Floods misery
The big story of the week concerns the floods that have hit the Gloucester, Worcs & Oxford area of the country. Apart from the personal human devastation in people’s lives, many fisheries have also seen the unprecedented rivers levels wreak havoc with lost fish and the work of many years left in ruins. Major angling complex Richworth Linear, at Stanton Harcourt, has effectively shut up shop, recommending that visitors stay away from the area until further notice. Carp-Talk magazine carry  further details about Linear and a statement from head bailiff Roy Parsons. Up-to-date information can be found on their Richworth-Linear website.
Obviously, the majority of lakes next to the major rivers are going to be affected, although some like Marsh Pratley’s Orchid lakes, which is only 200 yards from the Thames remains safe because it is on higher ground. Others like the Glevum Carpers fishery found syndicate members rescuing carp up to 50lb that were swimming around in what previously was the car park. Similarly, famous Dinton Pastures also saw syndicate members out at every opportunity trying to save carp to over 40lb that had found their way into nearby ditches. The Carp Society’s Horseshoe Lake escaped due to a huge effort by volunteers who erected netting to stop the carp from escaping, although roach, bream, pike and trout found their way into Horseshoe from nearby waters. Commercial Manager David Mannall told Carp-Talk Xtra, “The level came up by about 4ft after 18 hours of constant rain and we have had to close part of the fishery and warn anyone fishing about the dangers of slippery banks. Our stocks ponds have merged with the main lake but, overall, due to a huge effort by a team of volunteers (including two members from Wales) we have managed not to lose any fish.”
These problems come in the wake of similar event that occurred in the North of England when it was hit by torrential rain on the 25th June. In the aftermath of that large numbers of carp, and other species, have died. Various theories have been proposed for these deaths, such as chemicals being leached from surrounding land to de-oxygenation. Other fisheries have seen their entire stock swept away as hundreds of acres have been flooded.
Cemex Angling & Thorpe Lea
Cemex Angling has announced that for commercial reasons it is not renewing its lease to Thorpe Lea Fishery and is withdrawing its involvement at the site, which has been jointly run by Cemex Angling and British Waterways. This will not affect any of the other projects run jointly by Cemex Angling (www.cemexangling.co.uk) and British Waterways.
Kent Particles PVA deal
If you order 5kg of Mainline rolled boilies in Activ 8, Maple 8, Fusion or Pro-Activ Pineapple from Kent Particles they will throw in, free of charge, a matching Mainline flavoured PVA pack worth £5.99. Order 10kg and you’ll get two packs worth £11.99 again free of charge. Also announced are reductions on some dry and cooked particles prices. Check out their advert in this week’s Carp-Talk.
Game Fair cancelled
The organisers of the Game Fair, which was due to take place at Harwood House, near Leeds, this weekend (Friday 27th to Sunday 29th) have decided to cancel it due to the adverse weather that’s been experienced this week. This is the first time this international show, which saw138,000 visitors attend last year, has been cancelled in its 49 year history. The site is now saturated and despite attempts to dig ditches and lay large areas of wood chip there is the likelihood that many vehicles will become bogged down which raised safety issues.
Anyone who bought tickets in advance will receive a letter with an application for a refund.

Mainline Dumbell Hookers giveaway
This is another giveaway for Carp-Talk Xtra readers. Mainline Dumbell Hookers are a different shape to the round boilies largely used around lakes today, but retain the flavour and attractiveness of the boilie while giving the fish more confidence to feed on them.
All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning three tubs of Mainline Dumbell Hookers is send an email to competitions@carptalk-online.co.uk.The winner will be chosen at random from entries received. Closing date for entries will be Monday 30th July and the winners will be announced in next week’s issue of Carp-Talk Xtra. Don’t forget to add your name and address, and mark the subject line ‘Mainline Dumbell Hookers’.

Blitz giveaway
Carp-Talk Xtra is giving one lucky reader the chance to win this selection of Hinders Blitz range. All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is send an email to competitions@carptalk-online.co.uk. The winner will be chosen at random from entries received. Closing date for entries will be Monday 30th July and the winners will be announced in next week’s issue of Carp-Talk Xtra. Don’t forget to add your name and address, and mark the subject box ‘Hinders Blitz Bait’.

