Carpworld December 2014

2015 tackle

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king

first look at the very latest gear

ISSUE 291 / December 2014 / MONTHLY £4.50

WIN £19 wo 50 rt

Mark Bartlett

BR I T A I N ’ S B I G G EST C A RP - A NGL I NG M A G A Z I N E

WINTER ACTIoN

top

h pri of zes

Find out why cold-water carping is changing

PL U S darrell peck TO N Y DAVIES - PATRICK CHRIS B ALL TI M PAISLEY

c ar pwor ld maga z in e. co m

Bill cottam

Massive haul

Our man from up north asks the question – how sharp is sharp when it comes to hooks?

Hungary’s prolific Euro Aqua produces 90 fish over 50lb for two anglers in just 2 weeks

Also inside Carp news and features from around the globe

THE

MAGAZINE

Issue 134 December 2014

GIGANTICA’S GIANTS COME OUT TO PLAY P142

INTO THE UNKNOWN

P156 Tony Davies-Patrick explores a massive 3,000-acre reservoir

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FOR THE WORLDWI DE ANGLER

HUGE HAUL

P149 Euro Aqua continues its dominance of the world carp scene with a massive haul

carpworldmagazine.com

PA U L FOR WARD

WINTER SUCCESS

P162 Julian Jurkewitz reveals the secrets to turn around the bleakest session

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Contents

The Carpworld Contents / Issue 291 /

December 2014

31

Pecky’s Progress Darrell Peck Darrell’s in the middle of his monster session abroad, and gets his teeth into some truly awesome fish, as well as meeting some very strange people on the bank.

38 ON T H E C OV ER : Mark Bartlett with a 47lb 11oz lake record and personal PB, caught whilst out angling for his feature on Page 44.

REGULARS

6

Editors’ Comments Steve’s all serious this month as he writes about safety on the bank and Nigel’s just happy he’s had a fish.

10

Gazette All the news and views from the world of carp angling to keep you up to date with what’s going on.

23

Carping Allegedly Bill Cottam Back from his time spent as a guest of the NHS, it’s a revitalised Bill whose rest and recuperation has certainly given him the chance to hone his wit and humour to scalpel-sharp!

The F Word Paul Forward After deciding to fish on Mid Kent’s waters for the winter, Paul took time off from fishing to check out the venues, before finally getting to grips with the resident carp.

52

Bait World featuring Joe Turnbull Joe checks out a bait-rolling company, Richworth’s S-Core, and chats with Adam Penning. There’s also a look at Kryston’s novel ZiGi floating pastes and Mark McKenna asks: ‘Anyone for Snowballing?’

72

Think Tank If high-attract single baits, smaller hooks and light leads work better in winter, why don’t we use them all year, and do you believe that fish prefer different baits in winter? Our guest panel reveal all on Page 72.

79

Rig World featuring Mike Kavanagh Korda’s Cog Lead System, Taska’s Chod System, and a whole range of goodies from King of the Pond come under Mike’s eagle eye this month.

31

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Historic Carp Waters Chris Ball Little Aston, a pool nestled on the outskirts of Birmingham which still sees carp anglers lining its banks, is a typical old estate lake. It has a long history which makes it one of the most famous carp venues around.

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131

Still Carping On Tim Paisley Tim looks at some of the issues facing carp angling today.

Can our sport survive the onslaught of predation? He also keeps us up to date on the progress of his latest book, and reports on a very successful Evening Of Carp in Luton.

FEATURES

16

Church Confessions (Part 1) Dan Cleary Dan joins us to reveal how his dream of fishing Horton Church Lake came to fruition, and how getting to grips with this tricky, yet iconic venue, was a long, hard battle.

TACKLE WORLD

44

99

Winter Changes Mark Bartlett Mark takes a look at the changing face of winter carping, and reveals how he achieves his fantastic success at this often tricky time of year.

66

Bits and Pieces Mitch Smith ‘What actually makes a carp pick up the hookbait and which bait should I use?’ During winter these questions are more important than ever, and Mitch gives us his experienced view.

