BigFishNut

Well done Jay and congrats on beating your pb, i have only fished there a couple of times but spent alot of time walking the water. better luck on dragging yourself away from the carp, i know its hard when your catching, even us big fish hunters are prone to enjoying a bit of rod bending run from time to time, oh ok, lots of times hope you get on them cats next time as i know there are a few good fish to go at there. Gav

Not yet old bean, silly me found that crawley angling club ownes over 40 waters right on my door step with one lake being only a 2 min walk from my frount door, went the other day and my son had 1 small carp (his first) and his friend who was down for the holladays also had her first carp happy faces all round. Will be looking in to the other waters over the rest of the the colder weather in the hope to find my self some new stopping ground to bag some wackers, its a big change from wiltshire i can tell you, i have gone from what i called big pits of around 18 acres to water of 30 acers+. Chears for all the info lads i hope to bump in to some of you one day maybe, ill be the one drinking tea like its going out of fassion lol...... Tight Lines For 2008 Gav

Hey Guys I Found This One Aswell, It Has Big Cats And Carp Alike http://www.beaverfarmfishery.co.uk/home.php Gav

Cant beat the good old mini wigglers in winter, i use gallons of um, but as rob said i would stick to what worked for you last time. let us know how you got on. Rob hows things bud, hope you had a good christmas/new year, any good catches to report ?? Gav

Cheers ChubStar, ill check it out and also pop in to the tackle shop. Thanks again and happy new year to you gav

Hiya Guys And Galls Im Down In Sussex (Crawley) at the moment and just wonderd if you guys knew of any day ticket waters i could take my boy and his friend to for the day, looking to catch some carp, tench ect on carp kit as i only have 2 sets of rods with me but would like them to get there rods bent. its both there first time fishing so catching is a big must, yeah i know before you say it it's winter but aslong as there are a good head of fish i sure i can encourage a fish or 3 to feed, would love it if you guys could sergest a lake or two. Many thanks and a very happy new year to you all, may this year bring more bent rods than the last and the need for bigger scales. Gav

I have been fishing swangeys lake for a number of years now, if your after the cats try round the fare side of the island (with your back to the other lake) and fish to the two long gravel bars at about 80 to 90 yards range, fish the gully in the middle of the two bars, this is also a noted hot spot for the carp, just lately I have been having more luck fishing on the long bank and fishing just off to the right hand side of the second bar out, if you get the right spot your find just over 6ft of water, this seams to be a noted winter hot spot, also worth a go is a swim known as the double, as put in another thread this is down the first turning just before the car park, your find a swim with steps called the waterfall, (NEVER fish hear when its raining trust me, I found out the hard way, flooded out big time) to the left of that there is a swim big enough for two bivvies (the double) when standing in this swim your see there is a small gully on the island, this can be a hot spot but it also receives a lot of presser so keep that in mind, down to the left hand side of the swim there is a small bush that stands out about 3ft from the bank, about 3ft off the end of that there is a small clay hump, this spot has turned up a number of 30’s in the past for myself and a mate of mine (why I’m giving away all my secrets I don’t known but oh well this will be my last season on the water so someone mite aswell gane something from my time on the water) down the same bank there is another swim but its closed off, about 100 yards or so your see a line of trees, right in the corner where the tree line meets the bank there are some very snaggy branches, its well worth baiting up here about 2ft from the bank but fish locked up as they tend to head right for the snags, the other plus side of this spot is you can bait up from the bank and it’s a very over looked spot. Out in the middle of this swim about 40 yards of so from the corner of the island going to the left there is a small and I mean small gravel spot, it’s a bit of a sod to find at times but a couple of casts around with the lead should revile where it is, just on the fare side of this gravel hump there is a very deep silty spot, a chod rig cast hear with a 1inch pop-up works really well, or has done in the past. Ok now down to bait. I only really use 4 types/flavours depending on the time of year. I was lucky enough to field test the new SC25’s from tails-up along with 5 other people on the water and I must say, since changing over to this bait I have almost doubled my catch rate, I tend to use them in both 14mm and 18mm, feeding both sizes seems to confuse the carp so that they don’t know what baits have the hook in (good little tip for all waters). Another bait I have found to work really well more so for the cats is provit liver also by tails-up, this bait was used a lot on the water when it first come out and did very well, even though its been blown a bit now it still accounts for a lot of fish again using both 14mm and 18mm baits or if I’m after the cats I used the 20mm and 25mm. The one bait I would not leave home without when fishing hear has to be the good old sweat corn, you may catch a lot of tench and bream when using it but it has account for my 3 biggest fish at 37lb 4oz, 37lb 0oz and 32lb 9oz, when I say I use sweat corn I mean I use sweat corn, I’m talking in the range of 15 to 20kg every 24 hours, this may seem a lot but there are loads of tench and bream on this water and they soon mop the lot up, I also put out a lot of seed mix 10kg or so every 24 hours but sped this about as it seams to hold the fish in the swim for longer, you can use the fake corn or maize on the hook. Ok my last bait has to be one of my favourites, the good tiger nut, when all else has failed the tiger nut has got me that bonus fish, I tend to use just one on the hair but scrape off the brown outer coating reviling the creamy white centre, also worth a try is to use two half’s of a tiger and spread them out on the hair using some pop-up foam when casting it out, this will leave them split apart on the bottom and seems to fool the more crafty carp. Well I hope this helped and if you would like any more info you only have to ask. Tight lines and all the best gav

