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managed to get a pic... Well done James...👍 😎

From what I have read on the internet, 95% of UK anglers, who go fishing in France head for the many British owned carp fisheries within an easy drive of the channel ports. I wanted to show that there are plenty of opportunities elsewhere in the country especially if you head all the way down to the Pyrenees. I set out this morning to get some videos of the dozens of lakes within ½ an hour of my home which are never fished. They are usually fenced off, not because the owners want to prevent people from fishing but to avoid potentially very expensive litigation if someone were to have an accident. I took my drone so that I would not have to get permission to access each lake and I started with the smallest which is just on the edge of my village. I was aware of the lake's presence having glimpsed reflections from its surface through the trees in winter when the leaves had fallen. Unfortunately, I got so wrapped up this morniing with this first location, the rest is on hold for the moment. It took a lot of thrashing through brambles and nettles to get anywhere near the water but eventually my dog found a way through. The third of the lakes, about 4 acres in size, proved to be an absolute gem with patches of bubbles fizzing everywhere. We are suffering from a major heatwave at the moment so fishing is not practical. Meanwhile I will visit our mayor to try and find the owner of the lakes and also do a recce to work out how to fish such an overgrown location. Mostly using footage from my phone (so apologies for the quality), I made a short Youtube clip of this morning’s visit. I hope you find it interesting.

Found myself with a few hours to spare yesterday tea time so went down the local for a few hours. Conditions was pretty much spot on to nick a bite so a quick mooch seen me find a few in the channel After trying to place my pop up as carful as possible and flicked 6 crumbled down boilies a little at a time as not too spook them I thought my chance had gone as it went very quiet. I needed to be home for 8:30 so was clock watching a bit and thought my chance had gone as it was nearing 7:30. A few fish had drifted back in so I gave myself till 7:45 and that was me I’d have to go. Seconds later the line shot up and the tip bent round and I was into a fish that did it’s best to bed itself in them lillies. I never gave it an inch and steady pressure and walking back seen the fish kite into clearer water. I only went with minimal gear so didn’t bother to weigh it but it was a pretty fish so did a little vid and took some screenshots,not the best shots but wrapped up my wk end nice and I still got home for 8:30 😂😂😬😎🎣

Always put a rod on a showing fish. As yonny said you have to be on them to catch them!! I’d normally put 4/5 boilies on, singly on the area go gently spook the fish off before using the lightest lead possible to reach it. Minimum disturbance. Ive had fish within minutes after casting at showing fish. Other times I’ve been made to wait 3/4hrs. The chances are the fish was there for a reason, so it’ll likely come back. If it’s not gone within an hour then I put out a handful or 2 of boilies on top with the throwing stick.

There is only one way to guarantee your rig is where the fish are and that is to put a rig were you see the carp. The other option is put a rig where you don't see fish which makes no sense whatsoever imo. I wont cast a rod until I've seen fish, that should be a general rule for any serious carp angler imo. You can waste a hell of a lot of hours (or days and even weeks on tricky waters) waiting for the carp to come to you. Fish where the fish are, golden rule. I will not hesitate to cast at a showing fish.

I recently went through Abebooks just having a mooch, saw two copies of Tim Paisley's Carp Amid The Storm going for £2.99 so picked one of the two. When it arrived I discovered the one I bought had been signed by Tim Paisley himself.

The same way I’ve been fishing this season mate, short sessions during the week after work when the conditions are right, or doing quick sessions when the temperatures up nicking a few off the top. I’ve caught more fish than a few of my pals who have been doing 48 hour sessions every weekend. Love it

No pic..... but my young Padawan finally bust his 20 with a 23lb 8oz (common) fish from one of our club waters last week.... he had it on a pop-up on a Ronnie on a 6' Scope snide on a couple of hours session after work..... I'm dead chuffed for him as he's only been carping just over a year and he's learned quickly and become a tackle tart in the process.... I'm as chuffed for him as I would be if I'd caught it meself... he's had to weigh two of my 20's on his mat and scales in the last year so it's good he's managed one of his own... and it vindicates all I've taught him in the last year

At the end of the day you have to get bait out there somehow mate. Normally I'll start with singles, if I don't get a take then I'll pepper a few baits out with the stick/catty, if there's still no take and the fish are still there I'll spod. Their reaction will be different from water to water - I've had them disappear not to return and I've had takes from under the spod. Even when they do spook they'll normally be back come first light.

