First session after breaking back produces 21lb 7oz carp

Eight months after being told he’d never walk again, Ross Haselwood’s first sessions back on a local canal produced six carp to 21lb 7oz.

Having broken his back while attempting to use a canoe as a sledge, Ross was bed ridden for four months. But the keen towpath carper defied doctors to get back on the Grand Union Canal this month to land a 21lb 7oz common and five mid-doubles.
He said: “It was my first time back out on the cut since my accident. I didn’t expect to get among the carp as I thought I would have been a bit rusty but my luck paid off!”

Reflecting on his rehabilitation, Ross, who has a 31lb 4oz canal PB, said: “The doctors refused to operate as they said it was too risky, so my only option was four months’ flat-bed rest without even a pillow. These were by far the darkest four months of my life – I was told I would never walk again. All I could do was live in my head – I really missed the fishing.”

Huge hit at Linear Fisheries' Oxlease Lake

Kraig Scott has been in eye-catching form on Oxlease Lake recently and has bagged up again with a 24-fish haul.

The plasterer from Oxfordshire managed three 20s up to 27lb 4oz during his two-night weekend stay.

Kraig, who last month used bulk quantities of maggots to take 27 fish from the Linear Fisheries venue in three nights, said: “This time I caught by spodding pellet, particles and sweetcorn, and fishing fake corn, at about 40 yards on a gravel bar. The big one arrived at 2am.”

Change in tactics lands 14lb 2oz barbel

A change in tactics resulted in Stef Horak landing his first ever float caught barbel – this 14lb 2oz fish from the River Trent.

The Leicester-based 59-year-old decided to make the switch from his usual feeder approach and offered two hair-rigged casters on a size 14 hook under a 4-5AAA chubber float, and primed his swim with the 1.5 pints of hemp and caster.

He said: “I fished 5ft overdepth to slow the bait down, with a few number 10 shots down the line dragging the bottom. When you get a bite it’s like a pike float moving along before zooming under! This is the fifteenth barbel over 11lb 6oz I’ve had from the Trent this season but most have been on 4oz feeders.” 

Stef runs guided sessions on the river, for more information call: 01455 615551.

Waiting game pays off with 6lb 12oz chub

A roving approach paid dividends for Joe Royffe who landed four chub from the River Lea – this 6lb 12oz fish the highlight.

The 23-year-old targeted the popular Fishers Green stretch of the waterway and by travelling light he was able to fish a number of swims during his short evening session.
All of his fish came in the last 90 minutes of the trip and his haul also included fish of 6lb 5oz, 5lb 2oz and 4lb 7oz.

He said: “It shows that fishing one rod well is often better than using two. I find with one I can give it 100 per cent attention and it also allows me to rest each spot between each capture.”

Joe mounted a 12mm Sonubaits Elips pellet wrapped in halibut paste on a size 8 Owner hook and a 10lb combi-rig hooklink.

11lb 13oz barbel from Devon river

Devon rivers aren’t known for their big barbel so Chris Lambert was understandably thrilled to catch this 11lb 13oz specimen from a south west waterway.

The 30-year-old Exeter-based plaster was targeting a spot which he had been prebaiting for carp when he hooked in to the surprise fish on his first cast of the session.

He said: “It was hugging the bottom and felt different to most of the carp which I’d previously caught. I eventually got its head up and was stunned to see a huge barbel.
“I’ve only ever heard of one double figure barbel getting caught from the river in the past.”

Chris mounted two trimmed Mainline Aromatic Fish boilies on a size 6 Fox Arma Point SSBP hook and a 15lb Coretex hooklink.

Corn nets new personal-best bream at 12lb 8oz

Jamie Cartwright banked a new personal-best bream in the shape of this 12lb 8oz specimen.

The Northampton-based all-rounder targeted a Midlands stillwater and took the specimen alongside a common carp of 32lb 2oz.

Jamie said: “Both fish were caught on artificial corn stacks over large beds of corn, pellet, mixed particles and 10mm boilies.

“Interestingly, every fish I’ve caught from there has fallen to the corn despite having a boilie on at least one rod fished over the same baited area.”

Fat Linear on first visit to Digger Lakes

Jamie Everard’s first visit to Devon’s Digger Lakes resulted in the fish known as the Fat Linear at 32lb.

The mirror came from the Brick Point swim at Snail’s Lake shortly after Jamie had moved into the area from another peg.

He said: “I had it on a simple pop-up rig made up of Korda N-Trap and a size eight Kurv Shank hook. Bait wise, it was a 12mm Mainline Milky Toffee pop-up over about 100 or so 10mm CC Moore Live System boilies.

