After having some success fishing in one of the snaggy corners of the lake, I felt as the days warmed up that there may be a chance to be had from the middle of lake which still held a significant amount of weed. In parts it was new fresh growth, which I knew was really attractive to the fish at this time of year. I had been having a few chucks about with the marker on previous visits which had located some of these areas, but one particular spot really caught my interest. It was in a swim which was a fairly popular one, and not one I had ever done well out of, but it was a new spot well away from the known spots in this swim.

I was yet to see a carp actually roll or jump so far this spring, but I had seen a large amount ... (read more...)

It is an exciting time to me, when the days begin to lengthen and the promise of spring is on it’s way. I’ve always found March to be a good month for captures, even the last couple of years, after the savage winters that we had. However this year was different, as this winter hadn’t been a bad one (apart from those couple of weeks in February) so with that in mind I booked some time off and eagerly prepared my kit.

Firstly I had a day at the 5 Lakes show, which was probably the busiest show day I had seen for a long time, and was good to catch up with some friends, which all in all made it an excellent day. I had also heard that my local lake had produced a few fish to the one member who had fished it during this ... (read more...)

It seems as though all our prayers had been answered as by the start of December there had hardly been a frost, and the weather had remained unseasonably mild. Due to work and family commitments it was hard to get the rods out for a couple of weeks, but with the conditions remaining so good I just had to find a way!

I’d kept the bait going in throughout this time, not loads, but a kilo of Essential B5 twice a week which I felt was enough to keep the fish interested, and hopefully keep them on the move. Through my observations I had narrowed their location down to one swim on the lake, a plot that had produced most the winter fish I have been fortunate to catch over the last couple of years.

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Summer had really flown by for me, and before I knew it the days were becoming much shorter and the leaves were steadily falling from the trees. However the feeling of doom towards the imminent arrival of winter was offset by the promise of some autumn big carp action beforehand.

I had just completed 3 solid blanks in a row, and in all honesty during any of those 2 night trips I didn’t feel I was even close to catching anything. On the last 2 trip fishing on my local syndicate, I didn’t even see a fish during my entire stay. With October half term coming up I had promised my 7 year old son Thomas a trip out, and therefore towards the end of that week we were hurriedly packing our kit and getting ready for a session on ... (read more...)