The CARP FISHING GUIDE Saves you Time and Money.
Introduction to Carp Fishing While I was on holiday with my parents in Wales I joined Somers fishery, the first day it opened (1978) I was fishing it (11yrs old), some bloke next to me caught a carp 16lbs (big fish) and about 6 tench, it took my breath away; I wanted a piece of this, so when I returned I was armed with the old mans Shakespeare international Pike rod with Mitchell 300 reel and some tin foil bobbins, I got to the waters edge and you could see the Carp in the weed bed, I stuck a big piece of crust wet it and casted it right on target, soon as it hit the surface there was a loud slurp and it all went mental for five minutes and the snap, I was gutted looked on the spool and it was only 5lb break strain, cut along story short, I returned fully prepared and I had my first Carp 14lbs, this took me into Carp fishing.
As time went on I caught plenty of Carp from Somers, but for years never broke 20lbs barriers.
I was fishing Geary’s Level the Carp lake, along came this Chap by the name of John (later known as plug) and he showed me this thing that looked like a sweet; it was a boilie, he gave me this bait, showed me how to tie a hair rig, I casted this thing called a boilie out, while we were talking I had a screaming run and it was on the boilie rod it was a Carp of 8lbs but it had took this new bait wicked.
John told me where to get this bait, it was off a man named Bob Frost from Coventry, I started making boilies by the hundreds, I also started to catch more fish, I was gods gift to small Carp, still no twenties after a few years fishing down there, I made some good fishing mates; we would all bivvy up next to each other and have a good social, while I was fishing there I was also fishing the civil service club water (Coventry Road Birmingham) with my school mate Ian Blud.
I fished down there with him for 3-4yrs. while I fished we had a big rat problem down at the civil service place, so the one night I got strong line, a big hook and some cheese tied to the fence and left it, 2 hours later I was just going to sleep and I heard a loud shriek it startled me, it was the rat trap, oh yes the rat was caught and it was going mental. I took this idea everywhere; it was a good laugh if you are sick in the head like me. The best funny carp fishing story for me was when Cookie and I laid a trail of bread into Plugs Bivvy and all around his groin, while he was asleep as the Canada Geese were quite tame. When the goose got into the Bivvy we dropped the door down. Lets just say Plug was rudely awoken. Ha ha. We will be adding a funny fishing stories page to our site later in the year. While I was fishing Somers this guy would come down to fish and most of the time caught, I wanted to know what he was doing different to me, so I went and spoke to him we hit it off, to say the least my catch rate improved big time, he was the most clued up angler I had ever come across, his name was John Copper, the only one famous for catching Britain’s biggest Common Carp, twice.
We had good times, like fishing Christmas we would have Christmas trees out side our bivvies. We would catch Carping in all conditions even in deep snow.
The one close season John went fishing to this pool called the Batche at Craven Arms, Shropshire and caught a few Wildies, when he got back he told me where it was, so my old man dropped me and my mate Baz there for two days, when we arrived it looked very Carpy, shallow, lily pads, one end deep water at the dam end, we walked down to the dam end and there were two Chaps, Rob Hales & Paul Armfield, we fished 2 pegs up from them, Rob had already had one in the night, the first night we all caught Wildies, next day I was despondent, went and had a chat with Rob who was on the dam wall when chatting to Rob I heard a Carp sucking in the Maginal weed , I looked down there was this huge mouth, so I lowered my boilie floater into his mouth.
To my amazement it just got sucked straight in and before it could blow it out I struck, the whole weed bed erupted and the fish tore off upto the lilies and he went up and down for over an hour, Rob said the biggest fish in here was a 33lb Common Carp, I was trembling, in the end I got it to the top, Rob had the net ready for me, it was about five feet away from the net and then the hook snapped; I was fuming useless Kamatsu hooks, Rob said don’t worry mate you will get another one, considering I have never caught a twenty and just lost a 30 plus, next morning I was up 3.30 am and started stalking. I found a group of fish feeding two of which looked like two big Common Carp, I opted for a slow sinking bait, I used luncheon meat with the fat out of the tin all over it so it would sink slowly and it caught me my first 20lb it weight 22lbs-8oz Common Carp. I was really chuffed, so that was a very memorable day for me, I haven’t seen Rob for years he now owns the Monument and Acton Burnell Fisheries, fair play to him.
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