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

---

Chapter Eighteen
Winter: Belief Is The Key

---

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

---

Just got everything checked of the list for the carp cup uk today as you cannot make a mistake in this game or I should say you cannot afford to make one, today the pressure will be held at Lamby Lakes Syndicate in Cardiff, 10 anglers will be battling out for 2 spaces to make it to the straight final at Linear Fisheries Brasenose 1, but all that matters is today at this moment, I really cannot describe how bad the knots are in my stomach yet alone my rigs ;) lol! As always once the horn gos and your fishing you are fine and switch on, and its a funny thing for myself as I have to switch on!, Last year I lost the BYCAC because I fell asleep on the bank in a live championship and woke up to cameras in my face and me loosing a fish! yes it was embarrassing but boy did I learn from that :/ these competitions are not a comp that you go there for a catch up, you go there to get made for life that's obviously as long as you go the right way about it :) for example Tom Dove, Ian Poole, Jake Wildbore etc but all you have to do is nail it on the day disregards of what peg you get just do it! :) I will keep you guys updated through the day on whats going on :) I have made in my rig collection the following: 3x Multi Rigs 3x Chod Rigs 3x Blowback Rigs 4x KD Rigs 2x 360 Rigs 5x Basic Hair Rig I will be using sonik sk3 rods alongside shimano 14000 big pits :) solar bank sticks, attx alarms, jrc contact bivvy, nash wideboy indulgence chair, fox horizon spod and marker rod. Korda leeder, shocker rig Thats just a little scene for you :)

Land of the Unknown!



It was the 20th of April and I had 2 weeks to get fishing I was up in London staying at my mums. I went over to see my mate’s house and they were having a chat about fishing on the 23rd somewhere for 48 hours. We was stuck for places to go and wasn’t sure where to go. My mate suddenly realised there was new water he had joined that not many people have fished for the carp before, so we thought it would be a good idea to see what potential the lake had and what was really in it.

So for the next two days I prepared for the 48hrs on a new water covering many aspects, rigs, baits etc. so come the 23rd of April at eleven o’clock my mate picked me up and we ventured of to this wildly unknown territory, us not having a clue what was in there was fishing it completely blank, so we had a walk around and there was 2 match anglers on there we looked right at the top and the fish were up in the water, some of them a very good size. We carried on walking around and I decided to fish a peg with a jetty/catwalk on it. There was a nice overhanging tree and a very advertising opposite bank to fish to. So I got all the gear set up and put some bait beside the tree. I opted to use particle baits and chopped boilie for this water as there seemed a fair few little fish so hopefully would entice the bigger fish. So to start I put out four bait scoops full and left it, every 3 hours I was doing this and getting liners quiet frequently, and hopeful. I decided to fish single hook baits with different coloured corns on each rod, pink, yellow and blue hopefully 1 of these would get a bite.


My Swim!!

Witching hour!!

So come 9pm I was awake and ready sitting with the boys having a social, we sat there waiting with most of the rods getting liners, come ten o’clock it went in order of the bites, with my mates first fish, they must of gradually been moving down the lake and I was the very last one to get a bite come 4:30 am my alarm started slowly going so I got to the rod and picked it up and felt that the fish was solid, in a snag obviously, so I decided to make tension and tighten down on it eventually it pulled out of the snag and plodded around for fifteen minutes or more. Suddenly as soon as I netted the fish my mates two rods were going and I didn’t see I sign of movement from him so I went and landed both of his fish of about nine to twelve lb so once I done that I eventually woke him and asked him to take some photos. As I was getting everything ready, zeroing the scales and get everything wet, with a bucket of water ready for the fish, my mate said you have got one of the biggest fish in the lake, it tipped the scales around to 27lb 8oz at that time my heart was racing. So as soon as I gave him the camera and I got the fish into position my mate took some brilliant photos and I went and slipped the fish back, this had finally made my week almost a year of trying to break my personal best and I done it on my first session on the lake. So with another night to go I wasn’t that concerned about where I re-cast the rod so I just cast it towards the tree I was fishing and got back to sleep. With liners every now and then that I was ignoring until it rips off.