“It was the first time I have fished there and I also had a 13lb mirror shortly afterwards.”

Carp anglers join protests over controversial HS2

In the week a report into the HS2 rail-line said it would boost the UK economy by £15bn a year, a group of carp anglers has voiced concerns over the project.

The Carp Angling Protection Society, which was formed in October, has written to the Department for Transport seeking assurances over the proposed railway, which will link London and the north.

Chairman Dean Watts said in a letter seen by Angling Times that the proposed route would “destroy natural habitats, SSSIs, [and] historically important and famous angling lakes such as Savay, Korda and Pit 3”.

A report compiled by accountants KPMG on behalf of the project said regions outside of London would be the biggest beneficiaries of the rail link, though the economic boost would not be felt until 2037.

In a separate concern, CAPS also asked whether bridge repairs around London and the Colne Valley could affect the River Chess and lakes such as Croxley Hall.

River Avon produces surprise 14lb 6oz barbel

A previously unproductive stretch of the Warwickshire Avon produced this 14lb 6oz barbel for Adam Davies.

The Gloucestershire rod tackled an area that had failed to yield a result in recent times, but was rewarded within a couple of hours of setting up.

The 35-year-old service controller said: “We set up in the late afternoon and I got the bite at 6pm. Once I saw the fish I thought it was a good double, maybe around 12lb, but when we got it on the mate we knew it was much bigger.

“It was a surprise because that stretch has been so quiet lately.”

Adam used a Korum open-ended feeder filled with pellets and a lump of luncheon meat hair-rigged on a fluorocarbon hooklink.

Surprise 6lb 14oz chub from carp lake

A carp fishing session on a Nottinghamshire syndicate water produced this surprise 6lb 14oz chub for Chad Critchley.

The 35-year-old local rod was fishing with Vortex Baits Hydro Shrimp and Shellfish boilies, cast tight to a reed bed in the margins of the lake where he hooked what he originally thought was a grass carp: “I had no idea what I had hooked in to at first. It put up a good fight and as there are a few grassies in the lake I thought one of them could be responsible.

“There is a brook which runs close to the lake so it may have come from there” he said.

Chad was used a hinged-stiff rig with a size 10 wide gape hook and also landed five carp to 15lb.

Jester rig will put a smile on your face

Mat Woods’ Jester rig has been the rig of the moment at Staffordshire’s Baden Hall Quarry Pool. Check out this colourful presentation and why the Korum man believes it’s so effective.

Right. Forget everything you ever thought you knew about bait for a minute and think about what carp actually eat. Name some of the things they find in their natural environment. Snails, larvae, bloodworm – a veritable smorgasbord of crunchy and squishy delights.

What does everything a carp eats in its natural environment do that no man-made baits does? Think some more about what all these things have in common. It’s only one thing. Something we find very hard to replicate - movement.

Whether it’s a mussel or a caddis, all these things move around. Some swim, some crawl, some hatch and fly away. And yet we all chuck stuff in the pond that sits there, static and uninteresting. So from the carp’s perspective, things that aren’t moving are immediately going to be treated with suspicion.

It was something that really clicked with me last year at Baden Hall in Staffordshire, on the awesome Quarry Pool. The water’s usually pretty clear and you can watch their behavior quite closely. I watched fish tear the weed to pieces chasing naturals, and also watched them literally following flies as they buzzed across the surface trying to break free. While surface fishing I’ve caught plenty when I’ve been twitching the hookbait into position – carp will follow bait like a pike.

For this reason, maggots feature in my fishing for 365 days of the year. Many consider them a winter-only tactic, and on venues over-run with silverfish, I fully understand that opinion. But on venues where you can use them all year-around, I see no reason not to use them.

For me, it’s not about piling in gallons and gallons of the things. I prefer a nice bed of hemp and other particles through the summer – something to keep them revisiting the area – so I only use maggots liberally, to give the impression that the whole baited area is moving.

Most importantly, though, I use maggots on my hookbait.

The Jester Rig is a presentation that has accounted for loads of nice fish for me in recent times. I can’t take the credit for the idea, in fact I saw it in a tench fishing feature about 10 years ago, but the components have been tweaked and the combination I use now is so consistent it beggars belief.

Initially, the idea involved hiding a small match hook inside a grain of plastic corn. Attached to the hook were maggots. A dainty, but very impressive combination it was too. Even if fry stole your maggots, you were still fishing with a grain of plastic corn.
If you wanted a more buoyant presentation, offering the same thing, you used a plastic boilie, or a cork ball. They were okay, but with a larger hook there just wasn’t the buoyancy required. Something that is incredibly buoyant, however, is an Avid Carp High-Lite.

