Orchid lake continues to produce big carp with two thirties landed on the
same day, one out of Orchid lake itself and the other out of the lagoon.
ossie osbourn taking the big common the
first time out on the bank for four years.
Phil Roots has been showing most
people the way on Orchid taking seven twenties and a thirty in one 48 hour
session.
The old season finished
with a lot of good fish being caught here in the UK, here are just a few of
them. Nick Lindsey landed a 37lb mirror from a Hertfordshire lake.
In mid
February Frampton produced another
mid thirty.
Farlows produced a thirty for lee Vobes, don't forget this is a
day ticket water.
Frampton again with another mid thirty to midlands angler
Gary Wade that's over ten thirties
this year from just one fishery.
Then frampton produced one of it's most
famous resident fish "no name" at 45lb's .
What a fabulous late winter this
has been for Frampton.
Pete Firmanger
landed a mid thirty common his second of the winter over 35lbs. another big
common which is also a new lake record is patshull parks the wart at 36lb
Redesmere also produced 30lb
plus commons.
Even Rob Maylin got in on the act with a 37lb mirror from the
Yately complex
My phone never seemed to stop ringing with more have you "heards", it has been difficult to know which carp to mention, after the cold winters nights blanks it makes a pleasant change, what the coming weeks bring we will see, certainly news from across the channel will start coming in again, I will look out for the best and tell you more next month.
On the new tackle side, two new reels from Shimano look worth a serious
look at if you are in the market for big long range reels.
The Biomaster XT
has five bearings and holds on the
biggest the 1400XT over 600 yds of 15lb line, not cheap at over two hundred
pounds but there will be plenty on the banks this summer.
The main
difference between the Biomaster and
the cheaper Ultegras seems to be in the amount of bearings inside, only
time will tell if the Biomaster is worth nearly twice as much as the
Ultegra.
Rod wise my company New Dawn Rod Co has noticed a big swing towards Spod
rods, and Centuries "Big Bertha" in particular, that may be something to do
with the transfer on the rod
butt and not it's incredible performance of casting a 12oz spod over
120yds.
Look out and protect your fingers though if you are not used to
casting heavy weights.
Our own version of the SP Armalite is also selling well especially the 3.5lb thirteen foot which last summer set new world record casts in excess of 245 yds with 8lb line and a 3.5oz lead using a fixed spool reel. now that is a very long way indeed.
Mistral baits have introduced a new pellet which can be either used from
the bag as a quickly dissolving pellet of boiled for a short time and used
as a miniature boilie, two for the price
of one?
Their Honey Syrup boilie will again catch plenty of continental
fish as it has for years, and their pop ups have to be the best available.
Now a further chapter in my carp fishing history where more modern techniques start to make inroads into the countries carp.
Slowly things were changing and new more effective methods were starting to
take hold and it was becoming easier to catch carp.
I was fishing a water in Bedfordshire which had a good head of carp which
were very hard to catch my long swing tip method of sitting on top of the
rods gave me an occasional fish but
one person was catching more than the rest of the anglers totalled
together.
He obviously had an edge and it wasn't bait.
One day after he had caught something like a dozen fish and I had only
suffered dropped baits he took pity on me and showed me the edge he had. I
laughed and told him that it wasn't
possible to catch fish with a bait three inches away from the hook, "you
will see" were his leaving words.
The following weekend was no different to the last and in frustration I put
this rig on the end of my line, within the hour my old Mitchell reel was
backwinding and the rod was jumping up
and down on the rests.
I suppose that it was several seconds before I
realised that it was a fish running hard and I struck the hook home or so I
thought.
Of course the fish was already
hooked and running quickly, my strike just managed to break the mainline?
Guess what I did next, put on another hair rig, a size eight hook tied to
nine pound Silcast line and the boilie
tied off the bend of the hook with three quarter pound line about three
inches long.
I sat by the rods waiting for the run that would come, and I
wasn't disappointed, again it was running
hard and I lifted the rod to feel the fish on and still running hard. Soon
after my first hair rig caught carp was in my net and I stood in disbelief
looking at it. The bait was outside the mouth
but the hook was firmly in the scissors of It`s mouth, seventeen pounds of
common was the first of many to come to this rig and to this day we are all
fishing a variation of the same thing.
It was not long after this that I was made redundant from my job as a development engineer and I did some extensive fishing, and caught a lot of fish but I was to have a moment of madness when I bought a fishing tackle shop. This moment was to make some very big changes to my fishing, little did I know that short sessions were to become the norm and new horizons were also not far away, this time a boat ride away and Holland's commons were calling me.
Owning a fishing tackle shop made for me major changes in my own fishing,
in the summer while every one wanted to be out fishing meant that it was
hard for me to find the time for my
own fishing, then I thought about Holland and being able to fish in what
was the shops quietest period, the English closed season. a few friends
were bribed to come with me and armed
with very little knowledge we set off on Good Friday for a weeks fishing.
We had a canal marked on a map in the Hague and after getting off the boat
we found our first problem there
were so many canals we didn't find the one that we were looking for.
We
learned a lot of things this trip especially about the canal systems around
that area and by the time it was time to
come home we had caught quite a few fish up to just under twenty pounds and
I made plans to go back in the September to do a little fishing but mostly
to have a better look around for
next Mays fishing.
I only fished two nights that September but surprised
myself by catching six twenty pound commons the first night from a park
water called Madouradam in the Hague
and on the last night four upper doubles and a twenty eight pound mirror
from another park lake, this time Madestein again in the Hague. This was in
the early eighties and I was to travel
to Holland between two and five times a year until the mid nineties when
other countries called for me.
More next month about this Dutch era and of
course my fishing in England where I
was to catch some dream makers.
I hope that you have found something of interest here this month, I will be back again next month with more news and a further journey into my own history.
As usual feel free to contact me with any questions or news worthy items.
Also don`t forget to visit the New Dawn
website if you get the chance.
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