First succes of the year!!

Last year I have fished this very pressured lake in Holland with no result. As the temperature is getting better I went of the do some serious pre-baiting with the famous clubs. I had a two night session and the wind was blowing mad from south-west. the first day is saw a fish jumping just in the margin, and I place a choddy with a pineapple fluor pop-up on the place where the fish came out of the water. The lake is very low stocked with only eight fish on 4 acres. So I knew I was in fish.. On the last day just before sunrise I had my first take off the year, after a fight of 10 minutes I had the fish in the net and what whacker a big female lether carp of 40,2lb. I was realy over the moon.

Keep it up guys,

Ronald margadant

First outing on Solar Baits

Last week I was invited to visit Freedom Lakes near Poitiers and fished the biggest lake of the complex(Louane). I fished this wonderful lake with my mate Jan and we ended up with some very lovely fish.

The fishing was not easy as they prepared for spawning, what they ended up doing from Wednesday on.. We tried building up some feeding spots but most bites came from the middle part of the lake near the shallows around the central island. We ended up with 17 bites with an average of 15kg+(33lbs+) and the highlights were a 49lbs complex record common and a 42lbs long mirror for me and for my mate Jan a 44lbs mirror.

It was the first time to use the Solar Baits since joining the Team and I choose the shelf life version of the Secret in 14,18 and 22 mm combined with 15mm Pineapple pop-up fished snowman style. This combination resulted in 6 of my 8 bites. Two fish were taken from showing fish using Pineapple pop-up choddies.

Set-ups consisted of leadcore leaders with leadclips or helicopter style and coated hooklinks with Stronghold Longshank hooks.

All 8 bites were landed, so a very pleasing result.

Freedom Lakes is a very nice venue with 3 lakes to be fished. The biggest lake, which we fished, is the one with the biggest fish in it. The lake record is 50lbs+(last season) and the growth rate is very impressive. I had a 42lbs mirror that was caught 6 months ago at 31lbs(and it was not heavy with spawn)! There are some 200-250 fish present in around 9 hectares/22acres and a maximum of 8 anglers can fish 14 swims.

If you want to try your luck have a look at http://www.freedomlakes.com/

The confidence in the Solar Baits range was already very high, but after this first result it has become skyhigh!! As you can imagine i’m looking forward into the rest of the season haha

Dennis de Wilde

The month of April 2010

Solar consultant Simon Crow has been having a romping good time of it lately, banking carp from both the north and south of the UK, including the prestigious Black Eye from Chad Lakes’ Home Pool. The capture of the legendary fish took Crowy into an exclusive club by becoming only the fifth angler in the world to land carp of 50lb or more from four different countries (we should add that Solar’s consultants make up three of the five anglers in this little clan, the others being Steve Briggs and Alijn Danau).

Crowy takes up the story about his run of good form: “I know full well that in the spring you need to put your faith in a really attractive bait, and there’s really only one choice here and that’s Club Mix. I did ever so well on this bait last year in the early part of the season and I had no reason to change. I didn’t do much fishing during the winter time, but once the equinox arrived I went at it all systems go. My first session out for the year was a short over-nighter to Chestnut Pool in Hertfordshire for an Open Access Waters feature in Carpworld magazine. It was just manic, and in the end I had to reel in for the night because the action was just none-stop. Wherever I put bait it went, and in the end I gave up counting how many fish I caught. The best wasn’t massive, only around 18lb, a pretty scaley mirror, but it was a great way to kick the Spring off."

"Next step was The Willows syndicate in West Yorkshire where the Clubs really worked very well for me. The lake received a healthy stocking of smallish carp around 5lb during the winter and I expected these to be a bit of a problem. However, the Clubs singled out the lake’s better fish for me without giving me any problems with the nuisance fish. I kicked off with a cracking common of 26lb, followed by mirrors of 24lb, 24¾lb, 25lb, 25½lb, a couple of 26s, a 26¾lb, a 34lb, a 35¾lb, a 36lb, and a 36¾lb, plus a rake of doubles and low-20s."

"If that wasn’t enough, I also booked myself onto the famous Home Pool at Chad Lakes for a few days, only to find myself attached to the lake’s biggie Black Eye just six hours into my trip! A single 20mm Club was all it took, fished over a few handfuls of freebies and pellets. The great fish is a regular 54lb-plus carp so when I had it in the net I was chuffed to have joined fellow Solar consultants Steve Briggs and Alijn Danau as having caught 50s from four different countries. It didn’t end there though, the lake contains no more than thirty carp and in the three nights I fished there I also chipped in with a low-20 mirror, another of 23¾lb and the lake’s Big Fully at 28¾lb, all on the Clubs! It was great fishing at a truly wonderful lake! I’m now itching to get back out and hope that May is equally as rewarding!”

All of Crowy’s fish came to rigs comprised of our very own X-Wide Gape hooks with leads presented on Solar lead clips with matching tail rubbers.