My New Personal Best, 27lb 8oz


Restart!

so once the morning arrived it was the same process again but today I wasn’t going to fish in the day because it was way to warm and we could see the fish were more interested in other things, so I put some more particle out on the spots, and went back to sleep. At twelve o’clock my mate called me to pop home quickly to stock up on food and go home for a shower, so we left our gear with the other lads. We got back at about half past three, and it was still way to warm and I couldn’t see the point in wasting energy on putting the rods out when they have other things on there mind (spawning). So every hour I scooped some particles over the spot and placed boilies over it and left it. Come seven o’clock it was slowly getting cooler so I decided to finally put the rods out and hopefully repeat the process that I had done the night before. So I had the rods out bait over them and I was happy, we sat up socialising till about eleven pm and already by then everyone had a fish except me I had a run and nothing was connected. So I got my head down and slept and suddenly come quarter to four I had another run, struck and something else pretty serious was on it, the fish was motoring up the lake and eventually I managed to stop it and turn it towards me, after ten minutes of I sitting down on the first shelf I had its head up and in the net. I looked at it with the head torch and I said to myself “That might just make 20lb”, so I woke my friend and got everything ready (repeating the process from the day before)  I put it up on the scales and he went 20lb 2oz, I was more than happy with this, photographed it and slipped her back. I was more than pleased two twenty’s in two sessions, I don’t get that often.

20lb 2oz !!!!

The Long Hall

It was the end of school and a week holidays to be used. So I decided to do a long hall on the fendrod for a week I got down their on a Thursday morning and set up on the open bank on peg 17 not fished this peg before so it was something I was hoping would pay off, so I got set up about 5:30pm and it was starting to get dark. I was fishing one rod to the left of the island one to the right of the island and one in the middle of it. This year I have been fishing with bait many anglers have lots of faith in and I have every bit of confidence fishing on it. So I set up using a short 5 inch stiff coated hook link and a 2 oz lead on all three rods, this year I have had the majority of my fish on the snowman rig so I have opted to fish all three this way. I had all 3 rods out and set up by about 6:30 and spread a bit of bait around the island and waited.

I was having bit of a social with the lads and a few liners here and there nothing to shows as yet. So around 2 in the morning I fell asleep and it was absolutely silent most of the night except a few liners. Peter two pegs up from me had a 17lb common. But that’s all was to shows out of 4 of us. So I had been there 24hrs and nothing I decided to stay hoping the second night would produce. Come dusk still nothing had shown. I was lacking in confidence so I just re-cast the rods and waited. With violent liners every now and then I had hope there was fish in the swim. But I got my head down and with the liners continuing with no proper takes I woke up at 7am to see what was happening with the anglers arising listening to the birds and the odd person using the throwing stick it was like heaven. I wound the rods in and took a walk around the lake for signs of more fish I took a walk around to peg 38 to see quit a lot of movement in what they call the “snags” so it pursued for 20 minutes watching and I knew it was time to move. So I get back to my peg and I borrowed my mate’s barrow and got the gear around. I was confidant because they say if nothing happening move and I was moving in to a well known populated area for the fish at all times of year. So I got over there set up and was comfortable I planned on doing 48hr’s on there because usually the second night is better than the first. So I put a bit of bait out and rods and then it was time to sit back.

Surprise, surprise!!!!

Come 2:30 I was lying on the bed chair listening to music and suddenly one of my rods burst into life, with the bobbin hitting the rod and the clutch screaming, after hooking into it the hook pulled. So I re-tied a new bag and a new bait and back on the spot. So I was back on the money and confident. My mate gave me a ring saying he would be down in twenty minutes so I sat back, fifteen minutes later and the same rod was off again, unexpected? Yes totally, then after a five minute fight it was in the net. It was a low double orange mirror. So my friends come around and I weighed it at 13lb 4oz took pictures and slipped it back. What a good start so I was happy.