But have you ever wondered whether it really matters?

113

Northerner On Tour Greg Armstrong Most of us can only dream of a session the likes of which Greg describes, and for a busy man, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity when everything just turned out right.

Tackle World NGT’s bargain rods, the new Fox Horizons and JRC’s Cocoon sleeping bag come under our watchful gaze this month, along with carp-care kits from Korda, bankware from Cygnet, braids from Fox, and a look at Trakker’s winter clothing.

There’s also in-depth looks at Taska’s new goodies, Fox clothing, a new alarm set from Starbaits, and a cracking quilted jacket from Grey’s. Something for everyone, we think!

124

Around The Shows – What’s New For 2015 This time of year is always busy for companies because they introduce the trade to their new products for 2015. Here are some of the upcoming releases which the Carpworld team have seen on their travels.

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113

UP FOR GRABS

119

30Plus Winter Clothing Competition Fancy a lovely, warm winter clothing kit for Christmas? How about entering this cracking competition in which four lucky readers will win a full set of the excellent Kodex S-5000 gear.

BAIT ROLLING SERVICES FRANCE

F: facebook.com/CarpworldMagazine / T: @CarpworldMag

120

Ask The Experts Can backleads spoil bite indication, how to spot where the carp are, and tried and tested baits all come under our experts’ eagle eyes this month. There’s a £250 prize up for grabs if your question is the featured winner.

169

IN INTERNATIONAL CARPER We’ve put together something really special for this month. Dave Moore takes a record-breaking trip to Euro Aqua, Julian Jurkewitz spends Christmas on some of the huge French lakes, and Tony Davies-Patrick searches for carp on a wild windswept water where it’s no life for the faint-hearted. There’s also a rundown of the World Carp Classic and a chance to win a holiday at Chateau Lakes.

Pick up your copy of Carpworld from all major stockists

Decem ber 2014 Car pwo r ld 5

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SIRET 52971446100017

Don’t forget the amazing subs offer on page 94

OFFICIAL NUTRABAITS ROLLERS IN FRANCE SUPPLIERS TO PRIVATE LAKES AND GENERAL PUBLIC ALL FREEZER BAITS TO BE DELIVERED IN FRANCE ON A 24 hr delivery FULL RANGE OF NUTRABAITS FREEZER BAITS AVAILABLE call andrew on 0033 785333203 email andrew.bernard66@gmail.com

Chateau Lake Holiday Competition Whilst you’re sitting at home in the cold, how about entering this competition for an allexpenses paid week for two on Chateau Lake in France?

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COLUMNIST

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T h e F Word Pa ul Fo rwa rd

LEFT The weather over the last month has turned decidedly wintery.

BOTTOM Daybreak on Bird Lake. The water is slightly brackish and full of natural food.

It was well worth spending time fishing a swamp, as I caught this lovely fish at 27lb.

BOTTOM INSET

THE F WORD The Diary of a Compulsive Carp Angler Ou r rov i n g re p o r t e r p l u m p e d fo r a c h a nge o f s ce ne r y for t h e w i n t e r, s o i t wa s a l l h a n d s t o t h e p um p s t o che ck out p ro s p e c t i ve ve nu e s . A f t e r s e t t l i n g o n M id Ke nt ’s wa t e r s , it was t i m e t o g e t t h e ro d s o u t .

A

fter an incredible spell of good fortune last month, both at Burghfield and Paddlesworth, where 30lb carp were seemingly queuing up to swim into my outstretched net, this last month has almost inevitably seen me come back down to earth with a bump.

Well, in truth, it wasn’t really that much of a bump, but let’s just say it’s been different!

Let me explain. As is the case, I suppose, for most readers, I only possess a limited amount of tickets for any one season; cost and time available are the obvious reasons, and in my particular case, this year those two tickets have been Burghfield and KAPS (Paddlesworth), which I should know from past experience is not really enough if something unexpected happens.

