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Regular readers of my diary pages and the UK Fisherman Fishing Forum will know that for some time now I have been itching to try some carp fishing at Thorpe Lea in Surrey, a venue in Surrey renowned for its huge stock of fast growing carp and as a quality "bagging" water. Anywhere with "easy fishing" suits me to a tee !!

not quite my PB - a 14lb 8oz Thorpe Lea mirrorI couldn't resist a kind invitation from Luke "crazy_carper" Thomas to meet up with me and show me how to get the best from a days fishing at Thorpe Lea so duly took the day off work (any excuse to get away from the computer) and met up with Luke at 8am in the Thorpe Lea carpark.

The weather forecast had been for heavy rain and wind and for once the weathermen had got it right. The grey skies got greyer as we walked round to the far side of the lake and the heavens opened as we settled into our swims. Luke explained that the reason for choosing these swims is that about 60yds out there is a plateau around 4ft deep that the carp patrol along, hoovering up any feed they come across. Luke set up a simple rig with a hair rigged Richworth Dumbell boilie whilst I opted for a method feeder using a hair rigged squid boilie.

The morning was hard going !! I failed miserably to get a take at all and to be honest I was having difficulty reaching the shallow plateau. Luke's spodding seemed to be paying off however as he managed two decent mirror carp, the largest tipping the scales at 16lb.

Luke with the biggest fish of the day, a 16lb 8oz mirrorThings livened up in the afternoon (as the bailiff said it would). Luke continued to catch at a steady rate and ended the day with 9 fish, the biggest of the day being a 16lb 8oz Mirror Carp. (In fact all the fish we caught were Mirrors).

Luke decided that the method was the not the best tactic for me and switched me to a simple rig similar to his and launched some of his spod mix out for me. It didn't take long for my baitrunner reel to whir into life (thanks incidentally to Bun at Eccleston Angling Centre for the reel) and I was soon banking a lovely 14lb 8oz Mirror carp. As we weighed it I was unsure whether I had beaten my PB but it fell just short by 8oz.

The rain got the better of us by around 4 o'clock and we decided to call it a day. Despite being easily beaten by Luke I was delighted with my fish and am itching to get back and try Thorpe Lea again. It was a pleasure to meet and fish with Luke. Thanks mate for your advice and patience in trying to educate me in the strange ways of you carp fisherman and I look forward to our next trip.

On that subject, we are planning a pike fishing trip to Farlows lake sometime before Xmas. If you fancy meeting up please indicate your interest via the UK Fisherman Fishing Forum.

Til next time, happy fishing!! Paul @ UK Fisherman

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Published in Diary
An afternoon session at my "local" Lizard Fishery tempted Jim and I on a reasonably mild, early October afternoon.

common carp just shy of the 10lb markLizard wasn't really on it's best form and we both found the fishing hard going, despite some early success for me in the shape of a quality looking common carp just shy of the 10lb mark.

There were few signs of fish being caught by the handful of fisherman at Lizard and when the roach and rudd aren't in feeding mood, you just know things are going to be tough.

 

good condition common carp which weighed in at 9lbA couple of skimmers and roach were the only reward over the next couple of hours, followed late on by another good condition common carp which weighed in at 9lb, which is a decent enough fish for lake 1 at Lizard Fisheries.

So, like so many of my fishing adventures, an OK day with a couple of nice fish despite the fishing being generally hard going.


Til next time, happy fishing!! Paul @ UK Fisherman

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The weather man was right for a change ! Highs of 27 deg c were on the cards and I felt like another fishing trip coming on. I knew jenny would need little or no persuasion to sit in the sun for afew hours and I desperately need to redeem myself after my woeful performance at Lizard last week. [See diary 07-09-06]

After a leisurely start, we decided on a visit to Gold Valley lakes in Aldershot, hants, where you are almost guaranteed some fine sport. It was midday by the time we arrived, the sun was high in the sky and the main lake was almost full. We had little choice of swims, although fortuntely one of the few availble was nearest the car park.

