Road Trip Feb

THE ROAD TRIP | ALAN BLAIR

ALAN BLAIR | THE ROAD TRIP

ALAN BLAIR goes on a whistle-stop tour around the UK in search of carp from an array of offbeat venues.

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ost of my fishing is done for a filming commitment or in between my normal working schedule and consists of overnight sessions. It’s rare these days that I get to fish for myself for any length of time.

With open days and meetings spanning from Essex to Leeds from Thursday to Saturday, I plotted a route and got to finding some fishing spots on the way. It seemed like a no-brainer to try and catch a carp or two along the way; it would certainly make the drive more bearable. I tapped up a couple of anglers on the Nash team and I soon had a diversity of venues to fish on the way up to Leeds.

The first step on my trip was to pick up our new team member, Max Hendry. He has recently taken on the roll of Nashbait brand manager and I thought there was no better way for him to get integrated into Nash life than seeing first-hand how we go about our work.

I picked him up at around 3pm and after a stop at the local KFC and a quick meeting at a tackle shop, we were on the way up to our first spot for the night.

The area is a section of the Grantham Canal in a small Nottinghamshire village. At one end of this stretch an old lock blocks the way. On the other side reeds and siltation make it impassable. This makes this area of canal its own ecosystem, like a lake. The stock of fish in the stretch has dwindled over the years, but there are still a few originals. With a small grassy outcrop to push the banksticks into we set about getting the rods out for the night, with the streetlights providing illumination. Just off the street the canal widens into a marina area. It’s a large bowl area and even in the dim light we could see the odd carp disturb the surface.

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With excitement taking over I raced to get the rods out on the spots. My favoured chod rig went out on two. I know that it will be fishing no matter what I lands on, which is perfect when you want to get a quick bite from an unfamiliar stretch of canal.

I like to fish my chod rigs differently from most. I am not

trying to be big-fish selective, all I want to do is get a bite from a carp. With that in mind, I always opt to fish a chod rig with a 10mm pop-up. With most anglers using 15-millers as the hook bait, I seldom see small hook baits on the chod rig, but they are definitely an edge. With a couple of chod rigs placed in the likely looking spots,

the rigs are baited with a spread of the matching Citruz 10mm baits.

On another rod I opted to fish with a light bait mix. This is my goto concoction when the fish are not in the feeding mood. It has bags of attraction and not a lot of food value and can stir even the most lethargic carp into a feed.

I start by adding a good few

slices of bread and mash them up; a staple of any canal or park lake mix is bread due to the fish’s familiarity with it. I then add maggots and hemp before giving it extra visual colour and more solid food items in the form of crushed Citruz boilies. Finally, I add some of the Fizzing Stick Mix. This really clouds up the water and pulls the fish onto the spot with its active ingredients. I used a baiting spoon over a rod in the hope that something different might stir them to feed in the cold water.

With all the rods set, I made a cup of tea and had a tidy up while Max went off shooting photographs, using the streetlights and a nearby pub as the backdrop.

I can’t help feeling that we might have missed out on a big pub dinner by being too eager for KFC earlier that evening. I won’t be making that mistake again.

A local Nash team angler, Chris Smith, popped down for a chat and a cup of tea. He told us about the local area and we were keen to make

You never know what you are going to catch in the canals and having only been on the stretch a few hours it certainly paid off.

ALAN BLAIR AGE: 32 UK PB: 55lb 4oz OCCUPATION: Operations director SPONSORS: Nash Tackle & Bait INSTAGRAM: @urbanbanx FACEBOOK: Urban Banx with Alan Blair TOTAL CAR P 089

THE ROAD TRIP | ALAN BLAIR

STEP-BY-STEP

Elasticated Bait Swivel

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A real little edge, these elasticated bait swivels make changing baits on the move a simple task.

Simply attach your chosen pop-up with a baiting needle and pull the elastic loop through the bait.

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The elastic allows you to use baits of all sizes quickly and easily. Simply secure with a traditional hair stop.

Big city lights. Alan is off on the hunt for an urban carp in the middle of Nottingham in the early hours.

the most of the fishing while we were there. He told us about a local section of the Grantham Canal, again landlocked, that had a small stock of 20 or so carp up to mid-thirties, and we talked about possible areas ready for the next day.

At around midnight the chod-rig rod ripped off and I jumped the metal railing that separates the rods from the street. The fish put up a good fight but I soon had him sulking in the net. We unhooked it in the light of the streetlamps and put him in the sack for the night so we could get a better look in the morning.

I love every minute of this sort of fishing. New venues give you that sense of adventure, especially when they are as interesting as this piece of canal.

Only bream gave themselves up in the early hours, with a flurry of them falling to the mashed bread stick mix. I was hoping their activity would get the carp feeding.

I packed the car ready to get off to the next spot. The fish we’d caught was a lovely common of low to mid-doubles, a proper canal character. Max got some shots and we were off to scope out a new area.

We arrived at a small car park and prepared a couple of rods with freelining gear and wearing polarised glasses we got on our toes. The stretch of canal is completely closed off and the result is a gin-clear, weedy, reedlined carp heaven. We were told that they are tricky fish to catch and with 20 of them calling this place home, you can see why.

After a couple of walks we saw nothing but big pike. On the third we spotted a couple of nice carp but they were cruising swiftly and we soon lost sight of them in the reeds.

After a while it was clear that the fish were being really elusive and we couldn’t really formulate a plan if we couldn’t find them. In the end I had an hour fishing for a particularly big pike, but even he wasn’t interested. We decided to call it a day.

