IS S U E 2 3 • S P
R IN G 2 0 16
FEATURING:
Tie Kevin’s deadly Triggalink Rig
#EXTRA URBAN Carp in a concrete jungle
KICK START YOUR SPRING! MAGGOT BAGS STEP BY STEP HIGH ATTRACT HOOKBAITS IMPROVE YOUR INDICATION
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STRETCHING THE TRUTH
ALAN BLAIR JULIAN CUNDIFF STEVE BRIGGS
BIGGEST ISSUE EVER
CAUGHT!
Speed Sensing THE SIREN R3’S line speed sensing system eliminates false indications from wind, weed and even flowing water. Yet the moment a hooklength is tightened, a lead is moved or the bobbin lifts from a line bite the R3 tells you what you need to hear. It’s next generation indication.
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ARTICLE TITLE
CONTENTS
NASH E-ZINE • ISSUE 23 • SPRING 2016
6 - 17 #EXTRA URBAN - THE WHARF
Carp fishing in the concrete jungle, surrounded by supermarket trollies, townies and tarts – welcome to The Wharf in Cardiff.
20 - 26 SMART CARPING – HIGH POWER HOOKBAITS Nash Tackle’s Laurence Smart shares his best edges to bring a bite when all else fails.
28 - 37 THE FILMING OF THE RESERVOIR DIARIES Documenting the fishing mad brothers in their quest to catch carp from a 280 acre reservoir in the south east.
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38 - 39 TT SCREENS
Check out the wicked TT interface screen - it’s a personal shopping assistant coming to a retailer near you soon!
40 - 46 STRETCHING: THE TRUTH
Kevin Nash rates his stretching Triggalink as one of the biggest edges ever for wary carp. It’s the hooklink material that bites back!
48 - 55 UNCOVERED – GARY BAYES
Here’s what you didn’t know about the man behind the magic in the Nashbait bags….
56 - 57 NASH KNOWHOW - MAGGOT BAGS
A giant PVA bag of maggots is one of the most deadly tactics yet found - here’s how to tie the end tackle you need for a slice of the action..
58 - 64 BRIGGS – THE LINE OF SIGHT
Steve Briggs delves into world of carp behaviour around our tackle.
66 - 71 JULIAN'S Q&A
The carp world’s number one instructor is here to solve your problems.
72 - 81 EBRO EVOLUTION
River Ebro carp have evolved into formidable river survivors. And they are bigger than ever!
84 - 85 THE LOWDOWN
NEW for 2016 Nash Indulgence chairs are redefining bankside comfort.
86 - 93 MEKONG WARRIORS
Sit back and enter another world where a boilie can be the bait to catch you fish that you might not even recognise…!
Editor: Colin Davidson Design: BRAVEDOG Web: Kevin Tucker and Colin Davidson Photography: Oli Davies and Tom Forman
www.nashtackle.co.uk With thanks to: Nash Consultants & The Nash Tackle HQ Team.
facebook.com/officialnashtackle facebook.com/kevinnashcarpangler @officialnashtackle @officialnashtackle
NASH E-ZINE SPRING 2016
Get MORE from Nash! HAVE you signed up for a FREE Nash account yet? Registered users get more, you’ll see the E Zine first, previews of major events like the annual Nash DVD before your mates and even get the first sneek peek at the new season’s product launches. Well done Stuart Garwood being the first winner in our monthly competition on the great new Official Nashbait Instagram page. He bagged this amazing linear koi from a Kent Park Lake on a zigged 10mm Citruz pop up. For uploading his catch on the Nash website to share with his mates he’s bagged a retro Nashbait hoody, plus Citruz Special Edition Boilies, Pop Ups and a Citruz Concentrate spray.
Sign up NOW! www.nashtackle.co.uk with the best being shared on Instagram and prizes for the pick of the bunch each month!
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EDITOR'S WELCOME
FROM THE EDITOR
Colin Davidson
There’s no place in the world like England in the Spring, and day on day we’re heading into the very best time for catching carp of the entire fishing calendar. In a period of just a few weeks we go from February freeze ups to the natural world waking up – including the carp in a big, big way.
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ash is an unstoppable train at this time of year and few will have missed the launch of the long awaited epic Nash 2016 DVD. From Euro Banx 2 to surface action at Redmire it’s start to finish adventure. For the first time we’ve produced DVDs in five countries not just the UK. Today carp angling is a global sport and the content in these films is inspiring for everyone, from inland seas in France to Polish park lakes the footage is a credit to the efforts of the videography team who covered thousands of miles over many months to capture it all. Check it out on the Nash website homepage. Your local fishing shop could be changing this Spring too, as we introduce brilliant video interface screens that allow you to scan any item of the TT terminal tackle range and instantly watch a video showing you what the product does and how to use it. It’s about time fishing embraced this sort of progress and put it where people can benefit from it most. Scan, watch and learn – it’s never been easier to kit yourself up with exactly what you need to help you catch more.
And then there’s the huge news of the opening of Kevin’s own Copse and Church Lakes to exclusive bookings in the coming weeks – with over a dozen 50-pounders and upwards of 20 40-pounders to be caught. There’s a 60 lb common on the cards for one lucky visitor this spring – imagine that! Spring can be a bonanza time but that also makes for the busiest banksides of the year. In this issue we’re giving you the tools you need to come out on top with a great big new season carp in your lap, from the best in high attract hookbaits to taking you step by step through the deadly Mag-Aligner rig. There’s the inside line on the deadly Triggalink from Kev himself, Gary Bayes in Uncovered, thought provoking material from Steve Briggs on carp behaviour around lines and amazing opposite experiences in the pieces from Carl and Alex on filming the Reservoir Diaries and Jason Massay drilling his Titan down in the extreme urban landscape of Cardiff’s The Wharf. There’s something for everyone!
There’s no place in the world like England in the Spring, and day on day we’re heading into the very best time for catching carp of the entire fishing calendar.
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NASH E-ZINE SPRING 2016
#Extra Urban
Carp fishing in the concrete jungle, surrounded by supermarket trollies, townies and tarts. It’s not where you’d normally expect to find a 40 lb common – welcome to The Wharf in Cardiff.
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#EXTRA URBAN
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NASH E-ZINE SPRING 2016
Slap bang between the multi million pound waterside retail development Cardiff Barrage and the city centre you’ll often find a Titan and a Trax barrow under streetlights with rods poking between iron railings.
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y day there’s a steady procession of briefcases and power suits heading off to coffee shops and by night it’s a shortcut for the guys and girls out on the town heading for Cardiff’s night spots. And in the middle sits 30 acres of water that is growing some of the most sought after carp in Wales, welcome to East Bute Dock, more commonly called The Wharf. Back in the mid 1800s the rectangular 900 yard long waterway was a pivotal part of the Welsh coal and steel exports industry, colossal cargo ships coming from the nearby sea to load up and head around the world. Land locked from the sea over 40 years ago, back filled and then developed The Wharf is a freshwater fishery with a saltwater appearance. It’s a favourite haunt for Nash consultant Jason Massay – who is on a mission to catch the venue’s top prize, Olli a 40 lb common. “It’s not your average carp fishery,’ he laughs. “There are high rise apartments on three sides and a steel works just opposite. There are trollies, tyres, road cones, anything you can think of has been thrown in over the years, and there’s always a lot of rubbish like
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“…some of lampreys a and there knocking a
Anthony Tanti with Olli, the jewel in The Wharf’s crown
f the lads have seen attached to the carp are also some mullet around.”
bottles and cans, which blows in from the city around it. We all do our best to keep it tidy where we can but it’s in a city.”
there, some say 200 some say 400, so maybe a figure somewhere between the two,” said Jason.
And in such unlikely surroundings there’s also a healthy carp stock, and big fish too. “I only live five miles away and heard about carp being caught from there around ten years back,” remembers Jason. “There aren’t a lot of big carp in Wales but The Wharf was quietly producing upper 20s and 30s and then the big common went over 40 lb about three years back. It’s only really been more widely known about since a few people fishing there have been Facebook users.”
“Despite appearances it is completely freshwater but you do get people walking around asking if there are sea fish in there. There’s a funny mix of carp, some that look like Simmos, some scaley ones, some short and deep fish, all sorts. There’s also a 40 lb grass carp, a few trout and believe it or not some of the lads have seen lampreys attached to the carp and there are also some mullet knocking around. The carp are growing really well, I had an upper double scaley mirror that was caught again a few months later at 3 lb heavier, they are getting bigger all the time.”
Accounts vary as to how many carp live in the disused dock, and also how they got there. Formerly run by a local club Glamorgan Anglers the venue has certainly been actively stocked in the past, including by the local Council who were responsible for the first introductions. “I get asked all the time how many carp in
In a day and age where it’s not uncommon to be asked for big three figure and even four figure annual syndicate fees, The Wharf remains free fishing. Just turn up and have a go!
