From Spring 2010

The latter part of 2009 was a particularly difficult time for me personally and I would like to take this opportunity of thanking all my friends, family and customers alike for their help and support following the passing of my father. There were times when I never thought I was going to make it through, but your wise words of wisdom and encouragement have helped me more than you will ever know.

It was almost six months before I could even bring myself to look at my gear, but I was told by more than a few that I would eventually find the path back to fishing, and they were right. The last few days of the season at Frampton were beckoning and I just wanted to be there under the stars and waking up to the sound of birds singing. Anyone who lives and breathes carp fishing will completely understand that. Catching a carp was secondary, it really didn’t matter, I just wanted to be there, “doing it!”, as my old mate Jon Mac would often say.

I then spotted a carp! Then another! Then another! All of a sudden, and for the first time in ages, I could feel the enthusiasm flooding back into my veins and with the arrival of a new southerly wind and a massive fly hatch, I was presented with an opportunity far too good to miss!

The fish were moving very close to the shallow margins, so a length of camo netting was quickly installed to screen any bank side movements. My trusty B5 corker pop-ups were tied on in eager anticipation and a few loose scatterings of freebies were presented amongst the patchy weed. The situation didn’t warrant lots of bait due to the fact that they were on the hatches, but presentation was key, therefore feeling the lead down for that satisfying ‘donk’ was all important.

The rest is history as they say, and I managed to extract five magnificent carp from their weedy home over the next 48-hours, including a couple of stunning thirties. At long last, I was now well and truly back in the zone!

Work and family commitments soon took over though and the close season work parties at my Springwood fishery meant that apart from a few day sessions on a Devon estate lake, I didn’t get the chance to concentrate on my fishing for another six weeks, but I couldn’t wait for the arrival of June 16th and a spot of river fishing. The new bait development has been picking up pace and after a few final tweaks, myself and Lee were confident that everything about it was absolutely spot

on - we weren’t wrong!

The new bait was hot (now there’s a clue!) but it had a lot to live up to because the B5 had done so remarkably well on the river during the past 2-years, including a hat-trick of thirties, which was a fantastic result for the river. Based on our usual high food value philosophy, the new bait was introduced regularly for 3-weeks leading up to the season and it soon became obvious that they wanted more and it was very pleasing to see that the bait was holding them in our chosen spots ready for ‘the off’ – perfect!

Most of the carp were feeding very close to the edge amongst the soft marginal blanket weed where the bream were spawning and it soon became apparent that they were mopping up the eggs, as well as foraging on the big black water snails that colonise here. The bait was a nice free snack, but a nutritious one at that!

Now I don’t want to go into too much detail here because I’m compiling lots of fresh material for my follow up book to Carp Life due out next year, but the season has got off to an absolute flyer with a very consistent amount of action together with some fantastic river carp, including a number of big commons, mirrors and leathers.

Incidentally, I’ve been using the new Covert range of terminal tackle from Gardner, including their new Mugga hooks and the hook holds have been quite amazing. I’ve also had a few calls from anglers enquiring what reels those ‘small silver things’ are in my shots! Well they’re the Caldia 4000 reels from Daiwa and are simply brilliant for short to medium range work. I’ve been and ‘old school’ user of Cardinal 55’s since the 70’s but I’ve now finally found a reel that supersedes them in every department!

Just a quick update. I’ve been getting a few enquiries about some of the products I use above (hooks; reels etc). I’ve decided to list a few links that will take you to some of the products I endorse so that more information can be viewed.

I wish to make it clear that I’m not financially sponsored by anyone and have no desire to go down this road. I’ve had numerous offers for financial sponsorship over the years but this does not interest me at all. I want to be free to use whatever products I want simply because I think they’re the best available for my fishing and not because I’m being paid to say so! You might be surprised at the number of paid consultants I know who would never use any of the products from the company who sponsors them!!

