Ezine January 2016

IS S U E 2 2 • W IN

T E R 2 0 16

PACKED WITH NEW YEAR TIPS • Making ‘mush’ • Lead clips explained • Better chods… and more!

PLUS: THE STORY BEHIND CITRUZ CARP FROM THE DEEPS

FEATURING: JULIAN CUNDIFF SIMON CROW STEVE BRIGGS

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ALAN BLAIR

SPECIAL BUMPER ISSUE

ARTICLE TITLE

CONTENTS

NASH E-ZINE • ISSUE 22 • WINTER 2016

6 - 19 #IT'S A SAWN-OFF TING

Suitcase sized star performers, Sawn-Offs – the only tool for up close and personal carp sport.

20 - 28 CLINICAL COMMON CAMPAIGN

For Chris Elden there was one carp in Norfolk’s three acre Catch 22 Syndicate that he simply had to catch – the venue’s difficult Big Common.

30 - 35 CITRUZ

The deadly Nashbait Citruz blend has become the go anywhere get a bite hookbait for carp anglers everywhere.

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36 - 45 UNLOCKING EMPEROR

Dave Lidstone gives the big fish story from his blockbuster 2015 on Devon’s Emperor Lakes.

46 - 51 ESSENTIAL SKILLS

Not sure how to stop hooked fish running you into trouble when you’re faced with a carp sanctuary? Laurence Smart shows you how.

54 - 59 CHARITY CHAMP

Charity auction winner Carl Holland on a 24 hour dream session with Nash Operations Director Alan Blair.

60 - 61 NASH KNOWHOW

Which clip, when and why? We show you what you need to know.

62 - 68 UNCOVERED

Dr Paul Garner’s 20 years in the angling industry have been richer and more varied than almost any other angler you’ll meet.

70 - 75 JULIAN'S Q&A

The carp world’s number one instructor is here to solve your problems.

76 - 81 DEEP THINKING

Steve Briggs shares a fascinating insight from decades of tackling the deeps.

82 - 83 KILLER KIT

Simon Crow on why Kaptive Retainer Slings have become standard carp care items worldwide.

84 LAST CAST

Nash consultant Alan Storey on his unique double capture - including an estimated 70 lb Blue Shark on a mackerel flapper and Key boilie cocktail. True!

Editor: Colin Davidson Creative Design: Nick Prescott Web: Kevin Tucker and Colin Davidson Photography: Oli Davies and Tom Forman

www.nashtackle.co.uk With thanks to: Nash Consultants & The Nash Tackle HQ Team.

facebook.com/officialnashtackle facebook.com/kevinnashcarpangler @officialnashtackle @officialnashtackle

NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016

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EDITOR'S WELCOME

FROM THE EDITOR

Colin Davidson

It’s over 80 pages of the best instruction, hottest big fish tips and biggest names in the sport – the bumper New Year Nash E-Zine is your first step towards a better 2016.

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he turn of the year is one of the most exciting times to be around the Nash team, with the new tackle launches for the following year just released to the trade, always the culmination of a huge amount of development and hard work. If you haven’t checked it out yet make sure the Nash website is your first port of call to see an exclusive view of what’s hitting the shelves in 2016. New NR Toro rods, the wicked Scope Black OPS range, the revolutionary RDS shelter - something for everyone.

But more important is helping you guys get the best from the kit, and this E Zine is packed with thought provoking material to really raise your game. The insight into the development of Citruz is fascinating. For me they have been the bait of the year. Some of my home made special pop ups which I’ve relied

on for a decade have been turfed out and left at home because it’s always the rod with the Citruz on that produces the takes. And now with the Special Edition Citruz bottom baits making the headlines there’s even more you can do with this winning combination. Try them!

Check out the lowdown on the sneaky Sawn-Off carpers making opportunities where others miss out plus brilliant contributions from Chris Elden following his mind blowing 4G Squid season, Alan Blair on a charity mission, Paul Garner stars in Uncovered and we’ve got a superb piece from Steve Briggs on how carp behave in deep water. Add top drawer instruction in Julian’s Q and A, the lowdown on lead clips and a step by step guide to fishing locked up and if you aren’t a better carp angler by the end of this E Zine you haven’t been paying attention… Enjoy!

If you haven’t checked it out yet make sure the Nash website is your first port of call to see an exclusive view of what’s hitting the shelves in 2016.

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#IT'S A SAWN-OFF TING

Suitcase sized star performers, Sawn-Offs have pushed compact tackle to its conclusion – the only tool for up close and personal carp sport.

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NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016

“Sawn-Offs are just cool, and the honest answer is that they are SO much fun that I will almost choose to use them even if they aren’t the right tool for the job because they add an element of enjoyment you just don’t get with more traditional tackle."

Alan Blair Operations Director, Nash Tackle

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use mine everywhere I can and places I probably shouldn’t be able to. They make getting around so much easier, it’s the ultimate micro fishing outfit – the only limit is how far you’re prepared to walk and where you’re prepared to go. With SawnOffs people don’t even necessarily have you pegged as an angler – you can have three Sawn-Offs concealed in the Black Ops Assault Pack and no-one would even know you were carrying rods and reels. The Sawn-Offs make my kit so compact I can easily go fishing on a push bike.”

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The Sawn-Offs make my kit so compact I can easily go fishing on a push bike.

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NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016

“I saw Alan using them and he was catching fish in the edge, freelining, surface fishing, everything - and just looked so at home using Sawn-Offs and I thought I can do that. " Mike Wilson Design Development Engineer, Nash Tackle

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hat surprised me is how much backbone they have got, if you’ve got a fish going for a snags I’d back a Sawn-Off to do the business better than any other rod I’ve used, they have got amazing stopping power.

I’d rather play a fish on a Sawn-Off off than a longer rod, the action is beautiful. Until you use one in a tiny little spot you just won’t get it, you can bring them to the vertical and play fish properly even in the smallest places.

They just open up opportunities that longer rods miss out on. You can leave two SawnOffs in a skin, a backpack and Sawn-Off net in the car boot and be ready to fish 365 days of the year. If I’m visiting mates on a lake after work or just having a look around I can catch fish whenever I see an opportunity, I just need to pinch a handful of bait. I even took mine to China in a suitcase so I could get some extra fishing in.”

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#IT'S A SAWN-OFF TING

I’d rather play a fish on a Sawn-Off off than a longer rod, the action is beautiful

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NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016

I’ve had carp to smack on 30 lb with them and they have been bent round double – just brilliant!”

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“I put my name down for a Sawn-Off as soon as I saw them, and then got lucky by pinching a sample from Matt Downing (Nash UK Sales Manager) at the trade show. I love stalking and I had a few spots in mind straight away, real tight areas."

Stewart Briars Purchasing Manager, Brown’s Angling

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fish places now that I would struggle to even get into with nine and ten foot Scopes, I can do a lot more with the Sawn-Offs. There’s no need to cast with them the way I use them, literally the hookbait is lowered off the rod end. I found playing fish took more getting used to, you don’t need to lift your arm up or backwards at all to net a fish because the rod is so short it is all in front of you. Sawn-Offs make things possible that just weren’t possible before and are absolutely 100 per cent more fun.

The way it packs up so small it is literally a grab and go fishing outfit. I tend to bait up, then go back and get my kit and then go and suss the spots out. Normally it’s one fish per spot and then move on to the next.

I was timing the action and any more than five minutes without a bite and I’d look elsewhere because the carp felt safe where I could fish for them, so action was almost always instant. I’ve had carp to smack on 30 lb with them and they have been bent round double – just brilliant!” www.nashtackle.co.uk

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Carl Smith Videographer and star of the Carl and Alex Fishing channel

“Like most people my fishing time is limited, there are only 24 hours in a day. I much prefer stalking, surface fishing and active methods above sitting behind alarms, so my fishing is normally done during daylight hours."

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ecause I’m so often sat in front of a computer editing video material most of my trips are to nearby waters like the local river, or small day ticket and club lakes. These sessions regularly slot in before or after dropping my brother off at college or sometimes after I've finished working at the office. Before we got our hands on a Scope Sawn-Off each, Alex would sit on the bus carrying a 9ft Scope, Rucksack, unhooking mat and likewise my little van would be stuffed with kit ready for our short sessions.

Now that we use the Sawn-Offs, Alex can carry his rucksack as usual but now with his rod, net and tackle actually inside it! He takes his kit to school. We never expected to be able to travel to a fishing spot with all our kit and be able to carry it all hands free – it makes such a difference.

The 3lb Sawn-Offs are great for snaggy swims but for our smaller water carp adventures with lighter lines, smaller hooks and often with freelined baits the 2lb versions are awesome. It took a couple of sessions to get used to casting with such a short rod, but now we would never go back to a standard length rod for sneaking around stalking, especially on urban or overgrown venues.

Traditional rods are clumsy and just get in the way in comparison.”

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“I spent some time on a small weedy pit over the summer and I was finding the carp in places I just couldn’t fish for them, they were happy lying up under bushes and in areas they just weren’t going to come out."

Jack Matthews Vinyl flooring fitter, Romford

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here was a fully scaled mirror a really old carp that I wanted to catch and I kept seeing it in one area, I had it feeding loads of times but just couldn’t see a way I was going to catch it.

I ordered a 3lb Sawn-Off because I figured I might be able to fish for it with a really short rod and a pair of waders, and the first time I got a hookbait in there I hooked a carp within half an hour. I had the fully scaled at 25 lb and a few more including a 27 lb 12 oz common and started to be able to see places I could fish with a Sawn-Off that I wouldn’t have thought were possible before – they are so much fun and they really do open up new areas where carp can be much more catchable.”

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“I only use Scopes for all my fishing now and the Sawn-Offs appeal to me because I’m known for being into quirky stuff."

Dave Lidstone Owner of Emperor Lakes, Devon

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he angler catches the fish but you have to have the tools, I’ve had carp to 38 lb out of the Syndicate Lake at Emperor on the Sawn-Offs and had a 56-pounder in France on one. What I love is that they retract down to nothing, you can virtually get them in your pocket or tucked inside your coat. It’s getting about easily that is the real advantage, they are so short that there are no problems getting through undergrowth, no worries about baits being pulled off or links being damaged. Give me a set of secateurs and the Sawn-Offs and I can get in places other people can’t.

I even use mine to spod pellets out on the rivers, they are so short I can get them right underneath the trees in swims you can’t get other rods in. Plus I use them as jerkbait rods for piking.”

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NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016

EVER had a season where everything just comes together? Big fish ace Chris Elden recounts an amazing run of 12 30-pounders topped by his target upper 40 common in an amazing campaign on 4G Squid.

