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

Winter Carp Fishing - 4 Great Tips to Put More Fish on the Bank

I wrote this article some years ago, but my recent post regarding what makes a good bait has bought up the topic of winter carping, so here goes.

White out on the Mangrove

Winter carping can be one of the most sole destroying pastimes imaginable. What with the long cold nights, freezing days and with little chance of a fish anyone would be mad to fish through the winter months – wrong. Winter carping can be one of the most rewarding and exciting parts of carp fishing, if you get it right!

The fish are normally at their best weight and in excellent condition. But the million dollar question, how do you get it right in winter?

Firstly my definition of a winter carp is one caught between 1st November and 1st March just to make it clear. I have winter fished for carp for well over 20 years, with some spectacular successes and some dismal failures. The problem with winter carping is that there are few rules.

Some pointers that will help put winter carp on the bank:

1. Find the fish

30lb winter common

This is the most difficult part of winter carp fishing; the fish tend to be very localised. Finding the fish is crucial to success the fish will not move to you in the winter. Putting out a bed of bait and hoping to attract fish will not work. If the fish are found, spectacular results can be had.

Good winter swims tend to produce year after year, so the first task is to find out about past winter captures.  Failing that, observation is crucial. Start around the middle of October and note where you see fish, keep a record and concentrate your initial efforts on the last place you saw fish.

Winter Carp Fishing Expert Tactics

For any of you that missed this post the first time around here it is again, as we're fast approaching the season and with many of you braving the colder temperatures to take advantage of our winter offers, it really is worth a watch... 

 Mehdi Daho, owner of Laroussi & Old Oaks, guides you through his methods to catch carp in Winter. He outlines the tactics he uses and then gives great detail on his preferred bait and baiting techniques. A real gem of a video for anyone considering winter carping.



57 Carp Fishing Tactics Videos

Winter is Coming

It's approaching that time of year again when the carp go on a massive feed before the Winter sets in. September and October are, in my opinion, the best times of the year for a number of reasons.

21lb 13oz on new bait, September

Firstly, the carp should have fully recovered from this years spawning and will now be at their natural weights. Any weight gain for next year will be made in the next few weeks as the carp prepare for the winter and begin to develop their eggs for the next years spawning. Over the next 6 weeks the fish will be feeding hard and can be caught over large beds of bait. Most of the weed has died or is dying back make natural food abundant in open water. If you can compete with the naturals with a good quality boilie you could have some excellent results.

Boux carp caught Mid-October at 49lb 14oz

Now is the time that I start to reduce the size of my boilies from 18 mils down to 15mils or even smaller. The water should be getting cooler so I never over flavour any bait at this time of year and I will be working towards reducing the fishmeal content and oils down to zero as winter sets in. Also I stop using  particles and pellets and go to a boilies only approach.

Another October English carp at 24lb 12oz

I am off to Old Oaks this weekend with David Keep of Angling Lines, and although the usual approach for this water is particles and boilies, I aim to stick to my principals with a boilie only approach. The boilies we will be using are provided by Quality Baits in the new HG All Seasons and the ever faithful Patshull Park with a new combination of flavours and essential oil. I have been putting the new baits through their paces over the past fortnight resulting in captures of carp on all of my 4 trips, each lasting no more than 3 hours.

November and they are still on the feed

Shortly after returning from Old Oaks I will be preparing for a trip to Brocard with Jim Kelly. This should take me through to mid October so hopefully I will have a few decent weeks of fishing left before the cold days set in.

Paul Cooper

For more field testing tales click herePaul Cooper 2013 Fishing Diary

A Cold Day On Villefond by Rob Inns

Rob Inns braved the chilly weather this spring and it sure did pay off! If you're considering a late or early season trip, have a read below...

In March 2012 I was lucky enough to be invited to Lac Du Villefond for the filming of the Angling Lines venue video. It turned out to be one of my most memorable fishing trips to date as I caught a new P.B mirror (which for a short time was the lake record mirror carp) at 51lb 4oz. The capture was made particularly memorable for me as it was all caught on film from start to finish.

Jump forward to March 2013 and my family and I were booked to go to Disneyland Paris for a few days and with the memory of the previous year’s capture still etched in my memory I could not resist driving down to Villefond afterwards to see Villefond's owner, the Lamberts, and hopefully get the rods out.

