Carp Catchers Blog

Okay so this is part 3 of which bivvy? In parts one and two we looked at advantages and disadvantages of brollys and shelters in this section we are going to look at carp fishing domes.

Domes

Domes are full blown bivvies providing maximum protection from the elements. The major difference between a bivvy and a dome is that the dome has a sewn in groundsheet, a good example is the new Trakker Armo Dome. The primary benefit of the sewn in groundsheet is that it denies access to all those creepy crawlies to a certain extent. The sewn in groundsheet does however make them a bit bulky and they therefore take up quite a bit of room in the car and on the trolley. Bivvy domes also make it a bit difficult to get your gear in especially if you have a bad back as you have to duck down through the door and over the groundsheet. However if it’s maximum protection you’re after and space and dodgy backs are not a concern then a bivvy dome may be the ideal choice for you.

Best fishes,

John

With the approaching bank holiday many of you may be contemplating going fishing. It’s at this time of year that a lot of anglers start fishing again and over the winter months thoughts of rod license’s are long forgotten. Please remember that you need a rod license, they can be purchased at your local post office or online at The Environment Agency. Bank Holidays are a favourite time for the environment agency bailiffs to check for rod license evasion, please don’t get caught out. Please also remember that there is a close season on the rivers till June 16th.

Best fishes,

John

This is the beautiful dawn that greeted us on the final morning. We were however still fishless but we rebaited all the rods and banged them out to the horizon. Just after 9.00 we had a take but unfortunately the hook pulled, we also had an aborted pickup at about 9.30. When the hooter sounded to end the match Gary and I were still fishless, we had learned a lot though and hopefully next year I will not hesitate too long before I put our hard gained knowledge into practice.

Best fishes,

John

Friday night was extremely cold with temperatures below freezing and saturday morning dawned with a widespread frost. Gary and I were fishless, on reflection I had made some poor descisions on the friday not being willing to change tactics quickly enough. Match Carp Fishing is far removed from my normal Carp Fishing, I normally locate the Carp and their feeding spots and am prepared to wait it out to a certain extent till they make a mistake. In a match you have to make it happen and be prepared to change tactics frequently. We now decided to change tactics, however the fish had moved out of open water into the bays, so our change of tack may have been a bit late. Time would tell

Best fishes,

John

As evening drew near on the saturday my team mate Gary and I hatched a fiendish plan. We found a gravel bar close in and figured that most day ticket anglers would have also found it and would probably spod particles and pellets etc. on it. Gary and I’s cunning plan was to put 5 Kilos of big boilies on top of the bar in an attempt to tempt some of the bigger Carp. We reasoned that the average day ticket angler as I said earlier would be unlikely to do this. I am afraid our plan, though fiendish in the extreme, did not work!! Had we put it in to operation on the friday things may have been different, but that’s Carp Fishing for you.

Best fishes,

John

Even though the Carp Catchers team didn’t qualify I thought I’d share some of the photo’s we took. This first one shows the conditions just after the hooter went for the start of the match. As you can see it absolutely chucked it down (hailstones) there was thunder and lightning directly overhead so the rods were put down sharpish I can tell you, as waving 13ft carp rods around in a thunder storm is a definite no no. The storm lasted about 45 mins which I suppose was not too bad as the conditions were the same for everyone.

Best fishes,

John

The Chub Outkast is a very good value rod for the performance, I have spoken to many people who believe that even if the price was increased it wouldn’t slow the sales of such a quality piece of kit and it might be considered as more of a high quality rod than a budget rod that many believe it to be. The Chub OutKast is a very close rival to the Greys Prodigy in my eyes and in some cases I would even go as far as saying it’s a better rod especially as they are cheaper by quite a considerable margin, still come with a lifetime guarantee and perform along the same lines as the Prodigy. I myself own a set of Chub Outkasts in 2.75 and 3lb test curves and would say that the 3lb test curve has a bit more backbone on cast but is just as forgiving as the 2.75lb test curves under the tip. The slim look matt black finish gives the blanks a stylish look on the bank as well as having the performance to back it up. All in all the Chub Outkast is a top quality rod that will enable you to handle most fishing situations you encounter with ease. 

