During a recent winter session, when the lake was empty and all the other anglers were at home I landed 7 fish to 25lb 2oz. All the fish were landed using snowman hookbaits presented on helicopter rigs incorportating Atomic Jel-E-Wyre Hooklinks and Korda Wide Gape Hooks. The snowman hookbaits were topped with Mainline Hi-Visual Tutti Frutti 10mm Pop-ups.
Get out there and get catching.
Tight Lines
Dave
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Here’s a nice common carp that customer Sean had recently. It weighed 22lb 6oz and succombed to Baitcraft T1 boilies. Seans rig was tied with 15lb Atomic Jel-E-Wyre to a size 8 Korda Wide Gape Hook.
Best Fishes,
John
After a period of time away from one of my syndicates a recent trip back saw me land 8 fish to 24lb including this scaly scraper 20lb mirror that I’ve now caught 3 times, but who cares when they look like this! All fish came to Atomic Jel-E-Wyre hooklinks with size 6 Korda Wide Gape Hook tied blowback style. The lead set-up consisted of Armaled Loc-jaw leadclips, ESP Original Camo Leadcore and Korda 3oz pear leads.
Tight Lines,
Dave
Fishing for short periods in the week can bring you success when the lake is quiet and all the other anglers are at home. Here is a 25lb mirror I had on a recent overnighter after baiting the swim on a regular basis for nearly 3 weeks. The fish was landed using an ESP Leadcore leader and Armaled Lead Clip with a Korda 3oz pear lead. The rig consisted of Atomic Jel-E-wyre and a size 6 Korda Wide Gape Hook tied blowback style fished with a snowman hookbait and a 2 bait stringer cast to the baited area.
Tight Lines
Dave
After deciding to change waters for the coming winter and due to busy banks I’ve had a little bit of a confidence boost. On my first weekend session from late friday evening to early monday morning I had a bit of a result in the shape of 6 mirror and common carp to 21lb15oz. After turning up in the dark at 8.30 friday evening I opted for the north bank as I had been told it was free of any other anglers. After watching the water for nearly 2 hours I decided to fish up the dam end in the the deeper water or what was left of it anyway as this is where I’d seen the carp showing the most . The reservoir serves the purpose of topping up the Grand Union canal so the water levels can get quite low at times.
During my session I banked 6 carp to 21lb 15oz from 3 different spots using Baitcraft T1 boilies over a spread of bait which included a spod mix of hemp, Solar Pure Bait BYT and crushed T1s over one of my rods. Most of the bites came during the hours of darkness which meant I had to have all my spots marked up to get them back on the spots in the darkness.
The rigs I used consisted of 15lb Korda IQ2 tied to 2 inches of stripped Sufix Stiff Silt with a size 6 Korda Wide Gape Hook, a small piece of shrink tubing over the eye and tied blowback style.
Tight Lines
Dave
(I should have turned my head torch off for the night time shots, but had forgotten while sorting the self takes. Luckily they didn’t turn out too bad.)
Regular customer Jonathan had a lovely zip linear mirror carp recently (I’m dead jealous). Here’s his catch report.
“As you know I have been fishing on the Wellingborough lakes ticket since April and I am not superstitious but my ticket is number 13! I have really struggled this year so thought the ticket must be to blame.
Arriving at the Island lake on Friday night to find a westerly wind blowing there were a few carp showing at the bottom end of the lake. I chose a swim which would allow me to walk round and place two hook baits whilst casting the third rod to showing fish.
At 2am one of the rods placed on in the far margin spot received a drop-back which I lost (hook pull) after only having the fish on for a minute so I re-cast the rod to the spot.
At 5am the rod cast to an area where I had earlier seen carp boshing, was away. This one stayed on and kited to my right, picking up one of my other lines which made netting it difficult. I went In up to my knees with trousers rolled up and it was in the net. The fish, a cracking zip linear weighed 32lb 14oz and hopefully sees a change in fortunes.
Rig consisted of a size 10 Korda wide gape hook tied to about 9” of Korda Supernatural braid on a clay Korda Safe Zone Safety Lead Clip, 2oz atomic dung bomb and 18” of ESP brown lead core.