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NASH E-ZINE SPRING 2016
Concrete Jungle
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eing a man made venue means barely a blade of grass to be seen, and that brings its own particular problems. “You can’t get a tent peg in anywhere so we use screws and washers between the block paving,” explains Jason. “I take an electric drill for ease and just make sure it is charged the night before I go, at least then you’re not worrying about getting blown away.” The paved surrounding means you won’t be pushing banksticks in anywhere either. “You have to use a pod really, but there are other solutions like using gaffer tape and cable ties to strap buzzer bars to the railings,” says Jason. “You can fish with rod tips up and over the top of the railings and a lot of the boys do but it’s a bit too much like cod fishing for me. I remember my mate being woken up with all of his alarms going bonkers because a black bag had blown down the lake and got tangled in all three of his lines. I don’t want that sort of hassle so rod tips lower is a better idea.” Jason’s solution is using a bit of engineering ingenuity, creating a pod from his Trax barrow. “Everyone loves the barrow conversion, it came about because the height of a lot of pods can be a bit awkward compared with the railing heights but the barrow is bang on. My rear buzzer bars are directly attached to the side rail of the Trax and the front bars are attached to the middle rail. “It’s a neat solution, you can’t have things lying around because people are walking past all the time but no one can take your barrow for a walk, and by the time it’s bungee strapped to the railings if anyone moved the barrow the alarms would sound,” he explained. Rods between the railings does make the day to day tasks a bit more involved however: “It does take some getting used
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“You get free Wi-fi the length of one bank from The Wharf pub, then the Holiday Inn Express and finally from the County Hall”
#EXTRA URBAN to, you have to pick the rod up and then thread it forwards and pass it in front of the railings to get hold of, and do the reverse when you want to set a bobbin after a recast,” says Jason. “It was a bit of a nuisance at first but after a few casts and catching a couple you get used to it.” Plus Jason rightly points out that the positioning of the rods is another simple deterrent against anyone trying to lift them off the alarms and pinch them. Being surrounded by concrete and all the fixtures and fittings of urban life isn’t all bad: “The whole pathway is street lit so you can turn up 10pm even in the middle of winter and be fishing easily enough with enough light to see exactly what you are doing and where you are casting.”
The lighting is so good that Jason reckons it’s possible to stalk fish even in the middle of the night along some of the shallower marginal shelves, and even in the early hours you can clearly see carp showing, it’s a bit surreal. “It’s also a bonus to fish a venue without any mud and where you can lay a bedchair out flat in every swim without needing to adjust a single leg,” he laughs. But possibly the biggest plus of all is that with the trappings of city life comes a certain standard of living, even in a bivvy… “You get free Wi-fi the length of one bank from The Wharf pub, then the Holiday Inn Express and finally from the County Hall,” adds Jason.
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NASH E-ZINE SPRING 2016
Eye spy carp
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urprisingly, the high rise apartment blocks surrounding The Wharf aren’t a blot on the landscape – to a carper they come in pretty useful, offering an amazing bird’s eye view of the water below – and also the carp. With a friend living on the sixth floor Jason often has a direct line to the most effective location tool of all – eyeballs looking straight down into the clear water. “If I’m down there he’ll text or call me from his veranda and give me clue if there’s any fish around,” says Jason. “It gives me a brilliant pointer. We did the same when Alan Blair visited, because you can see the areas
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the fish are frequenting so clearly, and also what depth they are at which can help get extra bites on zigs. You can almost always see little pods of carp in fours and fives all in and out the weed. “I’ve learned a lot from watching the carp from up there, even just little things like when you see a carp crash out and you think it’s come up from the depths, I’ve watched fish in The Wharf swimming a few feet below the surface, then kick their tails and build up speed and turn straight towards the sky and crash out. I always would have assumed they were coming from deep and going back down but it’s not always the case.”
#EXTRA URBAN
Hookers and Hoodlums
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o any onlooker safety would be the key issue tackling somewhere as urban as The Wharf – isn’t there a lot of potential for trouble? “You do meet some odd characters,” admits Jason. “It has got a reputation over there for junkies and street crime but it’s only what you’d expect in any city centre. A lot of people won’t fish there but I think with that attitude you’ll end up staying at home all your life. “Some lads stay up all night when they are fishing but I don’t bother. I just get my bivvy door as close as I can to the railings and the barrow, but I guess you do sleep with one ear permanently cocked,” he continued. Still, it’s not your ordinary fishery, and there are plenty of tales to tell: “The other week I could see some guy on a push bike and he was rummaging on the floor, and left a load of stuff on the path down from where I was fishing. I checked it out when he’d gone and there was a laptop case on the floor and all sorts of other rubbish – I think he’d just robbed someone’s car and was leaving behind what he didn’t want. “I’ve also had some girls walk past with a fella, and then come back a couple of minutes later and ask if I’m looking for business!”
“Some lads stay up all night when they are fishing but I don’t bother. I just get my bivvy door as close as I can to the railings and the barrow, but I guess you do sleep with one ear permanently cocked"
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NASH E-ZINE SPRING 2016
Alan Blair’s addicted!
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ne massive fan of The Wharf is Nash star Alan Blair, so much so he’s breaking his own rules and planning to revisit it several times this year. “It is a really special place, I’m very fond of it,” he admitted. “It’s rare for me to go back somewhere even if I’ve had a great result, I’m usually just happy to leave with good memories and go on to the next venue but The Wharf is different, I’ve been back twice and have a number of trips planned. “Everyone I’ve met there has been so welcoming the Welsh people are really friendly, from letting me park my van outside a hotel to giving me their wireless key to lending me a plate and cutlery to eat a takeaway, just a warm and friendly bunch both the anglers and the general public. “People can be guilty of using the term urban because there’s a road sign 100 yards away but this is different, it is a lake in a city, proper urban fishing,” Alan emphasised. “The water clarity and natural food makes it a rich venue with an abundance of weed, mussels and invertebrates. I’m so excited because I’ve only fished it in the winter, I want to go and have those clear water stalking opportunities, picking the fish I want to catch. Plus it’s got some really big fish which ticks another box. “A lot of urban fishing is about carp that are surviving, sometimes in less than ideal circumstances, but these are carp that are absolutely prospering,” he concluded.
“People can be guilty of using the term urban because there’s a road sign 100 yards away but this is different, it is a lake in a city, proper urban fishing,” 16 www.nashtackle.co.uk
To the bar…
#EXTRA URBAN
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he only bar you’ll find is The Wharf pub itself on the banks of the dock, serving beers. So what is the reality of catching carp in a concrete sided dock? “To be honest, under the water it’s just like lots of other venues. There’s plenty of gravel, some sandy areas, an awful lot of weed and the water is really tap water clear,” described Jason. “I fish it no differently to any other venue, it’s the surroundings that are unique. “Carp in The Wharf are very mobile and it pays to have a really good look around before committing to an area. Even in very poor weather there’s a good chance of seeing a carp top, they are quite showy fish and once you see one you’re halfway there,” he emphasised. “I had a classic example over the winter where I walked around for two hours before I saw a carp, then caught four in the following two hours.” One of the biggest features of The Wharf was formerly a big barge moored in the dock, which has recently been removed after it kept sinking. “It was a good area to catch them because it was the biggest feature, the only place that offered them any cover really – so you’d see them in shoals around there on a sunny day,” Jason explained. “It could well still produce because there’s no weed under there but the chains might be a problem because I believe they’ve been left in place. “Wharf carp are good on the top as well, they do love a dog biscuit and if you flick a few around in the weed you normally get some interest. What we call The Pillars is the best end to fish and they always sit in the weed, the only downside is that there are lot more snags like tractor tyres and wheelie bins in that area – it’s like an underwater city!” For Jason that seems to be almost part of the charm, the quirkiness of a venue where such quality carp are living. Free fishing and a 40 lb common – there’s no question the Welsh wizard thinks a carp like Olli is worth putting up with a few drunks and the odd sunken wheelie bin for!
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BID online today for your chance to fish Kevin Nash’s famous lakes...
nashlakes.com KEVIN NASH has both stunned and excited the carp world with the announcement that he is opening his iconic lakes, the Church and Copse, to all! With more 50lb carp than most counties can claim, all living in just two unique lakes of only 6.8 acres combined, you are never far away from a monster!
ADVERT TBC
For the chance to win exclusive hire of Copse Lake or Church Lake, for a 5-day session, simply visit WWW.NASHLAKES.COM and bid on one of the five auction lots available for each lake.
LAKE FACILITIES • • • • • •
Secure parking with CCTV Male and female toilet facilities on site (adjacent to the car park – approx. 300 metres from the lakes) Quad bike and trailer service to transport your equipment from the car park to the lakes and for moving swims The lodge, cited between the two lakes, offers a fully fitted kitchen, shower, bait freezer and charging points for electrical devices Full time bailiff on hand to help, give advice, pop down to the local shops and arrange takeaways Prior to arrival there will be the opportunity to order and purchase Nashbait at preferential rates
COPSE LAKE LOCATION: ESSEX • • •
LAKE RECORD
SIZE – 2.1 ACRES NUMBER OF SWIMS – 6 MAX NUMBER OF ANGLERS – 3
61lb 4oz MIRROR
BID TO FISH
UNTIL now both Copse and Church Lakes have only been open to anglers on a friend or favour basis, resulting in over 200 anglers catching personal best carp from this incredible water.
LOCATION: ESSEX
ADVERT TBC
• • •
SIZE – 4.7 ACRES NUMBER OF SWIMS – 8 MAX NUMBER OF ANGLERS – 6
CHURCH LAKE LAKE RECORD
61lb 6oz
BID
MIRROR
TO FISH
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NASH E-ZINE SPRING 2016
SMART CARPING
HIGH POWER HOOKBAITS Never does your hookbait need to perform like it does at this time of year. Nash Tackle’s Laurence Smart shares his best edges to bring a bite when all else fails.
