natty
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I fancied a change from my usual carp-dominated fishing sessions, so I decided to pay Swanborough Farm’s Tench lake a visit. It is stocked with tench, bream, roach and rudd and is meant to contain no carp.
I was shocked when I arrived at the lake, every swim was extremely overgrown and there was only about 3 swims that were actually fishable! One of these was taken but a man feeder fishing, he had been there for 3 or 4 hours, he had caught a tench and a bream on his first two casts, but nothing since. This wasn’t really the news that I wanted to hear!
I finally got set up in a tucked away swim that seemed to just have enough room for two rods, but it may be a bit hairy landing anything half decent from it. One rod was legered and the second rod was float fished. Both rods were fished with either 6mm Carp Vader Breamax Jelly Pellets or a grain or two of sweetcorn.
I chose to fish my float rod at the bottom of the marginal shelf straight out in front of me and to begin with I ground baited fairly heavily with Carp Vader feed pellets in Breamax, Pineapple and Natural flavours, I also added some hemp and a bit of corn. After each fish I would top up the swim. I decided to fish my leger rod a couple of feet off the edge of my baited area to the left, hoping to pick up any larger fish hanging away from the main bed of feed.
Within 10 minutes, my leger was away and after a very hectic fight, desperately trying to keep the fish away from the weed and reeds with my light tackle, I managed to net the fish. When I was playing it I suspected it to be a large tench, but I was surprised to see a mirror carp in the net - I had came to this supposingly carp-free lake to get away from them, but it was the first fish I caught! Nevertheless, I was pleased to have landed a lovely little carp that looked like it had never seen a hook before.
Here it is:
Once my leger was re-cast my float was away and I hooked into what felt like a tench, after a few seconds it came off. Over the next 40 minutes, I lost another 3 fish which all felt like nice tench, the weed and reeds were giving me serious problems. The fourth of those fish actually got snagged in a weed bed and after giving it slack line, it failed to swim out, so instead of risking damaging it, I decided to put on a pair of shorts and go in after it! By the time I got to the fish it had long gone and my hook was left in the weed. While I was out in the water I decided that I might as well clear all of the weed and cut down a few of the reeds, so I had a better chance of landing anything I hooked. After a quarter of an hour, the swim looked twice as big and I had much more open water to play the fish in. Job done!
Here is a photo:
Throughout the rest of the day the fish feed well and the action was fairly steady on both rods. A couple of times I had two fish in the net at once, this happened when I shoal of bream would move in, I would get a bite on both my float and leger rods within a minute or two of each other. The clearer swim definitely helped as I was able to land all of the hard fighting tench I hooked. In the end, I managed to catch 11 bream - ranging from 1lb 8oz to 3lb 8oz. Something really odd happened, I landed the same bream 3 times throughout the session! (I knew it was the same because it had a slightly deformed mouth), each time I put it back, it must of just swam straight back out and started feeding on the baited area straight away! Along with the many bream, I landed 10 tench averaging the same sort of size as the bream. I also managed to land 3 quality roach nudging the 1lb mark and a nice rudd of around half a pound. As I was packing up and I just had my leger rod it, it screamed off one last time, the fish felt rather powerful and I thought and hoped it might be a larger tench, but after a couple of minutes once again a carp popped up at the net. I couldn’t believe that my first and last fish of the session were both carp when I was fishing a carp-free lake to avoid them!
Here are some photos:
The average size of the bream:
Some of the tench:
The three roach nudging the pound mark:
My final fish of the day - a carp!:
Overall, I had a lovely days fishing with light tackle and really enjoyed catching a variety of species.
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Thanks alot for the info.
Good luck on the west coast -
I am going on a family holiday to Corfu in Greece.
I am taking a travel rod, reel and a few bits and bobs.
Has anyone been there and fished it?
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To celebrate me finishing school and completing my GCSE exams I went for a weeks fishing holiday to Manor Fisheries in Kent. My main aim was to catch a new PB carp, my PB before the trip was 16lb 9oz. I was also hoping to catch a catfish or two. I decided to fish specimen lake 2, this lake has carp to 30lb and catfish to 40lb.