hehe so in a nut shell, YOUR GETTING OLDDDDDD, naa i must admit im getting very much the same but with out them pesky pike, ganna turn my hand back to barbel again this winter i think, had a walk along the river today and spotted one or two nice fish.

Day-um budgie, dont you ever sleep anyone, its friday, why you not out fishing, or are you getting old like me and sitting by the fire with your laptop hahahahaha

hey sandra, i have found in the past that the only way to stop the pesky canal boats from picking up your line is to use back leads just of the shelf, i have tryed slack lines in the past and i find that the prop on the boats soon pick the lines up, so for fish safty i would stick to back leads Tight Lines Gav

Hey MartyG sorry its taken me so long to get this vid done but its been one thing after another, ill have the vid on there by sunday

yet again budgie has hit the nail on the head, work at fish and work at fshing for them and your on a winner

Hey Simon fist off by reading your thred, you said that you had been reciving alot of "takes" and no fish because what you thought was down to hook size! may i ask you what kinda distance your fishing at and are you useing any form of back lead/flying or clip on???? as this may not be takes but only extream line bites. cheers and tight lines Gav

hiya Rob ok i have taken alot of time reading the posts and seen alot of what i would cal magg carping posted, i even seen my own name used in one thred, now thatsd a laugh seein as im a magg righter from time to time haha, Rob you say you can cast to the iand you would like to fish to, so why not just add a 2 baite stringer or a tiny pva stick to your hook, please dont tell me that you think only having alot of bait will catch big fish, because let me "tel" you now it dont, because 92% of the biggest carp i have had from the UK has almost always been from a singal hook bait or been fished on a tiny and when i say tiny i mena the size of a wallnut or smaller pva bag, you have to rememer that if the iland is out of most poeples reach then why would they reacted over a bed of bait?? there not used to seeing it so why sould they? why is it a hot spot, because its a place most anglers try and reach and there for what carp are had from there are noted more than fish had in open water. so to cut a long story short, put the maggs down and go fishing, do your own thing and your get there. please dont take offence to this post as it was not intended in that way but i read this and have to right about it every day and it really winds me up All the best Gav

Hey MartyG I dont think Budgie could have put it better, as a kid i used to take a rod and reel to the local park with a bucet and cast to it, i found with time that i could get it in the bucket 8 out of 10 times, i then moved the bucket farther away and in the end it changed to a paddling pool but i now know i can cast a good 140 yards and hit the nail on the head amost every time, as for clipping up, there is a tecneck to doing this and all going wel, ill be at tockenham this weekend so i take the digi cam with me and vidio record it for you so you can see how to do it. Tight Lines Gav