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CLINICAL COMMON CAMPAIGN

Targeting a single carp in a well stocked venue is a tough proposition, but for Chris Elden there was one carp in Norfolk’s three acre Catch 22 Syndicate that he simply had to catch – the venue’s difficult Big Common.

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saw it my second season on there,’ explains Chris, 28 from East Harling. ‘Another member Andy Leah caught it in the next swim and it is just a carp you see and you have to catch it, long, dark, well built –

everything a big fish should be.

It was the reason I joined the venue in the first place.’

After a successful three seasons on the fishery, Chris was determined that 2015 was going to be the year he caught

his target fish, continuing a run of success from the previous autumn and tailoring his whole approach for the year to give him the maximum chance of hooking the venue’s biggest carp.

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NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016

It hit home how well that was working and I knew that was going to be what I was doing the following year

THE LONG ANSWER IS there such a thing as a big fish rig?

Chris is convinced that his change of presentation has been one of the factors in his run of big carp – settling on 18 inch hooklengths.

‘I felt the bigger fish were getting away with it, and have always had it in the back of my mind that bigger fish need longer hooklengths,’ he says. ‘I think the size of the fish changes the way they feed and the way they are tipping and righting themselves makes a longer link more effective.’

Experimenting in October the previous season saw him changing to 12 inch links, then gradually lengthening them to 13 and 14 inches. Success was immediate, with the presentation change bringing a brace the first night, The Pig at 36 lb 12 oz and the Fully Scaled at 35 lb 8 oz on an overnighter after casting out in the dark.

A few weeks later he added a three carp haul on long links on an overnighter, all being big fish at 35, 34 and 32 lb.

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‘It hit home how well that was working and I knew that was going to be what I was doing the following year,’ he recalls. ‘But this year I made them even longer again at 18 inches. It takes some getting used to casting links that long out they just look a bit daft and your first reaction when you see them is you can’t imagine them ever hooking any carp, ever.’

But hookholds have consistently been outstanding using the longer traces, the size 7 Twisters typically two or even three inches back and dead centre in the bottom lip, although Chris has also had a fish hooked in the top lip. ‘When was the last time you saw that?’ he laughs.

‘With shorter links the hooks would be closer to the edges of the mouth and often in the side which also means more chance of losing a fish,’ added Chris who didn’t drop a fish from a hook pull on the venue in 2015 using his longer hooklinks.

CLINICAL COMMON CAMPAIGN

AREA BOMBING CHRIS applied the same logic to his end tackle as he did to presentation, looking at what was being commonly used and doing something different.

After a successful season the previous year using 1.5 oz leads, he chose to go the other way with much heavier leads to try and improve hooking.

‘I did well on the small leads but I wanted to change it around again to stay ahead of the carp, and I suspected I needed something different to get the best chance of the common. It’s a bit of a loner so I think everything has got to be dead right when it’s feeding in front of you or you are going to miss out.

‘I started off with 4 oz leads where there was any longer casting involved, but for shorter spots or on the harder areas I went up to 6 oz leads. They were both set up to drop off the clip quickly when a carp was hooked.’

With the water only three acres heavy leads weren’t in use, because most people don’t think to change the lead to change hooking properties, but the simple change doubled the resistance on a hook point compared with carp tightening links to 2 or 3 oz leads.

‘The runs I was getting were different, much more positive and progressive, before I would often get more a few bleeps and have to watch the line, strike and then have a fish on. With heavier leads and long links together I don’t think they knew they were hooked until they suddenly hit the resistance of the lead, it definitely caused them extra problems.’

Combined with a strict routine sharpening up the points of his Twisters, hooks were also noticeably buried deeply, giving a huge element of reassurance if carp weeded themselves.

‘Both times I caught the common Tatty it snagged me up and the line was slack for several minutes while we got the boat. It’s a big relief when you know the hooks are going in so far because there’s so much less chance of them coming out,’ concluded Chris.

I started off with 4 oz leads where there was any longer casting involved, but for shorter spots or on the harder areas I went up to 6 oz leads

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Past captures tended to show the Big Common was more likely to come out midweek

OVERNIGHT AND OFF AVOIDING consistent weekend pressure was another deliberate change of approach which helped balance the odds of the Big Common more in Chris’ favour.

‘I’d always been a weekend angler but pressure during the week was only two or three anglers, at the weekend there could be between 8 and 12 people fishing on a lake with 15 swims, and with three rods allowed that puts a lot of pressure on the carp,’ explained Chris.

‘Past captures tended to show the Big Common was more likely to come out midweek.’

Working offshore as a wind turbine engineer meant Chris had to go through quite a punishing regime of overnighters,

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leaving early morning after each trip to get into work by 7am.

‘The mentality is the big change and it does tire you out fishing between work, especially as I need to be fit and alert in my job. After 3 weeks I’d need to have a week off the overnighters, I’d get tired and eat less well just picking up Pot Noodles on the way so I could get there quicker. But it worked well for the fishing and my girlfriend Cara is a nurse and works night shifts at times so it just gave us more weekend time together.’

Needing to be in tune with weather for his work Chris often just fished under the stars in an Air Frame Sleep System, when it took a turn for the worse taking refuge under a Titan Brolly Pro AS with the front and door panels stripped out.

CLINICAL COMMON CAMPAIGN

PITCH PING PONG THREE previous seasons had given enough clues as to where Chris thought his target carp was most likely to come from – although its capture patterns meant always trying to stay one step ahead of the giant common.

‘I planned to stick to two areas, one a deep section around 13 feet in the middle of the lake in front of a swim called ‘IT’ which had hard areas amongst silt and seemed to be one of the spots the common got caught from most. If it wasn’t caught there it often came from the opposite end, the car park, a bowl section with deep margins.’

There was at least one heartbreaking moment where I was sure which swim it was coming from next, and I couldn’t get in there

Chris had noticed that once the common was caught from one of these areas, the next capture would inevitably be from the opposite end – leaving him moving depending on where it had been caught last to try and literally get ahead of it for its next likely mistake.

‘There was at least one heartbreaking moment where I was sure which swim it was coming from next, and I couldn’t get in there. The following morning I woke up and saw the guy in that swim playing a fish and I just knew it could well be the common, and sure enough it was,’ he said.

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NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016

I’m actually even more confident in 4G Squid now than I was in Scopex Red before

DULLING IT DOWN THE 2015 relaunch of the Nashbait range caused Chris pre-season concerns – having used the Scopex Squid Red for several years he was like anyone with a favourite bait concerned about not having it any more.

‘I couldn’t believe it when I heard it was no longer available,’ he said. ‘The first time I used the Scopex Red I had a 38-pounder within a couple of hours and I had caught so many on it, I’d not really used any other bait for years. I still had a bit in the freezer and I didn’t really know what to expect from the new 4G Squid so I started by feeding the remaining Reds with the new 4G together and using the 4G on the hair and actually caught from the off.

I’m actually even more confident in

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4G Squid now than I was in Scopex Red before, it’s a nicer texture, richer smell and a better bait again which I wouldn’t have believed back when I first changed.’

Sticking with 15mm free offerings, successful presentation on his long links was a snowman. ‘I used the 10mm Airballs to balance out a 15mm bottom bait, a real nice presentation where nothing needs trimming or adjusting. I used the natural colour Airballs rather than the high-viz ones which was deliberate. I’m a big fan of choddy fishing and have caught stacks of carp on white pop ups but I wasn’t getting the stamp of fish that I was after and I didn’t think bright baits was the way to get the bigger fish. I just wanted them picking up the same as I was baiting with.’

CLINICAL COMMON CAMPAIGN

2.

Chris felt bright baits weren’t producing the stamp of carp he was after so he combined 10mm natural 4G Squid airballs with a 15mm bottom bait snowman style.

1.

After several good seasons on Scopex Squid Red, the new 4G Squid was the natural choice for the campaign. Chris rates it even higher than previous squid baits.

3.

Hooklinks of a staggering 18 inches produced a higher average size of carp for Chris – including a run of 12 30s!

4.

Flat pear leads of 6 oz fished drop off style on lead clips combined with sharpened hook points caused problems for the carp.

5.

A small shrink tube extension on the Twister hook and a braided D loop with blow out tube is a rig Chris has refined over several seasons.

6.

A cobweb bag of crumbled 4G boilies was nicked over the hook before casting, the D loop trapped in position with dissolving foam to prevent tangles.

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NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016

TATTY FALLS TWICE NARROWING down the real hotspots in his preferred swims was a big step towards catching the target carp.

‘There’s a large plateau out in front if IT, covered in lilies with three feet of water on it, dropping back deeper on the near side. I’ve caught a lot of fish from the base of the slope where there’s a hard bottom but this season I dropped further back again, around 20 yards short and found the bottom even harder again – definitely an area the fish had been using regularly.’

The spot came up trumps, and Chris bagged arguably the most unpredictable fish in the lake, another 40 lb common called Tatty Tail.

‘I had Tatty May Bank Holiday at 42 lb and then mid-June at 42 lb 2 oz a new best,’ he recalled. ‘It was the same spot, same rig, same bait and both times I had to get in the boat to get it out of thick weed. It’s a really hard fish with no real patterns which makes it hard to target and

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often only comes out twice each year. I was amazed really, I’d written that fish off because I couldn’t see any way of specifically targeting it.

It was the same hard area, but this time casting back up the lake from a swim further down with a slightly different line angle.’

But perversely it was the one lone 20-pounder in a staggering run of 13 30-pounders that put him on the money for his target fish.

‘Casting back up the lake from a swim called Fairy Glen’s I shifted a rod further left rather than up the middle towards the plateau and the bottom was just rock hard and in open water in an area that no one was fishing, it produced a take the first night from a 20.’

A week later at the end of August saw Chris finally hook the carp he had waited four years to hold, after deciding on a change of baiting approach and Spombing two kilos of squid baits as tightly as possible over the top of his rig.

‘First light about 4.30am I had a take, and there was just enough light to see the fish come straight up to the surface, about 70 yards out, shaking its head all the way in. I don’t like carp doing that and l was sure the hook was coming out, just for a moment a couple of times I thought it was off.

‘It came in quite easily apart from the head shaking and then stayed deep in the margins and I could feel the line pinging off tree roots which wasn’t nice. When it came up and went in the net the hook was two inches back in the bottom lip.

‘That fish was absolutely top of my list, and to catch the others first over a period of time is a nice way of achieving it, going through the journey that means you learned the lake and got the reward - that’s how I like it to be.’

At a staggering 48 lb 2 oz the syndicate’s Big Common was truly a prize fitting of his efforts.

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NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016

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CITRUZ

ONE BAIT FOR A BITE IT’S CITRUZ It’s the hottest property in high attract pop-ups this season – the deadly Nashbait Citruz blend has become the go anywhere get a bite hookbait for carp anglers everywhere.