It is exactly the predicament which I’ve yet again found myself in. Just when things were going along nicely at the Advanced Angling-controlled Burghfield – and I use the word ‘controlled’ loosely for reasons you’ll understand later – a certain chain of events have led to all ideas of spending my winter on the venue being scuppered. Recent rule changes have left syndicate members with precious little of the main lake which can actually be fished, and perhaps they’re wondering, as I am, whether or not it is

actually worth the £500.00 annual fee.

Every cloud, they say, has a silver lining, so as much as this miffed me, I did realise that some drastic action on my part was needed or I would be spending all my time on Paddlesworth, and as much as I love the place, the actual reality of that didn’t sit very comfortably at all. Bearing in mind that I also didn’t want to travel too far had me scratching my head – and then eureka! I popped down to see Mid Kent Fisheries and purchased a winter ticket which, at £210.00 for October till March, represents pretty good value when you consider some of the superb venues under their banner. True, I’ve fished many of them in the past and have been fortunate enough to have caught a lot of the fish which reside in the Milton complex, but some of the lakes like the Stour Lake have come on leaps and bounds lately. Lydd is also producing some quality BIG fish, but rather ironically, it was a water called the Bird Lake at the Ham Road complex which I was really interested in. Ham Road is basically two brackish gravel pits of around 8 and 12 acres on the outskirts of Faversham, literally 5 minutes from my home, and up until this last month, I’d never even so much as wet a line therein.

I have, of course, always known of their

existence and have, on numerous occasions, enquired about the small syndicate which used to control the fishing, but all to no avail. The other of these pits is called the Scout Lake, and it held some absolute whoppers (commons up to 47lb) before a horrific fish-kill. The tragedy happened one winter about 10 years ago, when a rare disease associated with saltwater algae called prynesium virtually wiped out its fish stocks. The Bird Lake, however, somehow miraculously escaped the disease. Although this one didn’t hold fish of anything like the size as the other, I understood they were all very nice clean-looking fish in there, plus it was completely new to me. Confirmation of how nice the fish were came on my first look around the venue, when I photographed an immaculate peachcoloured mirror of 27lb for a bloke called Gary, who I knew from way back. That was it for me; I was already planning a visit.

From what I’d heard, the 10-acre venue wasn’t too difficult either. There were no bream or tench present, and I was assured that plenty of bait was the key. On my first trip there in late October, I found the lake nice and quiet, with just one other angler present. Rather disappointingly though, nothing was showing, and with darkness looming I settled in a swim on the windward north bank. For the time of year it was exceptionally mild, with overcast skies and a nice southwesterly breeze. A few casts with a marker confirmed what I’d already been told – that it was flat and fairly featureless; I found depths between 10 and 14ft and no weed whatsoever. To start with, I put two rods at 50 yards over a fair bit of bait and the third just off the marginal shelf, before I sat back, fully expecting some action in the early evening.

When first light came and my bobbins hadn’t even moved an inch, a rethink was obviously in order. An hour or so later, after spotting a couple of fish poking their heads out in the shallows, I moved, and felt that it was just a matter of time before one rattled off. Wrong again – despite staying a second night, I packed up without even a line bite, leaving me to conclude that it clearly wasn’t going to be quite as easy as I’d thought! Being so close to the estuary, the actual water is, as you’d expect, slightly saline, and as is often the case, is full of shrimp – big ones too. Some of them are an inch and a half long. I think the abundance of this natural food source is the main reason why the Decem ber 2 014 C a r pwor l d 39

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FEATURE

WINTER

CHANGES It wasn’t that long ago when you could have believed that the only way to catch a cold-water carp was with a hi-attract single. This month Mark Bartlett discusses how his own winter fishing has changed over the years, and isn’t governed by fashion.

