Gardner Tackle’s articles. Written by our team of highly experienced carp and specialist anglers.
Carp fishing convention dictates that it’s important to match your hookbait to the size of the hook you’re using in order to catch consistently, but MARK WOZENCROFT’S results suggest otherwise...
Line-aligners, kickers, hook extensions... those little bits of tubing have many monikers, but do they all do the same job and when’s the best time to use each type? LEWIS READ provides the answers...
KAI RICHARDS shows why you have to put your faith in zig rigs to target big carp in early spring...
Gardner Tackle’s resident tactical expert LEWIS READ looks at the principal causes of poor hookholds, and some of the simple steps you can take to avoid them...
Which types work best with certain baits and hooklinks? Gardner’s LEWIS READ explains all...
Karlos White reveals a fresh approach to fishing over low-lying weed, using a tactic that has already helped him to catch more than 10 ‘thirties’ this spring...
Carp Fishing About two decades ago I came to realise that I'd probably never fish for a record carp for so I decided to set my own targets. Over the years I've achieved such targets as the hat trick (common, mirror and leather over 40lbs). Since achieving that I've set myself targets [...]
At this time of year carp begin to leave their winter holding areas and investigate the edges of lakes. Gardner Tackle’s Ian Lewis reveals his approach for targeting these margin marauders...
Watercraft and rig camouflage are key to catching carp in spring. Lewis Read reveals his early season approach to keeping the bites coming in clear water conditions...
Tom talks about this years carp fishing, a colossal catch of an old friend, with some other lovely looking carp gracing his landing net!
Living in the carp fishing Mecca of Essex, I am fortunate enough to be slap bang in the middle of some awesome lakes and rivers. In my opinion timing is a key part in my fishing. One evening in late July during the mid-summer heat wave, I was walking my [...]
Earlier this year, around March time, I kindly got an invite from the Crown Estate Fishery Team at Windsor Great Park who run the carp syndicate on the two lakes in the Park. The Lake they wanted me to fish also just so happened to be the same lake I’ve [...]
Carp Fishing Around Christmas time I bumped into an old fishing friend, Lewis at my local gym. We had the usual catch up and eventually got onto the subject of where we’d been angling over the last few years what we’d caught etc. Lewis and his Dad Phil had spent a couple [...]
Sometimes it’s very easy to get in a flap about nothing! Take last week for instance... The Long Suffering Wife and our (utter hero) daughter went off to sun themselves in Greece leaving me to fend for myself with my big slobbery soft arsed Milk Chocolate Labrador called Kev. So [...]
After weeks and weeks of hot weather and the lake not fishing particularly well, I had a week ahead of me and I wanted to make the most of it. Quite a few fish had been caught during the previous weekend, but fortunately not many of the A team had [...]
The weather this summer has been absolutely incredible for us all! Personally, during the summer season I opted to spend time with the family, in the garden, enjoying summer holidays, eating copious BBQ’s etc. It’s been a wonderful summer. As was the case with many lakes across the country, the [...]
I’ve been playing away lately, taking the first exciting and teetering steps on the amazing (and slightly daunting) Burghfield, fishing for what could arguably be the last of the great historic fish, the Burghfield common. As usual I quickly got quite obsessed and started flitting around the amazing convoluted pit [...]
Thursday evening heralded the end of ‘time out’ on the 3 day 4 day off rule at Welly and as always (as a habitual carp addict) I was eager to get home and pop to the lake. Too eager it would seem, as I rushed in grabbed the gear and [...]
After 3 months away from angling from mid-December 2017 due to family health, any future angling laid very much in the balance of my wife and mother-in-law’s road to recovery, which at times was a bit touch and go, and a big worry. I’m glad to say my mother-in-law [...]
Hooking Arrangements Cyclic fads and the constantly changing fashions in carp rigs sometimes undermine us angler's perception of some amazingly affective ‘tried and tested’ hooking arrangements. I guess that it’s just the way we’re programmed making it absolutely natural for us super keen carpers to assume that new rigs somehow supersede the [...]