To me it’s quite simple. Cast to where you see fish. Always. Cause what’s the other option. Cast to where you can’t see fish? Im in no doubt it does spook them sometimes. But I fancy my chances if I see activity in an area. Most of my best catches come from such crude tactics. See a jumping fish, bubbling, swirls. Whatever. These are the things I spend hours looking and hoping for. Finding them is 99% of the problem for me. Once that’s answered I’ll play the game of chance. The problem I’ll often then come across is, got the bait on the spot, it’s been a short period, shall I put some bait in. 🤔I tend to try pepper a few in or stick a stringer on and glug and leave as is. But if I’m not get liners at least the mind starts ticking and the urge to pepper some bait in occurs. This is where I probably lose takes. Impatience

Even better this week I got my tax rebate, so Season Ticket for my local reservoir paid for. 350 acre reservoir, unknown carp stocks, some big roach (I had some 2's 3 years ago), tench and pike along with a few bream.

The Wife dropped at Airport...gear is all out and ready to be loaded at 4am in the Morning for a 48hr session...

Ghost carp?🤭

Had a mega hard day at honeypot pleasure lake in stock with the whole lake not catching a single fish in 9-10 hrs had this beaut at the last knockings 20lb on the method feeder under a tree on a fruity squid dumbbell

In France the other week I was fishing my chosen swim (3) and after 3 days had had nothing. A few bleeps, but that was it. The swim directly opposite (12) was free, and I had noticed showing fish in there for some time, so I upped sticks and moved in. Rewarded with a 40lb Mirror and a 35lb Common, and lost two others.

I thought I've got to try to get to grips with self take photos this morning, had a quick couple of hours on the club lake managed a small mirror and a lovely looking 8lb common, this should've been the pic of the 8lb common but after putting it back, I realised I hadn't put my phone back into camera mode 😀

It’s the old saying mate, five minutes in the right place is better than 48hrs in the wrong place. Well done on having a few,mate. 😎🎣

It’s very important to our sport that EVERY rig you use is a safe rig. And I was wanna say well done for asking and wanting to fish safely,well done,mate. 😎🎣

The answer is to cast past the show and reel the rig into position and drop it over the spot. Even if you are using PVA bags, you should get about 30 seconds before they break down.

Left bivvy mine..Right bivvy Mates...middle brolly (mine) our cooking tent.. Sharing a double peg..

Far right rod...forgot bank stick...fo7nd an alternative...

I've noticed a recent shift into anglers trying to make fishing cool, us old skool anglers are just keepin it reel 😎😎

I really don’t think it matters to the fish as much as it does to us

Alton Water today, and my biggest fish from a catch of 40 odd roach. Dave in the next swim had a total of 3. All fish came to an open ended groundbait feeder, with red maggots on the hook. I played around and went to a 16 with double red maggot, where Dave stuck with a 14. I stil had a number of sucked maggots, lost fish and missed bites, even on the smaller hook.

Lemons Hill on Alton today, Big Dave managed to find a couple of large skimmer bream, I ended up with 7 small roach

And what a fish that was!!! Caught in winter too, from that place, mental.