I

winter, you normally find them all n my opinion, winter fishing together, more or less, and I would couldn’t have changed more from bet my gear that when you do find when I started trying to tempt them they won’t be anywhere my first cold-water carp. Over the near the bottom. The key to Zig years this difficult period has seen fishing is to work out the depth many approaches come and go. For at which the fish are sitting in me though, there are only a couple of the water column, and the best way tactics to use at this time of year, and to do this is by frequently altering bizarrely, one involves a lot of bait and the depth of the hookbait until you the other involves none at all. Both get a bite. Once you have the feeding of my chosen tactics have come about zone and the location sorted, you’re after thousands of hours of fishing on to a winner for sure. As a general by my friends and me, although I rule of thumb, I use a black hookbait have no doubt that other ways will for clear water and brighter ones for probably catch you fish at some point. coloured water. When it comes to My approach at this time of year certainly puts more carp on the mat for Zigs, I find there is a massive lack of confidence around using me, and is what I am 110% them, yet anglers are confident with at all times.

“The Zig more than happy to Confidence is definitely launch three singles something which is is, without out in a lake. I often essential when fishing doubt, the best get told stories of at this time of year, single hookbait people trying them and once you are method in on one rod for an happy with your the winter hour or so, but it was technique, stay with it, months” no good. This baffles because there is nothing me because most would worse than sitting behind be quite happy to sit there with the rods on a murky, freezing three rods on the bottom for the other cold day with doubts in your mind. So, 47 hours, or however many hours of although I know my tactics work, if their session, along with the other you have a good formula, stick with it. anglers doing exactly the same thing.

The Zig is, without doubt, the best When fishing with Zigs, a few single hookbait method in the winter little things can make it nice and easy months. This is easy to understand, without any dramas, and for me this simply because the carp spend all their starts with a nice long landing net time off the bottom other than the handle, which makes landing fish with brief periods when they drop to the lakebed to feed. For me it’s a no-brainer long hooklinks a breeze. Then, on to position my hookbait where the carp the business end, a decent-size hook are; after all, it’s a bait in the right place is needed, so I’m not trembling at the knees at the thought of the fish for a minute, as opposed to one in the falling off during the fight. I like a wrong place for several days. This style strong hooklink for the actual Zig so of fishing has accounted for most of it does not snap, and then a long antimy winter fish over the last few years, tangle sleeve, which really does make and I’m not talking just about catching a massive difference. My preference is the odd one, but catching better than for a decent-sized lead to fish a tight I would in the summer months. With line and to set the hook properly on the way the carp generally behave in

RIGHT A magic

moment returning this 40-pounder.

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W in t e r Ch a n ges Ma r k Ba r tlett

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FEATURE

BITS & PIECES As the winter is now upon us, bankside conversation often turns to bait and what’s best in winter. Questions like: ‘What should I use?’ come up regularly.

My answer is – just about everything really, but have you ever wondered whether it really matters? What actually makes a carp pick up the hookbait?

M

ost people understand the need for quality nutrition, although some tend to just ignore it. As humans, we are bombarded daily with ‘don’t eat this, eat more of that, this will shorten your life, this will see you live to 200 if you eat five of these a day’. But is it all true? For us it’s easy; we are told by the marketing experts that this is great for us, so we know what to eat. What would happen if we weren’t told? Is it the same for carping and bait?

It surprises me every time I go out how simple it is to catch carp. Granted, if you’re targeting 10 fish in 30 acres, you know it’s going to be a mission, but generally, on most waters we fish, you’re never too far from a carp. So, present the right mouthful in front of one, and bingo, one in the net. I say it surprises me how easy it is, and sometimes it can be,

LEFT Could you cast

a plastic hookbait out on its own?

Many do and catch well. Why?

but what I suppose really surprises me is which bait I catch on. I’m a great believer in giving them food to eat and plenty of it, but also, rather strangely, I keep casting bits of plastic at them, and that’s the real struggle and surprise. I’m trying to understand why I keep catching, and catching well on them. Why do these fish pick up little bits of coloured unflavoured plastic? This was covered in some detail

by Jason Trought in last month’s mag, so I’ll continue with my thoughts because they may offer another angle (sorry!).

