Top Banana!

The last time I fished Orchid Lake was in June 2009 when I came away with some nice fish from off the bottom and top. In late November, however, I put aside 48 hours for my first trip back, arriving just before dark on the Sunday afternoon so that I could get set up. I know most of the swims at Orchid like the back of my hand so it didn’t take me long to get three rods out. I was in the swim known as Island Dug Out with a set of dying lilies to my left and a large island at 50 yards straight in front. There’s a few good spots to the right, too, including silt and gravel, but the two main areas worth focusing on at this time of the year are the lilies and the island. The lilies especially hold carp throughout the year, and it was here where I decided to put two rods for the first night.

I had the rods in place for 5pm all on tiny 6mm Top Banana hookbaits over seed. With the carp being so active in the pads I had a feeling it wouldn’t be long before something happened, and only a short while later a good fish crashed not far from my middle rod. Despite a forecast of cold and driving rain in the region, I sensed that for once I’d timed my trip perfect and less than an hour later the first fish was on! A scrappy battle followed amongst the outer edges of the lilies and it was clear a dynamite double was on the end. The next morning a hard battling 22lb mirror followed, and then a few hours later I was in with a really heavily scaled mirror and a cracking 28lb the next day, all on the little 6mm hookbaits. It was a great return to a venue that I hold dear to my heart.

Always wanting to make the most of a good thing, I was back down a few days later, after I’d got some work out of the way. Amazingly the fish were still in the swim and I was able to get back into it. Arriving at first light, by the end of the first day, I had one of my target fish on the bank, a mirror known as Sampson which is one of the oldest carp in the lake. This particular fish has been around for a very long time, even making the cover of Carp-Talk way back in the mid-1990s. At its heaviest weight, it has been as high as mid-30s, but on this occasion it went 29lb 8oz.

My lucky roll continued with an absolute corker weighing just over thirty at 30lb 4oz the next day. This one came right on packing up time when I had everything packed away apart from the essentials!

                Another trip to the lake a couple of days later saw me land a cracking 29lb 2oz heavily scaled mirror. This fish looking stunning in its full winter colours. Sadly the cold weather put an end to something good, although I’m sure the fish had moved out after I landed the 29lb 2oz. I’m itching to get back down once the weather warms up, and I’m certain the Top Bananas will continue to produce the goods!

Check out the latest Orchid Lake news at www.orchid-lakes.com or telephone Marsh Pratley on 01865 341810.

Weed Effect uses

The Weed Effect gear has been a revelation since it came on to the scene and it's helped me to put a few extra fish on the bank for sure. But what has really got me excited about this stuff are the different uses it has and the situations where it's helped for reasons that weren't obvious to start with.

It was back at Cassien in the summer when I realised that although the obvious use for the Weed  Effect gear is to help camouflage everything, that certainly wasn't the only use. Back then I was using it in very clear water in areas which had no weed, but I was catching plenty of fish and it was obvious that although the Weed Effect gear was easy enough for me to see, the fish didn't connect it with anything dangerous.

But more recently I was across in France fishing a fairly shallow lake which is also very silty. The problem has always been one of presentation and casting out at any range with a heavy lead would invariably bury everything with the force with which it was landing. The Weed Effect gear helped in two different ways; firstly I noticed a while back that the leader material slows down the drop to the bottom considerably, almost like a parachute effect which definitely helped to stop the rig sinking in to the silt. But secondly the Weed Effect leads dont bury in to the soft silt anywhere near as much, instead they plug in almost on the surface but at the same time they are harder to dislodge. So not only is the presentation far better but so is the hooking potential when the fish picks up the bait and moves off. So there's a lot more to the Weed Effect gear than just camouflage!
cheers Briggsy..............

Club Mix continues to catch em’!

I know I’ve gone on about The Club Mix quite a bit this last year in UK magazines, but I really can’t speak enough about it. It just keeps on working wherever I take it, the big fish really taking a liking to it. My latest biggie isn’t a monster by national standards, but it’s from a lake that’s very well stocked for its size, yet the Clubs still managed to single out one of the better fish on my first ever trip there.

I had a two-day trip planned for CEMEX Angling’s Chigborough Lake in Essex as part of a slot for Rob Hughes’s Extreme Carp Show which is to be aired on Sky Sports in the New Year. I knew virtually nothing about the lake other than what the bailiffs had told me, and settled into a swim known as Bailiffs Corner. It was a lovely swim with lots of overhanging bushes in a bay to the right and a nice gravel bar in front at 30 yards which stretched from the corner of an island to the right-hand bank.

