Carp Catchers Blog

Customer Phil Palmer upped his personal best recently with this stunning 30lb common. The common was Phils first fish of the year and caught on his first session at a new lake. Phil was fishing behind a gravel bar and his rig was tied with Sufix Sheath Skin  in 15lb to a Fox hook. A man with impeccable taste Phil tempted his new pb while wearing one of our olive hoodys. Well done Phil!

Best fishes,

John

The early period of 2009 proved to be a difficult time of year on the fishing front as I didn’t even manage to grace the banks at all due to being in the final year of my degree course, which meant a great deal of my time was taken up with studying and completing my dissertation. But luckily for me I had arranged to do my final work placement on the Cotswold Water Park at Watermark fisheries near Cirencester, this meant I would be working on the fishery during the day and fishing through the nights. I had handed in my dissertation the previous friday and was starting work at Watermark the following week, upon arrival I was told to take a walk around the smaller carp lake(Little Horseshoe) on the complex at 4.5 acres it holds around 450 carp into the 30s, to get an idea of where Id like to setup; after a walk round the pretty little lake it was off to work for the day. That evening I decided to set up in the swim between the Trout lake and Little horseshoe, this gave me the option of fishing to the island, the deep water directly in front of it and the various other features which this lake holds. The topography of the lake ranges from clear gravel areas to clay, silt and weed at a wide variety of depths, you are really spoilt for choice as to where to place your baits. The first night I choose to chuck them and chance them as the light was quickly fading and at least I could feel the leads down.

The following evening I got the marker out and found a few likely spots, one out to my right which was a big gravel area which rises from 12 feet to 11 and then up to 10 feet with an average depth of 13-14 feet all around it, the next spot was just of the edge of the island on the top of the marginal slope and the 3rd spot was out to my left towards to shallows which was a small gravel patch in the weed. During the first week I tried a range of baits and set ups to buy a bite but it wasn’t happening so after a trip to the local tackle shop for some maggots I came back with a fresh approach, the second night on the maggots produced a nice 15lb 4oz mirror. My maggot rig was tied D Rig style with Korda IQ Xtra Soft Fluorocarbon  with the maggots tied on with ESP baitfloss.After the 15lber fish I decided it was time for a move and after watching a lifeless lake for over a week I made the decision to move over to Bradleys which is a big pit at over 100 acres, with a lovely stock of old originals and stocked leney dinks there was a lot of beautiful fish to go for.

The first week on Bradleys was spent in a swim over on the far bank which produced a few good tench, a small pretty stocky and rather oddly a low double pike. I then moved over to one of the point swims on the village side of the pit for the remainder of my stay, the swim was pretty choked with weed and I stuggled to find any spots that felt worthy of a bait. So I came up with a plan, there was a reasonably firm patch of silkweed surrounded by canadian pondweed which I decided to stick two rods on although this at times turned out to be a bit of a nightmare due to the small size of the spot and the winds, which as you can imagine get very strong when taking a run up across such a big expanse of water. Over this spot I spodded around 1-2 kilo of  Dynamite Baits Frenzied Hempseed , crushed tigers, Atlantic Heat Boilies and pellet every night and a few spods in the morning before work and fished Atlantic Heat Boilies over the top which is what everyone seems to use when fishing Bradleys. I managed to picked up a couple of fish from other small spots using  Richworth Pineapple Hawaiian Pop Ups  on a withy pool and bottom baits on a line aligner the first couple of nights but then I started to see a bit of movement over the baited area, with the birds doing their job of clearing the spot while I worked during the day I finally managed a run off the spot which was another small stocked leney dink around 16lb. I managed another run that night but lost the fish, the spot then continued to produce a steady flow of fish including a few good tench to 7lb until it dried up a couple of days before my placement was over which was a bit of a relief as I was in serious need of a good nights sleep. So not a bad start to 2009 with no big’uns being landed but at least I know Im doing something right.

