Carpy Catch up

I am going to have a quick look back at what I have been up to since I came back from the Inter Services Carp Champs in late September, most of my time has been spent on the club lake and I have managed to continue with a fair bit of success.

In early October I managed a trip back down to the lake for a night, although my admin after the Inter Services left a bit to be desired I still managed a mid-double in the middle of the night from a known winter swim.  It was an eventful battle though as it saw the fish kite into a marginal tree and me having to paddle out to it in my pants in the early hours of the morning, it was a bit chilly but fortunately the water barely came to the middle of my thigh.

The next visit saw me working off information that I had gleaned on my previous visit, with the conditions very similar I decided to try a new swim and fish a margin spot.  It worked with 2 fish of 25lb 9oz and a small 9lb pup.  Both of these came from the new spot so I was well happy that I had found something that I had not seen many people target.  This session was marred however, with an otter deciding to show its face in October, so that doesn’t bode well for the rest of the winter.

The next week saw me back in the same swim but this time I still had a bite but unfortunately I suffered a hook pull, I had just swapped patterns as I had an occurrence in the morning of the last trip that I thought was a fish getting away with it.  I had swapped to the super aggressive Horton rig and although I hooked the fish I could not keep it on for some reason, even though it had been on for a couple of minutes. That was the end of the action that trip even with a morning move onto some showing fish in the next swim.

To get over the loss of the fish earlier in the week I went on a day session to Waldens Farm Fishery to try and get some confidence back in some rigs, it was not easy by any stretch of the imagination but I managed to land a small carp in the end after losing a couple to hook pulls, again it was all snag fishing though so you have to expect some losses.

The following weekend it was back to the club lake to find the area that I liked to target quite busy, I went for a look and found some signs of fish in the shallows so as I was there for the night I set up I the transition between the shallows and the deeper water, my trap was tripped around midnight with a 21lb 5oz common ending up in the photo album.  Again the fish were very active on this trip but they still were not easy to trip up by any stretch of the imagination.

By now it was the first weekend of November, I had managed to get to the lake for dawn and found some fish at the same time as another member of the club, we went on a gentleman’s agreement and fished in close proximity to each other, I was in my margin swim again. At about 11am with the weather worsening I had a bit against the snags that for the first time made it into the snags, I could feel the fish kicking on the end of the line so with a bit of help I ended up wading out into the bitterly cold water to free the fish.  I found it and it popped off the snag and the hook with the lightest of touches to the hook shank, It was a mid-double and yet another Common.  The weather took a turn for the worst for the rest of the session and after about 3 in the afternoon until I left I didn’t see a single show which is rare for this lake.  It coincided with a blank remainder of the session apart from a bream, even though I moved into the swim next door where the fish had all been showing throughout the day once it was vacated.

The next couple of weekends were taken up with fishing Willow Park fishery, 24 hours practice and then a 48 hour Carp match, long boring story short, I saw a few fish, had a couple of liners but caught nothing. No fish came out during my practice and only 4 came out on the match, but the venue is really nice and the food in the café is great.

This made me go on a trip to Todber manor to try and get a bite if nothing else, on the advice of Matt and Kia I was soon set up in the middle of little Hayes putting out maggot bags. I managed one on a cast to a showing fish in the evening but they all seemed to be up to my left more, I decided that I would move in the morning only for 6 people to turn up in the morning stitching where I had fancied a move to.  In the end I tore down and moved with just rods into a quiet corner where I managed two bites landing one and losing one in a little over an hour. 

 And that brings us to December, I will start doing these Blogs monthly unless anything EPIC happens, if you want to know more, just ask away in the comments and I will answer what I can.

Until the next time tight lines.

AAF Fur and Feather, Witherington Farm

So it is that time of year again when the Christmas matches start and the first one that I was able to get on this year was the Army Fur and Feather.  The group 2 match had taken place on the same venue the week before in -7 degrees so whatever was going to happen it wasn’t going to be as bad as that.  I managed a cheeky practice on Saturday, I meant to go to Waldens to practice chucking a waggler around but got coerced into fishing on Selwood.  6 hours later and 2 swims I had 1 foul hooked carp to show for my efforts!!

Back to the day in question and there were only 22 anglers booked in, I was actually surprised to find out that we would be on Cottage, the outer and the inner with so few anglers but it isn’t my train set so that was the way it was going to be.  There were plenty of friendly faces from all over, a lot of them were surprised to see me… apparently I can only carp fish now, but banter, breakfast and tackle shop done it was time for the draw.

I managed to pull peg 51 on outer off the tree, this meant nothing to me until I got to it and even then I didn’t really know what to expect. 