After choosing my swim, I got some bad news, a man had fished the week previous to my trip in my swim and neither him, his wife or his son had a single bite for the whole week! I decided to have one rod for the catfish and one rod for the carp. On the catfish rod I would leger chunks of mackerel, squid, luncheon meat or halibut pellets. This rod would be fished with a PVA bag of Carp Vader Predator Plus pellets, halibut pellets and tuna, I also added a splash of Carp Vader Predator Plus PVA friendly liquid and some fish oil.
The carp rod would either be legered with pellets (either Carp Vader 12mm Schnitzel Wurst, 12mm Haemarine or double 6mm Polar Pellets) fished over a PVA bag of pellets (Carp Vader Polar Ice, Predator Plus and Natural). If not legered it would either be float fished in the margins or surface fished if the weather was hot.
On my first day of fishing (Sunday), with the weather fairly warm, I decided to fish the carp rod on the surface. I bait banded an 11mm floating pellets and fed a mixture of 11mm, 6mm and 4mm floating expanders pellets soaked in Carp Vader PVA friendly Haemarine liquid. After 20minutes I lost a nice common around 10lb or 11lb right at the net, when it dived in some weed just as I thought it was beaten. An hour later my catfish rod screamed off and I soon was struggling to control a catfish which felt 15lb+, unfortunately that too shed the hook after a couple of minutes. I had no more bites in the morning, but in the afternoon I managed to catch a land a couple of carp of the surface, a 4lb mirror and a lovely 14lb 1oz carp.
Here is the 14lber:
Just as I was packing up, I had a slow take on a large chunk or mackerel, my strike was met with solid resistance as something just stayed on the bottom, I started to pump a very heavy weight towards me, but then suddenly it woke up and made an unstoppable run on an extremely tight clutch and started to go around the back of the island, before I had a chance to respond it came off, to say I felt disappointed would be a huge understatement, I was absolutely gutted! It was at least 20lb+ and probably 30lb+.
On Monday, the day started off fairly well with me catching a couple of small carp to around 6lb on the bottom on pellets. The weather got a bit hotter and I set up the carp rod on the surface again, I eventually got 4 or 5 carp feeding, most of the them were between 8lb and 12lb, but one was much larger and looked an upper double, I managed to cast right in front of the biggie and it worked out perfectly he just swam up and took the bait straight away! 10minutes later I had a lovely mirror in the net, the fish looked like it might be a new PB. on the scales I was delighted to see them read 18lb 8oz - a new PB!
Here it is:
I managed to catch another two carp later in the day - 7lb and 11lb 14oz.
Here they both are:
Tuesday started off fairly slowly, but I managed to land a couple of small carp along with a 10lb 14oz mirror. (I didn’t take any photos of the mirror as the fish was very lively and the weather was hot, so after weighing him I quickly slipped him back). The day finished off superbly when I managed to land my first catfish of the trip, a baby at 8lb 11oz, but still extremely welcome.
Here is the catfish:
Wednesday was a great day for me with the carp, with me landing four doubles. They weighed 10lb 5oz common, 12lb 5oz common, 13lb 12oz mirror and a 16lb 7oz mirror.
Here they are:
Unfortunately Thursday was very slow and I was lucky to catch a lovely 11lb 4oz mirror.
Here it is:
With Friday being my final day, I got up earlier and within the first 3 hours I had landed a 9lb 5oz mirror, a 7lb mirror and a small common. Later in the day I managed to catch a nice 13lb 12oz mirror off the surface, when he was on the mat I thought I recognised him and it was the same one I had caught on Wednesday!
This one:
I didn’t take another photo, because as he was on the mat, my catfish rod screamed off. I quickly returned the carp and 5 minutes later I was holding my final fish of the session - a 7lb 5oz catfish.
Here are the 9lb carp and the catfish:
Overall, the lake had fished rather slow over the whole week - probably partly down to the inconsistent British weather! I only know of 4 other catfish coming out and only several other carp came out during the week I was there to around 18lb. I was delighted to finish with a total of 21 fish - 2 catfish and 19 carp (10 of which were doubles).
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Yesterday I decided to have a carp session and the venue I choose was Swanborough Fishery in Lewes on the Carp Lake. My main target was to catch a double. When I arrived at the lake it was fairly busy, but I found a nice tucked away sheltered swim and was soon setting up the tackle.
