meter on the front is very handy to have, if the battery meter is showing anything other than green then I wouldn’t risk putting the boat out, I have run a battery flat on the Icon and it was a real pain having to go for the syndicate boat to retrieve it, in fact I was lucky to have access to a rowing boat so be warned and only use a bait boat with a well charged battery.

Bait Boat Batteries, it always pays to have spares!.

The battery problem with the Viper Icon bait boat eventually led me to seek out a couple of spare batteries just in case I had a good session and had to use the boat a little more than expected. I like my fishing tackle to cost as little as possible, that’s why I went for a Viper Icon in the first place and when it came to finding spare batteries that old favourite Ebay was the cheapest place I could find them. There are plenty of 12v 7 amp hour batteries on ebay but they require a few more little modifications before they will fit the Viper Icon bait boat.

Spare viper icon batteries need velcro to hold them in place.

The first modification is to add some velcro to the battery, as you can see from the pictures, the Viper Icon battery velcro’s to the battery holder and fits inside the boat. The batteries come without leads too and again these can be bought off ebay for a pound or two and soldered to the battery terminals as I’ve done in the pictures. The price of a couple of spare batteries, some velcro and a few connectors to fit the Viper Icon boat is not much more than the price of just one battery from Viper themselves so it really is cheap, if you buy more than 2 batteries its even cheaper!.

Solar charger, worth having if you are fishing long sessions!.

As well as a couple of spare batteries for a bait boat, its also handy to have a solar charger if your doing long sessions, I don’t personally fish for more than one night at a time and the spare batteries mean I don’t need a solar charger but I found one on ebay that was so cheap I bought it. Solar battery chargers are the biggest rip off of all, I bought mine from an ebay shop that specialises in camping accessories and they sold 12v solar chargers for caravans, they work perfectly with the batteries required for a Viper Icon bait boat and my little 2 watt solar charger was just £12 and that included delivery!. A 10 watt version nearly as powerful as the ‘solar suitcase’ sold by Viper was just £38 on ebay so again a massive saving . My little 2 watt solar charger takes quite a while to charge up a battery but for me, I’m happy if it gives me that little bit extra in a battery to get one more trip in, that’s all I ask and all I need as I carry a few spare batteries.

Viper icon comes with a nice carry bag.

Having looked at spares for the bait boat, it’s worth remembering that the handset also runs off batteries and that Viper don’t supply rechargeable batteries or a charger when it comes to the handset. Again I found plenty of suitable rechargeable handset batteries and a charger on ebay really cheap and its worth getting a couple of sets of 8 rechargeable batteries, one for current use and a standby set in case the batteries you're using go flat, there’s nothing worse than running out of batteries, specially when the carp are feeding!.

Radio gear for the viper icon bait boat.

In conclusion I’d recommend a Viper Icon bait boat to anyone, it’s a simple no frills bait boat that does what its supposed to. Spare batteries and other accessories can be bought easily and cheaply off ebay and it’s a bait boat that certainly won’t break the bank. Since using it my catch rate on the syndicate has gone up as I can now reach the fish when they are held up in areas I can’t cast too and above all, it means I can put my hook baits and rigs in place safely and accurately, if your thinking of buying a bait boat, give the Viper Icon the once over because it’s a really good buy.

Tight Lines
Mark

Day Ticket Carp Fishing Session

2009-06-14T13:59:00.002+01:00

I must admit I’m not a big fan of day ticket carp fishing, mainly because of the silly prices fisheries are charging for a 24hr session these days!. If I do fish a day ticket water I want to be sure I’m on the type of water that offers me big fish, after all, if I’m paying over the odds, I want to be in with a chance of a big carp. I’d actually given up day ticket carp fishing many years ago when I thought Linear Fisheries were getting greedy and starting to charge too much, my opinion of Linear hasn’t changed and I haven’t been there for a while now.
The one day ticket water that persuaded me to part with my cash again was the famous Cemex water known as Sandhurst. I’ve fished this cemex carp water a couple of times now and on Friday 24th April 2009 I headed back down to Yateley for my third go at this amazing big fish carp water.

The journey to the lake was uneventful, the only thing that crossed my mind on the way down there was how on earth long distance carp anglers ever managed without a Sat Nav!. My trusty Tom Tom took me straight to the lakes gate and at around 3pm on Friday afternoon I met up with 14 of my mates as we’d booked the lake for our exclusive use.

