The cold winter has come a knocking. With heavy snow, ice and temperatures that make you question your sanity when out on the bank, the carp are also affected and consequently change their feeding patterns. Fish will evaluate the amount of energy required to move to a bait, over the amount of energy it will obtain from a bait as their metabolism slows down and they go into a more dormant winter mode. It is of course neccesary to change your tactics accordingly in order to still catch in these tough conditions.
One way to approach carping in winter is to fish single hookbaits (flouro white is my favorite color as the light conditions are low) either alone, over a handfull of free offerings or with a small pva stick mix. The advantages of this approach are that you can recast regularly (2-3 hours is my pereferd time period) without moving away from a baited area, you might land on an area where fish are held/shoaled up and you will not be overfeeding the fish at a time when they are eating less. Location is unarguably the most important aspect of carp fishing regardless of season and temperature, and in winter this is a crucial element in saving those blanks.
Which smells stronger and gives off more attractant, a kilo of bottom baits or one glugged pop up?
I can remember two January sessions in England where a friend and I fished the Monument and the single pop up approach worked well to save a blank. I was fishing maggots using a pva bag of live and dead maggots in a corner swim where i knew fish held up in a crater two feet lower than the rest of the lake. I had caught two fish and the rest of the lake was blanking. With two hours of a 36 hour session left I told my mate to ditch the pva bag as with it he could not cast to the centre of the lake where the fish held up with it on. He reluctantly did this and fired a single flouro bait out into the middle of the lake. Half an hour later he landed one of the lakes rare commons and a lake record common pb at the time. Like many anglers he was reluctant to do this, believing that the free baits in the bag would add to the attraction around his hookbait and draw fish in. However, firstly he was 40 yards away from where the fish were held up, and secondly, surely one glugged hookbait smells stronger than ten unglugged baits! The following year and January rolled around again. The same thing happened, he slung out another single in the 34th hour and saved another blank, amazingly with another pb lake record common (unbelievable considering there were only about 4 commons in there and 200+ mirrors).
There are many ways to increase you chances of catching when using single hookbaits, including glugging before casting, putting pop ups into the glug so they harden and take on the flavour (beware this can reduce the pop up time of the bait), glugging cork/foam and inserting that into a bait. However, my winter tip regarding glugging your hookbaits is to pour a very small amount of the glug into your pop up tub (about a cm’s worth) and then shake the tub for a minute so every bait is slightly coated with the glug. Leave the pop ups to sit in the tub and over the next few days the glug will dry and create a gloopy skin of attractant on the bait. This approach will release attractants slowly, and will allow your pop ups to remain in the water for longer than if you drown them in glug.
Lightly coat the baits with glug.
.
Give the pot a good shake.
Baits end up with a hard dry skin.
I am more than happy to fish a single bait like this on its own and recast every few hours, or to spread a handful of baits over the top also. Just be careful not to overfeed the carp in this weather. Once the bait has gone in you cant take it out, so fish for one bite at a time. One bite in winter is a result!
Memoirs of a Carp Fisher: The Demon Eye – Book Review
I was very excited when I first heard that Kevin Nash was writing a book about his angling career as he is one of the pioneers of the sport and a legend in the eyes of myself and so many other anglers. Immediately I placed my online pre-order with tuna roll publications (www.tunarollpublications.co.uk) and eagerly awaited the books arrival. When the personally signed book arrived I could not wait to get stuck into it. The sign of a really good book to me is that you do not want to put it down, you want to hurry home from work to see what happens next and you end up going to bed late because you want to keep on reading. I can say that this was the case with the Nashy book.
The book talks about the pioneering carp years, his bar experience with George Best, his admission into the British Carp Study Group, the many lakes he attempted to conquer and carp he tried to outwit and the start of his tackle manufacturing career. There is a great mix or fishing, business and personal tales, and this only touches on the early days of Kevin Nash. There is definitely the need and demand for a sequel, and I hope that we get to see that in the not too distant future.
If you are a carp angler, or other species angler then this book is a great read and I highly recommend it. Here are a few of the funny extracts from The Demon Eye.
“ Our nutter friend had murdered his mom”.
“I’ve never met an angler who dedicated his life to hunting big bream, but I’d like the opportunity to read the psychiatric report”.
“There sitting on a bar stool was the greatest British footballer of all time, George Best! We had a long chat over several hours and I got very p****d – he didn’t”
One Night in Heaven – 12 hours, 10x 20s, 4x 30s, 1x 40, 3x PB’s and no sleep!
In my previous article I talked about some of the obsessive behavior I have displayed in order to catch the carp of my dreams. My most recent obsession was the quest to catch a 30lb USA mirror. This might not seem like too difficult a task in Europe, but in America 99.9% of the fish are commons. In my first 12 months fishing over here I had landed only three mirrors to 21lb and easily 1000+ commons. However, certain states and sections of rivers do contain a good head of mirrors. So in the summer of 2012 I found myself driving 15 hour, 900 mile round trips to try and get my hands on just one 30lb plus mirror. The previous article ended with a trip in September, where I landed a new PB 33lb 14oz linear mirror and moved swims the next day to catch a stunning 30lb 12oz starburst mirror. I had previously arranged with two mates to do a session in October. So with a free pass from the wife already agreed I decided to continue to fish these areas into the winter to see if I could add a few more fish to my tally.
The stunning back up mid twenties are also well worth the journey!
Mid October rolled around and after finishing work on the Friday I was heading up the highway again all set to fish the same area as the last session. I really have only scratched the surface of what I have seen from that area and was excited to see what else I could catch. However, my friend Dean was already in one of the other swims we fish regularly and said he had a good night up there taking about 15 fish, with one being an upper 30. This swim is not the most appealing to me having fished it a few times before and not even seen let alone caught a fish. However, we had planned to fish together and he was obviously on fish so I decided to join him. It was also an area we knew the fish visited this time of year and I had a few days to fish so it was no bother to move to my other area if I wanted too. I arrived just as it went dark and stuck both rods out into the deeper channel at the same range as Dean and turned in for the night as the 7 hr drive after a full day of work had wiped me out. Dean had a few fish through the night, but all I had was one nuisance chub. The next day Dean packed up and left and I set about getting some bait into the swim and concentrating on the task of catching some fish. I put out both rods out on a Dynamite Carptech 20mm/10mm Flouro snowman blowback rigs with a size 4 Nash Twister hook. I was not really interested in catching anything under 25lb, and the bigger baits and hooks have produced many big fish for me this year. I sprayed about half a kilo of boilies over each rod and hoped for some action to come my way.
Don’t be shy, give em some bait!
