Welcome all to my very own Blog.

Over the series of issues of Tried and Tested I will extensively abuse many items that are a must have for the avid angler.

I have a lot of gear that I have recently bought/received and I will be putting it through its paces and reporting back in this very blog.

The first issue of Tried and Tested focuses on Clothing, and many issues to follow will also be focused on the must have angling clothing. But why clothing as issue 1, why not bait boats, bivvys or bedchairs. Well given the exceptional weather the UK has had the last 14 days where better to start, and more importantly the coat is one of the most important winter weather items an angler must have. So let’s look at this extraordinary piece of kit.

The Nash reversible Bomber is one of the only coats on the market aimed at serious anglers, it is lightweight, waterproof and as the title says reversible. It is made of water resistant material, and tested in the snow holds its own, and kept me warm and dry. It comes with a removable fleece coated hood, and elasticated cuffs which IMHO is a must. Several zipped pockets ensure that you won’t misplace your valuables when running to hit that screaming take. It comes in several sizes and the common anglers green colour only.

But the issue I found with this coat is the reversible factor. Nash state it is looks smart on the bank and reverses it and looks even smarter to wear to the pub for a few bevvies. With this statement I do not agree. The internal pattern is not waterproof and not too appealing. Not something I would wear on the back let alone the pub. Mistake number 1. Mistake number two is focusing on a multi-functional coat and this is shown in the Zip System. It is awkward and not as smooth as you would like but this can be expected from a reversible coat. When reversed the hood function becomes irrelevant and the waterproof lining is now not as warm as an internal component.

Retailing from £79.99 up to £89.99 this is a seriously expensive piece of kit. BUT it is the daddy. It did what it was designed for and kept me warm dry and sheltered from the blistering winter winds. I received a lot of comments walking round my local ponds, "nice jacket mate".

Being a HUGE Nash fan must admit that I am a sucker for the coat but have full faith that wherever I am if I have this coat on the bank I will be warm.

Should you buy it - Yes but not on the fact that it is a 2 in 1, for the fact it is in my opinion probably the best coat on the market.

Next week - TF Gear XTUFF 4/5 Season Sleeping Bag.

Yesterday was brilliant!
Anglers Profile Held the first ever online treasure hunt event in the history on fishing! also breaking another record for giving 76 prizes away in 3 hours, not only has no fishing website done this but has been able to organize something so big in such short time.
Anglers Profile at 11pm via the Facebook page ace announced “COMPETITION TIME! TREASURE HUNT! " as the message was spread it ended up being on 40 different high profiles, the aim was for you to find the missing treasure chests that captain jack had lost on his journey looking around AP, first you had to sign up get familiar with the site and wait for 3pm when the hunt began. There were 117 chances to win something and 500 in it to win it! Also there was the Lost Diamond, fallen Ruby, Wicked Emerald, Juicy Gold Brick, these were top prizes and if you found it, you were laughing guaranteed! After 2 hours the diamond was found by Mike Hall who was more than happy to shout out on the wall "IVE FOUND IT!" although he said he was so excited filling the form in before everyone else he didn’t have a clue what he had won! Second top contender was young Coxy he wouldn’t stop nagging for tips and fair play was searching high and low, he found the ruby which the clue was "there’s a ghost behind you" coxy discovered the ruby was behind the word you, and then the biggest laugh of the night had to be taddy, he was on the search for the emerald he took all the clues got to the carp channel looked all over just to find it was in front of him all the time it was in the position the ap logo would be :'D  and to all you others who found chests and won bags of bait and dvd's and clothes well done!

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 This year I must say I am really looking forward to hitting all events head on and and fishing experiences, I have not missed a thing yet and as a team we are getting anglers profile started now for the members that have been here for a while will be think huh? but the fact is AP has had a long beta trial and afte ironing out our biggest crease end of last year which was all of that stupid daiting website traffic we kept getting we are now proud to say anglers profile is the UK's Official Fishing Social Network and Europes Largest :) so lets crack on!

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NEXT WEEK!:

• Next week we will be holding a treasure hunt again on saturday at the same time 3pm till 6pm :D
• I feature in the new AP episodes to come ;)
• John and Adam get out on the bank next week
• AP has big meating on product development
• Ill be finishing my report with Danny Fairbrass at Wellington Syndicate.
• Also I will be fishing Wellington Myself as usual.
• Talks of  a shop being added will be confirmd
• New AP gear will be designed.

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I will send you all a sneak peak email on our new products if youd say that are coming out but most of all I just want you to enjoy AP :)

Ben Keseru Phillips

Yes! I have not written one of these for ages and really have not had the time which deserves a slap wrist for not making time! But not to worry after drinking my cup of pg tips tea I am motivated to tell you a little about my day everyday: D but first let’s find out what you missed out on last week...