Mirror carp - Gold valley main lakeJenny adopted the "quantity" approach fishing up in the water for the many silver fish using a waggler, alternating between corn and banded pellets. I adopted the "quality" approach and determined to break by PB [15lb common] set up a method feeder, burying a 15mm pineapple boilie in the mix and casting to the central island. It didn't take Jenny long to find the hungry roach and rudd and it wasn;t much longer before I was playing the first carp of the day, a 7lb common which was soon safely in the net. That was quickly followed by a 9lb 8oz mirror. Meanwhile, Jenny continued to heave out the roach and rudd.

As the heat of the day really kicked in, the fish undertsandably decided that a rest was in order and things went very quiet for a while. It wasn't until about 4pm that things started to liven up again. I decided to ring the changes and opted for the splasher waggler approach using a banded pellet and feeding 6 or 7 pellets every cast.

Mirror carp - Gold valley main lakeThis bought some immediate success. Almost immediately by skud waggler hit the water, my pellet was devoured by a hungry carp which hurtled off into deeper water. Over the next hour or so, I couldn't go wrong and banked another 7 carp, the best tipping the scales at 11lb. They then switched off the feed again and I could only manage one more carp of 9lb before we decided to call it a day as dusk fell.

Gold valley had certainly lived up to its reputation once again as a fisrt class commercial fishery. Despite its various drawbacks [£10 for only 1 rod, a host of bait bans, some poor quality fish and a disappointing attitude to disabled access that we once encountered], it is still worth a visit and you probably won't go away with an empty net !!

Til next time, happy fishing!! Paul @ UK Fisherman

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Published in Diary
Lizard Fishery, Lake 2 - Middlesex

I decided that working too hard makes Paul a dull boy and gave myself the afternoon off. I was meeting up with Steve, an old work buddy of mine who is an avid carp angler. Last time we went fishing, neither of us got a bite all day so we were determined to set the record straight.

14lb Lizard CommonPartly due to an email I recently received from Nigel laughton, who had enjoyed an excellent days fishing there a week or so ago, I decided to show Steve the delights of Lizard Fishery. As I hadn't fished on Lake 2 for some time we decided that we would try for some of the larger carp at Lizard.

We met just after midday and bagged two swims on lake 2. This wasn't difficult as there was only one other guy fishing. Steve set up his two rods, bait alarms, pods etc etc and I set up my one rod, no bait alarms, pods etc. It probably isn't too difficult to guess who had the better day !!

4lb lizard tenchThe fishing was slow and neither of us got a take for the first hour or so. Then I heard the unmistakable sound of Steve's bite indicator going off and he was soon playing his first fish of the day...which turned out to be his best....a 14lb common.

Enthused by this success we both thought this was the start of something good. Well for Steve it was. He caught 4 carp and one tench which weighed in at a credible 4lb. I caught..........1 skimmer.

I'll let the pictures of Steve tell the rest of the story as I'm too depressed to say any more !!

Til next time, happy fishing (and better luck than me) !! Paul @ UK Fisherman

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Preparing for the Junior Carp Championships 2006 [Part 1]: - By Crazycarper

Seventeen minutes past eleven, Thursday 3rd of August, I'm worrying about the competition in less than two weeks time. After filtering the internet for every bit of information and tips about Linear fishery's Brasenose 1, it is looking more and more like RMC's Thorpe Lea. An action water, and a big one at that.

The competition layout is 50 competetors in each qualifier, with random swims, total weight of all fish caught and top 10 go through. So now I have to make a game plan, what am I going to do which will make me stand out from the crowd ?

Brasenose 1 is 32 acres in size with just over 3,000 carp, mostly mirrors, resident there. The articles and reports I have read present stories of mega hauls of carp in single day sessions, one of which reporting 514lbs of carp in 36 hours. Most of these mega hauls were taken by some sort of boilie with an accompanying PVA bag or mesh full of pellet.

So with only 2 rods allowed, I have my first rod sorted. For the second rod, I have decided a different approach will hopefully produce the goods, so there are a couple of options in mind.