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ny free bait introduced can be kill or cure at this time of year and with a lot of carp anglers far more active than the carp when the days first lengthen it’s a fine line between just enough and too much. I tend to err on the side of caution. It’s so true that once you’ve put it in, you can’t take it back out again which is why so much of my early spring fishing revolves around the most attractive hookbait package.
Cautio, beware introducing free offerings at this time of year
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SMART CARPING
CHOP AND CHANGE If there’s one tip to catch you more carp this spring it’s always use different hookbaits on all your rods to try and find that winning formula more quickly. Carp can be very particular in what they get caught on. I see little merit in flicking three of the same hookbaits out, by using three different hookbaits at least there is a greater variation and therefore more chance of producing a bite. It can be colour, flavour, even size, balance or distance fished off bottom. Change, change and change again. It also helps keep you busy which is a big help keeping you out there doing it.
The difference between a bite and a blank can be small - I was recently outfished while on a social and what a lesson in how picky carp can be… we used the same baits and fished the same area but my 15mm baits produced nothing, only 10mm baits brought takes. Take a good selection of high power hookbaits for a session and keep working your way through the options - cocktails, dips, toppers even change baits like maggots or Peperami and plastic. Just keep offering the carp different baits until you get an answer from them.
soak can just offer that extra taste and smell incentive for a carp to get hold of a hookbait, and that is the fine line between catching and blanking.
PINK TO MAKE CARP WINK Not only pink, but any high-viz colour really. Attraction isn’t just about flavour or smell but also colour. One thing we can take from the interest in underwater filming in recent years is that colour DOES make a difference. Pink and white are by far the most visible underwater. Unless the water is very clear yellow isn’t as high-viz as you would imagine. Between them pink and white pop ups have become a firm favourite. The benefits of bright high flavour pop ups are numerous, carp see them from a long way away and elevated attractor levels can encourage carp to eat them when more orthodox feed baits just don’t provide enough stimulus. Plus pop ups are very versatile for fishing over any lake bed and tend to draw a carp’s attention simply because they are off bottom. My favourites are washed out shades, in daylight the colour element still provides a good visual attractor and at night the white/pastel effect helps them stand out in low light levels.
My absolute favourites are Citruz pop-ups in pink and white. They tick all the boxes with size, colour and a sweet high attract flavour and also come with a liquid enhancer spray in the pot. I give the whole pot a good few sprays, enough to coat all the baits and let them soak it up. I’ll repeat this several times to build extra attraction into the baits. The Ace Cards range offers an amazing number of options to boost hookbaits. I also rate the Tangleberry or Old Skool liquids as dips and soaks. Both work over the top of Citruz for a really cheeky combination which the lads in the Nash office use A LOT… One thing I’ve picked up from Gary Bayes over the years is how important sweeteners are in colder water. Think sweet and you won’t go far wrong for your first few sessions.
PIMPING YOUR POPS All pop ups can be boosted using additional liquids, either with the same flavour enhancer or something different that complements them. A spray or a
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NASH E-ZINE SPRING 2016
FRUIT AND NUT Despite the convenience and consistency of pop ups, don’t get suckered into believing bright is the only answer. Where allowed tiger nuts are an incredibly good high power hookbait even though to us
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they don’t seem to be anywhere near as high attract as a smelly pop up. The Mixed Candy Tigers are lovely and sweet straight out the bag but keep a handful to one side and soak them long term in good old Tangleberry. I always keep a pot of soaked tigers
in my bag, they really can be a get out of jail free card. They offer a more natural appearance to your hookbait as well as being rarely used by other anglers. They can make a big difference especially on waters where fish have been hammered on high-attract pop ups.
SMART CARPING
WONDER NUTS
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Mixed Candy Tigers have a fantastic sweet rounded taste. They can be boosted even further to make brilliant high power single hookbaits.
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Put your handful of mixed nuts in a pop up pot and pour a generous helping of Ace Cards Tangleberry over them. Because of its strength they will keep indefinitely in the sweet liquid.
Take a handful out of the bag and freeze the rest, there’s no need for any free offerings or even a bag when using tigers.
A pair of Tangleberry soaked nuts on a KD style presentation has caught me a lot of bonus carp – reach for your nuts when it’s scratching time.
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NASH E-ZINE SPRING 2016
“I doubled my catch rate by switching to Cultured Hookbaits…”
GET CULTURAL God bless Cultured Hookbaits. These little beauties have transformed my fishing, there is rarely a session goes by that I don’t thread them on. They challenge people’s perception of a high powered hookbait because they aren’t bright and don’t have any sort of ‘flavour’ smell at all.
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The brainchild of Gary Bayes and Keith Sykes the special Cultured coating is almost like hardened paste around the hookbait and provides a long-leak off of attractors, triggers and stimulants that really do trigger takes. Whatever it is or however they make them, Cultured Hookbaits work brilliantly. They aren’t just to be used with The Key, they make great stand alone hookbaits. Last winter and
into the spring on a local club lake I doubled my catch rate by switching to Cultured Hookbaits from my usual winning recipe of little white pop ups. When using as singles I like to boost mine even more by dipping in The Bite from the Ace Cards range before rolling the bait in Cultured Stick Mix for extra attraction and also the salty/ savoury edge of The Bite.
SMART CARPING
MAKING LOZ’S CULTURED CONKERS
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Remove a small section of Culture skin, drill a pilot hole and then thread the Cultured Hookbait on the hair. Make sure the hair stop is pulled up against the core bait.
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Lower the dipped hookbait into a bag of Cultured Stick Mix and roll it around so the powder sticks into the liquid coating of the hookbait. Lots of localised attraction but no PVA required!
Dip the Cultured Hookbait and hook into the bottle of The Bite and give it a good dunk around. The liquid is so sticky it makes a great dip.
The finished hookbait ready to cast. It’s not sweet, bright or fruity but it doesn’t half catch some carp.
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NASH E-ZINE SPRING 2016
"The salt disperses into the 4G Liquid Bait Soak which is in turn soaked up by the baits, giving them an extra kick and making them irresistible!"
MINERAL MATTERS The salty and savoury edge of The Bite leads me to another unlikely spring star – rock salt. Salt really divides opinion and as with most things in life, moderation is the answer, you don’t need to use large quantities. A couple of seasons ago I decided to start experimenting with rock salt and I have definitely found a better response when the water is colder as opposed to in high summer. Why, I don’t know, but when I have introduced a couple of handfuls of salt into an area at this time of year the fish have seemed to
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respond to it well, actively seeking it out. I also noticed it held carp in the area far, far longer than any bait would. When I introduced a few handfuls of bait it was mopped up in a matter of hours and the fish then disappeared. However after the introduction of salt, they remained in the swim for a long time. You’ve only got to see the response Kevin himself had when filming The Final Account in the spring when his rock salt primed areas had the carp digging huge holes in the lake bed. I have huge confidence in 4G Squid and have been using it for over two seasons and there is a dedicated 4G Squid Salt Dust additive in the range,
but it can be used with any bait. The salt disperses into the 4G Liquid Bait Soak which is in turn soaked up by the baits, giving them an extra kick and making them irresistible! You can also prep spots by feeding salt in Webcast cobweb bags 24-48 hours in advance of a session with just a handful of free bait. It is surprising how often you get really quick bites even though an area hasn’t had much food at all. For day trips and new venues if I can’t prime an area, I add 4G Squid Salt Dust to any stick mixes I may be using and this definitely also seems to bring extra bites.
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RESEVOIR DIARIES
CARL SMITH
THE FILMING OF THE RESERVOIR DIARIES Attracting over 50,000 views in the first six weeks, Reservoir Diaries on the Carl and Alex fishing channel has been a Youtube smash hit, documenting the fishing mad brothers in their quest to catch carp from a 280 acre reservoir in the south east.
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NASH E-ZINE SPRING 2016
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he Reservoir Diaries came about in a way that makes you wonder sometimes… Back in 2011 Alex and I visited the reservoir for the first time, we spent the day casting groundbait feeders and maggots, catching roach, odd perch but mainly small bream. The thing which surprised us was that the average fish was fairly small yet catching each and every one felt like we had achieved something. Being next to a huge expanse of water just exaggerated the excitement of every catch, as in so many acres the fish could literally be miles away. At the end of the day we emptied our keepnets and realised what a great day’s fishing we had experienced. We could easily have caught twice as much at a day ticket fishery down the road but the location made up for it, the place was beautiful and so peaceful. On the way home Alex said we should try and catch a carp from the reservoir, and to be honest I laughed. At this time in our lives we had not really done much carping, and we struggled to catch consistently from well stocked club lakes. To two young boys who had not been fishing very long, the reservoir looked more like the sea.
NEW VENUE NEGATIVES We didn’t visit the reservoir for the next few years but after finishing our Park Lake Campaign and catching our target 40 lb common, we tossed and turned between starting on a big syndicate lake nearby, or trying to catch the big barbel from our local river. A few weeks passed and I was fishing the river after work most evenings, rolling a lump of Spam down the area where the big beard was caught the last season when one evening I struck lucky. Lifting the net from the fast flowing water the weight of this fish was ridiculous, I thought the net was caught on the brambles but it wasn’t, that’s when I realised I had the big one. At almost 14 lb I had landed the biggest barbel in the river.
