Cassien Christmas crackers

Steve Briggs had a great session down at his favourite venue recently, Cassien in the south of France. It started off really well when in the first two nights Steve landed mirrors of 40lb 4oz, 44lb 8oz and 48lb 12oz. The weather was warm for the time of year Steve fished a variety of depths, baiting lightly with 20mm Club Mix boilies.

As the session wore on the action remained consistent although he had to move a couple of times to keep on the fish. After the first three mirrors it was the commons that fed more strongly and the next seventeen fish were all commons including Steve's two biggest ever from the lake at 55lb 4oz (25.1kg) and 56lb 8oz (25.6kg) . The run of commons continued until the weather turned really cold at night and then when a mirror did arrive it was a big one of 56lb 4oz (25.5kg).

It was a session where everything went to plan but also all the gear was working perfectly. 32 runs were received and 32 fish were landed which speaks volumes for the effectiveness of the Stronghold size 4's which every fish was landed safely on.

Christmas Day was another special one as Steve landed six fish that day including his biggest Christmas Day fish so far, a lovely mirror of 50lb 10oz. A great session from start to finish!!!!

Happy New Year Briggsy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Around the venues

I've been fishing all over the place since my last post at a number of different venues at home and abroad and have been having some great fun! For the last week or so I've been concentrating on a local venue which is literally a stones throw from where I live. It's all been short session stuff either mornings or afternoons and I've had fish every time I've been. As much of my fishing involves long sessions away it's been good to scale the tackle down and travel light, but one of the important things is to get fishing asap with the minimum of fuss and the Worldwide Pod has been the business in that respect. I'm used to using it on the big waters abroad but the adaptability means it can be used on literally any venue and scaling it down in size it's perfect for quiuck assembly for the short sessions! Yesterday it was fishing well so I stayed on for the day and ended up with nine fish up to 27lb+ with one lost

Apart from that I fished with my old mate Crowy down at the Church Lake in Essex and we both got amongst the fish. I got the ball rolling with a cracking 30lb+ mirror before Crowy got in to gear and he landed a few up to 32lb although he did lose a proper lump right at the net which we both had a good look at and it had to be a mid -40 at least!! - unlucky mate!!

A couple of weeks back I went over to Gran Canaria for the first time. It was one of the places I'd always wanted to visit so it was good to finally get there. I met up with Dave Beecham who runs a guiding service over there. He was brought up on the same waters as me in the Darenth Valley all those years ago so we had plenty in common and he is sponsored by Solar so he has all the right gear out there! The fishing isn't difficult as hardly anyone fishes there these days. The important thing is to use strong reliable gear, so I went with the Easy Strip 25lb hook links, size 4 StrongHold long shank hooks and Solar lead clips and we never lost a fish! All the action came at night - which wasn't surprising as it was over 40 degrees most days in the blazing August sun, but we had some stunning, heavily-scaled mirrors up to mid - 30's which all fought like demons! 

Lastly, I fished one other session over in France at Bob Davis' Lac Serreire which has always been one of my favourite commercial venues. We shared the Big Lake with Tim Paisley for the week and I fished up in the shallows where I'd enjoyed some success the previous October. It's a fantastic lake with stacks of carp and the action started from day one with some chunky mirrors up to 41lb. They were quick to move in on the baited areas but would then move off after a few fish had been banked so I had to keep moving the rods around, but the Club Mix was as good as ever and invariably action would come quite soon after a new area had been baited. The best of the week was a long mirror of 48lb 8oz that picked up a double Club Mix bottom bait in about 1.5 metres of water next to bed of lilies.

So there's been plenty of variety in my fishing but as always the Solar gear has been well up to the job and I feel confident whatever the situation. I've got plenty more fishing to do over the coming weeks so I just hope the results keep coming!!

Cheers Briggsy

August update

Crowy has continued to bank a few during the last few weeks, including some lovely fish from Church Lake (Essex), Emmotland (Yorkshire), Manton New Lake (Lincolnshire) and White Cottage Lake (Sussex). Best of the bunch was a 32¼lb mirror from Church Lake, whilst at Emmo he landed fish to just over 30lb from Pond 1 and mirrors to almost 29lb from Pond 2. At Manton, he fished for less than an hour and banked a mid-twenty common off the top, whilst at White Cottage he banked one of the biggies known as The Long Common during an overnighter, weighing in at 29lb 10oz.

A mixture of tactics has produced the goods, including surface fished Mixer flavoured with Dairy Cream and Pineapple, whilst on the bottom he’s been using Club Mix and sweetcorn to tempt his catches. He’s been using the new Easy Strip Coated hooklink as well as our new Sediment Black Lead Clips and Tail Rubbers.

He commented: “I’ve done quite a bit of mileage lately, fishing short trips at waters all over the country. It’s the first time I’ve used the new hooklink and it’s looking good so far as I’ve not lost a fish on it. As for the Sediment Black coloured clips, I love these for fishing over choddy bottom as they really blend in well.”

Mr Consistent!

Solar’s Simon Crow has been Mr Consistent, notching up 30-pounders from five different UK venues already this season. First up was a couple of thirties topped by a 32¼lb mirror from Emmotland’s Pond 1 in Yorkshire, shortly followed by a 30½lb mirror known as The Linear from Menards in Sussex.