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ollowing the market changing launch of Nashbait’s premium HNV The Key®, Citruz is the result of another outstanding collaboration between bait experts Gary Bayes and Dr Keith Sykes. The roots of the potent attractor package can be traced as far back as 1974, but today’s Citruz baits are more potent than ever before. So what really makes Citruz so special?

“Some of the esters that are used in Citruz were the same ones that were spray dried and used in the legendary Milk B, and even at low levels they catch ridiculous numbers of fish,” explained Keith. “Those esters are replicated in a

lot of what we would consider the really successful fruit flavours – strawberry, raspberry, peach and pineapple for example. They are common denominators in successful additives and that’s no coincidence.”

But the success of Citruz is highly complex, based around four key component matrixes including esters, aldehydes, a taste enhancing complex and two orange derived essential oils.

Mixed and aged at different times the resulting attractor package simply cannot be reverse engineered, it’s unique to Nashbait.

Mixed and aged at different times the resulting attractor package simply cannot be reverse engineered, it’s unique to Nashbait

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“Citruz tends to do that, it’s a bites machine…"

Dr Keith Sykes

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gave some of the test baits to Alan Blair and everywhere he was going he was catching fish, both in the UK and abroad. Citruz tends to do that, it’s a bites machine, which is no coincidence. It’s about solubility, Citruz is brilliant in absolutely in all temperatures and arguably really comes into its own in the winter,” continued Keith.

“The first time I took the finished baits over to the Church Lake to show Kevin I caught six carp in 24 hours – the whole previous week had only produced four bites.

That’s the sort of result you get on the bait.

“Even back in the early 80s I knew Citruz was special, it caught so many more carp than other baits but I never thought I would see it

available in a commercial sense. It’s not about resurrecting old recipes or finally making them available to all – the Citruz baits off the shelf today are better than those we ever made before because we understand more about carp bait now than we used to – Citruz has been added to and improved in every way.”

"I’d rate it as highly as Scopex and Shellfish Sense Appeal, it just seems to mean something to the carp…” Gary Bayes

SEARCH FOR A POP STAR THE result of a three year testing period, Citruz beat all comers in the development of the ultimate high attract pop-up.

“We had up to 15 blends out on test in all weathers and on all types of waters, fished as singles, over every type of bait we make, and used by all sorts of different people” recalled Gary Bayes.

“It’s especially difficult to interpret results and

preferences on popups because people like different smells. We had savoury, fishy, spicy and chocolate blends out on test and some of them really were excellent, but when asked to pick one above all the others, the answer was always Citruz. I wouldn’t normally go for a smell like that myself but it’s surprised me how effective it is,” he laughed.

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The first time I took the finished baits over to the Church Lake to show Kevin I caught six carp in 24 hours

CITRUZ

KILLER KEY COMBINATION “The combination of Citruz pop-ups either snowman style or as high attract singles over free offerings of The Key is awesome. It’s done me really proud, and if you watch the footage of Alfie Russell catching river carp on camera on the 2015 DVD you can see how much the fish just home straight in on them.” Gary Bayes

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I caught with them first time on my North Yorkshire syndicate at the end of November. It was bitterly cold, and Citruz produced the only fish. I’ve gone on to catch with them every single overnighter with carp to almost 30 lb. They are my first choice boilie for the winter ahead.

Simon Crow

THE TASTE TEST THINK high attract pop-ups are just about the colour and a nice strong smell? Think again…

Keith and Gary’s understanding of chemoreception in carp has been fundamental in developing such a devastating high attract bait.

“Taste is hugely important in the final Citruz baits,” revealed Keith. “Carp have such good taste because water carries taste perception to them through the medium they live in, even if they haven’t committed to picking an item of food up in their mouth.

Taste and smell have to be considered as happening

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simultaneously in a carp, which is why palatability is crucial. Citruz will fish the pants off pop-ups just loaded with dye and flavour.”

The broad spectrum taste enhancer Talin is a big part of the taste profile package: “It helps round off the bait, increase appetite, and prolong the taste and smell. The Japanese and Israelis are using it more and more in their commercial fish feeds for the same reasons. The rounded taste also makes Citruz brilliant when faced with weed or silt smells that taint other baits.”

CITRUZ

First session on the Citruz bottom Baits and it produced a 36.8 mirror out of Linch Hill Christchurch. This place fishes rock hard by December so it’s a thumbs up from me!!

Mark Robertson

CITRUZ SPECIAL EDITION DESPITE being a purpose designed single high attract hookbait, massive demand for Citruz has forced Nashbait to release a special edition run of shelf-life Citruz boilies and they have gone down an absolute storm!

Based on a highly digestible cereal and milk protein base mix with proven cold water pedigree, levels and taste have been reduced to allow Citruz boilies to be used effectively as free offerings as well as hookbaits. Like the pop ups they come into their own when conditions and angler

pressure make bites difficult to come by on any other bait.

Available in shelf-life 10, 15 and 20mm in 1kg bags, each bag contains washed out no spook pink boilies plus brighter, darker pink baits in the same bag – giving presentation edges without buying twice.

Special Edition Citruz allows the switched on carper to use the pulling power of Citruz in more ways than ever – from crushed boilies in cobweb bags to stringers to snowman rigs.

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G N I K C O L UN R O R E P M E

DAVE LIDSTONE

e big th te u c xe e d n a n la p to e k ta it s e What do e n to s id L e v a D ? fe li r u o y f o n ig a carp camp r te s u b ck lo b is h m o fr ry to s sh fi gives the big 2015 on Devon’s Emperor Lakes.

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UNLOCKING EMPEROR - DAVE LIDSTONE

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48 carp for the season including 32 over 30lb and another six over 40lb...

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UNLOCKING EMPEROR - DAVE LIDSTONE

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n a water where the top scoring member might notch up 20 fish from every weekend summer and winter, Dave Lidstone’s 2015 campaign on Emperor’s Syndicate Lake produced 48 carp between the end of April and start of September. In that amazing tally were 32 over 30 lb and another six over 40 lb.

It’s a lesson in planning, commitment and execution - with some wicked edges that any big carp angler will learn from.

So why the decision to knuckle down on his own venue, one that Dave had spent almost every day around for the last five years?

‘When you own a fishery it’s not what people perceive and you get very little fishing time yourself. All I’ve ever done is fit my fishing inbetween work, family, children and have had to work very hard to do that,’ Dave emphasised.

‘When I turned 50 I decided I wanted some time back, being a passionate lifelong angler surrounded by anglers enjoying themselves I realised I needed a bit of that again myself. I really gave it the large in Europe in my 50th year, and after that I wanted to do the same at home.’

Plus there were some of the Syndicate Lake’s carp Dave wanted to put his name to: ‘A mirror called Number 8 was a big target for me. I’d never fished for it because it wasn’t in the lake back in the years I was a member, whilst I was working away in France it had been quietly growing on to become a mid or upper 40. I wanted one of the big commons too, and the biggest mirror The Moth was also on my list.

‘It’s easy to talk about putting effort in but to put it into perspective I don’t reckon I was in my bed after 5am for a solid five months.’

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PRO ACTIVE PLAN

GOING LONG

DAVE’S approach started taking shape the previous season when he kept rod hours down and still got amongst good numbers of the tricky Syndicate Lake fish

DAVE’S choice of presentation was a world away from the direction most carp rigs have gone, starting the season on 18 inch hooklinks. ‘Everyone was on short links, 10 inches or less so I went long link and long hair,’ explained Dave. ‘Part of that was practical when I was fishing out in the lake I was making a conscious choice to target silty areas and the long link gave me some margin for error. However deep the silt the bait would be sat on top.’

‘I act on seeing fish rather than waiting,’ explained Dave. ‘I’ll grab a rod and fish a couple of hours at the right time when conditions are good. If I was fishing two hours in the morning 4-6am and if I’d not seen a fish I’d go where I last saw one, then up and move when I did see a show.

‘The switch to Scope rods definitely made me more mobile, retract them, stick a bag over your shoulder grab the bucket and cushion and you can be on fish within a couple of minutes subject to swim availability.’

But key to Dave’s approach was going to be good old fashioned bait application: ‘I was planning to bait hard so when they swam around a corner it was always my bait they found. Real old skool stuff, a long term programme, and by that I mean feed for months if necessary without even fishing with the bait. The cost isn’t what stops people doing it, it’s the effort. When you’ve established a bait you don’t need very much to keep it going. I didn’t use an off the shelf bait though, you’re more likely to find me sniffing around for additives in Holland and Barratt – it’s an age thing!’

The plan was to be getting on fish as often as possible and trying to catch them quickly with a mobile approach whilst at the same time steadily applying bait for more concentrated efforts in particular spots later in the summer.

‘I saw Number 8 regularly in the waterfall area, weedy corner and The Goby, very often she would be with the rest of the A Team, the other 40s,’ said Dave. ‘I would just fish for her wherever I saw her.’

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Nylon links ensured no chance of tangles, with size 6 hooks and the hair giving two inches clearance between the bottom of the bait and the hook. The lightest running weight possible completed the end tackle, just ½ oz. So where was the hooking coming from with virtually no weight?

‘People get the importance of the weight completely wrong,’ he says. ‘All I want from a weight is the means of delivery, and because the hookbait went in a solid PVA bag of micro pellets and fry crumb then the casting weight was in the bag, so going lighter actually made it all easier to cast and

“…I suffe off for th in 20 yea

ered a bite he first time ars.”

UNLOCKING EMPEROR - DAVE LIDSTONE also the bag sank at a slower rate to settle over silt of any depth.’

Takes were confident and hookholds excellent on the long links, experimenting continued with Dave lengthening the rigs to 22 inches – briefly!

‘I had to shorten back down because the carp were getting so confident I suffered a bite off for the first time in 20 years,’ he says. ‘When did you last hear of that? I was trying to explain to a customer in the shop and had to show him a set of teeth I took from a dead 40. He didn’t know carp had teeth!’

TOP TIP Dave soaks all his weights in lake water for long periods to ensure they smell as natural as possible and don’t ring alarm bells in wary carp as a foreign object.

MEGA MOUTHFUL WHERE Dave arrived with hookbaits is a lesson in tackling big fish waters. Rather than fining down and turning to titbits for bites, by mid summer Dave had established his bait so well that a bigger mouthful brought a greed response from the usually notoriously tricky carp.

‘I ended up with two small 12-15mm boilie pieces and then gave them a real generous wrap of paste – we’re talking a hookbait that’s the same size as an old fashioned 35mm film canister and fished on a 10cm hair.’ Now that’s going large!

UNDERCOVER WORK WHILST chasing the carp around on short sessions Dave was also busy prepping a couple of margin spots, keeping them regularly baited but completely undetected.