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“On arrival there the man who runs the fishing remembered us from years earlier and offered to take us on his boat for a trip around the reservoir”
RESEVOIR DIARIES Logically that meant it was time to start on the syndicate lake but we were warned of the lake being dangerous, told stories of people being mugged and even attacked, car tyres being slashed and all sorts. Now although we might look it, Alex and I are not stupid and we saw exactly what was going on, the members didn’t want us there. We even received threats regarding publicity if we were to fish ‘their lake’ as they called it. We checked with the owners of the water if they supported a publicity ban but they were fairly low on members so were fine with us filming there. We walked the lake numerous times and saw carp in the shallows, some very nice ones too, but the negativity was just too much. We went for a walk around the reservoir, to clear our minds and maybe meet some carp anglers who could tell us a bit about it. On arrival there the man who runs the fishing remembered us from years earlier and offered to take us on his boat for a trip around the reservoir. It was just what we needed, that boat trip really got our minds whirring, seeing snaggy bay after snaggy bay, sharp drop offs, reed lined banks, the forests surrounding the water and even sightings of egrets, kingfishers, herons and the obligatory cormorants. What a place!
DREAM START The potential was so great and the lure of the unknown was too much of a temptation. Our first session was in late September 2014, but we spent a good month or so visiting to bait up, and explore on the boat to try and find good areas. We decided to concentrate on either end of the reservoir and treat each end as smaller lakes in their own right to try and help us manage the water more easily. The first area we fished was on the south bank on the edge of a forest and quite easily accessed by road. We baited for a couple of weeks quite heavily with 20mm Tangerine Dream boilies, hoping the bigger baits were less likely to be eaten by bream. Yet on the first night we caught a couple of slabs on double 20mm hookbaits which worried us about our prebaiting going to waste. Thankfully the next night I had a more powerful take which was definitely no bream. Sadly the first bit of excitement was cut short with the carp running straight into the only substantial snag in the swim, a sailing buoy, and the fish tangled itself round the rope and came off. A few more weeks baiting and a few more overnighters passed before we finally had another take from a carp. There were plenty of bream inbetween though. This time Alex managed to keep it away from danger and we got it in the net and it turned out to be quite a small common, but just like the roach and perch we caught years ago, this smaller than average common meant so much. Over the coming months we blanked repeatedly before deciding that the res was not a very good choice of winter water. We went elsewhere, catching plentiful small but beautiful carp from nearby day ticket waters and club lakes. As you can imagine, the winter really dragged as all we really wanted to do was get back to the reservoir again, but we knew we would be wasting our time at least until the water warmed up and the fish moved out of the deep channel at around 300 yards!
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SELECTIVE AND SPICY Into April 2015 we finally decided the fish would be moving back into the shallower water and after some heavy prebaiting with maize and more 20mm Tangerine Dream boilies we headed back with the rods. Although the first few sessions were blanks we did start catching regularly but again, the average size of the carp was small and the bream meant very little sleep even with double 20mm hookbaits. It was a bit of a problem with Alex needing to go to college and me needing to do a day’s work. A change of bait was an avenue worth looking at, and we started using the TG Active 20mm shelf-life boilies and dropping the prebaiting with maize and particle. As well as changing the bait we also decided to move to the north bank of the reservoir where the water was often coloured and had slightly deeper margins. We weren’t sure what was colouring the water, but we believed it to be the sailing boats and swimmers or perhaps some underwater springs or streams. Either way, we had noticed at the park lake how much coloured water encouraged the carp to feed when the dogs jumped in and stirred it up, so this area was looking a good bet. On our first night in the new swim we had two bites, both small commons but it was a great sign as we had caught fish instantly with no prebaiting so the fish obviously were happy in this area irrespective of whether bait was going in. Over the coming months we noticed a pattern in the runs we had. In the evening our rods in the shallowest water closest to the nature reserve would sometimes get a bite as the fish moved out of the shallow weedy water, and if we were lucky enough to have a bite in the morning it would often come on the left hand rods in the deeper water which we interpreted as the fish moving back towards the nature
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RESEVOIR DIARIES
reserve. We tried to locate where the fish spent the middle of the night but with so much water and not many fish, we really struggled. In the end we spread the rods wide in this migration path of the carp and try to disperse the bait between all of them to try and get the shoal to stop more than once in the night to feed on our baited area. This happened on a number of occasions and we were catching regularly, and even managed to catch a bigger one too of 25lb. One thing we noticed was that after switching from the sweet brightly coloured Tangerine Dream to the spicy dark brown TG Active we almost completely stopped catching bream, meaning less recasting and disturbance in our swim and better chances of catching carp.
COME FLY WITH ME Whilst we were trying to suss out the fishing, we slacked on the filming so we had to put more effort into capturing nice footage of our sessions. We even did a few day sessions without taking rods at all. I borrowed the Nash TV quadcopter with my GoPro strapped to the bottom to try and get some cool shots of the reservoir from high up and they came out really nicely. I’d only used it a couple of times with very simple moves like up and down and gentle left and right before coming back down again. We had the first calm day for weeks and I’d been waiting because if there’s even the slightest bit of wind at person height by the time you get a couple of hundred yards up it’s much worse and the footage gets shaky, you try and fly the ‘copter up but it goes up and sideways. The steering is simple in principle but in practice it’s a bit nerve racking, a couple of times we needed to fly through a tight gap in the trees, and then when you have the ‘copter out there and start
panning and pointing the camera in different directions it can get a bit confusing. When it was right out or a long way up I wasn’t always sure which way it was facing. To get the aerial footage of the coloured water bay it was so high it was an absolute dot in the sky.
"I borrowed the Nash TV quadcopter with my GoPro strapped to the bottom to try and get some cool shots of the reservoir from high up and they came out really nicely"
POWER RESERVE The logistics of moving such a large amount of fishing kit and camera kit around wasn’t much fun. For week nights I took minimum camera kit but for weekends the filming equipment itself took up an entire Scope rucksack on its own, two cameras, batteries, tripods and plenty more. It’s not small and it’s not light. You actually spend more money on batteries than cameras. If you can’t roll the camera you can’t get those lovely time lapse sequences or run them long enough to get real footage of takes. Fancy kit is a lot less important than being able to film for long periods. For the Go Pro we were carrying about 25 spare batteries, and for the DSLR about 15 and for the camcorder which is ‘bite-cam’ another 20 batteries, allowing us to pretty much film bobbins solidly for 24 hours - but then you need a lot of memory cards. We didn’t have any tech problems with the camera kit whilst we were filming, but I did manage to drop not one but two phones in the reservoir when stepping out the boat…
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WORRIES PUT AWAY The fishing was going well though, we were catching on average a carp every couple of nights and we were really hoping something a bit bigger would come along, after all in 280 acres there must have been something chunky living in the depths. One morning Alex had a slow take which gradually got faster and faster until it was absolutely screaming off, picking up the rod resulted in the clutch just going and going as a heavy, strong fish kept swimming towards the old stream bed and a sunken road bridge which put a worried look on his face. ‘This feels much, much better Carl,’ I remember him saying. I was trying to keep the camera steady, but I had just rolled out of my sleeping bag and my knees were knocking, and I was also quite worried about how much line this fish was pulling. The fight lasted 35 minutes which was very long even considering we were fishing at around 100 yards, but when we uncovered the fish in the net we understood why. A 30 lb long, lean, muscular common which looked incredible and in pristine condition was sat in our net and after months of fishing we had caught exactly what we were after. There had been a few interesting discussions on the way – at times we had been really worried, seven months after starting and all that time and effort and we hadn’t caught anything over 15-16 lb and there were absolutely points where we just weren’t sure a big fish was ever coming and we couldn’t be sure we’d be able to make the film. We continued to fish the res for another few weeks and to our surprise, for the first time in my life I one upped my brother by catching an even bigger carp in the shape of a 37 lb 8 oz half linear mirror. At that moment we knew the video would be worth making, as we had managed to catch not just one but two big secrets of the reservoir.
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“... for the first time in my life I one upped my brother by catching an even bigger carp in the shape of a 37 lb 8 oz half linear mirror"
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SELF-TAKE TRAUMA Most of our night sessions were really snatched. Literally we would arrive in time to get the rods out on dark and then have to wind in at first light. Trying to film anything meaningful at night when you’re in a hurry to get the rods out and brolly up just isn’t practical, so we had to factor weekend time in to be able to get daylight footage and cut it with the night sessions. Trying to self-film is really tough and it’s a bit of a shame that there isn’t better footage of me playing the 37-pounder but I was on my own that night and although I was filming in front of the bivvy the shot wasn’t as well framed as I would have liked, and the storm pole was in the way. I got out the bag expecting another common around mid-doubles, but when I started playing the fish it was obvious it was a much heavier, more powerful carp. You’ve got a choice, do you slacken the clutch and take the risk to go back to sort the camera kit, when you might then find the carp snagged by the time you pick it up again? I’m glad I just concentrated on playing the fish on that occasion!