My initial explorations with the High-Lites was with the orange/yellow versions. I’d caught remarkably well on these at Weston Park and there’s definitely something about the clean lines of orange and yellow that carp home in on. With just three maggots wafting around on the top of one, it looked like a Court Jester. And so, the name was born.  Indeed, using red or white High-Lites wasn’t anywhere near as effective. It was all about the colourful combination.

I use a size 14 PR27 Preston Innovations hook to pull into the High-Lite. It’s the right size for the 10mm bait and extremely light in the wire, so there’s not much weight to it. The added bonus is the eye is large enough to accept the inner braid of Avid Carp’s Captive, making rig tying really simple.

I’ve used the same rig with Longshank hooks quite extensively, but due to there being lots more weed around this year, I’ve switched to the Avid CRV curved pattern. It’s a really aggressive pattern with a special ‘Reaction’ finish, so that it blends in to the lakebed surroundings really well.

You’ll see I prefer quite a large hook. As it’s a pop-up bait that also moves, I think the size of the hook is less important. I certainly have no qualms about using a size 4 when the situation requires it and will rarely go below a size 6 – there’s just no need.

A rig ring on the shank neatens the arrangement, as does a small piece of silicone or shrink tubing over the eye, to extend the hook and make the rig catch and grab hold more easily.

I like to balance the rig so it literally just sinks. I want the fish to take the Jester with the same amount of suction it takes to suck in three maggots, as that is what I believe the fish are expecting. What they won’t be expecting is the ridiculously sharp hook and 4oz of lead attached to it. Bang!

In the last fortnight the rig has accounted for 10 bites from Baden Hall’s Quarry Pool for me, with numerous gorgeous 20s and four double figure bream. In fact, I can’t get a bite on anything else right now. They love it.

So give it The Jester a whirl and remember – Court Jesters were employed to put a smile on people’s faces. Put this rig in your armoury and you’ll definitely have the last laugh.

Brace of thirties for Darren Belton

Darren Belton has continued his run of form on a southern stillwater with a brace of thirties which included a 31lb mirror believed to be over 40-years-old.

The Chub Academy member had taken six fish to 30lb 2oz the week before so headed back to the same swim.

He said: “I soon had a large bed of Mainline Hybrid boilies out among the weed and cast Clockwork Orange hookbaits either side of it. At 10.30 that night a stuttering take produced my first bream of the year and I hoped this wasn’t a sign of things to come. In the early hours of the morning a one toner ended up with a mid-twenty on the bank and I put out a few more Spombs of boilies before getting back in bed.”
He then had two takes in quick succession which resulted in the two biggest fish of the trip, mirrors of 35lb and 31lb.

“I’d called Rob Marsh to come and do the pics of the 35lb mirror and after slipping her back, we were sat chatting when the other rod rattled off. The fish came straight to the surface and I managed to keep it clear of the weed until it slipped over the net cord. As we peered in we both looked at each other and smiled. It was a very special fish – a prehistoric looking carp over 40-years-old and absolutely stunning,” he added.

'Stop using eels as bait'

With the traditional pike season fast approaching the National Anguilla Club has this week issued a plea for predator anglers to stop using eels as bait.

Despite laws aimed to protect the species – in England and Wales it is an offence to remove them from freshwater, estuaries or inshore waters up to a distance of six nautical miles – they are still exploited for commercial gain and eel stocks are believed to be as low as five per cent of average levels in the 1970s.

NAC General Secretary Andrea O'Sullivan said: "There has been some debate over whether anglers ceasing to use dead eels as bait will make any difference to the overall impact of commercial fishing.  However, this is about anglers standing together and raising awareness of the issue within our own community.  We are also planning other initiatives aimed at improving the conservation of the European Eel."

The call has been supported by the Pike Anglers Club of Great Britain, the Pike Anglers Alliance for Scotland and the Catfish Conservation Group who have united in issuing a recommendation to their members asking them not to use eels, particularly when there are so many sea and freshwater species which can be used without any negative impact on their overall populations.

PAC general secretary Alan Dudhill said: “It would be wrong of us to condone the use of a ‘critically endangered species’ as bait for catching pike. We have urged our members to consider the history, life-cycle and plight of the eel when deciding whether or not to use them as bait. Eels are in fact rarely used by pike anglers but where mitten crabs and signal cray fish are present they are often the bait of choice.