He then ventured to Shropshire and Acton’s Bottom Lake where he landed a 33lb mirror as well as the Big Common known as Bill at 51lb.

He then banked a trio of thirties from Grenville in Cambridgeshire, topped by a 32½lb, and this week he’s just returned from the Isle of Wight where a 42-hour trip on Rookley Park resulted in a 31lb 2oz!

Crowy revealed: “It would have been six lakes but unfortunately I managed to lose a fish known as No Name from Orchid Lake a rod length out!” All of Crowy’s fish have come on Solar’s Stronghold X-Wide Gape hooks (size 6), and fallen for either Club Mix, Top Banana pop-ups or sweetcorn.

50's from six countries for Steve Briggs

Steve Briggs made history recently when he became the first person ever to catch 50lb carp from six different countries. His latest capture came during a six-day session on a private 80 acre low-stock lake in Belgium. In good conditions Steve started catching from the start on the difficult venue and after landing a small stockie and a 35lb mirror, he then latched in to the lakes largest mirror, a fish named Zeus which weighed in at 61lb 8oz! Steve baited a shallow spot in amongst thick weed with Club Mix and BYT boilies and matching pellets and was surprised by the action after fishing the lake on two previous occasions where he landed just one carp. Fishing at 150 metres range with braid, he used a three-metre length of 40lb Unleaded to keep everything down on the bottom in the clear water. 

Over the next two days the action continued and amongst eleven fish in total he banked two of the other known big fish both of which were commons, The Long One at 51lb 8oz and The Leopard at 42lb 8oz. After that conditions changed and the fish switched off but Steve was more than happy after landing his main target fish from the lake.

Steve commented: "I'm over the moon to have had a result like this and to have caught a big Belgian carp. The lake is very tricky and to give you an idea, there were just 27 carp caught from there in 2010 and the one carp that I had caught previously from there back in 2008 was in fact the only capture of that fish in seven years! But the big mirror Zeus was one that I'd seen a picture of several years ago and I'd always wanted to catch it so it was a magic moment - and of course to become the first person to make it 50's from six countries is a bit special too. Thanks to Theo and Jonny for making us welcome and for putting in the hard work to create this challenging but rewarding venue."

Six of the best at Rainbow

Rainbow Lake was on good form recently and it was yet another incredible session on the best carp water the world has ever known. I was in swim 18 for two weeks, it's a swim I know well and it seems that the fish spend more time there than ever now since the storms of February 2009 when several more trees were blown over in to the lake. The fish continue to grow well but the latest result still surprised me. I started catching straight away but on the third day I latched in to a 68lb 4oz mirror and I would have been happy with that one - but that was just the start!!

The fish kept feeding and action came most days. Normally in April it can be tough but the fish average can be on the big side as the smaller fish tend to spawn first but they head for the other end of the lake, it certainly seemed to be the case again as the smaller fish were just nowhere to be seen.

Some of the fish I'd never seen before but at least three of the 60lb+ fish that I caught I had previously landed when they weighed a bit less. Re-captures are never what we want but it is good to see how the fish are doing and without exception they are just getting bigger every year!

Bait for this trip was the new Chinese Takeaway boilies and pellets and also the ever-reliable Quench. The right bait is always important and also the right gear, the fish were fighting extremely hard this time and the Stronghold size 2's were definitely put to the test but came through with flying colours.

Over the last few years I've had some great Rainbow sessions but this one topped most of them I think with 24 fish landed in total but with six of them over 60lb and a further four 50's and eleven 40's.

We all hear about the big Rainbow fish and you can get a bit blase about what goes on there but there simply isn't another place like it in the world and when you are there catching them it's a bit special - there isn't anywhere that can compete with it. But of course you only catch them if they want to eat the bait, so well done Martin on coming up with yet another winner!!!

Big Bill falls to the Clubs

It’s not every day that you get the opportunity to fish one of the most exclusive lakes in the country, so when the chance to fish at Acton Burnell’s Bottom Lake for a week with my good mate Steve Briggs came up I jumped at it. The two of us fished the rock-hard 7 acre estate lake a couple of years back, Steve coming away exceptionally well with six carp from seven nights of fishing. When you consider there are only 21 carp in the venue, he did amazingly well, with a little bit of luck also coming his way.

 On that occasion I only fished four nights, losing one on my last morning, so I really did want to make amends on this occasion. The first night I managed to get off the mark straight away with a cracking 33lb mirror, falling to Club Mix 18mm bottom bait in a deep channel in the middle of the lake. The following day I decided to rest the swim as the Bottom Lake doesn’t tend to fish very well in daylight hours, putting the rods back out at 8pm. The conditions were absolutely electric, perfect for big fish, and less than an hour later I was latched into the venue’s most sought after fish, Bill at 51lb, a stunning old common that’s seen the net of some really famous anglers over the last twenty years, including Kevin Maddocks, Alan Taylor and Dave Moore to name just a few. It only comes out a couple of times a year so I feel very privileged to have caught it in such a short space of time.

The amazing Club Mix had done it once again, assisting me to land yet another good fish. It seems to keep catching the biggies wherever it is used, just ask the rest of the Solar team who have also been having some exceptional success with it. Long may it continue, that’s all I can say!

Simon Crow