25LB Common

Well it's been some time since I picked up a big carp,and I've blanked at a lot of big fish venues,in fact this is the first time I've caught at Gawsworth Fishery although only the second visit,I'd more or less got the woodland specimen lake to myself which explains the rather dissappointing self timer photo.I'm supporting the fishes considerable gut on my knee and also managed to cut the carp's tale off .I've got a short video of this on you tube,the link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX5zchqO8jQ it was caught on tesco's premium mixer(floated out) on a small bubble float and it was pretty explosive stuff nearly ripping the rod out of my hands.I was getting nowhere with bottom baits/pop ups etc despite laying out a bed of bait.This makes up for the 2 small stockies picked up at Holden in about 10 visits and the blanks at Westport/leg of mutton and Bath Pool(dreaded swans).I'd like to also thank National Veterinary Services who suspended me for alledgedly smoking in the toilets who made the visit possible,Cheers!
Shaun

The Swan Lady of Bath Pool

Ok I apologise I know it's been a long time since the last post and I have done a lot of patient carping in pursuit of my personal best but nothing major so far,and it gets frustrating sometimes blanking or getting a stocky from a water where you know there's some big fish.So here's a tale for all you fellow hunter gatherers out there the much maligned patient carper.
The scene is 5am dragging my self out of a warm bed to Bath Pool,spending the last of my money on diesel and bait,walking with a stripped down carp kit,the long walk to the spot I'm fishing from the car park, I've been told not to leave my car here at night because of the kidsgrove hoodies,using up the last official day of my summer's holidays.So I'm there Friday morning,I'm set up with two rods,a tiger on one and pineapple pop up on the other.I'm there alone or so I think,there are signs of carp and one of my bobbins is twitching,possible liners or shy early bites.Seems like a good time to introduce some bait.Now as much as I appreciate our feathered friends a pair of swans lurking in the background have spotted me throwing in bait cruise up to the spot by the island I've been baiting up obviously fairly shallow as both of them are up ended eating the lot scaring of any carp in a half mile radius.Is this why I got up so early used a day's holiday from a much loved warehouse job spent good money on equipment licenses and bait, well maybe not.It's now crept around to 7.15am the bites have stopped all fish have fled from the long white necks grabbing my bait,yes and if I don't do something soon I'll end up reeling in one of the swans.Now I'm standing up waving my arms making myself tall but they're not bothered maybe some of my bait is still leaft they've missed.It's not going to do my fishing any good to throw bricks so I'm throwing stiff balls of paste at them to try to shoo them away from picking up one of my hooks,good it's working, maybe a few more to send them well away.Enter the only other person daft enough to walk this far round the lake at 7 in the morning,an old woman in a red coat with a dog,"The Swan lady of Bath Pool" I haven't spotted her "Don't throw at the swans,it's illegal,don't throw at the swans!"she crows in a posher than council house voice, Well I thought about explaining I wasn't throwing bricks just balls of paste trieing to shoo them away from swallowing a barbless hook or two,but why bother probably get a lecture on how cruel fishing is.Well it didn't stop there she stood around the other side of the lake telling any fellow dog sh**ters,he's throwing at the swans,one of them came up with the idea I was fishing and trieing to maybe shoo them away(very perceptive).Well no! I thought I'd get up at 5 o'clock in the morning and throw at some swans,what fun for a grown man of 48, why didn't I think of it earlier.I'm thinking she's now on the phone to the council or the police,after all anglers have been lead poisoning swans for years,even though lead has been banned in fishing for twenty years and you haven't been able to buy it for as long,yes we still get the blame.Still the swan lady of Bath pool's life now has purpose,she has met the swan nutter of bath pool and is now lobbying politicians to ban angling,they dont need money from fishing or the environmental authority. People who walk there dogs for a sh*t around the lake are going to buy special charity poop bags which are going to pay for conservation of the lake yes they'd all use them of cause."Bravo I say"Well the swan is regally protected and from the medieval times it was farmed and upwards of fifty or more at a time were consumed at banquets,indeed it was this farming and regal protection which insured it's survival.I'm told it tastes better than turkey.If there was a food shortage I wonder how long it would take before people remembered this.
So a big thank you to the Swan lady of bath pool who made me realise that patience,perseverance and skill were all that was needed to wait for my feathered friends to get there fill,they would be smart enough not to eat my hook baits, then the carp would then return from the other side of the pool in only four hours or so.After all the licenses I'd bought went towards conservation of the area including the swans.Thanks to all these liberal minded people the world is a much better place.Smokers/Immigrants and asylum seekers stand on the corner together by closed pubs and working mens clubs discussing the credit crunch and global warming. Well done swan lady hope they don't close your local post office but with all that healthy walking miles around a lake in the early hours I'm sure you won't mind walking the extra five miles to the city center to pick up your pension.
Good Day Shaun.