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Last Week:
Anglers Profile Signed a Deal with online fishing TV so they would start supplying prizes every month for the site, the first prize is a dynamite bait kit and some DVD's of chilly on carp, this will ensure that 2012 Anglers Profile is able to offer you nonstop competitions but this year we are still trying to put together a more professional way of doing these comps which will end up just being "send your pic in and we judge it" haha.

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Last week I spoke to the Vice Chairman of the federation of welsh anglers, we discussed some very interesting topics about wales and also have some great big plans for wales on the carp scene as it is neglected big time.

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Myself Ben Keseru Phillips and Simon James travelled to Reading were Simon was my guest on the ever so popular Wellington Syndicate although you may not have heard of it, we come to an agreement that it is the best top lake in Britain if you want to say the "BEST!" but we'll leave that to you although you have to join a waiting list of 200 to get onto a lake with 50 members at £1500 a year but for the average fish being 40lb your all the way up to 52-54lb its worth a shout.

We arrived on the Thursday and finished on the Sunday 3 nights 4 days, every time we go we get this magical feeling and the anglers that are present are A* no matter which one of the 50 it is they are top dog...including myself ;) jokes, and because the last time I could make it to Wellie was last year I had was so out of touch with the methods I needed to quickly trawl some tips and tricks!

I will not give the results out now as there is a separate blog being written about this last weekend but keep your eyes peeled for it :D

Today:
Well today I will be in contact with a company by the name of Carp Balls ( www.carpballs.co.uk)

Online Fishing TV has asked us to build a new website under a new name on a different business ground.

A competition will be made up for the site.

I will be in contact with Jon Taylor the Vice Chairman from the federation of welsh anglers.

New Footage will be uploaded here of wellington before it hits its own website.
 
Taking a visit to the local Tackle Shop Reel Fishing.


Yourself:
You should get a blog up of your daily activities or just weekly Anglers love knowing what going on around the country alone your bivvy ;)

BKP

Not been on for a while so here is a quick update of my recent winter sessions.
 
Pool Hall
Did 24 hours  on there runs water  3 days before crimbo & the weather was very mild for the time of the year i was expecting to catch a couple!
When we got there was a bloke was coming off after doing 24 hours & had blanked so things were not looking good, to be honest i have been there before & the place had new owners & compared to my last visit the place looked like a dump! when i asked the baliff about the runs water he said "its not really a runs water anymore" humm i wonder y i thought!

Anyway to cut a long story short i blanked & so did my brother we tried everythink but to be honest did not see any fish activity at all.
In januarys issue of crafty carper the 2 lads in there did 30 hours on the place in november & struggled & only had 1 fish each! 
Shame really i think the place has really gone down hill abit like cuttle mill!

Earlswood
Did a short day session with my brother & neighbour 2 days before new year,the weather was horrible raining hard & freezing cold any way me & my neighbour blanked hard & my bro had 5  mirrors up to around 12lb

So that bring you up to date, i have had a decent year catching some really nice fish.
Looking forward to 2012 & setting my self some targets.

 

Winter Baits Needed!

WOW its cold! Time to get on the amber strawberry’s (NASH) no word of a lie if you want to catch a fish in this weather keep reading:

 

In recant Winters I have tried all sorts of chilly hot steaming baits but none of them work!? so I was looking through one of our old websites called fish4rum.com and come across an article on the good ol'winter fishing and noticed that everyone was catching on Nash Amber Strawberry and a lad called John Wood had figured its success by crushing it up into a pva bag so it’s like fine powder...white powder ;) no not cocaine hehe but in fact amber strawberry boilies 10mm so it was easier to crush back in the day when korda krusha didn’t exist, then on the hair put a 15mm amber strawberry boile and a pink boilie stop from fox I believe?? Anyway wack it out there and please don’t make it a huge pva bag otherwise we have a nuclear war on our hands with this stuff as what it does to the water is amazing! A huge cloud spreads everywhere breading the smell of strawberry yogurt in the nostrils of carp! Getting them all over it searching for that one boilie known as the golden nugget! Or strawberry in this case, anyway use it and you watch within half hour tops you will get a bite if not then the korda fishing school is around the Conner ;) jokes

Team AP

Tuesday 27^th December was quite a mild day and having completed the normal Christmas duties and had a pleasant Christmas I couldn’t resist the opportunity to go fishing and try out some of the new bits of fishing tackle I had acquired, including some new Delkims.

 

Things being what they are though I didn't get down to the syndicate water I fish until lunchtime since had to drop my son off in the morning and then sort the gear out. When I arrived at the lake some weak sunshine had just disappeared leaving a warmish grey sky and hardly any wind. One of the guys I know on the water, was fishing the peg I have been fishing a lot recently, so I ended up fishing an end peg which I also quite like fishing. He had been there since 8am and hadn't had a thing, not very inspiring but who knows.