‘In two swims I created feeding areas

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UNLOCKING EMPEROR - DAVE LIDSTONE

“Whether the carp are there to eat your bait or the natural food doesn’t matter – the important thing is the carp keep coming back.”

underneath floating weed,’ he explained.

‘There was a roof over the top of the carp, but clean substrate underneath and the carp were safe, always finding food there and none of the other members could spot them either.’

Dave used a length of 2.5 inch wide tubing with a funnel in the top, pushed it to the bottom and poured and shook the baits down it. The old fish farming trick of using a seaside dip net to check the bait was disappearing meant although he couldn’t see under the weed Dave knew the area was being cleaned out. In fact it was being fed on so hard the lake bed changed as the carp dug it away.

‘I was doing so well in other areas I didn’t fish those spots,’ said Dave. ‘Then one of my best mates Jerry started fishing the area because it was quiet – we tend to think the same way. I put him on the spots I was prepping as he was so close to them anyway and in seven trips of less than 24 hours he had four upper 30s and two big 40s including The Moth and Number 8.

It proved I was on to something in those areas, and I couldn’t begrudge him the spots or the fish, he’s one of my oldest friends.’

STRIKING MARGIN SPORT FOR the marginal areas, Dave’s approach was completely different, with a shorter nylon link but still a big hook and a long hair.

Once again the weight was light.

‘The important part was the back stop four inches behind the weight just enough to prick the hook point in. I was actually striking takes in the margin spots. You’d get a couple of bleeps and a pluck in the line as the fish hit the backstop, then the rod would nod as the carp shook its head and if you left it long enough it would tear off,’ he said.

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THE CASSIEN EFFECT THE most successful formula for fast action in the margin spots Dave found was to introduce a single hookbait or small PVA bag but no other free offerings, often timing fish as they drifted off the spot to work out how long he had to stealthily position a hookbait before they returned.

‘Bites would come quickly, but when I left I would always bait the spot very heavily just to keep it on their radar as a larder,’ he explained. ‘I started using the Mega Pellet Mix and the Salted Mega Mix particles because they were both larger food items and nuisance fish proof. They definitely made a difference to results.

‘I noticed when I fed the pellets and particle I was getting bugs, snails, nymphs and shrimps coming in on the feed, I call it the Cassien effect. There was a definite naturals increase. Whether the carp are there to eat your bait or the natural food doesn’t matter – the important thing is the carp keep coming back.’

Continued bait application ensured the carp fed incredibly confidently on the spots: ‘I’ve got video footage when I was playing a 41-pounder called Heart Tail and I was stood in the margin with my syndicate captain holding the net when the other rod went off, the hookbait was eaten and the carp hooked just a couple of yards from my feet,’ Dave laughed.

SAWN-OFF SPOTS THE switch to Dave’s margin spots brought his six foot Sawn-Offs into play rather than his usual ten foot Scopes.

‘If you see carp in the areas them you’ve got to get in and fish for them – they could very well just not come back,’ he said. ‘It might have taken me ten hours or two days

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to create the chance, and the benefit of the six foot rods is that it’s so much easier to get in and out of tight areas without getting caught up in branches and brambles. I could stick the SawnOff under my jacket and get in without giving the spot away or giving myself away to the carp.

‘If you’re under a tree you don’t always have space to bend a longer rod to test curve and put pressure on the hook - if you are going stalking you need the right tool. I couldn’t present baits stealthily enough without the shorter Sawn-Offs.’

HEAVYWEIGHT HIGHLIGHTS THE months of effort produced many golden periods but Dave points to catching one of Emperor’s big commons as a personal highlight.

‘I had the one of the target commons whilst the Nash Roadshow was here for the weekend,’ he recalls. ‘It doesn’t come out very often, Steve Briggs and John Cooper both had 35 lb-plus fish the same night, it was a special moment for me.’ Dave’s efforts that night produced carp of 26 lb, a 36 lb mirror and one of his target commons at 40 lb 8 oz.

But that still left the enigma of the biggest common in Emperor: ‘There’s one much bigger called The Long Common or the Unknown, it’s absolutely not a myth it does exist and it’s massive,’ he said.

Another bumper result came earlier in the year when Dave fished an overnighter for two 36 lb mirrors and a 35 lb common, returning to stalk a 39-pounder in the early afternoon and a 41 lb 8 oz mirror all in less than 18 hours!

UNLOCKING EMPEROR - DAVE LIDSTONE

FINAL FLURRY BY late summer Dave’s campaign had given him the season of his life, and with typical mid-year blues the fishing slowed, but not without a final flurry.

‘It suddenly seemed to get hard, we were in that dull period, late season carp don’t have huge energy demands for example to recover from spawning, there’s no cold water signal, it’s just a physiological lull, oxygen levels tend to drop slightly it’s the usual mid-season blues. If they aren’t feeding you can’t influence them with bait, plus that tied in with some trips across the Channel and I just lost touch with them,’ concluded Dave.

“There’s one much bigger called The Long Common or the Unknown, it’s absolutely not a myth it does exist and it’s massive.”

It’s not quite the whole story though, returning to a pure stalking approach gave him a final sign off of an amazing three 40-pounders in a golden spell of a week to round off the season of all seasons on the Syndicate Lake.

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ESSENTIAL SKILLS

FISHING LOCKED UP Not sure how to stop hooked fish running you into trouble when you’re faced with a carp sanctuary? Laurence Smart shows you how.

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This is a typical sanctuary area on a club lake, lots of carp spending time in these pads knowing they are safe. The lilies are now dying off, but any hooked carp that makes it into the maze of roots and stems will be very hard to land. Fishing locked up is the answer.

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HIS is the time of year when carp begin to spend much more time in sanctuary areas, and with the right kit and a bit of confidence these can be golden areas for autumn and winter action. Whether dying lilies, snaggy tree lines or reedbeds carp will be found in cover more and more as temperatures drop.

Even when conditions are bad these areas are always prime for a take simply because so many carp spend their time where they feel safe. Here’s how to safely steer carp out of danger.

First job is to clip the main line so we can land end rigs tight to the lilies. Cast towards the lilies and feather the line as the lead nears the water. Use an end tackle without a hooklink attached and feel the lead down on a tight line until it hits bottom. Hard areas around pads or snags are kept clean by constant carp activity and tend to be good for a bite. Avoid areas where the lead comes back smelly or covered in black muck.

ESSENTIAL SKILLS

3

You have to land rigs as close as possible. Carp know the boundaries and a foot short might not get a take, brushing the leaves will. Don’t worry about disturbance, if carp are in the pads they won’t move – you can catch very quickly even if it takes 20 casts. Stand in the same place in your swim as you cast, a foot backwards or forwards makes a difference when you need to be this accurate.

4

Your finger should be on the spool lip as the lead lands.

When it lands absolutely on the money tight to the lilies or sanctuary quickly tuck the reel line into your spool clip before retrieving. The distance from the end tackle to where it is clipped needs to be recorded so you can always land rigs at the same distance without repeating the exercise each time.

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FISHING LOCKED UP 5

Set your Spot On Stix behind the swim using the distance tape. Lay the end tackle at the base of one stick, then with an open bale arm guide the line around the sticks alternately with gentle pressure allowing line to be pulled from the reel.

Count each time you wrap around a stick. When the line hits the spool clip record how many ‘wraps’. You can also mark the line by the spool clip with Spot On Line Marker Liquid.

6

Now add your baited rig to the end tackle. Strength is critical – you need to be confident your hook won’t open out and your knots won’t fail. A stiff hinge rig with Combilink and a Chod Link hooking section or a 25 lb Combilink trace with only the hair stripped of coating are both reliable. The rig will be landing as the line hits the clip so any stiff style rig is a wise choice for its anti tangle properties.

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ESSENTIAL SKILLS

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FISHING LOCKED UP 7

Recasting to your chosen feature with the rig attached and line in the spool clip should see the hookbait land absolutely tight up to the carp’s sanctuary. Add some free offerings over the top but don’t go mad, the carp are already there and you’re looking to tempt them to have a mouthful, just enough to get caught. Start with 10-20 free offerings but be prepared to top up if you get takes.

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Set your bobbin on a drop of just a few inches. This gives enough movement in the line that the alarm will sound a number of bleeps as it pulls up to the blank, but doesn’t give a carp enough line to make the safety of the pads or snags.

Once the bobbin is pulled up the carp can take no more line and hits solid resistance, its own efforts to reach safety turning it away and forcing it to kite away from danger.

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After accurate casting the hardware on the bank is the most important of all. You must have firmly rooted banksticks otherwise your rod can be pulled in. Push front and rear sticks in as securely as possible and ensure the rod is level or slightly tip up. Snag ears on alarms add extra security so rods can’t be bounced off the alarm on a violent take, but ideally always have the rod pointing directly at the rig.

Fishing locked up to cover means absolute attention.

Position your shelter close to the rods and at the first indication of a take pick the rod up and apply pressure to the carp as quickly as possible. With firmly rooted banksticks, gripper rests and strong tackle nothing will go wrong – the carp can’t build up enough momentum to break your line on a straight pull, and the stretch in the line cushions against the force of the take.

ESSENTIAL SKILLS

9

At the rear you need a gripper style rod rest that will clamp the rod and stop it being pulled forwards or out of the rests. Butt Lock rests work on a lever principle, and close around the rod handle to grip it securely, with rubber inlays to prevent rods being pulled forwards, but as soon as you lift the rod the levers open up for a smooth strike. Choose the smaller Butt Lock for shrink and abbreviated handles, the larger size for cork or full duplon grips.

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Takes appear violent because with no line being given the bobbin will be wedged up against the blank and the rod tip will shaking or banging as a carp desperately tries to it to safety. The pressure from the locked up rod and reel is enough to drive the hook home securely. Pick up the rod, keep the rod tip low and walk backwards, wind down with the reel, walk backwards and within seconds you have drawn the carp well clear of danger and can play it normally to the net.

Fishing up to sanctuary areas is no place for free spool systems or quick drags. After casting, remove the line from the spool clip. Once the line is sunk and straightened to the rig you need to set your drag, Even if your reels have a free spool system don’t use it. Instead, tighten the main drag of the reel so line will only just pull from the reel with a very determined effort. You aren’t going to give the carp any line on the take at all.

After landing a carp and rebaiting or replacing the rig, head back to your Spot On Stix. Make the same number of wraps around the sticks as you recorded before, and clip the line into the spool again where you find the Spot On Marker painted on the line. Now you can wind the line back on to the reel, and standing in the same place in the swim, recast with full confidence you will land the hookbait tight to the sanctuary ready for another carp.

