Carp Catchers Blog

Customer Craig used the new Baitcraft T1 Boilies to net himself a new Personal best mirror carp of 29lbs 2oz from Orchid Lakes in Oxford. The stunner was caught on an 18mm bottom bait hair rigged to a size 8 Korda Wide Gape hook and a 15lb Korda IQ Xtra Soft  hooklink. Craig was fishing to a silt patch at about 30yrds and used a mixture of different sized T1 Boilies and Pellets soaked in Cow Cola. Craig is a relative newcomer to the world of carp fishing with heavy work and family commitments so a PB of this calibre is superb. Well done that man!!

Best fishes,

John

That hauler Adam has been at it again and caught himself this pristine common carp of 19lb in a short evening session. Adam reports that he caught it on a Kd rig tied combi style with a small piece of shrink tubing to curve the hook slightly. The rig consisted of a size 6 Korda Wide Gape Hook with two pieces of balanced fake corn which was threaded through a Korda Long Chuck PVA Stick to disguise the hooklink. The photo was a self take with the camera balanced on the wheel of Adams Jeep and I think it came out very well, in fact it is better than most photos’ taken with two people present. Well done Adam and thanks for sharing your catches and methods with us.

It’s that time of year again when the carp are up in the water and it’s now that it’s possible to get them going on surface baits, one of the most exciting but frustrating methods of carp fishing.

I did my 1st bit of surface fishing of the year on Sunday at a little lake just outside Market Harborough, which turned out to be good fun as always. I managed to bank 6 carp including a few of nice little ghosties during the period of the afternoon, nothing big but it was exciting fishing once I managed to get the fish feeding confidently, I even had them taking floating pellets later in the evening during the rain. The setup I used was an ESP controller float, a Korda anti tangle sleeve, with my mainline attached to a swivel followed by another anti tangle sleeve, Drennan Double Strength mono and a size 10 Kamasan hook tied as a hair rig. I will definitely be having a few more surface sessions in the near future but will be targeting a few different waters with some bigger fish.

If you haven’t already I would suggest picking up some floating pellets or dog biscuits and heading down to your local for a spot of surface fishing, you can’t beat it!!

Cheers

David

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I finally managed to get on Elson’s for a 48 hour session last week, upon turning up to the lake I found it to be pretty empty and after a couple of laps I decided on a swim between Elson’s and Mallard as this is where I’d seen fish the previous evening. I got the rods out and settled down for the night to be woken up at 4.15 by a Tench on the far margin rod which was baited with Mainline Baits Fusion Freezer Boilies  unfortunately I lost it. About 6.30 I received an absolute screamer on my right hand rod which was placed over on the far margin with a cut down flouro pop up, after 5 minutes the fish looked like it was going to make it round a snag to my right so I was preparing to jump in after it when it all went slack, on inspection of my rig it turned to be a straightened ESP hook that lost me the fish, Gutted! I reeled in the other two rods and went for a walk round the lake and to put some more bait over the far margin fusion rod, when I got the hole in the bushes I spotted a lot of bubbles coming up over the spot so I climbed the small tree that lent out over the margin. I sat in the tree for a good half an hour watching for any fish when out of the blue a mid double common swam into the area and proceeded to pick off a few of my bottom baits before disappearing again. This was enough for me and I got back to my rods to get them back out. After putting a few baits out with the throwing stick to briefly clear the areas after seeing fish present I got the rods back out. About lunchtime I received a stuttery take on the far margin fusion rod again and this time I banked the culprit, a nice 5lb Tench. The rest of the afternoon there was fish cruising across my swim but were obviously not interested in feeding. The next night produced nothing but a few liners on the fusion rod, the same followed the next day up to about 12 o’clock when I banked my 2nd Tench of the session followed by 2 more during the afternoon, all averaging between 5-6lb. I can’t seem to fail in catching Tench on Elson’s! Although the loss of a reasonable fish was a bit disheartening during the session I’ve learnt a little bit more about Elson’s and its residents, at least I know most my rigs are working and I’m finding the right spots for fish to feed on its just a case of getting the carp interested.

David

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The Matrix Hot Head Hanger range is now in, the new Cheeky Monkeys and Kompressors have also arrived. The  Hot Head Hangers look awesome and come in a range of funky colours. For those of you who like to fish light we also have the Dinky Hot Head Hangers hangers in a range of colours. Anglers who consistantly fish at long range should check out the new matrix kompressors which have been specifically designed for long range fishing. The new Cheeky Monkeys are a clever twist to the old school monkey climbers and look really cool. All Matrix’s products are a 100% British made and are of the highest quality we will be getting more of their range in on a regular basis.