 

A bit about the lake, as I’m calling it, is quite small with only around 30 carp in it and it isn’t an easy water at the best of times. In winter like all carp waters the going gets correspondingly harder. Generally if one gets a single carp in 24 hours it’s a good session, fortunately they are of a decent size around 20lb with 1 known fish over 30lb. Nearly all of the carp I have caught here have been taken on a night, so only fishing the afternoon was more for the pleasure than with a hope of catching.

Since my co-angler had struggled and he is quite a good angler I decided that the way forward was to fish something different to what he was doing. He had advised he was fishing boilies and consequently I decided to fish bright fruit pop-ups over small bags of pellet. If they were going to take a bait it was more likely to be out of curiosity than hunger. Additionally I was probably only going to have 5 hours fishing since as we all know it is dark early, and that would give me 4 hours of daylight and 1 hour in the dark.

 

I decided to fish 2 rods across to the far bank and 1 rod to the right on the nearside bank up against some lilypads. As quickly as possible I got my rods out fishing and catapulted around 10 boilies to each area, hopefully to attract any passing carps interest that might be feeding and if not hopefully the small bags of pellet with the pop up might attract any inquisitive carp.

 

I had only had the nearside rod out a couple of hours when around 3.30pm the RH rod fishing on the nearside up against the lilypads was away. Fantastic, I struck and was into a carp and after a spirited fight I ended a long spell of blanks - with one 18.5lb linear carp. The fish looked very nice in its winter colours. What a good way to end the year! I fished on after dark but there was no more action to be had. Wishing tight lines for everyone in 2012.

Welcome to the first Snippets Blog we have decided everyday to give you a snippet out of a publication or magazine to keep you all on track not only with us but the outside stars, we will be presenting you with some first class articles, todays is a chapter from Julian Cundiffs Carp Short Session Success

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Chapter Eighteen
Winter: Belief Is The Key

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The Best Thing about Winter Carp Fishing for the short session anglers is that many anglers who fish for carp in the spring and summer dont bother in winter, sure there are plenty of anglers who do fish for carp in the winter but from what I've seen there's a huge drop off. That's Fantastic. The carp may be harder to catch, the conditions less favourable but the lack of other anglers means that it truly is you versus the carp. No searching for your sixth choice of swim, seeing the water being frashed to a foam and dealing with World War 2 - heaven. No matter how hard the summer has been and dealing with angler pressure has done your head in, now is the time to get your head sorted, your carp brain on and be out there and catching.

Venue
Whilst it is possible to fish a number of venues ideally you should try to stick to one during the coldest months. Winter carp are not easy to catch and unles you start to get a feel for the venue it really can be hard to get on top of it. When I look back at my successfull winters it's not been one type of water that has shone, but the fact that I have fished a water hard from October through to March. Flitting here and there has Ruined many a winter for me and even now with all my experience, I still struggle on one-off trips to waters I don't understand.
The type of venue really depends on what you want from your carp fishing of course. Usually I spend the summer months targeting my big fish and in the winter I simply want somewhere I have a chance of action most sessions. The last thing I want to do is kill mysel all winter for minimal rewards and have spring and summer to grind through, too. A lot of very well-known carp anglers don't fish for carp in the winter simply because the size of fish they wish to catch dont get caught regularly in the colder months. If these names avoid the harder big fish waters in the cold, then unless you feel you have a real edge which may work, it wouldnt be the type of water I'd expect you to target. Look for one with plenty of fish and hopefully not a lot of natural food. Although it sounds cruel the more they rely on anglers' bait the more likely they are to pick your bait up because they have to. And the more carp there are in the water the more they have to compete with each other. Shallow waters are best in that other than the problem with freesing up, they warm up and turn on a lot quicker and any sun or warmth will hopefully have the carp moving about. Less weed is better as the carp will have less natural food to feed on. Smaller acerage is better than bigger in that they are less likely to be out of range and therefore easier to find. Find them and you are a long way towards catching them.

Tommorow we will go onto planning as Julian explains how vital its is and what to do...

AP BLOGS www.anglersprofile.com

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Round up of Recent Sessions!!
Due to work commitments I have not blogged for a while, so here is a quick round up of all the recent sessions:-

Oxford Brasenose 1
I did 48 Hours in August, I fished in the left hand corner opposite the gravel bar that sticks out of the water!!One rod was fished in the margin on the edge of the weed that seems to go all away around the margin on Brasenose!!, my rig was my normal setup of lead clip &lead core on my own combi rig with a size 8 wide gap.Bait wise I had a mix of Mainline cell & Richworth pineapple boilies in 14&16 mill with hemp/maples & halibut pellets spoded over the top.I had 2 takes from this spot, lost a kipper right at the net! gutted L and also landed a double figure common that looked like a football lol.
The other rod was cast towards any showing fish in open water on a snowman cell/pineapple pop up in a p.v.a bag of crushed boilies & on the 1^st night it resulted in a 27lb mirror and a new English p.b mirror for me, result get in there!, I again also lost another one at the net!!! The bailiff said I probably lost the fish because I was using barb less hooks and the fish have soft mouths, so next time use barbed!!!So I had 2 & lost 2 some people might say its crap for Brasenose, but considering some other anglers blanked around me and there had been a charity event on with the Celebes in the days before with a lot of pressure on the fish, I think I did fine.


