Hello all

I am new to this site and recently back to carping after an 8 year lay off enforced by the arrival of children.
Anyway the kids have now got to an age where I could take them fishing so a few weeks back I found myself back on the bank.
To say I got the old bug back would be understatement of the year and I now find myself putting all my spare time and effort into fishing.

Firstly let me say I think this forum is a great idea and I have really enjoyed reading all the blogs etc as they seem to be written by very competent anglers giving sound advice to others.And some of the banter is highly amusing
However this does NOT seem to be the case at the waters edge these days.
After looking aroud a few lakes that used to hold decent fish and fishermen recently I was stunned to see the trend for sticking as many baits as you can on a hair and lobbing it aimlessly into the middle of the lake!!!!!
Not to mention that there are now 10 other people lobbing their bait to exactly the same spot..............Please tell me this is not the norm.
I was looking at lakes over the bank holiday weekend and easter so it could just be the bank holiday boys were out in force!!
Whats going on?

Good or bad thing.....but in the 8 years you have been away carp fishing has seen a rapid rise in popularity and looks as though the trend aint stopping.

You just have to look a bit harder for the quieter lakes mate....they are still out there.

You should move to Scotland, it's like a carping time warp, peace and quiet is great but the fish need to catch up 20 years or so !

Cheers
Saul

Not really sure if its a good thing or a bad thing....and im probably not the best person to comment.
I was just shocked at the boom in numbers of bivvies on the bank.

Think I will take the advice and hunt around for some place quiet!!!

However before that I need to catch a few fish........think Ive got rusty.

Fished bury hill last week.........hooked 7.........landed 1.
Ouch!
Went home with my tail firmly between my legs!!
Never mind 8 years is a long lay off cant expect to get things right first time out i supose.

Not too sure about scotland mate seems a long way to go!!!!

POSTED ON BEHALF OF GEO 30. Editor.


What a session!

Hello all

As I have said I am recently back to carp fishing after a long lay off and embarassed myself on my first outing by losing all 3 hooked fish on bury hill last week.
With this in mind I decided I needed to put a couple of fish on the bank to "blow the cobwebs off" so to speak.
So last night I put in an over nighter at thorp lea and what a night it turned out to be!!!

When I arrived at the lake I saw that most people were northern bank and very few were in the shallower area of the lake.........where most of the fish were showing!
So this is where I set up.
I decided to spod a good bed of corn and pellet on top of the fish and see if they would really get their heads down.
I fished bottom baits over the baited area and runs came thick and fast all night.
I ended the session having caught 20 carp including 4 twentys.
The other fish were all between 15 and 18 pound
This is a person best for me as ihave never had that many runs in one session and im now sat here with a big smug grin on my face feeling like a pig in muck.

Cobwebs well and truly blown off.

Thanks Paul

Was going to add story to this blog but could not find it.
Still trying to find my way around FW.

No problem... ... and congratulations on the fish....

Nice result geo, well done fella!

nice one.....so your not packing it in then ?

Not a chance buddy.............Cant wait to get back out.

Thats nice mate....tired and slimy what a lovely way to be...

Thanks guys!!!! nice comments

And now for a new problem!!

A few weeks back around carp fishing has me dreaming of big fat carp from unknown waters that have never been hooked.......you know the feeling.
From my old carp fishing days I know of a very overgrown and deserted gravel pit that contains or did contain some decent fish.....they must be monsters now im thinking
However I visited said lake today and after fighting my way through bramble bushes stinging nettles killer mozzies realised there is no way to get a look around the lake as the people who owned it before have since given it up to someone else........and I have no idea who!!!
thetre was however one person on the lake that i could see.
He was in a boat in the middle marking spots.
there was no way I could shout to him from my side of the fence so I was left with no choice but to come home fruitless.
Now i dont really know what my next course of action should be as the internet trail turned up nothing the way I see it my choices are:

1,hang around the lake a lot in the hope that I can meet boat boy?

2,screw it just jump the fence and have a look around (hoping that if I bump into anyone they will understand that us carp anglers just cant help ourselves).

3, continue asking around trying to find out who now owns the place and how I can get on it?

I need some advice on this one as the devil in me is saying "Sod it jump the fence"

Brambles,stinging nettles,mozzies.....sounds like my kind of place

Where you based mate?

....somebody on here is bound to be local to you and can probably give you a bit of info via a Private message

Usefull information about lightly fished waters tends not to discussed in the open....thats why I mentioned the Private Message feature.

If it was me I'd deffo ask a few more questions before I made a decision....

If you jump the fence and you get sussed it might harm your chances of getting into the club or syndicate that controls the water.

Local Tackle shops are a pretty good place to start but i'd be surprised if somebody on here can't help you out.

Im based in middlesex.......and the lake is in halliford/shepperton.
Its close to the garden centre.

I know the pit your talking about..dont know the name..its rough.. the pikeys are a problem.. my mate who lives local spoke to a lad who fished there alot last year for nothing ..

