Angel Minkov

The rods will be Daiwa Mission DFs. They'll be mainly for medium distance work with pop-up rigs such as chods and hinged stiff rigs, maybe the occasional PVA bag

Straightforward question. These will be my first carp reels. The Windcast is the 2017 model, but I wanted to ask the people on here for opinions. I'm leaning towards the windcast

Daiwa TDR4012 is a great reel

Well, well, well, another Saturday, another pellet waggler session. This time with a new PB of 25 pound carp and 25 pound grass carp! Pictures of the 25 pound fish below, as well as 2 of the other 4 carp I caught. This time some real stunners made me wet my net! 

Well, the week after I went back to do some more feeder fishing, but aside from a few line bites the only thing I caught was a sunburn lol I couldn't let things stay like that for long so naturally I visited it on Monday to do some pellet waggler fishing. I arrived at the venue around 7:30 in the morning. It was still chilly and a thick fog soon appeared above the water, but I didn't mind. I set up my rig quickly, put on a band, a pellet and started the usual thing you do when fishing the pellet waggler - casting, feeding, casting, feeding. Soon after a fellow angler chose a spot just a few yards away from me and chose to fish for carp using a zig rig and boilies. There is a trend on this venue for carpers to come with heavy leads, cast 10 metres in front of them and feed with a blanket of pellets, for whatever reason. I usually don't mind, but he was right next to me and his inaccuracy was so bad he was crossing my swim with his line and on top of that shooting loads of pellets right next to my float, which naturally meant the fish would follow them to the bottom when they couldn't eat all of them. After a few hours of this I decided I'd had enough and moved at around 1:30 PM to a spot which I noticed didn't get as much wind and is generally overlooked by anglers on this venue. I went there, fired 2 or 3 pouchfulls pellets and cast. After just a few minutes I was in with my first fish, a grass carp. I usually don't enjoy fishing for them, because while they're in the water they don't fight at all, but god forbid you put them on the mat - they go crazy. Took a picture and slipped it back in the water. A couple of minutes after I was in with another fish - this time a lovely, golden mirror. I left it in the mat and quickly went to ask a fellow angler for a picture, but by the time I came back, it had kicked its way into the swim (I deliberately left the mat right on the edge so the carp wouldn't damage itself were it to start kicking and rolling on the grass). I felt a bit down for not being able to take a picture with this beauty, but soon proceeded with my fishing. Another bite soon followed, but I had just answered a call from my mom so I couldn't play the carp properly and it unhooked itself. No biggie. Cast a few times and I was into another huge grass carp, which I really didn't want to net, so as soon as it got close to my net and I saw it, I let off a little slack line and it unhooked itself. Really had no intentions of being whacked around by that thing lol After that I had some missed bites - the darn things always decided they'd have my pellet right as I was feeding. So after moving and having some peace and quiet, I had 2 big fish, 2 unhooked and a few bites. I didn't get much action for the next hour, but then came the prize of the trip - a lovely 20 pounder, absolutely gorgeous carp. I must've played it for around an hour or so, but eventually it was in my net. I shot 2-3 pouchfulls of pellets in the swim, because I saw loads of fish splashing in front of me, so I knew there were still carp around. I just couldn't cast right away, because I was absolutely exhausted by that battle. I checked my phone, noticed 3 missed calls from my dad so naturally I called him to see what's up. Right as he answered I saw him on the near margin, coming towards me. He had some business with my grandfather nearby and it was already around 5:30PM, so they decided to pick me up, because I have to change loads of public transport to get to the lake. I told him I wasn't quite done and I cast. Picked up the catapult, 2-3 pellets, fed, twitched my float and got a bite. I was in again! And it felt big. Another 20 pounder on the pellet waggler, which gave me another battle which lasted an hour. I was absolutely exhausted after that, so I packed up and went home. My dad had the honor of netting the last fish, he was stoked! 

Just beat my PB last Saturday whilst fishing the pellet waggler. 4 carp and 2 grasscarp in total, one of the carp was 11.50kg, so around 25+lb. Turned out to be a great sesh with some beautiful fish! 

Just beat my PB last Saturday whilst fishing the pellet waggler. 4 carp and 2 grasscarp in total, one of the carp was 11.50kg, so around 25+lb. Turned out to be a great sesh with some beautiful fish! 

For sure, mate, but my net was small and I was in a hurry to take the fish out, didn't want to risk any damage were the fish to start kicking. I wanted to take a quick snap and then poured water on it, took another quick pic and in the water it went. I wanted to weigh it, but nobody had scales near me. I don't like keeping fish on the margins for too long, I'm scared of damaging them so I let it go asap.

Thanks, guys! I thoroughly enjoyed this session, will go back for sure! 

After visiting this venue on the third of march right after it had thawed, I decided its time for us to get even after the previous blank so I visited it yesterday again. I arrived at around 9AM on the venue and all the good spots were taken, so I had to make do with what I had available. I brought a can of sweetcorn with me, some maggots and 2 kilos of feeder mix. I decided to use up only a kilo of the mix to attract with its color and scent - it was a very bright green mix which contrasted with the sandy bottom perfectly. The water was still cold, even though the venue isn't particularly large, so I knew I had to do something to attract the fish. My approach consisted of 3 main points - the green mix for visual stimulation, mixed in with some maggots for movement around the bottom and additionally the sweet corn for splashes and further visual cues. As bait I used a grain of corn with 2 maggots on a size 10 Maver hook. My rig was actually very simple - I threaded a float stop on the main line, along with a shock bead over it, then the feeder, another shock bead and lastly a swivel, to which I attached a very short hook length, probably around 4'' at best. Loaded the feeder and fished at around 20 yards. With every cast I catapulted 1 or 2 pouch-fulls of corn to attract any nearby fish, because I cannot clip up on this venue and I'm not the most accurate caster either, so I usually cast and feed around a radius of 5-7 yards. It didn't take long for me to see some twitching of my tip, which I assume were line bites, so I knew I had fish in front of me. After about an hour and a few casts, I landed a beautiful common at around 12-13lb. A small common followed closely after and the immediate cast after I had landed it, followed the prize of the trip - a beautiful 20 pound mirror. Another small common at around 2 pm and all fishing stopped after that, no more splashes, no more ripples. Its like the fish disappeared from the venue. Didn't catch anything else for the next 4 hours. In total, there were 6 fish caught for the day from the venue, 4 from me. Below are pictures of the mirror and common. 

My profile picture is from about 2nd or 3rd grade lol! I'm 19 years old, I'm not bulky, but I can get big distances. The point is, I don't like distance fishing. Listening about people who fish 400 metres away makes me nauseous... I'm looking for around 70-80 metres at best ^^ I was also looking at the Nash H-Gun rods. Any opinions on them? 

Also, what length would you recommend - 3.60 or 3.96?