Being a two-rod water, I put the left-hander off the gravel near the island over a handful of 20mm Clubs, with the right-hander going towards the overhangs on the same tactic. Almost immediately I was into a low-double mirror from the right, followed by a low-twenty on the left. The action was fantastic during the night, slowing down once day broke the next day. I’d landed five nice fish to low-20s. Nothing happened until dusk the next day when the action kicked off again. Each rod would go with some really hard fighting fish, and then at 8pm I struck into one I knew straight away was a decent lump. It kited to the right along the bar and then plodded its way towards me. It put up a great scrap in front of the cameras, and when it surfaced in front of the net I knew it was a decent kipper.

On the scales it went 32lb 8oz, a big mirror known as Two Scale. For my first ever time on the lake it certainly made me smile and just goes to show that Club Mix can produce the biggies without any pre-baiting whatsoever. It’s an awesome bait and has accounted for some great fish to myself this year, and like the rest of you I’m not out on the bank 24/7. I’ve a busy lifestyle, dashing here there and everywhere. To know there’s a bait around that can produce the goods without any previous introduction gives me masses of confidence every time I’m out there doing it.

The success of this bait globally is second to none, whether it’s monsters from Rainbow or biggies from your local lakes.

Crowy

Snag fishing at Rainbow

I´ve just returned from a week session at Rainbow. Since I´ve start fishing the lake I love the place. The lake is beautiful, has got the right atmosphere and of course big carp! This time I was situated in one of the most snaggy areas of the lake. From a session earlier in the year I knew that I only had a couple of little spots to fish to. That made me decide to fish the small piece of the big island – what was my water in 17 – only with two rods.

In the spring I started with four rods and found out that I only could get takes on two of them. So I thought it would be better to get les lines into the snags. After an early wake up I was already fishing within an hour after the guys to my left had gone home. Because the guys around me were not fishing yet I was hoping to get un early take. So far I never had a take within the first hours at Rainbow. Only an half on hour later happened  were I was hoping for – the first rod went – and I could land my first fish of the session. When I saw the fish I knew directly that it was a good fifty. What a start!

 During the hole week I could manage to catch fish every day. Later in the week I tried a third rod on several spots but again I could only get takes on the two hot spots. The most funny thing about this session  was that I fished with very sweet Top Banana boilies and I didn’t caught a single mirror during hole the week. All of my fish were commons! 

 

Arjen Uitbeijerse

BYT does the job!

This summer I focussed my attentions on a club water local to where I live in the north. Situated in South Yorkshire, the venue offers both day and night fishing, although I myself only had day-book access due to a lengthy night permit waiting list. Having landed my target fish from another water in the spring, the start of June was the ideal time to put in some effort for the two targets I wanted from the new water, known as Trigga and Trio. Both mirrors had made forty-plus in the spring, Trio having topped 42lb when it was landed in May off the top.

Knowing the fish in the venue had a liking for yeasty-type baits I put my faith in the ever-consistent BYT. Being very weedy, I spent a lot of time searching with the marker float for areas worth fishing. The weed was especially bad in most areas, covering almost 90% of the lake bed. It took some serious effort locating the areas where the carp had been rooting, as where the weed was, it was almost top to bottom in 8ft.

I started pre-baiting the areas I’d found with copious amounts of 20mm BYT and then started fishing short trips before work in early June. Immediately I got amongst the fish, landing four on my first morning. Later that week I then got lucky with Trigga in my net weighing in at 37lb 2oz. Being one of the best looking carp in Yorkshire, it was a lovely start. I backed it up with a further eight fish that week, including a nice scatter-scaled 26lb mirror.

            Due to work and family I commitments, I didn’t really get much time to keep the trips consistent during the rest of the month, July or the start of August. I was mainly fishing short evenings when the weather looked good for a bit of stalking. On one particular day I stumbled across the venue’s biggest common, hooking it straight away on a Mixer, only to lose it at the net. Gutted!