Hey wid3y like yourself i have worked my way round most the waters in wiltshire and have found only three that really apeal to me, one being silverlands, i mite add tho that i used to fish there about 6-7 years ago before the young mickle neal told all the fishing mags and pappers about the size of the fish that where in there, another i fish alot is devises canal but the water that has always got me comming back for more is tockenham, your right about the ticket as i think i put in my first post, its £35 for the main ticket and £50 for the night ticket but in my books its well worth every peny, now the colder weather has started to set in i will he heading for tockenham alot more, i find it to busy for my liking in the summer with al the niddy anglers about, i will also be fishing silverlands to catch the two fish that have not been had in he past 4 years but i know atleast one of them are stil there as i spoted it only 2 days ago when taking a walk round the lake with the new baliff, i dont know if you met the old baliff's phill and jill but they dicided to move to another water so a good friend of mine as taken over, "Leon" is his name and hes a top guy, not the best anler in the world but his heart is in the right place and he will go out of his way to help out. Widey drop me an email at hughes.gavin@btinternet.com so we can get in contacted over the phone, i hate typing on the best of days and to be honist i dont get the time as i fish just about 6 days a week. thanks for getting back to me and hope to hear from you soon Tight lines Gav

Hey Ian, ill keep in contacted as to how its fishing ect and if you want to pop down and have a fish that would be cool, its always nice to meet someone new and exchange tips ect Tight Lines gav

Thanks for all the well done's i been meaning to have a go at canal carping for a number of years and for once i got off my butt and did it. I would tell anyone to give it ago because canal carping is a little knowen thing, look at all the storys in the carp maggs and then count how many carp are from the canal's, as i said in my thred the best part is still to come Thanks again Gav Tight Lines

Has Anyone Done Any Canal Carping??? For a number of months I have been planning a winter on my local canal in devises after taking a walk along the canal about 4 months ago I spotted a number of fish that I guessed would go over the 20lb mark and one or two that would push the 30lb mark. So about 3 months ago I started going down there twice a week to bait up, only putting in about a 1kg of boilie’s and the same of corn on each visit in the pound that I had spotted the fish in earlier that year. Well my 3 months baiting up is now over and I had my first trip there on the 27th and 28th of October, only having a short amount of time to fish each day due to work commitments I would be fishing from 5am till 9am and then again in the evenings from 5pm till 9pm but on the up side I would miss most of the boat traffic. My fish trip was on the 27th of Oct: I arrived at a little before first light and after almost passing out where I had put my rod bag on funny and it had cut the blood off from my head (well that's how it felt) I put the tackle down just as two large carp decided to jump clean out at the same time right over where I had been baiting up, its almost as if they where seeing if it was me to see if they would get more free food, I decided to keep rigs simple and fish a single grain of fake corn on one rod and a 15mm boilie on a “D” rig blow back style without even thinking twice I rigged up two running rigs both with 2oz flat pare leads and 4ft of lead core, cast them both on to the fare bank then walked round to clip on the rigs, both where baited with small PVA bags loaded with corn, broken boilie’s and mini pellets, then using the spreader block on my landing net I lowered the baits just 1ft from the bank about 12ft apart then walked back round to my rods, as I got closer to one of my rods I noticed the tip was bouncing and as I looked closer I could see the line cutting throw the water at a rate of knots, I could not believe my eyes, I lifted into the fish and after a good fight and some fun and games trying to put the landing net back together I slipped the net under what looked to be my fist 20lb carp, sure enough on the scales it went 21lb 8oz Wow what a start I thought to myself. The sun was now coming up fast and a frost was just starting to settle on the ground as I re-baited the rod only to hear the clutch on my other real scream out, after what seamed to be forever a lifted the net around yet another canal common this time it was only about 15lb but I could not believe my luck, two canal carp on my first trip out. The time past quick and it was time to start packing but as we all do everything was packed away leaving the rods till last, just before winding in I received 3 bleeps on my fake corn rod, looking at the tip I could see it was nodding ever so slightly so I thought what the hell and lifted in to it, with a big explosion on the fare bank I was in again, this time the fish hugged the fare bank and weeded me up 3 times before I won the game of tug-ah-war I lifted the net round yet another common, on the scales this one went 20lb on the dot after a couple of pic’s I slipped her back and wound in, I walked back to the car with a big smile on my face looking for would to the evening trip……………………………………… Ill tell you what happened next when I can keep away from the canal for long enough to write it Tight Lines Gav