So I reeled in the rods and gave my mate a hand with the gear. So he got set up, I had a cup of tea with him and I returned to my peg about half past 5 and re-cast. So it was time to chill out with the odd liner bringing me to life but after a while I chilled out and waited for a one toner. After 8 cups of tea and a visit from my friend I got settled for the night at 10:30. Half hour later I had 4 liners and I looked up got out and the rod tip was bent around but no proper indication. I was using the fox captive back lead that I am not sure about as I have had a few bad times with these. So I picked up the rod and it was solid in a snag so I guessed I had a run and not known because delkims are a reliable bite alarm so it wouldn’t of been them. So I had to do all anglers worst nightmare, set back up in the dark. So five minutes and I was done. Re-cast with new bait, relaxed and eventually fell asleep. Fishing in and around snags you get plenty of violent liners so they were expected. Come six o’clock I was awake and making tea. Had the tea and fell back asleep. Woke back up at eleven and didn’t fish all day to see if this would help.

So through a day of pre-baiting and resting the swim I was confidant. Reeling the rods in and just putting bait in every hour just to try and let them have some space and a free feed and hopefully it will pay off. So after being with my mates pretty much all day I got back to my swim at five thirty and re-cast the rods. Baits landed exactly where I would want them put and bit of bait on the top and time to relax. After four hours of not a single beep, I got my head down for some sleep, come twelve the bobbins were up and down all the time so obviously there were fish in the area. I sat on my hands and waited for a 1 toner. I fell back to sleep with the ringing noise of the alarm in my ear and come six ‘clock the rod just burst into life, I struck into it and I couldn’t do anything with it, it just kept going and going down the gully so I just had to hope for the best. After 10 minutes the hook pulled and I was pretty gutted to be honest, but hey never mind that’s fishing.

Time for a change!!!

Come one o’clock there was a bit of movement over on the point I was watching fish with binoculars for about half hour and they were consistently moving along the surface in front of the island (cage). So I thought I have 3 nights left and I was going to try and make the most of it. I gathered all my gear together and slowly moved it all around to the point. Once I got the bivvy up and going I got everything under it and got set up properly, and then finally set up the rods. I was rather curious with my rigs because in the past few days I was getting funny bites and I was coming back with the silicone tubing run all the way back the hook, so I thought id change my game play completely, go from long soft hook links to short stiff hook links, and from two ounce leads to three ounce leads. Eventually after an hour of fussing around with the bank sticks and the rigs I could get going, so bags on the rigs perfect and I was ready. So I planned on fishing one rod to the island and then one down each edge. I eventually got the rods onto the spots and I settled down, putting baits out ever hour four or five baits at a time. By six o’clock I was lying down and I could here a few lads behind me so I come out and they came for a chat, they we’re about thirteen/fourteen years old, people this age I don’t mind talking and teaching because they are the future and very willing to learn. So they were asking about the rigs and how I present them, after twenty minutes or so I had made a few rigs each for them and they went off happy, hopefully learnt a few knew tips. As I used to when I first come into the sport I was very inquisitive asking people one hundred questions, but it done me some good because this is why I am where I am today. So at about seven o’clock it was time to drink my tea and rest. Liners coming frequently from the left hand margin so I was hopeful. At eleven pm my left hand rod burst into life and I picked the rod up and nothing…….. I was puzzled but never mind, il try again, so rod back out more bait over it and back to sleep. I woke up at half past 2 in the morning to the rain and made a cup of tea and I just continued to lye on my bed chair listening to the rain pummelling the bivvy, this isn’t a good sign on the wet pegs because when the water level comes up it goes up the bank. After sitting there for two hours I had a one toner on the island rod, I got to the rod and there was instant resistance after five minutes of getting soaked I finally had him in the net, a small stocky common. So I weighed it and he tipped the scaled to 14lb 6oz pristine fish so I slipped him back got dry and waited for the rain to stop and re-cast the rod. So once the rain had stopped I fell back to sleep till ten o’clock, the plans for today were to move to the open bank to have a social with the boys for forty eight hours. So come mid day it was time to start moving the gear over to peg fifteen, after 3 trips back and forward I had all the gear over and set up in about an hour. My mates then arrived and got their gear set up and were fishing by three o’clock. So had a few cups of tea and a chat and come six o’clock it was time to sort the rods out for the night, I had 2 snowman rigs on with different colour pop-ups on two different rods, and 1 fox arma mesh crushed boilie tipped with half a pop up, the boilies I was using are ones that I have all my faith in and caught countless good fish throughout the country, they are made by a local company. So rods out and sorted, time to wait now, after an hour one of the boy’s rod is off and away and eventually lands it, 15lb ghostie was a pristine fish once we weighed it and slipped it back we continued to socialise. To cut an long story short I lasted 30 hours on the peg because we got flooded off I had 2 commons to 16lb.