Carping is easier when you have confidence in what you are doing. Having 100% confidence in this bait and rig means i have less to contemplate and fix if I am not catching
Most of the action this fall had been throughout the hours of darkness, so I was not expecting much day action and try to use this time to rest for the busy night bites. A couple of hours before dark and the left hand rod was away with a stunning 26lb 8oz common. Rod back out, bit more bait over the top and I had a feeling this was going to be a busy night with the swim to myself. I was just getting into bed about midnight when my left hand rod ripped off again. This was a much heavier fish and I had a feeling this was probably going to be around the 30lb mark. About five minutes into the fight my right hand rod ripped off, and being alone I just tightened the clutch a little bit more so the fish could still run but not disappear down river. I landed the first fish which was a bit of a tank, and a few minutes later a nice scaley twenty joined it in the net. I slipped back the twenty and set about weighing the bigger fish. The scales settled on 32lb exactly and I was buzzing to once again bag another 30 plus USA mirror from a different State to Septembers brace of 30’s.
Second fish of the session 32lb. Named “Santiago” by my wife…..don’t ask lol.
Netting both fish in the one net caused a major braid mainline tangle which meant I now had zero rods in the water and I could hear fish rolling over my areas. I put out another kilo of bait and set about getting the rods back out. Half an hour after landing the brace I finally got a rod back in the water. I let the line sink, clipped on the bobbin, fired out one handful of bait and before the second handful of bait could be put out the only rod I had in was away again in less than a minute. Unbelievable! The fish were clearly seeking out the Dynamite baits I had been feeding. This too felt like a big fish and amazingly the PB I broke three weeks earlier was broken again with a 36lb 14oz fish. Although, this fish had some beautiful big scales and a huge frame, it had some kind of flesh eating disease which had taken half its tail and affected it skin. Poor fella!
It was a shame this huge framed fish (1st PB of the night @ 36lb 14oz) was not in great condition. I was so tired through the night I never even noticed until i got it out the sack a few hours later. Had I been aware of the condition the carp was in I never would have sacked it up because fish care is of paramount importance to me. I am happy to say that the carp went back fine, and swam off strong.
The next few hours were pretty crazy with some nice twenties making an appearance along with another thirty at 33lb 4oz. It was 2am when I finally got two rods back out in the water together. I really could not get the rods out fast enough, and the fish were wiping me out of bait. The Dynamite Baits Carptech range is an instant hit for sure. This was the first time I had used the bait in this swim, and the carp were on it like a dog eating hot chips!
Third thirty of the night at 33lb 4oz. Now named “Gepeto” …..(inside joke).
A local angler I know came down in the early hours of the morning and fished next to me, kindly taking a few pictures of my catches. At 4am I finally attempted to get into bed when…..bbbbbbeeeeeeeeppppppp, a rod was away again. Another plodding lump was attached to my rod and after a long battle a beautiful 37lb 8oz starburst mirror was mine. I sacked the fish up for some morning pictures and got into bed, but not before sending a Facebook message to my friend Sean who was joining me tomorrow afternoon informing him of the evening’s events as I knew he had to go to work first lol.
Stunning 37lb 8oz starburst mirror was the second PB of the night. Now named “Opal”.Safely returning the beauty!
Amazingly my mirror USA PB had now been broken twice in a couple of hours. It was then that a thought popped into my head. All my previous so called “sessions of a lifetime” had been similar to this, where the fish had gone nuts and I had gone on to land several really big fish. On Weston Park back home I landed the lake record slate grey common during a mega haul, the next season a similar session resulted in the lakes second biggest resident and another awesome thirty being backed up by 10 twenties. Earlier in 2012 I had landed a new common PB at 40lb 6oz on a New York lake where I took 30 fish in 24 hrs including a backup 32lb fish. I just had a gut feeling that a forty was going to make an appearance.
Nash Twister hooks and Saxon Hexalite rods are a combination that have resulted in zero hook pulls for me in 2012. A massive achievement when you consider the amount of runs we can get here in America!
I probably had about half an hours sleep when a rod was away again. By now I was so tired I don’t even remember if the fish felt heavy or not. I had landed over 10 fish in the night, my eyes were barely open and my arms were aching like crazy. The guy fishing next to me had just put a fish back and came down the bank to see me. The fish rolled in front of his headlight and he said that’s another tank. I had the fish almost ready to net and I could not believe it when the net and handle broke near the spreader block and I was left holding just the handle. The net was on the bottom of the river and I am attached to another very big fish. Thankfully, the angler next to me went right into the margins, grabbed my net and scooped the fish into the net. He then said “that is a forty right their”. I had not really gotten a good look at the fish, and then with all the panic of the net breaking I was just glad to have the fish in the net. We set about getting her weighed and he was right, she went 40lb 4oz and the PB was broken for the third time that night.
The biggest of the session, third PB of the night and first American 40lb+ mirror. Now named the “Charlie Sheen” fish…….(another inside joke).
I was overjoyed at the fact my quest for a 30lb mirror had resulted in an unbelievable session and a 40lb fish. I was extremely grateful to the angler in question for jumping in to the river to get my net and land what is without doubt the greatest accomplishment of my angling career. I sacked the fish and finally managed to get a couple of hours sleep before getting up at first light to get some pictures of the greatest nights fishing of my life. It was special that a good friend arrived that morning to take some great pictures for me. In that 12 hour period I landed 10x 20’s to 28lb, 4x 30’s to 37lb and the 40lb 4oz mirror, with the PB being broken three times in six hours!
A good friend was coming the next morning to visit me. He was shocked when he saw this in the margins as he just expected a cup of tea waiting. The smallest of these three was 36lb 14oz.
I landed three more fish the following afternoon including a nice 28lb common, and then fished for another 24 hours in freezing conditions without a single bite. But after a hauling like that I really just wanted my friend Sean to come and get amongst some big fish. He did indeed get amongst them, landing a stunning 29 and three fish over 37lbs. Dean my other angling chum also came down to land a mid-thirty the final night, and it was an amazing team haul for the Big Carp News crew!
Weather conditions were often tough, but the fish still fed hard for team Big Carp News!
I was due to go and fish one more session in November. However, hurricane Sandy has caused some major issues in the Northeast region where I live and fish. As I write this (a day before the planned trip) we still have no power, closed roads and little access to gasoline, but thankfully my family and friends are all alive and well. I may have to try and sneak one more session in during December. However, if I have to wait until 2013 I am quite happy to end my most successful season with my most successful session ever!
Tales of goal setting, compulsive behavior and attempting to make carpy dreams a reality.
By Craig “Brit” Parkes
One of my favorite carp angling authors Dave Lane once wrote a book on the obsession of carp angling. This book was so popular that copies are harder to get hold of than rocking horse poop, and if you are lucky enough to find a copy the prices are huge. It is one of, if not the most popular carp books ever written, probably because we all have an obsession or fascination with the species. No longer do children in England take part in apprenticeships fishing for multiple course species like perch, roach, gudgeon like I once did as a child.
My cousin with a 20lb fish. I was in my mid-twenties when I got my first 20lb+ fish showing how carp have dominated the European angling scene like no other species.
