Discover essential carp tactics and watercraft skills, including reading water, choosing the right spot and adjusting strategies to increase your chances of a catch.
Eddie asks; I have booked a lake with a party of friends on the 19th of March. I recently had a tour of the lake and was disappointed to find it was thick with weed. I would be grateful if you can give me some advice on the best method & rig to use? Hi […]
Our Villefond session; 25th March to Ist April 2011 Sick as a Parrott… Our trip to Villefond was to celebrate my good friend Andy’s 40th Birthday. The weather had improved showing a large increase in temperature in just a couple of weeks in both England and France. On arriving at the venue we were met […]
This article first appeared on the Quest Baits Blog in June 2010 and is reproduced here by kind permission. A few days ago we published a post posing the question “Does the moon phase affect your chance of catching carp?” This post by Shaun Harrison indicates that he thinks it does… “Big Moon Big Common” […]
You’ll probably be aware that many people believe that the phases of the moon have an effect on animal behaviour and in particular the behaviour of fish. So is your chance of catching carp affected by the particular phase of the moon? Well, you’d be surprised to learn that many well respected carp anglers pay […]
Silk weed – love it! I must admit it does make me smile when I see anglers trying to find clear areas to present their baits when confronted with a swim full of silk weed. Silkweed harbours a lot of natural food particularly shrimps which the carp love which in turn means they will regularly […]
Some tips from Chas, the owner of Vaux ; When I get the chance to spend some time at the lake, I like to experiment. What I see most of the time is conventional fishing using boilies, that is to say a PVA bag with boilie hook link, but I show those visitors who are […]
Based on my own fishing & observing guest anglers anglers here at Villefond the first thing I would say is it’s not an overly hard water and most tactics work. From experienced anglers, to some who would admit freely themselves they are not experts, have all done well! There are a few tips that seem […]
I go to France with my family several times per year. To keep them sweet I don’t fish during the day, but go out sight seeing, shopping, markets, swimming lakes etc. At first I thought this would be a disadvantage, but actually my results have improved. If the water is easy I just fish evening […]
Here’s an article from one of our field testers, Paul Cooper. Paul is one of a small band of very good anglers we send out to France to evaluate new venues for us. They often arrive with very little feedback to help them and they are under a lot of pressure to get the best […]
Shaun Greenaway wrote; As I’m new to all fishing please can you tell me when float fishing for carp in ponds do you always make sure your bait reaches the bottom or is it possible to catch them at any depth? Thanks for your query. It’s normal to present the bait on the bottom unless you […]
Carl wrote; I’m new to spodding. How many spods should I put in when I start fishing? Hi Carl, I would put 6 spods in to start & not top up until I caught a fish. Every fish top up with 3 spods. Keep it accurate by casting to a marker float & […]
During the long (and seriously hot) summer days, sitting behind a set of rods waiting for it to happen is can often end up in a blank session. You may well pick up the odd cruising fish, or get action at night, but with night hours now at their shortest, the time span is at its […]
When fishing snags, tree lines or next to awkward features you will generally have more success if you place the rig tight under the tree coverage or very close to the snag during the day. The reason is that many carp, especially in pressured waters, tend to hold up tight under the trees or directly […]
One of the most productive methods for multiple captures of any species of fish, is by accurate presentation of both loose feed, boilies and the hookbait to a small area in open water. The first task is to locate a possible feeding area that is within casting distance, to present a carpet of feed […]
I got a great text message from my friend Shaun Harrison to today: “My favourite week of the Year for catching, been horrible not being able to fish it for the last three years. But made up for it now with a 29lb 15oz and a 35lb 6oz on Surf’nTurf (Note: New bait he’s testing) […]
As more and more UK carp anglers venture abroad to France they are confronted with a huge choice of waters and fishing conditions. The giant fish we read about in the magazines, the success stories of leviathan carp all sound very attractive. These fish do exist and the potential of some large waters is outstanding. […]
Towards the end of April I had a week on one of the Angling Lines venues called Long Lake. I have written an article on the weeks fishing on the Angling Lines’ venue website. Now although I didn’t catch any massive fish I did catch a few. But the main thing that the week […]
As I’ve written in previous posts I’m not a bait boat fan. I do though like to have a bed of bait accurately placed around my hookbait. If I’m fishing beyond catapult range then the Spod is the only real option left. I’m fairly comfortable with a spod up to about 100 yards. In fact […]
On many carp waters the fish are well aware of fishermen’s lines passing through the water. This can impact so much on fish that in some swims fish will not feed until the swim appears safe and clear of lines. They have associated lines with danger often from many years of angling pressure. But what […]