I set up a long pole dobbing rig, a heavy silvers rig, a light silvers rig, a bomb and a small method feeder.  My day took a massive turn for the worst whilst setting up though as I managed to break my flask!!!  It was now going to be a long day.

I was more than ready for the all in and as it sounded I fed a small ball of groundbait and dead maggot at 11 o’clock and then a few dead maggots and expanders at 1 O’clock both at 11 meters, I would have liked to have fed the lines further apart but they have installed ropes across the snake lake to prevent the cormorants from landing, works for that but it gives the fish room to back off into.

My match started slowly and I spent 30 minutes trying to dob a carp out from the far side to no avail, then I moved onto my silvers line, again with no indications from either swim, I had been feeding 4-6 maggots every 5 minutes or so at 2+2 so at just over an hour and a quarter I dropped the heavy rig over it more in desperation than anything else.  I was gob smacked when the float didn’t settle and just kept on going, Roach number 1 in the keepnet.  It was at this time that I took stock and realised that there were carp coming from Cottage, a few on the inner and most of the people to my right were now catching decent silvers and a few carp pretty consistently.  I gave it another 15 minutes and then went to the café for a brew in disgust (and a slice of cake).

When I got back to my swim Nige in 53 was still blanking, but top match angler Chris on 49 was still putting a few fish into the net from a long line at 14m. Now I am not usually shy at copying what’s working but this time I decided to make my 11m lines work, a frustrating hour later I was plumbing up one of my rigs at 14m as I still had not had a touch on that closer lines.  This was my turning point and I was soon catching small roach almost one a bang for 4 put ins, this was still rubbish though as everyone to my right was still netting fish with annoying regularity.

I decided to fill it in and go for another brew ( well the pain killers were wearing off and I needed a stretch), on getting back to my swim after being told my Dave M himself that I am rubbish I went straight across for another couple of roach. I still could not get a bite on any of the shorter lines and I put 3 bits of bread on a bomb and started to pack my kit up…. nothing happened and the all-out was called thank goodness.

I was packed up well before the scales got to me (and loaded, if it hadn’t of been for guaranteed Christmas prizes I would have been gone) the top end all the way down to Chris all had between 12 and 25kg of fish, I had 600g and Nige managed 150g!!!!!!!!  As always a nice fair winter venue, with ample parking!!

Back at the results, Bri on peg 41 I think won it with 25kg then I think it was Dave on Cottage with 18Kg, then Ian with 17Kg etc, etc.  I hadn’t blanked hey Mike J  but again I got a reminder why I try not to fish Withy I am afraid, Great Café, Great shop, Friendly staff, brilliant layout, Crap fishing!

What would I do differently?

I should have taken a light carp rod and a buzzer and chucked a method for the day. I might have even caught something.

Tackle used:

Pole Dobbing:

Elastic: blue Colmic

Line: 0.17mm to 0.13mm

Hook: 1 T175

Float: 0.2g Drennan Carp

Pole Silvers Heavy:

Elastic: Yellow Hydro

Line: 0.15mm to 0.10mm

Hook: 18 B911 F1

Float: 0.4g AS4

Pole Dobbing:

Elastic: Number 5 slip

Line: 0.13mm to 0.10mm 0.08 later

Hook: 18 B911 F1 20 Gamma green later

Float: 0.2g AS3

Bomb:

Rod: Drennan 10ft Ultralight bomb rod

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 4lb sensor to 0.15mm

Hook: Various

Feeder: 8g ollivette

Feeder:

Rod: Drennan 10ft S7 Carp feeder

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 8lb sensor to 0.17mm

Hook: 16 QM1

Feeder: Micro pellet feeder 24g

AAF Group 2, Match 1, Dorset Stour

There were quite a few surprised faces when I rocked up with Craig at the meet for this match as I have been spending more time on hunting carp all over than actually practicing trotting a float down a river, however, it was a day out of work so I was in.

Only 28 had booked in for the first match of the season which was a surprise, I had got most of my info off of Tommy at work.  He had been regaling me with stories of double figure nets of roach taken on hemp and tares so my plan had been sorted a few days before the match.  My plan was going to be cheap and easy but more of it later, the headline, as I pointed out to everyone at the draw was that I had left my pole at home as I would not need it.

Fishing as an individual I came out of the bag at the end and had A7 to be my home for the day, not too bad but I had to drop Craig off the other side of Sturminster Newton so that was fun!!  Once I had dropped him off in a field and doubled back to my stretch this was the sight that greeted me. 

At least the walk was bearable…. just.