I had a good walk around, the carp seemed to be fairly well spread and the whole lake seemed to be fishing quite well, the only area that looked devoid of carp was the famous swim known as bailiffs, whilst fish showed everywhere else, this normally productive peg looked like a dead duck as far as catching carp was concerned!. Eventually we drew for swims and I couldn’t believe my bad luck, on my last trip to this cemex water I’d drawn last out of the bag and had to watch as all the decent pegs disappeared. This time I came out second to last and suffered the same fate!. I ended up stuck with ‘bailiffs’ and I knew straight away I’d be in for a struggle, what made it worse was the lake fishing very well and I had to watch as my mates banked an amazing amount of big carp, I haven’t counted them all but over the weekend at least 16 x 30’s came to the bank along with an obscene amount of 20’s!.

My own fishing over the weekend was poor, I was right about the bailiffs swim not having any fish in front of it and I struggled big time. The best I could manage was a lost fish in the early hours of Saturday morning, I had a one toner on my left hand delkim which was fished on a silty patch at around 40 yards. I hit the rod quickly and it thumped over nicely as I struck into a solid lump. I was really pleased to be into a fish given how bad my peg was but that happiness lasted roughly 20 seconds before I felt that sickening feeling as everything went slack and the hook had pulled. I wound in and examined the rig and hook point and I could find nothing wrong so I rebaited and recast the rod.

Nothing happened the next day, at 1pm I wound in and went to the barbeque the lads had organised, I wasn’t feeling too good, I had a headache brought on through lack of sleep and I felt a bit sick, with this in mind I went easy on the food, just a couple of burgers and sausages washed down with a bottle of oasis rather than a beer. After the barbeque I took a couple of headache tablets, retied all my rigs and cast them out. As the evening wore on I began to feel a lot better, I had a bit of a sleep and when I woke up I had just one thing on my mind and that was moving asap as there was still no carp around!.

BBQ in the Cemex Sandhurst car park.

One of my mates was also keen on moving, he’d had 2 fish from peg 11 but he wasn’t happy, the swim he moved to was the second pipe, I’d looked at this swim and hadn’t fancied it so when he left peg 11, I moved onto the road bank and set up again, the move was a quick one, I was only fishing under my stealth brolly so I was packed and round the other side of the lake in no time. Once settled in I got the rods out and just sat watching the water. I couldn’t understand why my mate had moved out of peg 11, there were fish in front of it and the swim looked good for a carp.

I stopped up late that night to watch a film on my Ipod and it was midnight before I got my head down, I hoped for a fish as we got towards first light as this seemed to be a good feeding period on the lake. I didn’t have to wait that long, just an hour after settling down to sleep my middle delkim suddenly burst into life and my line was peeling off my infinity bait runner at a fast and steady rate. There was no way this fish was anything but a carp, the hookbait was a 16mm snowman presentation, a real mouthful that was meant for a carp. I hit the rod and sure enough there was a dead weight attached to the other end. I kept the pressure steady, not too much as I didn’t want a repeat of the hook pull I’d had earlier in the trip. The carp kited left towards peg 12 and I had to drop the rod tip and apply some severe side strain to stop the fish kiting through my mates line next door. I managed this but my heart was in my mouth!, everything held firm and I managed to get the carp close in and ready to net, the fish ploughed up and down the margins for a while and all the time I kept praying it wouldn’t come off. I don’t have many hook pulls, my rigs are extremely efficient and its amazing how one lost fish can play on your mind. I had no problems with this fish and after a long fight under the tip I eventually netted the fish.

I was relieved, despite so many fish being caught by everyone else I’d struggled and this fish had saved me from a blank session. I grabbed my head torch and using the more discreet red led lights I set up my unhooking mat, got my scales ready and sorted out my camera ready for the photos. The carp was a mirror and it was well nailed, no chance of loosing this one!. I weighed the fish at 22lb 14oz, not as big as I’d hoped but it had prevented a blank session and considering how bad I’d drawn, I was well pleased with this fish!.

22lb 14oz Cemex Sandhurst mirror carp.

I rebaited the rod with another snowman hookbait and cast it back out. The rest of the night passed uneventfully and I slept in until well gone 8am. I was due to be off the water at 4pm that day but I wanted to leave earlier to avoid any rush hour traffic. I had some breakfast and began packing up, there were quite a few carp in my swim cruising round in the upper layers, these fish appeared over all 3 of my baits during the morning and I left my rods out as long as I could whilst I packed the rest of my gear away. Sadly nothing happened and at midday I wound my rods in and packed the last of my gear into the car.