Both rods were going to be legered, they both had running rigs through to a size 10 barbless hook. For hook baits I had a selection of Carp Vader Jelly Pellets in both 6mm (to fish with 2 on a hair) and 12mm (to fish as a single bait). I also had a tub of Carp Vader’s ever reliable Polar Pellets in 6mm. Both rods were fished with PVA bags of the new Carp Vader Polar Ice feed pellets in 6mm.
I cast my first rod out into the middle and the second rod into a bay on my right hand side. Within 20 minutes something had taken a fancy to a double 6mm Schnitzel Wurst pellet, unfortunately it wasn’t a carp - it was a bream around 2lb - still welcome though.
Once that rod had been recast, I soon had a bite on the other rod fished in open water, this time the fish put up a bit more resistance, but still didn’t feel like a carp and I was happy to see a 5lb+ bream slide into the net. On the scales my estimate proved to be correct - it weighed 5lb 3oz.
Here it is:
Over the next hour I had 3 more bream from the bay on double 6mm Schnitzel Wurst pellet. All the bream were between 1lb 8oz and 3lb. I was just tying up some more PVA bags when the Polar Pellet rod screamed off, this certainly wasn’t a bream.
Just as I thought it was tiring it found a new lease of life and charged into the bay on my right, luckily I just managed to turn it in time.
A couple of minutes later I was holding a stunning mirror of 11lb 14oz for the camera and I was more than pleased to of achieved my target of catching a double.
Here it is:
The bream continued to come to the Schnitzel Wurst rod, but unfortunately none were over 3lb, most averaged around 2lb. With 35 minutes off my session left, I received a slow steady run on the Polar Pellet rod. This fish felt like a decent carp (the Polar Pellets had sorted out the better fish once again!).
Finally after a long hard battle I managed to scope up a large common carp into my net. It looked to be easily be a double and I was delighted when the scales read out 13lb 12oz.
Here it is:
Overall, I was pleased with my results - two double figure carp, a 5lb+ bream and 8 other bream averaging 2lb. Throughout the time I was there I only saw 2 other carp and 1 bream caught by the 4 anglers around me.
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On pages 40 and 41 of this weeks Angler's Mail, for the action replay feature a man called Mike Davidson is fishing a carp day ticket water somewhere in the south of england. He is fishing it for the roach though.
Does anyone know what this venue is?
PM's are fine if preferred.
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Lovely tench, very well done
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I fancied a change from targeting the usual carp. So I decided to have my first catfish session of the year. The venue I chose was Mushroom Farm and I fished the Racetrack lake. This water is stocked heavily with carp averaging around 3lb to 8lb, with a few slightly larger ones. However, there are also a few catfish in the lake and these were my target for the session.
I set up with two carp rods with 12lb mainline and at the business end I fished with a 35lb quicksilver trace (to prevent getting bitten off by the cats teeth) and also bait I used either 28mm halibut pellets or mackerel chunks or squid pieces. As groundbait, I used finely chopped fish and squid as well as Carp Vader Predator Plus feed pellets and a few crushed halibut pellets. My groundbait and hook baits were soaked in Carp Vader Predator Plus liquid.
Both rods were cast out to likely looking spots but after two hours I still had not had a bite. I recast both rods to different areas and 45minutes later I had a take on the squid rod, unfortunately my strike did not connect with the fish, as a squid tentacle had wrapped around the hook point!
With only an hour and a half of my session left, I began to think I may fail my target to catch a cat. But my thoughts were interrupted by a screaming bite to the mackerel rod, this time my strike found its target, but there was only a small bend in my rod and the fish was certainly not fighting like a cat. A minute later and a 3lb common carp was on the unhooking mat! It was hooked fair and square in the centre of the bottom lip and my huge chunk of mackerel was hanging out of its gob!
I recast my mackerel rod and with only 25minutes left of my session, I began to re-think that I wouldn’t catch a cat - but at least I hadn’t blanked! As I was starting to pack up, a twitchy bite had me scrambling to grab my mackerel rod, again my strike was met with not very much resistance, however this fish was pulling harder, but I thought a larger carp was the culprit. I was pleasantly surprised to see a catfish tail slap on the surface and as I drew it over the waiting net, I was delighted to have achieved my target, even if it was only between 3lb and 4lb!
Here are a couple of photos:
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Thanks for all of the nice comments
once again natty it looks like you had a great day. have you considered some kind of blog to record all of your outings in one easy to find place?i can only hope my outings in the next month are as successful as yours have been!
