Road trip july

THE ROAD TRIP | ALAN BLAIR

ALAN BLAIR | THE ROAD TRIP

ALAN BLAIR heads southwest in search of carp before visiting the annual Horseshoe carp camp.

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

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very month the Road Trip pleasantly creeps up on me. It’s one of the most enjoyable parts of my schedule, fishing lots of venues in the UK and getting to sample what different regions have to offer. This month is no exception.

With The Carp Society Junior Carp Camp to attend, we got on the road 24 hours early in search of a few carp on the way.

We made our way down the M25 to our first stop, Tri-Lakes.

Situated on one of the most hallowed carp fishing roads in the UK, it isn’t the kind of water that you would associate with the legendary waters of Yateley. We parked in the car park and readied the

rods for a surface fishing assault.

Tri-Lakes is situated in the grounds of Jake’s Playworld, a kids’ animal park offering a day out for families to enjoy. With half-term in full flow it was rammed.

I walked through the grounds of the park to the first bay. Right among the action of the children’s play apparatus, it wasn’t long before I spotted my first carp, sunning itself among the lillies.

I excitedly hooked on a floater before lowering it onto the fish’s head. For what felt like an age it sat there with a hook bait tantalisingly close, then a firm sweep with its tail and forward surge and it engulfed it. I struck and held firm until the fish’s lunges subsided and I managed to slide it over the pads without much drama. Within 30 seconds I was looking at my first Tri-Lakes carp.

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A common theme, a net full of weed with a carp somewhere at the bottom.

Some keen onlookers marvelled at my surface-caught carp.

Wristband on and it’s time to catch a carp from Tri Lakes

A weedy bay proved to be a magnet for the carp.

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After spotting one in the lilies I was soon cradling my first Tri-Lakes carp.

A lovely summer’s day at Tri-Lakes.

This was to be a common theme and I stalked the weed-fringed margins of both lakes for the next two hours, landing five carp on my single hookable floater tactics. With the snaps of the last and biggest common done, we celebrated on the picnic bench with an ice cream, taking in the hustle and bustle of this unique venue. I couldn’t be happier.

With a meeting in the local area, it wasn’t until rush hour that we got on the road, the next destination being the Cotswold Water Park, more specifically Little Farriers.

Owned and run by The Carp Society, it is a little piece of heaven.

We were losing the light as we pulled into the gate. I got the gear on the barrow and made my way to the first swim. Instantly, I saw a carp ghost into the willow fluff and we waited to see if there were more.

After five minutes I continued my walk to another area. The last of the day’s sun was hitting this small corner and carp were in abundance here. I catapulted out some Slicker Floaters and a few Riser Pellets to get the fish going. They started taking the Riser Pellets initially, before moving onto the bigger floaters. I watched as several fish started taking at once. It was time to get a rig in the water.

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THE ROAD TRIP | ALAN BLAIR

ALAN BLAIR | THE ROAD TRIP

The biggest of the trip. A spawned-out ghostie that took some tempting with the single mixer.

I like to fish a couple of rods over a raft of floaters. This gives you much more opportunity for a bite. My first rod was rigged up with a Bolt Machine. I was able to leave this at the back of the area where the more shy, bigger carp were feeding. I then cast a lighter controller float to the fish closer in.

The Bolt Machine is less affected by wind and drift so I could leave that in the area for long periods.

The smaller controller is more labour intensive, so you have to be on the case, mending the line and ensuring it is in prime position.

With the light fading, a fish engulfed the mixer close in and I struck. The fish bore down into the weed before the hook pulled.

I was gutted. I lost another before I decided to get the rods out for the night.

It was now pitch black but with a powerful headtorch I managed to locate a few margin spots and baited them lightly with a mix of Candy Tigers, hemp and flaked Key Cray boilies. I fished two rods on tiger nuts and one on the boilie.

By 2am I had the rods perfectly set and at first light I hooked my first fish off the bottom. I landed the stunning common, took some shots and slipped it back. It was now time to pack up and get over to the Horseshoe carp camp.

An aerial shot showed just how many carp were frequenting the weed.

Time to redo some rigs and have a well-earned ice cream.

STEP-BY-STEP

I was a bit surprised that the other rods didn’t go. It was the rod fished on a boilie that produced the bite on the spot that I would have said was the worst of the three.

I thought to myself on the ride to Horseshoe that I might have been better off fishing with boilies on a couple of rods. It’s good to analyse your fishing because it might help you to get more bites next time.

With a load of young anglers at Horseshoe to learn heaps from the experienced coaches it’s always a great event. With the weather hotting up, we said our hellos and prepared some rods. I wanted to leave nothing to chance so we got all manner of presentations ready.