ALL IN THE EDIT Over the next month or so we worked on editing the video, which was a huge job. If I spend one day filming I normally need a week to put that material together in the edit. For the Reservoir Diaries we had 500 gB of raw footage totalling 48 hours which we had to try and fit into a 50 minute watchable film. Looking back the whole process of discovering the reservoir, planning our campaign, structuring the video, filming, fishing, blanking (a lot), finally catching a few and then editing the film together took up near enough six months of my year. But what a memorable six months. Will there be a sequel? Yes, we’ll be filming there again without question. But what we did learn the hard way is what a huge difference there is between a fishing campaign and trying to film that campaign at the same time to tell the story. Here’s to the next challenge…!
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NASH INNOVATION
THE FISHING SHOP OF THE FUTURE - NOW! Nash are changing the face of your local tackle shop. Check out the wicked TT interface screen - it’s a personal shopping assistant coming to a retailer near you soon! Ever been stuck knowing exactly what a new rig bit is for, or whether it is going to do the job you need? Personal shopping assistants are no longer limited to Windows and iphones, in a market leading move, Nash have made a six figure investment bringing TT computer screen interfaces into retailers across the UK and Europe. Whatever terminal tackle item you want to know about, a helpful video is just one scan away. From Corers to Bait
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Screws to Ziggaz Foams, see exactly what they do, how they do it and what they can do to improve your results. From touch screens in fast food outlets to automated menus to help you with your day to day banking and scanners and self service checkouts in supermarkets, technology is our biggest tool that makes day to day tasks easier. Why shouldn’t we expect the same level of technology to understand
fishing tackle and choose the right products? Never get loaded up with beads, clips or rubbers that don’t work together. Never buy end tackle components that won’t solve the problem you’ve got on your fishery. No longer be at the mercy of limited knowledge from non specialist shop staff. Simply scan, watch and learn. There’s a wealth of rig and end tackle knowhow literally at your fingertips.
KILLER KIT
SIMPLY SCAN, WATCH AND LEARN ‘This investment is to support both retailer and customers,’ emphasised operations director Alan Blair. ‘Technology is increasingly the way to help educate people and it’s a shame this is only available now in 2016, I would have loved to have had this level of help available to me when I started carp fishing. ‘Young or old we’re always learning but tackle shops can be difficult environments full of more experienced anglers and often people walk away and don’t ask a question rather than feel embarrassed or self conscious. With these screens you can scan any TT item and instantly see what it is for and how to use it, from Quick Change Chod Beads to Hook Swivels.’
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Select the item of Nash terminal tackle you want to find out about
Scan the barcode on the packaging at the TT Screen
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A short video clip will automatically play relating to the item you have scanned
It will show you how and why to use it, and even what other products it is used with
Beyond language barriers The Nash video production team have spent 12 months trialling the system and filming supporting concise clips with minimal language, allowing the interface to be applicable across Europe and beyond irrespective of native language. With increasing limitations on packaging space for instructional help due to European Union packaging regulations, the screens offer a valuable support tool to customer and retailer, particularly in the case of outlets that have limited personal experience of carp angling.
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Stretching: TheTruth The most revolutionary hooklink material yet devised, Kevin Nash rates his stretching Triggalink as one of the biggest edges ever for wary carp. It’s the hooklink material that bites back!
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lasticity remains the one rig change that the hardest carp simply can’t deal with, and Triggalink is the ultimate way to introduce controlled stretching in a presentation. Using PVA fibres interwoven inside a braided link Triggalink can be knotted and whipped the same as any other hooklink, but once immersed in water the PVA fibres contract to create a rig with elastic like properties, stretching one third of its dry length. But amazingly, Triggalink once dried reverts back to its original non stretch state time and time again. In water it becomes ‘primed’ and contracts to become elasticated, when dried it behaves like any other braided link material. A product born of tackling some of the most rig aware carp in the country for many years, Triggalink is absolutely unique. ‘The idea came from my conviction that if you build elasticity into a set up it’s harder for a fish to rid itself of the hook,’ Kevin explains. ‘Riggy carp prick themselves and have many ways to get off the rig, one of the most common is lifting the lead off the bottom, swinging and bouncing it which pulls the hook out. When
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they try that trick with Triggalink the bungee effect actually pulls the hook in further.’ Kevin had found other solutions to create stretching links just weren’t practical: ‘I was messing around with pole elastic in my rigs but it was so fiddly and difficult to replicate specific lengths, and the length of the link is really critical to me, I want to tie 8.5 inches not settle for nine. The biggest point of the invention is when you tie up a Triggalink rig it’s non stretchy which makes rig construction repeatable and accurate. It only becomes stretchy when you want it to – in the water after you’ve cast out.’ The first time Kevin used Triggalink on the Copse Lake was for the filming of the In Pursuit DVD, the first DVD to feature two 50 lb UK carp captures. ‘I can still visualise that indicator twitching before I picked the rod up,’ Kevin says. The result was a 50 lb common! ‘I also used Triggalink last year on the Church Lake for the filming of The Guv’nor DVD. Add The Key and Triggalink together and the rest is history.’
STRETCHING: THE TRUTH
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TYING KEVIN’S TRIGGALINK COMBI-RIG
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Kev’s preferred Triggalink presentation is a combi-link. You’ll need Triggalink, Armourbraid, Cling-On Putty, Blow Out Tube, Hook Kickers and Fang Twisters.
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Drill through the core bait before mounting the Cultured® Hookbait on the Armourbraid. Cover the hair stop with the piece of Culture skin you removed earlier.
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Cut a six inch (15cm) length of Armourbraid and tie an overhand loop for the hair in one end of it.
Thread a section of Blow Out Tube down the Armourbraid. Two diameters are available to suit different hook sizes.
With a size 6 Twister a 20mm Cultured® Hookbait is perfect. Scrape away the culture skin to expose the inner core bait.
For barbless only venues, Take the Twister hook and push it thread a small Clinger stop carefully through the Blow Out Tube, on after the maggots to trap them the point being inserted towards the securely on the hook and prevent hookbait. them sliding and masking the point.
STRETCHING: THE TRUTH
Position so the hair exits at the top of the point. Pass the Armourbraid down through the eye and whip a five turn knotless knot to secure the hook.
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Cut a 12 inch (30cm) length of Triggalink for the boom section. You’re aiming for a finished rig with 8 inches (20cm) of Triggalink and 1.5 inches (4cm) of Armourbraid.
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If you aren’t confident knotting the materials together you can use a 2.5mm rig ring and tie the Triggalink to one side and the Armourbraid to the other with grinner or Palomar knots.
Trim down a Hook Kicker by snipping just above the first of the ‘ribs’ closest to the wide end.
Kev uses an Albright knot to join the Triggalink to the Armourbraid for a neat narrow connection. See a step by step here http://www.animatedknots. com/albright/#ScrollPoint
A blob of Cling-On Putty around the knot or rig ring helps pin the link down and also improves the turning characteristics of the hook.
For barbless only venues, Thread the trimmed Kicker down the thread a small Clinger stop Armourlink and push it over the eye on after the maggots to trap them of the Twister. securely on the hook and prevent them sliding and masking the point.
Draw the knot down tightly, trim the tag ends and secure with a blob of Hold Tite rig glue.
For barbless only venues, The Triggalink can be knotted thread a small Clinger stop to the hooklink swivel using on after the maggots to trap thema Grinner or on Palomar knot. Forprevent hard securely the hook and bottoms start with a link length of 9-10 them sliding and masking the point. inches (25-30cm).
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Before casting you can rub mud or clay along the Triggalink fibres to help conceal it more effectively.
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“One of the greatest advantages of Triggalink is that people can’t be bothered to learn how to use it, so it is remains a massive edge over standard links. Remember my motto - fish like the rest and you catch the same as the rest...” Kevin Nash
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STRETCHING: THE TRUTH
PRICKED CARP PATTERNS KEVIN points to the takes you get when using Triggalink as showing more clearly than ever what problems a stretching link causes for carp that deal with standard rigs routinely. ‘I’ve seen it loads of times the first time you take Triggalink to a riggy water takes start with odd bleeps without the indicator moving, you strike and there’s a carp on the end absolutely nailed,’ he says. ‘Out of curiosity I’ve left takes like this and after a time of just odd intermittent beeps you get a screamer, in other words the carp has got to a point where its flight instinct takes over and it knows it’s in trouble and can’t get off. In the end you get a traditional take from a carp that got panicked rather than being able to deal with the rig.’
An unexplained bleep – is it a rigged up carp shaking its head?
STRETCH STUDY ONE STRETCH STUDY TWO Arriving at the French venue he owned at the time Lac de Chateau Cavagnac Kevin found a group of anglers having a terrible time.
Also lodged in Kevin’s memory is the case of a carping friend who was tackling a tricky English syndicate, who had phoned for some advice.
‘They were demoralised,’ he recalls.‘Between them they had managed to lose 52 carp, fishing at range up against the pads in the venue. The bailiff tried to get them motivated and spent time showing them some rigs, including Trigglink. That night they put Trigglink on and landed 12 carp and only lost one, that was the difference it made instantly.
‘We talked for ages, I put him on the squid bait and somewhere along the line we also mentioned Triggalink,’ recalls Kev. ‘I forgot all about it and five months later he rang again to tell me he was top rod on the venue in his first season and by some considerable margin.
