Angling Lines Blog

by Bridget Keep

Spring 2008 has left anglers facing some unprecedented high water levels on many lakes and rivers both here and abroad. The rainfall in France, similar to Good old Blighty over the last 3 months, has been high and continual.

So what can we do when faced with more water than we bargained for?

The first thing to remember is the carp are still in the lake and usually still wanting to feed. Whilst sudden influxes of cold water can slow down the carps metabolism, in most cases the water is still overall warming up, with day and night time temperatures picking up as the season goes on. So look to the margins & other shallower water areas where the water is warmest because this is undoubtedly where the carp are likely to be.

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by Gareth Watkins

Its thirty years ago this summer that I started carp fishing seriously and Oh! how things have changed since!

It all really started by accident, when I landed an 11lb common while tench fishing. Sweet corn was the bait. After that I had caught a double and I was a Carp Fisher. I had a copy of ‘Quest for Carp’ by Jack Hilton on permanent loan form the local library, and we awaited eagerly every article by Rod Hutchinson and Chris Yates in magazines like ‘Angling’ and ‘Coarse Fisherman’. I enjoyed the fact that everyone on our local lake thought we were mad. Sitting behind a pair of parallel rods on buzzers for hours, that wasn’t fishing!!!

We were considered eccentric kids, trying to catch fish that were not catchable with techniques most angers at the time didn’t understand. ‘Noddies’ as we termed them, couldn’t understand why we would wait all day day for one bite. It was though ‘ A Carp Fisher thing they could’t understand’

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We’ve just received an early season report from one of our carp fishing venues in Normandy, Genets .  Most lakes have, this last week or so, started to receive their first clients of the year. Conditions so far have been far from ideal. Here is a report from lake owner Heather Barber:

Genets in its summer glory

A wintry start for our first fishermen of the season at Genets;

No doubt this last week-end saw the start of the season for many Carp fishing venues in France, which makes me wonder how many fishermen were caught out by the extremely wintry weather we experienced over the week-end & in to Monday morning.

Our first fishermen of the 2008 season arrived on Saturday 5^th April, 2 of them being returning visitors from last year. Although we had warned them to bring wet weather gear with them, as we were having a lot of rain, I’m sure they didn’t arrive expecting such a wintry start to their week’s fishing!! They had very sensibly brought warm clothing which they certainly needed.

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The Angling Lines venue Laroussi starts every year with a bang… and this year’s been no exception with a rake of big fish captures topped by the new lake record mirror “Big Cheeks” at 70lb 2oz.

The monster mirror was caught by Jason Baker from Exeter on April 1st – and it certainly wasn’t an April fool’s joke. He was fishing “La Pointe” swim and placed a birdfood boilie 10m from the far bank in 3m of water. Jason takes up the story: continue reading…

Now I think everyone will agree that the most important part of any carp fishing set up is the last few inches in the water, ie your rig and end tackle.

Yes a powerful long distance rod, hi-tec bait boat or top of the range food bait boilies all have their role to play in putting more fish on the bank, but get the last few inches wrong and all the rest counts for nothing!!!

With the inception of the hair-rig, carping took a huge leap forward in terms of hooking efficiency. All of a sudden it became easy. I remember in the early 80’s catching unheard of (for the time) numbers of fish. This was a time when you normally didn’t catch many and only the top boys like Rod Hutchinson and Kevin Maddocks produced the goods regularly. Their developments and people like them evened things up, and gave us a chance to catch carp. The Rig became all important.

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