Sadly I believe this will be my last trip to Cemex Sandhurst. Just like Linear Fisheries, I believe Cemex are now getting greedy. The introduction of the Cemex plus ticket at a cost of £35 per year has meant a big increase in the price of fishing not just Sandhurst but all Cemex carp waters so for a second time, I’m now retiring from day ticket carp fishing to concentrate on my club and syndicate tickets. In this day and age £25 for 24 hours fishing is just wrong, putting an extra £35 on top is down right despicable and I hope Cemex come to their senses and abolish this fee, one things for sure, I’ll not consider returning until they do.

Tight Lines.

JRC Stealth Brolly Review

2009-06-07T14:45:00.002+01:00

Spring is well under way now and summer is just around the corner, after a winter of day only carping I’ve started fishing nights again in the last month or so and I’d forgotten just how handy it is having a decent brolly for overnighters.

The JRC Stealth Brolly is my chosen system for overnighters, the stealth covers my bedchair and sleeping bag easily and leaves me with plenty of room to store my gear at the back of my bedchair. What I like about the stealth brolly is how fast you can get set up, I’m a short session carp angler and I’m always watching the water and looking to move onto showing fish, the speed of which I can put up and take down a stealth brolly really does help me stay on top of things and I can’t recommend this carp shelter come brolly highly enough.

The JRC Stealth Brolly easily covers a Bedchair and Sleeping Bag

The stealth also has an infill panel available to turn it into a bivvy but to be honest, I never used mine such is the protection you get from the standard brolly with sides. You only need six T-Pegs and two adjustable bank sticks to fully secure the stealth brolly, although personally, I rarely use more than the 4 pegs you really need to secure the built in storm sides. These 4 pegs on there own mean the brolly is very very secure and I’d only use the extra two pegs in extremely high winds.

At the moment, Britain is plunging into recession, this doesn’t necessarily mean lower prices for our fishing gear though, our currency is extremely weak at the moment and as such, imported goods are tending to cost more. Most of our tackle manufacturers shipped production to the far east many years ago to help boost their profits and these same companies are now being forced to put up the prices of things like bivvies and brollies. The JRC Stealth Brolly has been around a while now and as such, its price has reduced considerably over the last few years. This makes the stealth brolly an extremely attractive looking investment if your on the lookout for a shelter for winter day fishing sessions and summer overnighters.

My JRC Stealth Brolly from the side, no Bedchair showing means you're nice and dry and 4 t-pegs is usually enough to secure.

The stealth doesn’t cost the earth and its very practical, being a brolly it will fit in the centre of your holdall no trouble at all so there are no extra bags to carry like you’d have with a bivvy, ideal if your travelling light and looking to move quickly. I’ve actually had my stealth brolly for 5 years now and I’ve no intention of changing it. Next time I need a new shelter I’ll certainly be buying another one the same as I need that ability to move quickly and to keep an eye on what’s going on. You can see more of what goes on around you from underneath a stealth brolly than you can sat in a two man bivvy. This itself has the potential to put more fish on the bank, it’s so easy to miss a carp rolling if your inside a bivvy but even lying in your sleeping bag you can still see a lot of water from under a brolly and I find this invaluable when it comes to my short session fishing.

If you’re looking for a brolly, give the JRC Stealth Brolly a serious look, in this day and age its cheap, practical and ideal for a carp angler!.

Winter Carping Pt7

2009-06-02T18:36:00.000+01:00

After opening my 2009 carp account with a 14lb 6oz common last week I was back at the lake the following Saturday which was the 24th January. On my way to the lake is was getting increasingly agitated as the fields either side of the road were white with frost. The closer I got to the lake the worse the frost seemed to be and I had a nagging feeling that I might be driving towards a frozen lake!. I was already most of the way there so I didn’t bother turning the car round and going home. When I arrived I found the lake half frozen but fishable although I needed to do a bit of work to reach the area I wanted to fish.

The angler who was on last week was on again, he was in the bay but he didn’t have a lot of water in front of him and I scratched my head wondering why he hadn’t dropped into my open water swim instead?. The answer to that question came soon enough as a carp rolled against the ice in the bay, I looked at the rolling fish and sure enough another 3 shows followed in quick succession. He’d beaten me to the fish again. I’m not one for getting up early to go fishing, I usually arrive at the lake sometime between 10 and 11am and this early bird was beating me to the fish!.

As well as no carp, my swim also had other problems namely a lot of ice that needed shifting, between me and my usual winter hotspot was a strip of ice that was roughly 20 yards long and about 10 yards wide, this sheet of ice was blocking me from casting so I needed to move it. I cast over the ice and slowly retrieved my rig until it got caught up in the ice. At this point I dropped the rod tip to water level and slowly applied pressure to the rod. At first nothing happened but after a few seconds the rod tip began to spring back so I applied some more pressure and again slowly the rod tip began to spring back. I literally pumped that big sheet of ice into the margins were I could break it up. It took me 15 minutes to move the ice from 40 yards out into the margins. It was 15 minutes well spent as I could now cast my rig onto my favourite spot which I duly did.