‘The second major application of Triggalink which is seldom understood is to keep the hook hold secure when carp bury into lilies or weed. It is significantly harder for them to get rid of the hook because of the bungee effect of the Triggalink.’
‘He got the odd bleep during the day which he ignored because on that venue the action was all night times. At one point he went through a lean spell and switched to Triggalink, chucked them out during the day and got a bleep, then another, and then a few more unexplained indications – and there was a carp on the end. ‘Cutting a long story short using Triggalink two thirds of the carp he caught were during the day on a venue where you “didn’t get takes” during the day.’
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BUNGEE BOOM I use a Triggalink section on the bottom of a Cling-On leader so with heavy leads and choddies you get the bungee effect of the stretching Triggalink that absorbs the momentum of a lead bouncing around on the end of the leader when you are playing fish. I double over eight inches of Triggalink and tie it with an overhand knot and then just join it loop to loop to the leader and the lead. As long as the Triggalink is dry it doesn’t affect casting and can only reduce the chances of the hook being bounced out when carp shake their heads. It’s a wicked little rig tweak! Jed Kent
FUNNY BITES! I can’t believe how under used this material is. I heard whispers about it before it hit the shelves and couldn't wait to get my hands on some as it sounded like just the edge I needed for a tricky park lake in Swindon I was fishing. Long story short, I caught three first time out with it, two of which were 30s. Some people didn't catch that many in a whole season! I was immediately sold on the stuff. It's so much more than just a hooklength material, it actually does something for you, and it’s the stretch that carp struggle to deal with. I'm not going to say that all carp that pick up your hookbait are going to be nailed, (if only) but after using it quite extensively for a number of years it has become apparent that you do get a percentage of quite funny bites, just a few beeps and very slight movements on the bobbin. These have resulted in hooked fish and I'm convinced they are just trying to shake the hook out without bolting. Are these fish that would've got away with it using other links? I'm convinced they are! I've used Triggalink a fair bit this year and had both my personal best common at 47 lb plus and personal best mirror at 49 lb on it - nuff said! Joe Hubble
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CUTTLE MILL BRACE I’ve only been using it the last couple of months but it’s interesting stuff. I caught on it first time on a small fish water then used it at Cuttle Mill and had a scraper 30 and a 27-pounder. They were very aggressive takes and without doubt the elasticity of the material helps secure the hook hold when the pressure is on. I believe all fish are head shakers so if they are all getting pricked and getting rid of rigs Triggalink has to help stop head shaking dislodging the hook. Matt Rhodes
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GARY BAYES UNCOVERED One of the world’s leading authorities on carp bait, Gary Bayes has been commercially producing boilies since the mid 1980s. Here’s what you didn’t know about the man behind the magic in the Nashbait bags…
NASH E-ZINE SPRING 2016
Best known for…. Most people know me as the man behind Nashbait, hopefully being a generally nice person and also catching the first 60 lb UK carp. In a wider circle I’m known as a multi species man. Commercially I’ve made bait for almost 30 years and I’d guess I’ve rolled more boilies personally than anyone else in the business.
“There were no computers back in Bait or product you those days really are most proud of? and I was reading entire scientific Scopex Squid and its derivatives because papers for one it’s still catching 20 years on, it’s good for the carp, good for the environment line of useful and has an amazing track record with the bigger fish. I notice when I feed my pond information. It was fish on boilies – almost always Scopex brain damage…” Squid – the filters only need cleaning out every 18 months, but if I feed any sort of commercial pellet the filters need cleaning every 3 months. The development behind it was that I wanted a bait that fulfilled all the major dietary requirements of carp, if they were short of any major nutrients the bait would fill that hole completely. There were no computers back in those days really and I was reading entire scientific papers for one line of useful information. It was brain damage but so damned interesting.
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When I say I’m proud of Scopex Squid I mean the whole family of the baits, so that includes the new 4G Squid – nutritionally they are different versions but the same food. The development of The Key and the new Key Stabilised has also taken more work than people will ever know.
GARY BAYES UNCOVERED
Any real bait making clangers you can own up to? The Whisky boilies probably. We tested them really thoroughly and they caught lots of carp extremely quickly, the problem was I did it with a small number of testers and they were catching target fish fast and then moving on to different venues. When it was released we found because it was so attractive with such high notes in the attractors it blew quite quickly, so it would work for six months and then stop catching. We once also did a really rush job for a French customer to get his bait out to him at short notice and I misread the recipe and rolled completely the wrong thing, wrong base mix and wrong attractors. Ooops! My first time messing with enzymes I didn’t fully understand what I was doing but the first recipe I tried worked out brilliantly, not because of my knowledge it was a pure fluke. Other methods and combinations I tried all failed. The winning combination was the basis of a bait called the Enzyme Mix which I caught the Amphibian on from the Essex Manor as well as my first Conningbrook carp. Sadly the company supplying us the enzymes stopped selling the additives we needed so the bait was withdrawn after only being available for half a season.
Worst bait making idea you ever had? Long chops, the 12 x 20mm dumbbells never sold which was a shame because they are such an excellent presentation edge, carp ate them more confidently and bites were much easier to get than on round boilies. I was outfishing other people and had great feedback from
other testers. I still make them for myself which is a perk of the job, and I still make them for lots of testers but commercially they were useless. You can still produce a hookbait like that today by putting two Key 10 x 15mm chops on the hair.
Is a boilie still a convenience bait or do you believe they are the best carp bait?
“…even if something tastes horrible to me I’ll know if it is going to appeal to a carp.”
They are the best overall big carp bait but also very much a convenience bait. From a carp’s point of view boilies are more desirable than baits like corn because they represent better reward for less effort. But how successful boilies are is also about the venue and the carp. On Fen Drayton bream anglers are outfishing carpers by using bits and pieces like maggots and seeds because that’s the way the fish are feeding. You can’t say the carp aren’t feeding just because you aren’t catching on boilies.
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Anything that carp respond well to that still surprises you? Neat chilli powder in a paste is one that stands out. There are some things I find completely repulsive that carp like, I’ve got some kelp liquid at the minute, it’s grotty but the carp respond really well to it. Carp absolutely love digestive biscuits, and they like grey slugs but not black ones which is a species difference because chub like the black ones. I taste everything myself and because I’ve done that I’ve learned the carp’s preferences as well as my own, so even if something tastes horrible to me I’ll know if it is going to appeal to a carp. I’ve ‘learned’ a carp’s tastes over many years eating ingredients and trying additives
One bait or product you really dislike? I like the smell and taste of almost everything we put in a bait, but anything with green lipped mussel in it is really annoying, even if you need to weigh a kilo of it you need a dust mask because it’s such an irritant and such a fine powder. The boilie mixes themselves are straightforward if you get the development work right, but each bait has its own characteristics in the blending and the rolling, for example The Key swells slightly when it is extruded so to make sure that is rolled perfectly round we need precise nozzles for that mix.
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“I’ve ‘learned’ a carp’s tastes over many years eating ingredients and trying additives"
The European regulations make selling bait abroad more difficult now? They do but if you understand the regulations it’s not so hard, it just means you have to take the time to understand them and then keep up to date with changes. The biggest issue is packaging, on a tiny 200 gram bag we still need to fit five translations – these days you are breaking the law if a product is sold in a country that doesn’t have their language on the packaging.
GARY BAYES UNCOVERED
But to put it in perspective bait can be and is taken off the shelf in Europe if it doesn’t comply with the regulations. Every bag of boilies has to have a unique batch number so it can be traced, and has to have a best before date plus an ingredient breakdown. We have to pay for an analysis from an independent laboratory for every single product – so for example a different analysis for each of the Instant Action boilies, plus a different one for the corresponding pop ups, bait soaks, groundbaits, everything. Before we can produce anything for sale we have to OK a recipe because we can’t change it later because then the analysis would be wrong. It stops the corner cutting from some smaller companies and also I like the idea people can see what’s in the bait if they are interested.
The scale of production is something a lot of people don’t appreciate – if we fill an articulated lorry with boilies, that’s 24 tonnes and took a quarter of a million eggs to roll!
What’s the most important thing about bait that the average carp angler doesn’t get? Probably understanding the feeding more than the feed – for years we were fishing 50 baits around a hookbait and no-one thought about it much further. If you get them feeding well you only need a bait out the bag, little and often is a change most carp anglers should embrace, don’t ever just feed once.
Biggest bait edge? Just one…
Euro regulations make packaging bait increasingly expensive and time consuming
Don’t be afraid of paste. I use a fair bit and some of my friends won’t cast out unless they have paste around their boilies. Cultured Hookbaits are an easy way of achieving the same sort of effect – probably even better.
“…if we fill an articulated lorry with boilies, that’s 24 tonnes and took a quarter of a million eggs to roll!”
Where are the big boilie markets? Benelux is the biggest market in Europe, they like English product, the Czech Republic is getting bigger and we’ve sold a lot to Russia too. I’ve rolled massive orders for most countries but Holland and Belgium are the most consistent. One time we had an order from Croatia I thought that was a bit weird we didn’t know anything about them and thought they were actually still at war - now it’s a known carp fishing country of course.
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“Cultured Hookbaits are a real edge too, it’s the attraction of the living coating.”