I have recently created a blog with all of my sessions I have had so far in 2008. It is here: nattysanglingadventures.blog.com
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Today I decided to fish a slightly harder lake than usual, in the hope of a larger carp. The venue I chose was Swanborough Farm in Lewes on the carp lake.
I had planned to fish one rod on the surface and have one rod legered, but when I arrived at the lake, I was unfortunately greeted by a very rough lake, along with extreme winds - not ideal surface fishing conditions.
A change of plan was necessary and I found a nice swim with open water out in front and a reed bed to one side. I decided to leger both rods and fish one with a double Polar Pellet hair-rigged, along with a PVA bag of the new Carp Vader Polar Ice feed pellets. On the other rod I had a single 12mm Schnitzel Wurst jelly pellet hair-rigged along with a PVA bag of Schnitzel Wurst feed pellets.
Both rods were cast out and I as I was finally setting down after organising all of my tackle, I was rudely disturbed by a bite on the Polar Pellet rod. The fish swam straight towards me and I thought it must be a bream, but up popped a nice mirror carp of around 8lb.
On the unhooking mat the carp was extremely lively, due to the very short fight, so it was quickly unhooked and returned, with out a photo - fish care always comes first.
As I was re-casting my rod, the other rod was away and a nice bream was in the net.
Here it is:
The bream action continued steadily on both rods and over the next couple of hours I landed no carp but I managed to land 11 bream, all averaging between 1lb 8oz and 3lb.
Finally a strike to a bite on the Schnitzel Wurst rod was meet with more solid resistance, I thought a small carp was the culprit but I was more than happy with a larger bream appeared in the margins. With a quick scoop she was mine and she looked very close to my bream PB of 5lb 1oz.
On the scales I was happily to see them read out 5lb 14oz - my first PB of 2008.
Here is the bream:
Before I had a chance to re-bait the rod I had the bream on, I had a very fast bite on my leger, once I struck the fish just kept going, I eventually managed to turn it and was slowly pumping it back in towards me, it began to head to the reeds, but with a bit of side strain it started to come back into open water, it felt like a decent fish, defiantly a double, perhaps even an upper double. I thought that I had just began to get the upper hand, when the hook pulled. To say I was gutted was an understatement, I had played the carp for a good few minutes and still hadn’t even seen it before it shed the hook.
I recast both rods and within 5 minutes my disappointment was partially forgotten about as once again the Polar Pellet rod screamed into life. This time there was no mistaking the outcome and soon enough I had a lovely common of 7lb 14oz on the unhooking mat.
Here it is:
Later in the day I added a couple more bream before packing up to bring my bream total up to 15. I finished the day with the 15 bream (including a new PB), 2 carp and the lost biggie. Overall, I was rather pleased with my day, it was just a shame I lost the large one I was after.
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I have been thinking about using Macaroni Cheese as bait, has anyone used it before for carp?
Any info would be great
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Is it possible to make paste for float fishing on the waggler from 6mm feed pellets?
I was thinking of just scalding them the night before and then leaving them until the next morning for fishing.
Would this work?
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I am soon going to have a session or two on a lake that has quite a lot of chub in it and is not very ofthen fished. The lake has nothing in the way of obvious features, apart from in the margins.
The chub average 2lb to 4lb, although there is the odd larger one to over 6lb. The lake doesn't have many carp in it, but there are tonnes of miniature roach and rudd.
I have heard that fishing for chub up in the water can be a productive method on still waters. But, the person was using maggots and got through 8 pints in a session. This is too expensive for me and when I have thrown any amount of maggots or casters into that lake before the mini roach and rudd have had them in seconds. So I wondered if it is possible to use pellets instead, similarily of how you would do for carp up in the water.
Firstly, would pellets work for the chub? What size and type of pellets would be best? How often do you feed? Finally, what would you use on the hook/hair?
I would really appreciate any information at all.
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Today I had a day session at Borde Hill in Sussex. I arrived at the main lake around 9:30am and i was shocked to see a sign saying there was a match on the main lake, only a few swims were available to day ticket anglers, so I couldn't fish in my favoured swim. After seeing a couple of carp roll I finally chose a swim and was soon set-up and settled.