When I grew up it was hard to find a lake that contained carp. Now it is hard to find a place to fish without carp, with so many commercial fisheries and heavily stocked day ticket waters present. In fact, many modern English waters only contain fast growing strains or imported foreign carp….because hardcore carp anglers primarily want bigger and better fish. When I was a kid it was match rods and maggots down the local canal as a ten year old, with a PB roach of about 6 ounces. Today my ten year old cousin has his own bivvy, pod, alarms, uses boilies and has a PB carp of over 20lbs.
I think that carp are a species like no other in that us anglers not only enjoy catching big fish, or pretty fish…….it goes way beyond that. Many carp anglers are obsessed with bigger fish, better fish, uncaught fish, named fish and a whole host of other factors that help us set personal angling targets. Dave Lane is one of many anglers who go to extreme lengths to capture the beasts they set their minds on, another one is carping legend Terry Hearn. He sets his sights on specific special fish and does not stop fishing that water until he has caught it. Sometime these quests last multiple years, and he really excels in this type of angling.
I have to say that I have fallen into the obsession game on many an occasion. There have been times when I have been so obsessed that when I have not actually been on the bank fishing that I have been thinking about carp, and dreaming about them when I am asleep. There have been times when the obsession has reduced in severity for short periods of time. However, it always seems to reappear and cause me to develop two opposing emotions. On one side of the coin I know it will take my focus away from other things in life like spending time with my family or having a social life. But the other side of the coin feels the fire burning in the pit of my stomach and knows that exciting times are ahead. I get bored easily, so in all aspects of life I am motivated, ambitious and love achieving my goals……..or as Charlie Sheen puts it “I Love Winning”. I love the thrill of me against the carp because it is like a game of cat and mouse. Who will come out on top? Who will be crowned king? Who will get the glory? I don’t really compete with other anglers as I view carp angling as a very personal quest. It’s a bit like my golf game. I am never going to beat Tiger Woods, but I can try to improve my score from last week’s round. I view my carp angling as the same sort of challenge. It’s me versus the carp. Am I good enough to up my PB, or catch that one I really want?
Older tales of compulsive carping….
I thought I would give you a few funny stories of the lengths I have gone to in an attempt to bag the beasts I have craved after before talking about my most recent obsessions in America.
1. When I was a member on Weston Park I initially spent a lot of time in the famous swim known as the “Rhodies”. The swim was at the far end of the lake and was the swim the fish tended to visit the most. One day just before dark a friend called me and told me about his mate fishing that swim and seeing a ghost on several occasions. This really did worry me as most nights I would have the lake and the whole Weston estate to myself. Every little noise during the night would scare the hell out of me, and I was always planning my escape route should the ghost make an appearance. However, the swim was producing really well for me and I did not want to fish elsewhere. I must have spent the next three months in the swim, and could not sleep a wink at night. I would be exhausted on a Monday morning when I went back to work, but my obsession with that swim kept me going back time and time again……….and I never did ever see that ghost!
2. When on Weston again I was working as a Physical Education teacher at a school 30 minutes away and midweek during the summer I would leave work at 3pm to go fish, returning to work the next morning. The gymnasium where I worked had a shower so I would leave Weston at 7am and go straight to work and shower before teaching at 8:45am. One day I arrived at work and the water was not working in the school. I did not have enough time to go home and shower and had caught half a dozen carp in the night and stunk of fish. I taught all day smelling like a fishmonger, and the kids kept making reference to the awful smell whenever they came close by me. I just kept telling them it was the blocked drains outside, but they all knew the awful stench was coming from me lol.
Weston Park is probably my favorite ever venue. This place cost me many nights without sleep, several knackered days at work and one serious relationship. It was brilliant, and when she left I got to spend even more time down there :)
3. A few years ago I decided last minute to go fish a place I had not been for a while the “Riddings Fishery”, which had been a good place to me for several years. I had been sick for a few days and felt awful, but still decided to go because when I was there I could just sit in my shelter and rest anyway. Also once the thought of going is in my head I have to go and I can’t go against my gut feeling (told you I was obsessed). I got the rods out, cut off the leaders, placed them on the ground outside and turned around to get some new rigs out my bag. My back was turned for literally two seconds and upon turning around I saw a lead fly past my head and down the garden. I then saw a yellow flouro pop up hanging out my dog’s mouth, with a nice size 8 wide gape hook nailing him in the bottom lip. I ended up rushing him to the vets before they closed and they sedated him and removed the hook. A nice $300 (200 pounds) vet bill meant it was already my most expensive day session ever. The next day sucked too, as I caught about 20 bream and not one carp!
The obsession continues in the good old US of A……
4. I had a four day trip planned with my mate Sean to a big lake in New York State that holds some huge fish. A few days before my car was not running right and I could not get it into gear very easily. However, as you have probably guessed I went fishing anyway. After fishing two different swims and blanking for four days in freezing weather we began the 5 hour ride home. An hour into the trip my car died on the highway and I had to get towed back which cost $500 (350 pounds) and then the transmission replacement cost $3000 ($2000 pounds). I have not been back to that place since.
Being towed back 3 hours and a $3000 repair bill was one of the downfalls of the obsession. I don’t blank very often, but when I do it is in style!
5. A few months ago I was due to get married in August and my wife and I had planned a weekend a fortnight before the wedding to go and sort out the final important arrangements like the cake, decorations, photographer etc. A week before I informed her I was actually going fishing instead and buggered off for the weekend leaving her to do it all on her own. Karma came and got me though, as I blanked that session and both my mates caught great fish :( . She did thankfully turn up to the wedding :)
My wife with a nice mid twenty during her first ever session. She was warned when we met that she would always come second to fishing. Now we are married shes been promoted to joint first. Actually, scrap that, shes still second lol!
My current obsession……………a BIG rare American mirror!
After a very successful spring landing 3x 30lb commons and a new USA PB common of 40lb 6oz from two separate states I decided to re-evaluate my original 2012 goal of 10 fish over 30lb and a forty. I really wanted a big mirror. I had only caught a handful of small ones, as the states I was living in do not really contain mirrors. My USA PB mirror was a beauty, but only weighed 21lb. I knew a few states near to where a good friend of mine lived contained plenty of mirrors, and big ones too. He has landed numerous 30s and 40s, some being fully scaled stunners. This was the area of the country I had to fish…..even if the drive was a 15 hour round trip of almost 900 miles. I did wish gas (petrol) was not so expensive right now, but the obsession does not worry about roadblocks…..it just goes over, under, around or through them.
My USA PB mirror of 21lb was actually an amazing looking fish and a rare catch when you consider I had caught 1000 plus commons before landing it. But I wanted bigger and better.
