What’s the bottom like in Willow Lake at Mas Bas

Craig Lea-hair wrote: What type of bottom is Lotus at Mas Bas? I’ve been thinking about what type and colour hook link to use. Gareth Watkins replies: First off you’ll love Mas Bas, I went to Lotus with my family last summer when I shot the video. We had a great time; if you look […]

17 tips for driving in France

First rule for you to remember (should you come from the UK) when planning to drive in France for a carp fishing holiday is : drive on the right side of the road! Be especially careful when setting off from service stations or restaurants on the left side of the road. Also, bear in mind […]

Carp care – please use an antiseptic!

Why we should all use Klin-ik  Klin-ik is a Laboratory Formulated Fish Care Product. Dave Chilton of Kryston tells us why and how the totally safe and laboratory formulated fish care product Klin-ik was introduced. This is an issue that many carp anglers still ignore, especially when they come to France.  I see anglers turn up […]

Carp fishing – take better photos

As a follow on article to my post on ‘Making Fishing Videos’, I thought I’d look at the close links there seem to be between Fishing and photography. I know a number of anglers who are accomplished photographers. Nearly all the guys who contribute regularly to the Angling Press are good shooters. You need to illustrate […]

Making angling videos

I read to a recent Opinion Piece – by Jeff Woodhouse on Making Angling Videos posted on the Fishing Magic website, commenting on the poor quality and low standard of angling videos on the market. As a photographer/cameraman the subject is naturally of interest to me. Jeff writes:(…..why should we put up with this sort […]

small placeholder

Budget carp fishing in France

February & March can be unpredictable months for the fishing in France. Some anglers feel the weathers too dodgy to warrant spending hard earned cash and risk blanking. But February bookings this year have had some great results – 1 angler caught around 30 carp at Vaux the first week of February and we’ve a […]

Carp fishing holidays abroad – what are my options?

As carp fishing gets ever more popular each year so more anglers look to Europe for their fishing and in particular – France. Most of the waters in the UK which hold fish over 35lb are either exclusive syndicate waters or cost a small fortune to fish. France then, can offer the chance of large […]

Carp fishing techniques – are bait boats cheating?

Izaak Walton’s famous book ‘The Complete Angler’ was a celebration of our sport, based on the central theme that angling is an art that transcends the objective of catching fish. Angling then is the technique of catching fish using a rod and line; it is called “angling” because of the angle formed by the two. […]

Essential tackle for your French trip

Generally speaking the bulk of tackle used for UK carp angling is perfectly adequate for the continent, but it is worth bearing in mind that many of the French waters are much larger than the UK and more importantly, you will be faced with bigger fish for the most part. Here then I propose a […]

Are you prepared for your French carp trip?

Are you ready to go to Carping in France… Steve Guy over on the Quest Baits Blog submitted and interesting piece about making the most of this time of the year to prepare for the coming season. Well what he says here makes a lot of sense. But his points about checking your equipment and […]

Cooking on the bank; fed up of wobbly stoves? Read on!

Every once in a while someone comes along with a simple yet really useful product, where you think… “Hey! That’s neat… why has no one come up with that before?” Well the Steady Rig from Rig Innovations is just such a product. I met these guys out on the bank carp fishing in France a […]

Why do we go carp fishing in France ?

Carp fishing as we all know immensely popular now, with more and more people coming into the sport every year. This puts a huge pressure on the ticket lakes, club lakes and syndicates across the UK. Most anglers outside the ‘A’ list are faced with long waiting lists and the slim chances of getting on […]