Scaling down

By the lack of posts on here it would appear that not too many of us have been having a great time out there? My old mate Crowy has been getting amongst them and big congratulations go out to him on catching his first English 50, the superb Black Eye at 54lb from Chad Lakes Home Pool. With him catching that fish on his first day of a two-week session I was grateful when he offered me a few days of his trip.
Any thoughts of catching the big one myself went out of the window as the fish went and sulked in a weed bed where it stayed for the next two weeks (but then so would I if I'd been nabbed by Crowy - only joking!) Dropping temperatures with clear nights and a full moon didn't help - and neither did the end of the lake which I had to fish - a quick look through the catch reports revealed that my end had only produced one fish all year!
But fish were visiting the area so I was in with a chance but as ever with small waters, they were very shy and very riggy. I was able to watch on a few occasions fish cleary avoid the rigs. Eventually I found two fish 'clouding up' the bottom right in the edge and I scaled everything down to a size 10 hook, a six inch 12lb mono hook length and two Dairy Cream 10mm hook baits (The small Solar needle was ideal for such small baits)I placed the bait carefully right next to the tuft of grass in the picture around 1ft from the bank and at 3.15am the next morning a one-toner had me running up the bank. A good scrap followed and with just hours to go before I had to leave I banked my first Home Pool carp of 28lb 2oz. Not quite as big as my old mate Crowy's but a pleasing capture all the same.

South Westerly Warmth

After spending a couple of days submitted to arctic temperatures, it came clear that i was a lucky bastard to be wearing the southwesterly clothing to keep me warm!
There came some carpy action as well, so no need to complain.

To all you sharper carpers out there: enjoy your time being out there!

Geert Ooms

Lockey's World Record

Solar Tackle boss Martin Locke last week smashed the world record for a carp with the capture of the Steve Briggs Fish from Rainbow Lake, France. Here's a short interview with our legendary man, to tell us all about how it happened: “There were only four fish out of the lake all week. There’s so many big fish in Rainbow, and there’s so many places the carp can hide away in the snags, so I feel really lucky that one biggie decided it wanted to have a nibble on my bait! The conditions were freezing and that rod had been cast out since Saturday! I’d not had a sniff since I got here. Then on Wednesday morning, I had a few bleeps in the night, then it tightened up on me at 6am. It felt like it was snagged on the bottom when I got above it in the boat, and I was thinking to myself, the line will ping off the snag any minute. As I pulled it felt like I was connected to a tree, and I expected a log to come up off the bottom because it was like a dead weight. I then saw the leader knot come up, and then I saw this absolutely massive fish hit the surface! It never even nodded the rod during the fight! I knew straight away it was going to be a huge fish, but I never expected it to weigh 94lb! It was in great condition and I went and got Alijn Danau who was fishing further along to come and witness it. I tempted the biggie on two Solar Club Mix boilies fished kebab style with an 8mm Top Banana Everlasting pop-up in the middle. My winning rig included some prototype hooks and our lead clips, plus a 12oz Rainbow Special lead and a Ton-Up hooklink. My thanks to the lads I went with, Brooksey and Nige for everything they've done over the last week, plus thanks to Pascal and his family for their great hospitality."

Christmas at Cassien

It was so good to be back on the banks of Cassien for the Christmas period once again. You see the last couple of years have been a bit hit-and-miss and I was determined to make it back there for the end of 2009. It wasn't particularly straight forward as with the release of the book this year I have to attend most of the shows, including the VBK show in Belgium, but what a great show that turned out to be! It really feels like one big get-together of friends and of course Martin and the Solar team were there too so a great time was had by all - thanks to all the VBK team for making us so welcome.
It was straight after the VBK show that Joan and I left for Cassien, it was during the start of the cold spell and we drove through snow and sleet but we made it in good time. The news was that the lake had been fishing quite well with the water level rising after heavy rains, but the sudden drop in temperature had halted things somewhat. I expected a tough time to be honest, but was just glad to be back at the place which means so much to me.
It was all very quiet for a few days. Not many anglers were on but there were no signs of carp and it was very cold, but finally, five days after arriving my Club Mix boily was picked up in the early hours and it was like I'd never been away. After a tough battle in the freezing darkness I landed a nice mirror of 44lb 8oz and to be honest that made the trip - I didn't need another fish.
A change came in the weather - it turned much warmer, but with it came the rain - lots of it! It rained for almost five days solid and I was so glad for the South Westerly clothing which meant that we could carry on with things and remain dry! The warm spell did bring with it a bit of action and two more cracking mirrors of 41lb and 47lb 8oz followed. From a tough start with limited time it was actually turning out to be a great trip.
Christmas Day started in the best way possible - I was dragged out of bed at 6am by a screaming run! I always hope to get a fish on Christmas Day but I hadn't actually achieved that since 2005 so this was quite a special moment and the 26lb common which was on the end was most gratefully received. Needless to say the rest of the day was spent eating, drinking and just smiling really!
The only problem with the Christmas period now at Cassien is that you know the crowds are going to arrive and they did from the 26th onwards up to the point where it really became packed-out. We were due to leave on the 28th so it didn't matter too much. I wasn't expecting any more action as the fish often turn off when it's busy but as we were packing up with the just the rods and the bivvy to go, one of the rods roared off but unfortunately the fish got around a snag and I retreived the rig minus the carp. It was a shame to end that way but I couldn't complain with the fish I'd already caught and after all it was just nice to get back and spend some time at my favourite lake.
Happy New Year - Briggsy