Hey All! :D
Hope you buzzing anglers are nailing these odd seasons god has given us or to be fair what man has molded out of the earth system, I am very sorry I have not updated the blog for a while but Anglers Profile needed some TLC to keep you guys happy, I wanted to touch on the Carp angling Championships, now I always big these tournaments up to the max and Anglers Profile Supports it 100%, we list all event dates etc. but what's so special about the BYCAC (British Young Carp Angling Championship) BCAC (British Carp Angling Championship) & the newest of them all the CCUK (Carp Cup UK) ????????????????????????????????????????????

Well they can take you to big places if you win and not only that but you can gain a lot of money from them and most of all knowledge whether you win or lose, I am now 18 and feeling 80 with all of the carp market stress (wouldn’t change it for the world) but I have been doing the bycac for 3 years until this year as I am too old for the young ones comp but it really give me a wakeup call in carp fishing as in my round was rob Sutton, brad day, and some other good lads, and boy did they kick my sorry ass :( lol there was me thinking ha! I’m welsh you plonkers we are the hard fishermen, maybe physical but heck the are good mentally at carping, and to picture a glorious day at Brasenose 1 at linear fisheries, me and my father pull up unload the car and not to mention my mate Adam Morris who come along to see the action, I set up and I’m ready thinking yes! Ready before everyone else "what are those mugs doing playing with their lines walking there spods up and down? The guns going to go now you fool" those mugs, fools, twit won the eliminators and after the first one I realized how badly I sucked at carp fishing.
So as any good angler would do is move on and realize they need to train big time, no matter what the lake is and where it is just fish, really there is no difference between fish brains, it fries my brain when anglers are like "aww no I have to fish Trevor’s lake cause it has 50's in it...get a grip you cannot even catch a 20lb" it really does take time and effort to get better at carping and yes some anglers are lucky but at the end of the day getting the knowledge is the key to success and hitting tournaments like the ones above is the way forward.
If you are a father and can see your son loves carp fishing and is age 10+ then pay the £30 for him/her to go to oxford and learn more and come away with £140 worth of tackle...yes that right £140 worth that worth it in its own, really you cannot go wrong and if your son/daughter wins then whoop! They have bagged themselves a carp fishing career: p cool or what!?
If you are older like me and really want that fishing career and your fighting to get it whether you make your own way like myself or just do competitions or do both like me you cannot go far wrong than entering the BCAC or the CCUK as these cups are mega money, mega sponsors, mega angling, you don’t just fish against your own blood in the sport but compete against the stars from Korda, Fox, Nash, Carp Talk, Crafty Carper etc. so practice is needed...this month July coming next I am in the CCUK for Team AP and Simon and Mike have just passed the BCAC qualifier for their round and Aaron sluman is doing the BYCAC so hopeful we will get 3/3 atm we have 1/3 fingers crossed :D

Well enough about championships and I am very tired now as I have been working my socks off for you guys, and so I should: D love life and live it for a good time not a long time :)

Adios Dogs
Team AP

The Obsession (when you think big it is big)

Since The Session started I have received some lovely e-mails so, as I have no real agenda this month, I thought I would answer some questions that arose in those e-mails, recount one of the most extreme fishing trips I have ever experienced and bring you up to speed with my life at this present time.Some of the recurring questions I am asked are how did I end up becoming a sponsored angler, how do you end up going from having a “normal” job to becoming a fisherman for a living and what advice could I give to people wishing to take the same course in life?In many ways I think I became a sponsored angler and ended up fishing for a living due to my obsession with the sport. The more I wanted to fish, the more I went and the more I caught. Even though I write for mainstream angling magazines I am always rigidly honest and my advice would be to try not to take too much notice of whatever anyone is doing or saying. In angling you have to make your own way and do things on your own terms.

