Pat Gillett has spent the last 40 years carp fishing in both England and France. Pat offers some great carp fishing tips and tactics in the following articles.
Experienced carp angler Pat Gillett always produces a list to check against when preparing for a French trip and he kindly agreed to share it with us. We hope that this detailed list of what to take carp fishing in France can prove as a great point of reference and jog a few memories when packing […]
As you begin to think about your next French carp fishing trip, we thought it’d be a good idea to recap on making sure you choose the right venue to get the most out of your holiday! I have made quite a few trips to France over the last 15 years (1-3 times per year) […]
Pat Gillett had a very busy week at Jonchery #7 this September, with over 100+ fish on the bank! Here’s his story… I have just got back from an action packed week of carp fishing at the Angling Lines venue Jonchery 7. I was accompanied on this trip by my brother David and ex-work mate Garry […]
Pat Gillett kindly put this short piece together as a follow up to his last article – ‘5 Things To Consider When Choosing Bait For Your French Carp Fishing Trip’. This piece concerns the actual baiting application whilst you are there and how to get the best out of your trip. The first thing to consider is the […]
With the start of the new year and your 2015 French carping trip rolling closer, it’s time to get thinking which baits to take. Below I have listed 5 types of bait to consider when carrying out your preparation for any carp fishing trip. 1. Pellets Obviously pellets are very popular with the majority of carp anglers – […]
Question: I am fishing a 3 acre lake which I have caught plenty of fish from with a good stock of doubles and 20’s. It is shallow with most areas being 3-4ft or less. The bottom is mainly silty with some harder areas in places. There is a large island in the middle of the […]
When Pat Gillett isn’t in France fishing for carp you’ll find him bankside at a number of English rivers. Here’s his September diary so far… Tuesday 2nd September – Upper Trent Back to a stretch I had not fished since the start of the season. Once again I wanted a swim which was flat and […]
Recently an angler heading out to Beaurepaire asked for some baiting advice from our blogger Pat Gillett, who recently spent a week at the venue (you can read about his trip here). We thought it would be worth sharing Pat’s indepth reply… Hi, First of all let me say, that I am sure you will enjoy […]
When Pat Gillett isn’t in France fishing for carp you’ll find him bankside at a number of English rivers. This time he’s turned his rod to a nearby Estate lake. Here’s his diary so far… With the rivers still being very low and clear and the weather still being very warm, I decided to give […]
When Pat Gillett isn’t in France fishing for carp you’ll find him bankside at a number of English rivers. Here’s his diary so far… I had three trips in June, two to two different stretches of the Upper Trent and one to the Dove. These were pretty uneventful really, with just a chub of 4lb […]
For this years holiday, I was again going to be joined by my brother David and two ex-workmates, father and son duo Garry and Matt Clarke. Now David and Matt very rarely go fishing and Garry doesn’t get out anywhere near as much as he would like. With this in mind, I wanted a venue […]
I haven’t done a diary type blog piece for a while, the simple reason being that I have hardly done any fishing. The constant high river levels of the winter, the fact that my boat moored on a large water was wrecked by the high winds (meaning no pike fishing this winter) and for the […]
With spring almost upon us, more and more of us will be thinking of, or actually booking a French carping holiday. The question of what bait then comes into the equation and for a lot of anglers the biggest question can be shelf life or fresh frozen? It really is a big ‘leap of faith’ […]
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 […]
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. […]
With more and more carp anglers trying their hand at barbel fishing, I see lots of anglers fishing behind 2 rods with bite alarms and even at times lying in their sleeping bags on their bed chairs inside a bivvy, as they would do in carp fishing, and paying more or less no attention at […]
To me location is the most important factor that you need to get right whilst carp fishing. You can have the best baits and rigs in the world, but if you don’t place them in the correct place they will count for very little. I am sure we all take weather conditions into account when […]
I haven’t really done that much carp fishing in the last two or three years, having concentrated on barbel, but when I have been or have had a walk around a lake one of the things that has really struck me is the vast amount of gear that a lot of carp anglers seem to […]
Pat Gillett’s monthly fishing diary installment, once again on the hunt for Barbel… Friday 4th October 2013 – Upper Trent Not much to say about this session really. The river was rising quickly (1.20m +) and with it came the inherent problem of loose weed (that really ‘dogs’ the Upper Trent) flowing downstream. This made […]
Pat Gillett discusses a few of his thoughts on the quest for barbel in winter, how to pick your spot and take advantage of the climate. I was talking to one of my match angling friends at the other day and he was asking me how I go about locating barbel in the winter, especially on […]
