Follow Paul Cooper’s carp fishing stories, trip tips, tactics and venue reviews from real sessions to inspire your next carp fishing trip in France.
Paul was recently asked to advise an angler on fishing Blue Lake. We thought it’d be a good idea to stick it up here too and share the knowledge… Hi I have been asked to give you some advice on Blue Lake by the Angling Lines team. I have fished the lake on 2 occasions, […]
More often than not we all come across a water where the carp simply will not feed away from the far margin, over hanging trees, or snags. Cast short of your target and you may as well leave the rods on the bank. Generally the reason for this is through angling pressure or the over […]
There are lots of objects that we either wear as jewellery or that form part of our clothing that are potentially a threat to a fish whilst it is in our care. What do I mean by ‘in our care’? As soon as a fish is netted we are now responsible for its well-being before […]
How long should you make your hook links and does it effect your catch rate? Paul Cooper discusses the length of hook links and types of materials used for carp fishing. What are the main materials available to create hook links? Firstly I do not want to go into naming brands and makes, as I believe […]
Baiting strategies can either make or ruin a carp angling session. How should I go about creating the perfect carp restaurant? There are a few tried and trusted methods to create a baited area which I’ll explain below. The first that I shall talk about is the main one that most anglers travelling to France […]
I’ve been using an assortment of shelf life and frozen baits well before becoming a bait consultant for Quality Baits. Despite the success I’ve had with the shelf life baits I still favour frozen baits over all and here is why. As we all know one of the main problems with frozen baits is its deterioration […]
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 […]
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 […]
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! […]
Paul Cooper was recently contacted with a few questions posed by an angler heading out to Boux this year. Boux is a 12 acre water with a reputation for top class carp fishing since the 1980’s. However, it is best to go prepared to this lake and the Q&A below is definitely worth a read… Hi Paul Apologies […]
How safe is the use of backleads. Can I use them in every event? Definitely not! The use of backleads have been about for a long time now. It would be during my time on the Fox Pool that I first used backleads to pin down my main line to the lake bed. I […]
My thoughts on the hair rig, running leads, semi-fixed rigs and slack lines… The hair rig This rig was a revelation for specimen fishing. Kevin Maddox and Len Middleton first came up with the idea of presenting a bait leaving the hook free to prick into the lip of a fish. Here we had a new […]
Paul Cooper expresses his thoughts around yet another controversial issue. Leadcore, impregnated leaders and tubing. How do we define leadcore – For years now leadcore has been readily available, complete as a fully spliced leader, or on spools where you have to splice your own. Leadcore is normally made up of a length of braided type […]
In this blog I would like to talk about yet another controversial issue. Baitboats! You either love them or hate them. I am sure that this short piece could offend some anglers, but I will put my thoughts out there and leave it up to the reader to decide. There will be three kinds of […]
Paul Cooper answers a reader’s question regarding liming carp lakes. ‘Hi Paul, Sorry to disturb you. I read your great article on the Angling Lines website about Winter Carp Lake Maintenance and want to pick your brain about the liming. The venue I run is very similar in size and all the reasons you list […]
What line should I use? Fluorocarbon, Fluorescent, Monofilament or Camouflage. Paul Cooper runs through yet again more controversial issues, this time surrounding different types of fishing line. Are we kidding ourselves over this fad of slack line fishing, disguising our line or hoping to make it invisible to the carp? I have fallen into this trap! They […]
Should I set up my rigs to drop a £1 plus lead on every take, or not? This is a subject that again is becoming a controversial issue amongst the carp angling community. It appears to be the fashion to set a rig up so that if you get a take the lead is released immediately. […]
Paul Cooper goes through a few tips on his rod and rig set up as the onset of Winter approaches. For over 60 other technical carping videos follow the link – Carp Fishing
Barbless or Barbed, that is the Question. Over the next few weeks I will be putting a few blogs together about a number of controversial issues around carp welfare and carp rigs. My first ramblings will be around the controversial use of Barbless hooks. Throughout my carp fishing career I have come across a number […]
It was mid October when Jim Kelly and I visited Brocard Small lake. Small does not describe this lake correctly. It is around 29 acres, this being the lesser acreage of two lakes set in a huge forested area, with the larger being around 39 cares. There are approximately 350 carp in Brocard Small as […]