Long Distance Casting

Ever wanted to improve on your distance casting,I came across this ten minute video which covers the subject fairly well including rigs and equipment.I found this a lot more useful than just using a fast taper rod and good reel,well worth a watch.Quest baits has some very good video tips and worthy of a bookmark check out the video vault.Join British record casting champion Mark Hutchinson here...
http://www.questbaits.com/docs/videovault/casting/index.html

Moreton Fisheries Review

Spent a recent Day Session at Moreton Fisheries Astbury Congleton.First impressions were the guy at the lodge Mal I believe his name was,had to be one of the grouchiest guys to run a fishery ever,gave the impression that coming to the front door to get the money for the session was a major pain.£7 I paid, for two rods might have been more but I was reluctant to ask as he cursed f&&&in hell when I gave him a tenner and he had to get change.With those jollities out of the way I decided to walk around the lake for a closer inspection,there was a pond across the road called peck's pool which has some sort of float fishing only rule,for a largely bottom feeding fish seemed more trouble than it was worth,and there had to be some bigger monsters in the main lake didn't there?,also there was a cottage pool but this was a bit too close to the grouch for comfort.I wasted the first couple of hours trieing some pop ups recommended to me from Pickerings before I tried my trusty home made boilies,bang into a carp about five minutes after it was in the water,after that I picked up fish roughly every 2o minutes ranging from about 8 to 15 pounds on simple bolt rigs,about 1.00 pm when I was musing if there was anything bigger a couple of lads set up on the corner of the island opposite and cast across my main lines,fair due I was fishing some 100 yards out,but I had to reel them in before we snagged each other.They picked up a few fish mainly off my baited area, try as I might couldn't locate any carp closer in,so effective end of session,something was regularly crashing to my left,this would have meant a move which I contemplated wasn't justified for the time leaft.I've included a few pics of the fish I caught,I've seen carp in better condition,but they fought well and gave cracking runs.In conclusion if you can get over the inital shock of the grouch at the lodge and the drone off traffic on the A34 behind you it's a nice enough place to fish with herons and ducks(a pain as usual!),some of the pegs could use a little refurbishment,wellies are in order as maybe to recent downpours/flooding you can't walk all the way around the lake.marks 3/10 with new guy at lodge 7/10. the lodge ogre was the the only monster I came up against that day.

Westport Lake

Good luck to the lads bivvied down at Westport Lake,who attended a work party last weekend so they could fish 4 weeks early,true dedicated carpers.This water now being handled by Middleport Angling Club,also day tickets available (from Pickerings).When I was first taken fishing here by my next door neighbour Mr Crane ,(some cough 35 years ago)we had some great fishing and better than I remember of late,but there's still an unknown quantity of thirties ,check the pic on the ice cream van,or some of Chiles fish, Stapely central stand,you might need some field binoculars to track them,but the rewards are there.The Landscape has changed from when I was a lad and a new energy efficient visitor centre is currently being constructed on what was a grassy slope decades ago.Although not as scenic as Trentham,Rudyard or Knypersely it has it's own charm and maybe a whacker for those that persevere.check this satellite link http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=westport+lake+stoke+map&ie=UTF8&ll=53.048889,-2.217093&spn=0.004295,0.009656&t=k&z=16

Shaun Pickerill

Revealed What Carp Really Love

What follows is a summary of the findings of extensive research undertaken at Sparshot College-the country's leading fisheries institution.It follows a series of laboratory experiments on the flavour preferences of young carp.It was found that flavours such as molasses and worms,which both contain very high levels of betaine and amino acids respectively,were extremely attractive to a fish's sense of smell,at the same time,those baits were quite likely to be rejected because the fish didn't like their taste.Meanwhile,flavours such as halibut pellets and tuna were less attractive initially,but far more likely to be eaten because the fish linked them to the fatty acids found in their natural,rich protein-based foods that are essential for health and growth.