As it was fairly sunny and I had a good section of calm water in front of me, I decided to have one rod set up with a controller and the other rod legered. On my leger rod, I had a simple running rig with a size 10 barbless hook knotless knotted to my hooklength. On this rod I had brought along a variety of baits to use, the main ones being Carp Vader Polar Pellets, corn, luncheon meat, paste and Carp Vader soft hooker pellets in predator plus, breamax and schnitzel wurst. This was fished with a small PVA bag of corn and mixed pellets.
On the controller rod, I fished with a bait banded floating pellet on a size 10 barbless hook. The free offerings I used were dog biscuits that had been soaked in Carp Vader predator plus liquid - this coloured them and they also let off an attractive slick.
After 20 minutes of feeding dog biscuits, a few carp began to feed on the surface. My main problem was that the resident ducks and geese were eating twice as many free offerings as the carp were! I eventually cast to a group of carp and soon enough a mouth came up and engulfed my hookbait. After a couple of minutes the first carp of the day was on the unhooking mat. It wasn't that big, but still a good start.
Here it is:
Once the carp was returned, I had a screaming bite on my leger on a pineapple polar pellet, but unfortunately I was right in the middle of re-casting my controller rod and managed to miss it! However 10 minutes later it was off again and I soon had another carp in the landing net. This fish was quickly followed by another one off the surface.
Here they both are:
During the next couple of hours I managed another 5 carp and twice I had 2 carp on at once (one on each rod), so my dad had to come and take one rod while I landed and unhooked the carp on the other rod. None of the carp were that big, but it was still great fun and I was catching more than the majority of the people fishing the match.
Here are three of the carp I landed:
After half an hour of no activity on either the leger rod or the surface rod. I recast both rods to new spots and after 15 minutes I was back in action. A slow but steady run on my leger resulted in another nice common carp and I had another couple of carp on my surface rod.
Here are two of the carp I had:
Although I had landed 11 carp so far, none had been that big. So I decided not to cast with my surface rod until I saw a reasonably sized carp. After 10 minutes of feeding, I spotted a nice common that looked between 9 and 11lb, I cast past it and drew my hookbait right in front of it, without hesitation it came up and took my bait. I struck and there was a large swirl as it realised it had been hooked. After 10 minutes I finally drew it into the waiting net. It looked like it might be close to double, so I set up my scales. As I was doing so my leger teared off and soon enough I had another carp in the same net as the other one! I unhooked the smaller one and retuned it. I then took the larger one to the weighing sling and it didn't quite make double figures, but I was happy enough with a lovely 9lb 1oz common.
Here it is:
As I was packing up I managed one more carp on my leger this time with a 11mm schnitzel wurst soft hooker pellet hair rigged.
It turned out to be this nice mirror carp:
Overall I enjoyed a great days fishing and was more than pleased my final total of 14 carp to 9lb 1oz.
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I am hoping to do a bit of surface fishing over the next couple of weeks, if the weather warms up.
I have been using pedigree chum mixers, but they don't float as well as they used too.
What brands do you find best?
Also, I have heard you can use cat biscuits too, which cat biscuits are the best?
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Today, I fished Borde Hill Fishery in Sussex. I arrived at the lake at 8:15am, it was a very mild morning with a slight dewy mist and a minimal south-westerly wind. My main aim was to catch a few carp and enjoy myself and if a double figure carp came along I would be more than happy.
I started with two legers one with two Carp Vader polar pellets hair rigged and the other with two Carp Vader Jelly Breamax pellets hair rigged. I cast one rod into a carpy looking bay where I had caught from before and the other straight out in the middle. Both rods were fished with a small PVA bag of Carp Vader pellets (pineapple, predator plus, natural and breamax).
By the time I had set up both rods and had settled down the rod in the middle was away. After a spirited fight a pretty mirror carp of around 3lb 8oz was laying on the unhooking mat.
Here it is:
An uneventful half an hour followed. However, a person on the opposite bank landed a nice 8lb common. Then out of the blue the Breamax Jelly Pellet rod burst into life and straight away I knew the carp was quite sizeable. I struggled to control it on my light tackle and just hoped the size 12 barbless hook would stay in. Finally, I managed to slid the beautiful common into my waiting net. On the unhooking mat, she looked stunning and she looked very close to my target double. On the scales I was really pleased when they read 10lb 12oz.