Welcome to this week’s Carp-Talk Xtra from the publishers of Carp-Talk. Lined up for you in this week’s issue are: the latest reviews of some great new products on the market, including some new artificials from Enterprise Tackle as well as Hinder’s awesome Blitz range. Carp anglers today aren’t merely concerned with the carp they catch, they also want gear that looks good on the bank, so we have a look at some top gear from Matrix and Century.
Plus we have some of your catches from around the country. Whilst it’s expensive to put more pages into Carp-Talk magazine, we don’t have similar problems with the online magazine. So if you want to see your catch in Carp-Talk Xtra send them into us at: xtra@carptalk-online.co.uk
Our day ticket water this week is the very productive Thorpe Lea, and our very own Simon Crow has written a short feature on the fishery, the fish and ticket availability.
We have goodies to give away from Mainline and Hinder’s – for details of how to get your hands on them see the competition section.
So again we have another packed-out issue of Carp-Talk Xtra, which combined with Carp-Talk puts all the carping news at your fingertips - either by flicking the pages or giving your mouse some pain!
Adam & Ben

Essential Guide To Coarse Fishing In Spain
The guide you can’t do without if you are visiting Spain and intend to fish. This is the first practical, in-depth guide in English to the challenge presented by Spain’s innumerable waterways. The guide includes details of how to obtain a fishing licence, where to buy day tickets, which species can be found where and what tackle and bait you need. There is plenty of help for carp anglers in this 180 page, soft back book, written by English angler Philip Pembroke who has fished in Spain since 1989.

Excellent value for money at £13.99 plus £2 postage from Carp-Talk shop.

Changes at Fox International?
We have heard from a number of sources that major changes are taking place at Fox International, the huge UK-based manufacturer of carp tackle and angling equipment. Details are unconfirmed at the moment although we believe a statement will be made shortly. We understand one change is that well-known carp angler and Product Development Director, Max Cottis, is leaving the company. We tried to speak to Max for a comment but he is away on holiday. A fax from Fox International to a request for clarification brought the response: “There’s no comment we wish to make at present.”

New Flavoured Mixers
Melton Mowbray based Smartbait has released a new coloured and flavoured Chum-type floating mixer. It comes in four flavours ad various colours and iis released under the name of X-Cite Floating Chum.

We had to laugh
Nowt to do with carp but we were reading this week’s Angling Times and came across a classic and had a bit of a giggle in the office.  A feature by our old mate Iain Nairn (the new Dorset Chub God - move aside Lampard) was introduced with with the statement... “With the rivers in perfect condition there’s never been a better time to fish for summer chub.” Right, if you want to catch them in somebody’s kitchen!

Carping USA
If you’re not aware of how much carp fishing has progressed with some anglers in the USA check out the following website www.americancarper.com - the home of the American Carp Society. Certainly attitudes are changing from a few years ago when our Paddy Webb was catching carp on the St. Lawrence. A redneck pulled up and stopped behind him in a pickup truck, with his wife (who had a black eye by the way) and a gaggle of kids. He watched Paddy return a carp and said, “ I know a great recipe for a carp of that size. You get a board 2ft in length. You put the carp on it and put both in a preheated oven at 200ºC and cook for 3 hours. You take it out of the oven, scrape the carp off into the trash and eat the board.” With that he gave Paddy a wave and disappeared!  By the way you can download copies of the American Carp Society’s magazines in PDF format.
Fred J Taylor was probably the first Englishman to try and promote carp fishing to the Americans, and eventually more and more Yanks have ‘seen the light’. However, it’s probably the carp competitions that have taken place, with their coverage in the media, that have brought the idea of carp fishing to a wider audience in America. For an example of an home-grown carp competition have a look at this web site.
At the moment our business associate and consulting editor of Carp-Talk, Tim Paisely, has recently competed in the 2nd St Lawrence International Carp Challenge, that ran for three days (11-14th July). Tim and his partner came second, a great result with two local anglers taking top spot catching a staggering 1697lb of fish! In total there was a staggering 7 tons of carp caught during the event! More details in next week’s Carp-talk magazine.

Last week’s winners
Paul Jolliffe, of Linden, in Gloucester, wins the Thinking Tackle Givaway of the great new Korda DVD. Prize in the post.
Lee Fisher, from Hove, in East Sussex, has won the 48-hour ticket at Oxlease Lake, courtesy of Richworth Linear. Give Roy Parson’s a call on (01908) 647320 to book your session but I’d leave it for a week or two till things get back to normal.
Les Teasdale, from Gosport, Hants., gets Rig Marole’s new HydroLink hooklink prize.

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