YOUNG CARP AT JONCHERY

During the netting of Jonchery carp lake this November, we took the chance to see some of the young carp that fish farmers Pisciculture Bachelier produce up close. It was great to see how the big beautiful scaley mirrors that Jonchery is known for start off. These fish are removed from the lake each year and grown on elsewhere. They are the fish that eventually form the stock for Jonchery, Jonchery #7, Brocard Small, Brocard Large and Brie.

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A DAY’S WINTER CARPING

As this is my first blog for Angling Lines I thought I’d start with a bit about me and my fishing background. I, Steve Bedford, started fishing aged 5 when my dad would take me fishing off the pier at the town of Donaghadee; we never caught anything but I really enjoyed it and from then on I was hooked on fishing. A few years later I moved back to the UK and started course fishing, starting out with a rod and reel and moving onto the pole, which I loved, this just made my passion for fishing grow. I am a strong believer that everyone who goes fishing, whether it be for carp, pike or match fishing should start out by course fishing. Not only does this give you the confidence to catch more/bigger fish but it also gives you the experience at handling fish and give you a respect for not only the fish but also other anglers.

My carp fishing started when I was about 26, I was fishing my local water Pilsworth Fishery on the small lodges. It was just a normal day fishing with my pole catching roach, rudd and bream when suddenly the float ripped away to my left under an over hanging tree, straight away I could tell this was something a bit special, after a 10 minute fight the fish gave up and started coming towards my landing net, soon going over the cord. I couldn’t believe it, my first carp and it was a nice little common, as I was fishing on my own I struggled taking a photo on my phone and carefully slipped it back in the lodge. From then on I was hooked on carp fishing, the pole went away and the carp rods came out.

I’ve learnt a lot over the years about fishing for carp and hopefully I can share some of that knowledge with whoever reads my blogs and at the very least I hope it’s a good read for someone. Anyway, enough of the past, lets bring you up to speed with what I have been doing this year. Due to work and family commitments I haven’t been able to get on the bank as much as I would have liked to this year, however, I have managed to get out a few times and have started my plans for next year. For the remainder of this year I plan to fish my usual lake at Bradshaw Hall Fisheries, Lake 2. I have had a fair bit of success on here throughout the years but next year I fancy a change.

Bradshaw Hall Fisheries, Lake 2

My most recent trip to Bradshaw was last week, I managed to squeeze a short session in on one of my days off work, the weather seemed to be good, the wind on the day I chose was set to change from a North Easterly to a Westerly wind with no rain forecast and the only downside was that the temperature on this day was set to be the lowest of the week. With all this in mind I took a trip to a local tackle shop and stocked up on some new boilies and PVA mix.

During the winter months Bradshaw is only open from 8am until 4pm and night fishing is not allowed, this combined with the fact that it is usually busy every day with tons of bait going in constantly I had to make sure that my bait was a little different from everyone else.

I arrived at the lake at around 9am, there were already 2 people on the lake in one of the usual hot pegs, but I managed to get to another hot peg on the other bank. I don’t normally get to pick this peg as its usually the first to go so my hopes for the day were high. Shortly after arriving and setting up I decided to fish my right hand rod about a third of the way out to where the fish are usually seen and caught, there wasn’t much in the way of fish showing today so this was my best guess. This rod was setup with PVA bags with a mix of 2mm and 4mm carp pellets that had been coated in a light drizzle of Mainline Baits Banoffee stick mix liquid the night before and mixed with some Mainline Baits Tiger nut stick mix. As for my hook bait, I decided to start with Korda slow sinking Fishy Fish plastic dumbell.

The mix

My left hand rod was setup on a running inline lead attached to my favourite D-Rig with Sticky baits Buchu Berry Dumbell Wafter, this was also cast about a third of the way out to the left of my swim. Both of the rods were followed by a scattering of Activ-8 Boilies. Shortly after casting out a few line bites followed but no other real interest.

At around 10:45 I decided to change my baits over as there was no real interest in my current baits, the left hand rod was changed over to my homemade slow sinking banoffee cell boilies and also moved to the left hand margin as this is usually where some of the lakes bigger fish are caught. The right hand rod was changed to Cell dumbells that had been soaked in Almond Goo and the PVA mid now included a splash of almond goo for extra attractant and to hopefully pull the fish closer in.

