shakey

To be honest Gaz, there would be only one reason I would re-join CAPS these days and that would to fish certain stretches of the Stour There are some nice fish to be had, without the crowds that come with fishing their lakes !!

The year I got my ticket was the season after the big 'un had past away so that left the biggest in there being a shade under 30. That fish would go over 30lb but it depended on the time of year. If the biomass of the water is right, it can easily support the number of carp in there given the size of the water and give good growth rates. The problem we had when I was in there was the number of silver fish. The amount of rudd and roach in there was incredible. I helped the EA net it once to remove some of the silver fish to help reduce the biomass of the water and we filled there tanks in no time !!

I've fished the Garrison in the past. I was on there from 98 through to around 2004/05. It's a great little water. Lots of features, pads, weed, gravel patches etc. All very close up stuff and the carp used to be very clued up. I have some great memories of the place. Ranging from the work parties where we built new paths and swims, through to the beautiful misty summers morning with the haze of the sun coming through the trees onto the water. Strangely enough my nickname comes from my time on the Garrison. I finally landed the lakes biggest fish after a lot of trying, and I was shaking so much that I couldn't even manage to un-hook her, so i shouted for help. I was still shaking about 4 hours later when a few of the guys came down to see me A view down the lake: One of the 'character' carp that used to be in there:

or wix or st osyth for really easy waters 30's in Wix & St. Osyth See ya there Has Alresford done a thirty now?? I know that the largest used to get caught around the 28lb mark, but I didn't think that they had a thirty plus in there..... could all of changed though in the last couple of seasons

For sure Ben. I certainly have some un-finished business with some of those fully scaled mirror in there. Just waiting for my daughter to get a little older so that I put in some decent time in. Shakey

To be honest noknot, you've just got to fish it. How I used to approach the water maynot suit other peoples style of fishing. I used to fish quick overnighters once or twice at the most a week, so my approach would be totally different to who would normally be fishing longer sessions. The only bit of advise I would give, is focus on the piece of water in front of you that you can see. If your sat there worrying about what is happening down one of the arms etc, you'll go nuts. You've got to do your walkround, pick your swim and fish that piece of water in front of you as hard as you can Anyway, here's the sort of morning you can wake up to..... tight lines

Simon, Both Nick (salokcinnodrog) and I have fished Ardleigh in the past, but I'm not sure if there are any current members on this forum at the moment. To be honest, as long as your polite and go about your angling in the right way, the guys on there will open up to you and it won't take long to get to know a few of the regulars on there. The usual "i'm off to the lodge, do you need any water etc mate ??" to the guy down the bank for you, will work wonders Shakey PS i'd love to know how you get on over. I still have some fish over there that I would love to catch...... just need the wife to let me get some time on the bank

Courtz, i've heard good things about the Rig Marole hydrolink. I've been thinking about try the green verison out next season, it's just i've been using Mantis for a long time and i'm thinking "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"

I favour Super mantis. I have tried a few of the others and felt they weren't as good for various reasons.

Steve, if you're going for a Kryston braid then I would suggest that you go for silkworm. Merlin is green in colour and more suited to weeder situations IMO. Silkworm, is greyish with black flecks and can easily be "coloured" with a black marker pen to match the silty bottom. Also, from memory, silkworm is slightly thinner in diameter.

"Kryston also have the cure for Tangles in long braided Hooklinks: Superstiff " True, but when using 2'6" hook lengths, it isn't going to take long to use a tub of that up

Steve, as ToniB has pointed out, I would also be worried about fishing braided hook lengths over 2 ft long. I would be paraniod about it tangling on the cast. I also think you might be better off with a mono hook length. If you're worried about the colour, you could always run a black permenant marker pen down the mono and colour it black like the silt ?? If you really do want to fishing braided hooklengths that long then the ones from Kryston Nick has mention are very good. I've caught fish in Merlin and Silkworm

As Nick pointed out, the original hair rigs came off the curved part rather than the shank. Whether or not it is more efficent than having the hair of the shank, I wouldn't know. But why not give it a go ? I would give it a whirl myself (especially if I as fishing a pressurised water that might give me an edge), but fishing where I do, it isn't really the place to be experimenting