Here she is:
After 40 biteless minutes I spotted a couple of carp near the surface. I started off feeding plain dog biscuits, but when the water got ripply, I added some Carp Vader Breamax PVA friendly liquid to the mixers, this not only coloured them reddish, but also let off an attractive slick in the water and helped to die down the ripple - making fish spotting easier. The carp also seemed to show a preference to the flavoured mixers.
I bait banded a pre-soaked Breamax flavoured dog biscuit on to the hook with a controller float as casting weight. After a few minutes I missed a bite, but soon after I managed to hook a carp. I brang it to the net with little trouble and a small common of around 2lb 8oz was unhooked and safely returned.
It took about 30 minutes for the carp's confidence to come back for them to start taking the dog biscuits freely again. This time before casting I waiting until I saw a reasonable sized carp and I spotted a mirror carp looking between 8lb and 10lb and managed to cast a mixer about a foot in front of it and after a few seconds the carp came up and engulfed the hookbait. The strike met with firm resistance and a long fight followed. Eventually I was holding a cracking mirror carp of 9lb 8oz for the camera.
Here it is:
The weather got colder so I focused on the bottom with two leger rods again. I cast a polar pellet with a small pva bag towards a rolling fish and after 20 minutes the indicator rose steadily to the top as a carp headed off to the far bank. I managed to bring the carp all the way back to my margins and after a few more minutes another largish common was on the unhooking mat - this time 9lb 3oz.
Here it is:
As I was packing up I recieved one more bite again on the polar pellet rod, this time in the centre of the lake. A pretty mirror of 5lb 10oz rounded off a great day and I went home very happy having had a superb days fishing.
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I went to Borde Hill Fishery today in Haywards Heath, I fished on the main lake.
I couldn't fish in my first choice swim because the wind was so strong, making the water too rough to float fish.
I planned on fishing two rods, one float fishing close in with either Carp Vader jelly pellets in either Schnitzel Wurst or Breamax flavours or breadflake. I fished this rod over a bed of pellets (Carp Vader: Bremax, Pineapple, Predator Plus and Dynamite swimstim) I also added some corn.
On the other rod, I fished it with a leger with Carp Vader polar pellets of corn on the hair. I fished this with a PVA bag of the same mix that I used with my float rod.
The first hour was slow, but I eventually had a bite on my leger cast over to the far bank on the polar pellets in pineapple flavour. It didn't feel like a carp, so for a few moments I hoped maybe I had hooked a large roach, but in the margin it looked too long for a roach, but I was pleased when a nice chub slid into the landing net.
Here it is, it weighed 2lb 11oz:
After a couple of recasts after the chub, I had a quick walk around the lake to see if anyone else had caught, two people had caught nothing and had been there from quite early in the morning, but one man had just landed an immaculate 8lb mirror and another man had also had a small chub. But in general it seemed to be fishing rather slow.
I recast my float with a Carp Vader bremax jelly pellet and threw out a small handful of my groundbait mix.
After 10 minutes I noticed some small bubbles by my float, then it twitched before burying under and my strike was met with carpy resistance. After a couple of minutes I had a nice mirror on the unhooking mat, a bit smaller than I had hoped for but still a nice fish.
Here it is:
I had one more bite late on, but I unfortunately I didn't manage to hook it.
Overall, I was happy with a carp and a chub for a few hours fishing in very windy conditions.
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I read in a fishing magazine of a person using three pieces of hair-rigged punched bread (10mm) on the bomb, he fished it between 6inches and 3 foot off the bottom and caught loads of carp.
Has anyone used this method? Or can anyone tell me any more about it? What is the best bread to use?
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I was recently looking through a fishing magazine and saw that a person was using cockles to very good effect.
Has anyone on here had any success fishing with them?
I am just wondering where the best place is to buy them from? (I have only seen the ones in a jar pickled before in the supermarket)
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Thanks for the replies so far
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What is the best thing to put on a hair rig to wrap paste around for fishing with a leger/method feeder?
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I fished at passies ponds today on the main lake, I had one of my best winter fishing sessions ever.
I really wanted to catch a few carp and if a double came along, I would be more than greatful. (a double is a big fish for me )
I legered a variety of baits, such as spam, pepperami, swim stim soft hook pellets, sweetcorn and bread flake, with a pva bag of swimstim pellets.
