Golden Paws

It varies. I fish a local pond that is narrow at the stream end and fish 2 spots (2 rod limit), one under the trees on the far bank and one on the bottom of the steep drop off a rod length out. The close rod I use the big Spod (not keen on spombs as you have to hit the nose cap quite hard to open them) and underarm and drop the bait with barely a ripple. If I use the big spod on the far bank (only about 6 wraps), it does tend to make too much of a splash so revert to a midi as I can stop it instantly and lay it down almost silently. That said, I have had bites when using the large spod on the far bank and "sploshed it" and caught with the spod rod still in my hand!

Alcohol spirit is still a hydrocarbon and will give off a percentage of Carbon Monoxide during combustion. Burning anything in a confined area (i.e. sealed up bivvy) is asking for trouble and lets be honest, if it's cold enough to need one, the bivvy will be zipped up. It's like playing Russian Roulette, 5 times out 6 you'll be fine!

Interesting piece as ever from Adam Penning. He is removing a lot of metal to make the hook "hyperdermically sharp". He describes it as his biggest edge and you can't argue with his results.

Probably one of the most complex questions in Carp Fishing! On YouTube I've seen one bloke state that 8kg of boilies even in the winter is his standard offering (that's about £80 to you and me but he is sponsored!) whereas others will go for singles or a PVA bag and fish for one bite at a time. When Carp are really on the munch, you can't feed them enough. I did read a few years back about one bloke who feed 5kg of boilies in an out of bounds area and 8 large Carp came in and cleaned him out in 5 minutes. Although he couldn't fish there, the confidence in his bait was off the scale and one thing less to worry about. Carp and cold blooded and their feeding and digestion rate are controlled by a large degree by the water temperature. Just to confuse matters, high temperatures result in a lower oxygen content and this will diminish feeding. The old adage of "when you've put it in, you can't take it out" is true and most anglers tend to put in an initial hit of bait, 10 spods is probably a good starting point and then add more if there get action or activity over the rods. A matchman will be feeding little and often to try to keep the fish competing and if you achieve that, you'll bag up. At this time of year, crumbed or halved boilies will encourage the fish to have to work harder for food and will keep them in the area longer and is well worth a try. Also try whittling down a pop up so that it only rises off the bottom and matches the freebies and is another good approach. Good luck.

https://calmproductions.com/through-the-mist-4 Link to the Website, £35 plus postage.

It's finally coming out, just in time for Christmas as well!

I've been using Gardner GT-HD and rate it. I used to use Pro Clear and still would but it seemed to fizzle out for some reason.

I don't have a definitive answer regarding the depth but I think Rob Hughes said that below 30 foot it gets so cold he has to come up pretty quick. Carp will seek out the warmest part of the lake as it is the most comfortable. I would be looking more at the inlet end of a reservoir.

They have just announced a full lock down. Unfortunately traveling to go fishing will be seen as an unnecessary journey! We'll have to go along with it but I'm not convinced that it will work. Predictions of 4,000 a day dying is a scary statistic and the Government had to act and I'm just glad it's a call I didn't have to make. The Spanish flu outbreak of 1918 killed more in the 2nd winter wave than the first and history does have a habit of repeating itself.

Alternatively add some table salt to a the sweetcorn and the PVA won't melt until the lake water dilutes it right down.

After lock down, the banks have been busier than ever as people made up for lost time. Chuck in the "French" brigade who couldn't go so stayed closer to home and those on furlough who have time on their hands and it's obvious why the banks are busier. Until recently Linear was fully occupied most days with only a few swims on Hardwick/Smiths going. https://www.linear-fisheries.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=news.start The fish are being constantly fed and on their guard all the time and it's not too surprising that things are getting harder. The late autumn period should see most "fairweathers" hanging up the rods and so the lakes should get quieter but that coupled with decreasing temperatures will reduce the fishes appetite. Watching the weather forecast and getting out when their is a warm and wet spell after a colder period will always pay dividends. Back to your original question, I don't think you get worse (but I used to get more tangles on June the 16th than the rest of the season put together!) but I think the fish are definitely getting more wary.

A mate of mine caught a big pike on the steps of a large concrete domed reservoir a couple of foot out in about a foot of water. He had a theory that the pike patrolled the margins after dark looking for easy pickings as some anglers discarded any unused deadbaits in the margins. We did a whole night session on a Somerset Drain once and got smashed to pieces by eels, I think we had at least 15 runs each but did catch a pike just after midnight. We would regularly fish a couple of hours into darkness in the winter but it wasn't all that productive but did throw up the better specimens.

