Carp Catchers Blog

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

We’ve had a few new products in so I will give you a quick run down. First up we have the new Wychwood Solace Carp Rods  , these look superb with a really cool matt finish, gun metal trim rings and a signature carbon weave butt grip. Couple the price with the unconditional lifetime policy and these rods are well worth a look. On the terminal tackle front we have the new  Korda Wide Gape X Hooks  which are a stepped up version of their ever popular wide gape pattern. The Wide Gape X is the ideal snag fishing hook. From Gardner Tackle we have the dual purpose Power Lifter Weigh Bar  and the Scorpion Stik  , which is just the job for getting those boilies out at distance. Finally the new  Korda Thinking Tackle Series 3  DVD is also now available featuring season three of the popular Sky TV series. For more information or to purchase please follow the above links.

Best fishes,

John

Just a quick reminder that your fishing licence expires at the end of March. Renew it early so you don’t forget, because if you get caught fishing without it you face a hefty fine and a criminal record. You need to renew your licence at your local post office or to renew online Click Here . Remember if you fish with three or more rods you will need two rod licences. I will post another reminder closer to the time.

Best fishes,

John

Congratulations to Andre Kormoniki from London on landing the world record carp. Andre used a  Greys Platinum 12ft 6” 3lb Carp Rod to land the 91lb, YES 91lb monster from Luke Moffats Le Graviers water in France last week. The leviathan is known as the scarred fish or the fish of two halves as it has a scar running round its body. The scar was caused by a rope which was tied around the fishes body to retain it, this was done many years ago before people were less concerned about carp care. The bait Andre used was the awesome Baitcraft T1 a bait with a track record for the bigger specimens. Andre used a blowback rig tied with a Kryston Super Mantis hooklink and a Korda Longshank X Hook to catch the carp of a lifetime. Not content on catching the world record Andre went on to catch ten more fish including carp of 63lb, 56lb, two at 50lb, 40lb, 37lb, 33lb, 32lb, 29lb and 27lb. Well done again Andre, Well done also to Luke Moffet for nurturing such a special water and such a colossal fish.

Best fishes,

John

I recently christened my new Century NG Rods with this beauty of a lunker weighing 28lb 6oz. The fish came from a spot that I’ve been baiting regularly with good quality boilies throughout the year. My rig consisted of GLT No Can See fluorocarbon tied D rig style to a Gardner Longshank Incizor Hook, the hookbait was a snowman and was lodged well back in the fishes mouth. When I get a bit of time I will show those of you that don’t know how to tie the D rig.

Best fishes,

John

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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This laboratory test shows the Chub OutKast Carp Rod  being tested to destruction . Wow! The test was carried out at the Hardy-Greys rod testing facility. I hope this of some help to those of you looking for new carp rods.

Best fishes

John

I had a really memorable session on the May�Day bank holiday, memorable not only�for the fishing but for the good company, stunning scenery and lovely weather.

It was my girlfriend Angelas’ idea to go, what a great idea ! We arrived at the Big Lake just after dawn and had a�cup of tea while looking out across the lake trying to decide which swim to go in. The Big Lake is approximately 75 acres so locating the carp is not easy.�Because�it is deep the water temperature is still quite low at this time of year, consequently the carp do not show very much making location even more difficult. One factor in our favour though is that the carp follow a fresh new wind and a new warm easterly wind was due next day. We saw no fish so I�studied my map of the lake�carefully paying particular attention to the swims on the windward side of the lake. I picked swim 24 as the easterly would blow directly into it. Swim 24 is also relatively shallow and I reasoned that with a warm wind and sunshine forecast�the water temperature in this area might be a few degrees warmer than the deeper water.�Another factor in my decision was that at around about this time of year the carp move into�their spawning areas which are normally in shallower water.

We set up and I cast out three pva bags to begin with as I had seen no signs of fish and didn’t want to disturb the swim too much. Angela cast her one rod out to the right about 30yrds out. Nothing much happened the first day apart from a nice barbie and a chance to chill out for the first time in ages.

On day two the wind switched to the forecast easterly so�I kept a good eye on the lake watching for signs of fish. My friend John turned up early morning and set up in the swim to my left. At 10 o’clock while having a brew with John�I saw some carp moving my way but they were a good way out, maybe 200yrds or so. I�set up�my marker rod and found a nice smooth plateau 12ft deep�with 14ft-15ft of water surrounding it at about 75yrds. I made a nice spod mix up consisting of��Swim Stim Betaine Green 3mm, hemp, sweetcorn and three kilo’s of Mainline Activ-8�boilies�and spodded it out around the plateau. I cast all three rods out onto the plateau making sure they were well spread out and at about 1.30pm I sat back to await events. I could see the carp moving closer and closer and�at 4.30pm a fish rolled over my right hand rod, 15mins later it absolutely�flew off. My Century NG �was bent right over, the carp kept going on blistering runs right out into the lake but I eventually subdued it and weighed an absolutely stunning apple slice plated Mirror at 17lbs 4oz(see photo below). The fight that this beauty put up belied it’s size and�I�just could not�believe the powerful runs it had made.�Nothing more happened that night and I eagerly awaited the next days events.

I awoke at first light and was treated to�a beautiful sunrise as I looked out over the lake for signs of fish. The wind had dropped overnight and there was just a gentle breeze blowing into my swim. The gentle breeze did not fill me with much confidence as the carp in the big lake respond best to a good strong wind. The wind was to due to pick up a bit later, so I took a gamble and sticked out another 1.5k of boilies. As I was due off that day I packed a few bits away early as I am rubbish at packing away. At lunchtime�I invited John around for a barbie and brew, we were just washing down sausages and steak with a nice cup of tea when my right hand was away. This fish felt bigger and gave me the same blistering runs as the first. I eventually landed it and on the scales it went 20lb 8oz another handsome fish as well(see photo below). John went�back to his swim and I cast the rod back out and started the long process of packing up. About half an hour later my middle rod was off the fish put up another superb fight but I prevailed�and weighed in another magnificent carp at 26lb 12oz(see photo below). As I was half through packing up I didn’t bother putting that rod out again�and started stowing the rest of my gear. Another half an hour and the middle rod was away ! what a brilliant day. This fish felt really heavy and fought just like the others, after much toing and froing a really nice two tone mirror carp�of 29lb 8oz was landed. John came round and did me proud with photos’(see photo below)�thanks John. With that the rods were packed away and I drove home in a lovely sunset a very happy man. In a future blog I’ll talk a little about the rigs I used.

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

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