Historic Information Wanted

The author of the book History of Carp Fishing, Kevin Clifford, is teaming up with his friend, Chris Ball, to produced a limited edition updated version of the book. If anyone has any information (letters, photographs, anecdotal stories, etc) about the following famous carp fisheries/anglers they would welcome hearing from you.

Croxby Pond &  Otto Overbeck

Cheshunt Reservoir

Mapperley Reservoir & Albert Buckley

Dagenham Lake & members of the Becontree & DAS (particularly George Draper and John Lenton)

Redmire Pool

Billing Aquadrome

The Peterborough Cut

Woldale

Wadhurst

Stoneham Lakes

Horsham

Westbrook Mere

You can contact Kevin and Chris at carpercfn@btconnect.com or on the phone at 01430 440624. You can also write to Kevin at Carp Fishing News Ltd., Newport, East Yorkshire HU15 2QG.

Greys Digital Scales

Tackle manufacturers Greys are about to launch a new and innovative set of digital scales to the angling market. The scales set new standards for accuracy, durability, user friendliness and benefit from a host of features. With weighing capabilities of up to 60kg/135lb in 1oz divisions the scales are suited to all UK fishing situations. They have a tough shatterproof polycarbonate body and lens, and a stainless steel hook and hang point. There is a generous zero facility and the easy-read dial has an active bright backlight function.

The Greys digital scales are compact, portable and incorporate an overload protection facility. They are waterproof, dustproof and shock resistant with a 50 weight storage memory. The scales also contain a secondary power source to provide memory back up of stored weights recorded. With stocks due in early 2008, the Greys digital scales are set to be one

of the most popular new

product releases of

the year.

New Angling Lines 2008 Brochure & DVD
The 2008 Angling Lines Brochure & DVD pack is out now. For just the price of a phone call you get a 40-page brochure and a DVD containing 3.5 hours of film covering their French venues. The brochure & DVD sit alongside their website containing 1000’s of pages of information and an office manned seven days per week… you really can’t ask for more information to help you choose from one of their 38 French carp venues. The film clips are particularly powerful – watch action on the bank plus interviews with both owners and anglers - giving you a real insight into the lakes and the facilities on offer. For your FREE copy ring Angling Lines on 08712 004466 or visit www.anglinglines.com

Fishing With The Experts

The Secret Carp

Chris Yates, one time holder of the British carp record with a fish of over 51lb, is a hugely popular, much admired, prolific writer and orator on the art of fishing.

Chris is from that old school of anglers - one of a rare breed who still uses cane rods and old reels.

In this programme he demonstrates quite clearly that it’s not the tackle that catches the big fish...but rather it’s the angler’s approach which is all important.

On a hot sunny day at a lake in

Hampshire we’ll see Chris successfully fishing for carp, trying various methods including curry-flavoured maggots and surface baits to capture his quarry.

In his own inimitable style he totally absorbs himself into the atmosphere of his surroundings. Having the eye of a keen photographer, Chris notices and comments on the plants and wildlife and being a real country man it’s not just the fishing that’s important but the whole of the rich tapestry laid out before him, as he quite rightly says "you can’t waste a day in a place like this when there’s so much going on around you".

Enjoy this fascinating insight into one man’s approach in pursuit of The Secret Carp.

Fishing for the Secret Carp is available now from the Carp-Talk Shop for £11.49 including p&p.

Shimano 2008 Catalogue

Following last year’s successful digital catalogue Shimano have this year tried to raise the bar on what can be achieved with this format. Shimano were the forerunner in this field and many companies have now followed their initiative. This year’s catalogue is packed with information and instructional

content, including movie clips from both Jan Porter and Steve Ringer. Anyone wishing to receive the new 2008 catalogue can register their details at www.shimano.com

Did you manage to get out over the festive period and bag yourself a Christmas whacker? I hope you did. The last couple of weeks have seen some seriously impressive fish on the bank from venues around the country. The week between Christmas and New Year was particularly notable with several big forties making appearances. What brought on this productive feeding spell? It seemed that lakes all over the UK switched on for a few days, it can’t just be a coincidence. I think it was probably down to a combination of factors. Due to the fact it was a holiday period there were probably more anglers on the bank, thus increasing the chances of fish getting caught. The weather conditions were really good too with quite mild temperatures, rain and nice warm winds, or at least that was what it was like around my hometown in Yorkshire. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get out fishing and take advantage of the conditions but I did nip down to a local lake for a couple of hours to see my mates. In the two hours I was there I saw my two mates land four carp, all doubles up to about 15lb. It was nice just to be at a lake and see some fish getting caught. The winning method on the day was to introduce four or five small spods of mixed pellets with a few grains of sweetcorn added and then to fish a small Solar Ester Pineapple pop-up over the top. As soon as the bait was introduced the fish got on it and the liners started, then a run would follow soon after. After each fish a couple more spods of bait were introduced and the action was very consistent; they ended up with around 15 fish in their short overnight session. Small PVA bags were tried on a couple of rods but they proved nothing like as productive as the light spodded area. The lake they were fishing is quite a well-stocked venue with lots of hungry carp and I think it shows that even in winter it is worth trying a bit of bait over at least one rod on this type of venue. I wouldn’t recommend filling it in on the off chance because you may well kill the swim, but a light scattering introduced on a little-and-often basis can really pay dividends. You want to be using just enough to pull the fish in and get them feeding, but not so much that they get full before they find your hookbait.

