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We all cheered as the teacher said we were having to leave school - great shame, not! One of the many great things about snow is the fact that when we get a flake or two, our school seems to shut, so I thought what I perfect opportunity it would be to catch a fish and have the snow in the backgriound - wishfull thinking. I got home and grabbed some lunch before stepping into my lockup to grab a rod, bag full of bits n bobs, warm clothes and seat. I arrived hoping that it wouldn't be frozen over, fotunatly it wasn't with over 2/3 of the lake ice-free. I opted for a swim that had the wind blowing toward it, with a bay to the lift, and and island out to my right. It offered a few different options with a steep marginal shelf quite close, and is one of the only areas of the lake that held any form of life, by that I mean the only form of weed underwater. I often fish the swim on the float with great success, and opted to fish at the bottom of the marginal shelf in hope of some action. I was using a 6lb mainline and 1.5lb test curve rod, through to a size 12 barbless hook with a few size 4 and size 6 shot to make the bait sink quickly and hopefully stay in position against a strong undertow and surface wind. My choice for bait was only really between two baits, sweetcorn, or bread. I opted for sweetcorn for its ease, and introduced a light scattering into the area; about 6 feet from the bank. I started fishing and struggled to get a clear image of what was happening due to the float never being still from the waves. However not long after I sprinkled a few more freebies, I recieved a few indications on the float; a steady pull downwards and sharp shoot back up. I was fishing slightly differently to my normal approach, and was fishing at the exact depth with the float, rather than overdepth, and so left this as I assumed it was a line bite. The fishing was still slow, and really depressing:o . I had been fishing for about 2 hours and only had a line bite, which meant the fish were active, but I was not convinced. It was starting to get dark so I looked at my watch and gave myself 10 more minutes of fishing. Just after intorducing more bait into the siwm, the float sailed away and I immediatly bent into the fish. It kicked a few times as it swam out toward the middle of the lake. It was fighting quite hard on the balanced outfit, and I was praying that it would stay on. This is the part where I go on about it coming in an being scooped into the net, however after turning her, she started to come towards me, and then: PING! the hook pulled. Gutted. Devastated I put the bait back out in faith that there may be one last chance in the five minutes left, wrong. Nothing more for my efforts than a lsot fish. The snow picture would have been nice but it just wasn't to be. Please don't melt the snow yet!! Cold? -Freezing!

What kind of carp can see a hok that close?? - Generally you are using a small hook whihc is hard to see - They wil be hard to distguie agaist most bottoms, anyway - Many venues the light levels are poor below around 2/3 foot anyway, so how cna they reflect light? I would be concerned to use them if fishing somewhere where the fish are really clued up. But I think that it takes away the fact that you still need your bait presented where the carp are preapred to take it. If its in the right place and they are confidently feeding, its not an issue anyway. Nige

Well after a somwhat "tense" build up to my holiday, I'm off at 3.00am tommorrow morning. I'm going to a different part of the River Ebro, a different section, known as The Top Lake or Upper Lake, where the cats are more in numbers and lesser in weight. However it's a new experience and challenge and with a good bunch of people, it's set to be a good old trip. Adios! - Blizzards when I get back, what a lovely welcome home!

Im in Stoke, am I likely to get any white stuff?

Seriously? For what areas?

Been able to get out anywhere lads? Had any results? Round my area (Stoke) unless you are looking at the big pits/reservoirs then you are stcuk as they ahve been frozen!

Well, the plan was to try and sneak either an overnighter or at least a day session this weekend! But unfortunatly the frosts took over, and unless I went Ice Fishing I would be unable to get on any of my target waters A frozen local venue means no fishing - thanks to the harsh frosts Hopefully this snap of clear skies and frosts will subside soon and allow me to maybe sneak a few more kippers before the real "Freeze Up" of winter

yep...another brand doing an armadilo type bivvy, and a pricey one at that!

On 15th November I had a school trip to London to watch Journey's End, for £30 it seemed like a good scive off school Two buses set off, and just 45 minutes down the A50, bus number 2 breaks down Fortunatly they sent another one out to replace it, and off down to the hussle and bussle of London we go, quite a site really. Enjoyed going past the likes of Wembley and Lords, and to be honest the tour around London was better than the actual play at the theatre! To cut a long story short, a 2-hour play and a few hours queueing on the M25 later, we were on the M6 at 11.10pm, and the bus broke down! Stuck between the motorway and a slip road, we had no-where to go and just sat there with our hazard lights on, waiting for another bus and mechanic! The teacher phoned 999 and the Police came out and closed Lane 1 So rather than being home for 10pm I was home for a modest 00.30am!! Not bad for a school trip, eh!?

http://www.carpgate.de/content/images/record_common_clip.wmv The Long awaited video convincing?

Last night I stepped outside briefly a cuple of times and saw the clear skies with the bright moon shining. I knew it would be a cold night, and the heavy ground frost this morning as I awoke proved this ...Here we go agian, another harsh few months of rubbish cold windy weather, where fishing seems like a waste of time, aaaaah don't you just love winter sessions, lots of brews, lots of blanks, -don't you just love the british weather!?

