welder

Get yourself to Hockley Heath, it's on the A3400, Stratford Road. You'll find a car dealership which sells only McLarens and Rolls Royces, it's on a fork in the road. Take the road to the back of this dealership and you'll find that you're running parallel with the Stratford Canal, heading towards Lowsonford. After about a mile you'll see a timber yard on your right, can't miss it. Immediately after this yard is a hump backed bridge over the canal, leading to Church Lane. Take this bridge and park wherever suits you. I've seen many good sized carp in the stretch by this bridge, on several occasions. In case you're into rock music, Geezer Butler, the bass player with Black Sabbath, lives in the third mansion on the right in Church Lane. We manufactured and installed his automated wrought iron gates which is how I got the opportunity to study the carp in that stretch of canal. I wish you luck in your endeavours. Ian

bigd26, you haven't mentioned where you live and which sections of the canal you're interested in. The Birmingham- Stratford Canal is around 30 miles long so there's plenty to go at! I'm local to the area so give me a clue and I'll give you my observations. Ian

Wayne, have you considered Barston Lake? 20 minute drive from Tamworth and full of fish. Anglers washroom/showers and toilets. Oh, and the restaurant does a cracking breakfast. Ian

If Hybrid is the going bait then it's obviously the way to go. Having done a couple of trips to fish in France the price of bait is well down my list of expenditure. Little point in shelling out on all the fiscal considerations and skimping on what attracts them fish. Ian

I frequently use worms as bait and have no particular favourites when it comes to hooklinks so I tend to assess the water and my swim's accessible features before choosing what to use. I've had good results using black coated braid with the final inch of coating stripped back to give me a hinge effect and a button of black rig foam to lift the lobbies up a little. Ian

You're not alone in loving cork handles. I'm sort of betwixt and between in that, a few years back, I had my Greys Prodigys customised to suit me and my needs rather than having full-on custom built rods. The first thing that I insisted on was full Portugese cork handles which came out just perfect for me, all these years later I'm still loving them. I also had Fuji reel seats fitted, all of the eyes relined with PTFE which has the lowest coefficient of friction in the civilised world (possibly ) and slightly larger diameter tip-eyes. Oh, and rather posh brushed stainless butt caps. These rods are now fully mature (read "old") but I'm very fond of them and ain't looking to change them any time soon. Ian

Dan, the only tip that I'd call important is to be aware that the island was built from rubble from demolished buildings and there are some very sharp bits in there, best avoided. There's a mussel bed near the island, more sharp bits! Other than this it's a good fishery where most decent quality baits work. In very hot weather have a look at the car park end where the water is fairly shallow and the carp go sunbathing. Ian

Yes! Have a look at Willesley Lake, near Ashby de la Zouche. It gets a bit busy at weekends in good/warm weather but it's a very pleasant place to be. Go onto www.fisheries.co.uk and check the place out. Quick edit. Sorry Dan, forgot to say welcome to the forum. Enjoy, mate. Ian

Tim, you won't regret it mate. It's a cracking place to be. My son had a 32.8 common from there, unblemished and probably never seen a hook before. Ian

This would be my suggestion, too. Ian

Sam, as you'll be there before me perhaps you'd be so kind as to give me the heads up before I get there. Ian

Hi Sam, welcome to the forum I'm doing 3 days on Churn Pool in early August along with three other members from here so I, too, will appreciate any input concerning the place. I've had a look on Google Earth and it looks like a pleasant place to be. I'll await future input from people who've fished it. Ian

I just buy mine. ESP make them much better than I ever could. Ian

Blending in. Either use flouro which is close to invisible when submerged, or a dark/black coated braid with the coating stripped back to suit hinge effect or whatever, especially in silty conditions. Ian

Dan, should you happen to arrive too early there's a bar in Brulon, a small neighbouring town, which will welcome you. We arrived at Rushes several hours too early and visited this bar. It was Mick's (leggs) birthday, things got messy. Ian

Dan, here's how to get to Rushes Lake. First, borrow a van. An ex-Royal Mail LDV HugeMankyVeryLong one is ideal. Fill it with tackle, bait, beer and lunatics. Second, borrow a Satnav and fill it with destination details. Third, don't let lunatics near Satnav or beer until you get there. Fourth, have lots of fun with the beer and the lunatics. Fifth, do a bit of fishing. Sixth, let us know how much fun you had and how much weight you gained as a result of the fabulous food package. Seventh, give Kim and Iain my love. You'll like Rushes Lake and will be treated like family. Enjoy. Take Satnav, Rushes Lake website has directions and postcode. It works. Ian

I almost always leave tags, too. Sometimes blobbed with a flame, sometimes not. No pun. My reel handles, on the other hand, point wherever they like because I'm just a rough welder who doesn't give a stuff. Ian

Hi, Your rods are more than man enough. They have a habit of wareing through the hook link with there sandpaper like mouth pads. If I was fishing a lake with a few, I would be using long hooklinks made of very strong and super smooth polished braid, there a a few of them about. They love fishy boilies and pellets, but will get hooked on just about anything including sweet corn. Terry, as Frank has stated, your rods will cope just fine and Sensor is known to break well above it's stated breaking strain so as regards tackle you're all good. While I've never caught a cat in the UK, I've had several from Rushes Lake in France. I found wide-gape, large hooks to be the answer with Sufix Black smooth-coated braid as the hooklink. The Rushes cats had a preference for 24mm halibut pellets on a longish hair. Oh. Double check your knots and, if you can, fish in or on the edge of silty areas. Ian

Danny, get yourself to Anchor Meadow on the Avon. Trust me. Don't trust anything that Ken, the proprietor, tells you though. Pathological comes close to describing his......tales. Get there. You'll be glad you did. Ian

Keith, it was Mick who showed me those Avid Chod Beads. They work very well for me, cleverly designed kit. As is a lot of what Avid have to offer. Unlike you, I never use any form of leader, my silt/chod rigs run on the mainline. Ian

Hi Tim went to shallowbrook my local lake and had one fish and my arm was aching and the rod was bending more than ever before so thought 'great its a biggie' then it came off! As you can imagine the air was blue!!! Brave man fishing there always hearing of setups and tackle going walkies there. I can say the same of many waters, and in some cases (NOT all) it is put about to keep putting anglers off from fishing the water. Yes, there are all sorts of "tales" put about to discourage incoming anglers. Can't comment on Shallowbrook, I've never been there. Ian

Love it! I have PB,s with Grebe, Coot and Swan. A fish or two would be handy. Ian

It's a shame that Little Farriers, on the Carp Society ticket, is so far from Kent. It meets all of the other criteria with abject ease. Most tranquil place I've fished. Idyllic, trust me. Ian

Have a look at Rushes Lake, Vire en Champagne, Sarthe, France. It meets all your criteria, especially the food(!!) and if life in a bivvy doesn't suit your Dad they have a self contained apartment/gite that would be ideal for him. I've been there twice and would live there if I could! Oh, nearly forgot. Welcome to this cracking forum. Ian

Looks like I'd better do rather more than just walking round there. Ian