New Carp Adventures in France DVD

This new DVD follows Tony’s successful and highly praised first DVD which was titled Carp Adventures USA. This one is a double DVD set running for two hours and features some great catches of carp up to 65lb and is, as the title confirms, set in France. Tony is well known for his years as an angling author and photographer, having a long-running series in Carpworld magazine titled Globetrotter’s World. An accomplished photographer, Tony has now brought that same attention to detail to his DVDs. Anyone who wants an example of Tony’s superb angling photography can find it in his beautifully produced  book Globetrotter’s Quest - the story of Tony’s 25-year worldwide search for carp and other giant fish.

The new DVD is available from the Carp-Talk shop at www.carptalk-shop.co.uk for the price of £16.99 inc. p&p. Tony’s superb book normally costs £25 plus £3 p&p - but if you buy the DVD and the book we have a special limited offer of £39.99 which gives a saving of £5. This offer is available by calling Bev on 01430 440624.

from Tony Davies-Patrick

The Welly Whackers DVD came out about 12-months ago and we thought it might be an idea to mention it again for anyone who missed it first time round. It’s an excellent production starring Steve Renyard and Carp-Talk’s Ian

Poole. It’s fair to say that Wellington Country Park (where the film is shot) didn’t become a high-profile venue until both Steve and Ian began reporting captures from there, so who better to front this film than these two? Together they work well with the camera and come across very, very well - and as a result we enjoyed the

 

‘real’ feel they gave to this film. There’s just the right mix of

seriousness, information and on-the-bank humour (yes,

even from Mr Poole!) to keep you watching right the way

through. It also features some terrific carp captures,

including several big thirties, as well as some lovely

underwater filming of big carp feeding on baits. It’s actually the first film that we’ve watched for quite some time that didn’t see us hitting the fast forward button to skip through the sequences.

Welly Whackers was not the type of DVD which received

much hype surrounding it when it came out - it wasn’t backed up with an advertising campaign that some DVDs seem to get, so that’s the reason we thought we’d give another plug. It’s an excellent production and is definitely worth shelling out for if you’re looking for something to keep you entertained this winter. From the opening credits with Steve tucked up in bed half asleep right the way through to the out-takes with Pooley, it’ll definitely keep you entertained. Priced at £16.99 and available from the Carp-Talk shop by clicking here or ringing 01430 440624.

The one that got away!

Reading and District Angling Association are said to be devastated after receiving news that The Barnet Fish, which was the star attraction for anglers of Whistley Mill Lake, has turned up in the River Thames in London almost 50 miles away.

 

The carp was found alive and well in the Thames after being swept away from its Twyford home during the summer floods.

The specimen, nicknamed The Barnet Fish by anglers desperate to cradle its 40lb frame, crossed 17 locks and 49.9 miles of meandering river before settling in its new home.

Easily recognisable due to its unique scale pattern, the much-loved carp had been feared lost forever when the lake merged with the River Loddon in July’s floods. But two months later the fish, looking a little leaner for its adventure, was caught by the Environment Agency during an electro-fishing survey of the Thames near Kingston Bridge.

However, despite being found, the giant carp will not be allowed to return to play with its fishy pals because of health and safety regulations.

Well the wanderer returns (Prodigal son more like - Kev), and with the P45 sat on the desk and endless jibes at writing about blanks, I thought I’d better set the record straight. Since I started writing this blogg my catch rate does appear to have fallen. This is not through want of trying though and whilst writing this blogg I have caught carp to 32lb whilst fishing several Yorkshire venues. Also you will not be seeing any of my tackle appearing in the classifieds and finally my confidence is not suffering one little bit - I’m as keen as ever and know full well sooner or later there will be a big fat carp sitting in the bottom of my landing net. Above all else I’ve enjoyed every minute I’ve spent on the bank this year witnessing some excellent captures and seeing some amazing sights.

I’ll be covering a few weeks here so please bear with me…

The week ending Sunday 9th Sept got off to a hectic start, with only two days to go until the big trip to Cassien I was running round like a headless chicken remembering additional things that I needed to get like extra leads, long bivvy pegs, food and bait! Did we have enough bait? Well we took just over 200kg of boilie, particles and pellets so I think it’s safe to say we did.

With all my work wrapped up at Carp-Talk central, Derek ‘after a cup of tea’ Fell and I set off in the early hours of Wednesday morning from a not so sunny Yorkshire and pointed the truck towards Dover. An accident on the M20 resulted in us missing our intended ferry. After sitting in Dover for two hours we eventually boarded a later ferry. We arrived in France a couple of hours later, shortly followed by a quick detour into Belgium to visit Andy a friend of Derek’s and then we were back on the road. We arrived at the lake in the early hours of Thursday morning and quickly erected our bed chairs next to the truck in the car park. With a couple of hours kip under our belts we went to purchase some permits from Chez Pierre’s and have a good look around the lake to find what swims were available. The popular points along the west side of the North Arm were all occupied yet nobody was fishing the opposite bank. There is a very good reason for this and that is the depth in front of these swims; the old river bed is very close to this bank and only 30 yards out you can easily find 70 feet of water. We did spot a nice looking beach area which had a nice plateau 80 yards out in front of it, so we settled there. The first night was spent catching up on some much needed sleep.