June 2012
I had just finished my Masters Degree and had some free time off during the early part of the summer. I immediately planned a much needed week long trip to visit my friend Dean to try and bag some twenty plus mirrors as plenty had come out in the spring. The short story is that the weather was unbelievably hot, reaching 90+ degrees most days and so fish were only feeding between 10pm and 10am. Not many fish were really feeding and the first three days saw me land just one mid double mirror. It was time to move to another location. We visited several swims close together in another state and settled in one for a couple of days. Once again the fishing was tough, nothing showing and one fish a night was a good night. On the final night the fish went crazy for the Dynamite Baits Banana Nut Crunch boilies, and I landed five fish in a few hours. Unfortunately, they were all doubles and although very pretty fish not the big girls I was after. The session was actually more memorable for funny stories than carp including the naked chinese man on a bicycle, the couple having it away in a car right behind my bivvy, the homeless guy who bivvied up next to me and the bodybuilder in a thong who came down to my swim each day to bathe in the margins. Dean really does take me to the classiest of places!
A very pretty upper double mirror from my June session, but not exactly what I had traveled for, sat in extreme heat for or spent a week chasing. Dynamite Baits Banana Nut Crunch taking fish in tough conditions.
August 2012
July 2012 I was busy coaching soccer and also decided it really was not worth fishing until the weather cooled down. Early in August Dean, Sean and I planned a weekend session on water in the area I had been targeting. Day one it rained nonstop but there were fish showing everywhere. The trouble was the weed was up to the surface in most areas and far worse than we had expected. It was the most exciting day I have ever had observing carp in their quarry. There were some absolute monsters in the area and I saw several different strains including big dark ones with light moonscales and light colored chunky mirrors. It rained so hard we moved swims for the night to fish under a bridge to escape the rain because the river was running so fast our leads could not hold bottom. The next day it was red hot and we headed back to the original swim. The bright sun highlighted that the weed was even worse than we expected, there were no visible clear spots. The sun also got the fish up high and I spent the day chasing them on the surface, but they never even looked at my baits. Dean managed to bag a beautiful heavily plated low twenty during the hot day so it was great for us to see that they could be caught. In the middle of the night Sean called me to say he was in and he landed a torpedo of a common at 25lb. During the fight his other rod had gone off and we thought the lines were crossed and so just ignored it. When he went to wind the other rod in there was a fish on and it had gone into a thick weed bed. He expertly played the fish into the margins where I saw a big framed mirror. I netted the fish for him and it went 28lb 8oz, a new PB mirror for Sean (who named the fish “GARY”) and our confidence as a group grew now we had landed a few decent fish in very tough conditions. I landed my first snapping turtle on a zig, and that was all the action I had (serves me right for ditching my wife and the wedding commitments).
September 2012
In late August I had started a new dream job and immediately sorted my diary out and planned a session for September and October again in the same region. I knew this was the time when the temperature would drop, the weed would die back and the fish would begin to feed heavily. I felt that my hard work of driving up there so many times was about to pay off. One Friday after work I drove 8 hours to the swim I wanted to fish, arriving at 10pm and absolutely shattered. I decided to just stick two rods out in areas where I had visible night markers and I would concentrate on my baiting approaches in the morning when my eyes were open. I had both rods in about 11pm on two Dynamite Baits Tiger Nuts topped with a piece of fake corn, on a Nash Twister blowback rig.
A great alternative to boilies are the Dynamite Baits Frenzied Tigernuts. Great when using a particle approach, or when fishing for single bites.The best hook on the market by far in my opinion. I have not lost a single fish to a hook pull all year since i started using them. Purchase at Big Carp Tackle. www.bigcarptackle.com/store/product.php?productid=18506&cat=0&page=1
I was just nodding off about 11:30pm when a rod was away. It felt like a decent fish and went on a long powerful run and then something cut right through my 40lb braided mainline. My first run from this water and I had lost it, gutted. Rod back out and half an hour later another run on the same rod, this time I landed the fish and it was a mirror weighing ounces under 20lb. Now I was excited, I was off the mark and knew I had fish in front of me. I put both rods on the producing spot, stuck out a couple of catapults of tigers and ground bait balls and hit the sack. I had a few more fish that night to upper doubles but nothing over 20lb. Early in the morning just before it went light I had a screaming take. This immediately felt like a heavy fish as it plodded around in front of me and hugged the lake bed. It rolled close in after a ten minute fight and I saw a huge mouth and a big line of linear scales. This was it, the one I was after, the 30lb mirror I had been obsessed with since the late spring. The margin was relatively shallow so rather than risk losing it I just went right in up to my waist and she was mine. She was beyond beautiful, linear scales on both sides and a new USA PB mirror of 33lb 14oz. My wife likes naming her fish so I asked her to name it for me. She said I should name it Philbert. “No chance” I said, and so it is named “Zippy”.
Fish I named “Zippy” at 33lb 14oz. New mirror USA PB at the time. Dynamite baits tiger nuts, Nash Twister blowback rig.Other side of “Zippy”.
The daylight produced the odd fish but mainly smaller ones, and the following night did not produce one single fish for me. I knew I had to move from the swim that I had just caught my PB from because I knew the carp were no longer passing through the area. I drove around for an hour or so and cast the lead around and decided to set up in another swim I fancied the fish to be held up in. I spread 2 kilos of Dynamite Carptech Pineapple boilies over the area and stuck two rods out at distance.
Much of carping relates to confidence. I have so much confidence in this bait after getting instant results the first time its been put in a swim. It can be purchased here at Big Carp Tackle in 1 and 3 kilo bags. www.bigcarptackle.com/store/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=49
I’m glad I moved because four hours later I was hooked into another beast. The fish kited 100 yards down the bank and I was off running with my rod and net in hand. The Saxon rods have not yet let me down, with zero hook pulls all year and so I do not panic when fish go on crazy runs like this as the blank just soaks it all up and keeps steady pressure on the fish. Fifteen minutes later after wading through poison ivy (that sucked for the next three days) I managed to get her in the margins but she was still on the bottom and feeling heavy. Eventually a huge mouth popped up and a chunky body followed. I once again entered the water and netted another big mirror. I immediately felt that I knew this fish and thought it was ‘GARY’, the fish Sean had caught in August as it was covered in similar starburst scales. The beauty weighed 30lb 12oz, and upon checking the pictures it was indeed “GARY” the mirror.
Fish known as “Gary” 30lb 12oz, first caught in August by my mate Sean.Other side of “Gary”.
I had a couple more double figure fish that day and night and then packed up the next morning a very happy man. The 8 hour drive home that morning did not seem too bad after a result like that. Finally, all that hard work and obsessive behavior had paid off with not only one target fish but two, from two separate swims.
“Gary” absolutely double nailed. Dynamite baits pineapple and banana flouro pop up and Nash Twister hook = a deadly combination that has caught me many fish up to 40lb+ in 2012.
I will be back soon with more carpy tales, including the best session of my life from my October session, which follows on as part two of this “Obsession Article”. Please feel free to check out some new interesting sites here in America. I have recently taken on the role of Chief Editor of Big Carp News, an outlet for carp media in America and beyond. We will have reviews, articles, catch reports and video blogs etc for you to enjoy. I also have my own carp angling page on Facebook you can check out. (http://bigcarpnews.com/web/ , http://www.facebook.com/#!/BigCarpNews?fref=ts , http://www.facebook.com/#!/craig.parkescarpangler ).