As the day went on the right hand rod in open water had a few more line bites but no real action. By mid day there was about 9 other people on the lake, considering the size of the lake (1.9 acres) that’s fairly busy and there were a lot of lines in the water. A few of the other people on the lake were fishing for silvers and there was even a guy opposite me using a spinner! Considering this is the main specimen carp lake of the fishery and there are no pike in there it seemed a bit odd.

I tried a few different baits during the day as I usually carry a fair selection of boilies but nothing seemed to work. As I spoke to some of the other anglers there it was apparent that no one had seen any carp or had any bites and that it seemed like the last few days were just as quiet. Not the best start to my new blog!

At around 4pm I decided enough was enough and I packed up. Unfortunately I got nothing this time but that doesn’t change my opinion on my baits, I usually see a lot of people on the bank and on forums complaining about certain baits when they go a session without catching on them, I am a strong believer that certain baits work better on some venues than others and that one day a certain bait might not catch much but on another day it will do really well. For my next session I will try to the same baits again and hopefully on the same peg just to make sure I give them a fair trial.

The weather wasn’t in my favour on this session but I guess that’s the same with all winter carping, the main thing is to not give up and keep trying, winter carp are a little bit more special than summer carp as they are harder to catch and are usually at their premium weight this side of winter ready for the colder months.

For my next blog I plan on explaining some of the rigs and baits I use and show you how to make them. To me, catching fish on homemade baits and rigs is a lot more satisfying than using shop bought gear, I’m sure if you try it too then you will agree.

Steve Bedford

For more winter carping articles click here

FINISHING UP THE FRAMEWORK – BUILDING THE CABIN AT GLEHIAS

Glehias Carp Lake have begun work on the Floating Island Cabin in readiness of the 2014 Season, here’s this week’s update from Lee…

This week saw a lot of finishing up of the exterior studwork including the toilet/gas cupboard wall. On the roof, the rafters were cut back and the facia boards fitted. The front door area was finished up ready to take the door frame and inside, the framework to carry the ceiling was put in place, this is also additional bracing for the roof and helps to stiffen the whole upper structure even further.

The roof is now ready for its covering and final measurements have been taken to start making all the external joinery next week.

If you missed the first ‘Building The Cabin’ installments they are all here.

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Looking in through the front door

Yes, working till last knockings again!

CASTLE LAKE STOCK CHECK

Our second installment of photos from the Castle Lake netting have arrived. Just in case you missed the first post here’s what Gary, Tom & Co have been busy with at the lake;

‘I’ve just returned from a very hard 3 days netting at Castle Lake. Below is a list of nuisance fish that were removed from the lake;

• 2 tonnes of Bream
• 1 tonne of Catfish
• 1 tonne of Silver Fish
• 200 carp below 24lb

We returned approximately 220 carp over 35lb, included in this were an incredible 80 carp over 40lb and up to 54lb.

Due to the nature of the netting, we missed at least 300-350 so the overall stock will be around 500-600 carp. Also with removing a lot of nuisance fish the carp will rocket next year. I would like to thank all my friends who gave up there own time and a lot of effort to help with such a massive task.’

All over 40lbs

44lb

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WILDLIFE CAMERA AT BLETIERE LAKE

I have for a couple of months now had a wildlife camera at Bletiere that I am able to leave out 24/7. It has the software to be able to take HD quality night time photos and videos. I have attached the first few practice videos where I have managed to capture the animals that activated the camera. As you’ll see I still need to practice as it’s not easy getting the angle and height of the camera correct when it’s strapped to trees.

The reason I bought this camera is that I was always wondering what was creeping around the woods and fields at night. I also had a lot of the fisherman who would say they heard strange noises down in the woods at night. Well now we can all see what it is!

I will post more as I perfect the videoing and as more animals show themselves, but here are a few to look at, these are all night shots. The first is a deer, the second clip is for those of you that have never seen a Coypu, here is one going back to next doors lake but luckily we don’t have many problems with them as the two dogs scare them off so they don’t hang around very often! The last clip is a fox cub that seemed to like being filmed.

Well David Bailey started needing practice,

Tight lines,
John , Owner @ Bletiere

INFLIGHT AT COMMONS

An aerial flight over Commons Lake, designed to give you a real taster of the lake’s layout and features.

We’re well into our Inflight series now with 13 episodes under our belt covering all sorts of venues, you can watch the rest here.

