Friday 4th November – Old Estate Lake

Back to the Estate lake for another quick after work session. Got to the lake at about 2.30pm and actually saw a bit of fish activity (these fish very rarely show themselves at all).

Started fishing at about 3pm and again used the Rahja Spice shelf life’s in conjunction with small pva stocking mesh bags of the mini mixed pellet.

Had just about got the rods in when the heavens opened and it didn’t stop chucking down until packing up time at 11.30pm. I never had so much as a bleep although there was continued carp activity throughout the evening. I came away unsure as whether the weather was to blame (in all the years I have been fishing I have never really caught many carp during prolonged periods of torrential rain), or whether I should have put a bed of bait out to try and get the carp to feed.

Got home to an air temperature of 14 degrees C, crazy for this time of year.

Saturday 5^th November – River Dove

Made my first trip of the season to an area that I don’t really fish a lot. I checked the Environment Agency levels and the Upper Trent was showing 1.26m and rising (probably unfishable with the weed coming down), whereas the Dove was showing 0.72m and rising, so the Dove it was.

I wanted to try some swims that I had not fished before. The river looked like it was carrying about 2 feet of extra water and it was obvious that there was a lot of debris coming down but with a water temperature of 11.2 degrees C the barbel should be on the feed.

I started fishing at about 3.15pm. The first swim I chose had a nice smooth surface to it (signifying a nice gravel bottom) and a decent flow but it became obvious after about 30 minutes that I couldn’t fish it properly due to the amount of debris being washed down the river. I was using 5 ½ oz just to hold bottom a rod length out and this was only holding for about 15 minutes.

I went for a walk downstream and found what looked like the perfect swim for these type of conditions. All the flow was past the middle and to the far side of the river, creating almost a backwater on my side. This would enable me to fish out in the flow without the problem of debris collecting up the line as none should be collecting in the backwater.

With the extra colour in the water I added a matching paste wrap to my Rahja Spice hook baits hoping to give a little extra pulling power. I also baited the edge of the backwater with about 30 boilies of varying sizes.

I had a quick wrap on the rod top after about 10 minutes so I knew there were fish in the swim. After about 30 minutes the rod was away producing a barbel of about 4lbs which convinced me to stay where I was. I then missed an ‘un-missable’ bite about 30 minutes later so I shortened the hair on this rig. Within 15 minutes of recasting the same rod was away again and after a good fight and a few attempts at netting (a really awkward swim to fish) a nice barbel of 11lb 1oz was in the

11lb 1oz

net. I took a couple of quick photo’s and then returned the fish in a different swim (where I could reach the water level better and so look after the fish properly before it was ready to go back).

This swim was proving like chalk and cheese compared to the first one, I could leave the baits in for literally as long has I liked. Nothing else happened for a couple of hours and then the same rod produced a barbel of 9lb 15oz.

The sky cleared at about 9pm and by 10pm there were signs of frost on the quiver etc that were on the floor. I packed up at 10.30pm with no further bites but happy none the less.

It’s always nice catching fish from ‘new’ area’s, especially in quite difficult conditions. It also underlined the importance, once again, of being able to read the river to give you the best chance of fishing properly when the going is tough. Add to that being able to watch a terrific firework display for free and it was an enjoyable evening. continue reading…

With the drop in temperature bait choice is getting really critical now and can mean the difference between a long cold struggle for the rest of the winter or a bit of action.
Why risk a lot of possible blanks with baits that may not be totally suitable for cold water fishing?
Cast out a Fruity Trifle Boilie or a Rahja Spice and you know you are using something that has caught cold water carp from many different countries leaving you to only have to think about location and presentation.

I thought the above may be useful for some. I still work in Fahrenheit when taking water temperatures as do many other anglers whilst others work in Centigrade.
I have just included a chart into my angling diary to save having to keep doing the sums when someone talks about Centigrade.

Hope you find it useful.

Best fishes

Shaun Harrison

A big Cambridge mirror in a big frost.

29^th November 2011 and unbelievably it has taken until now for the winter to start  looking as though it is finally starting to cut in. The water I am currently fishing has finally seen the water temperatures start to drop this week to below 10C (40’s F) and combined with big winds there is a certain wind chill reminding me of what will surely come in the weeks ahead.