The second rod went out to the left as close to the edge of the ice as I could cast, as the ice melted I would recast this rod as far over to my left and as far towards the bay as I could possibly get as this was the area the fish were occupying and I had to get as close to them as possible to give myself a chance of catching.

The angler in the bay was having a good day, I saw him land at least 4 carp and I suspect he may have had a few more besides the ones I saw him land. This would be the kind of result I’d expect to have if I was on my own but my late arrivals meant a second best swim for me. I badly needed rid of the ice as it was preventing me from getting a bait into the area the carp were holding up. Just after midday I had the good fortune to feel a breeze on my face, over the next half an hour the breeze got stronger and slowly but surely a massive raft of floating ice slowly moved away from the bay and started to break up. By 1pm the lake was completely ice free!.

I wasted no time, as soon as I had a clear path to my left I wound in the roving rod and whacked a rig and mesh bag as hard as I could towards the entrance to the bay. The rig landed perfectly so I made a decision to leave it there for the rest of the session, I was still slightly off the fish but with an angler in the bay and no ice to hide under I was convinced the carp would push out to were my left hand bait was, with the hotspot already covered this was to be my last roll of the dice for the day and it was time to sit it out for that all important run.

By 3.30pm I was looking at my watch and thinking I’d blown it, there were carp in the area I’d cast the roving rod but nothing had happened, the hotspot rod had also remained spookily quiet and with less than an hour of my session left I was beginning to resign myself to a blank. Its funny how fishing goes sometimes, you expect a run and it doesn’t come, you don’t expect one and all of a sudden your bite alarm springs into life!. That’s pretty much how it was on this occasion, it was 15.50pm when the left hand rod tip suddenly pulled round and the alarm sounded. All I could think about was how much of a relief it was to finally get a run!.

The carp swam towards me very quickly, from roughly 100 yards range it was under my feet in less than a minute, I knew what was coming so I loosened off the clutch on my reel and sure enough, as I gained contact with the fish close in it ran hard and I had to give line quickly. The carp wasn’t a particularly big fish so I had it under control quite quickly, experience has taught me to loosen the clutch when a fish swims towards me because they invariably run when they’ve put up so little fight. With the carp in the margins I just kept a steady pressure on and wore the fish down until it popped up on top and went into the waiting landing net.

I was relieved to say the least, I really thought I was going to blank and I really didn’t deserve that!. I secured the net and got on with setting up the scales and camera. The carp weighed in at 13lb 6oz, another average size fish for the water. I have to say I made a complete mess of the pictures, for once I wasn’t paying attention and in my haste to get the fish back to the water I didn’t take the angle of the sun and the position of the tripod into consideration. The result being a shadow across the carps tail that is in the shape of the tripod. I realised I’d done this but I wasn’t going to subject my carp to any more time out of the water than necessary so I made do with the pictures I had and released the fish back to the water.

This 13lb 6oz January winter carp saved a blank!

With one carp caught I suddenly felt another fish might be on the cards, my hook bait was still on so with time running out I quickly attached another pva mesh mesh bag and whacked the bait back out to the same distant spot. Again the cast was good and I sat down to see if my last half an hour would produce a bonus fish. Instead of packing up at 16.30pm I made do with putting my gear away and sitting it out a bit longer, I was convinced another run was just minutes away and I ended up staying until 17.00pm in the hope of another bite. Despite half an hours overtime the run never came and I finally conceded defeat and packed up.

I did my usual stint with the spod before leaving for home and it was completely dark by time I left. On the way home I thought long and hard about fishing this water for the rest of the winter. With another angler consistently being there earlier than me I was going to struggle and that’s something I’m not used to on this water having had it to myself for so long. I already have my fishing plans in place for 2009 and I’ve started to consider a change of venue for the rest of the winter. I’ve got a week or so to sit and reflect on the change of scenery I’m thinking about, it will certainly mean less runs but at the same time, bigger fish than low twenties would be a very real possibility and right now the thought of somewhere new to tackle is very appealing.