Friday I spent much of the day exploring the topology of the swim and I managed to get all four rods out just before nightfall. I was awoken only a few hours later by a very fast take on a rod I’d placed on a rocky ledge in 32ft of water. Once I’d come to my senses I was at the waters edge doing battle with some unseen monster, which moments later found one of the lakes many snags, I climbed into the boat to see if I could free it but unfortunately it was not to be as after much tooing and froing my hooklink parted. Derek did however managed to land a monster, a bream of half a pound on a 24mm boilie. The rest of the day past uneventfully apart from the endless visits from the local ladies who insisted upon giving us a real eyeful, if you know what I mean.

Sunday was once again without action but the hot weather brought out even more local lovelies, I was starting to wonder if we’d set up camp on the local nudist beach. That afternoon Crowy informed me that there had been a carp of 75lb landed that morning from somewhere around the lake and knowing that the next take could be from a fish of that size makes it all very exciting.

On Tuesday I walked over 5km up the nearest mountain to try to send my blogg from my mobile which failed, I was very disappointed as I’d spent quite some time setting up an email account on my phone and checking I could use it in the south of France. Well, as there is no GPRS signal anywhere near the lake I could not. Later that day Derek landed a 12lb koi from the near margin on a tiger nut.

I had to wait until 1am on Friday morning before I had any more action which fell to the same rod as the last take so this time I went straight out in

Alice in Wonderland?

Why do some anglers have a tendency to make things up? This is something which really does puzzle me as those that do it must surely think that the rest of the angling world is stupid. We see it here at Carp-Talk on a regular basis, anglers trying things on just to win a bit of bait or impress a few mates. Believe it or not, one of the worst cases that we’ve ever seen wasn’t the famous capture when one angler tried to get away with sending in a pic of Nick Helliuer’s hands with a fish superimposed over a photo of himself. Yes, that was very sad, but how about one lad who sent in a pic of what was obviously a dead fish laden on his lap which he claimed to have caught! How on earth he thought he could get away with that one, I’ve no idea?

What’s made me mention this particular topic in this week’s editorial is that “angler’s stories” come out every week on the bank and usually they ruin the hard work that has just been done. This last week I’ve witnessed one lad fishing a lake in west Yorkshire which contains no more than about 30 fish land one of the prized residents. This was a great feat of angling as the lake has been fishing hard. It also has no night fishing, limited swim access, plus the lad has hardly been on the water all season. Many of the regulars were well impressed with his result, but when he went on to say that he’d landed 14 fish from there this season - a figure which differed to what he told another angler and one which was more than double the amount caught by anyone else - peoples’ opinion of him changed instantly.

The truth always comes out in carp fishing. It’s too small an industry for it to be any different, so think again if ever you wonder whether making something up is going to impress other anglers.

Crowy

 

This is the super-light Daiwa Infinity throwing stick

As the sun sets on another blank Cassien day we wonder what the night might bring

The highlight of the trip  for me - a scaly 34-pounder

Derek with his 37-pounder: the biggest fish of the trip

the boat. Once I was over the fish I started to pump it up but it just felt wrong. I could see the fish under the boat in the light of my head torch but just could not bring it up the last five or six feet. It was tethered to somebody’s old braid which all too soon cut through my 40lb leader.

On Saturday the Rally Feyence came thundering down the road behind the swim and being an avid WRC fan I could not resist having a look and practicing my photography skills with some action shots. Throughout Saturday afternoon we had a little rain which brought out loads of flying ants that really started to bug me. However there was a noticeable increase of fish activity within the swim and a few hours after nightfall I had a take on my right hand rod which resulted in me landing a 26lb mirror that took a liking to my Trigga Ice hookbait placed on the plateau directly in front of the swim.

On Sunday I had a ride out to collect some nice fresh bread from one of the many shops in the area. Later that evening I had a very slow take on a rod I’d placed at the bottom of a small ledge in 43ft of water but unfortunately this fish also got caught up in some old line and all I reeled in was metres and metres of the stuff. I should also mention that when we were simply retrieving our rods we were also bringing in lots of old line.

On Monday 17th I was sat up late looking out over the water when what sounded like a good fish crashed to the right of the swim close to one of Derek’s baits and 15 minutes later that same bait was picked up. We jumped in the boat and we soon had a 34lb mirror in the net.

On Tuesday we had an early morning visit from the Guard de Pêche checking our permits and later that day a strong south westerly picked up that was blowing right into our swim. That night Derek lost a carp and landed a 14lb catfish. I managed a 16lb mirror and lost another.

