I recently received an invite to fish a prolific tench venue, which although involving a 400 mile round trip, it was certainly worth putting in a few extra miles. On arriving at the lake after dark I knew I wouldn’t be fishing properly until the morning as I needed to re-spool my reels and [...]
Having taken a break from carp fishing for the best part of a year, the first rays of spring sunshine and the close season on the rivers made me think about dusting the rods off. It took a few hours to get all my stuff together, but by that time I was actually looking [...]
The day was finally here, the opening day of the new syndicate I have joined this season. I had booked a few days off of work and this allowed me 5 nights and 6 days fishing. Enough time to have a proper look around the complex and to fish a couple of different swims [...]
After some success on one of my local waters during the end of winter/early spring, I really wanted to get back to Vinny for my first session of the year. I booked a few days off of work and with it being mid-week, I hoped that I might stand a better chance of securing [...]
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 [...]
With the daylight hours rapidly increasing combined with the warmth of the sun, fish activity will be increasing on all lakes. Spring can be hit and miss for carp angling due to the weather and the time it takes the sunlight to penetrate and individual lakes to warm up. I've had some brilliant sessions [...]
I can’t believe that’s another whole month gone since my last blog! Where does the time go? Well following on from last month’s blog, in which I raised doubt that I ‘d be able to get out for a last blast and hit my 100 pike winter target, in the end I did actually [...]
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 [...]
After driving to Norfolk to meet up with my good friend Rob from Carp Fishing Trips, we were soon making the five hour journey through France. We were booked on a 74 acre lake known as Madagascar. It’s a lovely picturesque venue with islands, lily pads and shallow bars – a real carp paradise [...]
It's been a while since I have put pen to paper because I have barely fished for carp since returning from the World Carp Classic in October last year. I decided after the event to take a break from carping, something I hadn't done for a few years as I was starting to burn [...]
Three rods, three different hookbait presentations, one baited area. Which one catches the most fish – pop-up, wafter or bottom bait? Ricky Thomas investigates... MOST anglers today use three rods and quite often they opt to fish all three in a tight area, especially when looking to get the fish feeding well. With that in mind...
This was to be my fourth session of 2015 on my syndicate water. The previous three trips had proven to be fruitless with the weather and fish not playing ball! The combination of cold winds and plummeting night time temperatures, the fishing had been difficult and at time you wouldn’t have thought there was [...]
As some of you might know, I tend to do a lot of quick overnighters each week. My time is very restricted due to working a normal 9am-5pm Monday to Friday job and being restricted to twenty days holiday per year. Leaving little time to do mid-week sessions, which only leaves weekends, which are [...]
In November last year, a good friend and I decided to experiment with a heavy baiting campaign throughout the winter and into the spring of this year. Our motivations for the campaign were three fold, of course the ultimate goal was to catch some carp along the way, but we were also very interested [...]
After a miserable winter with very little in the way of fishing, I was eager to get the rods back out again as the first glimpses of spring were on the horizon. After a memorable 2014 spent on the RK Leisure complex, I decided not to renew my ticket this year and instead I [...]
Now I expect most of you, just like me, are awaiting the arrival of spring with eager anticipation! I must say, I haven’t fished a lot this winter passed, so I’m looking forward to making up for it during the coming months, but with such a hectic lifestyle these days, I’m not counting my [...]
Glass bottomed bucket. An optional extra, but one that used will become your new best friend. Literally, a window into another world which is like watching your own live action underwater TV show. Large areas of the lake bed can be examined for evidence of fish feeding, baited areas can be checked at a [...]
Young Brandon Butler is this month’s Under-21s writer, and not only has he got a great story to tell about catching lots of fish, they are also absolute stunners. I decided on a 48hr-session at Trilakes Country Park because I have been trying to get amongst the bigger residents which I have seen there. The weather was spot on...
After experiencing problems with pest species, Paul Hatton makes a few tweaks to get around the little blighters, and has come up with a Multi-Rig approach which incorporates a nifty little recoil effect. I’m a firm believer in not fixing what isn’t broken when it comes to my rigs, but now and again you find yourself in a...
We’ve all seen features about using PVA, but Paul Hatton has gone one step further. His aim is to get you more bites by letting you in on his most successful mixes which have accounted for plenty of fish over the years. The good old PVA bag – I’m sure that pretty much every carp angler uses PVA on a regular basis. A simple mesh...
