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 [...]
Although my favourite kind of fishing is the search for big carp, in big, low stock pits, each year I do enter a few matches such as the BCAC and UK Carp Cup. Although my luck in the BCAC seems to be pretty poor so far, I have done a bit better in the UKCC [...]
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 [...]
The weather was looking pretty carpy as I woke up on Friday morning with overcast skies, warm winds and a very good chance of some rain. I drove to work with only one thing on my mind and that was how the weekend was going to pan out! I had arranged to finish early to [...]
Despite good intentions to fish throughout the winter, I just didn’t have the desire to put myself through the weather we just had so instead, decided to keep an eye on the lake over the cold months and see if it was worth doing a bit. Before the cold snap kicked in at the back [...]
It’s been a month since I’ve managed to get out and do any angling. I had a Hernia operation 4 weeks ago and the last thing I wanted to do is start casting out a rod or holding up a fish for the cameras. The scar is healing and it was something that had to [...]
I started a 48 hour session on Friday after school at FLE top lake. Whilst talking to the team, they said I would have a good chance in a swim known as the pipes. I got my tackle out of the van and was soon standing in the swim, it looked excellent for a bite [...]