Big thanks as always to my sponsors Dynamite Baits (www.dynamitebaits.eu.com), Nash Tackle (www.nashtackle.co.uk/), Big Carp USA (www.bigcarpusa.com) and Saxon Tackle (www.saxontackle.com).
I hope you enjoyed this article. Enjoy your angling and tight lines!
I am pleased to announce that Iain Sorrell has joined the Big Carp News contribution team. Iain runs Saxon tackle, importing Delkim, SPOMB & PB products in addition to developing the amazing Hexalite carp rods. His North American captures include 40lb+ commons, a 46lb Mirror and grass carp to 60+. As an all round angler he has a wealth of knowledge and experience in carp, coarse, game and sea angling. He is currently working closely with the fisheries department to develop carp angling across Connecticut & beyond, where he is making great strides in maximizing the resources on offer. Welcome to the team Iain! (Craig- Editor)
Meet the contributor!
Iain Sorrell
Introduction:
My home town is Chesham, Bucks in dear old Blighty but I’ve been living near Hartford, CT since 1994. It is now (sadly) over 50 years since I began fishing at the age of 4 along the Grand Union Canal… Over the years I have been lucky to chase a wide range of species from different parts of the World. In addition to owning and operating Saxon Tackle as the exclusive distributor for Delkim and Spomb I’ve also been involved in the fly fishing industry. Somehow this all fits in with a long time business career in life science laboratory and research products.
Carping CV:
I’ve never really considered myself anything other than an all round angler. Carp have certainly been a big part of my angling pursuits but then I’m equally at home chasing any number of fresh or saltwater species with a fly rod or spinning rod. I was lucky to have fished many of the Colne Valley waters before they really hit the headlines for their big carp. In 1978 I met Mike Wilson (of pyramid baiting fame) and was invited to join Ruslip AC which then had the sole fishing rights on Savay. This was shortly before the first syndicate and the attendant who’s who of carping appeared on the banks. It was an extraordinary apprenticeship which saw the dawn of modern carping techniques including the arrival of the hair rig. When I came to the US and bumped into the likes of early CAG members including Nigel Griffin, Pat Kerwin, Fran Slasinski and Steve Clow I soon discovered the extent of the incredible carp fishing opportunities over here and knew it would likely dominate my fishing life as a result!
Articles, publications, records, sponsors etc.
My first ‘appearance’ was aged 16 in the Angling Times for the capture of several big Pollack and my first article was back in 1978 on the risks posed by lead shot to wildfowl. Some of my more recent articles have appeared in the Carp Fisher (now Carp World), Carp Tackle Trade, Big Carp News, and the North American Carp Angler & several books including the Savay Chronicles and a chapter in Frank Warwick’s debut book “Every Bit of Blue. I’ve also contributed articles to fly fishing for magazines including Fly Fishing in Saltwaters & recently filmed a program with On The Water TV highlighting carp fishing on the CT River which will air in early 2016.
1. Why carp fishing?
What other fish is there in freshwater that fights as hard, grows as big or looks so stunning?
2. Most obsessive thing you have done to catch a carp?
I intentionally caught measles so I could get two weeks off work to go fishing.
3. Angler(s) you most respect?
The articles written by the likes of Richard Walker, Fred J. Taylor, Jack Hilton etc all had a massive influence on me as I grew up. I’m lucky to know many of the great anglers from the carp world but if I had to single out just a couple it would be friends like Mike Wilson and Frank Warwick.
4. Favorite bit of kit?
There are so many choices and I know I’m biased because I represent them here in North America, but it has to be my Delkim alarms. There is simply no other alarm that can truly help you understand what is happening at the ‘sharp’ end. No other alarm can put more fish on the bank. Period.
5. Worst tackle purchase ever?
Anything that screams “buy me” and then sits unused in my tackle box… bought tons of sh*t like that over the years!
6. Favorite baits?
A tough choice. I fish a lot of boilies because if used properly they sort the bigger fish. If it came down to just two then Wonder Bread & Sweetcorn would catch me almost any carp that swims!
7. Favorite venue? Ssssh – it’s still a secret!
8. What was your best ever session?
Anytime I come away with a result and that does not always mean a fish in the net. I simply love being on or by the water. There have been many blanks that have taught me something and I’ve always enjoyed sharing the time on the bank with friends.
9. Favorite catch?
The capture of the now famous Sally from Savay at 24lb is certainly one of the more memorable. It was the culmination of a lot of hard work (and at least as many blanks…) together with some careful observation. Since I rolled my own baits I could not compete with the quantities being used by some of the syndicate members. I’d discovered Belachan, a dried shrimp material, in a local Chinese supermarket a couple of years earlier and it seemed like the ideal ‘natural’ flavor. However it stunk the house out so I was forced to make baits bankside . I’d decided to move swims and to fish the ‘Narrows’ which meant I could put out a line of baits to intercept fish moving through the area. Around 4pm I saw a fish roll a couple of times as it moved towards the baited area Then before I knew it the right hand Optonic screamed into action and I was hooked into a fish that seemed determined to kite around the end of the island. It seemed like forever before it finally rolled into the net and showed itself to be one of Savay’s rare commons. I was simply stunned to say the least and kept hoping I wasn’t dreaming. It was only years later when reading John Harry’s book on Savay that I realized the significance of the tail damage and that ‘Sally’ had become such a revered fish in later years.
10. Top tips?
Study the water you plan to fish as everything (choice of swim, rigs, baits etc) will follow on from what you learn as a result.
11. Favorite rig?
I have two… Frank Warwick’s long shank hook rig and Mike Kavanagh’s Multi-Rig. Both are easy to tie and devastatingly effective with a variety of baits.
12. Worst ever session?
Playing what I’m convinced was a truly massive fish for almost 20 minutes and just when I thought the battle might be going my way the hook pulled. I only got a shadowy glimpse of this fish but it simply dwarfed two mid thirties I’d caught earlier. I knew immediately on seeing the bent hook point it was because I’d failed to check the rig properly. Totally gutted.
(I give you the debut article from Big Carp News Contributor and K-1 baits field tester Sean Lehrer. Please click on the picture for enlarged images as they are truly amazing fish! – Craig)
Three x 37’s, two PB’s and one Stunning Specimen!
As I prepared for an upcoming session in a part of the country I have fished on and off for the past year and a half I was devastated when I had to postpone it due to time off work. My friends went on without me and caught some gorgeous fish to mid 30’s, so I couldn’t wait to get back on the bank in two weeks time. Over the next week or so I started preparing by sorting out all the tackle I would need for the trip and gave the boys at K-1 a call to get some boilies shipped out. Knowing I would be fishing where some “BIG” fish roam I had them ship out plenty of the K-1 20mm Anise boilies which I would be testing on this session. I have confidence in their bait because they were specifically developed and designed with US carp in mind. Although I had not used the Anise flavor previously, I thought it would be a good time to try it as it seemed like it would be a good fall bait. This is because its strong distinct flavor and bright orange color are ideal for the colder water temps. As another week passed Friday was here faster than I imagined and I was on my way to what I hoped would be a good session.
