ouchthathurt

Happiness is two landing nets drying out in the morning sunshine

He was an angry wee beastie, this lake isn’t heavily fished, the carp in there are in good condition, except a few that have deformed spines and sores, but they are very much in a minority.

last gasp fish, literally put my hand around the reel seat to bring it in to pack up and it ripped off in my hand

Finally got an overnighter in for the first time in a while, had 4 runs, one I lost when it beached itself just short of the net and the hook came out (my fault, I knew the water level was down and that margin was shallow!)

sun up on a productive overnighter.

Been doing short 4hr after work sessions this week, had a few, nothing huge, but nice to get a bend in the rod and work a new venue out

another evening spent behind the rods

another evening with the rods out

Dusting off my old shimano aero 11ft 2 1/4lb tc carp rods and 6000 shimano baitrunners on a little pond in the Mole valley. Literally fishing under the rod tips, my baits are each side of the end of the boards. I’ve not used these rods in maybe 15yrs, but this lake didn’t suit either my 12ft 3lb fox torque or my 12 3.5lb fox horizon rods, average carp mid-high singles, with the odd low double, so a lovely through actioned rod like these ones are so much more matched and more fun to play carp on.

It’s always worth a go mate, it used to be a popular method (no pun intended) and in essence, it’s not too dissimilar to a pva bag I suppose. It probably went out of vogue because it was no longer “fashionable” as opposed to anything else. It’s a good compact way of presenting an attractive parcel of food, with the hook link tucked away out of sight, what’s not to like? I seem to remember it being branded a “small fish method” but that could be down to many variables, the fact it was a “match tactic” or that it was used on runs waters etc. I always think that with the turn over of young new carp in today’s waters, tactics such as the method have a whole new shelf life when presented to a generation of carp that haven’t seen it yet because everyone overlooks it as a tactic. when I first started carping in the mid 90s, I never EVER used strawberry or tutti boilies as an old hand told me that the carp were so used to them they wouldn’t touch them, that has stayed with me for 25+yrs! Daft really, those carp are long gone, and this generation of carp probably haven’t seen a strawberry boilie in their lives! Everyone seems to skip these flavours in favour of some more popular flavours. I was recently told that if I wasn’t fishing with a particular brand and flavour on my club lake, I would blank as the carp wouldn’t eat anything else… i then caught the big common over 40lb, first 40 from the lake

I’ve not really had the rods out in anger for a while, but my daughter has been showing me how it’s done with her first carp from a little campsite pond.

I suppose you could argue that Terry Hearns first book, in pursuit of the largest and Dave Lanes obsession with carp are creeping into old school territory now? After all, they are documenting famous waters from the early 90s, nigh on 30yrs now! Where has the time gone?

Father’s Day fishing trip 👍🏻

22lb common caught today

another evening, another few hours spent by the lake side

couple of rods out on a little pond I found ten mins from the hotel I’m staying at. On a week residential course for work.

sneaky couple of rods out

little mid double caught on a quick 2hr session.

few from last night on a tricky little park lake the boy got one too