The water temperatures are still plenty warm enough and the carp still active but each winter when the waters drop below 10C (50F) they continue to drop quite rapid so to my mind winter although late is now starting to happen and my tried and trusted winter methods now come into play.

Anyone who has read much of my writings in the past will know my love of very small baits yet winter is the time when one rod will go in the opposite direction and is one of the few times of the year I would consider putting a 20mm hook bait on. continue reading…

Here is yet another message I have received confirming that Poisson Chat really do not like the ingredients we use in our anti Poission Chat bait Pineapple Crush.

Hello Shaun,

You may not remember but I promised to report back to you about how Ghurkka Spice fared against the Poisson Chat’s compared to Pineapple Crush on the reservoir I fish in France (Lac de Pincemaille/Rille).

Well sadly they loved it!

Any unmeshed Ghurkka Spice were noshed by the little buggers very quickly. I did try meshed Ghurkka Spice on the hair, but still managed to foul hook them anyway. Considering the number of Poisson Chats in the lake I reasoned that the carp probably weren’t getting the chance of any freebies anyway!

I even tried double 20mm boilies (one Ghurkka Spice and one Pineapple Crush) on the same hair as an experiment, within an hour or so and a few bleeps I reeled in to find the Ghurkka Spice completely gone but the Pineapple Crush untouched. This happened a couple of times without actually hooking the chats because I put the pineapple on the hook end of the hair (a potential good tip for the future when fishing Pineapple Crush alongside another bait the chats might like.

I think to summarise, a bit of a thumbs down for the Ghurkka Spice on heavily ”chatted” waters, but what a good test for Pineapple Crush against the chats! So no guesses as to what bait I’ll be taking to that water next year.

I hope this has been of interest to you.

Regards

Martin Park.

Early 80's snow captures

There was a comment on facebook the other day that I responded to and thought I should add it here too.

Someone asked how important we think bait is.

My quick answer was…
‘I would say it is the most important thing. The best rig in the world isn’t going to be able to do its job if the fish isn’t stimulated enough to pick the bait up. There are periods when carp will eat almost anything but at scratching times when the fish aren’t really bothered about feeding then the tiny little extras added to the bait by some will make a massive difference. I always find the Carpology independent tank tests with different company’s baits very interesting and extremely revealing. I’d better not say much more or it will look like an advert but even with a great bait you still have to present it in the right area on a set up which will leg the fish up’.

It struck home to me after I had posted that just how important this issue is at this time of the year. A poor choice of bait will most certainly result in very few fish being triggered to have a feed  but more importantly it can in turn ruin other anglers chance of sport if those baits are picked up and then the carp find that they can’t digest them easily. – thus taking much longer to need to feed again which will affect the other anglers sport. Not only that but it can be very dangerous

a 1990's snow capture

feeding fish or any other animal food that it is going to struggle to get rid of. Carp are cold blooded so their metabolism is wholly governed by the water temperature. In cold water not only does the carp slow right down with its actions but many baits congeal and trap in many of the attractors/stimulants that are supposed to be encouraging the fish to have a feed.

You don’t need a lot of bait in winter so now is the time you can definitely afford to compete with anglers of all levels by using the best winter baits available with proven effectiveness for many years.

I am extremely proud of my own personal winter fishing achievements over the years having caught from holes in the ice on three separate venues as well as snow captures from lots of venues as well as several half frozen lakes. My first winter carp fell to my rods in 1977 and there haven’t been many years gone by when I haven’t  winter carp fished. I learned a long while ago what the carp like in the cold weather as well

A snow capture from last year

as what they can easily digest. I fed my own carp in my own lake for many years as well as my fish in my garden.

If I was to stick my neck on the line to give my top two recommendations it would have to be Fruity Trifle and Rahja Spice. Both baits have caught thousands of true winter carp for many years now and I know they will continue to do so. If ever you bump into me on the bank during the winter  – ask to see my bait. I can use anything I want but you will most definitely find one or the other or both in my bait bag. They are still the main 2 baits I use to compare new winter baits against.

If you are lacking in winter confidence there really is no need to worry about bait. If I’m not catching on either of those I have my location or rigs wrong.

Best fishes

Shaun Harrison