Luke Church Articles
Overnighters to a lot of anglers, may seem like a lot of hard work - having to set up and pack down again in the morning to go to work, but if you put the effort in you certainly can be rewarded. Now I know as anglers when we get the fishing bug, we [...]
Over the past three or four years the use of zig rigs have really taken off and with more anglers being confident using them (and other anglers showing there worth) which only encourages people to use them on a more regular basis than ever before. For me fishing with zig rigs has always been [...]
A rare opportunity presented itself where I had a few days off work during the week. With the weather forecast set to be wet and windy (and with my syndicate lakes being closed) I decided I was going to go on a bit of a day ticket mission in search of some 30lb+ fish. [...]
It is that time of the year again when all of the carp fishing competitions start and as always, I’d been looking forward to the qualifying round of the BCAC (British Carp Angling Championships). After a disappointing end to our qualifier last year, when we were knocked out of the qualifying positions in the [...]
I seemed to be very unlucky with my timings throughout the winter just gone. Every time that I decided to go fishing, virtually every night on the bank I endured many frosty minus three or minus four temperature readings on the thermometer, resulting in two different lakes freezing over on me and arriving at [...]
As I have progressed through my angling career, I have learnt so much along the way, which has certainly helped me become more of a successful angler. With spring just around the corner the carp starting to wake up after another winter. To try and help you catch more this spring, I thought it [...]
During 2014 I successfully progressed through the knockout stages of the UK Carp Cup competition and secured a spot in the final in my first year of entering the event. The final would take place in October at Oxlease Lake on the Linear complex in Oxford. I made the journey for a practice the week [...]
A lot of my time and effort this year has been focused on my competition angling, practising on different venues as I progressed through to the knock-out stages, leading me up to the UK Carp Cup final where I finished 6th overall. This hasn’t allowed me to spend much time on my local water and [...]
Now all of the qualifying rounds were completed it was time for both semi finals to take place on the prolific Brasenose Lakes at Linear fisheries in Oxford. There were 14 anglers competing on Brasenose one and a further 16 competing on Brasenose two, all battling it out for a place in the final. The [...]
I had arranged to spend the week at Linear with my good friend Kevin Grout as we had our UK Carp Cup Semi Final at the end of the week on Brasenose two. It was decided that we would practice on ‘B2’ for a couple of nights then go onto St Johns for a further [...]
The UK Carp Cup has been running now for 4 years and after a long wait, this year I was able to enter for the first time allowing me to have a shot at the title. I had chosen to fish a runs water, which was Long Lake at Coking Farm, which I thought would [...]
It was time again for the biggest carp competition of the year – the British Carp Angling Championships. It was going to be slightly different this year as I would be competing with my new match partner – one of my best friends and current UK Carp Cup champion Kevin Grout. We joined forces back [...]
I had been thinking all over the Christmas period about visiting a local day ticket lake called Pocahontas in Norfolk, which has a good number of fish present to just under 30lbs. I made a phone call to the very friendly and helpful bailiff to book my girlfriend Samantha and me on for a 24 [...]
As we made the short drive to the final lake, we were in around 7th or 8th place in the standings. We knew if we could win this match and other results went our way we could still come 2nd or 3rd place overall. We started setting up with the mindset that if we won [...]
We made the short drive to our next location, which was peg one on Wild Boar. We had three hours to get set-up and ready until the next forty five hour match was underway. We spent a good ten minutes scanning the water that we had in front of us, looking for any signs of [...]
We decided to give the rods another hour or so and then recast them with fresh bags back to the spots we had been fishing. Hopefully something would show some interest throughout the day. Heron Lake was looking great and it felt like I couldn’t think of anywhere better to be fishing at the time. [...]
This year hasn’t exactly been the best in my fishing life, with very few opportunities of actually getting out on the bank in the early part of the year. However, a huge opportunity came up that in no way shape or form could I turn down. This was to compete in the first ever European [...]
Name: Luke Church Experience: Over 12 years Carp Angling Favourite Lake: St Johns – Linear Fisheries All-Time Best Bait: CC Moore Northern Specials My Number One Rig Is: Zig Rig Weirdest Thing You’ve Seen a Carp Do? Chase a duck in a small bay until the duck decided enough was enough and flew away – [...]
It was Monday morning and I woke up to go to work and looked out of the misty window to see a carpet of white, the first snow fall of the year had arrived. I got myself ready and set off for work on this very cold January morning. I am currently doing some voluntary [...]
It had been 9 months since Wayne Rees and I had won the 2010 British Carp Angling Championships, and the time had come round for us to compete in Semi Final 1 of the 2011 event at Barston Lakes near Solihull. All of the BCAC qualifying rounds were complete and the semi final line ups [...]
