Road trip march

THE ROAD TRIP | ALAN BLAIR

ALAN BLAIR | THE ROAD TRIP

As the sunrise lit the margin, I got the rods recast for some dawn action.

In the second instalment of this exciting new series, ALAN BLAIR takes a whistle-stop tour of Wales, catching carp from one of the most stunning venues in Great Britain.

E

ach month that I go out for this series of features, I am trying to show off some of the weird and wonderful venues around the UK that hold carp.

However, there are few, if any, places that are as unique as the venue we visited on this leg of our monthly road trip.

As always, I like to synchronise my trips’ endings with an open day, to make best use of my limited time. A trip to Cardiff Angling Centre was the main goal, but with just two nights and two venues to catch a cold-water carp from it was time to get on the road.

I met up with Max Hendry at Nash HQ and we loaded the van before getting on the road.

The first leg of our journey would be around 200 miles to Caerphilly, more specifically the castle that sits in the town. As we neared the castle we were met with a snowstorm – things were looking up for a snow carp.

On arrival we met up with local angler Andrew Riste. He had been fishing the castle quite a lot recently and landed some stunning carp, which fired me up and made me keen to get a piece of the action.

We parked on the pavement, loaded the barrows, and walked over for our first look at the castle.

It looked incredible, such a surreal venue. We walked to some huge iron gates and Andrew let us through – it was like stepping into the grounds of Hogwarts or a Game of Thrones set. After walking along the long dam wall I was soon plotted up in my chosen area for the night.

With Caerphilly Street lit up in the foreground and the castle as a backdrop, it was an awesome place to fish. I was gagging to get the rods out. With as much information

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gleaned from Andrew as possible we got down to the fishing. Local knowledge is king and he has been catching plenty of fish of late.

I was told that the fish seemed to be hugging a long line of overhanging trees to my left. The aim was to get a rig as tight as possible to these trees. It’s all well and good trying this in the dark, but there’s no point risking getting end tackle snagged in the trees. With that, I got out my secret weapon… a hunting lamp. This spotlight allows me to light up the snag I am fishing and get the rigs bang on, even in the dark.

After a couple of casts, each one getting closer, I was happy with the range. I marked down the number of wraps and tied up my solid PVA bag.

Solid bags are an awesome method all year round. They

guarantee perfect presentation and allow me to cast tight to the trees without fear that the hook link could wrap round any protruding branches.

With winter being a time of lethargy for the carp, the fish will undoubtedly be eating less bait. A solid bag has a large quantity of bait in such a small area, which can lead to the fish taking several sittings to completely eat the contents of the bag. This isn’t ideal when trying to get a quick bite. I want all the merits of a solid bag in terms of presentation without the large amount of bait. This is where the Riser Pellet comes in.

The mix is full of floating and neutrally buoyant pellets. The resulting bag will have lots of attraction kicking off in the form of floating particles. Some will stay lodged under small particles

and will only escape when a fish disturbs the bait, halving the amount of bait that the fish has to eat and leaving the fizzing stick mix for attraction, with a small Citruz hook bait providing an irresistible treat.

Using the floating Riser Pellets automatically reduces the amount of mouthfuls of the solid bag contents the fish need to eat, getting me quicker bites, in theory anyway. The fizzing stick mix will work for hours pulling fish into the swim and will create an attractive cloud in the area, and my hook bait will be in prime position to be picked up.

I like my hook baits to be small in the solid bag so I opted to fish

Preparing a solid PVA bag for the tight tree cast.

Back leads are a great way of keeping your lines out of the way.

The first fish and what a stunning little mirror it was.

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

Could you get a more spectacular backdrop than a castle?

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THE ROAD TRIP | ALAN BLAIR

Returning them has got to be one of the best feelings in fishing.

a 10mm hook bait. Many anglers will use a small, critically balanced bait because they believe it creates better hook-holds. I like to overweight my rigs in the opposite way. I feel that the fish will disturb a lot of water around the hook bait as they approach and the last thing I want to do is have the hook bait wafting around in the carp’s face; I want it planted on the deck ready to be eaten. To do this I simply bore out a small piece of the boilie with a boilie punch and then place a split shot inside the hole. The result is a 112 TOTAL CAR P

heavy hook bait that will stay hard on the bottom among all the feed, giving me more chance of a pick-up.

