I will concentrate on carp in this piece but may stray to other species if space allows. Right, where do we start? Well, the many articles written in the weekly and monthly angling magazines about winter carp fishing are correct, with respects to the basics, so I will start with them. First of all do…

There are four main waters here, three low stocked un-pressured large waters and one better stocked, pressured lake. Firstly, The Ash Tree Pit that I had fished heavily the previous season, and a water I’ll be detailing in the final part of this series. A very large, untapped, broken-up lake of massive potential for big…

For such trips I particularly favour a roving approach. Pockets are filled with tackle and a bait smock is stuffed with maggots and maybe a few slices of bread and some other baits. I go armed with a 14′ match rod and centre pin and the only other thing I have to carry is a…

Some behaviour is so clear that it is easy to pick up what the fish are doing, but often just trying to remember when and on what gear you caught what fish is impossible. I must admit that am not the best person in the world at keeping a diary – hell, I don’t even…

As early as the sixties, match aces like Ray Mumford were converting hollow glass roach poles into rods. These rods had properly built cork handles with a counter weight in the butt to make them easier to use. They were also fully rung and normally used with a centre pin for better control. Not only…

Any of you even vaguely interested in the angling mags and big carp captures will recognise the name of “Darenth Big Lake” also known as “Darenth Syndicate Lake”. I don’t think a week goes by without at least one 40lb from Darenth entering the pages of the Magazines. Well, also in the Darenth complex are…

There are places, and plenty of them, where you can catch as many carp in an afternoon as people used to catch in a season. These aren’t small fish either – I’ve only today heard of an angler who caught nine 20 pounders in a 24 hour session. Tackle has improved, and so has rig…

This form of bread is easy to prepare and it is both denser and softer than conventional dry crusts. This bait sinks and more importantly, being softer, the fish tend to hang on longer to the bait giving more positive bites. It is also easier to strike through the bait to catch the fish resulting…

Any trout angler would be happy with fifteen trout on the fly and every pike angler would be equally happy with a 26 pound pike so, as you can imagine, Gordon Grace and I were both very impressed with our 30 trout up to 2 pounds AND a pike of 26 pounds ! The technique…

Adventure fishing, is that what you’d call it? I certainly would ! I know that a lot of the readers here, like myself, are interested in learning; new skills, better spots, how to add a whole range of colours to their pallet.I was on an adventure trip in Taupo, New Zealand, and I was painting…