UK Carp & Coarse Fishing

 Mental Health & Fishing

I thought I would share how I believe fishing has helped me get through all the years of suffering and into many more.

My depression started, way back when I had no idea what was going on.  It is only in the past twenty years when the illness has been brought out into the open and less of a stigma attached to it.

Unfortunately, there is still a vast gap between people who suffer and people who don’t.  There is just no real way to explain that one second I can be perfectly ok and the next unbelievably sad and wishing I could burst out crying.  Which in a nutshell, is how I have lived my life for decades, there is no trigger that I can spot.

I was prescribed medication a good number of years ago and took them for about a year when things were really bad.  But after reading lots about the long time side effect, I discided this was not the way forward for me and I just have to deal with this down moments in time my own way.

What I (and my wife) noticed it never happened when I was fishing.  In some ways, I thought was odd, as I generally fish alone and have done for many years.  I think we fish better like this; don’t get me wrong, you can see from my blogs over the years I have started to fish more, with other people.  I often wondered whether it was due to having fewer things going on.  Which can’t really be the case, when you consider how much time I have spent by myself before I took redundancy.  Work was so full-on, over 12 hrs a day and my mind was occupied with work 24/7, it still would kick in but a lot less.  However, over the past 4 winters, since finishing my shipping days and doing gardening now, the Winter months have become less active for both work and fishing.  There is a clear difference between the weeks where I can fish and the weeks I can’t.  I have come to realize that fishing is definitely my happy place or it could be just getting out into the countryside and the freedom of it all.  For me it’s the best therapy there is and I’m not sure where I would be without fishing.  There has been the odd time where I just could not get out of bed, but I found that I just had to go and tell myself, just go for a walk around the lake.  Inevitably, I would stay and fish, probably not to the best of my ability, however, I was out there.  It also goes without saying that my wife & family have been so understanding and letting me out in the bank all these years.

I have also found that it’s a great satisfaction for seeing my friends catch carp – it must be the emotion of the moment which rubs off on me.  I get a great sense of well being.

I do hope this helps people and maybe, it’s worth taking up fishing of some sort.  It may just turn out to be the best therapy you can ever get.

Richard

It’s a short gardening day today, so I packed my fishing tackle in the car and hoped that I can get there before the rain starts and pitch myself up in the perfect spot.

I arrived at about 1130 and had a little walkabout, I was the only one here – just perfect. I’d been thinking about my approach here this morning, there’s plenty of food for the carp in the form of naturals, and the volume of anglers (being a club water), it struck me that Spotted Fin’s Active gel would be a great way to approach this summer on here. Adding bait probably wouldn’t help me for quick sessions in the middle of the day, but a hook bait with a lot of attraction drifting about could be the solution for me to get the edge over the carp.

Armed only with hook baits and a pot of the Masala Gel, I flicked one bait across the lake into the margins of the swim opposite me.

This has lily’s ether side of it and is the perfect location for bait, in order to intercept any carp moving between them.

The other bait was going up the margins to my left, about two feet off where the lilies were, I’d found a hard spot when ‘donking’ around with a heavy lead in the margins. This is something I like to do, especially on here as you find those perfect spots.

I love the margins on the car park side of this lake, mostly everyone casts across from here and they forget what is under their feet.

I’m hoping that today’s weather conditions work in my favor, giving me a chance of a bite or two.

Just after 1230, the wind picked up and the rain started, but only very little, it was very overcast, and my confidence levels were pretty high, especially as there had been a few carp crashing about in the pads nearby.

I’ve spent quite a lot of time feeding the robins today. The rain is on and off, sometimes heavy and the other times light drizzle. The carp are loving it and jumping all over the far margins, forcing me to abandon my left-hand rod and flick it over there for the last 20 minutes.

There’s been plenty of wildlife to keep me occupied today, shame the fish didn’t feel the need to chip in!

It was not to be. I will be back, these carp are not going to defeat me.