“The main issue here is the continued commercial netting, export and exploitation of eels by the food industry. How can this be allowed to continue even though the eel was registered by CITIES as being critically endangered a number of years ago? We should all be prepared to join forces to protect our fish and sport.”

Earlier this year the Angling Trust stated that commercial eel fishing was simply not sustainable and called for an end to the practice.

Single bait lands 16lb 8oz barbel

Match angler Allan Oram often takes a break from the commercial carp scene to pursue barbel - and with fish like this 16lb 8oz specimen it’s not hard to see why.

A stealthy approach scored for the 58-year-old Bristol-based rod who positioned a 15mm Dynamite Baits Robin Red pellet without any loose feed under an overhanging tree on the River Kennet.

The bite came within five minutes and a frantic fight followed: ““I really enjoy having a chill out session barbel fishing,” he said. “The fish put up a really good scrap but it was a bit hairy as I couldn’t get my rod up due to the trees. It would have made quite good entertainment if somebody was stood behind filming me!”

Small Plated new best at 40lb for Sonny Chander

One of the least-caught carp on the Linear Fisheries complex has graced the bank at exactly 40lb.

The Small Plated, which is an infrequent visitor to the bank, fell to Sonny Chander during a 48-hour session on St John’s at the Oxfordshire fishery.

The 35-year-old gas fitter, who had five other fish to over 20lb, said: “I couldn’t believe it. I’ve been after a new personal best for a long time. The Small Plated at 40lb – what a PB, what a fish!”

The West Midlands rod arrived to a busy lake but found a clean spot at 75 yards and introduced 6kg of spod mix made up of Sticky’s Oily Hemp, Proline Tackle trout pellets, Dynamite Baits’ sweetcorn and Mainline Cell boilies.

The Small Plated arrived at 4am and caused chaos during a 20-minute fight that wiped out Sonny’s other rods. He said: “The battle with the fish was out of this world – one to remember.”

Sonny used a blow-back rig featuring 25lb Gardner Sly Skin, a size six Fox Armo Point hook, a Solar Contour leader and a 3.5oz lead on a drop-off system. The successful hookbait was one of his own hand-rolled Planet Wafters.

After 1,200 miles, it's 15 doubles from nine rivers

A challenge to try and catch 14 double figure barbel from 14 different rivers in a fortnight has raised £2,500 for the Army Benevolent Fund.

In the end, Barbel Society members Jerry Gleeson and Paul Floyd managed 15 doubles to 12lb 10oz from nine different waterways after travelling the length and breadth of the country.

The biggest two fish fell to Jerry, who took 12lb-plus barbel from both the Soar and the Trent, with the highlight of Paul’s catches a new personal best of 11lb 9oz.

“We didn’t think we had a chance of catching as many as we did but to get 10 doubles from the first six rivers was incredible. Barbel were landed on every venue apart from the lower Severn. The best result was probably on the Arun when Dave Chambers, who had joined us for that particular leg, caught a double within an hour of starting. We covered over 1,200 miles and we didn’t get much sleep, the adrenalin kept us going!” he said.

Drop-shotting takes 32 perch to 3lb 9oz best

Dropshotting accounted for 32 specimen perch in an afternoon for Dan Sales and James Stevens.

The duo bagged two three-pounders to 3lb 9oz and reckon 90 per cent of their fish were over the 2lb barrier.

The frantic action took place in a number of swims as the pair roved a section of the River Lea in Hertfordshire.

Dan, who used a Fox Ultron rod and reel and presented a yellow forked-tail lure, said: “The action was pretty widespread. We’d catch one in one swim, a couple in another, and we just worked the river looking for likely spots.

“We know there are bigger perch there and we were hoping for one of the real giants, but a 3lb 9oz fish isn’t to be baulked at. It was a fantastic afternoon’s sport.
“There are three of us who all fish together and share information – when we find fish, we tell each other, and it was James who found these fish.”

Due to the lack of pike in the area, Dan was able to scale his tackle down and used a 6lb fluorocarbon leader, with his lure presented on a size six Drennan Wide Gape Super Specialist hook 2ft from a 7gr weight.

**DAN’S DROPSHOTTING TIPS**
Be patient: “I see lots of people dragging their rigs out of the swim too quickly. Put them on a spot and leave them there as long as you can.”
Provoke a reaction: “Sometimes it was taking us 12 casts to the same spot to get a bite. It’s as if you’re annoying them into taking the lure.”
Yellow and white lures rule: “These are the only two colours I use at the moment in the clear water.”
Find features: “We walked the river looking for likely spots and fished to snags, bridges and near moored boats. We also had a couple of fish from a weir pool.”

