Featured Articles
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 [...]
There are often situations that arise whilst carp fishing when we have to decide whether to use a pop up or a bottom bait. As with most methods there are many different theories on both the success and downside to using either or method. I know of carp anglers who use pop ups all of [...]
The helicopter rig is a tactic that has had a great effect on my fishing. I saw how effective helicopter rigs can be around six or seven years ago on my first couple of trips to Frensham Great Pond. At the time I was targeting the venues prolific tench population when in-between catching them, I [...]
Bleeeeeeeeeeeepppppp................... My Slumber was somehow unexpectedly interrupted and I glided across to my rods, seamlessly slipping on my life jacket on and lifted into the protagonist creating a washing machine by the snags. Five long strides back and I’m at the entrance to my bivvy, well clear of the fire ants nests and having compensated [...]
Having got my campaign off to the best possible start imaginable (https://gardnertackle.co.uk/2013/06/new-venue-new-challenge-by-dan-chart/), I was naturally very keen to return to Fox Pool to see if my good luck would continue... Over the month of June, I managed to sneak in a few quick overnighters, and gain some all important knowledge of the behaviour and movement [...]
Crucians are one of my favourite species to target during the spring. For me their golden scales glistening in the sun, are hard to beat. Crucians have traditionally been known as a tentative feeder, and sensitive float fishing tactics at dawn and dusk have been the accepted textbook way to target this species. I think [...]
After being fortunate enough to catch a stunning 44lb+ mirror the week before last, I was eager to get back to my syndicate lake before my ticket ran out. As you can imagine I felt I was on a roll, the trusted Hinged Stiff rig, which incorporated a lovely new material that Lewis from Gardner [...]
I had been waiting for the weather to settle down before targeting tench this year as the weather seemed to be about a month behind. A nice warm weather front moving in over the south of the country at the end of May soon got me preparing the tench gear for my first over night [...]
Over a decade ago I fished a 250 year old private estate lake off the beaten track, and during the summer it would be covered in stunning lilies and contained two small islands. Granted my angling ability and knowledge has far surpassed my former self some decade or so ago, but I did manage a [...]
At the end of May, myself along with fellow Gardner Tackle consultant Lee Wagner and head honcho Lewis Read had been asked to attend the Carp Society’s Junior Carp Camp at the prestigious Horseshoe Lake in rural Gloucestershire. Personally speaking it had been a while since I’d last helped out on one of the societies [...]
A Group of friends and I decided to have a trip to France as part of my Stag do this year, and having been to Brittany Mills twice before I knew it was a lovely venue. With two lakes to choose from I opted for Mill Lake, as it offers more of a challenge with [...]
Gardner’s marketing guru on stars of the future, time bandits, not being able to see and his fear of cows. Yes, cows… In your youthful days were you rubbing shoulders with any of the big names of the future? Doing my apprenticeship in Bushy Park there were a lot of up and coming super keen [...]
You may remember the first Manton article that I wrote after just two sessions, I was off to a flyer and managed six fish, four of which were on zigs. This tactic is definitely lethal on this water in the early spring just like it is on many waters, it’s extremely underused and a definite [...]
Finally the weather is getting better and every thing is waking up from the long cold winter. This year I’ve decided that I would be fishing together with my brother on the same venue that he had caught a few from last year. I haven’t fished with him since Horton, so it should be a [...]
I'd planned a two night trip to start on Sunday 19th May as the lake was getting a lot of attention at the weekends. Normally I had been arriving early on the Friday, only to find that by 3pm every swim on the lake was taken, which meant you were unable to move and obviously [...]
2012 saw the lakes on the Longfield complex being sold by Cemex Angling to a private investor. With renewed enthusiasm, the face lift Fox Pool undertook during the close season was a credit to the bailiffs who worked tirelessly every weekend. I knew the stock was incredible, with a large number of the carp being [...]
There's a very special little pit I have been interested in having a serious go at for some time so I did a few nights in the winter, just to get the feel of the place ready for spring. Well as you all know spring took forever to arrive this year, but when it finally [...]
After we had received a large number of requests from anglers we have added a superb new ‘Silt’ colour option to the Covert terminal range. Available now - the semi transparent grey/black colour has been developed to blend in with the dark sediment, substrates, silk weeds and silt beds (unsurprisingly) that dominate the majority of [...]
With a few days off work, I made my way to the lake as the weather was looking bang on for a bite. It was still hot when I arrived, but the weather forecast was predicting a big weather front was due to arrive the following day. After a few laps, I decided on a [...]
Tony King is an angler who needs little introduction, an established specimen angler with an enviable list of PB’s to his credit. With years of experience under his belt, he is an angler who really knows what he is talking about. Recently Tony got in touch to tell me he had been slaying the tench [...]