Tight Lines
Mark

Winter Carping Pt6

2009-01-25T11:12:00.000Z

I can’t believe just how cold its been over Christmas and new year!. Prior to this fishing session I’m writing about now, which took place on Saturday 17th January, my last winter carp session was on boxing day!. With the lakes iced over for a few weeks I eventually decided to make a start on reviewing some of the fishing gear I use and I published my first review on kryston silkworm braid last week. I’ve also added a few new links to this blog, notably Mo's Co Pva, mo has been supplying carp anglers with pva for years and I use his gear myself, you’ll find a link to mo’s ebay shop in the right hand navigation under ‘recommended sites’. Also added to this section are a few north west based ebay shops, northern monkeys owner Julian Grattidge has a new ebay shop called ‘Darkside Tackle’, Trafford Angling Supplies and the Cheshire based Koala Products. Ebay is a great source of cheap fishing tackle and these guys are local to the north west area so give them your support!.

Saturday 17th January was a cold day, if it wasn’t for the fact that we’d had wind and rain prior to the weekend I wouldn’t have bothered going but I suspected the lakes would be ice free and as I pulled into the car park my thoughts were proved right, the water was bendy and that was enough for me.
I wasn’t alone on this session, there was another carp angler on the water and he had beaten me to the fish. The carp were stacked up at the entrance to the bay and he was just about on them, I couldn’t really drop in on his left hand side as my own angling etiquette wouldn’t allow it, I wouldn’t have been happy if it was done to me so I wasn’t going to do it to someone else!.

I had very little choice but to set up in the main area of the lake, this at least gave me access to my faithful hotspot so I covered this area with one rig and I put the other just off to one side, both rods were just fished with pellet hookbaits and a small pva mesh bag. I was in for a struggle today, the other guy had the fish covered and he was first into a carp, he was also second and third into the carp as well as he picked them off from the bay entrance. My swim remained quiet, nothing showed in front or on my right but I had the hotspot covered and this spot has very rarely failed to produce at least one carp on each winter session!.

The first few hours of my 6th winter session had been quiet, I was sitting watching the water when I had a single bleep came from the delkim. I sat and watched but nothing happened for a few seconds, I wasn’t sure if it was a carp or not as it was quite windy by this time, I glanced at my watch and it was 1.30pm, as I looked back up at the water my delkim started a very slow run and as I went to grab the rod I watched my monkey climber slowly pull up. I hit it and sure enough I found myself attached to my first carp of 2009. I was pleased to be into a fish, I’d have hated to start the new year with a blank!.

The fish didn’t do much, it just kited from side to side all the way in and after a few minutes in the margins I eventually slipped the net under an ‘average for the water’ common carp. That’ll do me I thought, I gathered my unhooking mat and scales, set up the camera and got on with weighing and photographing the fish. The common turned the scales to 14lb 6oz, not a small fish and not a big one either but it was my first fish of 2009 so I was happy to at least get myself ‘off the mark’ so to speak.

First winter carp of 2009, a common of 14lb 6oz

I covered the hotspot again, 1.30pm was an hour earlier than my boxing day capture from the same spot so I had a bit longer left this time and I was hopeful of another fish. Once I was settled down it was back to the waiting, I was slowly getting more and more restless as time ticked by. My reason for this was that evening time is usually regarded as the best time on my winter carp water and I was convinced a second run would come. I held on and held on in the hope that the hotspot would give up a second fish but it never did. I even stayed an extra 15 minutes until 16.45pm but it was all in vain and I couldn’t add another carp to my now running 2009 tally.

I even left the rods as late as possible before spodding in some pellets ready for next week, doing this put me at risk of getting wet as the rainy clouds where looming in the distance. I managed to get my gear in the car just in time and as I pulled out of the car park the heavens opened and it lashed down!. Despite only catching one fish I left feeling lucky I was still dry!

Carp Tackle Review - Kryston Silkworm

2009-01-18T14:14:00.002Z

I first started using kryston silkworm in 1994!. At the time, I’d moved onto a small north wales club water that had a pretty severe weed problem. Prior to fishing this club water I was quite happy with my merlin/multistrand combi link, I was catching a lot of fish on the combi link but when I came up against the weed I started to struggle a little.
The weed I was fishing in was silkweed and a hooklength material like multi-strand was a complete nightmare when fishing in it. As the strands separated the last few inches of my rig would get clogged with silkweed and clearing the weed off my rig became a real problem. Once the fibres of multi-strand were damaged the last few inches of my rig would be weakened and I just couldn't risk a loss of breaking strain, after all, those last few inches of your rig down to the hook are vitally important!.

Krytson Silkworm, use it with confidence!