Don't get the idea of the mask myself. Nice fish though

Welcome On Board mate, hopefully you can teach us a thing or two

AS for saefty, so long as you are using a lead clip or helicoptor rig both of which need to be able to pass over your leader knot, are fine and about the safest you can get. As for damage to the fish, I don't personally think that leadcore can harm the fish, but if you are concerned you could try the ready-made leaders that contain a leadcore leader inside a fish-friendly tubing.

Its hard to think they would feed in such cold conditions... I was really suprised, and really felt it was a worthwhile catch, it meant more to me than a bigger fish on a normal day, just tryed that hard, why not have a go yourself? U'll be amazed how fun it is when u get the bug!

Finally managed to start my campaign of trying to catch a carp from every month of the year, like Julian, full details can be found in my blog

As you all probably know, Julian has come up with the idea of the Surface Challenge, whereby we aim to catch a carp from the surface in each month of the year. The day started in quite a comical way, getting to the venue with the rods tied to mountain bikes! My campaign was kicked off with a lovely 10lb Common taken from the surface on a local pit with the daytime temperature of just 5 Degrees! After feeding a bay where there was little wind for a couple of hours, the fish steadily came on the feed, eventually showing confidently and in numbers, this suprised me due to the temperature, and I was determind to catch! After gaining a good vantage point behind some long grass and dieing reed stems I was able to clearly see across the bay that I was fishing. I was a few fish between 3 and 5lb confindently took the dog biscuits on the surface, but ideally I wanted a bigger fish. I then saw a common with a big mouth quietly take a mixer from the left margin, as apposed to the normal "SCHLURP". I watched the fish pick off some mixers in a small 5 feet area before lowering my mixer onto it's nose. She sat there and looked at my mixer for a minute, as I wondered if my new presentation would be better than the old one. I previously used Artificial Dog Biscuits by Enterprise Tackle and hooked them straight onto the shank of the hook. I now use an Ashima C-310 size 6 hook, with a John Roberts bait band around my flavoured biscuits. Back to the fishing.... She sat there looking for a matter of seconds, before gently wafting her pectoral fins and easing up to the surface, where she hardly broke the surface and gently sucked the bait into her mouth, and closed her lips. I immediatly bent into the fish as it tore off across the bay. And after a frantic 5-minute fight, and a spot of good netting by my mate Adam, she was in the net, and the only fish I have caught on the surface after around September - To my memory anyway! She weighed fractionally over 10lb, but weight was irrelevant, I couldn't believe the temperature, and the fact that they were feeding, and I was just chuffed to have caught one! ...Bring on December! Cycling to the water - all part of the adventure! On the mat: First attempt, First Fish and job done! My First fish of the Surface Challenge The bay where I tempted my first Carp of the challenge

Cheers fellas

A quick account of today's session, possibly one of the prettiest fish of my season http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.p...blog&blogid=31&

This carp fishing "lark" in the colder months ain't to bad! Mananged to squeeze a half-day sesion in between schoolwork, courrsework, work experience, and work! I woke to hear howlings winds and heavy rain at 6.30am, but when i went outside in just a T-Shirt and discovered how mild it was, I was quietly confident. The rain subsided for about an hour and a half, between breakfast at home, and arrival to the venue, upon which the heavens opened, and about an hours worth of heavy rain followed, making PVA work awkward. The was a wind blowing straight down into the bay that i was fishing (Foot high waves at one point), and the fact that no other anglers could fish the area I was fishing, made me all the more confident. After about an hour I started to recieve knocks on my right hand rod, which was on a marginal spot at about 20 yards close to an overhanging bush. The other, fished with a small PVA bag of half and crushed boilies, like the other rod, was cast toward the main body of the lake at about 30 yards range. I felt confident that the rod placed near the bush would produce a take due to the number of knocks that I was getting, and was therefore suprised when the other rod screamed off! I played the fish quite hard and it basically kited into the bay, and then a little sidestrain soon had the fish at the net with no real battle, I saw that it was a light common and was happy when she was over the drawstring, and was my second fish on my second visit to the venue. Having caught a mirror around 18lb previously I was pleased that this common also went 18lb on the nose, and made the rain and wind endurance all the more worth while. The sun then broke through a few hours later and the winded dramtically dropped, and it was once again time to pack up. ... And as I started packing my rods into the holdall a carp jumped clean out of the water twice, on the exact spot where my bait had been less than a minute earlier, bugger eh!?

Bought one recently to go with my carp in the tank, unfortunatly he didn't last mroe than a week, we think due to the water being too clean, any suggestions?

Looked into palces such as Parcel Force?? and other such companies, that do a more specified and specialist delivery, cost may be alittle more but havn't had a problem using them in the past Parcel Force City Link...etc

You coudl just drain off all of the juices and replace that with mollasses (or another oil based flavouring) that will not dissovle the bags

That seems a little ahrsh in my opinon, but is a good way of motivating people toa ttend work parties,a nd also the night fishing rule may deter some of the instant carp anglers. But i would also be loooking into syndactes in your area, and finding a water that you like, then enquiring about who controlls it rather than fishing waters that are specific to the club if you get me Good Luck Mate

Depends entirely on the water mate and stock numbers & szies. many poeple would favour spodidng, if beds of bait are a good tactic, and as for scaring the fish, i wouldn't be afraid as fish often come in onto spodded bait as if "spodding rings the dinnerbell". I would also try and be fishing for first light and then spod larger amounts once the sun is well up, a light baiting approach at first light could bring you a few bonus fish