It pays to remember that most stock fish have been reared and weaned on a diet of fish-meal based pellets..The results of these tests highlight the relationship between smell and taste.The results also demonstrate that over flavouring a bait like a bright pop-up may make them instantly attractive,but that's not necessarily something you'd want to do to a long term food source.A single bait such as flavoured plastic corn,that looks and smells good will always get you a bite,but an effective bait is one that smells and tastes good.Fishmeal in summer,year round bait has to be sweetcorn.It's colour,sweetness,saltiness and amino acid content make it a superb choice for use as both a hookbait and feed.

Flavour Preferences

• Molasses 95.2%
• Worm 88.6%
• Tuna 86.3%
• Clove 84.8%
• Strawberry 84.6%
• Halibut Pellet 83.3%

Flavour rejection

• Molasses 55%
• Clove 48.7%
• Worm 35.5%
• Strawberry 33.3%
• Tuna 13.6%
• Halibut 3.3%

Angling Times

Mr Crabtree Bernard Venables

Bernard Venables
Was the Author of Mr Crabtree Goes Fishing, the angling cartoon book that sold millions of copies in the 1940s
BERNARD VENABLES, who died aged 94 in 2001, authored one of the most successful books ever written about sport, Mr Crabtree Goes Fishing; presented in the form of a cartoon strip, it sold more than two million copies in the 1940s and 1950s, but since Venables was employed as the angling correspondent of the Daily Mirror he received not a penny! in royalties, all of which went to the newspaper.
Venables had trained as an artist, and in the years after the Second World War started to draw a series on gardening for the Mirror in which the pipe-loving Crabtree dispensed seasonal horticultural tips,yes that's right Crabtree was a gardener. Come winter, however, there was less for Crabtree to do, and Venables, a keen fisherman, accordingly suggested to the newspaper's editor that the character shift his attention to the riverbank.
Crabtree was provided with a son eager to learn the habits of tench and rudd, and along with the readers, young Peter was soon initiated into the piscatorial arts. Venables laid out and drew all the pictures himself, but the key to the Mr Crabtree's appeal was the skill with which he explained a largely intuitive sport to others. The Mirror was quick to see its success, and in 1949 a compilation of the strips, together with some new stories and watercolours, was issued in book form. Priced at five shillings, it proved to be a best seller.
Fifty years on, the characters possess a quaint but alluring charm: Peter Crabtree wears shorts in all weathers, while his father never sheds his tie. But the advice on fishing remains just as sound and pragmatic as it ever was, while the note of concern for the value of the countryside has become still more topical. For his part, although he saw no financial return from his success, Venables took great pleasure, and no little pride, in having introduced so many people to an idyllic and compelling pastime.
Bernard Percival Venables was born on February 14 1907, the son of a clerk. As a boy of five, growing up near Romney Marsh, he became fascinated by a local pond, imagining the fish swimming below its surface. He soon taught himself to fish with a piece of string and a bent pin. In later years he scorned anglers who relied on technology to make their catch; for him, fishing had to be a contest of skill and wits alone,a true carper.
The family later moved to south London, but his father died when Bernard was 15 and he left school young. He then had a series of menial jobs before entering art school (his grandfather had been a painter). Venables joined the Daily Express as a cartoonist and illustrator in the 1920s, later moving to the Mirror. When war came, and many of the journalists were called up, he was encouraged to turn his hand to reporting and discovered for the first time his ability to write clear and attractive prose.
Following the success of Mr Crabtree, Venables began to devote himself to writing about fishing full-time. In 1953, he co-founded the weekly Angling Times. He then became editor of Creel, a magazine aimed at the top end of the market, including those anglers who, with the growth of air travel, were starting to take fishing holidays in more exotic locations.
The magazine folded, however, when it failed to attract sufficient advertising revenue, and Venables then worked principally for the airlines BEA and BOAC, investigating opportunities for fishing tourism, particularly in Africa. His interest in angling of every kind took Venables all over the world in these years. In 1968, he published Baleia!, an account of the two seasons he spent with the Fayal islanders of the Azores, hunting whales in small open boats with hand-held harpoons.
Venables also travelled to Gibraltar to fish for shark, and hooked a 24-footer which he managed to bring on deck. The creature, he later recalled, then became very active. "The back end hit one of my friends on the leg, so that he had to go to hospital. The front end gave me a wallop on the head and knocked my pipe out of my mouth." When Venables retrieved his briar, he found that he had also lost a front tooth.
Another of his books, Coming Down the Zambezi (1975), grew from Venables's fascination with the newly independent Africa, and also from his interest in David Livingstone's explorations of the continent. Venables, by now almost in his seventies, travelled more than 1,200 miles down the river from its source in the forests of the Congo to the point where it enters Mozambique.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Venables gave much of his energy to the Anglers' Co-operative Association, which helped to clean up some of Britain's more polluted waterways. He was a dedicated conservationist, and came to see fishing as a sort of mystical act, a participation in a natural order of things greater than man.
"I make a very close link between our belonging here and the will to fish," he said. "There is no natural medium in which the sense of life on earth is more evident than in water . . . Most of the things which are least pleasant about life now are the things which are most antithetical to fishing."
He was the author of 18 books, including Fishing (1953), The Angler's Companion (1958), A Rise to the Fly (1999) and The Illustrated Memoirs of a Fisherman (1993). Mr Crabtree Goes Fishing was republished by Map Marketing last year. Venables had a lively, inquiring, analytical mind, but he also enjoyed the more reflective aspects of fishing, particularly the birdsong and the play of light on water.
He himself lived near the Wiltshire Avon, and even in his nineties worked seven days a week. Away from fishing, he enjoyed sculpting and especially painting, which he thought his true vocation. He married, in 1958, Eileen Willmore. They had two sons and a daughter.