Pre soaked K-1 Anise boilies frozen in the night.
I hit the road in sheer excitement.It was hard not to, because my mate Craig had text me to inform me he had already caught four 30’s and a 40lb mirror PB the night before. I arrived in the swim around 2:30pm and Craig had a 26lb mirror on the mat. I sorted him out some pictures and then started sticking some K-1 boilies into the swim to get the fish on my bait and in my area. Another key thing I did was to start soaking some boilies in the river water to start releasing the attractants and lighten up the color of the baits. This is known as “washing out the baits”. When fishing boilies they tend to lose their color after a while in the water as they are releasing the fish attractors. So I soak my boilies before putting them into the swim as it helps prevent fish being spooked off your baits because it looks like they have been in the water a while, thus resembling a potential food source.
I like to cut a little piece away from of each boilie so they would sit better on the rig and help release some attractants faster.
I made up some method mix, which consists of old fashioned oats, panko, cream corn, cinnamon, whole kernel corn, K-1 Anise spray attractant, some crushed up K-1 Anise boilies, and a few other secrets I like to add. I started off my baiting approach by sticking about 10-20 baits over each rod and the plan was to top off each rod with a handful of baits after every fish or every hour because there was a slight current and I knew the baits would eventually be swept away over time. In addition to this I didn’t see many fish showing in the area at the time so I didn’t need to put out a ton of bait, just enough to have fish get over my rods. Craig had told me that most of his fish had started to come out around 8:30 pm and then steadily throughout the night. He also mentioned that all of his fish were coming off bottom baits so I tied up a couple blowback snowman rigs. I fished one rod with a K-1 Anise boilie topped off with a K-1 Toffee Cream pop up for color contrast, and the other with a K-1 Juicy Tutti Frutti pop up. Rigs were tied up using a size 6 long shank hook with a little shrink tube, a medium size pop up weight an inch up my hook link which helps turn the hook over into the bottom lip, and I stripped back a few inches of my coated braid for a little more movement in the rig. I am very specific when it comes to rigs because it is very important that I do not lose any fish, especially when fishing for big fish. I must have total confidence in my end tackle before I cast it out. Previous visits to this swim meant I knew what type of structure there was in the swim and I knew bottom baits would fish well because it was a fairly clear bottom with some deep holes. Leading about I didn’t feel too much weed except for a small bit close to the bank which was not near my baits. After I had put out both rods I finished setting up my camp and awaited my first run of the session.
Time passed and the darkness was approaching so we started to cook up some food and relax with a nice cold beer. Just before it went dark I figured I would stick out a few more baits over each rod. Sitting alongside Craig around 8:45 enjoying a beer and having a catch up I jumped out of my chair hearing the sound I have been waiting for, my rod had screamed off. I instantly knew it was a good fish because of the solid weight I felt at the other end. The fish took off on a good run down to the left hand margin and continued to fight hard for the next 10 minutes. After a great fight the fish rolled close in and upon netting it we knew she was a good 30lb plus fish. We placed her on the mat and parted the net to reveal a huge two toned mirror much bigger than we first thought. We safely got her in the sling and on the scales and she topped out at an incredible 37lb 10oz, smashing my previous mirror PB by over 11lb!!! This was also my first fish from this swim as I had blanked previously when I was here in the summer. What a result! We took a few photos in the night because it was too early to sack her up till the morning. So far I was very satisfied with this session and couldn’t wait to see what else the night would bring.
First fish of the session and a beautiful two tone mirror PB at 37lb 10oz. Fish was taken on K-1 Anise boilie topped with K-1 Toffee Cream pop up.
With temperatures dropping to the mid twenties that night I knew it was going to be very cold and people would say we were insane for fishing through weather like that. However, as an angler I will go to many extreme levels to catch huge fish and to spend quality time on the bank with good friends. After catching a new PB I was more motivated than ever to catch another beast and wanted to break that 40lb mirror mark. I topped off my area with a few more baits before I went back to enjoying my beer and then got ready for bed. As I settled into bed and prepared for a cold night ahead I couldn’t sleep because I was still buzzing from the fish I had just landed. I laid down just messing about on my phone and fell asleep an hour or two later. I was then woken up around 4 am with a couple of beeps on the alarm, which eventually went screaming off. I jumped out of my sleeping bag and noticed everything was frozen and found myself sliding across the swim to my rods. This fight was very similar to the last one, as the fish ran to the left and took a good amount of line off the spool. I scrambled to get my phone out of my pocket to call Craig for some net boy support but I struggled to multitask while the fish was peeling off so much line. Once Craig had woken up and came to help I still had a good amount of line out and the fish was still fighting really hard. After about a 15 min fight Craig did an amazing job of netting yet another big fish for me with a frozen net. Once we got the fish up on the matt and unhooked it we knew it was another 30+ but had no idea exactly how big. We put the fish up on the scale and laughed in amazement as another 37lb fish was mine at 37lb 8oz. After we weighed the fish we placed it in the sack and went back to bed.
A beast of a fish at 37lb 8oz, with the eerie morning mist in the background!
Lying in my truck trying to fall back asleep I got woken up again by yet another fish that had decided to feast on my K-1 hook baits. This fish turned out to be one of the most beautiful fish I have ever caught. When Craig netted the third fish and we saw the big horseshoe scales crawling down its side we both looked at each other in awe of how beautiful this fish was. Its unique heavily scaled pattern was simply amazing. The fished weighed 29 lbs 04 oz and we placed her in another sack and waited about an hour till the sun had risen to get some great shots of what had been a very memorable nights fishing.
My favorite fish of the trip,29.04 Horseshoe plated stunner.
After a night dealing with the cold temps and turning my truck on and off to warm up I was still really happy and would not care if I didn’t catch another fish this session, but little did I know there was more excitement to come. As the day went on Craig and I were hanging around throwing a bit of bait in here and there just enjoying the warmness of the day after that harsh freeze during the night. Afternoon had arrived and we had not had a fish since early that morning which is what we expected as the fish seemed to be coming off during the night hours. Later on our good friend Dean arrived and setup just to the left of me to spend the last night of the session with us. Nighttime was once again creeping up and we were hoping some more decent fish would show up in the area. At 8:00pm Craig, Dean, and I had sat down for a curry and a few beers hoping for some night action. The forecast predicted a much warmer night so it was more comfortable, only going down to the low 40’s. Once again around the same time fish started to move in and before we knew it Dean was hooked up with a nice 33lb fish. Craig was still without a fish since just before I arrived, but he had caught a season’s worth of fish the night prior to my arrival. Amazingly in one night he had landed 10x 20’s, 4x 30’s up to 37lbs and an amazing fish just over the 40lb mark. About an hour or so later Craig went off to bed and I sat around and talked with Dean for a bit and enjoyed the calmness of the night before the rain came. I trickled into bed shortly after 2 AM, and was woken up to an all familiar sound of my alarms screaming off. I got up and landed the smallest fish of my session so far a beautiful 25lb 6oz Common.