At The Five Lakes Show back in March I was lucky enough to chat to my great friend Sir Pete Springate, who was on our stand with Richie McDonald and Rod Hutchinson. It hit me that here I was chatting to three legends of our sport, the likes of which you rarely see anymore. They were, and, still are amazing characters in our sport – not the soulless, pretty boy, same way of fishing, over-privileged anglers that come off a ‘production line.’

Trust me when I say that making a living out of fishing is in everybody’s reach if you really want it but you do have to want it – really want it! The truth is I think we all aspire to live our dreams, I am sure it exists in the corner of each and every one of our minds. The point I am getting at is that the modern production line angler is on a rapid sell by date, but use your strength of character and combine that with a sound knowledge of fishing and the world is your oyster.

Look at my old mate Frank Warwick. He is like a magnet with people; he is honest, to the point and is never afraid to try new things. He is more popular today than he has ever been in his 50 years of Carp fishing. And do you know something? He puts his fellow angler first, something we both strongly agree on. Oh and be it helps in life to be slightly obsessed if you really want to excel.

When I was on it I was on it! No corner of Europe or even the world to some extent was safe from my obsession: I would think nothing of driving as far afield as places like Mequinenza in Spain long before anyone really even knew where the place was and I did much of it all alone. The River Seine, The Mosselle, The Argen, The Lot, The Tarn, The Garonne, The Saone, The Volga Delta even the massive inland seas like St Croix all received all fell victim to my all consuming obsession; let alone the smaller venues like Cassien. I even ventured across to the states back in the day and fished the Hudson in New York and the Potomac in DC. I was kite flying!

It’s also very easy to make the mistake and think you couldn’t afford a fishing lifestyle like that. Trust me a lot of the time I was penniless and had to beg and borrow to get there, I had even been to Spain in a 1000 cc ford Fiesta with a boat on the roof, soaking maize on the way as I could barely afford the bait I needed. Sometimes I had little bait and sometimes I had a shed load, in fact there was this one time me and my old mate Steve Howard, took a trip down to Spain. I pulled a flanker on another of my old mates, the ‘Guvnor’ at Nash Baits, Gary Bayes: I rocked down to his factory with an empty trailer and told him I wanted my bait allocation for the whole season plus some. I loaded 250kg of boilies into the trailer and off me and Steve went.

We drove all day and all night and all the next day carrying our precious cargo. When it was time to take my stint driving Steve thought the steering had gone on the car. He ordered me to pull over; I just gave him that steely look and exclaimed, “I’m shaking with excitement Steve, leave it!”

Once at Mequinenza Steve needed a lie down as he was and still is a bit older than me, so we pulled up at a little spot on the cold bank opposite the bend and as Steve drifted off I took my chance. I ‘smashed’ the lot in on one spot: yeah! Rock and roll 249 kg! When Steve woke up he looked at the open trailer and asked where all the bait had gone, I just grinned and held up a kilo of hook baits, “it’s do it or bust Stevie Boy!” I said. He fell to his knees and started crying and screamed, “You’ve ruined my life! We are here for ten days and we have no bait left!” You see that’s the obsession that takes over.

We were four days in without a single bite and Steve was one step away from chucking himself off the bridge; or me for that matter. Even I was becoming twitchy. Finally, the old alarms started to sing and by God did they sing. They would have put a Welsh choir to shame. My best day was 88 runs on one rod and 40 fish over 30lb and yes that was in one day. I even had fish taking the bait on the drop with an 8oz gripper in 25 feet of water. I am just trying to give you an insight into how extreme my mind had become an insight into how I was feeling. It wasn’t even restricted to Europe or the rest of the World I even spent 300 nights in England chasing an unknown target fish which I caught. Sometimes if you think big it is big!

