It has been a real pleasure to watch Villefonds fish grow into some real monsters and it has been discussed for a long time about which fish are going to be the next biggest caught so I decided to compile a new list detailing the top 5 to date, as of February 2014. Our lake’s […]
The guys from Solar Tackle give you their top 3 baiting tips… Tip 1 – Packing your boilies with attraction is a great way to get your baited area noticed quicker, and visited more often, than the guy in the next swim. By soaking your baits in a proven, amino liquid such as Solar’s Marine 17, […]
Does resting a swim increase your catch rate? On certain waters and situations I believe that it does. Now, what do I mean by resting a swim? Basically, it means removing all lines out of a swim for some considerable time to allow the carp to gain confidence in feeding on a baited area. I have used […]
Cracking start to the year with three forties in a row at Old Oaks… Holiday date: Sat 8th Feb to Sat 15th Feb 2014 Name of customer: Eddie Faulkner Number of anglers: 2 Details of your catches: One angler caught four fish, at 44lb, 41lb, 40lb and a 31lb. Your best tactics/bait/rigs: Cell boilies, topped with plastic corn, fished the far bank […]
Trout Pellets have been used in fishing for over thirty years and are used regularly by thousands of anglers. Bryan and Kev from Hinders go through an easy to follow step by step guide on how to use pellets for your fishing.
Over the years I have had more than my fair share of hook pulls and some with very large fish on the end. At one time I would be messing around with different hook patterns all the time, which in hindsight wasn’t a great thing to be doing as I never really got to understand […]
Despite the name, this carefully engineered setup does not involve heading down to your local Turkish fast-food establishment, however tempting that may be. There’s no chilli sauce, pita bread or strips of greesy, grey matter simply labeled ‘meat’. No, the kebab rig is in fact Solar Tackle boss Martin Locke’s favorite presentation. Having landed his […]
How many of you go carp fishing and know exactly what fish are in the venue that you are fishing? This doesn’t always have to be the case, if you are willing to venture off the beaten track or to fish large lightly stocked waters you can soon get that ‘sense of mystery’ back into […]
On January 1st 2014, Gilles decided that it would be a good idea to drain down the main lake at Mas Bas, to take stock and remove the irritating bream, catfish and the surplus grass carp that have been an annoyance over the past several years. So whilst the majority of the world were nursing […]
Over the last couple of years I have built up a reasonable size library of Angling books and on a number of species. Now I don’t just buy new/modern books but also old ones by the likes of Richard Walker etc, as I believe it gives you a really rounded overview of our favourite pastime. […]
Should I contain a carp in a carp sack or retaining sling for photographs? Paul Cooper discusses yet another controversial subject in carp welfare. Carp sacks have been around for years now and nearly every carp angler had a couple of sacks with him so that a carp could be retained until a decent trophy shot […]
The ongoing Otter debate needs no introduction for 99% of you reading this. However, for the 1% that aren’t up to speed, it amounts to this… The recovery of otter populations in the UK has brought about an increasing concern about predation, particularly on still water fisheries and on specimen fish, including our beloved […]
Below tells the history of Mas Bas, a complex of two lakes with beautiful french gites. It now holds carp to over 50lb, but it was originally built for something else entirely… In 1967 French farmer and JCB driver Simon Betoulieres, had an idea and purchased, for very little money, an area of sodden land […]
I’m sure everyone is familiar with the phrase “Carp Angler”, often followed by photos of 20, 30, 40+ pound fish, but has anyone actually considered what defines a carp angler? Is it someone who only targets big commons, mirrors and leathers? Or can the phrase be used in a wider sense? This mini series […]
Every year tens of thousands of us head over to France on the hunt for super-human sized carp, it’s becoming a ritual and one that is growing even more popular, but many of the anglers that head over the channel are bewildered by the experience and end up catching 10% of the fish they were […]
Here are two guys you’ve probably seen around the online carp world already. We’ve been watching Carl and Alex’s youtube channel for a while now and have been incredibly impressed by their angling and filming skills. We’re going to start featuring their videos here on the blog once a month, beginning with their experience netting […]
Paul Cooper discusses issues around the safety of plastic artificial baits… I first came across Plastic baits when I was fishing on the Mangrove with Shaun Harrison. Shaun was knocking the stuffing out of the carp, catching on every trip that he made on a fairly challenging lake. During mid-season he let me into his secret! […]
Our Webcast brings you carp fishing video news every month from our 36 French carp lakes. This edition brings you a round up of the first 50lb+ fish to be caught this year, and over a dozen seriously impressive 50lb+ carp being stocked in to the Bachelier lakes.
Every now and then the going gets tough you need to rethink your strategy or even just take a break and rest your swim. Sometimes when nothing else is working I return to one of my first loves, float fishing. Often improvising with what I can find in my tackle box; my set up is […]
The Bacheliers have stocked an additional 30 carp in to Brocard Large this January. Six of these are forties and fifties, you’ll be able to spot them in the video! For more information on Brocard Large follow the link – Carp Fishing France