With the honking great tree just in front of me my plan of fishing bread under a 6m whip was quickly changed to bread on a 5m whip, any more and carbon was touching the tree so not ideal.  I also set up a tip rod to fish bread or maggot, then a waggler to cast behind the tree amongst the weed and finally my bolo rod got set up with a worm rig for fishing down the inside.

I was ready long before the all in  so had plenty of time to annoy the neighbours, then on the all-in I threw two small balls of liquidised bread into the swim at 6m and then cast the bread feeder downstream against a weedbed.  Now if the roach were active I would have expected indications in the first 10 minutes but nothing happened on the feeder so I picked up my whip and started to trot the rig through the swim.  First run through and there was a gudgeon on the end, and the second, and the third but that was the end of the action.

An hour later with no more indications on the whip, tip, wag or Bolo and I went for a walk to find out that most people were still blanking.  That told me all I needed so I went back to my swim to set up my elasticated top on my whip and then fish it as a pole as far under the tree as I could.  Once set up I bait dropped 3 worms, 20 maggots some hemp and some bread onto the line and I left the swim for another 10 minutes.  On my return I ran the rig through for a small dace first go, then I had 2 small chub from upstream of the bait and then over the next hour 2 more gudgeon and a baby dace and then that was it no more bites for the last 2 hours.  I tried every trick I had on the book for a bite but nothing came of it, not a touch.

I shouted the all out on the nose and was already packed up like a few other people,  Rocky had managed a few small dace a few swims up to my right for 300g so he was smashing the section with most people on 1 fish for 10-20g.  I weighed in 150g and this turned out to be enough for second in section behind Rocky, third was a tie for Freddy and Craig I think both on 20g!!!!!!!!  The river had fished CRAP, 2kg won the match and I think I had come in the top half with my massive weight.

Could be worst the next match could be on there…. Oh wait it is.  I will be unavailable for that one, but hopefully I should be able to do a few more this season and improve on last.  Till the next time.

What would I do differently?

Taken my pole and fished that tight and tidy under the tree with bread from the start.  That’s it.

Tackle used:

Whip:

Line: 0.15mm to 0.11mm

Hook: 18 B957

Float: 0.6 DH14

Pole (on the whip at 8m):

Elastic: blue Colmic

Line: 0.17mm to 0.15mm

Hook: 18 B957

Float: 1.5g Drennan Trio

Bolo Margin:

Rod: Matrix 6m light bolo

Reel: TDM 3012

Line: 4lb Sensor to  0.13mm

Hook: 14 B560

Float: 0.7g Frenzee

Feeder:

Rod: Drennan 11ft Ultralight feeder rod

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 4lb sensor to 0.13mm

Hook: Various

Feeder: Various

Waggler:

Rod: Drennan 14ft Acolyte

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 2.5lb Maxima to various hooklengths

Hook: various

Float: various

Bait Review: Manilla

I have been kindly asked by Keens Tackle and Guns of Bridgend, Wales to conduct a review of some of the Manilla bait range produced by Sticky baits.  Ok if I must.

Sticky baits are a bait company that if you are serious about fishing for big carp then you have probably heard of before, their Krill range is starting to become legendary in certain circles and I have been using it for the last few months with improving results.  They have been expanding their bait range this year and there was a massive buzz on social media surrounding the new bait range the ‘Manilla’.

Now if you were not aware then, Manilla is not your normal boilie flavour, it is based on a peanut protein that is exclusive to Sticky and they have mixed this with other milk proteins and bird foods to make the base.  This is then added to with the insertion of a Madagascan Vanilla flavour to make a unique all year round bait mix that fulfils all the carp’s dietary needs.

So as I have already alluded to Keens sent me a small care package to try out and now that I have used most of the items in the box I feel qualified to say what I think about them.

I am going to start with the pellet, I received the 4 and 6mm pellet to try and I was very impressed, they came out of the bag with a sweet nutty small which as you might expect had a distinct vanilla undertone.  I decided to conduct a small breakdown test with some of the 6mm pellet and found that even well after an hour they were still in pellet form with a hard centre.  I believe that they are made by covering the extruded pellet in another layer of flavour and this would seem to prolong the breakdown time.  This is I my mind a good thing, I have come from a match background where we expect pellets to be completely saturated and soft within minutes so a lot of the crunch factor is gone from the bait very quickly.  This will not be an issue with these baits, I used them as part of my pva bag mix in the recent Interservices Competition where my Partner and I went on to win our section by around 600lb in 48hrs.  It may not have been all down to the pellet but they certainly didn’t put the fish off.