Personal Bests? Mirror 61 lb 2 oz (Two Tone) Common 39 lb 14 oz, 40 lb-plus carp abroad, chub 5 lb 6 oz, roach 3 lb ½ oz, perch 4 lb 12 oz, tench 8 lb 14 oz, bream 15 lb 12 oz in a brace of 15s, rudd 2 lb 10 oz, barbel 11 lb in a brace of 11s, eels 3 lb 14 oz, pike 24 lb, tarpon 190 lb, catfish 214 lb. Pike and chub are my bogey species!
pack into three two foot lengths with a Weed Lead Clip and rubber with a Combilink trace. Usually I use pear leads. I’ve gone off little leads I miss too many bites. I will go up 6 oz, it makes a big difference. I’m convinced you get more bites on bigger leads.
One tip to get a bite when the chips One piece of kit Nash are down… can’t have back… Most people have got pop ups or Fang Twisters, I’ve used them since we first started selling them. I even used the very first lot of samples. I really rate them, they are first choice for pop ups and bottom baits.
On my rods you’ll find…. Cling-On Tungsten Tubing, as long as I can thread – I break each two metre
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something different to what they are feeding, it’s always toppers, snowmen but rarely what you are feeding. Always have at least one if not two rods on the exact bait you’re feeding. Cultured Hookbaits are a real edge too, it’s the attraction of the living coating. It’s not about colour they give out so many food signals they stimulate a carp’s senses much more than any standard hookbait could do.
GARY BAYES UNCOVERED
Favorite venues and why?
Remaining ambitions?
Fen Drayton I guess. I like my own lakes, but I’m a bit lost at the moment in terms of venues to fish myself. Generally I like somewhere I can fish where I’m not bothered by people. I prefer peace and quiet.
I’d like to keep upping my personal bests. We’ve moved Nashbait premises which I’m finding exciting, the challenge of getting it up and running and working smoothly. New machines, new buildings… I’m really enjoying work at the moment, even the horrible jobs like sorting out environmental health and health and safety – which I reckon 90 per cent of other bait firms probably don’t have.
Tell us about Gary Bayes away from Nash… It’s still all to do with fishing, any holiday there has to be some fishing involved, I’ve just come back from the River Ebro. I love working down my lakes, building swims, planting trees, I’ve just taken on another two venues, Fen and another small Essex water. Creating great fisheries and seeing people smiling with a personal best for the cameras is an unbeatable feeling. It’s better than me catching them myself. I read crime novels, I used to like writing and I’ve got back into that quite a bit. I like my garden to look nice and I keep fish at home. I also like building things, but only if there’s a point to it. I don’t like crowds and I don’t like cities, the M25 is the closest I like to get to London. The only city I’ve ever liked was Sydney, lots of open space, a harbour and fish everywhere.
“The only city I’ve ever liked Where to find me... was Sydney, lots I keep myself to myself but I always of open space, a answer genuine bait related enquiries. I can’t put the fish on the hook for harbour and fish someone but I can try and help. Bait everywhere.” enquiries sent to info@nashtackle.co.uk find their way to me.
Charity Champ! December 2013 and Gary in a charity makeover on his way to raising a superb £2,500 for Little Havens Hospice who provide respite and end of life care to seriously ill children in Essex. Gary, one of the carp world’s most renowned scruffs was transformed from a fluoro tinted, flavour impregnated figure complete with ingredients in his hair to a handsome tanned and trimmed Gary Barlow lookey-likey, bringing wolf whistles from the assembled ladies. Well done Gary!
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NASH KNOWHOW
How to tie‌. Mega Maggot Bags Is your venue being turned over by maggots? Maggots can give you the sport of your life, carp becoming so focused on them that when they start to be introduced in quantity it can be almost impossible to tempt fish on any other bait. A giant PVA bag of maggots is one of the most deadly tactics yet found - here’s how to tie the end tackle you need for a slice of the action.
1
Splice or knot the smaller eye of a Helicopter Swivel to the end of an 18 inch length of Cling-On Leader, and splice a small loop at the other end to tie to the main line.
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2
Remove the rear anti-tangle rubber from a 2-3 oz Inline Flat Pear lead and slide it down the Cling-On leader and pull the small eye of the Helicopter into the recess in the nose of the lead.
3
Slide the ring of a Uni Ring Swivel down the leader and over the hard plastic tube above the lead, and trap it in position by pushing a soft Bore Bead over the end of the tube.
4
Tie a size 10 Fa hook to a 15cm Armourlink using a knot or a Palomar
NASH KNOWHOW
LOADING THE BAG
1
Bait the hook with two or three maggots hooked through the skin at the blunt end. Try not to burst them, the juice will blister PVA mesh.
2
4
5
Pass the tag end through the large eye of the Helicopter Swivel and with an overhand knot tie the large bag of maggots tight to the base of the lead.
ang X Micro Barb m length of 15 lb a five turn grinner knot.
Pour a handful of maggots down a loading tube of Webcast Ultra Weave PVA, and gently compress them with a plunger to form a large parcel of maggots.
3
Tie of the top of the bag as tightly as you can with an overhand knot and cut the bag away from the loading tube to leave an 8-10cm tag end of PVA mesh above the bag.
Nick the hook very carefully into the mesh, leaving some slack in the hooklink. Keep the hook point facing outwards and away from the grubs inside the mesh to prevent masking the hook.
TIP
For barbless only venues, thread a small Clinger stop on after the maggots to trap them securely on the hook and prevent them sliding and masking the point.
TIP
A large bag and lead together are a heavy load so use a minimum of 12 lb NXT D-Cam for 2 oz leads with a mag bag, 15 lb D-Cam for 3 oz leads.
5
Pierce a rubber maggot with a Micro Boilie needle. Push the tip into the side of the maggot 1-2mm up from the blunt end and push the tip of the needle directly out the tip of the grub.
6
Thread the rubber maggot down the Armourlink and over the eye of the hook so the Armourlink exits on the inside of the shank, creating the line-aligner effect to help turn the hook.
7
Tie the other end of the Armourlink to the eye of the swivel trapped above the inline lead. Start with a link around 8-12cm. That’s the end tackle complete.
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THE
LINE OF SIGHT STEVE BRIGGS
What effect do lines have on carp? Do they see them, feel them or sense them? Or are the fears over line concealment more in our imagination? Steve Briggs delves into world of carp behaviour around our tackle. Carp anglers spend a lot of time worrying about lines and their effect on carp we are trying to catch. Maybe those fears are well-founded, maybe not. I tend to worry about things less than most but over the years I’ve been surprised by carp behavior around line. I know people who go to extreme lengths to conceal their lines, some have told me that they will take up to 30 minutes to sink the line after casting. I certainly haven’t got the patience to do that. I’m not a great believer in slack lines either, I’ve gone through periods of fishing that way but I don’t think I’ve caught more fish because of it, if anything the indication is so bad
that it’s actually cost me fish at times. Mostly I fish tight lines or at least semi slack/tight and I catch enough to keep me happy. I have had people comment on pictures where I’m using tight lines asking why I do it as if it’s something really strange, because today a tight line is a rarity. Carp angling is rarely black and white and I think there’s a lot more to carp and their reaction to lines than we realise. Weather conditions, water clarity, time of day and depth of water all have some sort of effect on how the fish will react to our lines and tackle.
NASH E-ZINE SPRING 2016
BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE
First light – is it good feeding time or is it a time when rigs can’t be detected so well?
One of the most startling experiences I had took place on the mighty Lake Ontario in Canada. It’s one of the world’s biggest freshwater lakes and the carp weren’t easy to locate, but we did find them on the outskirts of a large marina. These were totally naïve, wild fish and I can say with confidence they had never been fished for before. Up to my right there was a large flat boulder that was around 12 to 18 inches deep on top. It looked like a dinner table and after baiting it with maize it wasn’t long before a few fish were coming in and mopping everything up. I thought it would be very easy and lowered a rig in place with a coated hooklink, size 6 hook and snowman hook bait and waited for it to rip off. Sure enough the fish soon returned but as the first one came up to the hook bait it veered away at the last minute and the same thing happened two or three more times afterwards. I changed over to a maize hook bait but again the fish just wouldn’t even try and pick it up. Over the space of a few hours I eventually
My first Lake Ontario carp – it was a fascinating few hours fishing
“These were totally naïve, wild fish and I can say with confidence they had never been fished for before. ” got down to a single grain of maize on a size 8 hook and 8lb mono hook length – and still nothing. I was really surprised and deflated by what had happened. But not to be deterred I baited the boulder heavily with a view to returning the next morning as I was only fishing days.
