poleaxe21

Hiya mate. Ham Pool still rammed? Has been most of this year. Ham can be tricky at times so don't let one blank make you question your tactics too much. It's a very moody place and the carp don't seem to follow the rules so to speak. Also, you'll find many of the members won't offer up information too readily. As you've already found out the bream and tench can be a nuisance, so i would advise against pellets, and even to a certain extent particles. However, nobody ever seems to bait heavily on Ham, so a large bed of particle does present the carp with something different, and does definatly work if you don't mind wading through umpteen bream in the process. Be advised the silt in Ham is deep and soft. Try pushing a landing net handle into the silt in the margins and you'll see for yourself the extent of it. Most of this silt is relatively clean and odour free so don't be afraid to present a bait on it. I know a lot of the regulars like to use pop ups on top of it but all of my fish from Ham have come on balanced bottom baits or snowman presentations. I do however use much longer hooklinks than most, prefering to go 12" and upwards on occasions. You might hear people saying that Ham contains no features and simply bowls out to a uniform 14ft in the middle. Well believe me, thats a load of rubbish. There are plenty of features to dangle to, some very subtle, and some no so. But do your homework and you'll soon find plenty of tempting spots. The standard of angler fishing Ham seems to be in decline recently and many simply chuck and chance it. Get it spot on, and spend some time ensuring your presentation is pukka and you'll reap the rewards. Oh, and if you notice a shortarse with a red astravan....come have a chat. I keep a close eye on the place despite rarely fishing it these days. Best of luck Chris

I seem to remember most of my tests on this subject were carried out at Linear St Johns. Not really important but it just popped into my head.

Umm Not a lot really. I played around with crumbing them in method mix but that had obvious drawbacks, and then introduced them into solid pva bags along with the usual pellet or boilie. I caught a few carp, but never felt like the oxy-tabs were having a positive effect. They had a relatively short breakdown time and most of the captures came long after the tablet would has dissolved. The small release of oxygen into a relatively large body of water seemed insignificant to me and therefore i gave up on the idea. I can see how they might work in a stalking scenario, possibly in conjunction with a floating PVA bag, but honestly i can't see much of a future in the idea. I think there is something in the idea of "active" baits. But then i guess we all catch carp on items that seem relatively inert to us. Our senses are very different to that of a fish.

I played around with oxygen tablets a few years ago but with only limited success.

The islands are the most obvious feature (kinda hard to miss in fact ) but don't ignore them just because you might feel that they are pressured areas. Plenty of carp do still get caught from there. Leave the Marker Rod at home. You won't need it and Chad is so small and intimate that using one will ruin your chances. Feel the lead down on the cast, and aim your casts at showing fish, signs of activity, or visible features. Any bait works really, but don't discount maggots. Theres very little in the way of nuisance species in Chad (all were meant to be removed but obviously there is the odd one...) The best advice i could give you would be to remain as stealthy as possible, and keep end tackle as unobtrusive as possible. It's "bits" fishing to be honest. Tiny PVA bags, single hookbaits, hand feeding, small hooks, small leads that sort of thing. Hope that is of some help to you. Chris

Velocity Angling? Google it mate it's a nice place. It's located roughly between Bridgewater and Wells.

No definitive answer. Will depend entirely on the situation in front of you. Personally i tend to favour longer than average hooklinks, but then the lake i've been fishing of late is very very silty. This is where i do favour long hooklinks. 12-14" is the norm. However in the past when fishing firm areas of gravel or hard clay i will sorten right down to 3". Hooklink length will also be affected by my bait application. For instance if fishing over a bed of small particle (be that over silt or gravel) i will favour short hooklinks due to the way in which i believe and have observed carp feeding. However if fishing over a spread of boilies or larger particles (nuts and the like) i'm happy to employ a longer hooklink (such as 10-12" hinged stiff rig) again due to my beliefs regarding a carp's feeding behaviour. Weed will also play a big part in my decisions regarding hooklink length. Longer in silkweed for example. I've simplified my decsions here but i'm sure you get the just of what i mean.

Fished it loads over the years. In fact i caught my very first carp from what is now the Syndicate lake many many years ago. If you can get down there for a session during the week (especially this early in the year) then it's well worth a trip and shouldn't be too busy. Bait wise i wouldn't worry too much and just use anything your confident in. Hemp, pellets, tigers, boilies, pepperami, bottom baits, sweetcorn ect ect all work very well. Yes the margins do fish well, but whilst in open water don't neglect the marker rod. Plenty of features to go at if you look hard enough.

I was a student at Welbeck when it was a military college. Is still partially Mod run but god knows what they're doing there. When the college got relocated to Loughborough we were told that the entire estate was being given back to Perenti (weird old git that lives there). I popped in on my travels a few weeks back and much of the abbey itself is now fenced off and MoD guards everywhere. There are some nice carp in there. I had a few during my time there. Not sure where the MoD would stand on fishing there now. Would be interested to find out though. Drop me a PM if you do find anything. Sorry couldn't be of any help

Ive been travelling from Wales to the Waterpark for the last 15 years....

Wick is full of noddies and ham is worse....yeah whatever mate! Who are you to pass judgement on every single person that fishes a particular water? I myself spend a lot of time on Whitefriars, but i learnt a lot from my time spent on Wick and Ham especially. Some cracking blokes on Ham and Wick with a wealth of knowledge they are more than willing to share with new faces.