Pleasure or Match Fishing

Pleasure or Match Fishing?,no doubt some people do get pleasure from poling in silver fish the size of gudgeons every 20 seconds,but as a seasoned carper I have to admit it holds little appeal for me.I remember winning one river match on the Severn with about half a pound of Dace as no one else caught,and I thought I'd had a miserable session,never fished another match after that,I was almost to embarrassed to receive the cup.It's nice to take in the scenery even stroll around if someone's caught a whacker and you just can't do these things in the heat of competition.You can certainly take advantage of some of the groundbaiting after some of the matchmen have vacated to relate their stories of being half an ounce from victory.When the line screams from the reel clutch along with the steady tone of the alarm! you know that's no 8 oz roach on the end and battle commences.If you're a professional match angler who makes a good living from it fair due,personally I'd be bored out of my skull,so let's here your views or vote in the poll.
Shaun

Carp Fishing in Staffordshire and Cheshire

Researching Carp Fishing in Staffordshire and Cheshire is a full time job. Trentham(deep pockets around £190),Knypersley,Westport lake(monster common pic, central stand at Stapeley Angling Centre). S-O-T Angling has some of the best if difficult waters, Capesthorne,Bolesworth Castle ,etc .Cudmore Fisheries,Avoca where I caught my first 20.Heronbrook fisheries,Moreton fisheries .Gawsworth Hall ,see my 25 and that wasn't the biggest spotted, Lawton Hall around £300(deep pockets!) only 20 decent size carp to my knowledge!,worth investigating:Holden Lane,Goldendale(free fishing)Baden Hall,Brereton Pool,Winterley Pool,Lakemore Fisheries,Walnut Tree Farm,Home Farm Fishery,(Alsager),add your comments waters and opinions here.
Shaun

Welcome Carpers

Welcome to what I hope to make one of the best carping blogs on the web,if not the best!.It's beginning to take shape now,I have video from Youtube and feeds from some of the best carping and fishing sites,so I'm hoping you will bookmark and contribute to this blog.Around about this time of year I'm generally deciding where I am going to concentrate my carping efforts,so it's a review of clubs and waters along with checking tackle is up to date.Thanks for reading good luck to you all, get out there and catch a Whacker!
Shaun

Stapeley Gardens Angling Centre

Definitely the widest range of fishing/carping equipment in Cheshire,or local to Staffordshire makes Pickerings look like a paper shop,Where else could you take some of the best known carp rods off the rack like the Infinity Magnum Taper and see how they really feel or compare to cheaper rods,some surprisingly good rods here too at just £29.99 and £39.99 that I would be more than happy to use.The bait available here is one of the widest available, although some of it looks a little overpriced,in fact you name it in carping gear they've got it,also some great sales items notably some of the bivvies and rods near the entrance,well worth a visit but take loadsamoney.