BOILIE PASTE – AN ESSENTIAL ITEM

One of the essential items in my bait bag is boilie paste. This method is extremely effective at any time of the year but becomes even more important as temperatures fall and the fish become less inclined to feed. Anything I can do to attract carp and stimulate a feeding response has got to be done.  Paste is an ideal medium under these conditions. It has all the attraction of your hookbait but dissolves and diffuses over a larger area and amplifies what your hookbait is achieving. The beauty of this is that you are attracting but not feeding, the only food available is your hookbait.

Before application

Initially I used a paste wrap around the boilies. Apple coring the boilie by nibbling the skin from its sides improves the adhesion of the paste to the boilie. Later I started to use gripper leads as an additional method of carrying the paste.  The rough coated flat pear leads with a hole in the centre are my favourites. You can rub the paste into the textured surface and mould paste around the lead and into the hole. Quest Baits pastes are ideal for this being just the right consistency for moulding and having a fairly slow dissolve rate. The paste can be lost from the lead on impact with the water but always remains in the hole dissolving more slowly than the wrap on your hookbait. The particles of paste lost on impact are all located around your hookbait and that has got to be a good thing.  This is a method that requires you to cast more often to replenish the paste as it dissolves.

I fish on a water where lead size is limited to three ounces. This can be a real problem when the fish are showing at range.  My solution was to wrap a three ounce gripper with paste moulded into an aerodynamic shape. The three ounce weight becomes a four and a half ounce weight and is capable of being cast far greater distances. Again the paste explodes from the lead on impact; but provides that much needed attraction when you are fishing at ranges where normally you would be relying on the attraction of a single hookbait.

It’s a method that has certainly put extra fish on the bank for me. Give it a try, you won’t be dissappointed.

Cheers
Ron Key

After

34lb caught on a paste wrap cast to a far margin

Carp Fishing in France

A LILLYPOOL SESSION VIDEO

Here’s a customer shot video of a 2013 Lillypool session which we love!

** WARNING; it does contain swearing **

SEE YOUR SWIMS – NEW MAP FACILITY

Here in the office, we’ve been making a few changes to the website. We’re trying to make everything easier whilst keeping you super informed. By far one of our most exciting improvements is the new map facility on every venue’s home page.  In short, you can now see every individual swim on a lake in relation to others, with picture and description. You can also check the weather and cloud formations on the run up to your trip.

You can find these on every venue’s Lake Map. Particularly useful for the few venues where you have to pre-book your swim. I’ve used Castle Lake as an example below…

Castle Lake swim explained

Once zoomed out a little, you can see an up to date weather report for each lake

Zoom out even further and you can see the cloud formations for that day

Carp Fishing in France

MORE CARP STOCKED AT OAKVIEW

The 2013 Oakview catch reports show one in every three fish banked was a 30lb+ carp (and sometimes a 40). To ensure all of these bigger fish continue to compete for angler baits, we’ve introduced ten more mid 20lb carp (all virgin Bigot fish).

This consisted of 4 commons between 24lb 4oz and 26lb 2oz + 6 mirrors between 24lb 2oz and 25lb 6oz. Apologies for the photos – the lighting engineer is on notice!

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 For more information on Oakview follow the link - Carp Fishing in France with Accommodation

INFLIGHT AT BEAUREPAIRE

An aerial flight over Beaurepaire, designed to give you a real taster of the venue’s layout and lake features.

Beaurepaire has been a well kept secret by many who have fished it. It’s a beautiful natural gravel pit, just 2½ hours from Calais that’s stuffed with carp to high 40′s and catfish to 50lb+. Ideally suit a group of up to six anglers looking to book a lake exclusively… but individual bookings are welcome too. There are no designated swims but there’s plenty of room to bivvy up.

For more information on Beaurepaire follow the link – Angling Holidays

WINTER CLEAR-UP AT BLETIERE

We are now well into November and have started at Bletiere to get all the jobs done to keep the place looking nice but without spoiling the natural look. We are very keen to try and not disturb too much of the natural growth around the lake and woods as there is a host of wildlife that lives in it. The only real time we have to take more drastic action is when it may become a safety issue with our guests and, of course, us and then we have to remove things that we would not normally touch. 

A lot of our guests ask what we do in the winter as I think some believe it’s a lake owners rest time and a chance for a holiday. This is far from the truth for most of us and its normally the time for the real work to start. We have now been here for seven years in December and a lot of things are starting to look tired and some need replacing. Even the lake needs attention some times, so to follow on from the previous blogs I wrote a couple of years ago about finding and opening this venue, I will try and write about the projects and the maintenance we plan this winter before our first guests in March.