Bait spray:  This is a quality little product and comes in a small spray bottle, I have been using it on my hookbaits of late and again there have been certainly no detrimental effects to my catch rate.  Again on the Interservices after the first 12 hours all my hookbaits were either getting sprayed with this or glugged as it was reducing the amount of time that we were waiting for bites.  It is also light enough that you can soak it into pop ups for prolonged periods and it has been designed not to affect the baits buoyancy.

Bait Glug:  This has been designed so that you can take a hookbait and small pva stick and dunk it straight into the bottle, my only complaint is that the neck of the bottle is not really big enough for all but sticks and bags barely bigger than a 24mm hookbait.  Other than that the actual bait product is again perfect for the job that it was designed.  It is viscous enough to stay around the bag on the cast and when a small bag was thrown in the edge it leaked off really well for a good time making a nice halo of smell around the area.

Paste:  Another attractor product and something that I had only ever pottered with in the past, it is designed to be wrapped around a hookbait to add a slow breakdown layer of attraction and this it does very well.  I was struggling for a bite over the weekend but put out a hookbait wrapped in paste with a small pva stick of active mix and it resulted in the only bite of the session a couple of hours later.  It was the only bite off the lake that night that I am aware of, again it had to be in the right place at the right time but there would have been a small amount of leakage still falling from the paste as the fish came a sniffing so it certainly didn’t put the upper double off. The only downside of this product is that straight out of the jar it will not take a very powerful cast, but wrap it in pva and it will be fine, after all we are not always chucking to the horizon.

Pop ups:  I was given a pot of the 12mm pop ups and these are fantastic small baits, they take a good amount of weight to sink them and they stay popped up for longer than I have needed them so far. I have taken to using the 12mm pop ups on chod rigs with size 5 hooks to increase the hooking potential and these sticky ones are still sat proud after 12 hours so far. Again the small of the bait is just like the feed bait and they have been given a slightly lighter colour than the standard boilies so that they look as though they have been washed out for a short period of time.

Wafters:  The wafters have also been a successful hookbait for me on the Interservices, although most of my fish were taken on micro corn I went through a period of losing fish in a snag so I upped the hookbait size to a 16mm wafter in yellow and continued to hook carp, although it was easier to land them on the more robust tackle that I was now able to get away with. They also come in the lightly washed out natural colour as well and they are really good hookbaits, easy to mount and they stay buoyant for long periods.

Hard hookers: Although I have not had a need to use these yet they certain look and smell the part, and it is almost impossible to break a hook bait in your fingers so that bodes well for when I fish somewhere with crays or if I have to try and put a single over the horizon.

Active mix: I have saved what I think is the best until last and that is the Active Mix, I am a big fan of using pva sticks that are full of flavour to try and protect the hook point on the cast and this stuff is certainly full of flavour.  It is also very fine so I have found that mixing it with some liquidised boilies makes for an awesome stick mix.  It is full of high leakage attractors so when coupled with a few pellets and some crushed boilie makes a small bag with a lot of punch.  This is my favourite product out of the lot as I would also use it in spod mixes both for fishing on the deck and up in the water and also as a base for a PVA bag mix as well.

So that concludes my review, in short the bait is not your normal boilie and it has certainly not stopped me from catching wherever I have been of late. I am always reluctant to say that it is because of the bait that I have caught as I still believe that location and timing are far more important, but, having said that I am still very impressed with the range as a whole. 

I would like to say thankyou to Keens Tackle and Guns for the opportunity to try the bait out as I would have probably waited for a bit longer to try it, but is certainly going to be getting added to my arsenal especially once the water starts to get a bit cooler in a few weeks.

Keens Tackle and Guns

117 Bridgend Rd, Aberkenfig, Bridgend CF32 9AP

01656 722448

http://www.keenstackleandguns.co.uk/

http://stickybaits.com/manilla/

Inter Services Carp Angling Championship 2016

Courtesy of my match fishing background and my results throughout the year in the Army Carp fishing league I was lucky enough to get selected to represent the Army in the Inter Services Carp Angling Championships earlier this week.  The story however starts a few weeks ago as I have been out on a few secret practice sessions that I shall tell you about now:

My first Practice saw me getting onto the lake on a cold and wet Saturday, I set up on Permanent peg 59 and decided to fish the method in a variety of places around the swim.  I started in a small cut out in a tree on the far bank, moving onto a baited area about halfway across to my left and I finished down my right hand margin, all produced fish and the biggest was about 8lb.  My total of 10 fish was well down on what people were expecting but I felt as though I had extracted the best from the swim on the day as a match going on to my left all the anglers were struggling as well.