hiya waddis, congrats on a grate trip to silverlands, its not an easy water so you done very well, let me know if your going there again and ill pop down and check your ticket hehehehe mite even drop you some advice on the going swims/baites ect Tight Lines Gav

If i put on a wig and some make-up can i join hehehehehe Gav

hiya Anthony I myself have been useing Mainline Assassin-8 and Winter-8 for a number of years now and i dont just use the winter-8 in the winter no more so than i use the Assassin-8 only in the summer, if i had to stick to one flavour for the rest of my life it would have to be the Assassin-8 tho as it catchies all year round. Tight Lines Gav

Oldfellah made a very good point there , i did mean to add that point about water temperature but as you can see by my post i started to but forgot to add that bit , you have made a very good point but one thing i would like to add is, if the water temperature is low but the lake is busy then its good odds that the carp in the water will get spooked from swim to swim so there fore they move about more and need to eat more to replace the energy they have used to move to other parts of the lake so take that in to account, but is the water you’re fishing is not to busy then Oldfellah is spot on and I would avoid putting in baits that contain high oil content because they leek off a lot slower in the low water temperature. Nice one Oldfellah Oh well its that time of week again so I better stop reading all the posts and get my kit in the car, I just been invited to silverlands lake in Wiltshire for a 5 day trip to see if we can suss out what's going on there, I have not fished there for the past 6 months so it should be good to see if we can brake the 4 months blank they are all on. So with crossed fingers I head for the door, tight lines all have a good one Gav

I tend to take 4 things in to account when I start on any water, 1: how big is the water. 2: how many carp/bream/tench are stocked in the water. 3: how much angling presser is on the water. 4: what time of year it is. EG no1: Lets say your fishing a 3 acre lake with a stocking of 200 carp, the same of tench and the same of bream and its summer time and threes not been many people fishing the past week or so then I would be more than happy to start off by putting in about a kilo of large baits over each rod, say sweat corn, boiles, pellets ect because threes a good chance that its not only the carp that will be feeding over your baited spot, therefore you have to feed the bream and tench aswell as the carp. EG no2: Lets say your fishing a 7 acre lake with only 50 carp, very little bream and tench in it then I would go more along the lines of only 20 or 30 free offerings round each rod and a small amount of small food items such as hemp, mini pellets, sweat corn because your not trying to feed all the tench and bream aswell so I would want a grater chance of a carp picking up my bait if one moved on to my small baited spot to feed. EG no3: Lets say your fishing a 5 acre pit with only 20 carp in it but lots of tench and bream, I would be more than happy to start off by feeding lots of small food items such as hemp, pellets, sweat corn, ground bait and lots of chopped boiles lets say about 5kg in total and about 1kg of hole boiles because I would want the bream and tench to move in over my baited spot in the hope that the carp would come in and join the feast. This dose not always work but it’s the way I look at things, tweak this to suet the water your fishing and I don’t think your go fare wrong, just remember the three no1 rules to carp fishing LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION, because there’s no point in fishing where the fish ain’t. Hope this made sense as I'm not the best one for explaining things in text, my brain says one thing and my fingers type something else, that and the faceted I'm big time dyslexic and end up using other words to explain things because I cant spell the one I want makes what I type hard reading at time's hence why I'm a fisherman and not an author Tight Lines Gav