Absolutely nailed!
I hopped back into my truck a little wet and fell back asleep quite quickly as I was pretty tired. Through the night I heard a few fish crash in the area and was feeling confident on another bite. Confident and correct I was because around 3:30 am I heard my rod tear off yet again. The fish had run into Dean’s swim and hearing his alarm twitch caused him to wake up, so he came out and got ready with the net. Another incredible fight ensued, and I remember looking over at Dean saying this is a good fish, hoping this was the 40 I wanted. As I played the fish and got her in close she was still putting up a strong fight and we saw her roll about 10 ft out. The legs immediately started shaking looking at her massive frame. Its moments like this where my hard work perfecting rigs pays off and I see the fish is hooked perfectly in the bottom lip. Into the net she went and Dean and I thought it was the 40 I was after. It wasn’t until we put her up on the scales we saw it was definitely a new PB for me but not that 40 lb fish we thought at first. I was beyond excited for yet another new PB in this session we put her in the sack and I couldn’t wait to tell Craig to go look into the sack when he woke up too see his face. A few hours later we were all up and Craig asked me if we had caught any more fish during the night and I looked at him with a nice smirk on my face and told him to go look at the sack. He looked down in the water and he smiled back at me saying “That’s a big ****** mate”. The scales topped out at another yet funny and exciting 37 lb 12 oz beast that I was absolutely amazed with. I couldn’t believe I had caught three different 37 lb+ fish in this session. I remember thinking I should play the numbers 337 for the lotto on the way home. As we waited a few more minutes for the sun to be just right for some photos I quickly threw my waders on and got ready for the paparazzi to take some shots.
37lb 12oz mirror PB. Thank you K-1 Anise Boilies You ROCKKK!!!
The session eventually came to an end as it was hard packing up the gear after what had unfolded over the weekend. The session had ended on a good note leaving me happier than ever and more determined to get back on the bank to get that target 40lb mirror. I would like to give a big thanks to a lot of people for making this session possible. The boys at K-1 Baits for the great support and in my opinion a top of the line bait that has never let me down. Big Carp News teammates Craig and Dean for the great times on the bank and the amazing photos. Big Carp News, and anyone else that helped me through my career of fishing. I hope you enjoyed my article and I look forward to writing more about success of carping in the future. Tight Lines!
If you read the adverts and brochures you would be forgiven for thinking that almost every rod out there shares the same characteristics for effortless casting to the horizon combined with an unerring ability to steer every hard fighting fish you hook straight into a waiting net.
In the first instance let just say that not all rods are equal and with a few exceptions you usually get what you pay for… The quality of rod blanks made in Korea & China is now remarkable and it should not be a surprise to know that many rods while ‘made’ in the USA actually use these imported blanks. So how do you choose which rod to buy when faced with so many choices and prices ranging from as little as $50 to well over $500?
In most cases the price you pay for a rod is determined by the quality of the blank, and then the fixtures and fittings such as rod rings and reel seat, graphics etc. However if you then add in a brand name or a well know anglers name & reputation it can add to the price significantly!
However it is the quality and construction of the blank that ultimately determines the performance characteristics of a rod. The position, number and size of rod rings can influence how the finished rod performs but they can’t make a poor blank into a good one.
So let’s first look at blank construction and what it means. The majority of carp rods are now made with carbon fibre although at the cheaper end of the price range ($50 – $100) many still use glass fibres or a glass/carbon mix. In some cases people talk about ‘graphite’ rods which is an incorrect term since graphite is a quite different form of carbon (characterized by its form of thin sheets or layers) and more commonly used as a lubricant additive.
Almost all carbon fiber is made from a common industrial fiber called polyacrylanitrile fiber, also known as PAN. This PAN fiber is heated to ultra high temperatures to remove all other elements except the carbon. The resulting “Low Modulus” carbon fibers, if seen up close, look a bit like a redwood tree trunk, with deep fissured bark. If processed further, the “bark” is gradually stripped off, leaving a progressively smoother round fiber that is smaller in diameter. These ‘thinner’ fibers can be packed into a smaller space, resulting in a Higher Modulus with greater stiffness per cross sectional area. As with most things not all carbon fibres are created equal. The quality and price can vary enormously so when a rod company says that their rods are made with a certain manufacturers fibres or prepreg material it’s a bit like saying Michelin makes tires. At one end of the scale you have a cheap, economy model and the other a complex, high performance race tire.
Carbon fibres are quantified by their tensile properties and the costs generally go up with the increase in tensile strength or modulus. Tensile strength is the force required to break a fibre when pulled along its length while tensile modulus is a measure of its stiffness. For years some companies claimed to offer higher modulus rods with impressive numbers like IM7 or IM8. This was simply marketing speak and had little to do with the actual construction since a higher modulus rod would result in an increasingly stiff action with more fragility. This then becomes an important determination for rod construction since no one fibre property will cover all the needs for strength and flex etc. The choice of carbon fibres with differing tensile and modulus properties is therefore critical to the overall performance & characteristics of the rod.
Once the key fibre properties have been chosen they are usually bundled into ‘thousands’ of fibres hence the designation 1K, 3K, 25K etc. These fibre bundless are then spun or woven into different formats to suit the intended application. In rod construction a woven cloth like material is used and a higher density ‘cloth’ uses more1K fibres (like a high thread count in clothing) and is therefore more expensive than a cheaper 3K material. Since a higher density weave not only has more strength it also requires less resin material to fill in the ‘spaces’ between the fibres. This offers advantages in creating a lighter rod construction as well as better durability in repeated flexing of the rod when casting or playing fish.
While on the subject of resin it is important to understand that not all resins are equal… maybe you already guessed that by now! A top quality epoxy resin will allow repeated flexing without cracking, offers superior UV resistance and will have a deep, clear appearance (allowing the attractive carbon weave to be seen if desired). While many top quality rods have a distinctive color finish it is also worth noting that cheaper rods will often use an inferior resin mixed with colored dyes to create a uniform coating so that it covers up and hides any imperfections in the rod construction!
So let’s make a rod!
First of all we need to buy in our Carbon Prepreg. This is simply a roll of carbon fibre cloth or woven material that is already ‘impregnated’ with resin. The resin is only partly cured to make handling easy and ensure product consistency. The choice of the fibre content and weave of this prepreg cloth is critical in determining the desired rod characteristics as well as its overall cost. The carbon prepreg is usually cut into a long, thin triangular shape known as a ‘flag’ and wrapped around a steel mandrel which determines the shape, taper and length of the rod. However it is the design and combination of different types of carbon fibre in the prepreg material that make up this ‘flag’ that will determine how the rod performs, its durability and ultimately its cost.