With the rods on the spots I tightened the heavy bobbin as much as I could and slipped a back lead on to the line to pin it out the way. I wanted to fish two rigs tight to the area, so after a couple of chucks the rigs were both in prime position. I settled in for the night and had a chat with Andrew about the fishing.

By first light I was yet to have a bite. Despite it being quite well

stocked; something must have gone on. Getting the rigs tight seemed to be the key, so I would try and get them as close as possible because the light was better. It’s always a challenge fishing to a tight area in the dark because you always struggle to get as close as you want, even with the lamp.

I decided to have a recast on both rods. I wanted to refresh the solid bags at bite time and also to make sure the rigs were as tight as possible. I repeated the very same process from last night and awaited

some action. Andrew managed a couple in the early hours a little bit further up the bank, so they must have been in the area.

Within 20 minutes of the recasts I had a bite – just a few beeps on the tight clutch before I grabbed the rod and ran along the bank to get it free of the overhanging trees.

Luckily the fish cut into open water and I soon had it wallowing on the surface for netting. It was an immaculate castle mirror carp.

I simply couldn’t wait to get my photo with the fish with that

THE ROAD TRIP | ALAN BLAIR

STEP-BY-STEP

How To Overweight Your Pop-Up

1

Bore out a small hole in the pop-up using a dedicated bait drill. Take care not to crack the bait.

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Take a baiting needle and line the pop-up directly in the middle of the hole and the bait and thread onto your hair.

Place a split shot in the recess you just created and it is now ready for action. Get ready for mega hook-holds.

Heavy bobbins and tight lines, super indication.

awesome backdrop in the photo.

We even managed to take a shot on the old drawbridge into the castle.

After Max finished his photo session, I got the rod out and hoped to try and catch another… and it couldn’t have come any sooner.

We were taking a few rig pictures when the bobbin cracked the rod butt and the siren let out its telltale squeal – perfect timing for another bite.

We soon had a lean mirror in the net ready for its photograph. I was buzzing with the result and we took some

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It was time to get on our toes and make it to the next venue.

We were in the lap of luxury for our second night.

A morning brace witnessed by the crowd of open day attendees.

more snaps before making a celebratory cup of tea. With all the shots done, I had a slow pack away, talking to some of the members, and then hit the road to our next venue.

After a pit stop we soon arrived at Cefn Mably Lakes, the second destination in our road trip. With an open day on the Saturday we had the night to get the stand set up and prepare it for the horde of Welsh anglers that were set to arrive. We were given the full use of one bank to do the show, a rare treat to be allowed such a large amount of water.

I would be fishing it from Peg 1. On arrival we said our hellos in the tackle shop and soon found ourselves walking the cracking venue. It was apparent that the area with the most marginal cover was going to be the most inviting so I headed off to the left-hand margin of the peg and took a look at a group of overhanging trees.

The areas couldn’t have been more than two feet deep, but the cover made it appealing, and after some watching in the dusky light I started making out a few telltale shapes – I knew I needed to get a rod on the area.

With that, I fetched the baiting spoon out of the van and prepped some bait. All I needed was a

simple drop-off lead arrangement and a short braided hook link. I fished a bottom bait in the spoon so the bait was all hard on the deck. A few pellets also went in the spoon along with a handful of Key flaked boilies, pellets and maggots. A perfect small feast for any obliging carp.

The baiting pole is an awesome edge on lakes like this that receive a lot of pressure. The fish will be searching for cover and the spoon allows me to get in otherwise inaccessible areas. The spoons are also perfect on waters that ban bait boats, for instance; the baits can be placed quietly and with perfect presentation time and time again. I use the Nash Prodding Stick poles that can be connected an infinite amount of times to reach the intended distance over the spot.

With one rig in place, I set up the other one and cast it a little further up the same margin before casting a rig out into open water.