It seems like I have got to this present day in the blink of an eye. One day I was dreaming about ‘living the dream’ and now I am. I am a co-owner in a bait company called Aqua Dynamix and I have two wonderful consultancy deals with Hardy, Greys, Chub and PB Products.

Prior to this though, a couple of years I was really feeling like I was at a bit of a crossroads. I think a lot of it reflected what was happening nationally, more in ‘mainstream’ life than my hobby. Especially with the collapse of the economy and to some extent the country and the general low self-esteem of the inhabitants of Blighty. Things started suffocating me. I had gotten to the point where I felt I was walking down a grey endless corridor and however much I tried, I couldn’t see a glimpse of light, let alone the fireball I was used to. And even my Euro love affair was over.

One morning I woke up without fuss or drama and I proceeded to the travel agent; I was looking for inspiration to start a new life, somewhere you didn’t need money or possessions to be happy. You see that’s the big thing to me, in the UK we are crippled by relying on things that we don’t really need to make us happy. The best things in life really are free and that’s the beauty of fishing after relatively modest capital investment, it doesn’t cost a lot of money to while away those magical endless days.

On the way there I was day dreaming of white sand and Red Stripe when the reality hit me! England is still the best country in the world, bar none! I mean, even on a fishing front, I had been attacked by Scorpions in North Africa, nearly gored to death in the South of France by a wild Boar and wrestled to the ground on the Hudson by a black Bear, and nearly drove over a cliff in Spain, Jesus! What was I thinking? The biggest shock I had ever had in good old Blighty was when I had just got the rods out on Ambergate and the umpire stopped play on the cricket pitch behind the lake for a light shower, just as I took the first sip of my warm beer. How could he do that to us?

 

As I basked in the glow of my renewed love affair with our beloved country, I was nearly run off the road by a traveller family! All 83 of them in the front of their Transit put their fingers up at me, and the jet wash off the 40 foot caravan nearly sucked me under. I couldn’t help but smile (through clenched teeth) and admit to myself that, in some way, they had it right. Then, bang! The missing piece in my life fell into place.

I didn’t need to escape to another country, I needed to escape in my own beautiful country and move from river to river, lake to lake, and yes in a caravan! That was that, I planned to live in a caravan, I went out and bought a 37 feet work of art. Which I will tell you more about next time. These days things have really fell into place and I really am living the dream, as I sit writing what’s turning more into a dairy piece by the minute, I am looking over a lake of nearly 200 acres and I can almost reach out and touch it.

Sometimes I know I sound like a bit of an idealist but the truth is that our life, in the grand scheme of things, is over in a heartbeat. There are loads of people out there of all ages with a dream of maybe fishing for a living one day. Please hold onto that dream: like I said earlier, “If you think big, it is big.” For me, that aside, it’s always been more about the journey rather than the destination.

See ya next month

Jonny Banister

France Crete lakes

We arrived at Crete lakes on a roasting hot day in

France after a long journey all the way from

Birmingham. This was my first time fishing in France and after all the preparation I had put into coming on this trip, I for one could not wait to get fishing.

Swim choice
At Crete lakes a draw of passports takes place to decide on who gets 1^st pick on swim choice, luckily for us we came out 2^nd so we choose our first choice of peg, when we arrived we where given around 1 hour to have a good look around the lakes to see what pegs we fancied, because I was with my brother we decided to fish a double peg on lake one, the swim it self to the left had some lovely looking snags and a large willow tree to target as obvious features and also a inlet pipe gushing water into the lake to target and also to the right had plenty of open water to give us plenty of options as well.
We where there for a whole 7 days so I got the marker rod out to explore the swim in more detail.
In front of us we had 10ft of water dropping down to 14ft further out to the middle of the lake, the lake bottom was made up of soft layer of silt with some hard spots and at around 45 yards out we had a fairly big onion weed bed luckily not very thick weed and we would have no problem presenting a bait in it.