- The first is a zig rig, or for those of you who don't know, an extended hair rig (usually about 3-6 feet in length), with a pop-up high-vis boilie cast into the same area as my other rod. With this I would be covering mutiple depths and catch the fish at whatever level they are cruising around. This was also reccomended by someone who knows the lake very well (no names lol).
- The second option is a piece of fake bouyant corn counter-balanced by a piece of fake sinking maize on the hair, and a PVA mesh bag filled with groundbait mix including, mainline fusion chopped boilie, sweetcorn, mainline fusion 2mm pellets, bird seed (tried and tested !) and heathrow baits nutty groundbait.
- And of course the other option is to use the boilie and pellet filled PVA bag the same as the first rod.

So now with the baits planned I can move on to a game-plan. Because I have never fished the water, and it is similar to Thorpe Lea, I am going to take exactly the same approach as I would at Thorpe Lea. This means getting myself into a rhythm and having everything organised so my fishing flows properly and without any distractions or complications. Using my invaluable marker rod to search for those ever important gravel bars and getting some feed and my rigs on it accuratly. After finding the gravel bar and placing the marker there, I plan to throw some balls of the groundbait mix around the marker to get that first carpet of bait down (I usually put balls of groundbait out first as it gives a cloud effect to the water which draws fish in so much quicker than just boilies or pellets, Danny Fairbrass inspired me with this). Then introduce pellets and boilies, and then finally the hook-baits.

So I have 9 hours and 49 other people to compete with, I think with a organised and strong game-plan I can qualify into the finals, or at least give everyone else a run for their money ! Thanks for reading everyone and will let you all know how it went !

Luke Thomas
Crazy_Carper

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Published in Carp Fishing Articles
Phew what a scorcher !! Although the record breaking weather of earlier in the week had given way to slightly more bearable conditions, the thermometer in the car still read 31 deg c as we headed down the M3 to Gold Valley in Aldershot, Hants. We debated the effect that the recent hot weather would have on the fishing and expected that things could be quite tough going.

7lb Gold Valley Common - nice hat dude!!Three of the lakes were taken up with matches when we arrived so we opted for a swim at the near end on the main lake. I opted for the "spasher wagger" approach as there appeared to be plenty of evidence of carp patrolling the upper levels of the water. Jim plumped for a standard insert waggler approach, again fishing only about 2ft deep, fishing luncheon meat cubes, loose feeding small pellets.

We were soon catching roach, rudd and skimmers to about 8oz, but despite varying depth and hook baits we failed to tempt any of the resident carp which go to well over 20lb. It was at Gold Valley last summer that I caught my PB, a 15lb common. It didn't look at this stage as if there was much chance of that getting beaten. By about 1pm it was so hot and humid that we decided to retire to the bar for a bite to eat and a couple of cool ones!!

Not another tangle JIm!!Somewhat refreshed we decided to change tactics and we swapped to the feeder approach. The guy next to us was having a great time landing carp after carp using this approach so we resumed with renewed confidence. Still nothing of any note to report until I switched to the method feeder, using half a strawberry pellet boilie cast to the island in front of us.

Bingo, I had found where the fish were and promtly landed about 7 carp to 9lb over the next 90 minutes or so. Jim had by this stage got pissed off and decided to resume his waggler fishing for roach. Things slowed down considerably late in the afternoon and with an hours drive back to London up the M3 we decided to call it a day. To sum up, this is not the best days fishing we've ever had at Gold Valley by any means but I can't really complain. The hot weather was not really ideal for fish or fishermen alike so I was more than happy with the day. I will just have to resume my battle to better my PB another day.

Til next time, happy fishing!! Paul @ UK Fisherman

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Published in Diary
Wood Lane Farm Fishery, Iver, Buckinghamshire

Its always a pleasure to try out a brand new fishery. That sense of the unknown just adds to the excitement you already feel when going fishing. Well that was definitely the case today. Jenny had spied a sign to Wood Lane Farm Fishery on her way back from work one day and had been suggesting we try it for some weeks now. Then funnily enough, Nigel Laughton [check his pics out in the gallery] sent Fish South East an email explaining about Wood Lane Farm and the fishing on offer there.