So far the carbon fibres are typically aligned lengthways along the length of the rod. The next stage is to add a ‘scrim’ which is designed to give ‘hoop’ strength around the rod and prevent the rod deforming or breaking under compression. This scrim material can be carbon fibre or even fibre glass depending on cost and performance requirements. Once the required materials have been wrapped around the mandrel it is placed in an oven and heated under vacuum to cure and harden the resins. The resulting ‘blank’ is then sanded and cleaned ready for fitting out with rings, reel seats etc. Alternatively it can go through an intermediate coating process to add a desired colored epoxy coating instead of a natural carbon finish.
When it comes to rod fittings (rings and reel seats) there is again a significant range of quality, price and performance to consider. Top of the range guides can easily add over $100 to the price of a rod. Add in the reel seat, handle material, whippings, graphics etc and each is another component cost. If a lower cost rod appears to be using ‘brand name’ fittings then they are invariably the cheapest available and their added cost will invariably be recovered by mounting them on a cheaper blank construction. The number and size of guides will also influence rod performance. Bigger, heavier guides will add more weight and slow or soften the rod action while more guides will actually reduce friction when playing fish.
So there you have it. While this is a relatively simplistic overview of carbon fibre and its use in rod construction it will hopefully give you a better understanding of why some rods are more expensive than others. If you want a rod that not only performs well but will do so for more than a couple of seasons without losing its action then you really do get what you pay for…
“Memoirs of a Carp Fisher – The Demon Eye” by Kevin Nash is an entertaining romp through the carp revolution of the 1970s/1980s – and beyond. Taking you through this journey is one of carp fishing’s brightest thinkers, an entrepreneur who helped establish carp fishing as the main stream business it is today. Refreshingly frank, and to the point at times, I found it a great read and Kevin’s enthusiasm for the sport still bubbles through the pages.
I particularly liked the Harefield chapters – thank god I was fishing in France by that time or I might have succumbed to the night life!
Rod Hutchinson
—
P.S. Many years ago, in between divorces, Kevin took me to a night club in southend on sea; TOTS it was called if I recall correctly.
“What do you think then?” Said Kev, as backs to the bar, on display was a dance floor full of gyrating women. And to be fair to them, despite Essex jokes, all seemed attractive to me! It was hard to spot a bad ‘un!
“Looks like they are feeding” I said,
“Feeding? They are ravenous” said Kev “They’ll have the bait while it’s still in the bag”
Needless to say we blanked that night and ended up with the shits from a dubious curry!
P.P.S. Big respect to a guy who came as close as anyone to achieving all of their dreams.
For many readers of Carp Talk each week the name Kevin Nash is synonymous with Nash Tackle, Nashbait and the incredible Copse and Church Lake fish that feature in these pages from time to time. But that is just part of the story, the real story that many have wanted to know is what or who is the real Kevin Nash? For years I, like many others, have nagged him to write a book; but he has always had other projects to attend to, carp to catch and waters to develop he told me. However the last two years have been different and on my trips down to see him and fish at Church Pool I have generally found him hard at work on this his first of two or even maybe three books covering his life in and out of carp fishing. The book market is saturated at the moment and, whilst well meaning, many of these books are just a trawl of big fish; the true stories behind them and the author are glossed over at best and missed out altogether in some cases. It paints a false picture to many, who think that they too can go out and do it without the pain that goes with being a long time carp angler and that addiction to carp fishing that so many of us bare. When I finished Kevin’s book I thought to myself “Thank god someone has had the guts to tell it how it is from their perspective….”
Author Kevin Nash
Make no mistake this is a hard hitting and undoubtedly controversial book for many. Kevin doesn’t suffer fools gladly, calls a spade a spade and he isn’t afraid to reveal not only his own failures but also his views on others. So whether you love him or hate him, ignore it at your peril….it’s a carp man’s carp book and if you crossed ‘Tiger Bay’ with ‘The Carp Strikes Back’ and named the names that’s the kind of book you have!
Starting with his early years and how the carp bug took hold, its one of those books that the more you read it the more you will possibly see of yourself in its pages. From the friendships that you make that last lifelong, to being double crossed, to taking no prisoners when it comes to catching carp or getting ahead in business. Kevin also reveals all during his time at Harfield; the parties and when you draw in Dougal, Maylin, Zenon and co. you know it’s going to be fun – and just a little bit naughty. The countless ups and downs that Kev has had with women including the legendary Horse and Barge landlady….you really need to read it. Where else would you read a carp angler revealing his addiction to….? Well as I said, you need to read it for yourself.
But it’s not all about Kevin’s carp fishing life – not by a long way – as running along the fishing side of things are the formation of Nash Tackle and Nash Bait; the link up and fallout with Rod Hutchinson, the things that worked and the things that certainly didn’t. I know Kevin well, and I know my carp fishing history pretty well too, but there is stacks I didn’t know and I guess that he has never revealed before. There’s some brilliant technical stuff on bait and bait application, rigs and fine tuning them, Zig rigs and safe end tackles, baiting a water and lots more besides. His technical prowess is second to none but I guess when you fish against the lads he has fished against at Layer, Snake Pit, Harefield and so on… you do have to be top of your game. With characters from Zenon to Derek Stritton, the ‘Nod’ to Cliff Fox – it’s an ‘in-your-face’ read for sure. I really did think I knew him well, but the personal stuff he details in this book is very revealing indeed. Some of you will love that and some of you will be shocked, but it’s a proper carp book and not a soft soap book aimed at bigging himself or Nash Tackle up. I can’t recommend it highly enough and I can’t wait to see the forums and letter pages when it hits the shelves. The most honest carp book I have read yet, and although it ends in 1993 I just know there’s a lot more to come from him… I can’t wait to read the follow ups and I know you will love this one…
Kevin will sign your copy and write a dedicated message of your choice. To order go to the website www.tunarollpublications.co.uk or telephone 01702 233 232.
The Demon Eye is set to be published early November 2012
Author Kevin NashThe Carp world has been waiting a long time for Kevin Nash to put his story down on paper, Memoirs of a Carp Fisher starts when Kev was just a kid and follows his journey through the pioneering years of carp fishing up to the 1990’s, but the book is about more than just carp fishing. Kev talks frankly about his personal journey and how he went from having to make his own items of tackle as none were available to developing the most famous carp tackle brand in the world.
This book is a fascinating account of carp fishing yesterday and those who shaped it into the sport we know today. Memoirs of a Carp Fisher is aspirational to youngsters, massively informative and packed full of Nashy humour, carp Books don’t get any better than this. A must Read!
Priced at £29.99 including free postage Kevin will sign your copy and write a dedicated message of your choice. To order the book go to the website www.tunarollpublications.co.uk or telephone 01702 233 232.