With an hour or two before dark we decided to get some food and check out a spot in front of an office block in the centre of Nottingham.

When we arrived it was busy with people but we did spot a good few carp. The lake features a little inlet and there were fish in

abundance, including some good ones up to 20lb. With it being so busy we decided to get onto our next stop, with a view of returning at night.

The next pit stop was for fish and chips followed by a slide show put on by the Nottingham Carp Study Group. I do talks up and down the country and it was good to meet lots of anglers from the local area and share stories of my fishing with them. It was a great turnout despite the M1 being closed.

After showing off some rig bits and answering any questions, Max and I were on the road again bound for the office lake. With just a rod, unhooking mat and net, we headed over to the little inlet.

I swiftly flaked up some bread and threw it in. It quickly got their

There were fish in “ abundance, including some good ones up to 20lb. ” The first spot. A small section of the canal involved sleeping on a village high street.

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THE ROAD TRIP | ALAN BLAIR

ALAN BLAIR | THE ROAD TRIP

attention and before long a few With an open day at Erics Angling swirls could be seen in the dim scheduled for the next day so we light of the office block. I watched needed at least a couple of hours’ as the fish circled the bread sleep. and decided that a slow-sinking The final destination was breadflake would be the ideal inputted into the satnav and Max hook bait to try and entice these started eating up more miles carp. After a couple of chucks before we hit our destination, the we watched as a fish A1 bridge over the river Aire. approached the hook We parked in a lay-by bait and sucked it in and checked out the with gusto. I struck surrounding area. and my little In the shadow of sawn-off plunged the power station DID YOU KNOW: over the railings. chimney and Many of the urban I played the fish flanked by an old canals and rivers can be for what felt like bridge and huge fished for free. It might be a few seconds concrete pillars of worth investigating before I managed the A1 bridge, the first, though! to dip the net under spot allowed access a small common of to the water’s edge. around 7lb. It was most A slow-flow stretch looked welcome for a quick in and out ideal for the resident carp, some of piece of opportunist angling. Max which grow to over 50lb. We were took a few snaps with the offices setting up in the same stretch as providing a well-lit backdrop. where the river record was caught I returned the fish and we got in 2016. on the road again. It was well past With the anticipation of a midnight, but the night was still 50-pounder in our thoughts, young so I got the satnav fired up we got the gear out of the and some drum and bass on the car and started to rig radio and Max made tracks in the up the rods. As we van while I had a kip. were unpacking, a Our destination was Sheffield, police car stopped more specifically the canals that and the occupants run through the city there. There asked us what we are a good few carp in the system were up to. Bearing of canals there so we thought it in mind it was was worth a look to see if we could 4.30am and there do a night. were two lads in After walking round for an hour a lay-by with a van we decided that we were better full of stuff, they were off leaving that for another day. bound to ask questions.

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KILLER KIT | USING 10MM CITRUZ BOILIES WITH A 10MM POP-UP ON THE HOOK ALLOWS ALAN TO HOOK CARP OF ALL SIZES ON THE CANALS. HE DOESN’T WANT TO ONLY CATCH BIG FISH, HE WANTS TO GET A BITE FROM A CARP AND THE 10MMS HELP HIM DO THIS. THESE HIGH-ATTRACT BAITS ARE PERFECT FOR GETTING THAT ALL-IMPORTANT ONE BITE WHEN YOU FIRST TURN UP AT A LAKE.

Long hook link and smelly Cultured baits were the order of the session on the River Aire near Leeds.

We managed a quick snap of this angry ghost common in the dappled lights from the office block.

After spotting the fish moving in the shallow water, Alan flicked out a piece of slow sinking bread and it was away in seconds.

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A quick brew before getting ready to hit the road.

It was crazy, nearly pulling me off my feet on more than one occasion.

On sliding open the side door on the van the policeman was met with a mountain of gear. He took one look and promptly walked away to leave us to our fishing; he simply didn’t want to get involved.

Once I got the Scope recon shelter set up, I prepared a few rigs. With longer hook links to combat the flow, along with fishy The Key Cray Cultured hook baits to really give the fish something to home in on, I soon had a couple of rods fishing on the marginal shelf on each side of the river. With tiredness taking over we crashed until the morning.

The rods remained motionless that night – even the bream weren’t forthcoming – but we woke to a lush, warm sunrise.

We sat back and chilled out with a morning brew steaming away before we got up and prepared to

leave for the Erics open day.

We arrived there at around 10am. It was great to see such a good turnout for such a well laid out store. I got to meet numerous anglers who were telling us about all the urban fishing available in the north, along with chatting rigs, bait and even hardware. It was great to see such enthusiasm for the sort of fishing that has become such a big part of my angling.

One highlight of the day was using the fish-playing simulator at Erics. It emulates the movement of a fish taking line and surging off, allowing you to play a carp. It’s a great way of seeing how a rod and reel combination performs in a fish-playing scenario. We had a go with the carp rod before they let us rig it up with a boat rod and multiplier reel. The lads had set it to simulate playing a tuna. It was

crazy, nearly pulling me off my feet on more than one occasion.

After all the fun of the tuna, I started the long journey home to Essex. These fishing excursions definitely keep me going, even when the fishing is tough. It gives me the chance to get out on the bank, which with my work schedule is for filming and photography. I am already looking forward to the next one.

It was a great turnout at the Erics Angling open day.

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