 





















My second practice was with the rest of the team and this time Paul was with me, we both set up in Peg 71 as we felt that it would give us a good idea as to how our zone would fish, we had been given the river mouth end of the lake to target.  It turned out to be harder than the time before and I managed about 8 fish most of which came in the last hour or so, I also had to fish tight into some snags on the far bank to get bites during the day so that was not ideal. 
Here are the two biggest both well into double figures:

The team plan had been formed and it was now the time to prepare, as you can see we all took alot of time to prepare and each angler had around 200-300 small pva bags of pellet ready tied and also 20-30 hook lengths all ready to go.  The plan was to fish small bags, small hooks and longish mono hook lengths to try and overcome the silt.

The big day was soon upon us and a slight twist saw the draw format being the team drawn first could pick their peg choice for all three sections, Tim was lucky enough to be called up first and we had swim C in all four sections.  For Paul and I we were well happy as we were sat on an absolute flyer in that we sat in pegs 72 and 73 and had about and acre of lake in front of us and a reedy bay to our right which was fed by the river.

I was sat in peg 72 so I had a huge snag tree on the far bank which was going to be my banker but to start I fished away from it to see if I could bag a couple of early fish. 

The answer was no and after a couple of fruitless hours I was soon putting a rod over tight to the trees, and that was the turning point of my match, by the end of the first day I had around a hundred pounds of Carp in the net and Simmo had managed a few from the end peg as well so we were smashing up our section before we had even started.  I managed a fish of 16lb just on dusk but simmo had a peach at over 21lb a couple of hours later.

And so it continued, we had a quiet spell between midnight and 3 AM where nothing happened but then in just over 5 hours I managed 12 fish for 101lb, Simmo managed to land a couple but he was suffering badly with lost fish in his snag pit of a swim.  After breakfast however, fortunes swapped and it was my turn to start loosing fish from under the far bank tree, and I lost alot of fish that day.  It ended up that I beefed up my hooklength from 0.24mm powerline (about 11lb) to 15lb mainline in an attempt to stop myself from getting cut off on the snags and it worked to be fair as I hardly lost a fish from under the tree after the change.

I decided at about midnight that I would try to have a bit of sleep for the first time since before the start of the match, however, the carp had other ideas as I managed to have 3 from swims that I thought I would not get a run off, oh well, I could sleep when I got home.

That night it was another 10 carp this time for a weight of 77lb and I had to get the angler in the next peg to witness my fish as I was running out of room again in my nets.

This was the last morning and I had a slow finish really with only 3 bites and 3 fish to show for the last 3 hours but it had been fun up until the packing up tired bit.. Sorry Paul and Josh :-)

We had managed to amass around 650lb of fish between the two of us, I think I had 409lb ( well it rings a bell) but by this time I was too tired to care, the Navy had managed just over a ton and the RAF limped in with tales of lost fish, well there was a big snag in their peg we had warned then about, with just less than a ton.

We  as a team met back up at the car park and as the results started to filter back to us we realised that we had actually managed to win the match, Dave and Jimmy had top weight, Paul and I were 3rd and Paul also bagged the biggest fish with his 21lber.

Next year it is off to B2 so I shall have to make sure that I get selected again to try and help retain the title.

Well in all the team and many thanks to the runners and everyone who wished us luck and helped with tactics before the big day.

What would I do different?

I should have realised earlier that I needed to beef up my hook lengths especially after loosing a couple of fish but it is easy when you are not trying to bag up to say that.

Tackle used:

Far bank:

Rods: 13ft 3.5lb tc Free spirit CTX

Reels: Shimano 14000 Ultegra XTC

Line: 15lb ESP Syncro loaded

Short line:

Rods: 10ft 2.75lb TC Dwarf

Reels: Daiwa 4012 TDM

Line: 12lb ESP Syncro loaded

Inter Corps Carp angling Championship 2016, Wraysbury 1

After managing to come second in the Inter Corps Championships at Walthamstow earlier in the year and also by finishing in the top 10 of the Army UK, I was called up to represent the Royal Signals in the Inter Corps Carp Championships at the Wraysbury 1 complex. The team consisted of myself, the Pauls again, Chris, Deano and Nick, and lucky Chris was going to be my partner for the three days.

We had been given the South lake to fish and the truth about this lake is that although it is stuffed to the rafters with double figure carp and a few surprises, due to the size and shape not everyone would have a chance on the fish.  We needed to come out early in the draw, but as is so often the case that didn’t happen as we were last but one pair out of the hat.

This gave us a choice of two swims, the first was peg 5, in a bay that very few fish had been seen in and I had not heard of a fish coming out of and the second was peg 7, also known as the party swim and was the entry into a bay from a narrow section behind some islands.

