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

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 :)

 

Saturday Morning!

Just woke up to a couple of Victoria slices ;) they always remind me of Twinky's from America...random.

Anyway I have been to Wilkinson at this early time in the morning picked up some more envelopes for these free DVD's I seem to be posting everyday every hour -.- thanks guys for using my lunch money up ;) carry on haha


I also picked up some T-Shirt Transfer paper! to make some AP T-Shirt's myself instead of using the printers who like it all in bulk, it cost me £4.71 for 5 sheets of transfer paper and £3 for a 100% cotton shirt from asda, I followed all instructions and got it wrong -.- so I got another shirt and here's the proud result:


Not Bad hey ?

Not to fear though we will be launching our official new cloths range this year and its gunna knock those other bad boy over ;) except for FOX Clothing, we like fox clothing, good quallity.

Of to the office now, got to get back on the site and keep you guys happy, some new rig guides will be added soon to the library watch this space ;)

Ben Keseru Phillips

Well I am laying in bed as I wright this blog listening to the birds outside with the sun blasting through my window, Tempted as I am to goto the local lake Treoes via Glamorgan Anglers, I must get to work aka Anglers Profile :p

"You try working in the angling business and make money, its a tuff situation but hey! I love it"

Booked up to goto France in 2 weeks, red hot lakes, even tho the experience me and the boys had last time was bitter/sweet we still want to journey to the south and get some more P.Bs, 42.5lb hmmmmm never the less I am excited and ready to go! after ordering 10kg mainline cell 15mm from ewenny angling also know as reel fishing and a bag of 5kg cell mainline response pellet, 2x dynamite baits chillie hemp tubs, load of tackle, and thinking about getting one of those nash indulgence wide boy air lite bed chairs, big lad big bed chair ;)

So I am slowely coming back into reallity and ready to get to work, or should I say go fishing ;)

Ben Keseru Phillips
Team AP

 

So for the 3rd time now I decided to return to the same stretch of water that I have left for a few day and been putting a little bit of bait in every day to see if I can be rewarded once again!. So I returned four days later in pursue of a 10lb + barbel or what ever else shows up.

So I arrived on the 23rd at about half past twelve and set up in the same place I have fished recently to good effect. So I set up by about 3pm and I was ready marker out baits out, fed and settled down watching the dog walkers and the boats go past enjoying everything around me, and getting the odd single bleep on the alarm. As the evening draws in everything starts to settle down and sitting their waiting in suspense never knowing what is going to happen next.
As I dropped off to sleep at about 9pm I heard my alarm sound so I got up and it had stopped bobbin was all the way at the top of the rod so I just lifted into it. Straight away I knew it was a bream  belly up and come in like a wet bag. When you get on a shoal of these I can never seem to get away from them. So once I had one I knew I was in for a few so I waded through them I had about 8 by midnight but eventually I knew something else would come along. Just keep re-baiting and they eventually move off. I had one about 1:30am and it seemed a lot bigger….. Weighed it and it went 10lb 3oz so even though it was a bream I was rather happy. Put it back and put the rod back out and went back to sleep.

Patient’s pays off!!!!!!!

At 3:30am my mates popped down to see how I was getting on. After them being their for half an hour my rod burst into life and after a 15 minute battle it was finally in the net  I thought this time I have achieved me target first time around, so I zeroed the scales and got everything ready, so I put this fish on the scales and it tipped them around to 11lb 2oz, I just looked at my friends and thought “can my luck get any better”. So after a slipped I back I got the rod back out and re-baited and fell back to sleep.


It’s just Magical!!
half hour later my alarm was going again but this time only very slowly so I waited for the bobbin to lift a little bit more and struck…. I felt a sudden surge of power for the island so I immediately sunk the rod and hoped for the best. Eventually after twenty five minutes of give and take I had him around the margin, my heart was in my mouth and the pressure was on so after five minutes he finally surfaced and I slipped the net under him. All you could here was me shouting “get in there” I was absolutely over the moon. I got everything ready and calmed down. Got my mate to lift him onto the scales and weighed it. He said “you would never believe it but you just got yourself a huge specimen barbel of 14lb 2oz” my heart was in my mouth I had nothing to say in happiness. I got the pictures taken and slipped him back.


So with that I didn’t bother putting the rod back out I sat with my friends had a cup of tea and watched the sun come up with a smile on my face happy to go home knowing I’ve had what Is possible and will return there sometime next year to see if I can achieve something bigger but that will be a hard task….. River carp is next  Bring on next summer


Tight lines Lads 