My first trip in July was to Linear Fisheries Oxlease Lake, with the aim of practicing for the BYAC event. I learnt loads during my short trip to the complex and I managed to land a 20lb 4oz mirror too. With the weather being warm hot, zigs seem the way to go and the fish [...]
I’ve really been enjoying my fishing on Vinny this year, so I took half a day’s holiday on Wednesday the 16th July and got there about 3pm. With no one else fishing, I did a couple of circuits looking carefully for signs of fish activity; and in the end I decided to fish the Right [...]
Margin fishing and stalking alike has always been a big passion of mine, even from the early days in my carping carer. I would often use paste baits to outwit my quarry, only being able to fish a few yards from the bank. This was more due to the soft bait really; but with that [...]
As we arrived at the complex on Saturday morning the group that was just pulling off said there had been a couple of carp out that night, but nothing in the daytime. This was probably to do with the weather, as temperatures were hitting up to 31 degrees! My allocated pegs were 15 to 21, [...]
I arrived at the lake early on Thursday to find just two anglers already fishing. I had a quick walk around the lake and sat in the end swim on the road bank to try and see if I could spot any signs of fish activity. With the aid of my binoculars it wasn’t long [...]
Three weeks running I’ve been out on the bank! I usually only get 2 to 3 nights every few weeks so these concurrent sessions are a real rarity, and to be fair it certainly ended up being a session of firsts. Having managed to catch one part of my interim target (being a thirty pounder [...]
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 [...]
Where do I start with this piece, well if I am honest, I think the best place to start is by asking you to read (or hopefully re-read) Alan Stagg’s article entitled ‘Bream Dream’ last month, as this one runs alongside and follows on after Alan’s piece. Going back a few months, I too was [...]
Mark Casper is without doubt a hugely successful big fish angler. He has an enviable track record when it comes to big carp captures from some of the most prestigious waters in the South East of England. From low stock inland sea’s to highly pressured big fish circuit waters, he has an uncanny knack for [...]
June was set to be a busy month this year with a last minute competition in France to compete in a qualifier for the World Carp Classic kicking things off. The competition was held at The Resort De Der and was over a five day period between two fantastic lakes adjacent to each other with [...]
June has now passed and judging on my last capture from Horton’s Church lake being Split-Pec 6lb’s down in weight, it confirmed that those fish that were going to spawn have done their thing. With this in mind, and as the Church Lake has so many more fish that I’d love to catch (including my [...]
My last trip to the Kent lake coincided with the fish being totally preoccupied with natural food, and it was incredibly frustrating, as time after time they would jump and roll, but it was impossible to get a bite. I moved twice that trip, and even after these moves and getting my baits out perfectly [...]
Since my childhood days, I'd always had a burning ambition to fish the historic Horton Church Lake one day. Well the opportunity finally arose when new owners (RK Leisure) took it over... Understandably, I was full of excitement and anticipation as I set off for my first session. On arrival, and with the carp barrow [...]
This month I visited a several different venues, starting with my second ever trip to Rookley Park on the Isle of Wight. I chose to set up in the Woods swim one, an area I fished during my first session on the venue. After having a quick cast around with a bare lead, I put [...]
Around a month ago I fished the BCAC with my fishing partner Graham Mabey and doomed with a bad draw yet again we ended up finishing in 5th place and missing out on a qualifying spot. We have fished the competition for around six years now making three semi- finals and decided that we weren’t [...]
There can’t be a much more exciting way of catching a big carp (or any carp for that matter) than watching it feed close into the bank, planning your approach and then watching the moment the fish is hooked! It is an easy and effective way of fishing, but too many anglers get caught up [...]
Picture the scene: Low water levels, high light levels, barbel that have probably been hammered in the weeks leading up to my visit, a complete change of scenery, totally varied aquatic topography and a few as yet unknown technical challenges thrown in for good measure. All in all a perfect set of circumstances to charge [...]
I was planning on doing a few nights on Vinny but with the all of the warm weather the carp started spawning, so the management closed it for a couple of weeks. Instead of cancelling my holiday, I decided to book three nights on Sandhurst Lake instead (http://www.sandhurstlake.co.uk/). I turned up early on the Monday [...]
It was all change on the Church Lake upon my return with some people moving onto fish, whilst others who had done there maximum 4 nights in any one swim who were also jostling for position. With half collapsed bivvies everywhere and buckets in quite a few swims I decided to do my usual routine [...]
