Long hook lengths. For as long as I can remember this has been one of my favourite means of catching carp. Now I'm not talking about zig fishing, I'm talking about actual long hook lengths for bottom bait rigs and pop up presentations. Rigs that are simply much longer than what is considered [...]
Unsurprisingly, the week after my capture of Scruffy Bob I found myself back in the same swim. I arrived at the lake at dusk and after a very quick walk around I again observed some fizzing in a sheltered area of the lake called Turtle Corner. However, lady luck wasn't on my side that [...]
It is a pretty rare occurrence for me to have a Friday off work. I arrived at the lake just after 6am, got the barrow loaded and headed on down to the lakeside knowing that I had three days fishing ahead of me. With only four other anglers on I had quite a few [...]
Wellington Country Park went through a massive change during the summer of 2014 as a consequence of a massive algae bloom that in turn killed all of the weed off. There was still the odd patch of short weed around certain parts of the lake afterwards but with the onset of winter it all [...]
Gardner Tackle consistent big fish catcher Ian Stott has been amongst the fish on his southern syndicate lake and bagged fish weighing 31lb 8oz and 21lb 6oz. After spending his first night at the lake, Ian noticed a carp show in the early hours of the morning. The fish showed further out and more to [...]
I made my Friday afternoon ritual journey down to Wellington Country Park. Once again it was a nightmare with the M25 again in gridlock and I eventually arrived at the lake almost three hours after leaving work. The barrow was soon loaded and I made the short journey to the back of a swim called [...]
Everyone melted away and I was left on my own to think about what had just happened. A few weeks earlier I had been in the same swim and caught the Chinese common. I never thought that I would surpass that in my lifetime, but I had and I was in bits. The rest of [...]
The plan was to get home, have a quick shower and pick up some boilies before making the hundred mile journey down to Wellington Country Park in Berkshire. It was whilst driving on the M4 that I got a text from a friend telling me he had a 44lb mirror in the sack and that [...]
In the past when fishing this lake, I have usually wound the rods in and given the swim a rest for a few hours with no lines in the water. The conditions looked so good that I made the decision to leave the rods out and put another fifteen spods of my mix out to [...]
I was drenched and made my way to the van to get a change of clothes, leaving the wet ones draped over the inside of the van with the engine running and the heater on full blast in an effort to dry them. Less than an hour later and the left hand rod busted off [...]
As a Ground worker/ Landscaper all my work is outside. I have been lucky over the past few weeks with the jobs I have been doing and I have managed to keep working and earn a wage, even with the inclement weather. Last week though I had to admit defeat and call it a day, [...]
