Gardner Tackle’s articles. Written by our team of highly experienced carp and specialist anglers.
I don’t think she even know she was hooked, so I jumped up as quick as anything and then she bolted, and my reel went into melt down. Luckily, the fight was over quickly, as she didn’t know what had happened. I got her out and took photos and weighed her; 31lb exactly and I was over the moon. One target achieved...
So following on from my last piece, in which I showed you how to produce your own custom cork-ball pop-ups, I thought this time around I should show you how I produce your own custom cork-dust wafters...
The lake held around 35 to 40 carp with 9 of them going over 30lb, so a mega stock of old carp. In fact, all the Railway carp are very old historic fish and jet black in colour, so they are very special indeed and have been fished for by some great anglers over the years...
With the rod quickly repositioned it was not long before the middle was away and lady luck was on my side, when one of the original Horseshoe linear mirrors gracefully slid over the net cord. I wanted to take advantage of the dawn feeding spell...
Peering into the net, I could see it was another nice looking scaley banger! I called my mate Charlie over to help me out with the pictures (he had just arrived after his short journey from Bolton!). As we got her on the net Charlie recognised him much quicker than I did...
The stock is around 70 carp, with the biggest hitting 40lb at the right time of year and 2 others at around 35lb. All the fish in the pond have characters, and because of the variety of strains and the dark colour of the carp all make for an excellent photo...
Around this time last year, I managed to get a ticket on a very well-known water in Essex. The lake in question is only small in size, around 4 acres, but crammed with some very good looking and very big carp. Unfortunately, I only managed to get in around 25 nights but managed to catch a few...
Following the wind is often given out as blanket advice for locating carp but there are times when it applies and others when it does not. Early summer is, most certainly, one of those periods when it does...
I had had a pickup and whilst the hooked fish was trying to make the sanctuary of the snags to my left it must have picked the line up on that rod! What a palaver, and by now I was sh*"£ing myself at the thought of losing my third fish in a row...
Looking back on my captures in recent years, they largely fall into a few different categories. There are those where I have been plain lucky, those when I have gone with the crowd and caught, some that I have really had to work hard for, and then those from which I’ve learnt different things...
So why make your own pop ups and why use cork balls as opposed to a standard pop up mix? For me personally, there is nothing better than catching a fish on something you have lovingly hand rolled yourself. It also gives you the opportunity to take your hookbaits to the next level...
As I turned it on I was met with the sight of a big mirror carp just sat upright under my feet with a tiny mask of weed over its head and a 15mm pink wafter hanging from its bottom lip, so I hastily grabbed my net, that happened to be caught in a bramble bush due to setting up on dark!
After seeing The Big Common getting caught several times form out in the main body of the lake it appeared I needed to change my approach. In fact, I can remember one of the old members saying to me “bait heavily and The Big Common will come”...
Saturday morning was quiet, until around mid-day when I had a screaming take from the 30 zone! Wiggy heard the bite and strolled round just in time to net a good common along with loads of weed. It was not until we removed the weed that I realized that the common in the net was probably the biggest in the pond...
I thought things couldn’t get any better, but how wrong was I. The very next bite came on the same rod and tactics, rattling off the next morning at 4.30am. As soon as I picked the rod up, I knew it was a good fish, as it was staying deep and just plodding about very slowly despite applying consistent pressure on the fish with the GR60...
The capture of ‘Smithy’ was almost textbook carp fishing from start to finish. I woke early, whilst it was still dark. It had been mildly moist in the night, but not nearly as wet as the night before. I made a very early coffee and sat watching the light lift from the eastern corner of the lake...
Back to the summer of 2016; I had just received the email that I had been waiting for, for a very long time. It was confirmation that I was finally being offered a ticket on the Wasing Estate’s Cranwells Lake, and with it the opportunity to fish for The Parrot...
With my net in hand, I charged out past the reeds into open water, following a very angry carp that was trying to put some distance between us. The next few minutes were spent trying to get the fish under control and within netting distance, but somehow she managed to find the only snag in the swim...
There is an assumption that carp approach a bait always come in a line, opposite the lead. It’s classic positioning in any rig diagram and it’s utter twaddle! If you have, for example, a six inch hooklink lying perfectly straight as the manuals say, a fish sucking from opposite the lead has almost no movement of the bait...
One September afternoon Andy and I were in our usual position, namely bellies to the ground and noses poking out the marginal greenery. On this occasion Andy’s small bottom bait was so close to us that, if he had held my feet, I could have picked his rig up by hand. Sitting over the top of the bait was a mirror carp, well over forty pounds and utterly exquisite...