So we decided on peg 7 especially as we had seen a few fish bubbling in that area in the morning.  We got loaded up onto the Kubota and got chauffeured to our swim to have a nice surprise as we turned up…. The fish were still bubbling.  Not wanting to spook them we tricked a small amount of loose boilies into the area straight away and then went about digging pods in and setting up rods and camp, it took a while but we were ready to get a couple of rods in each at the all-in.

What happen next was text book as we had just settled in and started to put up the bivvys when Chris’s left hand rod went into meltdown, it was a fraught fight but we soon had a low double in the net. High fives all round, we were straight on the phone to Tim to ensure that Chris got the accolade of first fish.  We secured the fish in a retainer whilst we were waiting on the scales and no sooner as the fish was comfy that my right hand rod fishing LOCKED up against some snags needed urgent attention. Again it was a bit nip and tuck through the trees and snags but Chris soon scooped another dark scaley one into the bottom of the net. We were well happy at this point as you might well guess.

Chris’s fish was just shy of 12lb and mine was 17 and a bit so it was a cracking start, both were taken on chods, anyway we soon had our rods back onto the spots and an air of normality fell so that we could get the camp set up until about 3 o’clock in the afternoon when my snag rod wanted my attention again.  Unfortunately I lost this fish due to a branch that I had pulled out with the previous fish becoming a pivot point on my line and preventing me from getting the right angle to turn the fish from the snags.

This set the president unfortunately with me having a dropped take in the early evening, and Chris loosing 2 carp to the snags in the early hours.  That was it for our action, we even got desperate on the last morning as all we needed was 1 more fish to get the team into third place overall as both of the other pairs had managed to catch of the other lakes. PVA Bags, choddies, bottom baits and even the naked carp dance were all tried in the vain hope of a bite, we even ended up with all 4 rods trying to catch a bubbler that was cruising around the swim.

Alas it was not enough though and it was all too little too late.  We as a team ended up 4^th out of 10 teams so it was not all bad, all three pairs had caught fish and we were unlikely to catch the RAC who were the overall winners as they had two section wins and a section second. Ant and Mark both bagged originals as well to top it off for them.  I am looking forward to next year’s festival already and I have managed to get selected to compete in the Carp Inter Services so watch out for that one.  Finally thankyou Tim and Briggers for organising a brilliant event, and thankyou to all the staff at RK leisure for looking after us for the week, the facilities are second to none and the fishing isn’t too shabby either. I will be back.

What would I have done differently?

Looking at the swim my Back channel was good for a couple of early bites but I think the left hand rod should have been fished in front of Chris for the duration, however, hindsight is the best angler I know.

Tackle used:

Rods: 13ft 3.5lb tc Free spirit CTX

Reels: Shimano 14000 Ultegra XTC

Line: 16lb Fox TransKaki Flouro

Army Carp fishing Final

I was lucky enough to have been selected to represent the UK Army Carpers in the Army team finals and for this it meant a trip down to the Iconic Wraysbury 1 complex near Heathrow. 

 I had been selected for the A team which consisted of myself, the Pauls, Ant, John and my partner Gav.

We all arrived on the Monday and managed to get a few laps of the North lake under our belt as this was going to be the venue for the next couple of days. Between us Gav and I had spotted several areas where there were numbers of fish and I really fancied and open water peg or an island chuck for the best chance of a couple of bites, so when we finally came out of the draw bag we decided, well I decided on peg 13.

The swim gave us a couple of islands and a bit of open water on the left hand side and on the right there was a large bay and open water area. Gav took the left and the island, I had the right and the bay, I was more than happy with this though as the night before I had been watching fish head and shoulder all night in the area and they were still there in morning.  Rupert the head bailiff was around soon after we got to the swim and gave us a few spots to try and I Gav was fishing tight to the island whilst I had a hole in the weed at 15 wraps and a gravel spot in the margin at 21 wraps down to the right.

We put a bit of bait in on the spots and settled in, unfortunately for 46 hours that was all we could do as apart from a few liners there was no action on any of our rods, we tried all over the swim with a variety of tactics and come the last morning I was fishing a PVA bag over the spodded open water spot with 2 grains of fake corn on the hair. Low and behold I had a bite and as I lifted into the rod there was weight for a split second and then nothing as the 3 oz lead and size 5 ESP Gripper failed to make good contact to the fish.

  We were gutted, as you can see from the photo, the lead had discharged and there was nothing wrong with the rig so I have no idea how it got away with it!!

Gp 9 manged to win both top pair and the group match and one of the lads managed to catch one of the originals at well over 35lb!!

What would I have done differently?