When we arrived, it was, as luck would have it, pouring with rain. After a brief stint sheltering in the car, the skies started to brighten and we were on !! Wood Lane farm consists of two coarse fishing lakes. The larger lake is the match lake and is probably around 3-4 acres with I'd say room for about 20-30 swims. It is pretty featureless and exposed. The smaller lake is more sheltered with swims seperated from each other by tress and bushes, giving it more of a secluded feel. I guess its around half the size of the match lake. I was "reliably" informed that 4 hour matches on the match lake have already been won with weights approaching 200lb and that the second lake holds carp to 30lb. One word of warning - because the fishery is fairly new, the owner hasn't built proper swims/pegs yet, and as some of the banks are fairly steep, care needs to be taken, especially in the wet.

Wood Lane match lake is stuffed full of carp to around 2lbSo enough of this waffle - was the fishing any good you want to know, right? Well in a nutshell, yes it was good. We made a start on the match lake fishing the far bank near the three big trees and it soon became apparent that the lake was absolutely stuffed full of fish. We caught an endless stream of roach, skimmers, chublets, tench and hard fighting carp up to about 2lb. Everthing was on the small side but we had great fun on light tackle and the action was non stop. Sweetcorn, pellets and meat all seemed to gobbled up with equal relish by the hungry fish. They won't stay small for long!

Having sent a few hectic hours on the match lake, we decided to try our luck on the second lake. We chose a swim in the left hand corner of the lake where it looked like there would be some likely fish holding spots. It was pretty evident right from the off that the second lake was very well stocked too and straight away we were catching ths same fish as in the match lake although on the slightly larger size. The weather gods decided to ruin our fun shortly after that so we decided to call it day.

Superb condition fish at Wood LaneWood lane Farm is located about 500 metres down Wood Lane on the left hand side as you approach form Iver. Prices are £10 per day and you must use barbless hooks, dip nets and you cannot use groundbait, boilies and nuts. Despite these restrictions, I would suggest that once the owner has made the venue a bit more access friendly [forget it at present if you are disabled], this will be a cracking venue and will become very popular. So give it a go while you can still get a swim.

Til next time, happy fishing!! Paul @ UK Fisherman

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Published in Diary
Despite still suffering the effects of a chest infection and subsequent muscle strain from coughing so much [god I'm getting old !!] I was determined to get out of the house, get some fun on my face and hopefully catch some fish. I decided to hook up with my mate Steve at his "local" venue, Manor Farm in Bedfordshire.

Coarse fishing venues in Bedfordshire - Manor FarmManor Farm is set amongst 86 acres of grass and woodland, and as such attracts a wide range of bird and wildlife. The site currently has 5 lakes, a match canal and a stretch of the River Ivel made famous by local fisherman Dick Walker. They offer a range of types of fishing including a fly-only trout lake (Damsel Lake), an any method trout and mixed coarse fish lake (Becks Lake), a 2 acre mixed lake (Blunham Lake), a 4 acre specimen carp lake (Carp Lake) and a very popular specimen carp lake (Winters Lake) stocked in 2004 with fish from 18lb to 36lb.

By the time I dragged myself up the A1, the rain had already given way to clearing skies and Steve was already set up on Carp Lake. I chose the adjacent swim to him and set up a simple ledger rig using pva bags of crushed boilies and pellets with hair rigged boilies. I set up a splashing waggler on the second rod as there were plenty of carp showing up on the surface. Using banded pellets I reckoned we could be in for some fun

Coarse fishing venues in Bedfordshire - Manor FarmIt soon became sadly apparent though that the resident carp had other plans. Neither of us had a bite or take in the first two hours. The bailiff lifted our spirits somewhat though as he explained that plenty were being caught on the neighbouring Becks Lake. As it truned out, one bloke had caught a few but despite lugging all our gear around to the new lake and perservering for a few hours, we still ended the day with nothing to show for it.

Hey, that's fishing I guess. If you've had better luck recently, why not send in the details to Fish South East or even send me some pics for the gallery.

Til next time, happy fishing!! Paul @ UK Fisherman

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Published in Diary
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