Cheers,

David Moore

The JRC STI  is an awesome piece of kit for the money, I have owned mine now for nearly 4 years and it has been used on a regular basis and received a lot of abuse from the most horrendous of weather conditions. Like most quick erect pram hood bivvies it is very quick to put up and is very versatile, I usually have the whole front of my bivvy open to give me a wider view of the lake but at times it is required to have the bivvy closed up in strong winds and/or heavy rain to give you more shelter and make the bivvy more solid. The STI is supplied with heavy duty pegs, tension strap, support pole and a heavy duty groundsheet. The model I own is the twin skin model which has mozzi mesh panels on the roof of the inner skin which although means you can’t use the bivvy as a single skin you get excellent ventilation during the warmer months and very little condensation during the colder months. The thing I like most about the mozzi panels is it allows me to roll the outer skin back during the summer months and give the bivvy a nice bit of cool air flowing through, which is what you really need when you can’t escape the heat. The inner door on the STI has a clear window which can be fixed over the mozzi panel with velcro enabling you to still have a view of your swim even with rain coming straight at the front of the bivvy. The space inside the 2 man is more than sufficient for two bedchairs and all your kit with a little room to spare.  There are a lot of similar bivvies on the market, but if you want a fairly priced reliable bivvy I would strongly recommend the STI as a good choice.David Moore

 As you know I recently went on a session to Elson’s at Stanwick fisheries, I arrived at the lake around 6 last Tuesday evening and after a quick walk round I decided on a swim that looked into the main body of water, there were two reasons for this. The first one being I could observe the majority of the lake from my swim and the second being it was well away from anyone else fishing the lake so less line pressure in the water. The rods were setup with the rigs and lead setups I described in my previous post, due to the time of evening that I was getting the rods out I decided to just feel the leads down and find a couple of clear spots minimising the disturbance to the swim and a handful of baits were placed over the top of each rod. I sat back and enjoyed the fairly mild evening, watching the water and taking in the pleasurable atmosphere around the lake before hitting the bag at around midnight.

At around 1.30 the next morning I received a rather stuttery take on my right hand rod and I quickly connected with my first Elson’s carp and my first fish of 2008. On the scales it went 16lb dead and the pretty little common was released back to its watery abode no worse for wear after a couple of shots with the Nikon were rattled off. The rod was rebaited and placed back out on the spot only to be picked up by a nice tench an hour later, this tench was followed by two more, one being a new PB tench of 6lb 4oz. The night provided no further action and the next morning was to be the same. During the hours of the next afternoon there was a few reasonable carp cruising the lake and a decision was made to get the adjustable zig rig setup and it was baited with a 10mm dayglow yellow pineapple pop up and was placed around 2 feet under the surface.

Although the afternoon was fairly unsettled with the wind turning round 180 degrees and coming straight back at me as predicted by metcheck when I checked Tuesday afternoon, there was still fish cruising just under surface so I persevered with the zig rig. As I was laid back on the bedchair I received an absolute screamer on my left hand rod, the zig rig! I connected with what felt like a very angry carp, the fight went on for about 15 minutes with the fish making several big runs stripping up to 25 yards of line of my spool at a time. Eventually the fish started to tire although it still had some steam left for a few last attempts at freedom, I was just hoping the size 10 wide gape was going to hold firm. Finally a nice common was drawn over the net cord and I let out a sigh of relief. I secured the net in the deep margin and walked to the next swim to get my mate Lee to come take a few shots with the camera, we got set up with the scales, sling and camera before removing my prize from the margin. As I folded the net back I could see it was a good fish, it went 23lb 6oz on the Reuben’s, Pukka a new PB common. Chuffed to bits with the new PB, Lee snapped away with the camera and got some cracking photos, cheers mate. After releasing the fish back I couldn’t help but get a little excited as I sat back to look at the photos.

The next 36 hours produced no further action despite having fish all over me like a cheap suit I couldn’t get another take, but neither did anyone else on the lake. I think the change in wind direction bringing a cold wind and a drop in temperature put the fish off the feed although they continued to show themselves on a regular basis around my swim. I tried everything the induce a take but even singles cast at showing fish and baits placed on spots where fish were regularly showing themselves weren’t producing anything. I received a rather funny take on Friday morning which I connected with, I suspected it to be another good tench but I’ll never know as it came off about a minute later.

During the rest of Friday there were still a few fish topping near my spots and I was tempted to stay for another night but I decided against it as the temperature was still dropping and Id already spent nearly two days watching fish top near my spots without a take.

All in all I really enjoyed my first session on Elson’s especially as it produced a couple of good fish for me, I will definitely be returning hopefully to bag myself a few of Elson’s larger more historic residents. I’m off back to Winchester to continue my course at Sparsholt soon but will be planning a few more sessions on Elson’s in the near future.

Cheers

David Moore

There are so many Bivvies on the market when it comes to buying one where do you start? It’s not just Bivvies though there are Shelters, Brollys and Domes so lets have a look at the differences and advantages and disadvantages.

Shelters

 Shelters are primarily for short sessions such as a day session or a quick overnighter. Carp Fishing Shelters are basically stripped back Bivvies and are normally open fronted, two good examples are The Razorback Shelter  and The Trakker A-Lite . The advantages of shelters because they are cut back to the bare essentials is they are normally lightweight and fairly easy to erect. The disadvantages for the same reasons is that they are unsuitable for really harsh weather conditions.

Best fishes,

John