So why do you guys keep giving him your hard earned cash ?? Surely there has got to be better day ticket lakes out there ?? I haven't fished a day ticket water for a long time, so i'm a bit out of touch, but surely there are better places than Weeley If the farmer isn't putting anything back into the waters and is just raking in the cash from the day tickets, vote with your feet and fish somewhere else. If his revenue took a dive he might think about putting some of the money back into the fishery, but whilst he's happily coining it, he won't think twice about

Pure speculation from me, but I used to work on Halstead high street about 4 years ago. I was forever in the tackle shop by the bridge at lunchtimes. From what I could gather Gosfield had carp in it up to 38lb, but how true that is I don't know. It's a pity carp unlimited isn't still going as I know Pete had soemthing to do with Gosfield in days gone by.

Agreed, although you may want to run a black marker pen over the leadcore inner before you wrap it in place if the lead is shiny. Some leadcore inners have a shiny finish some are dull, it just depends on what sort you have in your box.

True, but it will be like fishing Ardleigh a few seasons ago when the place still had some air of mystery and un-caught whacker potential, and wasn't a circus like it is turning into now Just having that thought in the back of your head "what might be" when the buzzer finally goes off would be worth all the hard work and rule bending. I say go for it Catchnotalot, but don't forget to send us the pictures

I've never had any problems with the figure of 8 knot when I have used it. Saying that I havent' fished it in a water where "hook & hold" tactics were required, but in the open water fishing I have used it, it was fine. This was with mantis, not stealth skin, but I doubt it would make a difference.

Dawia Infinity HT Line ? It's not a true flurocarbon, but a mono that is coated. I've been using since the beginning of last season and have found it very good. The water I fish is as clear as tap water and I am paranoid about fishing spooking off the main line. Backleads and flying backleads are out of the question as the mussels are a problem, and this line seems a decent comprimise.

With the expection of the Clearwater material, I have all of those hook length materials in my tackle box. Between those materials you can cover pretty much all rig situations. I do really rate the hook length materials by Kryston, and I am always sceptical when I first use materials by other companies. I have had far too many "great" "wonderful" "the best hooklength ever" materials that quite frankly have be tripe and have hit the inside of my dustbin after the first time I have used them

Spicy, are you being serious ? £250 on fishing those holes in the ground You really need to find yourself another water. You can join loads of clubs in the Essex area for a third of that and fish some really nice waters. There is CAPS, Paxmans, The Post Office, Basildon, Sudbury, Kelvedon, Chelmsford etc

When I last used vitalin (which was 5/6 years ago now) I mixed in a mixture of parti-blend and different sized trout pellets. Tangerine sized balls were then fired into the area where I wanted the bait. I then fished a 15mm hooker trout pellet over the top of the area. What I also did was to use the Korda funnel web PVA and make golf ball sized round bags using the vitalin mixture. This was then hooked onto the rig and cast out with the hook bait. I worked very successfully, as it was slightly different to those using vitalin and method feeders.

My advise on fishing any of these types of holiday type venues is not to go mad with the bait for a few days. Often or not there will have been people fishing the week before you arrive, and some people tend to chuck in their bait before they leave so they don't have to cart it all home. Also, don't be afraid to ask. The people who own the place won't want you to blank as you won't go back, so don't be afraid to ask them for advice. Send them a few polite e-mails before you go and try and build up a picture before you get out there. Finally, show the fish some respect. The fish will often be fished for 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week for 8 months of the year. If you go out there thinking that it will be easy, it can easily bite you in the bum. So take a decent bait with some decent rigs and apply yourself

Here is a link to the website for the A12 lakes. I've not fished it so I can't comment or give any advise, but you could always give it a try http://www.a12lakes.co.uk/specimentlake.html

Here is the link to the CAPS website. You should be able to find out all the info about joining fees, the waters they hold etc on that website. http://www.colchesteraps.org/ Personally, I haven't been a member of CAPS for about 5 years. Yes they have great waters that hold carp over 40 pounds, but their waters get rammed. I remember fishing Bovington 2 when you wouldn't see another soul for days on end, now it's just a circus. But thats my opinion because I remember "the good old days". However, if you want a chance to catch big carp on a club ticket then CAPS is one of your best choices in this area.