Shops gear up for carp fishing boom

Is carp fishing taking over the sport? That appears to be the case after reports of fishing tackle sales suggest that anglers would now rather catch a 20lb carp than 20lb of roach.

Many of the country’s biggest retailers have witnessed a definite shift in buying trends in recent years, with sales of specimen carp tackle now outnumbering match and general coarse gear in many cases.

Several reasons have been suggested for the rising popularity of ‘carping’, with marketing and celebrities high on the list.

Bristol Angling Centre estimates that a staggering 75 per cent of its customers are now carp anglers, with terminal tackle from Nash, Korda and Fox outselling everything else, revealed co-owner Callum Dicks.

“Twenty years ago it was the other way round and 75 per cent of sales here were for match products,” he told Angling Times. “But for the past six or seven years carp fishing has really taken off.  I put it down to social media being huge in carp angling. People want to fish when they want, stay overnight and take pictures of big fish. The match side is becoming more expensive and less appealing.”

Mark Wilkinson, General Manager of the Chapmans Angling chain, has also noticed a preference towards carp, especially among youngsters.

“I think half of it is due to role models such as footballers appearing in the media with big carp. The carp boys market themselves better, especially with clothing ranges which are inspired by snowboarding and surfing, not bream slime! It’s generally trendier and even if a young angler starts out with a tub of maggots, they are soon looking to buy a rod pod,” he said.

Previously location has played a big part in the type of tackle a shop sells. Angling Direct’s Waltham Cross branch lies in the Lea Valley where there are gravel pits galore, and shop manager Len Golding said its customer base has been 70 per cent carp for a long time. He cites the decline of rivers and the rise of day-ticket carp waters as making it easier for new anglers to catch a big fish.

But even in traditional strongholds of match and natural fishing, such as the North East, carping is taking hold too. Despite very few big fish venues in the area, Pete Rambo of Cleveland Angling Centre said that it is fast catching up with the coarse side of the business.

Brave swim switch gets the result - a 43lb 10oz common

James Massey made the agonising decision to move off a productive spot for his final night’s fishing but was rewarded with this 43lb 10oz common.

The Nash-backed angler banked eight 20s from a Staffordshire stillwater during a four-night session but successfully gambled on finding a bigger specimen on the other side of the lake on his final night.

He said: “I did a little bit of homework beforehand and made a few visits to the lake, and I found that there were a lot of fish showing in the north-west corner.
“On my arrival on I baited three spots each with 2kg of a mixture Monster Squid, Monster Squid Black and Monster Squid Purple boilies. I also added a couple of kilos of Soluballs, just to create a bit of instant attraction.

“This brought me 10 carp, including eight 20s, in three nights, but I felt a move was needed for the last night as some of the fish seemed to have stayed over the opposite side of the lake.

“This was a difficult decision as I was constantly catching, but I felt that if my target fish was in my original swim I would have more than likely caught it by now. So I decided to move and the gamble paid off!”

James’s rigs featured 10 inches of 20lb Nash Missing Link Silt attached to size seven Fang Twister hooks.

Four thirties fall in two nights for Warren Fenn

In the space of just two nights on a tough Kent syndicate water Warren Fenn landed four of the lakes’s ‘A-Team’.

The biggest of his haul was a fish known as Yellow Belly’s Mate which tipped the scales at 34lb 8oz and came on the second of two overnight sessions along with the White Tips mirror at 32lb and the Goggle Eyed Common at 32lb 8oz.

Just days later, on his first trip to the water since the spring, he landed a brace of fish – a 19lb common and the Strawberry Common at 32lb 12oz.

“I caught the lake’s biggest resident back in May and I didn’t want to return to the venue until she got caught again as I didn’t want to risk the chance of a recapture,” he told Angling Times. “When I got a text from a mate saying he’d had the big girl I couldn’t resist getting back down there. The weed had grown a lot since my last session but I managed to find the fish pretty quickly and located a clear spot in between two weedbeds where I could intercept them.”

This spot was baited with 2kg of Mainline Activ-8 boilies and the following morning he was able to tick another of his target fish off the list.

“The Strawberry Common is one of the best looking commons I’ve set eyes on – its colours were indescribable. When I left that morning I baited the spot with another 4kg of boilies ready for when I returned a few days later.

“The fish obviously got on the bait and my next trip turned out to be one of the best nights fishing in my whole angling career, nailing three more of the A-Team. With only one more A-Team member to go, hopefully in the next couple of weeks, she’ll slip up and finally be mine completing the full collection,” he added.

All of Warren’s fish were taken on chod rigs incorporating Korda Choddy hooks.