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30 June 2010
It's almost semi-finals time in the British carp champs and I had one last chance to practise at barston lake in solihull before the match this weekend in only a 6 hr session. I managed a load of cracking carp to upper doubles, baits from mainline and Hinders camps did the buisness. Hopefully we can carry on our success this weekend we will let you know how we get on.
30 June 2010 - Lee Merrit
With Broad oak fishery in Kent being open a week or two, it was time to pay a visit to the lake. I picked a small swim, which is a days only, two rod swim. Only one fish was caught in the first week of the season. The day I fished this swim, I landed 3 fish up to 29lb 12oz spawned out and lost 1. All the fish were caught on a new MAINLINE bait I'm testing along with large funnel web pva bags full of HINDERS pva friendly hemp, just nicked on the hook.
19 June 2010
After receiving my membership card for my new syndicate though the letter box, I was dieing to get started on the lake even though it was only going to be a night between work,. After a walk round I opted for a swim opposite a lot of snags, a obvious holding area for carp.I was testing a new MAINLINE bait for the first time, I had dipped one of my hook baits in HINDERS BETALIN,before casting out I walked round to the snags and put in 8–10 balls of HINDERS BARBEL BOMB,after a hard day at work and the rods out it was time to get my head down,With the hours of darkness being uneventful,and first light approaching, it was time to for me to pack up and with just the rods laying on the bark of the swim,my dipped hookbait was away after a great fight I netted a very old warrior weighting around 21lb to the welcome landing net.
14 June 2010 - Barston Practice
The BCAC semi-final is close aproaching and I managed to get up to the lake for a quick practice session, Barston is a heavily stocked venue and after a walk around it looks set to be a great venue for the semis. The lake was fairly busy so I chose a quiet corner of the lake and fished for a total of 11hrs landing 19 fish to 17lb. Winning methods were baits from Mainline and Hinders stables. We shall be back for another practice before the match. I will let you now how we get on.
13 June 2010 - Abbey Lakes
After a call to Seb the owner of Abbey Lakes, I was booked on Heron lake for a few nights, with Abbey only being a 2 hour drive into France, it’s ideal for a long weekend. The fish in Heron go to over 75lb and love pellet and this time was no different. I was armed with a combination of MAINLINE Response pellet, HINDERS small and medium elips pellet and HINDERS Big Bitez pellet. My chosen hook baits were MAINLINE Hi- Viz pop up dumbbells(pineapple and Indian spice) fished on a KD rig with a KORDA size 6 Kurv shank. My pellet mix went in to a solid pva bag along with the hooklink. This way of fishing solid bags is great when your fishing near or on weed. Over the days I was there I had 7 fish, 2 x twenty’s, 3 x thirty’s to 39lb 8oz, 44lb 8oz and a 54lb 8oz mirror called White tips, which was spawned out and normally weights around 60lb – 63lb mark. Just can’t wait to get back to Abbey lakes armed with my pellet mix.
30 May 2010 - Brasenose Match
Myself and Lee have again been out with the Crafty Carper cameras to fish a match against former Junior British Carp champ Jake Wildboar and present Junior Carp champ Rob Sutton. Conditions were difficult with the hottest day of the year but we all managed to catch and luckily we ended up with the honours. Winning tactics for Lee were solid bags with Mainline 10mm fluro pop ups and Mainline response pellet and Hinders halibut, elips, mini-combi and betain pellets. I was fishing zigs with yellow fluro plastic baits soaked in Hinders Betalin. Check out Crafty Carper for more details from our match.
20 May 2010 - Total Carp Feature
Myself and Lee have just got back from an excellent feature for Total Carp down at Todber Manor down in Dorset fishing on their new lake to the complex Little Hayes, we managed over 40 carp falling to various methods 10mm mainline fluro pop ups and Hinders Blitz and Barbel Bomb with Mainline responce pellet and Hinders elips, haibut, little jems and betain pellets proving succesful on the day.
27 April 2010 - British Carp Championships
With our practise sessions being a great success, we were very confident with a good draw that we could qualify again this year at Todber manor. It was soon draw time and luckily enough we came out 4th in the draw, we chose peg 12, a swim I had fished the week before. The match was hard work, with me and Lee having to really work for all our fish. We managed 15 carp for a weight of 186lb 3oz, enough to put us into 2nd place and putting us through to the semi finals at Barston Lake. Tactics were Mainline fluro Dumbell pop ups with sticks consisting of Hinders Barbel bomb multimix and pva bags of Mainline responce pellet and Hinders Halibut, Little Jems Mini combi pellet soaked in Hinders Elips oil.
19 April 2010
Lee and myself have had more success before our BCAC Qualifier. We have been back to Todber Manor in Dorset for our final practice before our match this week. We caught some cracking fish to over 25lb+. Lee managed 15 carp and I had 12 carp. All our fish fell to Mainline and Hinders products and we are hopeful for a good draw so they can deliver yet again but we must admit it is definitely the strongest field of anglers so far at the venue.