I own a fishery and have the constant worry about the health of my carp. I can tell you that when quality baits are being thrown in the lake, the fish definitely thrive, are fitter, and just look healthier. Contrast that with when large amounts of particle or low-nutritional high-carbohydrate baits are being

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B it s a n d P ieces Mitch S m ith

heavily introduced. The fish look spotty and they bulge in the tummy. To be fair, they don’t look bad but they look unloved, just like a spotty youth living on McDonald’s and never venturing into daylight. Throughout my fishing years, I have believed in good-quality food for the fish and have tried to introduce good baits wherever I go, but I definitely catch a lot of carp on my plastic baits, and I don’t know why.

When it comes to quality bait, I do believe the fish benefit, and although it can’t be proved, I think they know what is better for them in the long run.

I suppose we would be the same if we weren’t educated in knowing what’s good for us and what’s not. Eventually, just from consuming different foods, we would understand what is doing us good and what isn’t, by way of stomach aches, sickness, good or bad feelings, lethargy, and the simplest feeling which is called hunger pangs. Sometimes, without being prompted, I feel the urge to drink milk, eat

BELOW The carp

can become preoccupied on tigers, but how much nutritional value is in a nut?

fruit, and even eat foods like porridge, because experience tells me I feel fuller for longer when I eat porridge. It’s a bit like the same feeling I have after eating Chinese food; I know I will feel hungry again very quickly. I have learned this from experience, and I think it must be the same for the fish.

It also makes me think about why I eat some things. Obviously, I eat certain foods because I’m educated to do so, but the carp aren’t. In fairness, neither was the person who ate something for the first time, who actually drank the first mouthful of milk from a cow, etc., etc.

So how does all this affect our fishing? Well, going back to the plastic,

why do the fish keep getting caught on something with no flavour, no taste, and no attraction other than colour?

Unlike us, carp have no hands (obviously!). We can pick something up and investigate it, sniff it, squash it, even lick it, before we decide to attempt to eat it. The carp can’t – they have to take it into their mouth cavity, where they investigate it like everything else they pick up. Every time they pick up something to eat they pick up other debris too, but after years of evolution they have become superbly adept at blowing out all the rubbish and leaving the food inside the cavity so they can pass it back for chewing and swallowing. I don’t for one moment think that a plastic hookbait gets any more attention than being sucked up and then blown out with the rest of the debris. If that’s the case with artificial baits, they are just picking it up because they’re inquisitive – so what does that mean for other baits?

If you’re lucky enough to put a fish on the bank, how often do you see whatever it is they have been eating? By looking at what is coming out of their Decem ber 2 014 C a r pwor l d 67

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T O N Y

D A V I E S - P A T R I C K

Tony’s back doing what he does best – searching for carp in large windswept waters where the terrain is rough and the weather wild. With heart-stopping moments and sheer underwater cliffs, it’s no life for the faint-hearted.

S

parks of dawn beamed through the car window and woke me from my restless slumber at a remote location in a valley of southern France. Mist hung over the meadows and began to spiral upwards as a yellow orb rose higher over the horizon until it transformed into white-hot fire.

Despite my lack of sleep, the rising heat inside the car forced me to exit from the sleeping bag and get back on the road. I needed to visit a café in a distant French village to buy the necessary fishing licence, but it was far too early, so I had time to kill. Water glistened through a gap in the trees and beckoned

me to take a stroll around the lake, but to walk around 80 miles of rocky shoreline was not a viable option, and I settled for the more leisurely drive along 25 miles of winding tarmac.

It took 4 long hours to complete the circuit of the 3,000-acre lake, which included stopping off at all possible places where I could park a car close to the water. In reality, these options were few and far between, because a large portion of this inland sea was allotted to luxury homes with huge private gardens which rimmed the lake. This is a trait of many big waters across western Europe.

The handful of alternatives which

Magic moments on a huge lake in France.

ABOVE

provided car access was boat launches, yacht harbours, restaurant fronts, or commercial camping zones. The French summer holiday season was due to begin in a handful of days, and despite the fact that most of the aforementioned seemed to be deserted during my earlymorning tour, I was in no doubt that by the end of the week it would transform into an ants’ nest of bustling crowds.

