Catch Reports
This year I have been targeting a large, local syndicate. I fished last year, and had some success, landing four fish up to a new PB of 49lb 8oz. This year I have been catching with a bit more regularity, the highlight so far being a new surface caught PB of 37lb 14oz. However, as [...]
As I drove along the track to the lake it was clear that autumn was upon us, and there was a distinctive chill in the air coupled with the leaves on the trees turning golden coloured, but it was also my favourite time of year for fishing, and certainly a big carp time of year. [...]
I enjoy reading the monthly articles by my Gardner and Mainline team colleagues but I've decided to do something a bit different. I decided I'm not only going to talk about fishing in my 'updater' series, I'll be talking about other things too. There are so many 'how to' type pieces out there! So, I'm [...]
Many of us have fished on a venue that has been the catalyst for a huge jump in our understanding of how carp behave and feed; and also in our own ability to catch them. For Gardner Tackle sponsored angler Ian Lewis this occurred whilst sat on the banks of a local club lake, and [...]
This blog has plenty of up and downs, which can be said of most anglers out on the bank. So, hold on here’s my helter-skelter of a ride which is my carp angling experience this month. It all started off on a good note with fishing a charity event on my local water, a few [...]
My second, and totally unexpected trip to France, came about after chatting to a Belgian angler I know called Chris Vandenhaute. He happened to mention that he had been fishing in France on a little known venue and had caught fish to a decent size. After several conversations via emails and Facebook, a date was [...]
My First ever trip to France in search of carp was way back in 1992, when along with some friends I travelled the 619-mile journey to a little known lake in the Limousin region. Between us we caught numerous fish up to a respectful 42lb, which was a very big fish at the time. This [...]
The months of September and October are a favourite time for me. The weathers cooling down and all over the country big fish are getting caught as they get their heads down for that yearly autumnal feed up. Now is the time to try and get out on the bank as much as possible and [...]
My latest trip to the ‘Little Carp Park’ coincided with the lake having quite a high level of algae which made it almost impossible to see anything even in the margins. did spy a large common in the margins and set up as close to it as I dared and after putting a bit of [...]
After a very busy month running the Elite Carp Angling Championships alongside catching tonsillitis, it was finally time to get back on the bank and catch some carp. I had been stuck in bed all through the hot weather, so as you can imagine all I wanted to do was to go fishing. On my [...]
I've never really done any solid bag fishing. It always seemed too fiddley for me, and as far as I could see would only be a tactic employed by anglers fishing in weedy conditions or areas of heavy bottom debris. In and around where I live there are few weedy waters and therefore it's a [...]
I have started fishing a new water but at the moment I don’t want to name it so I will call it ‘little car park’ as this is exactly what it reminds me of. The carp swimming in its water are of the same quality, really nice looking fish. In my new monthly blog I [...]
It was in the late eighty’s as I sat at my local tackle shop, where the owner drowned us with filthy old coffee, when I first heard of carp that have the most beautiful colours and stature of all species. An old man named Gerrit, (pronounced with a hard Dutch G) known for his swearing [...]
Once a year I go on a family holiday to the south of France and this year was no different. The first week was spent in a lovely place called ‘Albas’ on the banks of the mighty River Lot, where I set river carp and barbel as my target. My second venue was the River [...]
After a particularly tough spring on my chosen venue, I decided it was time to change venues and get the rods bent once again. Three months of very hard fishing and god knows how many bream, had taken its toll on me and sapped both my enthusiasm and drive. As we were now into June [...]
Over the years I have witnessed and to a degree experienced an element of jealousy amongst anglers when somebody has caught a fish. This is something that I personally have never really understood and in my opinion if somebody has had a “result” through quality angling then fair play to them, especially if it is [...]
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 [...]
I planned a two night trip to my new water, which had been a tricky of late. I decided to ditch the particle approach as I had blanked for six nights and try a boilie approach. I put my faith back in the hand of my favourite Dynamite Monster Tiger Nut boilies. I found a [...]
It’s a funny thing working in this trade – you would have thought we would all be out there fishing the whole time. If only! The reality is that the days are spent primarily in an office dealing with a varied and often high volume of work, and when I do get out on the [...]
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 [...]