I didn’t get back to any serious static fishing until the middle of August when I heard a whisper that Trio had been out at 39lb. The weight really got me excited as I had a feeling it’s next capture could see it over the magical 40lb mark. Arriving at the start for 5am I went on to land a little un’ on my first trip back, followed by a blank the next day and then four fish the next day. The BYT was working wonders, and the next morning, with the rain lashing down all around, I finished my time on the water with a low-double and Trio amongst a mass of weed! Weighing in at a whopping 39lb 10oz, the old character had fallen to a 20mm bottom bait fished over the top of 4kg of BYT freezer baits. It was the perfect result, and proved yet again that with a good bait fished in the right spot, even with limited time on your hands it’s possible to have a result!

Crowy

Rainbow Whackers!

Rainbow Lake is simply in another league when it comes to sheer amounts of big carp. September saw so many big carp banked that I think it probably broke all sorts of records! The great thing was that the the Solar team made up many of the anglers fishing at the time. There's no doubt that the Club Mix has been the number one bait at Rainbow for some time now and it never fails to produce the goods.

I was back in swim 18 for another two week session - only my second trip of the year, but right from the off the fish were out there and they were hungry! Literally every day of the trip brought action of some sort and normally with a big fish or two amongst them. Martin and Alfonse were getting amongst them too in 19 and especially Alfonse who was having the trip of a lifetime with fish to over 70lb (nice one Alfonse). Meanwhile Pidge and Steve in swim 5 were stacking them up too with something like 12 fish over 50lb!!

The island margins hold most of the hot spots in swim 18 and you have to get fairly close to the snags but the fish this time were pulling harder than ever and just to be on the safe side I fished a little further away and in slightly deeper water, but it seemed like the fish wanted the food and just followed it to where it was!

The best combination for me was a mixture of 14mm and 18mm Club Mix boilies along with Red Herring pellets, it's just a personal thing but it has worked really well for me. Double baits on the size 4 Stronghold Long Shanks accounted for every fish I banked. It was another great Rainbow session and great to be down there with all the lads. Roll on the next trip!!!
Keep catchin 'em - Briggsy

WCC 2010 Lac du Madine

I've just got back from a weeks fishing at Lac du Madine competing in the 2010 World Carp Classic. It's a pretty good social event as well competing for £10,000 and a stack of section prizes. I fished with Gary Peet from the Tackle Box so I knew I'd be pretty well fed and watered. He likes his food and drink!

We fished together last year in the WCC and didn't make the most of our swim. We took literally hundreds of kilos of particles last time but that soon proved to be the wrong choice of bait. This time we were prepared with some nicely air dried Club Mix boilies in 18mm and 22mm. We hoped the bigger baits would keep the pesky bream at bay.

There's about 130 pairs competing around the lake divided into sections. Some of the sections had a good history of producing fish and others were real no go areas. The draw was kind to us and we had an ok swim in an ok area. It wasn't a flier but with a bit of graft we had a chance doing ok.

After a bit of negotiation with the competitors either side about swim boundaries we headed out in the boat to see what we had in front of us. There was alot of weed in about 7ft of water which then dropped off quickly into 12ft. Gary put baits in a hole in the weed on the top and one at the bottom of the drop off. I headed further out and found another nice point which had 16ft on the top and 23ft at the bottom. There were fish showing on the sounder which all adds the the confidence. They could we have been bream but I figured that if the bream were feeding there then there's every chance the carp will take a look as well. The area is not normally fished so it couldn't have been anglers bait they were on. I had a silly grin on my face when I came back in the boat. Two baits on the slope of a drop off with fish showing on the sounder and proper baits on the hair. What more could I ask for?!

Through the week we had a take or two each day, always at first light or last light. These two feeding times are so common around the world yet so many anglers think it's a good time to bait up and disturb the swim. I don't know what you think?

I caught the biggest fish of the week which won biggest fish in section at 23Kg (50lb 7oz). We came second in the section and somewhere in the top 20 over all. Using the bigger dried boilies certainly kept the bream away and the carp seemed to like it more than the competitors bait either side who were not fishing far from us at all.

A real edge for us was using the running rig attachment for the lead clips. This gave the fish something else to deal with once pricked but also let us know if a bream did hook itself. So many anglers using a normal lead clip and heavy 8oz/10oz lead had no idea they had anything on until a catfish took it or they wound it in when re baiting. The lead still ejected on the take from the carp but I'm convinced fishing in this way put extra fish on the bank for us.

I'm back to fishing my syndicate lake for the rest of the year so hopefully give you an update on that soon.