But as the trip approached I became a little worried the difference in weather between March 2012 and March 2013 were chalk and cheese. The previous year the days had been so warm I spent most of the trip in shorts and a t-shirt but this year winter was still in full swing. Most of the lakes in the UK were frozen solid and on our drive down to Portsmouth to catch our ferry the snow was so heavy we could hardly see the road in front of us. Knowing I only had one days fishing ahead of me and with the weather being so cold I was far from optimistic.

Once family obligations were out the way it was off to see the Lamberts, where I was greeted with the fantastic news that the lake was not frozen and I would at least be able to get a bait in the water the next day.

The Island

The next morning I arrived at the lake where an icy cold wind and a sprinkling of overnight snow were waiting to welcome me. Mark informed me he had seen fish showing along the overhanging marginal trees a few days before so a single pop up with a hand full of the lakes house baits were fished to this area and my other rod was fished with a single pop up to the island.

As an hour passed in the cold I began to day dream about sleeping bags and bivvy heaters but being a day session we did not have these creature comforts to keep us warm.Luckily, my day dream was soon interrupted by an absolute belter of a take from my margin rod. The fish went on a powerful surging run and I could tell it was a heavy fish from the off. There’s nothing quite like a hard fighting Villefond monster trying to pull you into the water to help you forget about the cold winter wind. As the fish came towards the net a flash of its flank revealed it was a good mirror which went 41lb on the scales and Mark identified it to be a fish known as Guinevere.

41lb 'Guinevere'

I was well chuffed to have caught anything let alone such a stunning 40+ mirror still in its full winter colours she really was a cracking looking fish. After weighing and a couple of photo’s back she went to her watery home and back my pop up went bang on the margin spot with another handful of the house baits.

As time passed and the cold started to set in again we joked that another run was needed quick before hypothermia set in and we didn’t have to wait long before my margin rod was away again. This fight was completely different from the first fish, there were few powerful surging runs just a lot of splashing around on the surface. Another mirror this time at 35lb 10oz and with a floppy tail and big patches of scales it should have been easily recognisable, yet no one did.

An 'unknown' fish at 37.10

The Lamberts keep all fish capture pics on record and we later discovered that there were no previous recorded captures of this fish, which is quite incredible that after all these years as a fishery the lake still kicks up unknown surprises. A second fish on a day that seemed to have blank written all over it was a real result and enough to convince us that a warm shower and hot home cooked meal were deserved.

Back home myself and hope other anglers have great results this coming winter by learning what they can about a venue and spending as much time as they can learning the fishes winter habits in the venue. This is why a lot of people are put off taking winter fishing trips, as they feel they don’t have enough time to learn the habits of the lakes inhabitants. This needn't be the case.

The guys at Angling Lines are always willing to give as much information on the venues as possible and lake managers such as Mark know the fish and venues like the back of their hands. Always willing to give advice and tips to help you put those big French lumps on the bank even in the heart of winter.

Rob

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

Winter Carping Tactics – Short Hook Links

Winter Carping Tactics – Short Hook Links

January 14, 2013DavidNo comments

A cracking 28lb Linear mirror carp caught on 6th Jan ’13 proves that Paul Cooper’s strategy of using short hook links in winter works.

Carp Fishing Tips – 59 Videos

Prolific Winter Carping Session at Margot

Prolific Winter Carping Session at Margot

December 23, 2012DavidNo comments

Here’s a short interview with Bill Holcombe during his prolific  Nov ’12 Margot session.  Bill caught 25 carp in total including 2 x 50′s at 52-02 (pb common) and 51-10, 4 x 40′s to 49-12, 15 x 30′s to 39-01, 2 x 20′s to 27-07 and 1 under 20.

Who says they don’t feed in winter!

Carp Fishing in France at Margot

Winter Carp Fishing Expert Tactics Video

Winter Carp Fishing Expert Tactics Video

December 17, 2012DavidNo comments

Mehdi Daho, owner of Laroussi & Old Oaks, guides you through his tactics to catch carp in Winter.  He outlines the tactics he uses and then gives great detail on his prefered bait and baiting techniques.  A real gem of a video for anyone considering winter carping.

57 Carp Fishing Tactics Videos