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I’ve joined Broadlands and by having a trip there with Alan it was a chance to get a flying start and fish with more confidence

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CHARITY CHAMP

CHARITY CHAMP

Ever wondered what you could learn fishing with one of the UK’s top carpers for 24 hours? Find out from charity auction winner Carl Holland who won a money can’t buy prize of a session with Nash Operations Director Alan Blair.

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t took a hefty bid of £750 to secure a fishing trip with Alan Blair, but Southampton based carper Carl Holland, 25, was in no doubt it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

A big believer in charity, Carl’s bid helped support Lucy’s Bowl, an organisation founded by carpers to help raise money for Guide Dogs for the Blind.

‘I’ve watched all Alan’s videos but often I’d think of questions I wanted to ask and obviously you can’t – being on the bank with Alan and seeing things done in front me was a chance to ask those questions,’ explained Carl. ‘The fact that it was for charity was a big part of it as well, I’m a strong believer in helping good causes.’

With a good grounding in angling basics from catching roach when he was a youngster with his uncle, and steadily catching carp from local day ticket venues with commons to 29 lb 13 oz this season alone, Carl is set to spread his wings to more challenging waters with better chances of bigger fish, and was looking for some confidence and guidance how to make that next step up.

‘The main thing I wanted help with was finding features, depths and help using a marker float,’ he said.

‘I’ve watched it done but have never really understood it clearly.’

Location for the trip was Broadlands in Hampshire, Carl’s new target venue: ‘I’ve joined Broadlands and by having a trip there with Alan it

was a chance to get a flying start and fish with more confidence.’

‘Carl is exactly the sort of person who really benefits from tuition on the bank,’ said Alan. ‘He’d caught a lot of carp but also recognised that there were things he could be doing better or didn’t know how to do which is great, and exactly the right attitude. Carl was the first person I’ve taken who had a very clear aim of what he wanted to get from his time together, I was sent a list of things he wanted to learn or improve, and the venue he wanted to go to. Knowing that in advance helped me tailor what we did and even what I took along to help cover exactly those skills and areas.’

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Feature Finding

Taking advice from venue staff and setting up in a large bay at the top end of the 26 acre fishery Alan immediately identifies one of the major problems holding Carl’s feature finding efforts back - the nylon on his marker rod.

‘I wouldn’t be able to feel a great deal through nylon either,’ Alan explained. Taking the line between his hands and pulling it he demonstrated the difference in the stretch in nylon main lines and then repeated the exercise with braid so Carl could appreciate the different properties of the materials.

‘Braid gives you a completely different insight into the underwater world,’ explained Alan.

‘You can feel every bump, every stone and it helps you visualise what is in a swim in a way that you

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just can’t get with the dampening effect of the stretch in nylon. We could use my reels with braid on for feature finding that trip but his first job when he got home was to spool his marker outfit with braid to change his understanding instantly.’

The higher cost of braided line puts many carpers off using them on their marker outfits but it’s essential for feature finding work and because braid doesn’t degrade like mono in sunlight it can last several seasons on the reel.

Alan enlisted several devices to help Carl understand what he was trying to achieve, including donking the lead in the margins down on to gravel to familiarise him with the feeling of the lead touching down, and even simulating feeling the lead

down on dry land, concentrating on the rod position and how to follow the lead down with the rod top to enhance sensitivity.

Within just a few dozen casts in a swim along the bank Carl had got the technique nicely, what you’d call a light bulb moment.

‘I suddenly understood what the different lake beds felt like,’ he said.

‘We found some gravel strips and some soft silt areas. It made me realise that without feeling the lead down or using a marker I might have been wasting my time on previous sessions with baits in thick silt and was never going to catch anything but didn’t know about it.

I’m always going to check my spots before rigs go out now.’

CHARITY CHAMP

Begin with the basics

All about edges

Once the feature finding lesson was over Alan turned his attention to rigging up and immediately set to work checking through the basics.

‘I hadn’t realised my reels needed filling more,’ admitted Carl. ‘After being shown how to load the reels properly with the bulk spool in a bucket of water and filling them both to the lip of the reel made casting so much smoother.’

With the spot earmarked for Carl’s right hand rod needing an accurate cast tight to an island margin at 70 yards, the freshly respooled reels helped enormously.

One of the fundamentals in Alan’s approach to fishing for all species is based on finding as many edges as possible to stack the chances in his favour. He applies this principle to every element of fishing, from location to presentation and bait choice.

‘A new bait is often an edge,’ explained Alan. ‘I’m lucky that I could take some of the new Special Edition Citruz bottom baits along even though they weren’t yet available through the shops.

The point I made to Carl was that not only had Citruz proven to be the most amazing carp catching attractor combination but because the bags contain

both washed out pastel baits and also high-viz pink free boilies we were doing something different to everyone else. I’m sure carp probably get hammered on highviz hookbaits on Broadlands the same as most ticket fisheries but they rarely get a chance to eat a bright pink one for free. Citruz bottom baits allowed us to feed bright pink freebies which could put another little percentage in our favour.’

Carl thought the Citruz smell was lovely and couldn’t wait to try a bag of 10mm Citruz Special Edition Alan left him on a local fishery, also earmarking the smaller baits for some quality roach.

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Chod lessons

Chosen presentation for the Broadlands trip was a chod rig, Alan explaining why he felt it was the best starting point.

‘Taking advice I was told they were quite boilie orientated fish, and I know there are a lot of bream too so a small choddy is more selective than trying to fish with PVA bags and pellet like you might on other day ticket fisheries.

‘But it’s also a great starting point because it’s not just brilliant in terms of hooking mechanics, but also there is no better anti-tangle rig,’ he said. To prove the point he demonstrated to Carl casting it backwards over his head into the lake and winding his choddy in, and each time as expected it was still fishing perfectly.

‘Knowing your rig is always fishing for you is a huge confidence boost, especially if you’re looking to move on to a new water. And the other big plus is that the chod rig is always resetting itself to be fishing 100% efficiently even if a bream or

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tench plays with the bait or a bird picks it up and drops it.’

through to buying ready tied rigs versus tying your own,’ said Carl.

The chod rig is widely used, but as Alan explained to Carl the advantages of it are colossal, and there are plenty of chod rigs that are being tied and presented very badly. Presented well they are still one of the most effective boilie presentations ever devised.

What was more relevant was the way Alan got his points across – reinforcing why he is considered one of the great instructors in carp angling: ‘He explained things in a way I could remember, drawing things on the floor, throwing boilies around the swim to show scattered baiting for example. I know I’ll be able to picture a lot of the things I was told,’ emphasised Carl.

He took Carl through tying his own chods from beginning to end in fine detail, emphasising key points such as using the natural curve of the Chod Link to help curve the finished rig, whipping, safe creation of the D loop using the new Rig Flame Shield, balancing and even how to ensure the line is correctly sunk to ensure the rig has free movement.

By the end of the day the sheer amount of information Alan had shared with Carl was enough to give him a starting point to catch carp anywhere he went in the future.

‘He showed me everything from hook sharpening to KD Rigs to zigs and when or where they work best

As well as respooling Carl’s reels so long casting was easier Alan also outlined the importance of using the Spot On distance sticks and clipping at the spool along with using skyline direction markers to ensure target areas can be hit accurately day or night. Carl was also sent away with instructions to buy a little black note book to record numbers of wraps and distances and direction markers to find spots in each swim, to build up a reference of carp catching areas to help him on Broadlands in future.

CHARITY CHAMP

Stay or go?

By early evening Alan had itchy feet and suspected he and Carl need to move to the opposite bank on the end of the wind to be in with a shout of a carp, but with the emphasis being on tuition he left the decision to Carl.

‘Alan was keen to move but he gave me the option, and asked if I wanted to catch a lot or learn a lot,’ Carl explains. ‘I wanted to learn so he said we’d stay where we were, and we’d learn that day and catch the following morning.’

Up at first light after an actionless night Carl found Alan already packing away in the half light ready to move.

‘The plan was to move in the morning if we didn’t catch, so just after it got dark I went round to the small bay by the clubhouse where the wind was pushing in and baited a swim so we could drop in first thing,’ said Alan.

‘Having fish in front of you is the most important thing of all but allowing them to feed on bait without lines in the water and leads landing on top of them is also a huge edge.’

The plan worked perfectly: ‘We put the first rod out and on the alarm and before I’d baited up the second rod we had a take on the first one. It was a bit of a battle,’ said Carl, who slipped the net under a pristine golden 21 lb 6 oz common on the chod and Citruz combination. ‘I was over the moon.

‘When I caught it Alan made the point that we would have caught more if we’d moved earlier but I knew that and to me it was an opportunity to pick his brain and use it as a lesson. It’s made me absolutely desperate to go back to Broadlands. I went for a whole week and blanked before this so it was a real bonus to be shown where I went wrong and to catch a fish into the bargain. I feel like I’m dubious telling my friends what he’s taught me because I’ve taken some real edges away.

‘I’d recommend a trip like this to anyone, it was priceless, any other time it is literally a money can’t buy experience, and helped a worthwhile charity out at the same time.’

About Lucy’s Bowl FOUNDED by a group of carp anglers led by Dr Keith Sykes, Lucy’s Bowl runs events to raise money for Guide Dogs for the Blind. Both Alan Blair and Nash Tackle are long time supporters. In 2014 enough money was raised to buy and name a guide dog puppy, aptly called Lucy, who appears on the cover of the Guide Dogs for the Blind 2016 Calendar.

search lucysbowl Donations via Paypal to lucysbowlforguidedogs@hotmail.com More details on Broadlands Lake at www.broadlands-lake.co.uk

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NASH KNOWHOW

Setting up a lead clip rig Refining the original Nash invention, the new TT Lead Clip range combines ultimate carp safety, superb anti-tangle properties and unbeatable Diffusion Camouflage concealment. Lead Clips remain the most popular and versatile end tackle choice of all – long casting, offering fast changes of lead sizes and shapes and with the benefit of allowing leads to be ejected to land carp safely no matter how demanding the swim.

Here’s how to set up the go anywhere catch a carp end tackle.

which clip and when?

LEAD CLIP

WEED LEAD CLIP

MICRO LEAD CLIPS

The go anywhere choice, used with variable high grip Lead Clip Tail Rubbers these allow cobweb bags and PVA sticks to be cast without lead loss on impact.

The shorter, smooth rear spigot of the Weed Clip combined with the reduced length Weed Lead Clip Tail Rubber ensures leads can be dropped instantly on the take if required. Perfect for easier playing of carp on long zig hooklinks or weedy and snaggy swims.

Identical design and performance to the Lead Clip and Weed Lead Clip but in reduced micro format for a streamlined presentation. Also popular with specialists. Designed to be compatible with Micro and Micro Ring Swivels.