Until next time

Richard

I love searching for the unknown carp, it has held me captive on the carp fishing side of fishing ever since I really started fishing.  Over the year’s, I have fished lakes with the known named carp and enjoyed the challenge.  However, there is no feeling like looking for the unknown carp on really unknown lakes.  I haven’t fished as many as I would have liked, in the past 20 years after moving down South.  After being told of the Syndicate where I am currently a member of some years back, it has rekindled my love for this type of carp fishing.

I had spent 5 years on the river before that, which was great fun and I think started me back in this direction.  I had access to the river with my current Syndicate and the Airfield Lake.  This is the part which draws most of my attention – and me away from the odd effort on the river.  The real issue is that the lake is only open 6 months of the year.  This gives the carp 6 months on natural food each year and you have to tackle this at the beginning of each new season.  This is another great challenge.  It was originally a fish farm for many years. it then closed down, netted and a few fish walked over the road to another lake (maybe)!  There have also been a few fish moving in, so we don’t know really what is in there.  We all spot the big carp every now and then, annoyingly in the out of bounds area.  This keeps the spark alive and me going back each year.  Hopefully, for many years to come.

Until next time

Richard

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Its going to be a hot few days, if I can cope with it.

Richard

After having a chat with a friend the other day, I realized that it would be good to give a guide on how I take my phones and videos with my mobile phone.

I started using a mobile phone for my photographs of carp many years ago as I was having to walk a long way with my kit and needed to really cut things down a lot.  I looked at my camera bag with all the kit in it and decided it was time for it to go.  I’d been using an SLR since the early ’90s which had a film in it.  I then switched over to a DSLR back in 2000 but that bag was heavy and took up a lot of space.

So, I started to play around with my mobile phone, but still using my tripod with a phone adapter attached and this worked extremely well.  In the beginning, I had to download an app that would take multiple shots at timed intervals.  Now modern phones come with built voice control or you can download a whistle app, if you don’t fancy saying Cheese, shot, etc out loud.  You can even get a Bluetooth button that you can press, similar to the old-style DSLR remotes and the whole package is very cheap.  Approximately 90% (if not more anglers) have a mobile phone, megapixels are extremely high and if you are only using them on social media, where the Megapixels are reduced when you upload photos, there’s no real need to have a DSLR anymore.

Below is my guide to how I do all my photos and videos.

1. I use a camera tripod that extends to about 2ft 6in.  I find this is the perfect height for me to take a photo when taking photos of fish.  If you’re taller, there may be a need to have a tripod that extends to 3ft 6in.

2. I set up my tripod about 3ft away from my unhooking mat and make sure that a single leg is pointing directly at the middle of the unhooking mat.  This is to centralize the camera and then lower the angle of the camera to see if both ends of the unhooking mat are perfectly aligned.

3. Until you get the distance and angle correct of your camera, it’s best to test and practice as much as possible.

4. I always check my photos every time before I put the fish back into the water.  It’s never a  good thing to find out the photos are rubbish after the fish is back in the water.  This is something I’ve always done since I got my first DSLR.  I remember those days when you had a film in your camera and would take months to use all the photos up on the roll, then take it down Boots, Jessops, etc, get the photos back and 75% could easily be rubbish.  I’m glad those days are gone.

5. I do exactly the same when doing my videos for my blogs and edit out all the bits I don’t need.

Big tip

I often just video the whole process and when I hold the fish still, I compose myself for a few moments.  You can then simply scroll through the video and then do a screenshot of your fish.  This can save time and if you don’t fancy talking or whistling out loud, it’s all personal taste.

My other big tip is to face the camera towards you and not in selfie mode.  Once you have mastered it, there’s no way of going back.

I use this setup whenever I catch a carp, even when there is someone else around to take the photographs, it just takes the worry away from getting it wrong.

You can reduce your phone kit even down every more by using a single bank stick and an adapter that you screw into the bank stick.  You attach your phone adapter to the other end.

I hope this has helped you, to simplify your photography and reduce the amount of bags you need to take.

Until next time

Richard