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

The best time to fish for carp is just as the sun is coming up. 
I often ask myself is today the right day. 
As the morning unfolds you can see a lake come to life. It’s a trigger time for increased activity. More often than not carp become noticeably busier during the first few hours of the day. It’s an incredibly reliable natural feeding time, and I’d consistently fancy a bite during the first few hours of the day on properly almost all venues rather than thought the dark hours. The weather conditions, temperature, sunshine, the changes of the light levels or a combining of all sorts of factors, carp are a reliable morning species. Also, there are times in the winter mouths, when they may be more catchable later in the day or at night. But even then it’s rare not to see sighs of carp activity as the day begins. It gives you a good clue you’ll get as to where the carp are to be found. And where you’re best chances of catching carp will be. 
So many venues are dominated by night fishing that often the first few hours of day light are very quiet time on the bank. Accept from the snoring from the bivvies. 


Tight lines Jordan murphy