A couple on Bolt Machine setups, a freelined hook bait and four zig-rig rods.

After looking at our choice of three swims we noticed the bulk of the fish were sat in a large weed bed in Summer Bay. Firstly, I cast out the zigs and, getting the depth just right, I wanted them just below the surface. I used a large pop-up to see the hook bait position and

a pair of binoculars to make sure it was sat perfectly. Once they were spot on I started baiting. I knew there were a few fish in the weed, so I prepared a mixture of Slicker Pellets, normal Chum mixers to bulk them out, hemp oil, crustacean extract and Scopex Squid stick mix.

This made for a tasty concoction that featured floating and sinking elements. The stick mix and crustacean extract were heavier in their makeup so would sink, drawing fish up from the bottom.

The hemp oil would create an inviting slick on the surface to enable you to see your floater hook bait better when it was windy, but also pull fish up the drift of mixers.

I started with a few Spombs to see what the fishes’ reaction was.

Surprisingly, there weren’t as many taking as I initially thought, but after a while their confidence was up and they were feeding well. I introduced Riser Pellets too, on a three-to-one basis. Riser Pellets are so small they get the fish pre-occupied, so I like to add them in moderation, more using them to get the fish feeding.

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Boosted Floaters

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My prize caught on the only boilie rod. The two tiger nuts on better spots didn’t do a bite. Maybe I made the wrong hook-bait choice.

Pour a bag of Slicker floaters into a bucket. Follow this with the same quantity of Ensure the bucket is big enough to move Chum mixers to bulk it out. Doing this will the baits around. save you money in the long run.

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A pukka mirror, much more akin to the fish in the Yateley area, slate grey and aged.

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GIve it all a really good mix, allowing all the baits to begin to take on the mix of attractive liquids.

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Give the bait a healthy dose of Crustacean extract so that all the baits begin to glisten under the potent liquid.

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Pour the baits into a strong plastic bag Blow up the bag to give you plenty of and add Scopex Squid stick mix. Make sure shaking room. This means that all the the bag is strong enough. baits will get a covering.

Next, add hemp oil for both sinking and floating soluble liquid contents; the slick will be incredible.

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Give the bag a big shake to work the liquids and stick mix into the bait, then get spodding.

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THE ROAD TRIP | ALAN BLAIR

Young Ronnie Oliver began proceedings with a surfacecaught mirror.

I would then wean the fish onto the bigger floating items to get the bites.

By this point the keen carp camp kids had descended on my swim and I flicked out my floater rod to a patrolling carp. No sooner had it hit the water than I hooked the first Horseshoe carp. I gave the rod to a young lad, Ronnie Oliver, to play it in. It was a super-weedy area, so I explained to Ronnie how to get the fish out of the weed by walking backwards and keeping the pressure on. He did a great job and was soon staring down at a lovely twenty in his net.

With the fish photographed, the crowd of kids was massive. Next up was Tom Bartrip. He had been coming to the event for four years without a carp to his name, so I promised him that I would change that.

The zig rod was soon in meltdown and we played the fish through the weed without much drama. The fish hit the net and Tom was so excited he was shaking.

Ready for action. If it were to be hectic we were prepared.

It was one of Horseshoe’s jewels too; a 23lb scaled creature that looked like it had been carved from chestnut.

No sooner had we prepared the fish for photographs than another zig was away and Luke Taylor was up next. This battle was a little more fraught. The fish took line viciously straightaway and weeded Luke up

solid, so much so it wasn’t budging.

With the chance of landing the fish ebbing away I jumped in the lake and walked the short distance out to the fish. The weed was all over it.

I began to peel it off before it surged off again and buried itself. With Max Hendry helping Luke and myself freeing it of weed we managed to get it moving again but it soon ground to a halt. I was worried that the hook-hold wasn’t strong, so I got Max to throw me the net and I scooped up the carp with a ball of weed in tow. Once on the bank we peeled the weed back to reveal an awesome scaly creature. It was brilliant to see Luke’s and Tom’s Tom Bartrip (left) and Luke Taylor with a brace of Horseshoe gems. What a way to illustrate the effectiveness of zigs and surface tactics.

Surface essentials.

emotional faces as they hoisted up their new UK PBs. As it customary, the lads got a soaking. It was a great moment shared with the whole carp camp.

After giving a floater fishing talk, the rain started and the fish began to drift off. I kept applying the bait, but the shoal had moved on. I managed to nick one more for young Drew Casbolt, a lovely zip linear on a floater, before we had to make our way south to Cornwall for some much-needed personal fishing time.

I love these Road Trip features and I also get a huge buzz from teaching people how to catch carp to help them make their angling dreams come true.

The whole gang getting involved. Nash loves supporting this event every year.

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