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Every year the first thing we do, after the last guest has been, is to get all the swims cleared, checked and a mental note of any repairs we may need to do before next season. This year I noted that the logs I use for edging need replacing as they are starting to rot. This would be a fairly easy job except for the fact that with it being rock a few inches below the grass it’s hard to get pegs in to support the logs and stop them moving, so this winter I want to try and get some metal pegs into the ground to make it safer and keep the edging more stable. Once all the swims are repaired and we are happy that they will be safe as well as any obstructions or snags cleared we will leave them until February when we will buy about 10 cubic metres of chipped bark to replenish the swims. We use bark as it’s more natural and a lot better for walking on, you don’t get the noise as with gravel and it helps to keep the anglers gear clean when it rains as there’s no mud to walk or sit on. Also one advantage for the early visitors is the smell of pine from the chipped bark, it’s always nice for a couple of weeks.

This year we have decided to cut down to a more manageable height a lot of the trees around the lake as some are getting very big and cutting out the sun light to the grass paths and other plants. I would like to at this point thank a good friend who I went to school with (so both old) who came over for 10 days and helped me cut down most of the big trees and to clear away the debris, so a big thanks Kevan and hope your back has recovered. I have attached some photo’s to show what we have done and those of you that have been here will see the difference, and hopefully see the work has also opened up the view across the fields… Another reason for cutting back so hard was that a lot of the trees were hanging over the lake a long way and anglers were getting caught on them so this will hopefully stop a lot of that, and it will make the trees spread out lower down so still give the fish some shelter next summer. As those of you that have been here will know, down at the narrow end I have planted a lot of lilies that were being slow to grow, now hopefully as we have let more sunlight onto the lake this will encourage the lilies to grow faster and again give the fish some shelter from the sun.

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The next big job after a couple of frosts is to strim the whole lake bank which I do every year and I do it as it seems to help the natural flowers to grow and keep some of the nettles and mares tails under control, even weeds can look nice when they flower and the insects certainly appreciate them in the summer. That’s just about all the main jobs around the lake I can think of at the moment but as and when we do anything else I will post a blog to tell you all.

Lesley has just had a trip back to the uk and while she was there chose some paint for the gite as it’s going to get repainted from top to bottom, this will get it back looking clean and bright for next season. We are also going to replace anything that is getting worn out or looking tired and also look to see if there is anything we can add to make peoples holidays here more enjoyable, so if you have been here and think of something let us know.

Well that’s all for now and we will add things as and when we do work, may we take this opportunity to wish all of you a happy Christmas and a great new year.

Tight lines,
Lesley and John

For more information on Bletiere follow the link - Fishing Holidays

WINTER CARPING – SLACK LINES & SEMI-FIXED RIGS

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

A CRACKING KOI FROM MARGOT

We couldn’t resist putting this one up here; one of the big Margot koi made an appearance on the bank last week. The honour fell to Seb Hodge and weighed in at 37lb 8oz.

The group of four had a catch of 19 in total, including 1 at 52lb 6oz, 7 x 40′s to 47lb, 7 x 30′s to 38lb and 4 x 20′s to 29lb.

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For more information on Margot  follow the link - Carp Fishing in France

CASTLE LAKE NETTING

Gary Hagues, co-owner of Castle Lake, has been busy preparing the new Angling Lines venue for next season. The first job was a lake netting. Martin and Shirley from the A.L team were present to film the occasion and are busy putting together a video documenting the day, but for the mean time here’s a note from Gary…

‘I’ve just returned from a very hard 3 days netting at Castle Lake. Between removing nuisance fish, we returned approximately 220 carp over 35lb. Included in this were an incredible 80 carp over 40lb and up to 54lb.’

Lake level going down ready for netting.

Nets ready!

‘Below is a list of fish that were removed from the lake;

• 2 tonnes of Bream
• 1 tonne of Catfish
• 1 tonne of Silver Fish
• 200 carp below 24lb

Due to the nature of the netting, we missed at least 300-350 so the overall stock will be around 500-600 carp. With removing a lot of nuisance fish the carp will rocket next year with much less competition for the rich food sources within the lake. I would like to thank all my friends who gave up there own time and a lot of effort to help with such a massive task.

Gary, Castle Lake Owner’

Tom with one of the bigger fish about to be returned

And another

This dark common weighed in at 44lb

43lb

A tub full of 30′s & 40′s

For more information on Castle Lake, follow the link - Fishing France