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NASH KNOWHOW

1

A standard Lead Clip is the first choice for day to day carping unless faced with weed, snags or fishing long zig hooklengths.

2

Thread a Lead Clip down a ready tied Cling-On Leader and locate over the swivel. For compatibility choose Cling-On Leaders finished with Uni Swivels.

3

4

Slide the lead of your choice on to the retaining lug of the clip and push a Lead Clip Tail Rubber down the ClingOn Leader.

5

The ribbed spigot of the Lead Clip and the internal ribs of the Lead Clip Tail Rubbers are designed to interlock and offer variable grip.

6

7

8

9

The quick change clip on the Cling-On Leader allows looped hooklengths to be changed instantly.

Slide a Hooklink Sleeve to secure the link in place.

Where leaders are banned, slide 1518 inches of Cling-On Tungsten Rig Tubing up the main line before the tail rubber and clip. Tie on a Uni or Uni Ring Swivel before locking the clip into place with the retaining peg.

Remove the forked retaining pin that is moulded to the Lead Clip and push it into the holes in the top of the clip, this traps the Uni Swivel in position inside the body of the clip.

Pushed fully over the clip you can cast small cobweb bags and PVA sticks safely without losing the lead on impact with the water.

Remember the Lead Clip always needs to be securely fixed to the Uni Swivel to ensure it can operate correctly, if the Lead Clip and swivel can separate the end tackle is not safe.

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PAUL GARNER UNCOVERED From brand manager to author, consultant and qualified fisheries scientist - Dr Paul Garner’s 20 years in the angling industry have been richer and more varied than almost any other angler you’ll meet. If you want a common sense view on anything from carp to cormorants or commercials – he’s your man.

PERSONAL BESTS: Roach 3 lb 8 oz, Perch 4 lb 3 oz, Pike 37 lb 5 oz, Bream 18 lb 6 oz, Tench 12 lb 10 oz, Zander 19 lb 2 oz, Rudd 3 lb 11 oz, Carp 54 lb 8 oz, Catfish 143 lb, Grayling 2 lb 13 oz, Chub 7 lb 3 oz, Barbel 16 lb 8 oz, Grass carp 36 lb, Crucian carp 4lb 2oz.

PAUL GARNER UNCOVERED

You’ve just released a new book?

It’s called Scratching the Surface and follows my fishing life but also my life around fish and water, so it takes in the fisheries management and scientific side as well the times I’ve spent in the angling trade. It’s self published, 320 pages and took about three years to produce. The writing took two years because I was limited to working on it when I was on holiday.

I’ve fished from Scotland to Kent so there’s and in a lot of different environments so there’s likely to be something in there for everyone. Taking barbel for example the book follows my progression through different rivers and each river has been totally different so there’s a lot of information that hopefully people can relate to.

Your list of personal bests is phenomenal - you must be running out of target fish?

Never – there are still other species like dace and eels that I’ve never even really fished for and then there’s always something bigger to go for. I want to catch a really big cod and have got a trip to the Shetland Islands booked, I’d like to catch a ferox trout too.

Then there’s the challenge of big fish in different types of venues with new problems and that is what keeps me interested. I’m still like a big kid. I’m pike fishing at the moment and am enjoying it so much I could happily go every single day.

NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016 Do carp anglers make good allrounders or do specialists make better carp anglers?

I think a good angler is a good angler and you look at the guys at the top of any sport and they have a very good understanding of what is going on under the water, whether it is how the fish are behaving, where they are going to be and how bait and tackle works. To some it’s natural, others have to work at it more but it’s the same skills irrespective of what someone is trying to catch. You can look at Terry Hearn and Laney and you can see in their eyes they are just hunters, they know how to catch things. Whether it is rabbits or fish, the understanding of the quarry is the key thing.

Do carp have a greater ability to learn than other species? Chub are pretty smart…?

That’s difficult. I don’t think you can take the species as a whole you have to look at individual fish and the environment in which they live. Carp in a low stocked pit that has been hard fished are harder to catch than ones in a runs water. The same applies to chub or barbel, they are a different proposition on the River Wye to the Thames for example. Numbers or scarcity make fish hard to catch or not.

The biggest challenge I’ve had have been very big bream. On some waters they are really tough to catch, yet not on others, and it’s down to natural food, if there’s loads about they don’t need to eat bait at all. I’ve seen many times over the years the situation where there’s one or two really big pike in small trout waters – but again they are hard verging on impossible sometimes to catch because they are never hungry and there’s only normally those one or two fish to go at.

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“…look at Terry Hearn and Laney and you can see in their eyes they are just hunters, they know how to catch things.”

Haven’t specialists benefitted hugely from pinching carpy tactics and ideas?

Yes and no, look back at the founding fathers of modern carping, Dick Walker, Len Arbery, Peter Thomas and they were always all rounders. Fred Wilton didn’t just use high protein baits for carp he was using them for tench and barbel and he still is. Where carp fishing has really pushed things forward is comfort on the bank, beds and bags would never have been developed just for specialists because the market isn’t big enough. The same with the terminal tackle, there’s more top quality end tackle to choose from than ever, all driven by the carp market.

You caught the St. Ives biggie the Fat Lady when bream fishing, must have pulled your string a bit?

It didn’t fight that hard really. I was using gear that gave me a chance with a carp so it was 10 lb line. I was fishing with friends and we guessed it was a carp, but the venue had a massive blue green algal bloom so it was like paint and we didn’t know what fish it was until it popped up for the net.

PAUL GARNER UNCOVERED Is the ‘carp approach’ a good model for other species?

Sometimes and sometimes not. But it can definitely help being more selective for the bigger fish of other species. There was a lot of boilies going in to St. Ives and I noticed the boilies were singling out the bigger bream. I would have caught more bream using a bait like casters but the bigger fish were eating boilies. It’s the same for barbel and chub and it goes back to the original Wilton theory and that is food recognition, plus more basic elements that we sometimes miss like a bigger bait is more difficult for a smaller fish to eat.

I was catching a lot of barbel the other year using pellets and hemp, standard sort of tactics, then as an experiment switched to just using 15 and 20mm boilies and also changed where I was fishing. I went to slow deep featureless stretches. I caught less, but went from catching one double-figure barbel in ten fish to one in three being over 10 lb.

The same sort of lessons apply to carp, so many times on day ticket waters you catch lots of fish but the biggest carp of a trip comes from a really difficult place to cast to down the margins, somewhere that isn’t regularly pressured and it only produces a very odd fish, but almost always the biggest.

“I think the sense of touch in terms of alarming fish is very under rated compared to the danger of them seeing it.

I don’t think any fish likes touching line.”

How did the diving and filming underwater in fisheries come about?

I bumped into former barbel record holder Stuart Morgan and he was already diving, and had got into it to see what fish were doing and help understand what was going on when he fished. We got together and started diving stillwaters and rivers and documenting what we were finding, not just carp stuff, but everything from trotting maggots to feeders, floater fishing and pike fishing.

Does diving add a simplicity because you can visualise what is and isn’t really happening?

It takes the confusion away. There are so many magazines and sources of information and everyone has got an opinion. I’m not saying anyone is right or wrong but too much information is a problem because you don’t know what applies to your fishing. I don’t believe people are trying to sell you lies but there’s so much variation in venues that not everything is applicable to everyone.

In my mind’s eye I refer back to what I’ve seen underwater which helps keep it simple.

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NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016 Biggest change in your own fishing since you started underwater filming?

I won’t use slack lines, because perversely they are often more conspicuous. My eyes underwater tell me that Bullet Braid is much less obvious than any monofilament. Fished semislack you get it hugging the bottom at the business end and it follows the contours of the bottom but because of the lack of stretch the indication is still phenomenal.

With lines, I think the sense of touch in terms of alarming fish is very under rated compared to the danger of them seeing it. I don’t think any fish likes touching line.

With Bullet because it is so dense there’s less chance of fish touching it because it is lying flat on the bottom. I use it for a lot of my fishing now.

Biggest mistake you think we all make carpers based on what you’ve seen?

Blaming other things when the problem is actually that you haven’t got any feeding fish in front of you. There might be an odd fish about but there’s not numbers of carp and they’re not interested. In the spring I had a tiny video camera under a marker float and could cast it out and have a look down into my swim, and if I wasn’t catching bream it was because the bait was all still there on the bottom and the bream weren’t in that part of the lake.

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“I think the sense of touch in terms of alarming fish is very under rated compared to the danger of them seeing it.

I don’t think any fish likes touching line.”

As a fishery scientist what’s your take on otter predation? Mass hysteria or future doom and gloom?

Definitely doom and gloom, especially for anglers fishing for the biggest fish because there’s so few of them and they make a good target for an apex predator. You only need to have a couple of very big carp or barbel eaten and that’s the end of a fishery in terms of its significance within the sport. The problem we will always have arguing the case with non anglers is that they point to the fact there are fish to be caught in a river or stillwater, they don’t understand the significance of losing bigger fish.

PAUL GARNER UNCOVERED

Natural venues like rivers can’t be protected. We will reach a point of natural balance the question is how many fish will we lose before then? And also what is natural balance? We never used to have 20 lb barbel, then we did for a bit and now we don’t again. The environment is a constantly changing thing. With the exception of carp we do ourselves no favours by not managing our fisheries better. We always expect it to be down to the Environment Agency to look after out fisheries. A club that was pro active would stock young barbel every year for example. If you pro actively manage what you’ve got you can lessen the effect of change.

Is there any solution to the spread of Signal Red crayfish in our rivers and stillwaters?

Trapping can work from a fishing perspective, in that it reduces numbers so they aren’t so much of a problem but as far as I know you can’t ever eradicate them. Flooding isn’t helping because it shifts populations around as well. Some rivers I have fished you can’t keep a bait in for more than half an hour in the summer. The plus side is that barbel, carp, chub and perch are all eating the small ones, especially when they shed their shell.

“…if we stocked some of our big reservoirs with carp like they do in France we could see the same sort of thing happening…”

Are UK venues rich enough to ever grow carp the size we see in France or even Hungary?

I don’t think it’s to do with how rich the venues are, it’s average water temperature. At around 15 degrees Centigrade a carp stops growing, so the longer you are under that each calendar year the less chance you are going to grow big carp. So central Europe has cold winters but very warm summers so they grow more during the warmer periods. But I also believe if we stocked some of our big reservoirs with carp like they do in France we could see the same sort of thing happening that we saw at venues like Chantecoq.

One bit of kit Nash can’t have back...

Easy, my Titan. It was the first piece of kit I ordered from Nash when I joined five years ago and I’m still using the same one. I like the original Titan model because of the headroom and as I often travel a long way to fish I do 2-3 days at a time and need to be comfortable.

