Angling Lines Blog

Customer question;

Can I use a standard tent on Roseau (which may not be green).  Why do I have to use a barbed hook on Roseau?

Cheers, Keith

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Hi Keith, thank you for your questions;

Tents

Tents of any colour are ok to use on Roseau, the only thing I would say is, light in many ways can, and does alarm the fish although on Roseau this won’t be an issue.  I used to fish a club lake that was, at times very “moody”, I always had some form of light on throughout the night until a fellow angler mentioned to me about light levels, at first I thought it was daft. I knew my rigs and location was always perfect on this particular venue and decided to put his advice to the test and make my own mind up. I selected a particular wind and knew exactly where to fish and fished throughout the night without any light, I had 3 that evening to 29lb! I then tried this with the same conditions in the same area and ended a 2 night session with a blank! This was tried on numerous occasions with the same outcome. I now swear by this, I’m sure it has helped me catch fish when other people have failed, give it a try mate, you never know you may be pleasantly surprised with the results!

The Hook Rule

This is an area of angling which has mixed opinions, I truly believe that a barbed hook is better for the fish as once the hook is in, then it usually stays exactly where it first takes hold, a barbless hook can move, pop out and catch hold again, this is usually caused through bad angling, blunt hooks or even the fish. If using a barbless hook it’s always best to never allow the fish ANY slack line, once the fish feel slack the can and do spit the hook, many more fish are lost on barbless than barbed.  So, to answer your question on hooks, Roseau is a barbed hook only venue.

Sorry if I have rattled on, sometimes it better to give informative information than to just simply say “yes or no”.

Look forward to seeing you at Roseau.

Kind regards,

Roy, Clearview Carp Tours

Hi Danny,

If you have a moment or two free I’d like to ask a few questions about your lake in France, Gigantica.  My name is Kevin and I live about ten minutes drive from Blackpool in Lancashire.  I’ve been course fishing for around 28 years now but moved over to carping when I was about twelve years of age.

I’ve always wanted to go to France for a week or two’s carping but only when I’ve caught a 30Ib’er from England.  Sadly this has still yet to happen as the number of “big fish waters” located near me are very few and far between.  My current PB stands at 25Ib and has stood since May 2004.  This was caught from the River Lake at Wyreside Lakes, Forton near Lancaster.

Recently I had a rather nasty fall of a ladder at work which resulted in a smashed left heal bone, an operation to try and fix it and many months of non weight bearing.  I’m only three months into the healing process but I’m hoping I’ll be back “up and running” before October/November this year.  My foot will never be the same again and in the future I will require a fusion operation as walking will become to painful.  With this in mind I have decided to take the plunge and go to France next year for a week as life is just too short.

My first question is: where abouts in France is your Gigantica lake and is it within driving distance from where I live ?  I’m not to fussed if it takes me a while to get there but I would like to go fishing with all of my own gear.

Is it possible to buy a Garmin/TomTom sat nav and it lead me to the door step if a “drive and survive” package is available ?  Maps were never my strong point.

Finally I make from scratch all of my own baits and have done for many years now.  What size boilie would you say is correct for your water ?  I ask because I don’t want to roll X amount of bait in say 16mm only to find I’m being pestered by Roach, Bream etc as is sometime the case on some of the waters I fish around me.

Thank you for your help and I look forward to your reply.  If you don’t reply, I’ll not take it to heart as I know your a very busy person and probably won’t have much free time.

Kind regards, Kevin

Kevin,

Thanks for the enquiry. To answer your questions….

I can give you the Sat Nav details to get you too the gate, its a very easy run from Calais, under 250 miles from the port, 2 roads and takes 3.5 hours.

Bait wise, I’d bring larger, than smaller. we sell 20mm boilies  generally here, I do use smaller but a percentage of the smaller baits are eaten by bream, which we have been actively removing for several years now so they have had less of an impact than previously. I like, and prefer to use larger hookbaits and have caught very very well here on 22, 24 & 26mmboilies so dont be afraid to experiment. For a starter, 20mm would be my starting point.

One point I will raise, something I bring up too all perspective clients. Gigantica is NOT an easy water by any stretch of the imagination. Many angler blank,an average week for most would be 1-2 fish throughout the week. However, if you fish well, you can catch very well, as per any lake. Precision fishing and the correct baiting is the key. We are certainly not a runs type water, we have very specific rules regarding the fishing, the boats and of course, our fish.

I hope this has answered the majority of your questions but feel free to contact me at anytime should you require further information.

Ilook forward to possibly meeting you in the near future.

Danny Turley, Gigantica Fishery Manager.
Gigantica-carp ltd.
0033 672221535

Hi Dan I’m book on a trip to Gigantica in August.  Could you give me some tips for the lake.  How does the hot weather effect the fishing?  What amount of bait would I need as I’m trying to work out a budget for the trip?  Do you allow tiger’s?  What is the cost to hire a boat?

Thanks, Paul

Tom,

Thanks for the enquiry. The fishing in August can be prolific,so long as you fish well….as per any lake really. Zig rigs can be a real wonder throughout the day and bottom baits through the day and night.

Bait wise, Id work on a minimum of 3kg per night, but if your catching you could use a lot more, not that you’d mind if your catching !?

Boats are 30E per week or 50E shared with a friend in a swim close to you. Tigers, you are allowed them, but they have to be bought from us so I know they are prepared properly and I only allow limited quantities ( please dont bring your own, Im very specific about the prepared by me rule, I have to be sure they are safe for my fish ). To be honest, if they were that good, Id use em but I dont, boilies rule here for sure.

Please make sure you have sufficent sun tan lotion and sun tan after care cream should you get burnt. There are plenty of trees here but getting out of the sun is generally difficult and it will be HOT. Im expecting 40degrees so please be careful for your own health.

I hope this has answered your questions but feel free to contact me at anytime should you require additional information regarding the lake, the fishing or general information.

I look forward to meeting you

Danny Turley,

Gigantica Fishery Manager.

Gigantica-carp ltd.
0033 672221535

Hi all at Angling Lines,

I’ve just read Paul Cooper’s article on accurate spodding and a bit of help is required if you have a minute please. I always used to set my baited rods slightly longer than my spod rod to allow for the arc when the baited rods came to rest, but the article states to set them all at the same length? Any extra help would be much appreciated.

Big thanks in advance,

Jason.

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Hello Jason

How to present your bait can always be a topic of debate. In some situations when you are trying to draw in lots if feeding carp it can be beneficial to spread your bait over a larger area to create a mad feeding frenzy. On a lot of the waters that I fish, I am fishing for one fish at a time and therefore I try to keep the baiting table as small as possible.

With regards to the arc effect from a cast, I reduce this by clipping up the line and also by using braided line. I tend to over-cast so that as the spod is about to reach the baited area I raise the rod vertically. The line clip then comes into play as the my measured distance is reached, the weight of the spod and its momentum then pulls  the rod to a horizontal position and the spod hits the water with a straight line, hopefully in the same place every time.

By raising the rod just before the spod is about to hit the water, this reduces and illuminates the recoil on the line. If you do want to bait a bigger area or an area further out than your hook bait then simply pull a more  few inches or feet off the reel before clipping up the braid.

A good idea is to initially leave out your marked up marker float as you present your spodded bait and you will see where your bait is landing. Once you are confident with your spodding practises your marker float becomes redundant as accurate presentation can be made from every cast. From there mark up your rods and away you go.

I hope this helps it certainly does for me and ensures that I am presenting a tight baited area with my hook bait amongst the goodies.

Regards, Paul Cooper