UK Carp & Coarse Fishing

Why The Green Eyed Monster?

Posted on July 18, 2018 by richardhandel

Why The Green-Eyed Monster?

This part of fishing has bugged me for oh so many years. I don’t understand, why it’s not possible to be happy with our fellow angler’s when they catch a fish? At the end of the day, we are all on the bank to achieve one thing and that’s to get the fish on the bank. Also, a PB every so often would be nice. So why do people get jealous of each other’s achievements? We should all be on the same side and learn from each other every time someone lands a fish, regardless of its type. Something can always be learnt from this and used by yourself for future reference. Why do anglers feel the need to lie and backstab each other to get their fellow angler removed from a club? Just because they have caught a load of fish is a complete mystery to me. In most cases, the person would move on in time to another venue. So why not learn from these people? You can help yourself to the information they can prove before they move on. You could be the person catching all the fish. People just push them away and carry on wondering why they can’t catch until the next person comes along and does the same as the previous angler. They will repeat the same thing over again. Observation and information is a very important part of any type of fishing and should be regarded as priceless, the more knowledge we get, the better we get at our chosen sport/hobby.

So, next time you see another angler catch a fish, go and say well done and he/she may just pass on some virtual information which could well help you catch your next PB.

Regards Richard

Posted in Carp fishing | 2 Comments

Beginners guide to fishing terminology

Posted on July 13, 2018 by richardhandel

A friend of mine has suggested that it would be a help to put together a beginners guide to carp fishing terminology. As a help to newcomers to the sport and I will also be doing beginner’s guide to other parts of carp fishing e.g. rigs, marker setups, Spod etc.

I hope this will help all you budding carp anglers when you pick up a magazine to understand what you are being told.

Chod – Is the term used to describe the stuff on the bottom of the lake bed (decaying leaf matter) hence the rig was born from this to counteract this problem.

Wraps – The number of times you wrap the line around your marker sticks, to determine the distance you a fishing our from the bank.

Fizzing – This is when you get a huge patch of tiny bubbles coming up over a large area. This is where the fishing is digging on the bottom and creating a fizzing on the surface of the lake.

Bubbles – This is when you get bubbles popping up to the surface and then moving off, as the fish is feeding on the bottom.

Particles – The terminology used for cooked beans, peas, pulses, seed etc.

Loaded up – you have loaded up the line on your reels, you also load up the rod, when casting. This is the point where your rods are at the best point to cast out.

Hope This Helps

Richard

Posted in Carp fishing, Course Fishing | 4 Comments

Lazy Fishing

Posted on July 11, 2018 by richardhandel

This is an odd topic. Over the many years, I have spent fishing, I have asked myself this many times when sitting up in the same swim each week. I am 100% confident the fish are close by or will pass through my swim in the time I will be there. So, why bother with all this walking around looking for them. The conclusion I have come to (for myself), it depends on the circumstances of your fishing, I feel. How dedicated are you to catching fish on that particular day? This can be affected by the stresses of life or are you just looking for a break from it all.

I have found over the years, this can certainly play a key factor in some of my fishing trips. I think it’s a very good thing and it can help your fishing for future trips. You just need to make sure this doesn’t become the normal route. The car park swim is the best example of this on most lakes. Oddly enough in the past ten years, these have become the best swim on the lake. Probably because they have been ignored in the previous twenty! On one particular lake, I avoided this swim for some time, until one day I had no option. I had seen fish, it just felt right and that swim went on to produce some stunning fish for me.

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Even when my fishing is going very well, I still find that I fish the same swim, my favourite margin spots. If you read all my blogs, it has not done me very well this year so far. I sat there the other day and started to think about this and then thought I should do a blog – Why I was in the swim again?

I personally feel that out of all the little margin spots on this lake (and along the day bank), this swim gives me the best chances of banking a big lump. So far over the past couple of years, my biggest is a 34 lber. The swim offers the perfect opportunity as I am hidden behind the bushes.

I drop my bait the other side of the Beech leaves and sit back. There is also plenty of room to play the fish once you have them under control and under your rod tips. All the other swims are very tiny or very open with you sitting in full view of passing fish. I did move around before on my quick one-rod trip. It became clear to me that the fish were moving freely up and down this bank and they would pass this swim every time. It’s more or less in the middle of this bank and the other thing I was worried about was the disturbance of catching a fish. However, I realised one day that a carp 20 or 30 yards down the bank would never know and I soon found myself catching two fish, within my four-hour fishing window, until this year when all have to list so far is one.

I still see the fish moving along this bank, so why change spot? This is the big question I am facing currently and the answer this time was move on. This is a lesson learnt for the future.

Hope This Helps

Richard

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Trip 42 Carp Fishing – 2018

Posted on July 10, 2018 by richardhandel

It’s been over a week since my last trip, this years number of trips have been reduced down, due to my extension being built and my part-time gardening job, going a bit full time, this happens every Summer. This is a big factor why the number of fish I am catching (or should I say not catching) are down. It’s all about time, observation and it’s simple, if your not out on the lake how will you know wants going on? With that in mind I headed for a drive around Meadow lake first, as I felt like a change would do me a lot of good, even if I blanked.

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I didn’t fancy any of the swims on the Airfield lake either. The wind direction was from the N/E and as luck would have it, there were only two swims taken. After a chat with one of the other member’s and twice around the lake I finally ended up here. Which is a swim I love and know it well enough not to put the Deeper out. Instead, I used one of those Fox gripper markers lead to finding the best bit of weed to fish. I put two Pva bags out at staggered distances on to the plateaux and Spombed out some SF tigers, hemp particles, a mixture of size of Catalyst Boilies and a 15mm wafter.

I was going to be fishing under the stars as the wind was quite strong and was moving between N/E and E. It would be quite awkward with the brolly, fingers crossed the mozzies don’t like the wind as well!

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The back bay to the left of me was looking very appealing for a day trip as well in the week.

The first take came around at 2330, it proceeded to try and get around the overhanging tree to my right, I have become accustomed to. There was no way that was going to happen! I was very pleased after I had negotiated that part of the fight, I just needed to play the fish out and avoid it going around the point. After a couple of goes and what felt like a lifetime, a very nice 25+ Common was safely in the Nsr50.

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The nice feeling after such a long time of catching 10lbers isn’t worth mentioning. A very happy man with such a stunning fish.

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My second take came about at 0015 on the same round as before and another common was netted. This one was about 12lb and was soon back to join it’s friends. With another bag done, I was back on the bag again and I couldn’t believe it, the same rod was off again – just after 0200. Unfortunately I had a hook pull, this happens from time to time, especially since I’m fishing in weed.

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Rod’s all on the floor, hoping for that 4th take and a bit of a lack of sleep. This is funny, as I was thinking, I would get a bit more than I had been doing at home!