My lads fish (helping him to hold)...8lb 7oz

It wasn't cast at showing fish, but one of my favourite fish from Brackens was a 2 tone heavily scaled linear. The lake rules are no free bait can be put in by catapult or throwing stick, the only way to put free bait in was with PVA. I put in a load of my 'BIG' stringers, there is a picture somewhere of one, but I think it was 30'ish casts of 30 bait stringers. Within 10 minutes I had the linear at 28lb. That is just after plenty of disturbance, those stringers with a 3oz lead made plenty of noise. To be honest, I was baiting up for the night, not expecting a take in the middle of the day. On the same lake, it was a small lake of 1 1/2-2 acres, if fish showed or rolled, it wasn't worth casting at them, they were very aware and would disappear. You could however land on them and get some pretty quick takes within minutes of casting.

Lovely mate!

I think that's probably my best option to keep walking it tbh, all the guys seemed friendly enough and had a good chat so that's a good start

Come and have a look around guys, free to enter , lots of trade stalls https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2507011099356642&id=204156852975423

Went Crocker's today and became very middle aged 2.99 in Aldi thought im having some practical fishing slippers and I may even keep my socks on

Yes Mate.

Not to keen on the pinky colour but a bit of dirt sorts that lol

Little en got his footy training tonight and lake booked tonight...

Great result Nick, I bet that made your day

No, different pit per emcee. Big water. Low stock, the kind that most wouldn't even consider considering in winter, but tel did it for fun. He caught the other biggun too, obvs 😂

Extra fine eze lap file 1200grit for fine sharpening Ngt sharpening vice And an eye piece Oh and 20 barbed and 20 barbless size 4 bank tackle chod hooks 👍

I've messed up a couple so far but I am fairly practical and have worked in an engineering type environment for a number of years dealing with steel and more recently carbon fibre, so I am quite comfortable doing them really, and actually I used to restore alloy wheels to a mirror finish when I used to mess around with cars so I just take my time and they seem to get sharper 👍

mark bryant rig Here is the video that shows the rig. I've used 15lb Korda IQ for years without any mishap but noticed that Mark uses 20lb. The Silicon Tube is 1.5mm and I use some from ESP. It really is a versatile rig and you can also adjust the length of the slip-D at will. Try the IQ again following the tips in the video and you shouldn't have any problems,

Ive never felt the need to "fill it in" and found a little and often approach suits me fine and get through the year on 50kg a year taking about a kilo per 24 hours and only use all that if its kickin off.

I've always been a fan of Combi's and saw the Mark Bryant rig and have been using it as it is so easy to change the hook or use a bait screw/small swivel/ring within seconds. He uses a piece of silicon tube that automatically kicks out when slid over the hook so there is no need to use shrink tube. By doing so, it locks the hook and make it difficult to change things at will.

It was out in open water not far off the surface at the time so I don't think it cut off on anything in the water definately seems like a rig failure to me , I really want to use the fluorocarbon if I can as it looks lovely underwater but I can't have it failing on me as what's the point , I would've been gutted if it was st Ives, I will try and make a similar rig using tungsten loaded tonight and see what I can create, it was 20lb korda IQ fluorocarbon I was using btw

Maybe the fish were entering the baited area from left to right so they picked up the left rod first. When that rod wasn't put back then the middle and right rods came into play. You'd think all have an equal chance but it depends on what I've said above. If they pick up bait from the left side they are chewing that whilst passing the middle and right rods, probably why people talk about a spot within a spot. What you could have done is move the right rod over to the far left possibly giving you more quick takes. Just a theory 👍

I found that but couldn't see if its 100% live up to date .

Turns out they do have a live page (doh!) but nothing on it as of yet: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/outbreaks-of-koi-herpesvirus-khv-disease-in-2019

Agree a live page would be very useful , would stop rumors . The current speculation is a small water in Essex , two people I respect have told me one says confirmed ones says unconfirmed . Even a live page saying shut while being tested would help

Just found this and thought Ian might like, then thought maybe a few of you might.

Some things, you just can't buy...……… Good to have a few lads on here willing to share their knowledge for the benefit of everyone...……..