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...
This time, young Kai Richards tells the story of quite possibly the best month’s carp angling anyone could ever wish for. Prepare to be amazed! March was quite possibly my best month of angling since I can remember. It started with a 48-hour session in a swim where I had seen a fish bosh out while I was walking around the pit...
This month we catch up with Rich Adams to get the lowdown on the business end of his rods, and how he likes his rigs to be as stealthy as possible on the lakebed. How important is rig concealment for you? When it comes to rigs, I have always liked to keep things as simple as possible; if something is working I stick...
Much is written about boilie fishing and getting the best from your boilies, but don’t forget the magical particles. We go in-session with Paul Hatton to find out how he makes the most of the humble particle. I’ve been using particles in my carp fishing for years and years. I imagine that many of you have too, but have you..
This month we catch up with Rich Adams and head off on a floater fishing adventure to see if he can bag a couple on the top. It’s a lovely warm afternoon and he’s only got his surfacefishing gear to hand, so the challenge is on. It was a lovely afternoon when I arrived at my syndicate lake to fi nd a warm, light southwesterly...
Hauling machine Calum Kletta relives his autumn campaign, when he joined a new syndicate and seemed to get amongst the fish pretty quickly. If you want to read about catching chunks and lots of them, you’ll love this one. 64 Crafty Carper “This one felt like a big fish through the whole battle, and 15 minutes later, with great...
If you like to stay discreet and keep your lines away from your cautious prey, then using backleads can give you a definite edge. Lewis Read gives you the low-down on what, where, how and why. With the increase in popularity of fluorocarbon line, you could be forgiven for thinking that the days of the good old-fashioned backlead...
“All my target fish are special” He’s caught some of the most desired carp in the land. Here’s what Gardner’s Lewis Read has to say. LEWIS Read has fished many of the country’s toughest waters, including the tricky Car Park Lake, where he caught his personal best – the famous Heather the Leather at 47lb 12oz. UK Carp spoke to him...
Ricky Thomas demonstrates the effectiveness of keeping your rods active and finding the fish during a session on a large winter reservoir WINTER carp fishing is a challenge. Fish will usually be lethargic, so I find a mobile approach gives me the best shot at locating them. Durleigh Reservoir is an 80-acre venue with a good...
Calum Kletta’s take on a favourite rig means he can fish it anywhere from right under the rod-tip to extreme range. I AM not an angler that spends sleepless nights over minute changes that I could make to my rigs – I would much rather they were simple and effective. For this reason, my favourite is the snowman rig, but I do make...
“This is a rig I have a lot of faith in. Ist ’fairly simple to tie, almost tangle-free and offers superb hook holds with great anti-eject properties,” says Gardner’s Ian Lewis. I USE this rig over most substrates, and the broken colour of the Disruption coated braid blends in nicely, especially when you've got a mixture of...
Gardner Tackle’s Ricky Thomas looks at how smaller baits can catch wary specimens. WITH the modern big-fish scene now dominated by boilies, it’s not surprising to see how many anglers arrive at their chosen venue, get the throwing stick out and fire out 18mm baits. With their aerodynamic shape and different application methods, it makes...
Nick Burrage finds there’s something special brewing at this crystal-clear venue in the far south of France... MOST people book their French trips well in advance, but my trip to Iktus Lake came round rather quickly to say the least. After speaking to Robert Watts from carpfishingtrips.co.uk who takes bookings for...
Gardner Tackle’s Ricky Thomas fishes Digger Lakes in Devon for the first time and reveals the tactics he uses for a successful debut... YOUR first session on a venue is always exciting as you plan how to get that first fish in the net. There are some simple rules I always follow to give me an edge, and they certainly served me...
There's an instant cure for insect bites, sunburn and hay fever that exists only to anglers. All the unwanted by-products of a summer’s day on the bank are banished in a flash by a screaming clutch. Ian Lewis’s single rod, lying in the freshly trampled grass of a tucked-away margin spot, is shaking and bouncing as a fleeing...
Gardner-sponsored angling coach Tom Oliver discusses the role that both bright and dull hookbaits play throughout the seasons. I'm often asked why I use certain hookbait colours in particular fishing situations at different times of the year. Through experience, my decisions now come as second nature, but it was...
London to Birmingham is an hour and a half by car, 1 hour by train and 2 weeks by boat. The latter being by far the best way to travel in my opinion, it's more fun and you get to soak in the sights whilst drifting lazily along. Boats have been a part of [...]
Spring is finally here and for me that generally means one thing, it’s time to start targeting the population of canal carp that inhabit the Midlands canal network. Don’t get me wrong winter is a great time to be canal carping as a good friend of mine has been proving recently, but with pike [...]
Have you ever wondered why carp prefer to sit at a certain depth? Or even why they would be at one end of the lake or the other? Understanding what makes a carp tick takes effort. For instance, I’ve been reading the water temperatures for years now across all the seasons and a picture [...]
As winter approached I decided I would fish a reasonably small local lake which held a decent stock of carp; somewhere I could fish short 24hr or 48hr sessions whenever I could fit them in with work. This winter has been exceptionally busy at work in the Angling Direct mail order department, largely due [...]