I was told that there was a deeper depression at around 35 yards, so after a couple of casts timing the drops as I felt the lead down I was confident that I was fishing on the area. Having watched a lot of the anglers on the lake feed plenty of boilies on dark, I chose to keep bait to a minimum. With this in mind, I opted for small thumbnail-sized PVA bags of fizzing stick mix to get

THE ROAD TRIP | ALAN BLAIR

some interest. If the fish were in the area, I wanted to get a bite, not overfeed them.

You’re spoilt at Cefn Mably. Each swim has a log cabin to stay in, complete with power and a heater too – the ultimate winter setup.

With the show stands set up Max and I sat on the porch of the cabin and enjoyed a cup of tea and a KFC, kindly brought down by Nash tackle rep Alan Price.

After overdosing on fried chicken we got our heads down.

Just before first light the margin rod signalled a bite and I landed a lovely mirror carp of upper doubles. It must have spooked a shoal because minutes later I landed a common of around 20lb.

A fine brace, I think you will agree.

The weather had been all over the place in the night. Firstly a rainstorm at around midnight brought a deluge of water into the lake, the temperature then plummeted and what were once water droplets soon froze into icicles. I thought that the sudden temperature drop would affect the fish, but with around 270 of them in just a couple of acres it was apparent that the fish would need to feed due to the fierce competition.

Once again the first light bite time produced and we were happy to be photographing a couple of awesome Cefn Mably carp for the

ALAN BLAIR | THE ROAD TRIP

STEP-BY-STEP

Alan’s Solid Bag

1 DID YOU KNOW: There are plenty of top carp venues throughout Wales. I think that as anglers we should all venture further afield.

This is everything you will need to Begin by adding a palmful of the superconstruct the exact PVA bag that Alan uses bright and attractive Citruz fizzing stick on these short trips. mix.

5

Slipping the brace back in the warmth of the morning sun.

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6

Take your hook bait and place it into the bag nestled above the pellet. The hook link will be kept out of the way nicely.

Top the PVA bag off with another couple of pinches from the Fizzy Stick Mix to seal the load.

cameras with a crowd of onlookers, keen as beans, turning up for the open day.

With this fish slipped back, it wasn’t long before we got on with rig and bait demos. It was great having the lake available and I was able to demonstrate everything live to the crowd, something you can’t do in the tackle shop.

The middle of the day passed without event, but as dusk rolled in I was rewarded with a couple more bites.

The margin rod that I cast tight to the trees was away again, buckling in the rod rests as I ran to it.

I played a lovely scaly mirror into the bank, and we soon began taking more prize trophy shots.

The final rod to go was out in open water. With no bites to my rods in the middle area I wasn’t

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Pack the mix into the base of the bag and place the lead into the centre for increased stability during flight.

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Twist the PVA bag to push the mix down and tie the bag off with a short length of PVA tape.

convinced that I was going to receive any action, until I received a steady take on a rod I’d cast out with a small PVA bag of the fizzing stick mix.

The fish felt like a better one as I played it steadily, trying not to pick up the lines on the other rods. In the end, the fish came in steadily to the deep margin and I slipped the net under a clean mirror that looked to be over the 20lb mark. I was buzzing and we rattled off some more shots with the gathering crowd before I slid the fish back to fight another day.

.... but the action didn’t stop there either.

Another stunning example of a typical Welsh mirror carp....

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Add a palmful of the Nash Riser Pellets to the mix, enough to fill the bag to just over halfway.

The completed bag offers the perfect presentation when casting tight to far margins and against trees.

Time to say goodbye for good!

Loads of people turned up over the day; some had even stayed out in the cold for the whole open day, chatting and talking all things carp. One final fish fell to Max’s rods before we left and he passed it to nine-year-old Evan Jenkins to reel in. Much to his surprise and elation the 15lb 12oz ghost carp was a new PB for Evan – just rewards after being taught how to feel a lead down by Max just a few hours previously. By 4pm we had packed the whole show stand and after saying our goodbyes we began the 200-mile drive back to Essex.

As I finish typing this instalment up, and despite my yawns, I can’t wait for the next one.

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