I was desperate for an answer to the multi-strand and silkweed problem so I began to look at alternative hooklength materials. At the time one particular braided hooklink material seemed to be very popular and it seemed to be standing head and shoulders above everything else, that hooklength was the famous kryston silkworm.
I had nothing to loose so I went out and bought silkworm in a couple of different breaking strains. The one I eventually settled on was the 25lb version and the day I bought my first spool started a long association with kryston silkworm that is still going strong today!.
I could make a few quotes about kryston silkworm based on the information on the kryston website but this is a blog and I’m reviewing silkworm based on my own findings. Nearly 16 years after I first used kryston silkworm I’m still on the very same hooklength material. Yes I’ve tried other materials for short periods but carp fishing is about confidence and I keep coming back to the products I find the most reliable and I promise you, kryston silkworm is one of the very best, it’s just a superb hooklength material.

Lovely Capesthorne hall carp that fell to kryston silkworm

I like 25lb silkworm because its so supple, coated braids seem to be all the fashion in carp fishing at the moment and yes, they work very well but they lack the suppleness that allows for a more natural movement of your hookbait and for me, this natural movement is a big plus because I want my hookbait to behave as naturally as possible when a carp sucks and blows at the bait. I believe carp reject your hookbait because they've worked out that its attached to something and without suppleness this is far easier for them to do hence me preferring silkworm over a more popular coated braid.
Not only is silkworm supple, its actually quite thick in diameter compared to most hooklength materials and I think this thickness is actually a benefit if your using it as part of a basic knotless knot setup. Used in conjunction with a nice down turned eye hook like the kamasan b175, kryston silkworm helps create an extremely effective carp rig that turns and hooks carp easily.

Use with a pva stringer or mesh bag to avoid the odd tangle

The only problem I've had with silkworm is the odd tangle, tangles can be reduced by using a coated braid but you also loose the suppleness of your hooklength thats so important. The answer to tangles with silkworm is to use a pva stringer or mesh bag, pva is quite cheap these days and theres a link to Mo's Co in the recommended sites section of this blog, buying from mo is cheaper than paying top price for your pva in the tackle shop, ditto for kryston silkworm, i buy mine from ebay to save money!.

20lb 8oz mirror from 1994/5, silkworm proved to be superb for fishing in weed!

Silkworm certainly helped me unlock that small north wales club water all those years ago, being braid it was easier to get the silkweed off my rigs without damaging them and being so strong I had no problem landing all of my fish from some very weedy areas. Any doubts I had about silkworm rapidly disappeared and my confidence in this hook length material is now so great that I just don’t bother fishing with anything else. I took most of the residents of capesthorne hall on 25lb silkworm and capes is one of the most pressured carp waters I’ve ever fished!. I also use silkworm when I visit heavily pressured day ticket waters like linear fisheries and yateley sandhurst lake. Silkworm has worked brilliantly on all of these waters and a whole host of others too. If you’re just starting out in carp fishing and are confused by all the different materials available to make carp rigs, try kryston silkworm!, I promise you it really is one of the best hooklength materials out there.

Winter Carping Pt5

2009-01-04T14:46:00.000Z

After 4 nice doubles on the 22nd December I was keen to get back to the lake on Christmas eve, I set the alarm for 8am and when it went off I woke up with a splitting headache and I felt sick. There wasn’t going to be any Christmas eve fishing session for me this year so I rolled over and went back to sleep in the hope that a few more hours might see me right.

The next chance to get out fishing again was 2 days later, I was fully recovered by then but unfortunately the weather had taken another turn for the worse, gone was the mild weather and lovely westerly wind that had brought me 7 carp in the last 2 trips. Instead, bright sunny conditions and a bitingly cold easterly wind were the conditions that greeted me when I rolled into the car park on boxing day morning.

The conditions may have been poor for catching carp but they were very good for spotting them and I found the fish within minutes of getting out of the car, they were occupying the centre of the lake just off the back of the cold easterly wind. Occasionally a carp would poke its head out of the water and I even saw the odd back breaking surface as the fish tried to take advantage of any warmth the sun had to offer. The carp were well within casting range of my open water swim so I set up there and slowly put my rods together.

I put my first rig on my prebaited hotspot at 40 yards along with a few freebies, this spot was proving to be very consistent as usual and my intention was to keep a rod here whilst I would drop the other rig in areas I could see the fish in order to pick them off. With conditions being so bad I wasn’t very confident in the roving approach, it always seems to work best when there is a big wind on the water to disguise any lead splash.