It’s a few weeks now since I last fished. I don’t know what it is but I’ve been really struggling to get motivated. As winter approached I had big plans of fishing hard right through the colder months and I was really looking forward to it. The thought of leaving work after dark, getting to a lake and setting up in the pitch black, then packing away frost-covered gear before first light and heading off back to work just hasn’t seemed very appealing to me of late though! Do you struggle to get motivated at this time of year? I feel almost embarrassed to admit to my recent lack of drive. In years gone by I have done a lot of winter fishing and really enjoyed it but this year seems different. Over the past five or six years I’ve fished a lot, having some periods when I’ve been doing four or five nights per week and all the other aspects of my life have

Josh in action

A nice Yorkshire mirror from this week last year

Hopefully I’ll bag a few more like this January 2007 24-pounder when I get back on the bank

My mate Josh with a nice mid double

Just about to net a fish for Josh

taken a backseat compared to my fishing. I think it has all caught up with me now and I’ve enjoyed having a bit of a break from it. Winter seems the ideal time to have a break because once spring comes around I know I’ll be raring to go and I’ll have my fishing head firmly back on. It’s easy to get almost obsessed with fishing and it really can take over your life, especially if there’s a specific fish you want to catch or a venue you’re really into, but life needs to be a balance. I met a girl called Jen last summer and since then I’ve realised that fishing isn’t the be all and end all, there is more to life. I’m sure most of you have been in a

similar position at some point and can relate to what I’m saying.

When it’s been a choice of spending my time on my own in a cold bivvy in the dark or having a laugh with her, it’s been the fishing that has lost out.

I’ve been planning my year ahead though. There are so many venues around the country that I would love to fish, choosing where to spend my time in 2008 is proving quite a difficult choice. I don’t want to end up getting tickets for lakes and then not having the time to fish them all effectively. I think I’m going to stay local this year, it seems to make sense. The closer to work a venue is the more time I’ll be able to spend there. Most of my fishing will be overnight sessions between work with maybe on odd weekend here and there. If I spend a lot of money on a ticket for a lake that is a long way away I don’t think I’ll end up going much, simply because it’s too far for overnighters and my weekends always seem to be taken up with other things. I have so much respect for anyone who is a successful angler and manages to fit their fishing in around a family and full time job, I hope I get the hang of it eventually!

I really want to get out fishing now, it’s been nice having a break but I’m missing it. I need to get my head around managing my time better and creating the opportunity to actually go fishing. It’s proving difficult but I should be able to squeeze in an odd day session on a Sunday if I make the effort. I know where I want to go and a few fish should be on the cards, even on a short session. It’ll be nice to get back on the bank after not going for a while, I just hope I can remember what to do! In fact, thinking about it, I might get out this weekend for a bit of a go.

Adam Snowden

All Beer and Boilies

The Medlar Press, publishers of excellent angling books, are pleased to announce the publication of All Beer and Boilies by Cliff Hatton.

The book is the sad tale of the modern carp angler! The general premise is that modern carp fishing is all about anticipation, excitement, passion, success, failure and enormously big tackle...

For many anglers, chasing big carp is a sign of utter madness. Whether you

have had mild dose of carp fever or

are suffering from a lifelong obsession with

particle baits or rigs, one thing is for sure, this book may help you keep your sanity.

Available now from Medlar Press priced £7.95. Either visit www.medlarpress.com or call 01691 623225 to place your order.

Firstly, my apologies to all of you who tried to enter last week’s Day Ticket Giveaway, somehow I submitted the wrong email address. This means if you tried to enter the competition your entry will not have been submitted. I only realised the problem when it came to choosing a winner and there was not a single entry – whoops! So to give everybody a fair chance I’ve included the whole feature again this week.

Secondly, the moon phase saga continues. Following on from Tim Paisley’s article in the magazine: Crowy’s Anecdotal Pants and Simon Crow’s reply: Tim’s Lunar Y-fronts, Steve Briggs next week shares his thoughts on the subject in Carp-Talk. He actually provides some valuable analysis, including several facts regarding his captures over the last ten years. Steve Briggs’ Continental Capers feature is entitled Cosmic Messages and will appear in issue 696 and is definitely worth a read for all of you who are interested in this fascinating subject.

I’ve noted with interest moon phases have been discussed at great length on several Internet forums and I felt the general consensus was that moon phases do have an effect upon our quarry. This conflicts with the responses we had from Carp-Talk Xtra readers and leaves the debate wide open. I mentioned last week that here at Carp-Talk we have thousands of catch reports from over the last 12-months and should anybody be brave (foolish) enough to compile the data we could actually produce some hard facts as to how these catches compare on each particular phase of the moon. The idiot who is going to undertake the mammoth task is – me! I originally did not believe the moon had any significant effect upon my catches and just went fishing as and when I could, but I cannot ignore so many other people’s strong beliefs. I personally cannot wait to see the outcome.

Ben Wales