Until then, enjoy your fishing.

Myles

New Weed Effect range

Having been a user of other hooklinks for many years now, I’ll admit I was a bit reluctant to change over to the new Weed Effect range that’s been recently released by Solar. When Locky sent me through the samples though I liked the look of them, and during a recent trip to Grenville Lake in Cambridgeshire I decided to have a go with them for the first time.

I was invited to the lake as a guest of the owner for a feature in Carpworld magazine, and I had 40 hours ahead of me. Knowing the lake was quite weedy I stripped down my rods to the bare essentials, then attached one of the new Leadcore Looped leaders, followed by a lead clip and finally one of the ready-tied Weed Effect hooklinks. I completed the set up with a 3oz Weed Effect lead. The whole lot looked liked a ball of weed it was that well camouflaged, and I’ll admit I wasn’t that sure about it at first so I decided to try it on just the two rods to begin with to feel my way in. The other rod I kept my regular set-up on.

During the night I had four takes on the Weed Effect rods which obviously caught my attention. One of these rods was fished over a heavy area of Club Mix 20mm freezer bait, whilst the other was on a single Top Banana, so it may have been something to do with the strategy which produced the takes, rather than just the end tackle camouflage, but it was certainly an interesting first-time result.

20 hours into the session I moved swim to where I’d seen a lot of fish showing. My original swim had not produced a fish during daylight hours and I fancied having a go somewhere else as it was a short and sweet trip. I ended up with just the one fish during the remainder of the trip, a 32lb mirror, and interestingly, that fish came on one of the rods with the Weed Effect set-up on.

It’s still early days for me to say that the Weed Effect range conclusively catches you more fish than with other simpler set-ups, but with me having all of my takes on the range during my first time out with it, thus far it certainly gets a massive thumbs up from me. I’ll keep you posted on how I progress.
Simon Crow

Cassien Fun in the Sun

I hadn't been down to Cassien for the last couple of summers so I was keen to get back for another go. It is a wonderful place to be for sure but isn't without its problems. The sun and scenery make it a very popular place, not just with anglers of course but a whole load of holiday makers. But with water temperatures of 28 degrees I was swimming as well as fishing every day!

Despite being almost devoid of anglers at the start of the trip, it soon filled up and became quite busy. Fish were showing well but weren't feeding that heavily and although it wasn't difficult to find them it was a little more difficult to catch them. It was strange that some swims would produce while the areas either side just wouldn't and that was happening all around the lake.

Getting the baits right is never an easy thing as there are so many other species that will eat them in the warmer weather, especially in the shallower water. One thing which I did find to work well were the new cork dust pop ups. I only tried the Dairy Cream ones but for some reason most of the pestrs would leave them alone while the carp still picked them up! They weren't full-proof but at least I was able to fish fairly normally. Some extra-hard baits that someone had made for me some time back only lasted less than two hours in the water once the poisson chats had found them.

In the shallow water I was also keen to try out the Weed Effect gear as the visibility is so good at Cassien that I'm always worried about the fish being able to see hook lengths and mainlines and I hoped that the Weed Effect gear would look a bit more natural. It all worked very well anyway and leaders and hook lengths caught me a few fish in what were fairly tricky conditions.
One other thing certainly worth a mention are the Line Biters which actually saved me a bit of line! The boaters, pedalos and swimmers can be a nightmare in the summer and you have to be vigilant all the time because sooner or later they will wipe you out, but with the Line Biters even the most stupid of the boaters managed to see that something was there and divert around the lines!

Summer on top

The arrival of the summer months is one of my favourite times of the year as it means I can practice what I most enjoy about carping, fishing on the surface. I absolutely love watching carp taking baits off the top and there’s no adrenaline rush like watching a fish near the hookbait and then eventually take it.

My favoured method is getting the carp in close and selecting out the fish I want to catch. It takes a lot of patience to do this as very often you need to spend upwards of an hour feeding them streams of surface bait. It sounds easy, but when you’re fishing for spooky fish, all it takes is for one of them to spook on something and you can be back at square one.

Only this evening I fed a group of six carp Mixers for almost an hour, and before I’d even had chance to cast the hooker out, one of the smaller ones came up for a bait and spooked the rest of the group. The carp lost all of their confidence and they wouldn’t come within eye shot for quite some time. An hour or so later, just as it was going dark they eventually came in close, but it was too difficult to pick out which fish was which so I had to abandon it for another day.