11 April 2010
It's British Carp champs time and me and Lee are back down at Todber Manor to see if we can make it 4 out of 4 in qualifying for this years semi-finals. Todber has been good to us in the qualifiers and our practise sessions and this year was no different. Lee fished last weekend and although the weather was shocking, Lee managed 10 fish to 25lb. It was my turn this weekend and I arrived early Friday evening, the lake was fully booked and I was the last to get there, so pickings were slim. I managed to get set up just before dark and it only took about an hour to land my first carp. The succesful bait came from the Mainline and Hinders camp (Thats all I can say untill after the match! ) In 36hrs I managed a total of 28 carp ranging from 14lb - 22lb 5 oz. Another cracking session and year in year out Todber Manor produces some cracking carp.
8 April 2010
With the weather warming up slightly it was time to get a night's fishing in between work down at my club water in Kent. When I arrived I had a walk around to spot any showing fish, but after one of the lap of the lake and no fish showing I opted for a swim which has been kind to me in the past - facing the point to a large island. To the point of the island is approximately 75 yards to the overhang so this is where my I put my first rod. I cast my second to the left hand side of the island at approximately 120 yards to a gap in the overhang. Both rods were baited with the new MAINLINE tutti fruiti dumbell pop-ups with a small stick on the hook link filled with the new HINDERS CRAYBERRY MULTI MIX and CRAYBERRY CONCENTRATE. With only a few fish been caught since Christmas I didn’t hold out a lot of hope but soon realised how wrong I could be!! With my long rod being in the water only 1 hour it roared into life and after a good battle, I netted a 22lb half linear. Although this was the only fish I caught in the session, I was still really pleased with my catch.
3 March 2010
Me and Lee have just been out on a feature with Carp-TV at Thorpe Lea fishery we arrived at the lake and got set up in peg 49, me and Lee got our rods just before dark, choosing to spod to an area 90yds out with our now succesfull Flamin-squidz spod mix consisting of the flamin-squidz multimix, Hinders salt & pepper hemp, 10mm Mainline fusion boilies and Mainline Halibut dip. Hook baits were Mainline fluro Fruitella pop ups with pva bags of mainline responce pellet Hinders mini combi pellet and Hinders Little Gems pellet.Within 10 minutes we had our first fish on the bank a lovely mid-double we fished until about 11 o'clock landing 12 fish between us to 21lb. We decided to reel in so we could get some sleep so that we were fit for the cameras when they arrived first thing in the morning, we spodded another 15 spods to keep the fish feeding in the area for the morning. That night was -3 and we woke to a very white Thorpe Lea, we got the rods back out at first light and immediately started catching. We managed to hold the fish in our area 'till we had finished the feature at 3 o'clock that afternoon, we managed 40 takes, landing 36 fish in total and it was a cracking session in such cold conditions.
19 February 2010
With the country frozen, Rob and I were struggling to find a water we could fish which wasn't solid with ice. We opted for Birds Green fishery in Ongar, Essex. When we arrived half the lake was frozen, Rob fished one side of the island and I fished the opposite side of the lake, again to the island. We decided to use small MAINLINE pop-ups with small PVA bags filled with HINDERS ELIPS pellet mixed with MAINLINE response pellet. I also used a stick bag on the hook link filled with HINDERS SALAMAZ multi-mix, pellet and hemp all mixed together with SALAMAZ liquid. I kept re-baiting my rods every couple of hours in the hope the fish would fall into my traps, they certainly did that. In a 24 hour winter session we ended up with seven fish between us, the biggest being a prime 20lb 10oz common. We were well pleased with the last 24 hours of fishing we had and will certainly be returning to Birds Green for some more winter action.
30 January 2010
With most of the Lakes around my part of the country being frozen mostly since christmas I managed to get a few nights on my syndicate lake but to no avail. After a chat with my mate Andy Maker we decided to get some action on a non frozen Thorpe Lea, the forecast for the weekend was for -5 during the night that me and Andy arrived on the friday night and Lee and Tom Maker were joining us early Saturday morning. Me and Andy had a 10 fish through the night even with the freezing conditions. Tom and Lee turned up and we all fished together we had a good laugh we ended up with over 20 fish with Toms 21 lb fish being the biggest. Saturday evening the Lake totally froze but it was a great trip and it is always great to catch your first fish of the year. All the fish fell to various Mainline pop ups and my spod mix consisted of Mainline responce pellet, 10mm Fusion boilies, Halibut particle dip, Hinders Flamin squidze multi mix, Sea salt and pepper hemp, mini-combi pellet. Tom, Andy and lee all used Mainline and Hinders products for their spod mixes with mainline fluro pop ups for hookbaits.
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