On my last session I had set up on a huge shoal of carp that had eventually vacated the area I was fishing, I had caught two of them before they left but leave they did. These carp were not liking lead weights on their heads at the moment and sure enough, just 10 minutes after casting a 2oz lead in amongst the showing carp, they had disappeared. It was an hour later when I spotted the carp again, they had moved off towards the out of bounds area and they seemed to be holding in an area that was around 90-100 yards out and slightly to the left of where my first cast went. I decided to try again so I wound the rig in, clipped on another small pva mesh bag and tried again. I planted my feet when casting and stepped into the cast to generate the extra power I needed to reach the fish as they were right on the edge of my casting range. My 2oz lead weight landed around 90 yards out and this was the near side of where the carp could be seen.

With my cast made I sat down to see if the fish would move again. I was disappointed when they did, the next time I spotted a carp they had moved out of range and I was left scratching my head wondering how to get a bait anywhere near them. Today, they just didn’t seem to want to know. A change of tactics was called for so I simply left each rod where it had been cast. It was going to be a waiting game today and I simply had to keep quiet and wait it out.

Having abandoned the roving style I just sat and watched the water, I had a bite to eat and a drink from my flask and around 1pm I fell asleep!. I slept for around an hour and when I woke up and had another look for the fish I found nothing had changed. I was sitting and thinking about blanking when at 2.30pm the hotspot rod suddenly let out a single bleep, before I had chance to focus on the rod my monkey climber pulled up to the top of the needle as a full blooded run developed.

That good old hotspot, its such a consistent area, it had saved me from blanking on numerous occasions over the last few winters and the area had come up trumps again!. I hit the rod and sure enough it arched over and took on its battle curve. The fish took very little in the way of line, just the occasional shake of the head before it began kiting to the right. Steady side strain kept things on track and in the margins I had a great fight with a common that just didn’t want to give up. Eventually the carp had no choice and as the fish tired, I slipped the landing net under a nice mid double that at least meant I hadn’t blanked.

I secured the net and got the camera and weighing gear ready, once set up I lifted the fish out onto the unhooking mat for a closer look, the carp was nailed in the bottom lip as usual, a clear example of just how effective my basic carp rig actually is. With the carp unhooked I weighed it in at 16lb 2oz, a nice common that was slightly bigger than average for the water and a nice result on what was a very very poor day for carp fishing!.

16lb 2oz Boxing day common that saved a blank!

After a few quick pictures in the sunshine I returned the carp to the lake and got on with trying to catch another one. I still had a few hours left so it was well worth trying the hotspot again. I recast my rod and again topped up the swim with a small handful of pellets that I just scattered around the area to try and pull in any passing fish.

Unfortunately nothing else occurred, the carp that had moved out of range of my roving rod decided to stay there and as they didn’t drift back over as the day went on it became obvious that I wasn’t going to have any luck on that rod. The hotspot also stayed quiet and I had no more action from that area either. At 4.30pm I got the spod rod out and deposited another kilo of bait onto the hotspot. By now the temperatures where already below zero and I reckoned my kilo of feed would probably be the last food these carp would see for a while as a frozen lake would be the most likely outcome of the heavy frost that was now falling around me. I packed up and headed for home not knowing how long it would be before I returned again, this cold weather front looks to be in for a few days so this boxing day session may well turn out to be my last carp session of 2008.

Winter Carping Pt4

2008-12-28T00:28:00.000Z

I had a few days annual leave booked over Christmas and with Saturdays 22lb common fresh in my mind I decided a return trip to the lake was in order so I packed my gear early on Monday morning and headed back across Cheshire to my winter runs water.

Things had certainly changed since Saturday, the wind had eased right off and the carp had decided to show themselves. As soon as I pulled into the car park I was greeted by a carp crashing about 50 yards out and right in the entrance to the small bay off the main lake. I got out of the car and looked over at the area and inside 60 seconds and 5 more carp broke surface, in fact the more I looked the more I saw and the area was absolutely crawling with carp, it was an awesome sight with fish topping all over the area.

There was no time to waste, I had to get to work so I unloaded the car and headed for the bay swim that had been the scene of my boxing day and new years day twenties over last Christmas. I couldn’t get myself set up quickly enough, I had the rod pod down first and my two rods were put together in no time. My rods still had the pellets on from Saturday so I didn’t bother putting fresh baits on, I had to get the rods in amongst those carp as soon as possible so I just attached a pva mesh bag to each rod and cast them out. The first rig went off to right where a lot of carp seemed to be gathered and the second rig went straight out in front just on the edge of where another group of fish were showing.