I sat on the high bank weighing up my options. There was one place I still had up my sleeve, one which I’d fished before. I hadn’t wanted to take that route because I was searching for a new area to fish, but had found no alternatives,

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R a g in g Wa t e r s To ny Da vies -Pa tr ick

and in my mind I hoped that another carp angler wasn’t already set up there.

I drove down to the end of a narrow dusty farm track, parked the car, and then strolled down the hill to the water’s edge until I reached the intended swim – only to suddenly roll back on my heels in shock. There, positioned right where I normally placed my rod pod, was a large wooden pontoon, with two giant-sized boats tied up either side of it! I just couldn’t believe my luck.

I stood fuming for a while and then began walking around the banks to see if there was any possibility of setting up the bivvy in a different section of the

bay, which would still give me a chance of fishing towards the known feeding areas. In the end I gave up, and began walking through the adjacent woods to stretch my legs and ease some of the stress. As I stood in the shadows of giant firs and oaks, shaking off the dregs from an emptying bladder, my eyes caught sight of a distant opening in the trees. It was an opening which led to a giant green meadow that swept down to a miniature sandy beach.

I walked across the meadow and felt my sandals crunching across fine sand. Fresh breezes blew off the waves which lapped against the deserted shoreline. Immediately it felt like a kind of homecoming.

I’d been there before and had felt similar emotions back then, but now it was even more intense. It was a wild feeling which I so often long for, but which is hard to find in this modern world.

My emotions had made the choice for me. I would fish from this lonely yet beautiful place.

The problem was how to transfer a mountain of equipment from the distant car to the beach, for I couldn’t take the chance of leaving any valuable equipment inside. Another aspect was that I didn’t want to leave the car unattended in a remote place for many days and nights. But my mind was made up to take the chances. I began the donkey work straight away while there was daylight to spare.

Firstly, I got to the task of carrying some large items though the forest to the beach. The dinghy was inflated and filled up with bait and other gear, ferried around the coastline and rowed back to the car for another load. I was halfway through the task and busy erecting the bivvy when I noticed an elderly couple strolling through the trees next to the beach. My immediate thoughts were that they could be the owners of a large house on the hillside inside the forest, and perhaps the meadow behind the bivvy was their own property. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I approached them with a smile and asked in French if they spoke any English. They both nodded, although it was the husband who had a better grasp of the English language.

A cold and biting wind was beginning

to blow through the trees, and as we chatted I noticed the long green grass behind us begin to sway and dance like corn in a field. It transpired that they were indeed owners of this vast property, and they didn’t mind me setting up a bivvy in the woods opposite the beach. In reality, the first few metres of land inside the lake shoreline were public domain. I told them that my car was parked inside another bay further around the coastline, although I wasn’t keen on leaving it there for long periods out of sight.

They both then smiled and the husband said: “Why don’t you bring your car here and park it next to your bivvy? We don’t mind you driving across the meadow. The main gates to the driveway in front of the house are left unlocked, so just drive down the track past the house and through the forest.

Please close the latch on the main gate after you drive through so it is secure.”

I couldn’t believe my luck. This was just perfect. I didn’t need to lug all the rest of my heavy gear through the forest, or via a long row around the shoreline in a dinghy, but could simply drive to the spot. Not only that, it meant I could also keep a lot of bulky items, such as spare clothing, food, drink and baits, inside the car. Another benefit was that I didn’t need to rely solely on my solar panels to charge the camera and phone batteries, but could plug the chargers directly into the car socket.

It didn’t take long to walk back to the car parked in the bay, drive along the track past the house, and then across the green meadow to the bivvy beside the trees. The husband walked down the hill to join me a second time for a long chat, and I lent him my Globetrotter’s Quest book to show his young son, a keen fisherman who was visiting them the following day. Cold winds continued to gather strength which made him turn up his collar. He finally said his goodbyes, before retreating to the warmth and comfort of his house within the woods.