On my first cast I had a run and after a long fight a decent carp rolled into my net. I knew it would be close to my target double and it was - it went 10lb 7oz
Here it is:
After I recast I had a run on the otehr rod, this fish seemed even bigger! I finally landed it and it weighed 11lb 9oz, I hadn't caught a double for ages then two came in 15 minutes!!!
Here it is:
I then had a bad tangle, so was fishing with only 1 rod for a while. I couldn't believe it though as I had 2 more carp not as big though - 1 at 3lb and 1 at 3lb 8oz
I finally got the other rod back out and within 5 minutes it was away again and I eventually slipped the net under another hefty carp. It weighed 10lb 15oz. [
]Sadly, the photo didn't come out well of this one. 
I the had another 3 carp, one at 2lb 8oz another at 4lb and one at 7lb 9oz
Here is the 7lb 9oz:
After going quiet for a while, I had another bite, staright away I knew it was special as it was stripping line like none of the other carp had done, after a long nervy battle, just praying my size 10 hook stayed in, I slipped the net over what was a really big carp, my old PB common was 12lb 5oz and this looked a few pounds bigger, my overall PB fish is a 16lb 9oz mirror( the carp in my profile picture). When I weighed it I was amazed to see the scales go up to 16lb 9oz - my joint biggest fish ever and certainly a new PB common.
Here it is:
To round the day off I had another couple of small carp at 1lb and 1lb 8oz
So overall, I had landed 11 carp - 4 doubles and a new PB common.
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I am thinking of trying prawns as bait, can anyone tell me what the best ones are for using for bait and what the best way to present them is?
Thanks
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The competition is going to finish at the end of August.
A Great Day's Fishing
in Coarse Fishing
Posted
Yesterday I decided to pay a visit to Passies Ponds in Sussex and chose to fish on the main lake. I arrived at the lake around 9:45am and after a quick scan of the lake I chose to fish a swim with a large expanse of open water to the right of me and a section of the island straight in front of me. I hoped to catch a few carp and if I was lucky maybe a double would come along.
I decided to fish two legers, both set up with a simple knotless knot rig to a size 12 barbless hook. Bait wise I opted to fish with either single or double 6mm Breamax Jelly Pellet or 6mm Polar Ice Pellet. Each rod was fished with a PVA bag of Carp Vader pellets in mixed sizes in the following flavours: Predator Plus, Polar Ice, Natural and Schnitzel Wurst.
After 10 minutes of casting out the right hand rod screamed off and a couple of minutes later I was unhooking and returning a lovely golden looking 6lb common carp. Unfortunately my digital camera is broken and all the photos that I had taken yesterday had to be done on my mobile phone - so they may be a bit blurry.
Here is the 6lb common:
Over the next couple of hours, the bites continued steadily on both rods and I managed to land another 4 carp (between 3lb and 7lb 8oz), 3 bream and I also lost 2 carp. I was just tying up some more PVA bags when I received a lovely slow and steady take on the rod fished towards the island. As soon as I struck I realised this was a much larger fish, instead of tearing off, it was more of a slow plodding fight. After what seemed an eternity I slid a cracking mirror in to the waiting net. It definitely looked well over my target of a double and I was delighted to see the scales read out 15lb 1oz.
Here it is:
At around 1pm some anglers set up either side of me and my casting had to be restricted to a smaller area, luckily this didn’t reduce the amount of bites I was getting. Over the next 3 or 4 hours I managed to land 9 more carp and 3 more bream. The people either side of me were shocked by the amount of action I was getting, I often had bites within 3 or 4 minutes of casting out and on 3 occasions I had two fish in the net at the same time! The 3 people on each side of me only managed 2 carp and a bream between them - even though they were only a few yards from my swim and were casting in similar areas!
Here was my favourite fish from that hectic part of the day - a common just over 8lb:
As I was packing up and reflecting on such a marvellous day’s fishing, I received one more run and to my delight the fish felt quite big. After a fun battle on light tackle I was delighted to see a lovely common roll into the net. It looked like it may be close to another double and I was pleased to see it pass the 10lb mark by 12oz.
Overall, I had really enjoyed a very fun productive day’s fishing and finished with a total of 16 carp and 6 bream.