Bait & rigs
Crete is mainly a mainline boilies dominated water so I took with my 10 kilo of 15 and 18mill cell boilies from the bait feed company and also my ever faithful dynamite banana & pineapple pop ups, plus various other pop up and a couple of kilo of Nash tuttis just in case.
Hook links where the same I use at home my own combi rigs made up of fluorocarbon and a soft braid and I upped the size of the hook to a size 6 wide gap instead of a size 8 and where around 9inch in length just to sit nicely on the thin layer of silt and weed.
I fished snowman style with a cell bottom bait topped with banana & pineapple pop up, the rigs where fished with a p.v.a mesh bag of crushed cell boilies with the hook link passed through the middle of the bag to protect the hook point in the weed.
The rigs where simple anchor rig tubing and safety clips.

The Session
I placed one rod to the left just off the big willow tree and my right hand rod would be placed at the back of the onion weed bed as the lakes slopes off into deeper water. I decided to bait little and often rather then go for a big bed of baits and I would fish for one fish at a time.
Over both rods I put in a fairly tight area I would say half a kilo of boilies to start off with and I would top up the swim every time I caught one.


The swim

The traps where set and I was feeling pretty confident but after setting up base camp for the week, the disturbance of the marker float and the roasting heat of the day I did not expect to much to happen until night time.
At Around 2am I had a screaming take on my left hand rod and I landed my 1^st ever 30lb+fish it was a lovely looking mirror I was made up.


               1st fish of the week 33lb

 On the same night I also lost 2 fish to the snags.
After losing those fish in the snags and after some advice from the bailiff, I decide to fish locked up on the left hand rod and to trim down the lead clip so that I would lose the weight on a take occurring, so the fish would come straight up in the water and away from those snags This did the trick, all week I caught fish during the night and a couple in the morning in fact I only had one fish in the day!!!
I stayed with my spots and baited regularly all week using 12 kilo of cell boilies and a tub of banana and pineapple pop ups I total I caught 15 fish eight 20lb+ fish and seven 30lb+ fish and I lost 5 to the snags!!! The smallest carp of the week being 24lb and the biggest being 39lb and my brother after moving to another peg managed a 54lb mirror on the first day in his new peg.

What a great week I would recommend Crete lakes to everybody a great place to fish, good food, top bailiffs, Big Carp and we also meet some really top blokes as well.

Tight Lines

www.cretelakes.com

Hey all sorry the daily blog slowed down I guess the death of Roy knocked me off my feet :/ but that’s life and team AP is back full steam ahead, so today I have just posted  30 DVD's so look out for yours, if it doesn’t come then please let us know like Big Boy Chris did ;) keep it cool Chris.

So I’ve got to get fishing soon on the banks myself and with fairbrass at wellington syndicate, just waiting on his reply for when to go but that should a laugh showing him how to really fish...welsh style ;) hehe

We are encouraging female members to join as we know this is vital to keep the community going strong as where would man be without female...a lot richer but we love them so if you know of any female anglers nag them to join the site!

So from the team Froggy is working out the new competitions for the next couple of weeks, I have got hold of nash bait £30 worth, gardener tackle £50 worth, Thermal Flask Mugs, Wychwood Hats, DVD's etc. so watch the forum.

Going onto the forum I have noticed it has come alive! keep it going guys but remember we are not a forum we are a social network so this network is 10x stronger than any other, we are running on the same platform as facebook but under different ownership, Anglers Profile cost money to run and so far we have spent £7000 so please do not think this is something we get for free, we offer it for free as we love fishing, we make no money :)

 

So If you didn't read our last blog on the Korda Bobbin which you can now by typing "korda bobbins" into google and click the first link or goto the blog page, you will see in our last blog review we asked some questions and you guys anwserd them with great response, a lot of you did not like the idea that they where being taken from the original design, others said it looks like a bic pen, and on the other end of the stick you think they are smart as ****, well we like them too and team AP have been given there set to try out but here are some videos we have picked up on the Korda Stow Bobbins :