I began to rush against time, rowing out three baited rigs towards a distant sunken tree at the edge of a pile of large rocks. A four-tiger nut semi-buoyant rig was lowered tight to the submerged branches in 6ft of clear water, and the other two, which were both double 30mm boilie rigs and rock-hard to withstand the giant red pincers of crayfish, were dropped in a line leading directly horizontal to the tree in Decem ber 2014 C a r pwor l d 157

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W in t e r S e c re t s Julia n Jur kew itz

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WINTER SECRETS Julian enjoys the peace and solitude of winter carping, and here he reveals just a few of his secrets. He explains that, with a little bit of thought, you can turn even the bleakest winter session into one to remember.

D

uring the last few years, carp fishing during the winter months has become more and more important for me. Whenever I find some time during the busy (winter) exhibition season, I settle in by the waterside to enjoy the peace and solitude of the cold, often dull and dismal atmosphere. These calm and quiet times on the bank are probably the reason why I venture out despite the cold and wet. A runny nose, icy toes and fingers, and the sheer pain when dipping hands into near-freezing waters is countered by the warmth of a thick fleece sleeping bag with a hot-water bottle nestled next to my feet, and the flicker of candlelight in the bivvy as I sip a cup of hot glogg (hot mulled wine) which tickles as it runs down my throat.

The long, dark nights can be really gruelling, especially when you’re on your own for long periods. With a fishing partner alongside, someone who loves the extreme fishing as I do, the pleasure is shared. Each year, my girlfriend, Isabell, and I rejoice at the thought of spending winter sessions, and even Christmas and New Year, together with my pal Felix Kaczmarek, on the banks. Of course, our families are not quite so happy about this, but they accept it and let us go. We are very thankful for this and use the holidays to spend some time further south away from our German homeland. Here the temperatures can rise up to 20°C by day, even if this is the exception, not the rule.

But the nights – well, they can be bitterly cold. At each new dawn, milky white hoar frost covers the bivvy, the boat, the tackle, and the unhooking mat becomes a frozen board. However, we’ve found that further south the water temperatures can be between 8-12°C, so the chances of catching a couple of carp from this winter wonderland are relatively good. Don’t be fooled into a false sense of security though. Session fishing in the depths of winter requires time, endurance, and also a certain amount of inurement to the

shelter over deeper zones, say 3m or more. rigours to which you will be subjected.

These areas would be the ones I’d settle The colder the water, the less active into first to chance my luck. Other spots the fish. Obvious really, but as their I think are well worth investigating are metabolism slows down, they move very where underground streams come into little, eat less, and for shorter periods. lakes. These are very often just a couple However, I really believe there are some of degrees warmer. Unfortunately, places fish out there which are of a different like this are hard to find, but these are very mettle; a bit tougher if you like. They often the last areas to freeze over, so there’s are more active than others, they do not a tip. I also enlist the help of the Fish seem to mind the cold water, and Hawk GTM by Anaconda. they are searching for food This handy little digital much more frequently meter records the than their companions.

“Most carp water temperature I can quantify this move around very at different depths, by telling you little in winter, so and I find it to be how I caught the it’s important to find an invaluable aid. same fish twice the winter habitat Sunny spells in one weekend. in which they feel are something I The fish was also most at home” always look forward much fitter than too, as the fish move the others I caught, into shallower water. In fighting fiercely, unlike January last year, with a water those which felt like a sack of potatoes as I pulled them towards the net. temperature of just 6°C, and with 2 days without any fish contact, the sun Most carp move around very little finally came out and I was able to catch in winter, so it’s important to find the a carp of 20kg, which had moved into winter habitat in which they feel most at shallow water to take advantage of the home. My first choice is areas with wood warm sun. It was the only one which had in the water – snags, branches, roots moved up from the depths into around and suchlike. Next up would be bays 1.5m of water next to an old lily bed protected from the harsh winds, or areas and an overhanging bush. In this where overhanging bushes and trees offer

RIGHT This is the lovely carp which I caught twice in one weekend. Some carp are definitely more active than others in winter.

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