Step 1. Start off by choosing a skinned hooklink that is totally reliable. We chose... Step 2. Strip back 15cm of skin, so you have enough unmcoated braid to form a a hair and attach the hook. Step 3. Form a loop in the end of the stripped braid. This [...]
When Nigel Sharp started off his Spring campaign on Engy, targeting this generation’s Black Mirror – Baby Black – he was baiting and fishing an area which hadn’t been cleaned off by birdlife and tench, so fishing Chods was a better option because Engy is a fairly soft-ish bottom lake. In time, as he [...]
I had previously held the lake record at the lake, with a mirror of 54lb captured a few years earlier, though that had recently been beaten by another carp of 57lb, so I was amazed and more than happy to see the needle spin round and stop at 57lb 8oz! I had taken my lake record back again.
I’ve recently been fishing on a lovely venue and have been enjoying some amazing sport. It’s a Fenland still water with no prior recent history of big Rudd; just stories from the early 90's of large shoals and huge Rudd being seen but never captured...
With so much water, comes that inevitable natural aura and ambience that just makes the air smell 'carpy' in the Cotswolds. Well this ticket offered a similar challenge to my other new ticket, being bigger at 45 acres, but with depths more manageable (up to 10ft), areas of dense weed, islands, but with relatively well catalogued stock, understood to be in the region of 110 or so carp, with 5 or 6 carp over the magical 40lb mark.
I knew it was a double straight away, but it was only once I lifted it out that I saw just how wide and deep it was. It was easily the widest Tench I had ever seen. I couldn't believe it when the scales bounced round to 12lb 4oz. Only 3 weeks previously I’d had a fish of a lifetime with a 12lb 2oz tench, and amazingly I had broken that PB already, and from another completely different venue as well.
The fish took a good 50-60 yards of line on its first run, before hitting the surface. The battle was far from over and we spent the next 10 minutes playing tug of war, until she began to realise I was the stronger opponent...
It was a prolonged and dogged fight but I slowly drew a chunky mirror into the folds of the waiting net. I woke up another member Simon, and he in turn helped with the weighing and pictures (I retuned the same favour later that morning). The old mirror weighed a healthy post spawn weight of 35lb 14oz. I was elated to get a carp on my first trip and get the ball rolling...
There’s little doubt that rig evolution often involves drawing together aspects of rig design that work and applying new components to come up with something that is more effective than previous versions of similar rigs. That’s exactly the format of the development of the Extended Slip-D. The original Slip-D, as popularised by our friend Martin [...]
It’s always nice to peel back the cord and look at your prize, and to say I was somewhat elated to see it was one of my target fish would be an understatement, I was over the moon! As is often the case at this time of year she was a little low in weight at 39lb 10oz, but that didn’t bother me, I was just happy to have the pleasure of meeting 'The Anchor' in person.
The scaly one in the net weighed 14lb 14oz and we clicked off a few pictures. We had a quick brew and then weighed the fish from earlier in the morning. This one turned out to be bang on 28lb, and with the pictures done I set about doing a round of bacon sandwiches for us. The perfect start to any day!
We all kept working the swim and the bites kept coming, Ben then had his opportunity and after a very hairy battle where an angry carp dived from one weed bed to another, he eventually landed a beautiful dark Horseshoe mirror at a new P.B. weight of 25.08lb.
I looked into the net and shouted at Terry that I wasn’t sure what it was, but that it was a decent fish. Only when I laid it on the mat did I realise that it was indeed the Half Lin! With the scales steadied on my shiny new (rarely used) Gardner weigh bar, there was no getting away from its official weight being 39.15!
Lengthening and increasingly warm day and night time temperatures and the dawn chorus getting earlier each day can only mean one thing if you’re a specimen angler, it’s time for a spot of tench fishing!
Well that was an epic weekend! Following on from my capture of the 30lb common carp on Thursday night, I wanted to get back in ‘The Day Swim’ for the weekend as I’d seen fish showing the night before and hoped they might still be loitering around.
When Ellis turned five years old, three years ago, I started using the Easter holiday to gradually get him to enjoy the solitude and tranquillity carp fishing has to offer. During this time, it’s grown on him and it would be fair to say he is now hooked...
Kai Richards details a successful carp fishing trip, where he lands some lovely looking specimens for the cameras using a zig rig set up.
I have had this public complex of waters on my mind for a long time and this year I am definitely going to fish there more seriously, after walking around there every year for the last 20 years. A few fish had caught my eye, and for the first time a few targets got on that wish list.
By the time we reached January this year I felt ready to get out fishing again after family circumstances had meant it had been several months since I’d been out. During that time, I had kept my finger on the carping pulse, staying in contact with a few close friends, and then early in [...]
Spring is the time of the year that we carp anglers look forward to the most. Not only are the longer days and lighter evenings so much more pleasant than the long winter ones, but big fishing rewards are also there to be had as it’s when the fish are often at their easiest [...]