I was settled in very quickly and I was expecting action straight away. Winter carp fishing can be a bit unpredictable, I thought I’d got my baits in quietly and that the carp hadn’t spooked but half an hour later I was having serious doubts about my swim, the fish had just stopped showing completely!. I made a decision to move the close in rod a bit further out into the middle of where the carp had showed instead of on the edge of the area, I had hoped to pick fish off without disturbing them and I’d obviously failed at that so I just went for the jugular so to speak.

I was actually contemplating a move to the centre of the lake when at midday all hell broke loose, the right hand delkim melted as a carp picked up my pellet and bolted for the horizon. I was on the rod quickly and after just a few seconds of playing the fish the left hand rod did the same!. With 2 fish on at the same time I was in trouble, I had to end the fight with the first carp as quickly as possible so I applied more pressure to try and bring the fish to the net. The carp actually felt quite decent, not as heavy as a 20 but certainly better than average for the water, this prolonged the fight and all the time I had the fish circling the other rod was running!. Eventually I netted a nice mirror, I secured the net and grabbed the second rod, by now this fish was quite a way out but it was still on. I had a job to cut down the distance between me and the fish in case it kited either side as I had bushes trailing in the water that might cause problems. Luckily the fish came straight into the net with very little fight and 5 minutes later I was stood there looking down at two carp in my landing net!.

I had a feeling of déjà vu, I’d caught a common and mirror brace from this swim on the 29th December 2007, just a week short of one year ago. Here I was again in the same situation, as I did then, I got my sling sack out and retained one of the fish whilst I weighed and potographed the first fish, the mirror weighed in at 16lb 12oz and after a few pictures I released this fish and brought the common to the unhooking mat, the common proved to be slightly smaller at 14lb 4oz but together they made up a nice brace of winter carp. Luckily everything had gone smoothly and I was happy to have both fish returned to the water safely.

First of my winter carp brace, a 16lb 12oz winter mirror

Second of my winter carp brace, a 14lb 4oz winter common

I rebaited my rods after my two fish and covered the same areas of the lake again. I sat back expecting some more action but after an hour nothing had showed and the area that looked like a carp stock pond two hours earlier was now empty of fish. I had a bite to eat and a drink from my flask and contemplated a move to the centre of the lake. After giving it until 2pm I finally made that move to the middle of the lake and to my prebaited hotspot. With the carp moving into the main area of the lake, this area would surely give me another chance before I went home at 4.30pm.

I put a pva mesh bag onto my hotspot at around 40 yards, the second rig went slightly off to the left about 50 yards out, this was an area I figured the carp may pass through on their way to the main area of the lake and the out of bounds area. Over the next hour I saw quite a few carp crash and they had moved out of range and into the out of bounds area. The fish obviously knew where to go to get away from angling pressure!. There was an odd fish showing closer in so I was hopeful of another carp before I went home.

I had to wait until 15.40pm before the run came, out of the blue the hotspot rod took off and my right hand delkim burst into life. This fish kited to my right and gave me a bit of a scare as it came close to an over hanging tree but some steady side strain had the fish close in and after a short fight in the margins I netted my third carp of the day. On the mat I carefully unhooked the fish and started my weighing process, on the scales I had 15lb 4oz, a few pictures followed and I returned my carp to the water, a nice mid double winter common to go with my brace of carp from earlier on.

Third winter carp of the day, a 15lb 4oz common

I had my rig back on the hotspot again for the last half hour of my session, by now a few carp had rolled in the area and I was convinced the hotspot rod was going to produce another fish. By 16.25 I had all my gear packed away with just the rods and the net to go. I looked at my watch waiting for 16.30 exactly before I wound in and started baiting up again. I was going to leave the hotspot rod till last as I was sure something was going to happen. When 16.30 arrived I walked over to the rods and just before I picked up the left hand rod it bleeped once, I paused for a second and sure enough the left hand rod in open water suddenly pulled round as a run developed!. I wasn’t expecting that, I was convinced it would be the hotspot rod but I wasn’t complaining, I hit the rod and began bringing my fourth carp of the day to the net. Everything went well and eventually I netted another nice common. I had to go digging in my rucksack for my scales and camera but eventually I got everything set up and my last carp of the day turned the scales to 16lb 8oz, another better than average fish for the water.

I was just about to wind in when this last minute 16lb 8oz fish took my bait

The light was fading fast and I still had work to do before I went home, I packed the rods away and thankfully the hotspot rod didn’t go before I wound it in although I was still half expecting it too!. Once my gear was packed away I got on with spodding in some more bait as I was planning a return two days later on Christmas Eve. It took me a while and not for the first time I ended up spodding in the dark. With this task duly completed I headed for home more than happy with my four late December carp.