bluebirdjones

Which area were you thinking or will any suggestions in the UK be ok? Do you want to catch lots of smaller fish or sit it out waiting for the bigger ones?

I'd go somewhere else if you're over from Ireland, there's loads of other waters. I went in March a couple of years ago and the place was rammed. All pegs on St Johns looked taken and its bivvies every 10yds. Thats not my idea of fishing. I managed to fit onto Hardwick Lake but that was lucky as people were leaving. Brasenose 1 looked completely full as well and there's loads of pegs on there. I think its safe to say i'll never go back to Linear. I suppose the general theme i'm trying to get across here is it looks a bit like this

I'd go somewhere else if you're teaching a mate. I think if the first time I was ever taken fishing was to Linear I would never have taken up carp fishing. Bivvy's every 10 yards is not my idea of fun.

I've been to France once and we used the lakes own pellets and boillies but also took some of our own pellets and boilies. I agree with the theory that you may as well use the lakes own bait as thats what they are fed on for the majority of the year. My recommendation would be use mostly their bait but take some of your own just incase.

Wildmoor Waters, Gloucestershire and White Springs, South Wales are a couple more venues with huts that haven't been mentioned yet.

If you wanted an exclusive lake you could try 'Rookery Meadow' which allows exclusive use for 5 anglers ranging between £750-1000. It has carp over 30lb, send me a PM if you want a link but its easy enough to find on google. I've never been there but like the look of the place. No ones mentioned it yet but an alternative of going to France could be 'The Monument'?

There is an alternative to using shots you could try using 'Fox Kwik Change Pop Up Weights' . I haven't tried them myself but will probably buy some next year to try, I rarely use pop ups.

I've done the last couple of days of March start of April in the Limoges area which is a good 7-8 hours drive south from Calais. The nights were freezing, frozen mats most mornings but the days were quite nice and fairly warm. We were the second group of the year and the carp were just waking up, 5 of us had 49 fish through the week so it wasn't too bad.

I've fished in the Limoges area at the end of March beginning of April. We were the second group of the year to fish the lake. Between 5 of us we had 49 fish through the week. I think the group who fished the week before us had a similar amount. The nights were cold with temperatures going below freezing and the days were warm.

I think that is quite good Chris The song is quite fitting if the rig is put in the right place at the right time

thanks...not done a review before but wanted to let folks know how funny the book is in places,as said his determination to catch carp is rather amazing at times.....i dont mean in a pile the bait in and wait kind of way more of things like breaking ice in his pants and fishing swims that are not really swims......a kind of action man angler I ordered today, £25 from Waterstones with free postage I've got Chilcott's book 'Tackling Carp' but thats just a how to fish book rather than his story which was what I wanted to read.

Good review, its persuaded me to buy it

If a piece of music you put in is longer you can just click on it in the timeline and drag the length of the music clip backwards to the last frame in the video, the music will end when the video ends then.

I'd make the text larger so its easier to read and possibly put some nice relaxing fishing music in the background

I've always used the Korda Lead Clips and have had a few hundred carp using them. I stopped using them in May and have been using inline leads since so haven't had any need for a leadclip and I've saved a few pounds on leads

I know you can split videos in Windows Movie Maker but its not compatible with quicktime files. If the file is converted into WMV format its easy to do in movie maker. I had software to convert files but it stopped working when I switched laptops. Is the format your camera records MOV? Try googling 'splitting MOV files'

Why not upload 2 videos calling the first, part 1 and the second part 2?

Well done to both of you a good write up and a great weeks fishing

Well done Jay that sounds like a good session

I haven't either, i've only used sizes 4,6,8 & 10. I've only ever used a size 4 in France and I mostly use size 8.

I must have been thinking of one of the other lakes as the plan I saw of the fishery had loads of pegs on some of the lakes. I haven't seen the website for a couple of years as I was so put off. I hope you have a good trip, good luck and tell us how you got on.

Or possibly the most helpful if it saves you a wasted trip I've read about the place and it doesn't appeal to me, its got huge fish but the pegs seem too close together and I don't think you're free to move pegs. It seems far too commercial with too many pegs packed in to me.

I've never used shrink tube on any rig.

Its the place to be!

Agreed I read this book a few months back and would highly recommend it. He does go quite deep into baitmaking in parts which goes over my head but its still interesting to read. There's loads of funny parts like people blanking for days, he turns up and has a couple in 30 minutes then leaves them to it