Once it’s up the cover is so tight there’s no flapping or any noise even in windy conditions, and it’s the only shelter I’ve ever fished under that I can say that about. It means I get a much better night’s sleep.

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Away from fishing what does Paul Garner enjoy or do?

Very little! You would be surprised how little, I’d always rather go fishing. I’m really into music though, alternative rock like Queens of the Stone Age, Melvins and Soundgarden. I’m also a Radio 4 fan, partly because it’s company when I’m fishing.

Best bit of fishing advice ever?

Use gear that will land the fish you’re after. I used to match fish with my dad and we went on a coach trip every fortnight. There were two types of anglers the older guys and the younger guys. The younger lads always had a tale on the coach home about if only they’d landed what they’d hooked they would have won. The old boys didn’t need to tell stories, they caught less but landed what they hooked and therefore generally won!

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I’m really into music though, alternative rock like Queens of the Stone Age, Melvins and Soundgarden.

Scratching the Surface is available direct from www.drpaulgarner.co.uk

On my rods right now you’ll find...

Lots of mud and a lot of scratches. I’ve got 40 lb braid on and some wire traces.

The 3.5 lb Scopes are great for bait fishing for predators.

NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016

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Q&A WITH JULIAN CUNDIFF

Q&A

Julian Cundiff

fish three rods on a prolific Q Iwater and keep getting tangles and losing fish when they swim through my other lines. How can I stop it?

MARK, AYLESBURY Whenever you fish more than one rod there is always a danger of tangles with another rod but there are numerous ways to reduce this happening. The most simple is not to fish your rods on buzzer bars all together but instead to fish them on single banksticks. By spreading your rods out there is a massive reduction in tangles because there’s more space between the lines.

Where possible I always fish single sticks with the rod tip pointing at the end tackle. One rod in the extreme left, one in the extreme right and one in the middle of the swim – common sense.

It’s probably not fashionable but I fish my rod tips low or better still pointing downwards. Thirdly slack, or slacker lines laid along the bottom are less likely to get picked up by another carp you are playing. Lastly, back leads keep the lines out of harm’s way along the bottom but because they can dramatically reduce bite indication if used badly, I reserve them for last option. Spread your lines, steer carp away from them and don’t panic!

Where possible I always fish single sticks with the rod tip pointing at the end tackle. One rod in the extreme left, one in the extreme right and one in the middle of the swim – common sense

carp still follow the wind Q Do in the colder months?

JEFF, POCKLINGTON The best tip on location is that carp are where they are and if you see carp showing anywhere at your venue that's where your end tackle and you should be. That said if you can't find them and are relying on educated guesswork then knowing how the wind works seasonally is important.

The warmer the wind the more likely the carp are to be following it and on the windward bank. A wind blowing from the south or west tends to be very attractive to carp yet one blowing from the east or north is likely to be less attractive to your quarry. The later in the year it gets the more likely it is north and east winds will

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be even colder too Jeff.

Get yourself a compass and be aware of wind direction is my first tip. At this time of year the southerly and westerly winds are usually still okay but the later it gets the more likely it is that wind direction is no help full stop. From November onwards I tend to avoid fishing into the wind at all and like to have it behind me.

But always let your eyes tell you first and educated guesswork next – how a wind makes you feel is a simple but surprisingly guideline, if it is going right through you stay off the back of it.

should I change from Q When the 4G Squid you use and

often should I change Q How my mainline?

move onto a winter bait?

GEOFF, SELBY

GARY, OXON Like you I am on the 4G Squid and in all honesty other than when we’re talking freeze up type conditions that's what I intend to use all year round. The 4G Squid is designed for all year round use and when you've been putting it into your water from spring onwards to change your bait now and potentially undo the good work is plain daft.

Really Gary it’s a case of learning how to use the 4G to your best advantage as it gets colder. I tend to start using it smaller (10mm) which I find is more effective as the water temperatures come down. I also start to crumb it up or even better use the amazing 4G Flake. This really pumps out the attractors and gets the carp really excited.

I do also start to play about with hookbaits and currently I am trying the new pink Citruz hookbaits over 4G mush. Don’t change from 4G but to get the best results start to think about how you apply it and be flexible about what you fish over the top of it and don’t be scared of experimenting with alternative hookbaits.

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I do also start to play about with hookbaits and currently I am trying the new pink Citruz hookbaits over 4G mush

A lot depends on which line you choose, how often you use it and in what circumstances. Line degrades over time and the first tip I can give you is to keep a constant look at it no matter what brand you choose. When I cast out and wind in I always feel the line between my fingers for any abrasions and damage.

At the end of the session I check it for damage too. Generally I change my line once a year if it is a monofilament and twice a year if its fluorocarbon. However you can’t afford to be too regimented. If my water has plenty of weed and snags and I’m fishing a lot it may get changed more regularly. If it is open and clear and I go less once a year is fine. The key is to constantly check the line and if it feels or looks iffy change it. Unless I know I might need to be distance casting on a venue I only wind on around 150 yards of line onto each spool so a bulk spool of 1000 yards of D-Cam goes a long, long way.

Not sure how to respool monofilament correctly? click here to heck out the guide in the FAQ pages of the website. http:// www.nashtackle.co.uk/faq/view/how-tospool-your-reels-with-nxt-d-cam

Q&A WITH JULIAN CUNDIFF know you rate the Slicker Q IHemp and Tiger Nut Slush but what hookbaits do you use?

DAVE, MANSFIELD Yes I am loving the particle range but it may surprise some that I always use it in combination with the boilie range. I used to crumb up my Monster Squid and Scopex Squid but nowadays with the Flake range it’s already done for me and in all honesty the Flake is more effective than just crumb you prepare yourself.

If I feel that the carp are feeding on my particle and Flake 'mush' and I am not getting takes the first change is to a tiger nut hookbait which tends to do the trick

1

Flake is perfect for mixing with the Particle range, spreading the taste and smell of your boilies through the feed

2

Add a 1 kg bag of Flake to 1 kg of Slicker Hemp and mix with 1/3 of a kilo of Tiger Nut Slush

3

Keep hookbaits small – single or double 10mm bottom baits are a great choice over particle ‘mush’

My starting point is to fish a 4G hookbait (usually small) over it be a bottom bait or pop up. If I can fish two rods or more I tend to fish one standard 4G bait and one brighter one like white, yellow or pink. Whatever bait gets the bite I then tend to get both or all three rods on it.

It’s amazing that some days all the bites come on white and some days it’s the brown/red 4G. Why I have no idea but if it’s shouting at me then I take the advice.

If I feel that the carp are feeding on my particle and Flake 'mush' and I am not getting takes the first change is to a tiger nut hookbait which tends to do the trick.

Either a single or double nut on a size 6 or 7 Fang Twister and a little stringer of 10mm 4G freebies....If you are not getting takes and think you should be Dave start experimenting.

4

There is often a preference for hookbait colour, try a plain bottom bait on one rod and a bright 10mm Rainbow pop up on the other

5

If bites don’t come on a small boilie one or two Mixed Candy Tigers on the hair normally sorts them out

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Q&A WITH JULIAN CUNDIFF

seen how well you’ve Q I’ve done on floaters this summer - is it possible to catch on the surface later in the year or is just a summer tactic?

PETE, STAUNTON It used to be accepted that surface fishing was a summer only tactic but believe me that has long been disproved whether the carp are big or small. The great Peter Springate has caught carp for 78 months in a row ALL off the top so that's almost 7 years of cold carp catching on floating baits. Whoever would have guessed that was possible?

No matter where I am fishing in the winter I always fire or Spomb out some Risers and Slickers just to see if any are any carp around and prepared to feed off the top.

You'd be amazed at how often what looks like a dead piece of water has carp prepared to take off the top even later in the year. For out in open water I add a light glug of the Strawberry Slicker Juice to flatten off the ripple. Where there are weed and snags close in and the carp are margin feeders stalking them off the top in the edge with a freelined Zig Bug or banded Slicker Pellet is a good trick.

It used to be accepted that surface fishing was a summer only tactic but believe me that has long been disproved whether the carp are big or small.

In all honesty Pete you won't know unless you try. Get your polarised glasses on, climb trees, put some surface baits out and do your best. The trick is to be sensible and remember that a carp’s appetite in the colder months will be reduced. If you want to try persisting on top through the autumn and into winter make it easier for yourself with venue choice. Drayton, Chestnut and Thorpe Lea are great examples of fisheries to learn your cold water surface fishing lessons. Good luck Pete!

JULES’ TOP TIP With the nights drawing in and most of my fishing 6pm to 6am it's time to look properly at overnight gear. The good old brolly is now reserved for day sessions and the Groundhog with its side protection takes its place. A trimmed down groundsheet goes in the bedchair bag and the Air Shield Underlay goes into Sleep System. It takes up little extra room but means even on the coldest of nights I never need a jacket on. A gas lamp is a must, a head torch plus spare batteries and a hand torch. Towels are a must, the Scope jacket and trousers are always in the barrow bag and some warm gloves too. It's a matter of accepting it's gonna be darker, wetter and colder but the better you feel the better you will fish. And if I can do it at 52 you younger tigers definitely can....

See you out there, mine’s a coffee!

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NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016

In the spring most of the fish tend to be found in shallower water – not so shocking really with spawning on their minds and the shallower water warming first and probably producing the first natural food to exploit. Surprisingly, as the water warms up moving in to summer the fish generally then start to go deeper. And although it seems illogical, as a general rule the warmer it gets, the deeper the fish go. From mid summer through to autumn one of my favourite depths is around 40 feet and I’ve had some big hits between July and October at that depth. Some friends I know like to fish even deeper than that, anything down to 60 feet.

After that the main change usually happens around the start of December when the colder temperatures really start to take hold, especially at night.

Many people would think that it would be the signal for the fish to go deeper but nothing could be further from the truth as they actually head more towards the surface layers. By mid December it’s rare for me to catch in water deeper than around 20 feet, with many coming between 10 and 15 feet.

A big summer mirror from Cassien that came from over 40 feet.

In winter shallower water was better.

This big common came from 10 feet late December

“The warmer it gets the deeper the fish go.”

Without a doubt it has more to do with the thermocline than anything else and if you want to catch those fish you have to put the baits in the depths where they want to be and feel comfortable. The shallower plateau areas and margins are the areas which warm up faster in the sun and hold the temperatures better.

I’ve swum around a number of venues over the years and you can feel a marked difference in localised temperature even on the surface, and as you go deeper the same thing becomes more pronounced.

What the temperatures are depends on the season and also the type of venue – so again it comes down to exploring shallows and deeps and seeing which are productive and when.

It does amaze me how carp behave in deep waters, I’ve watched them rolling on the surface in 50 feet and then caught fish on bottom baits underneath them.