27lb Mirror

Earlswood, 3 short day trips with mixed results!
I had 2 trips to Earlswood a tore the place apart had loads of mirrors in each session, on all manor of tactics from zigs, surface tactics, and off the bottom and most fish where mid doubles!
On my last trip to Earlswood the water level was really low, in fact I don’t think it could get any lower! I really struggled and managed to nick a bite of a small mirror right at the death to save me from a embarrassing blank lol

Barston for a bit of bait testing
I have recently started to get into making my own boilies & and have been working on 2 baits, one is a High Attract Pineapple & Banana basic 50/50 mix with some secret additives & the other is a coconut boilie using Quality Baits Coconut base mix & again with some secret additives.
I gave my neighbour about half kilo of each and he had 7 fish from his local syndicate up to 12lb, so I had to test them myself, well like oxford I arrived during a big match where Steve Ringer & Co where competing in the national or something!! Anyway I waited for the match to finish & jumped into the fountain peg, I managed during night to catch a couple on each including a lovely looking 10lb ghostie. Anyway not great by barston standards, but I was using 16 mill baits to avoid the thousands of smaller fish!! & I am sure if I would have changed to bright pop ups & pellets I whould have been plagued all night lol

High Attract Pineapple & Banana

Into the unknown
Well After the last trips to Earlswood & Barston I thought a challenge was needed, so me, my brother & mate decided to fish a secret lake! it’s a restored mineral quarry that not to many people know about, its one of the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen and has loads of features and by paying regular visits & climbing trees! we know its hold some big commons!! The only problem is there are no pegs, its all overgrown! So anyway, loaded with 4 kilos of particles, we gave it a bash for the 1^st time so after chopping our way through 10 ft high stingers, brambles & cutting down some small willows, we finally where fishing, I spoded out 2 kilos of particles out to a 5 ft deep silty gully & fished both rod over the top & managed to blank all night, my brother also blanked and my mate lost one from a island spot the fish buried it self in a thick weed bed. So our 1^st little adventure on the secret lake, its hard work but the rewards are there to be had! You will be reading more about this lake next year and hopefully I will have some nice pics to go with it.

Dodgy Council lake (keep one eye open all night lol)
My latest trip was to Kingshurst lake, used to fish this lake a lot when I lived around there, its also where I 1^st started carping, had well over 50 fish out of there, anyway over the last 5 years the lake has become chocked with weed making it almost impossible to fish! Good news for the fish because they are growing big with all the natural food, but bad for us carpers because they become to hard to catch!
Me & my bro fished to pegs down the deeper end of the lake on to some clear gravel spots both baited with a couple of kilo of my own boilies I talked about earlier, and both blanked all night & got plagued by the thousands of ducks that know live on the place lol.
So that brings you up to date with what I have been up to, might get a couple more sessions in before the big freeze arrives!

Tight lines

well what can i say iam sorry that i have not done a blog in time guys i am going to try and do it more right back to the lake i have now had four carp out all over the 20lb mark the biggset was 25lb 8oz i have put the pics up on here .

i have not been for the last three weeks has i walk there and back and my wheel on my barrow as gone am waiting for a new one to come the fishing as been hard as well and nothing as been out of the lake since JULY but i am still putting the bait in and fishing when i can .

What does the saying "Fail to prepare, prepared to fail" really mean? well in Angling terms if you don’t have your maggots the night before don’t expect the fish to be in your swim tomorrow:D

A lot of our common mistakes as anglers come about from our imperfect minds that forget to bring something or do something the night before and most of the time its the most simplest of things please raise your hand if you have forgot your baiting needle? C'mon this is the most simple but omg it’s the most vital and worst to forget!

So these days how do we make sure we are on top of our game? well its quite simple as myself I have tackled this by writing a list throughout the week of what I may need for my session and how much but also those little bits (end tackle) so when it comes to loading the car I have it all writing down and check it all off, I am not sure how or where all of your gear is layed out but my garage is about 15m by 10m so its rectangle shaped but I walk around 4 times checking it in my head and on paper this way I have managed to prepare and prepared to win!

You may be thinking Ben why are you writing this? Well next time you ask me to borrow my scissors you remember this article ;)

BKP