I know what you're saying. The Lake is a combination of bays and islands and you're not casting more than 50 yards and every time I've been I've seen bubbling or crashing in every swim I fished. On a big pit I'm sure the fish move around in big packs but on smaller intimate venues, I think the fish are in more localised shoals and tend to stay resident in certain areas. One of the myths in Carp fishing to me is that every fish is in one super shoal. I fish a local lake that is well stocked regularly and in the summer they are in the upper layers and I see them cruising about but only in groups of about a dozen. If I based my location on one "show", the area can be devoid for long periods.

Everywhere seems to be far busier than usual. I've just checked the Linear Site and B1 and B2 had 2 swims left, on a Tuesday at the end of September! A combination of a lot of people on furlough (or unemployed now) and the French holiday anglers staying closer to home. I know that peg booking lakes aren't everyone's cup of tea but I fish one quite regularly and really enjoy fishing there. At least you know you are guaranteed a swim and haven't wasted a journey or day off.

My first thought would be to take plenty of photo's and draw some maps showing where the snags are so you can avoid them when the level returns. A whole day spent doing that would probably pay off long term rather than sat behind the rods all day. That said, snags are fish magnets so fishing close to them could pay off but obviously wrapping up now would give a false reading when the levels increase and the bank retreats, so wrap to a fixed location like a boundary fence if possible. Plumbing should also be easier if it's 12 foot shallower and now is the time before the autumn rains come. Look along the bank for any depressions or smooth areas that fish would seek out and map them. I would definitely be looking at margin fishing and prebaiting would almost certainly accelerate their acceptance of the bait and the area as a safe place.

Slightly off topic but I gave some kids a night to remember. I was all night barbel fishing right out in the sticks when at 3 in the morning I heard some kids on the far bank coming down from half a mile away singing what could be described as "racist rugby songs". When they got opposite to where I was fishing, I dipped my isotope underwater and let out a piercing werewolf howl! They absolutely crapped their selves and and a few more howls had them running away. Well worth disturbing the swim I was fishing at the time and I dare say tales of the "Beast of Wiltshire" still get told!

Hi Shane. This is generally frowned upon as you could potentially create a "death rig", i.e. if the line breaks above the shot, the fish could be trailing the method feeder and this could cause the fish to snag up and die. Without the shot, the feeder will be free to run off and the fish only has a bit of line to deal with. I've borrowed this image from the ESP website that shows an in-line drop off system. The end of the swivel is plugged into the lead and will drop off with a bit of head shaking. The draw back and that it makes fishing expensive and the environmental impact of dumping fishing tackle troubles me. If you are fishing a snaggy river with a lot of boulders, unfortunately you are going to suffer from the fish using them to escape. Rather than using a method feeder, you could use a lead and wrap the method mix around that or use PVA bags to create a feeding area. Probably the best advice I can offer is to fish above the snags if possible and draw the fish out with feed. In rivers, you can't beat a bait dropper (below) to lay a carpet of bait down.

Wouldn't it have been better to get a review first and then order it?😀 Luckily found this on the Angling Direct website; 22-Jan-2020 5 Well packaged great product 12-Jan-2020 5 A bit ,bigger than i imagined but very smooth to use 07-Jan-2020 5 Excellent product, so glad I purchased these! Another great item from Sonik! 10-Sep-2019 5 Fantastic reel sturdy and quality. Would recommend 26-Aug-2019 5 Super impressed with this reel! Perfect big bit size, looks and feels great for the price. The deep spools will hold over 700 meters of Exocet 16lb line so if you fish from a boat at extreme range it would hold mega amounts of braid. The second spool is just as deep, so my only comment would be that a shallow spool option would be beneficial to most carp anglers as 700 meters is nearly 20 quids worth of line per spool. Totally happy with these and the quick release handle is a nice feature. Quality reel for the price. Shame Sonik no longer seem to do the 3 for 2 deals. Everyone has given it a 5 star rating and at £85, it does look like a lot of reel for the money.