So here we go…. Banksticks, buzzer bars, indicators, landing net, stalking rods, etc all have to be carbon for me. Lightweight and strong coupled with a workmanship streets ahead of anyone else. Contact www.dymagtackle.co.uk

Rods and reels: It has to be Daiwa for me. An exceptionally professional company who produce the right tools to do the right work. The Caldia’s 400’s coupled with their Linear rods are perfect for everything up to approx 100-yards. Beyond that it has to be Magnum Infinities coupled with Basiair’s. I also use quite a few other items of tackle from Daiwa. See more at www.daiwasports.co.uk

For terminal tackle such as hooks, beads, swivels, hooklinks, etc etc I have found Gardner Tackle to be ahead of the rest of the pack when it comes to attention to detail and reliability. They also do lots of other interesting bits and pieces that I find myself using. Contact www.gardnertackle.oc.uk

Bivvies and items of luggage, holdalls etc. We used to make bivvies here at Essential many years ago so I know what to look for when it comes to quality. I therefore use Aqua for their excellent range of products Contact www.aquaproducts.co.uk

Well it’s been a fairly eventful few weeks with my own fishing and basically life in general. Furthermore Lee has finally found his ‘fishing head’ and has been out there in the thick of it with some awesome fish, but more of that later.

I finally got around to fishing my new Berkshire syndicate water two weeks ago and what a place it is! A bit of a trip for me but the fish it holds makes it well worth the effort and I must say the fellow syndicate members are a great bunch of lads, and include a number of old friends I haven’t seen for a while.

I arrived late at night on my first trip and after sleeping in the car park I was on the lake for first light and soon found a few fish bubbling and rolling in a small bay. I was soon visited by Jim Shelley who was fishing opposite but had reeled in for a look around. We chatted for several hours about all things carpy and many things not.

Although myself and Jim have had a few brief encounters over the years (not all of them good ones I might add!) I think Jim would be the first to admit that he’s a changed man these days and I must say I found his energy and enthusiasm for fishing extraordinary and his zest for life highly enlightening. This was particularly humbling considering the pressure he is under from the result of his wife being very ill at the moment. Jim is a very misunderstood person at times but I have a great deal of respect for him and he is far more intelligent than people give him credit for. I wish you and your wife all the best Jim and sincerely hope everything works out fine for you both.

Back to the fishing the carp were cruising around in the upper layers and although I wish I could say I used my usual method of a B5 baited trap, it was a zig rigged piece of yellow foam that was responsible for my first carp from the lake – and what an absolute cracker it was – a stunning 30lb 4oz linear! I would also like to thank ‘little Dave’ who came bombing around the lake to help me net the fish after he could see the weed clogging up my rings – top man!

A move of swims resulted in a lost fish followed by a gorgeous little fully scaled stockie and would you believe it, two more lost fish (hook pulls in weed) concluded the action from that bitter sweet first session. Hopefully my bad luck is now behind me but to have five bites on my first trip to such a difficult venue was extremely encouraging. My next session resulted in one bite and one fish, a lovely 19lb 14oz linear (these linear’s seem to like me!) so I’m off to a flyer on this lake but my feet are firmly on the ground with this one because I know it can be a real head banger at times.

Meanwhile back at Essential HQ Lee was finally starting to get the urge to visit our Glos syndicate water. Poor old (young!) Lee doesn’t get that much time to fish after rolling hundreds of kilo’s of bait for us each week, but in all honesty, there’s very few anglers’ I’ve met better than Lee once the enthusiasm really kicks in, and it did two weeks ago.

Like many venues around the country the lake had been fishing very slow with only nine fish out all season but Lee managed to winkle out three carp over the 48-hour session. These being commons of 23lb 4oz and 29lb together with a 25lb 2oz mirror. Top B5 bombing!

Armed with his new found enthusiasm he returned to the lake the following week fishing over large beds of whole and chopped B5 boilies mixed together with a combination of B5 pellets and crushed maize to bank yet another hat-trick of stunners. This time a 27lb 8oz common followed by two gorgeous mirrors of 26lb 12oz and would you believe it a new personal best UK carp by just 4oz at 41lb 4oz. What a truly magnificent result!

Congratulations Lee, who incidentally has asked me to thank Dave Jones, Head, Ninja, Davey-G and Clarky for their assistance with the above.

I will be back with more diary events soon, let’s just hope the next few weeks are as eventful as the past few!