I ended up doing a good 25 nights there this year trying to juggle it in with my regular water. Was a good bit of fun but i was mainly targeting the Cats. Got to know Gary, John, and Vanity (Rich haha...) quite well. Overall it's an entertaining place but to be fair John has got the complete wrong end of the stick in what he is trying to achieve there. I listened to him spout so many times about how he wants to turn it into "Wales Premier Carp Water", and to be honest, with the stocking policy he has commited himself to that is never going to happen (i have manged a 27lb 12oz common - but thats after wading through hundreds of small doubles). As for the fish being in pristine condition i couldn't disagree more. Ive pointed out dead fish floating to John on no less than 5 seperare occassions (both lakes 6 and 5), and the majority of fish i have caught from lake 6 have had horrible mouth damage. Ive talked with Gary extensively about this and Pat also and we all agree that the barbless hook rule needs to be dropped ASAP. So many fish with enormous tears both in their mouths and underneath. I will be returning for the Cats next year as Rich seems to think he's the daddy with them at the moment and ive made it my personal mission to put Vanity in his place But as for the carp i wont be bothering again. It's a real shame. Celtic has the potential to be a very nice water, but unfortunatly John has his priotities all wrong. Oh well...

South Cerney Angling Club - My regular waters. Whitefriars is 150+ acres. Real nice water. Hard nut to crack but ive done well there this season. They aren't to difficult to catch if you can find them. Current record is around the 38lb mark i believe however it is only lightly fished and its potential in relatively unknown. Ham pool contains a few nice thirties with average sizes in the low to mid twenties. Very much a 'in the edge' water and not as difficult as some people would have you think (also a fully licenced bar on the lake). Ashton Keynes Angling club also have some really nice waters. And of course also in the water park you have the Watermark Lakes (I.E Bradleys and Little Horseshoe). Just east of the Water Park theres the Carp Society's Horseshoe Lake and the Farriers Syndicate (Formely Carp Lake Daiwa). Getting on Farriers is becoming difficult as it has been throwing up some of the best looking commons in the land with fish to 40lbs). You're best bet is to pop into Hinders in Swindon. Shaun and Bryan know the local (Wiltshire) waters really well and i'm sure they'll steer you in the right direction.

You're not far from the Cotswolds Water Park there really mate (I drive through FoD to get to my regular haunts)

I totally agree that in reality spot checks are not workable. But i still think that education on these matters is the way forward as opposed to bans. I don't have any answers whatsoever. I just think it's a shame that we have to resort to bans...

No no no no no. Bans are the thin end of the wedge. What is needed is regular and random rig inspections. Anyone found to be using unsafe rigs should first be educated on the matter and shown how to rig up safely. If they are caught again in future with unsafe rigs once more and having ignored the advice of the baliff they should face an immediate ban from the fishery. Large fisheries such as mid kent have a duty to educate.

Sounds similar to a recoil rig to me. I use a similar rig very often but with leadcore and a 1" supple braid section at the hook end. Works very well.

Take a paperclip and a pair of pliers. Cut a small section of the paperclip off so you are just left with a small "U" shaped piece of metal. Put this through the rig ring on the "D" and then push it into your pop up. Very secure and couldn't be simpler (does add a touch of weight to the pop up thus reducing boyancy so no good for say the hinged stiff link....but very useful for counterbalancing pop ups - play around with legnth of "U" shaped metal).

Elstow pit 2...also on my target list for the next couple of years. Pit 1 doesn't interest me though. I've heard far too much about the politics and that's not what fishing is about...

Also just got back from 24hrs at Linear. Couldn't get on Manor or St Johns as they were rammed. Hardwick was also rammed solid and nothing had been out so i ended up fishing Brasnose 1. Caught a low double during the night and to my knowledge there were only 4 other carp caught on the entire lake the time i was there. Not great considering there were 30+ anglers there.... Will be leaving Linear well alone for the time being. Sick of the crowds.

Oh for gods sake! They are not shockleaders! Anyone who thinks otherwise go chat to a decent beach angler or tournament caster....Biminy twist anyone

On st johns ive always done very well on brazil nuts. I use a razor blade to peel them to expose the white of the nute....very underused and productive (Don't use many - 1 on the hair and a few crushed in a PVA bag is ample. If you have to fish over more bait then spod tigers, hemp, pellets or whatever)

The Palomar know should really be all you ever need for tying fluorocaarbon. To be honest it's the know i use 98% of the time regardless of material. Just a little note of the crimps issue though. I use fluorocarbon for my Tope and Smoothhound fishing (Bristol channel + Aberthaw = very harsh conditions) and always use crimps and have never to my knowledge suffered a break due to the crimps. I think the effect on fluorocarbon due to it's brittle nature has been somewhat exaggerated in the past. I was manager of a fishing tackle shop for a number of years dealing in all disciplines of fishing and the main problem associated with crimps stemmed from the inexperienced using them incorrectly. Or rather being haphazard in their usage of crimps. Gentle is key. Having said all that i see no advantages in using crimps with fluorocarbon (or any other material for that matter) in carp fishing. The only reason i use them in my Tope fishing is because tying knots in very high breaking strain fluorocarbon is not only nigh on impossible, but not very effective either. To me crimps will only add to the bulk on your rig, and create possibly sharp edges that could rub the carp's flanks / gill covered during a fight.

Just took a trip over to Lampeter today to have a look at Celtic Lakes. Me and a mate are looking for a new water to target this year and as Celtic Lakes is so close to us it seems like the ideal place. Wasn't anybody fishing there today so i didnt get chance to sus the place out. I was just wondering if anybody has had any experience here and could give me any advice on how to tackle the place. Any tips would be greatfully received. chris