I think I became preoccupied with the gravel spot to my right and perhaps a more area based attack would have been better. But hopefully there will be next year.

Tackle used:

Rods: 13ft 3.5lb tc Free spirit CTX

Reels: Shimano 14000 Ultegra XTC

Line: 15lb ESP Syncro loaded 16lb Fox TransKaki Flouro

September catch up

Well it has been over a month since my last post and I thought it was only right if I caught up a bit with what has been going on and it has been a good month.

On the back of the Larford match I went straight back down to my local club lake hunting a few special carp, there had been an unfortunate fish kill over the close season, but I was hoping that there would still be a few fish left to target.  I was right and on my first walk around I could see numbers of bug fat carp moving all around the lake.  I set up in a swim that had a number of fish moving within it, in one spot I counted three fish feeding with another 3 fish cruising around them so that had to have a rod put on it, unfortunately I managed to spook the fish with a clumsy cast and they didn’t reappear.  I fed a spot on a clean bottom and the second spot where I had spooked the carp but no fish were forthcoming, I even witnessed fish spooking off my rigs more than once so something needed to change. 

Although this first session ended in a blank I had learnt a lot and I knew what I needed before my return to the lake in a weeks’ time.

Roll it on a week and after a walk around the lake, I found numbers of fish in the same area as the week before so it was an easy swim choice, this time to make my bait last longer I had decided to feed just one area and I did this as soon as I moved in with 10 spombs of hemp, corn and small boilie.

I had also changed to a fluorocarbon mainline that I was fishing naked style to a lead clip, both rods on the spot it took 40 minutes for my left hand rod to ramp off and I soon had my first carp of this seasons campaign in the net, at just over 17lb I was well happy.

Unfortunately that was the end to the action on that trip after an hour as I struggled to get the fish to go back onto the spot.  I did however, suffer from line bites all night on both rods and after a quick plumb around in the morning I don’t think that I was feeding away from the weed but in it and the liners were from fish feeding or moving through the weed.  I was not a blank but I felt as though I should have had more so the following week I was back for revenge.

This time I moved swim due to there being a meteor storm that would be seen in the north so I set up on the far bank to where I had caught the week before, due to the area that I fancied being stitched I settled for a swim in  the deeper water and went about finding a spot to put the rods on.

About an hour after feeding the swim I had my first bite and a large bream was the first to fall to the trap in broad daylight, this was not a good sign but one of the other guys on the lake took pity on me and told me about a good spot in the swim. Never being one to look a gift horse in the mouth I put a rod onto the new spot for the night with just a small stick on it and went to sleep under the shooting stars wishing for a chunk.

At 4am I felt as though something should have happened and since I was awake I decided to recast the left hand rod with a fresh rig and bag on, twenty minutes later I was landing a bream.  I put the rod back out and fifteen minutes later I was weighing this:

At over 20lb I was well happy but after this again no further Carp were forthcoming although a few bream did have a bit of a feeding spell on the shorter line.

I had discovered that I did not need tons of bait to catch since I had changed my boilie flavour so I had another string to my bow for the next week.

Which brings me to this entry, a week later after walking around the lake again I found some fish up the shallow end again and set up on them, I had hoped to fish in a reedy swim but there was a big snag so to save the worry I moved back into the open water.  This time I spent a bit longer plumbing up to ensure that I was nowhere near the weed and put two small pva bags on top of a gravel hump just beyond where I had caught 2 weeks before.  It was a good plan as again within an hour or so this was sat in the landing net at 16lb:

After that the carp seemed to move away from the area in which I had caught the fish so I set another trap on a gravel spot off to my right, again it didn’t take too long and soon fish number 2 was sat on the unhooking mat.

It weighed in at just over 20lb but its mouth was a mess and I was surprised that I had managed to hook it at all, it was an old injury probably from the days of bent hooks but fortunately it was not stopping the fish from feeding and it was proving the effectiveness of my rigs.

Unfortunately the weather changed that night and I should really have moved to stay on the fish as I only saw one other fish in my swim for the remainder of that stay, but who cares when you had managed two eh?

So to present day and I have not been out this weekend as I am up to something special this week, but more of that when I get back, my Vlogs can be found on my Youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCACf5q4fXGAZA5wI_P5Wn8w

I hope that you enjoy them.

What would I have done differently?

I need to become more active and be ready to move onto the fish when there is scope, and lighten up my gear!!  I am also going to go back to using my lighter rods as there is no need for the brutes on the lake.