Best fishes,

John

I did a short overnighter on Mallard over the weekend as unfortunately I couldnt get a swim on Elsons so after a lot of contemplating on where to fish I still headed for Stanwick and spent the night on Mallard. When I arrived at the lake I couldn’t decide on a swim, due to the layout of the lake a lot of the swims had been left stitched up but after a quick lap I decided on a swim between Elsons and Mallard which also enabled me to keep an eye on what was happening around Elsons. I got the rods setup and after a couple of hours I recieved my 1st run of the session and landed an upper single mirror on 3 grains of plastic corn and a small pva bag of pellets, it wasn’t big but at least I’d banked a fish. I saw no further action until around 1.30 in the morning when the rod on the baited spot tore of resulting in a 15lb 6oz common, it fell to the rigs I’d been using on Elsons but with a cut down CCmoore oddessey xxx bottom bait. The rest of the night remained quiet despite me hoping the spot would produce a couple more. The next day I had a bream of about 5lb on the oddessey xxx but I didn’t land anything else after that. It wasn’t what I had planned, the fish weren’t big nor was it the sort of water I’d fish but it was a very enjoyable session to get a bend in the rod. Hoping to get on Elsons this coming week so we will see what that produces.

David

I’ve just returned from a holiday in the Spain after finishing my foundation degree and am now looking at the possibilities for the summer ahead before I return back to college to complete the Bsc honours for the 3rd year. I’ve got a few plans to go fishing with college mates a little further than I normally would travel but as I have said in previous blogs I would like to concentrate on Elsons at Stanwick lakes. I’ll be starting back on Elsons soon with the same tactics I used previously and hopefully I can bag myself a few more fish over the summer, the majority of my fishing time will be spent fishing overnighters during the quieter periods of the week so hopefully I can avoid the busy banks and high angling pressure during the weekends. I’ll keep you posted over the summer how Im getting on and hopefully I’ll have some catch reports for you in the near future.

David

Customer Nathan used his new Chub OutKast 9ft Stalker Rod  too help himself to a 21 fish mega haul . Nathan reports ” I couldn’t catch anything on the bottom but could not stop catching off the surface, I was really impressed with my new Outkast Stalker Rod.” Nathan used floating crust as bait and his biggest carp (below) was 18lb 11oz. Nice one Nathan!

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Here’s the promised catch report from Jonathans previous blog and a nice suprise, read on.

“I arrived at the lake at about 5pm to find the sun shining on the water and a light wind blowing from the NW. I header straight for the sheltered and weedy “back bay” as I had a feeling there would be some fish present. I used a small catapult to fire out a few freebies to see whether the carp were up for it and sure enough a couple of fish began to feed. I continued to feed little and often allowing them to build up confidence on the free offerings but they didn’t really seem too bothered. I then noticed a fish feeding further to my right on some free offerings which had drifted that way so moved along the bank and put a few more free offerings over the fish this time they started to take them so I decided to cast in, casting over the free offerings and slowly dragging my controller float (one of your ESP jobs) into position.

Twice I had fish examine my hook bait (dynamite 11mm expander pellet) and disregard it so I reluctantly (big fish in weedy water) decided to drop down a hook size from a size 8 to size 10 korda wide gape. This proved to be the right decision as on the next cast my hook bait was taken with confidence and the line tightened into the 28lb 8oz common, a new PB. It put up a really good scrap and I managed to keep it out of the snags on either side by keeping on plenty of pressure. Those Shimano Ultegra XTB 5500 ’s you sold me are bloody great little reels! After the unhooking, weighing and photos I was well happy and ready to head home but decided to flick one last pouch full of freebies to see if any fish left in the bay were still up for it.

I couldn’t believe it when a fish started to take the free offerings as soon as they hit the water so I had another cast over the free offerings and slowly pulled my hook bait closer to the feeding fish. First the fish swirled at the float and then without any hesitation nobbled my hook bait and made off on a powerful run about 30 yards to my left into some heavy weed. At this point it could have gone one of two ways but the weed the fish had picked up seemed to slow it down and it came in fairly easily. I knew straight away that this fish was heavier than the last and it went 34lb on the scales, my first 30lb+ fish and a second PB in less than 20 minutes. What a result!

I had another couple during a quick overnighter on Friday. The first one at 17lb 5oz and the other 22lb 12oz using chopped  Nash Scopex Squid Plus boilies waded out and placed on clear spots in the margins.”