Bait was an 18mm Mainline boilies tipped with a grain of Pop-Up Sweetcorn with about 10 freebees scattered around the hook bait and a small PVA bag of chops courtesy of a Korda Krusha .”
Nice one!!
Best Fishes,
John
After arriving at one of my lakes for a weekend session and finding it busy I made the choice to take a trip over to Welham lake. We arrived at Welham about 2am after picking up a mate from work to find it relatively empty for a weekend. We settled on a couple of swims at the bottom end of the lake away from the other anglers. The swim I choose gave me a nice margin spot, a far margin snag next to the lillies and an open water spot which had all produce for me back when I had fished there years before.
The rods did’nt go out till first light and I got my head down for a very much needed few hours sleep. After no action during the day except the usual bream I proceeded to place the rods back out on the spots for the evening with a handful of freebies over each rod. The left hand rod was waded along the margin and placed gently on top of the soft silt. The middle rod was cast to the far margin snag next to the lillies and the right hand rod was again placed on the open water spot.
The setup I was using consisted of Armaled LocJaw Safety Lead Clips and Armaled LocJaw Tail Rubbers with 3oz Korda Pear leads. A 7 inch length of Sufix Stiff Silt with 2 inchs stripped back, a Korda Wide Gape hook size 8, a small piece of silicone tubing on the shank of the hook and an extended curved shank using Korda Shrink Tubing
At around 12 pm I had a run on the middle rod resulting in a 14lb mirror and after returning the fish to the water I recast the rod and got my head down. I was woken during the night again by the middle rod but this time a small bream was the culprit. The following morning the margin rod was fizzing and bubbling away and I knew another take was on the cards. About 10 minutes later it tore off and I was in again. This time the fish felt a little better and after a very hard fight with several big lunges for the bush I was fishing upto she was mine. A modest 17.5lb common carp was quickly weighed, pictured and returned.
Later that day I lost a good fish on a zig rig after spending an hour or so observing the fish and the route they were taking through my swim. The rod had been placed a few inches under the surface along a route the majority of the carp appeared to be taking. After that I recieved no further action and packed up mid afternoon.
Although there were no big’uns , it was nice to get a bend in the rods.
Tight Lines
Dave
Rob O’Brien and friends had a major carping haul in France recently. Fishing at Etang Rendevuoz Rob and two friends amassed a hundred carp between them. Rob alone had 37 fish, the biggest being 37lb. The rigs Rob used were constructed from 6” of Sufix Kameleon with half inch stripped back, this was tied to size 4 Korda Wide Gape Hook shrink tubed and tied blow back style. The successful baits were Mainline Activ Maple-8 and Nash Scopex Squid Plus Robin Red freezer boilies fished snowman style with matching pop ups. These were fished over a bed of boilies, pellets and maise. Rob reports that the temperatures were in the 30′s and the water temperature was an incredible 26 degrees centigrade. Well done Rob sounds like you had a great holiday.
Best Fishes,
John
Yes this is a carp and one of 30lb exactly. Carp catcher and regular customer Eamonn used his favourite Mainline Cell Freezer Boilies for a four fish catch including the 30lb mirror shown. All four fish were over 20lb and were caught over a bed of bait. Eamonns’ rig featured a size 4 Korda Wide Gape Hook tied to a 24lb Drennan Carp Silk hooklink which was cast to a silty area. Well done fella keep catching.
Best fishes,
John
Customer Merv Pennel fished a weeks session on a lake in Northern France and had a fantastic 23 fish catch. Included in Mervs haul was the gorgeus brace of 50lb mirrors shown below. Merv tempted his haul over a big bed of particles, Mainline Baits Response Pellets and boilies from the Essential Baits stable. Strangely Merv had no commons until the final 12 hours when he had 6 on the trot. The rigs Merv used consisted of Korda square inline leads, a Kryston Super Mantis Dark hooklink tied to either a size 8 Korda Wide Gape or a size 6 Korda Longshank X Hook. Well done Merv good angling.
51lb Mirror Carp
52lb 2oz Mirror Carp
Best fishes,
John