Tackle used:

Rods: 13ft 3.5lb tc Free spirit CTX

Reels: Shimano 14000 Ultegra XTC

Line: 15lb ESP Syncro loaded changed to 16lb Fox Trans Khaki

Emergency ServicesNational,Larford

I had once again been selected to represent Fosters Team Army in what we know as the Emergency Services National, the team was myself,Gaz, Gaz, Jase and Colin with Boris chasing up after us.  We all met up nice and early and had far too much time to chat about all things fishing and after asmalldelay waiting for breakfast the draw was in full flow.

Iwas going to be sat on Speci Lake peg 32 for the day and as it tuerned out I was the end peg on the Burr bank, always nice to find out after I have walked from the main car park with my kit. AsI turned up there were loads of fish showing at about 50 yards so that would be my main line, I also decided to feed a pellet waggler line, down the edge to my right as there was noone in that dirdction and also a short line.

I was ready for the all in even after a pellet disaster, the 2mms didn't like water, and this cost me 20 minutes and £7 to rectify for sorting 4 pints of pellets.  The cure was to soak the 4mm for 1 minute, drain and then add the 2mm's dry, this made a very nice method mix.
I fed the shortline with a pot of hemp, meat and corn and then sent the methodout to an easy distance and put the line in the clip, I was only going to wait a few minutes for each chuck fot the first hour of the match.  Twenty minutes in and the tip went round with an angry carp on, by keeping the riod low I was soon netting it and sending my pre preppared feeder back out to the spot.  I picked up my catty to feed the waggler line and the tip was around again!! Carp number 2 in the net within 4 minutes was not too shabby and when the third came in just as quickly I thought that I was in for a bumper day, but as quickly as they had turned up they were gone again.  I had a brief look on the waggler and was rewarded with a carp on my deeper rig, but a dfistinct lack of any more indications and with the rain coming in it just didn'tfeel right so it was back out on the method.
 At about the 2 and a half hour mark I had another run of three carp from the method line and I am sure that by using the X-Safe feeder and getting the rig back into the water as quickly as possible was the reason for my landing three carp as others were landing the odd one.  I am pretty sure that a big group of carp were just moving uip and down the lake in front of us as people were catching in turn.
With 2 hours left I started to concentrate on the short line and the margins, this resulted in a couple of small skimmers and 2 smaller carp from the short line and one landed and two lost from down the edge, ithad been quite cold compared to recent times so that may have explaned the lack of fish down my right hand edge.
The all-out was soon upon us though and it was actually a relief, I had managed my target of ten carp and thought that they would weigh around 100lb, or so I was hoping.  I was the first in the section  to be weighed and my 3 nets came to a to total of 84lb 10oz, so my small carp were considerably smaller than I had originally thought.  I got my gear into the van just as another rain shower hit and went back along the lake to help witht he weighing in... as it turned out my weight had been enough to win the 16 peg section so in my mind it was job done, I also think it was the top weight on the lake and I had heard that the top weight off Arena was only arund 30lb so the venue had fished hard all around.
We had a burger and chips waiting for all of us in the clubhouse after the match so that we could compare our woes, and at the results it transpired that the team had done enough for 4th or 5th but it was enough for first in the money so that was a nice surprise.
Thanks to the team running it, as again it was a well run event and thankyou to the friendly stahh at Larford for another warm welcome.

What would I have done differently:

I do not think that Paste down the edge was right so I should have fished paste short, than meat and corn down the edge.  Maybe spend less time thrashing the water to a foam on  the pellet wag and I should have dropped the feeder onto the loose fed line.

Tackle used:

Pole short:

Elastic: Green Colmic hollow

Line: 0.19mm to 0.17mm

Hook: 2 T175

Float: 0.6g Drennan Carp 4

Pole dobbing:

Elastic: blue Colmic

Line: 0.19mm to 0.15mm

Hook: 18 Guru Pellet wag with baitstop

Float: 0.4g Crystal dibber

Pole Margin:

Elastic: 17H yellow

Line: 0.19mm to 0.17mm

Hook: 5 T175

Float: KC Carpa Margin 4X10

Method:

Rod: Drennan 11.5ft medium feeder rod

Reel: Daiwa TDM 4012

Line: 8lb sensor to 0.19mm

Hook: 14 QM1

Feeder: 24g large guru method feeder

Pellet Waggler deep:

Rod: Drennan 12ft Acolyte Carp waggler

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 4lb sensor to 0.19mm

Hook: 16 Guru Pellet wag

Float: 6g Preston thin pellet wag

Pellet Waggler shallow:

Rod: Drennan 11ft Team Daiwa pellet waggler

Reel: Daiwa TDM 3012

Line: 4lb sensor to 0.19mm

Hook: 16 Guru Pellet wag

Float: 3.5g unloaded drennan crystal pellet wag