The key to getting carp in close is to feed Mixers one by one, the aim being to create as little water disturbance as you can. Catapulting or hand throwing handfuls seems to put them more on edge and they end up being much more wary which makes the job that little bit harder. It pays to be as stealthy as you can, even on the lakes where they appear to be fine with anglers making noise on the bank.

I love flavouring my Mixers, and my current favourites are Dairy Cream with a slight touch of Esterblend. You can be quite generous with the Dairy Cream, and I generally use it at a level of 30ml per kilo of dry baits. With the Esterblend, however, this is a very powerful additive and I prefer it used at a low dosage of only 3ml per kilo which is enough to make it noticeable. The extra attraction does Mixers the world of good, and you’ve only got to watch how quickly the carp close by begin searching for food once they get a whiff of it.

I’ve done quite well recently, fishing one of my local ponds which doesn’t contain anything massive, mainly doubles and twenties. Fishing short three-hour trips after work I’ve had some nice fish, including three nice mirrors that I singled out from the smaller fish and targeted. The best looking one was a fish I particularly wanted to catch as its believed to be one of the Leney strain which are quite rare in the north of England where I live.

With a bit of patience and the right bait, it just shows that even when time is limited you can have some success with your local carp in the summer months. If you’ve one or two good fish to go at, you never know, you might just hit the jackpot, so get out there stalking them in close as nothing quite beats the buzz that this type of fishing brings.

All the best for July and August.

Crowy

Attention to detail

We're always looking for those little edges and ways to improve our results and over the last couple of months there are a couple of Solar products which I believe have really made a difference. The first are the Ball Bearing swivels. They've been around for a while now and I must admit I never realised until recently just how good they are! I've been messing around with the Chod Rig a fair bit this year and for a rig which appears so simple, is in fact very adaptable and as technical as you want to make it. One of the main factors is the movement of the hook link itself and for a good hook hold it needs to rotate freely. Like most people I normally used the standard ring swivel - that was until I tried out the Ball Bearing version and the difference is amazing! The movement of the hook link is improved dramatically and so therefore is the hooking potential of the rig. It's a real edge for sure and a great Solar product!

The other thing which has helped me this year are the Weed Effect leaders. I've been fishing a water that is not only extremely difficult but the water is like tap water and the visibilty is so good that at times you can see the rig in over ten feet of water. If it's that easy for me to spot the rig then imagine how easy it must be for the carp which are seeing it from much closer! I had it in my mind that should the opportunity arise to fish on some close-in spots I would use the Weed Effect leaders in the knowledge that they would blend in much better with the surroundings and as if to prove the point, they were very difficult to pick out on the bottom. Of course the real proof is if they can help to put fish on the bank and I had two opportunities this spring (I said it was difficult!) and both times I ended up with a carp on the bank, two stunning commons of 34lb 2oz and 32lb 4oz both of which are real history fish and have only rarely been caught in the past.

The month of May

Crowy’s run of good form continued throughout May, with Club Mix yet again proving its big fish pulling power! Concentrating his efforts in the north of the country on Eric’s Angling Centre’s Willows syndicate, our man on form notched up two more really big fish for Yorkshire, including a lovely 35lb 12oz mirror followed by the lake record in the shape of The Toffee Fish at a whopping 43lb 14oz.

Crowy commented: “Just when I thought things couldn’t get any better, they did! I was baiting quite heavily with Clubs during most of my trips, and although I did catch a few twenties and smaller fish, it once again proved its worth with the biggies when just fifteen minutes into an overnight trip I landed a stunner weighing 35lb 12oz at the beginning of the month. Two weeks later, during a very busy weekend when the lake was almost rammed with anglers, I contemplated pulling off because nothing was looking likely to give. Somehow I talked myself into staying another night, and I freshened up the swim with a few kilos of Clubs. I’m glad I stayed because at 5am on my third morning I had a one toner that just didn’t want to come in. It fought hard all the way in. I caught a glimpse of its flank in the clear water and knew I had a lump on the end. After some fifteen minutes of plodding in the margins, eventually it eased over the net chord. What a sight it was! At 43lb 14oz I was buzzing! Good old Club Mix singled out a biggie yet again! An awesome bait and certainly one to put your faith in if you want a particular big fish from your target water.”