Thursday Derek caught a 26lb mirror and a 35lb mirror which again got caught up in some old line.

Saturday night we had a visit from a group of wild boar which was a little exciting and early the next morning I landed mirrors of 23lb and 25lb. Sunday was much cooler and overcast and that night Derek lost another and I landed a scaly 34lb mirror which was the highlight of my trip.

The last week was really cool and the fish were no where to be seen or heard. Derek managed to put one last fish on the bank, which at 37lb was the biggest fish of the trip.

So after 22 nights fishing we’d not caught anything like what we’d hoped for, but the trip had been most enjoyable and we’d certainly learnt a lot which will hopefully aid us with any future trips to Cassien or elsewhere.

While I’ve been away there’s been some stunning fish landed from around the country. If you manage to land a whacker or two in the coming weeks please drop us a line. I look forward to seeing your catch reports.

Tight lines,

Ben Wales

 

 

Linear Fisheries News

Hardwick/Smiths Winter Tickets are now on sale - the price per ticket is £120 and will run from Nov-1st 2007 until March-1st 2008. Tickets can be purchased from the bailiffs on the bank or by writing to: The Fishery Manager, 7 Crow Lane, Lower End, Wavendon, Bucks, MK17 8AR. Cheque's payable to Linear Fisheries Oxford.  

 

Further Linear News

Since the lakes re-opened after the severe flooding there has been several good captures. Here’s just a couple from the last week.

At St Johns Lake Nathan Sharp landed a new personal best in the shape of The Big Plated at 43lb 5oz along with a number of other fish including a scraper thirty common which was his personal best common.

Over at Manor Farm Lake Chris Williams had three fish including the Birthmark Linear at 39½lb. And finally, the Big Common has been out from Unity Lake. She was caught by Vic Beyer from Oxford at a new lake record weight of 40¼lb.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trade Shows

The trade show season is well under way and this week companies such as Nash, Daiwa, JRC and Shimano have been displaying all their products for next year to the trade, so it’s worth keeping your eyes open in your local tackle shops in the coming months.

At the Daiwa Trade Show...

Carp-Talk’s Ben Wales was on hand at the Daiwa show and had this to say: “Daiwa have extended their Infinity luggage range and the item of most interested was their new sleeping bag which is designed to compliment the Infinity bed chair and is unusual in that it is a reversible bag with only one zip which should aid keeping out the cold draughts. They are releasing an interesting goal post set up that has cross members between the two bank sticks adding further to the stability to the set up and aiding inserting the stick into the ground.

One item I was looking forward to seeing after reading much speculation on the Internet forums was their two Carbon throwing sticks. Well I can tell you they look and feel the nuts, coming in two sizes 20mm and 25mm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daiwa are re-introducing a range of Emblem rods which come in all the usual test curves and lengths and will be retailing at just under £100. They are excellent value for money and come with some very nice fittings including a carbon effect reel seat. Their top end Tournament rods are now complimented by the Tournament AKN which are built on a very slim blank and come with a machined carbon reel seat, Fuji rings and anodised collars and butt cap. These will retail for around £250.

I can also tell you about some exciting new reels that will hopefully be in the shops by the end of the year. The X and S ranges of Linear reels use lots of the technology developed on the Basia and ISO’s, only coming at a more affordable price. Additional features include twin cushioned line clips and a free spool facility.

Further to this I noticed a range of new small reels known as Airity. These are built from a new composite material which uses carbon fibre and Daiwa claim these have the strength of steel with the weight of plastic, I’m sure we’ll be seeing this material used on some of the big pit style reels in the coming years.

At the Nash Trade Show...

Ben again: “Many of you will be pleased to know Nash have reworked their Fang hooks and the New Fang X hooks are based more closely to their original Fang, only they are manufactured from a 20% stronger wire and come with a non-glint finish. They are also introducing a new hook pattern known as Fang Twister which are a strong medium length straight shank pattern with an exceptionally sharp straight point.

The Indulgence chair/bed chair range has been updated with the inclusion of the Big Boy bed chair and Lay Back chair with foot rest. There is also a Frostbite Big Boy All Season sleeping bag available to compliment the six-inch wider Big Boy bed chair.

There are several new accessories available which include a Rod Bag Cover, Boilie Drying Bag and a Rod Mat.

The Nash Zip Sack and Continental Zip Sack now come in dedicated pouches and both sacks have an additional cord that has a fluorescent poly-ball at one end and once the other end has been connected to the sack will enable you to pinpoint the location of a sacked fish.

Nash are also releasing a range of imitation baits known as Mutant Imitation Baits. The range includes Maggots, Monster Maggots, Sweetcorn, Maize, Boilies and Pellets all coming in various colours.

Finally Nash are re-releasing the Titan Viper bivvy which has been slightly redesigned to improve on the original, if that’s possible!”