Test your Carp fishing knowledge with some of these probing questions. In his book "In pursuit of the Largest", how many times did Terry Hearn admit to abusing the benefits system? Can you name one bait company that hasn't sponsored Jim Shelly? At it's current rate of acquisitions, how long will it take for Angling Direct to have a total monopoly on the UK tackle market? Can you name one product launched by Nash in the last ten years that isn't driven by pure opportunism and greed? In the "Redmire Legends" chapter on Passion for Angling, who was the most realistic scarecrow, Chris Yates or "Kevin"? If an otter kills a large carp and only eats the throat area and leaves the rest, how many carp would it need to sustain itself for a day? On average, how many times will Danny Fairbrass have a mental breakdown and scream "Get in the net" and "That was wicked, man" after landing a carp in an episode of Thinking Tackle? If you claim to have been intimate with Clarissa, Heather, Mary and Sally, have you been a successful Carp angler over the years or have you pulled again at a grab a granny? In what decade did the use of bait boats, sonar, underwater camera's and drones become essential items to track down carp? Does anyone actually know who Ronnie is? If you breed and feed a carp in a stock pond until it is larger than the current British record weight and then release it into a water you own, why did the British Record Fish Committee reject it? If you are a member of an exclusive syndicate that most anglers will never get to fish with a large carp that is potentially at risk from otters, how much gall does it take ask for a whip round to protect their fishing?

I prefer spods to spombs as you can "lay them down gently" whereas spombs you have to make nose dive to open. I always plug the spod with groundbait dampened with hemp juice or use crumbed boilie.

That's why I favour Combi's, you get the stiffness and resetting properties of the flouro but then have the final half inch that is (relatively) natural. I use wafters normally but presoaked in a flavour and that tends to over weight them so insert a cork plug in them so they are critically balanced. I prefer them to just lift the hook so the point is on the bottom and the gape is vertical.

We get "done" far more often then we think. I've watched barbel in shallow clear water take every grain of sweetcorn - except for one! I've also watched them blow it out with extreme force, the corn ends up further up the river than the 3 foot trace I was using. I was sight fishing so the long trace was purely to keep the end tackle as far away as possible. All you can do is play the percentage game. Ensure your hook is sharp, the rig is good, the line is out of the way and you don't spook them. A friend told me a story of how he watched 2 carp come into a swim and clocked the 22 boilies, 20 freebies and 2 with hooks. One fish went to take the baited hook twice and the other carp "rammed" it sideways on. They left 5 minutes later with the 2 baits left and my mate went home straight away as he couldn't comprehend what he'd just witnessed.

They say it's not a fool who makes a mistake but one who repeats it and so I must be right up there! I bought some X-line several years ago as I was told it was the best one out there. It sinks well (double the density of water) and is near invisible in water (unless you have it coming straight off the bottom and in bright conditions it looks like Darth Vader's light sabre!) I got fed up with the constant coiling of the stuff and it casts like a bag of spanners. I got rid of it and went back to mono (Gardner GT-HD like you which I really rate.) A few years back I bought some Fox Trans Kharki Illusion to use as a leader (about 30 foot) and although it was pretty good, I didn't like the knot on the cast or going through the rings whilst playing a fish. During the lock down and with too much time on my hands I revisited Fluorocarbon and was seduced by Berkley Connect CF600. It appeared fairly limp and claimed to iron out some of the inherent problems of Fluoro (stiffness and coiling issues.) I should have known better. I spooled it up and immediately the stuff started leaping off the spool. I managed to get it in a line clip and hoped that it would behave better on the bank. Wrong! The stuff was unruly and several times I had massive bird nest on a cast mid flight and I was only casting 40 yards. My advice, Fluorocarbon - give it a wide berth. If you are worried about the line behind the trace rising up, I've borrowed a tip from Martin Bowler and put on some matchmans olivettes on the line and they can be slid up and down at will and will easily pop off if a fish goes through weed.

A "Hampstead Heath Moment" seems to be the buzz word for any celeb that has been caught with his trousers down! Unfortunately on Hampstead Heath, it's not likely to be a lady being troubled! I would definitely keep this as a "days only" water.

Unfortunately most Committees are run by old farts who like to impose their will on us, despite the fact most of them haven't picked up a rod in years! Several years ago I went along to a Committee meeting of my local club with the idea that I wanted to give something back and get involved. I left shaking my head in disbelief. It was all so well scripted the Communist Party would have approved and any suggestions from the floor were rubbished and the 'old boys brigade' on the fringes were quick to establish a return to the status quo. Have a look at some Club's rule books and you'll see how they like to have every base covered and it just goes on and on and gets more ridiculous the further down the page they go. Some rules are purely to generate revenue such as only boilies or pellets bought on site. I can appreciate that you have to have some rules, for example not fishing next to electricity pylons or starting fires but others are more dubious.