Tight Lines

Dave

Just a final reminder to anyone intending to fish this year that last years rod licence has now expired. Please make sure that you obtain a new rod licence for the coming season because as I have mentioned before the penaltys for getting caught without one can be severe. If you intend to fish with three or more rods you will need two licences. You can obtain your rod licence at the post office or online. Remember to keep the number that they give you safe (see previous blog on rod licence system changes).

Best fishes,

John

A quick review of some new products now. First up we have the new Shimano Alivio CX Specimen Carp Rods  if you are in market for a budget priced carp rod give these a look . The Alivio CXs have a nice understated matt black finish, quality Hardlite rings, DPS reel seats built on XT30 blanks. They are reasonably priced too, so check them out. On the bait front the new Nash Amber Attract Strawberry   Boilies look set to be an absolute winner. Previously only available to Nash consultants and fieldtesters these awesome carp catchers are now available to the rest of us. You only have to look at Jim Shelleys’ outstanding results over the atrocious winter we have just had to know how good these bad boys are. The Amber Strawberry range is bright white in colour so for an alternative hookbait when single bait fishing ,why not give the Amber Strawberry Pop Ups  a go. Thats it for now, more reviews soon.

Best fishes,

John

That man Tom Cox is definately on a roll at the moment. Fishing a popped up lamprey from our deadbait section Tom helped himself to this lovely clean 17lb pike. Well done Tom, keep them coming!

Best fishes,

John

Regular customer Scott had a nice result recently. Fishing an afternoon session at a local lake Scott had two doubles, the biggest of which was a 16lb 6oz common(shown below). Scott caught his fish using a chod rig constructed from ESP Bulk Spool Leadcore  in choddy silt and the new  ESP Curve Shanx Carp Hook  . Well done Scott!

Best fishes,

John

This rig is ideal for use in solid PVA bags when fishing them into weed but it will work in most fishing situations you may come across. Because The Reverse Combi Link Rig is tied with a supple braided hooklink it is prone to tangles if it isn’t used correctly. The components used in this demonstration were ESP T6 Raptor Carp Hooks, ESP Sink Link and ESP Ghost Fluorocarbon Hooklink. (See picture below)

Step 1.

Cut a 6 inch length of Ghost fluorocarbon and start by tying a small hair loop in one end. (See picture below)

Step 2.

Now tie your hook on with a knotless knot, setting your hair to the desired length. (See picture below)

Step 3.

Then double over the other end of the Ghost leaving a length of about an inch back to the eye of the hook. (See picture below)

Step 4.

Cut an 8 inch length of ESP Sink Link braid and pass one end through the doubled over the Ghost fluorocarbon and then whip it round the fluorocarbon towards the eye of the hook 7-8 times. (See picture below)

Step 5.

Whip the Sinklink 6-7 times back away from the hook before passing it back through the Ghost the same way that it came in. (See picture below)

Step 6.

Moisten the knot and slowly tighten it making sure it pulls together neatly to ensure the knot doesn’t slip, a little rig glue may be added to secure it further and trim the tag ends blobbing them with a lighter for an extra neat presentation. (See picture below) 

Step 7.

Finish the rig with a figure of eight knot for quick and easy rig changes. The finished rig, should look like this. (See picture below)

The Reverse Combi Link Rig can be used for both bottom baits and pop-ups. Add tungsten putty to the knot joining the two materials, to pin the bait down when using pop ups.

Tight lines

Dave

Here’s a nice photo from customer Rob of a pike he caught recently. Robs pike weighed 10lb and was caught from a small weir pool on the River Welland. Float fished mackerel from our deadbait section was the successful method for Rob.

Just a reminder that there is a national coarse fish closed season on rivers, streams, drains and on some stillwater and canal sites of specific scientific interest (SSSIs) from the 15th of March to 15th of June inclusive. So make sure you are fishing legally, as you can face a big fine and a criminal record if you are caught otherwise.

Best fishes,

John

Customer Ian Smith sent in this photo of a nice common carp caught back at the end of last October. Ian used Nash Scopex Squid Plus Freezer Boilies  to tempt his nice clean 15lb specimen. His snowman rig was tied with  ESP Striptease Hooklink . Well done Ian

Best fishes,

John