marcustackley

Morocco didn't happen in the end, but have secured next week on a lake called Genets on my jack jones, bloody lovely!

Trying everywhere at the moment, looking for a single spot on a french lake w/c 4th June. Any lake owners have availability?

wouldn't call it a holiday, but fishing the World Champs on the St Lawrence in September this year - 120 hour event. Looking at fishing Bin El Ouidane in Morocco in May but my buddy has just pulled out

Some good posts here, seems like some anglers are breaking boundaries which I love to see. I get 2 weeks a year to fish sanctioned by the missus - god lover her! And choose to spend that time on the Ebro, St Lawrence, Grand river etc. We have two nippers and I earn good money working in a pressured job, I love carp fishing and I read about it daily, but I don't get to practise. I'm so sick of the uk scene I much prefer to spend my time, money and intelligence working on a pioneering trip, rather than fishing pressured waters. Absolutely agree it's each to his or her own, and me and the wife still get the odd day session if we can find a baby and dog sitter, but at 3 and 5, it's not easy! Lots of love going out to those pioneers amongst you, it ain't easy but god loves a trier, TDP is my hero, would love to have the time and balls to spend filming and fishing but also have a family to provide for, keep it up guys

Nice get out clause I'm not against these places existing, they have a role in modern carp fishing it's just not my bag. I do very little fishing in the UK any more, most of it is river fishing and some of the small country sized lakes in Spain, SA and the US. The comment about the hunting ranches was more to do with artifically overfeeding a species then confining it in to a small area for the purpose of making money from trophy hunters more than a reference to the ease of the catch/kill so it does stand true Cobleyn

I think the main issue with these places is around the fact that carp are put through a fairly traumatic time from being raised and overfed on the continent and then have to endure a stressful journey overseas to be stocked in ponds for UK anglers to catch. A proportion of these fish never make it and die in transit, the rest usually don't have such a long life span. The only positive about the LEGAL introduction of foreign fish is that they shouldn't bring disease in to this country and put our stocks in jeopardy. In addition to the trauma it also encourages the illegal movement of carp from across the continent in to UK waters, these of course are un-tested and pose the real threat to British Fish, not to mention being a complete waste of life as we saw earlier this year http://www.efishbusiness.co.uk/news/100305-illegal-carp-import-at-dover.asp In the US Hunting Ranches exist where deer are tagged with different colour chips in their ears, bred and fed quickly and fenced in to a 10 acre reserve. The 'hunter' is then assured of a trophy and can choose to shoot the deer that represents his budget or trophy requirements. There is little difference between the 2 sports for me other than that there's a slightly higher chance of survival for the carp. Whilst I also take the each to his own approach the very idea of putting non-native species bred specifically for size in to a limited and restricted environment for the sole purpose of financial gain goes against the laws of nature and I'm an outdoorsman first and a fishermen second

great info Penner, thanks for this. I have extremely reliable info that there are other spots further down stream near Fayon and on the uper lake that produce but aren't subject the pressure on the Segre junction from every man and his spanish dog so w'll go in search if we have to - thanks for your opinions Marcus

Thanks Penner - we've booked a guided carp package but I'm hiring a car so I can move if needs be. I'm used to fishing big rivers and we spodded out 600lb maize at the last world carp championships so the hardwork doesn't worry us. I've been told you can buy pre-soaked maize - is this not true? Can you night fish on private land?

John - interesting mate - when you say graft your way through the cats, is that inevitable regardless of whether you bait with maize, seeds, or boilies? I'm really not interested in cats, is there a way to avoid them or lessen the chances you have of catching them?

Thanks Gents, I ended up booking with Colin at Catmasters primarily because they were just about the only company with availability. They too suggest lightly baiting but I can't get my head around this, surely with shoals numbering up to 200 fish you need to bait big to try and stop them or at least pick off 10 or so before they move through? I've fished several river systems extensively including the Seine, St Lawrence and large systems in the US and to stop the shoal and take some big hits I've needed to boat (or on some miserable ocassions!) spod up to 100lb of maize - is the Ebro different?

Sorry - carp primarily

I'm after some unbiased 'client' based feedback on the various guides out on the Ebro. I've fished big rivers across Europe and the US for the past 6 yeards but this is my first trip to the Ebro. I've visited all the websites and spoken to most of the guides or their respective companies but there's nothing like recommendations from carp anglers. If you have something good to say then post it up, I guess in the interest of fairness if you weren't happy you could PM me with your thoughts - it'll go no further. For my first trip I want pre-baited swims or use of a boat, I don't want to be charged a hundred quid for an airport pick up ( as I might as well hire a car and fish it myself) and I don't want a guide sitting on my shoulder all day, just a pointer to a spot that produces and left to my own devices. Any info out there gents would be greatly appreciated

I'm off to Avoca this weekend now it's re-opened but have fished Tara and Milo loads of times. If you're after specimen carp in pristine condition, this ain't the complex to go to but if you just need a bend in your rod after a hard winters fishing ( ) then this is just the recipe There are some decent pegs worth a crack and underwater features to fish to, if you get a blank stare from the guys on the bank, watch where they're casting to........ Biggest from the complex over the past 5 years has been 18 and change, 35lb is a myth there was a big fish kill a couple of years ago and most of the stock were wiped out

Ian, nmarston let me know how you got on. Looking for a 3 day escape on the ebro in the next couple of weeks

There's two different topics touched on there, the behaviour of bait and the quality of the terminal tackle. It's possible to have carp feeding confidently in your baited spot without the hookbait being touched - i.e. your terminal tackle is constructed so that carp don't associate it with danger, but your hookbait is unnatural enough to ensure feeding fish won't touch it. Likewise you can have spooky fish taking a natural looking hookbait, so you make a valid point there Salok On a slightly different tack, carp in one of my local gravel pits regularly pick stones up and mouth them before ejecting them, so I thought i'd balance my hookbaits to ensure there's little suction required to pick up my bait. I combined this with short stiff links and heavy leads to ensure hook penetration on 'mouthing' and whilst I had some success it couldn't be described as hectic. I then started mixing Richworth's pop-up mix in to my base mix to create wafters as I thought the size of the snowman set up I'd been using was too big and clumsy for the carp being fished for, but this didn't turn them on either. Recently I've started making the hookbaits heavy, these require a lot of suction to move - bingo! - the twitches have turned in to runs when combined with a tight hair pattern. Bit off topic I know but it highlights it doesn't necessarily all come down to the lead size and fixing