Budget Carping

Here's a few tips on carping on a budget in no particular order,the internet is a great source for cheap equipment,ebay etc,but you can save money on other things too,making your own boilies for example,just get the basemix right and experiment with your own flavours,microwaving can turn a bottom bait into a pop up for example,soya flour and semolina can form the most basic basemix.Vitalin can be a great carpy groundbait/spod bait along with boiled hemp you can pick up 10kg sacks of this for around 10-15 pounds and take my word for it carp love it.Add some cheap long life milk/any milk to create extra cloudiness,plumrose luncheon meat has landed me a few carp when nothing else works get it from the supermarket not the tackle shop.Onto tackle now,in my opinion daiwa sensor line is a great budget line,you can't argue with a line that has landed so many specimen/record fish.Hook links,snake bite,korda IQ/hybrid/supersoft/stiff ,Kryston super nova and supersilk,infact anything! by Kryston,all great hooklink materials,Fox illusion also worth a mention.A good budget bait runner would be the Daiwa Regal 4500/5000 Bri for those of us who can't afford the Basia,rods is a little tougher but go for something with a fast taper and light tip similar to the daiwa infinity/longbow rods you need a rod that will cast distance/bully and play the carp,the new slimpower looks nice too! but take my word for it you can get similar.Bivvies well whats wrong with a cheap green dome tent,some tents are better made than fishing bivvies anyhow,but you need something that doesn't take a month of sundays to erect,you can't beat the trakker bivvies in that respect.More items soon feel free to add comments on your own tips.

Record Carp

Here are some links to the Carp we should be aspiring to;
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.gofishing.co.uk/upload/4119/images/Darrel-Peck---Two-Tone-65lb.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.gofishing.co.uk/news/News-Search-Results/Fish-Catches/October-2007/Two-Tone-caught-at-65lb-4oz/%3F%26R%3DEPI-3153&h=400&w=600&sz=83&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=yGJNkH00Lw7WyM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcurrent%2Bbritish%2Bcarp%2Brecord%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

http://catsncarp.blogspot.com/2007/10/world-record-mirror-carp-paul-meridith.html

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.fishingmagic.com/news/images/emir8412.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.fishingmagic.com/news/article.asp%3FUAN%3D4817%26v%3D1&h=450&w=400&sz=44&hl=en&start=6&um=1&tbnid=feaC1ejwrzW59M:&tbnh=127&tbnw=113&prev=/images%3Fq%3D2008%2Bworld%2Bcarp%2Brecord%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/07_02/bigcarpBN1707_600x396.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html%3Fin_article_id%3D469003%26in_page_id%3D1811&h=396&w=600&sz=77&hl=en&start=10&um=1&tbnid=hEBydPQfuDW7HM:&tbnh=89&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3D2008%2Bworld%2Bcarp%2Brecord%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

Introduction to the Ultimate Carper

Carping has been an obsession for me,no other form of fishing for me encapsulates the search and trips out for these wily beasts.I have many fisherman's tales and hope to get them down on this blog while my memory is intact.Where would we be without some of the innovations in modern Carping equipment/Baits/Reports on Fisheries,even today's cheap gear is better than some of the kit I parted my hard earned cash for in the past.
So here it is the introduction to the Ultimate Carper,if you haven't got the budget yet to get off to France as much as you'd like,don't worry this is mainly a good old Blighty blog from me although I'm interested in any information exchange on Carping Trips worldwide,spring is rapidly approaching,and although I have done some Winter Carping,notably recent trips to Cuttle Mill,it doesn't compare in terms of fish on the mat.We all benefit from an exchange of information and my aim is to make this the reference blog for the Serious Carper.
Shaun Pickerill