OK So its time I updated this but ive been busy/lazy .But here goes.
Since my last post times have been really busy and the result is that I now have three children and not the two I had then.
In the latter stages of pregnancy I didnt manage to get out fishing as I felt I should be at home helping rather than sitting next to a lake but all went very well with the birth and the good lady made a speedy recovery and the end of july saw me back on the banks...just a couple of short sessions with the kids at first but as the weeks went by the misses regained her strength and now I am back full swing.
so since I last posted I have had three serious carp sessions and this is how they went:

Session 1
As i have said I was looking for a water to fish and after a bit of digging I found out how to get on the water I mentioned but after a good look round and some sound advice I have decided this is not the water for a first season back to carping so I have opted for a local pool which I used to fish many moons ago back then it had some lovely fish but was always in bad condition weed choked to the point of being unfishable but hey it had been 8 years since i had seen the place so I went for a look.
What I found was a lake under new management that looked stunning.
Same fish but now cleaned up and looking great and the best bit.......not too much pressure.......heaven.
so I fished an overnighter...........and blanked
I was not too upset by this set back as I did have a good look at the water and learned a lot I got chatting to two local lads and got information about fish/swims etc and once again the place looked lovely with big beds of lillies and deep water in the margins.
Anyway the blank was soon forgotten and another trip planned.

Session 2

OK the plan went like this:
Its an old lake with little pressure.
The fish are feeding on naturals.
Im gonna give maggots a go........Im gonna take the place apart.
WRONG!
Everything about this trip was doomed to failure.
I had made up my mind to try maggots out and had stopped off at the tackle shop on the way home from a busy day at work and purchased four pints of bait my intentions were simple......good nights sleep/easy days work/great nights fishing.
WRONG AGAIN
Thursday night and the baby has us up all night
Friday all hell breaks loose at work and I end up having to work late having planned with the good lady that I was fishing straight from work I head off to the lake........Eventually.
I have a busy saturday ahead of me and although its late I decide to fish anyway.
So plan A goes into practice
By the time I get set up its getting dark but thats life so in go two rods with a popped up bunch of maggots on each and a good bed of bait and I sit on the bedchair thinking this is the life.
I open a bottle of beer light a ciggie and sit back.
I open my eyes its daylight theers a full bottle of beer next to the chair and a burned out fag on the floor and its 6am?????
I felll asleep and boyyyyyyy did I sleep one of the guys I had spoken to on previous trip said he tried to wake me to do some photos but I was "dead to the world"ive got to be away for 7am so I start to pack up when I reel in the rods I discover a small perch on each.......they must have been bleeping away all night and I slept through it!!!!!!!!!Greedy buggers these perch and apparently this lakes full of em........maggots not the way then.
Hmmmmm why didnt I just go home and get some sleep?
Never mind thats fishing and I was just happy to be out after all this time im sure this feeling of just loving being lakeside will soon leave me but at the moment thats how it is and im happy with that.

Session 3
Last night

All week I had been planning this trip and when friday at work finished early I could not have been happier I arrived at the lake to find the place deserted.
It didnt take long to find some fish rolling near a huge bad of lillies and before long I was set up and ready to go.
At this stage I will say that the fish in this lake are not massive by any ones standards(current lake record is 28 pound)but they are nice fish and the lake is stunning.
So when I get a run after an hour and land a common of 12.4 im over the moon and ive broken my blank.
Another hour passed with out action and then a sreaming run on the laft hand rod resulted in another common about the same size this was getting interesting.
My confidence was knocked when the next couple of hours passed without event and then two runs at once!!!!!!!!!both resulted in bream of about 5 pounds each!
At about 5am I get a screamer on the left hand rod again and the instant I hit into the fish I know this is a much better fish and one of the lakes better fish is on.
It takes me a while to coax the fish away from the lillies and im feeling confident when I get it to open water only to be totally bemused when all sudddenly goes solid and the fish is snagged!!!!
3 seconds later all goes slack and I get that sickening feeling thet still hurts now while sitting here.
The morning produced another bream and a mirror of about 8 pounds and the drive home was spent cursing my luck on losing the big fella however I really enjoyed the whole night and my new found love of being back on the carp scene has only been helped by the loss of this fish!!!!!!!! I WILL CATCH IT!.
And i will keep you all up to date but for now my fingers are hurting from typing and im sure your eyes are hurting from reading so..........speak to you all soon!

Keep going, and you'll catch the big fella....


Nice contribution to the Forum...

Thankyou.
Not quite up to the writting standard of Tudge but hey im trying!!

Excellent writing mate, don't compare yourself to anyone, everyone has a different style...

I reckon your blog is a top read.. Just the thought of returning to carp fishing after nearly a decade ..
Keep it up and don't leave it to long before the next installment..
Just finding ten minutes to fill my own blog in has been a bit of a struggle over the last few weeks (hence the shortish posts done with not to much atmosphere).
Good luck with the 'Biggie'