The deepest I know of carp being caught is in 90 feet of water.

Don’t forget carp adjust their own buoyancy by changing the air in the swimbladder – which is often why they roll in the first place. They need to adjust

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the buoyancy of their body if they are changing depths, to maintain comfort and reduce energy expenditure. More often we associate rolling with feeding, but that’s often because if a carp is filling itself up with food it then needs to change its buoyancy again.

In summer deep water action could come at any time.

Curiously I have noticed when playing carp hooked in deep water that sometimes they get to a certain depth and I just can’t shift them at all, until suddenly there’s a huge plume of bubbles hits the surface and then they start to come up again. I’m sure it’s the same thing, and it’s a pressure adjustment in the swimbladder – but I’ve never known it cause them any problems.

EXCEPTIONS OF COURSE There are as you would expect exceptions to the Cassien ‘rules’.

One factor that always changes carp behaviour is when the water level drops.

Even if the level drops by just 5 or 10 feet, which doesn’t seem excessive in a venue with depths of 70 to 150 feet the fish react quickly to that and are more likely to head for deeper water and stay there for longer periods.

But the jigsaw pieces about depth I slowly put together on Cassien tend to apply very well to many other waters.

The first time I fished at Iktus Lake in the south west of France was in the spring when it had been warm but it was due to get cold and even snow for a few days. The owner told us that the lake was mostly around 25 to 30 feet deep mostly with several bars that rose up to around 10 feet in places. I remarked to Tim Paisley who made the journey with us that they’d all be on the tops of the bars as it made the most sense to me and sure enough we both caught quite a few fish that trip and all of them came from the tops of the features.

“The deepest I know of carp being caught is 90 feet…”

I rely a lot on echo sounders abroad – but you still have to decide what depths to present baits in

Sometimes the fish will want to feed on the tops of features, other times they will feel happier at the bottom of the drop-offs.

ECHO SOUNDER SANDWICH These days the vast majority of my depth and feature finding is done with an echo sounder when boats are allowed. Any echo sounder is only a basic tool that gives you a depth reading, the other vital information being the greyline, which gives an indication of how firm or soft the bottom is and a temperature reading - although that will only be a surface reading. It is then down to the angler to read what they see on the screen and use that information to help them decide where and how they should be fishing. I still like to use either a prodding stick or a spare rod with a lead tied on the end to get a better feel of what the bottom is like, but the depths are plain to see and it’s just a matter of deciding where you should be fishing. Sometimes the fish will want to be on the tops of features while other times they prefer to be right at the bottom.

It’s not always clear what you have to do and sometimes it’s just trial and error.

If I can use four rods then I start off by fishing each rod at a different depth, going back to Cassien it’s a method I

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employ on many of my trips there – say one rod in 10 feet, one in 15, one in 25 and one in 40 feet. Normally the carp let you know when you’ve got it right and then all rods can be fished at the productive depth. Sometimes two different depths might work, it could be that the fish will prefer the deep water but also come to feed amongst marginal weed, or sometimes they will come in to shallower water at night and then go deeper again during the day.

MOVING TARGET The practicalities of carping in deeper water are no different to shallower water.

When positioning hookbaits from a boat Feature finding with a boat and echo sounder saves so much time

“very deep waters in the UK… tend to act more like continental waters I’ve fished.”

At Grenville in Cambridge the depths go to over 40 feet and finding where the fish want to be is vital.

I like to use a marker or a polyball back up the line to ensure I drop free offerings around it – but it’s not so much because the bait spreads out in deeper water, it’s more because a boat can drift a long way even while you take your eyes off the water to open a bucket and fill a scoop or pick a handful of baits up. With a visual marker you always know where the rig has been dropped. The deeper the water the more tendency bait has to spread as it sinks but I favour large baited areas a lot of the time, and quite like a spread of bait anyway so it’s no concern.

When it comes to UK waters things can be quite different. In most cases our waters are much, much shallower.

But even when the depth of water is much less, finding the right level can still be critical. That is certainly true of Zig fishing. Zigging can be productive at any time of the year but particularly when there are big temperature changes going on such as in the spring or late autumn.

I’ve seen spectacular results in the spring when people have fished Zigs just in the upper layers. It often follows those chilly nights when the sun is bright and warms the upper layers. My best result on Zigs came in October when the nights and mornings were cold and frosty but

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the sun, when it came up had some warmth to it. My baits on the bottom were ignored but a Zig on one rod went off within minutes! A short while later another take proved that it wasn’t a fluke and before long I had all three rods fishing Zigs. Even though the water was only between 6 and 7 feet deep the fish wouldn’t feed on the bottom and yet the Zig at mid depth of between 3 to 4 feet was picked up regularly. I ended up with nine fish in a couple of days including my biggest ever UK fish – the right depth was undoubtedly the main factor on that occasion. It’s the same principle as finding the productive depth when fishing abroad – just on a smaller scale.

When fishing the rivers I’ve often found that the biggest fish will come from the deepest water like this St. Lawrence common.

A cold, frosty morning in Kent and finding the right depth was undoubtedly the key to catching.

We do have some very deep waters in the UK and from my experience they tend to act more like the continental waters I’ve fished. Grenville Lake in Cambridgeshire is one of the deeper UK venues that I’ve fished, dropping to over 40 feet in a few places. It is probably affected more by weather conditions than any lake I know, being quite open and windswept. There aren’t many in the way of shallow features out in the lake, there is one large plateau that comes up to around 17 feet and the carp do move in on that feature in numbers at times, especially around May and June when the water warms up. But the only really shallow areas are in the margins so when the fish decide to get right up on the top it is often very close in to the edge rather than cruising about in the middle. But in the winter it would seem that the fish act like they do in many UK waters and they

‘Looking for features was secondary to looking for the correct depths…”

head for the deeper parts close to the middle and many of the winter captures tend to come from 30 feet or more.

I guess it shows that waters can be very different in the way fish react to temperature changes and the time of year but on each and every water I’ve fished depth has generally played a significant part. On some waters it is more vital to get it right than on others but certainly understanding depths and how they work at any given time is so beneficial to success in the long run.

With Cassien I probably had the best water in the world to learn on and I found that often looking for features was secondary to looking for the correct depths, in fact I began to look on the depths as the features themselves and once I did that everything else began to fit in to place.

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KILLER KIT

Simon Crow

KAPTIVE RETAINER SLING

The floating Kaptive Retainer Slings weigh, carry, retain and release – no wonder they have become standard carp care items worldwide.

IT isn’t always the glamorous or high profile items of tackle that you appreciate day in, day out, and I’d reckon the Kaptive Retainer Slings are amongst my favourite bits of Nash kit.

As someone who was behind the launch of the first ever Retainer Sling several years ago, I wouldn’t have thought the product could be improved so much. The Nash Kaptive Retainer Sling is by far the best available.

There are two versions, standard size which is ideal for most UK carp fisheries and the XL for the truly monster carp of the continent. I’ve used both, with Yorkshire carp to

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almost 40 lb in the standard and a personal best 71 lb common in the XL this year alone.

The quality stands out, the material is soft and there’s no peeling or degrading of the inner skin which does happen with some models when they are regularly packed away wet. It is also noticeable how good the mesh at the sides is, allowing free passage of water to keep fish comfortable when they are briefly retained, and it’s all double stitched for strength.

Nash has reduced the overall weight of the sling by 8oz through the use of fibreglass poles, these are covered in end-to-end buoyant

foam which makes it even more stable in the water. I know Steve Briggs had a carp escape from a sling (not a Nash one!) which had only small segments of foam at the top, so it’s a welcome addition. The design team have also added strips of Velcro to the two poles so they can be joined together.

A big plus is the middle zip which keeps carp nice and safe inside the sling. It’s big and easy to slide even when you’re wet or cold or the retainer itself is caked in thick mud. You don’t want a zip getting jammed with a carp on the mat after all! The zip runs around the sides and top opening of the sling,

KILLER KIT

ALMOST READY FOR THE RETAINER SLING

NASH KAPTIVE RETAINER SLING

SAFE AND SECURE

ATTENTION TO DETAIL MEANS THE RETAINER SLING STANDS HEAD AND SHOULDERS ABOVE THE COMPETITION SIMON CROW 4X4 56LB 12OZ

the top section boasting additional material too so it is wider which allows for even the broadest of carp to sit comfortably.

The reflective material on the top is a nice touch too, making the retainer easy to locate in the dark under head torch light, and there’s also a tether cord with bankstick screw in its own little side storage pocket.

Mine have weighed and retained hundreds of carp over many years and they have become such a part of my day to day carp care I’d struggle to manage without them – carp friendly, practical – just brilliant!

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Tales of the unexpected Oxford based Nash consultant Alan Storey takes the prize for the most unusual captures reported in recent months – including an estimated 70 lb Blue Shark on a mackerel flapper and Key boilie cocktail. True!

‘Shark fishing is absolutely new to me but I know some lads who go out in the Irish Sea and went along with them,’ explained the accomplished all-rounder.

‘I asked about the rigs and asked if I could tie a boilie to one of the hooks – The Key is a ‘live’ bait because

of the enzymes so it was too good a chance to pass up. We’re talking about a 15mm boilie on a hook six inches long,’ he laughed.

Suspending mackerel flappers at 20, 30, 40 and 50 feet Alan drew second turn to hit a take, and amazingly it was the rod with the boilie on the hook with the mackerel.

‘The lads knew I was doing it for a laugh but I did explain it was proper quality boilie, and it must have been The Key that made the difference because it really is a live bait…’

Thames squid stunner Alan’s debut shark hasn’t been his only capture making headlines recently, netting a surprise 34 lb 12 oz common from the River Thames whilst bream fishing.

Tackling the Thames near Oxford the carp made a fast appearance following prebaiting designed to pull slabs for a magazine feature: ‘I baited for three nights, with a couple of handfuls of pellets, and a couple of handfuls of 4G Squid boilies, and fished the fourth night, Alan explained. ‘One rod went down the middle, one down the edge and before I could roll a fag the rod in the middle went off.’

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The Thames giant had picked up a 15mm 4G boilie bottom bait on a size 8 Twister to just 6 lb line direct on feeder gear with a quivertip rod.

‘It made one 50-60 yard run, thankfully in the right direction,’ he said. ‘Then it just stayed under my feet, because there was deep water there. I wasn’t too worried as you can achieve quite a lot on balanced gear if you play fish gently,’ continued Alan who has caught carp to 27 lb roach fishing with size 16 hooks and 3 lb line.

‘What blew me away was the sheer size of it, a tremendous fish for a river.’ We’d have to agree!

‘What blew me away was the sheer size of it, a tremendous fish for a river.’

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ISSUE 22 • WINTER 2016