courtz

Easily some of my best weekends fishing, having attended them for the last four years. Having met many great peoples, too many to name and having a good chat/bbq. It's a shame to see the whole section just be wiped off for pathetic reasons, Also lost was the comps section which i donated a fair amount of money towards, to buy monthly and a final year prize

Cemex Sandhurst

I think i should be free around those dates Looks like you had a great time, wish i could of made it.

More chance of city reaching the champions league than that

May give it a night midweek next week, haven't been in about 8 months now, makes a nice change.

Can still be a circus though, midweek especially. I've been once or twice for a laugh with mates who don't usually fish and always have plenty, stick to the margins and you can't go wrong. The owner seems a bit of a toff and it's rather expensive and gets filled with vans and chavs etc as has been mentioned.

i prefer the old stream bed and margins on the woods banks

Best thing is to have a look tommorow and decide for yourself. Personally i prefer the wood bank anywhere between the big disabled and tap. There's plenty of info if you try a search, i'm sure i've written a fair bit already

Like a rotary letter all this, few good points raised though. Yes an inturned eye will close the gape, i prefer straight eyes and straight points for my ziggies, although there's not an abundance of patterns suitable for this, downturned eyes increase the gape even more and things such as esp stiff riggers would be good, but they don't come in smaller sizes. So sometimes when using smaller strong patterns i'm stuck with putting a small peice of clear silicon over the eye, which increases the gape. As tony says, fluoro is a no go, well for me anyway. Pre-stretched monos such as preston powerline are spot on . For fixed zigs small inlines are my preference, if it's weedy then patterns such as the korda distance inline work well as they pull through the weed easier, or fish it drop off style with a 6" (inch!!!) leadcore leader. When using tight lines etc i've always found there to be not much of a difference between semi-fixed or running leads, just still strike at every 2 or 3 bleeps, although i will always use a running lead on adjustable zigs, for obvious reasons

They love to cruise around on the mussle beds close to the islande, great to see in winter, apparently zigs do alright. As for baits, any decent quality bait should produce

Grab carpworld this month, simon crow gives you the low down of the venue

Have to say i prefer the woods bank anywhere between the back of the island and the tap, but this is the only area i have caught from in the few times i've been down. Are you using a marker rod? The old stream bed is a fairly nice spot but a pain to find droping about 6 inches - 1 foot from the surrounding silt. This is really the main feature in this part of the lake and runs almost parralel to the bank at 70ish yards range. The edge of the mussel beds can also be hit from these pegs, but that is a fair old chuck and much better if you can wade out slightly to try and get the range. Last winter when i did a few day sessions on there this is where a few of the locals were hooking fish from. Margins are always worth a go during the warmer months, when i was down in september my mate had two big commons from pretty close in, it's worth wading your rigs out to the edge of the overhanging branches and making sure everything is spot on, as there are a fair few brick and branches around here! I was using a bolie orientated approach when i went, but one of the locals who was friendly swears by large beds of hemp and a scattering of chops over the top, and who would i be to argue after he landed 18 carp in the weekend i was there Last winter the majority of fish i saw where on bright days and towards the centre of the lake on the field bank, with a fair few patrolling along the end of the mussel beds from the island along further up towards the shallows. Finding the deeper spots within the mussel beds is said to produce well during winter, but again requires a fair amount of effort with the marker preferably on a quiet day. I've never fished the island much as it seems to be where everyone battles for which isn't good in the way that stretch of bank curves around so everyone is pointing at it, saying that one or two do get caught from it. Most of all just keep walking around and keep on the fish. They don't show much at all keeping on them is vital. I've not done much down in the bay near the car park, but apparently they do often get in here in numbers into the snags especially in summer, seems a bit tight though with one of the swims having a long pipe stretching out, and the snags look savage so it's be a definate locked up job. Good luck, and hopefully you'll bag one or two before the crowds descend. Courtney

A good mate of mine won the junior british champs on there at the end of august this year, he slays the place every time he's on and has only had a couple of duff sessions, very good angler in situations like that. Just by baiting up and getting rigs absolutely bang on the spot brings him decent results, and he's had alot on zigs i think although he does lose alot too. He's done an article on how he tackled it in this month's crafty carper so may be worth checking that out...

My name isn't matt but hey ho! http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=52.471632~-1.45976&style=h&lvl=17&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1 Never fished it myself as it's not my cup of tea but someone from my club water fishes it regularly, it has plenty of big fish in there though with a few 30s upto 38lbs I'm pretty sure that's the water in the above link, although i've never been there before i've heard it's a muddy barren hole in the ground stocked with instant big fish for instant carpers, so seems to fit the bill perfectly tongue firmly in cheek

Not me, that's another lake that me kev and seleb know about with a high bank veiwing point..........