A TAKE IN TWO MINUTES The following morning I was back at 7am and sure enough there wasn’t a grain of maize to be seen, but the fish were lower in the water at that time in the morning and not on the boulder so I lowered the hook bait to the side of
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THE LINE OF SIGHT - STEVE BRIGGS
the boulder where it dropped to about 5ft and I could just see the shadows of fish down there. It must have been about two minutes later when the tip pulled around and the spool started spinning and I soon had my first carp in the net. Was it a fluke – well no it wasn’t as literally every time I put the bait back it was away in no time at all and literally by midday I just didn’t want to catch another carp! All of a sudden those fish were every bit as naïve and easy as I thought they should be. So what made the difference? Without a doubt it was simply that in the shallower water they could clearly see the rig and knew that something wasn’t right and even though they had not been fished for previously, they obviously had that built-in sense of danger. But in the murky depths they just couldn’t suss it out and fell for it every time. I smile when people tell me that that the fish are really clever in certain lakes because they been able to view their spots from up a tree and they’ve been cleaned-out and only the hook bait is left – are those fish really ‘clever’ or can they just see more clearly than on other venues? Of course it varies from water to water. Liners are something we all experience at different times, but are they fish that haven’t seen our lines or are they just not bothered by them? On Mayfield Lake next to where I live I would use the liners to gauge if I had fish in the swim or not. If I received liners then action was normally not that far away, but no liners inside an hour and it’s the signal for me to move. That to me says that the fish aren’t bothered too much by the lines down in the water.
DON’T CROSS THE LINE Rainbow Lake in the south of France is for the most part quite a murky lake, the carp make it that way by constantly
On Mayfield lake I use liners to gauge if there are fish in the area or not.
“There are times where getting liners means that you’ve got fish in the swim around the baited areas just like Mayfield”
At Rainbow Lake tight lines are used a lot but the fish know exactly what they are.
stirring up the soft, silty bottom. It is one lake where a number of different things have come to light concerning lines. There are times where getting liners means that you’ve got fish in the swim around the baited areas just like Mayfield. But over the years I’ve seen things happen on there that make me think that the fish know exactly where lines are and without question it affects their movements. Swims 11, 12 and 14 cover one long strip of water and only one time have I fished in swim 14. I’d caught a few fish but looking up the lake I could see fish showing all the time in front of swim 11. The lines in swim 12 were between me and the showing fish and they just didn’t seem to want to move past them, which was frustrating. Indeed the action in swim 12 was mainly all coming to their rods fished to the right, but one day at around midday the swim 12 anglers decided to both reel in and go to the shops. They were only gone for around two hours but in that time I watched the fish start to move, they passed through swim 12’s water and ended up in front of me. I then caught consistently every day after that.
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There are several bars in that strip of water but it drops down to between 15 and 20 feet deep between the bars. With line being at best less than half a millimeter in diameter it seems incredible that it should stop fish moving past it but that is undoubtedly what happened. In the murky water could they see the line? Or is it possible that they could sense that something was there? Maybe the lines under tension were giving off vibrations or something similar that carp could detect. Either way you can’t argue they were prepared to move when the lines were gone.
Using bottle rigs to keep the line on the surface has helped increase the action at Rainbow Lake.
On the same trip my left rod was fishing to a channel between some islands and the guys in swim 16 to my left were fishing close by. We were both catching and the fish were coming in to the area through a large channel that runs through to another part of the lake. One night we both just stopped catching and I asked if they’d done anything different, the guy said that he’d put one rod further in to the channel itself. Now this channel is 20 metres wide and two metres deep but it was enough to stop the fish from moving through. The guy took the rod back out and hey presto we started catching again! It’s a scenario that has happened to other anglers over the years too. With all of that in mind it was one of
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“‘…people started to notice that in many situations they were getting a lot more action using the floats…’”
the reasons that anglers started to use the bottle rigs more at Rainbow. The bottle rigs are basically like a much larger version of float fishing where the line is kept on the surface and then goes straight down to the rig from the float. At first it was used to keep the line up above the snags on the shallow bars, but then people started to notice that in many situations they were getting a lot more action using the floats and it was simply because most of the line was being kept out of the way of the fish. People do voice concerns about the line going directly up from the rig but it actually seems to make very little difference – I guess they bump into it much less readily than a line going horizontally from rod tip to rig.
DEEP THINKING - STEVE BRIGGS
CLEAR THINKING AT CASSIEN One situation that does throw a bit of a spanner in the works is my fishing at Lake Cassien. The water is crystal clear most of the time so you’d guess that hiding the line would be absolutely paramount, but it doesn’t seem that way. I used to lose a lot of fish because there are so many small snags on the bottom and the way I got around it was to use polyballs back up the line to raise it off bottom. You simply cannot have lines on the surface like Rainbow because of all the boat traffic on the lake, so the polyball has to be sunk under the surface as far as possible. I’ve dived down in 20 feet of water and looked at the line coming from the lead to the polyball and to put it bluntly, it stands out like a sore thumb! Does it slow the action down? Well, no it doesn’t. I receive just as many takes fishing that way, maybe more and it certainly helps me to land more fish. It makes me wonder if we give the carp too much credit sometimes and perhaps they can’t always connect the line in the water with the rig and bait on the bottom. One thing carp angling isn’t short of is contradictions.
DETECTION TIMES? There is something else to throw in the mix here - time of day and light conditions. Without a doubt there are periods of the day when fish are easier to catch, which we generally call ‘feeding times’ but is it so simple? Surface fishing is the easiest example. Many times fish will be taking surface baits for most of the day but they are able to avoid the hook bait with ease. They seem impossible to catch but then in the space of an hour we catch two or three. Did they just throw caution to the wind or did the conditions change and they just
The water at Lake Cassien is normally crystal-clear but how important is line concealment?
"If carp can see or feel our mainline does that actually stop us from catching?" The line running down to the rig sticks out like a sore thumb – but it doesn’t stop me catching!
couldn’t detect the end tackle as clearly? I’m sure that there is a lot of truth in that. Take that same idea a step further to fishing on the bottom. We all know that there are times when we are more likely to catch, such as early morning or in the evening and through the night. Is it that the fish are feeding more heavily at those times or is it that they would eat at any time but at these times they can’t detect the end tackle so well? Maybe many feeding times on the bottom and on the top are in fact low tackle visibility times?
MAKING THE CONNECTION If carp can see or feel our mainline does that actually stop us from catching? I have seen carp spook from seeing a mainline running through the water, but then I’ve seen coots and ducks spook from lines but that doesn’t put them off from diving on our baits so I’m not sure that the carp or indeed birds connect the two things. It’s one reason why I don’t mind using tight lines so much but the end tackle itself is another subject entirely. You can certainly get away with a lot more fishing on the bottom, for instance I wouldn’t dream of using
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A bright hookbait fooled this fish, but was it also fooled by the clear hook length?
coated braid for surface fishing but I don’t think twice about using it when fishing on the bottom. There’s a lot of people that will say that getting the carp preoccupied in feeding will put them off guard, which I have experienced but the Lake Ontario episode says that it’s not always possible. And there is certainly something to be said for rig camouflage and the clearer the water, the more it seems to matter. It is something that Nash take seriously with the Diffusion gear and the displays
Some rig items have been designed with concealment in mind.
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“As normal we use our human senses to decide what will help us to catch more fish but it’s more logical that the fish don’t sense or see things the way we do”
with the Diffusion Leaders at the shows always interest me even though I’ve seen them many times now, they are almost impossible to see in just a few inches of water and they are the best items I’ve seen when it comes to end tackle concealment. I fished one German lake this year that was so clear I could see my rigs on the bottom 20 feet down, I didn’t catch on my normal rigs but my friend did by using a fluorocarbon hook length that we couldn’t pick out so that is one case where rig concealment could well have made all the difference. It’s a fascinating subject and one that none of us fully understand. As normal we use our human senses to decide what will help us to catch more fish but it’s more logical that the fish don’t sense or see things the way we do. We want to catch more and the carp want to avoid being caught so there will always be that contest and it will always keep us thinking, but as always there is so much more for us to learn.
ZIP, FLIP AND KIP
NASH E-ZINE SPRING 2016
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Q&A WITH JULIAN CUNDIFF
Q&A should I be using Q When slack lines and when do
Julian Cundiff
Medium range and bobbins adjusted accordingly
they need to be tight? JOHN TREVETT, MACCLESFIELD When wrote my first major book Practical Carp Fishing in 1993 I spent time discussing this very point and here we are 22 years later and despite all the advances in tackle and thinking my opinion is still pretty much the same. The closer in you fish the slacker the line can be. Note I said can rather than should be. Carp on most waters know they are being fished for, anything we can do to make them less wary is advantageous. A line that stands out, collects detritus and is very visible is not likely to aid your chances so tight lines can act against you.
Carp on most waters know they are being fished for, anything we can do to make them less wary is advantageous.
MARGIN FISHING
MEDIUM RANGE 10-50 YARDS
OVER 50 YARDS
Totally slack lines. The rod tips are well back and the line literally hangs from the rod tips so that the Diffusion leader is flat. The lightest Optic head is just sat up on my rod mat. Any movement will register usually a screaming take.
Lines moderately slack. Tighten the line carefully then put the rod on the buzzer and pay off line until a medium Optics bobbin hangs an inch above the rod mat. Any movement will have the bobbin shooting up or down and registering on the R3. I call this my slightest touch setup.
Lines tighter, with a larger Optics head and a drop of two or three inches maximum. At 90 yards or more the lines are bowstring tight, the rods pointing directly at the end tackles and the heaviest Optics I have will be almost tight to the rod blank.
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NASH E-ZINE SPRING 2016 worried about PVA Q I’m going snotty and not dissolving. What can I do? LUKE HICKSON, ELY Although I’m a big fan of PVA the advantages of it are negated when it is used incorrectly. The honest advice is that not all PVA is the same and it is worth getting a variety of bags and seeing which dissolve best in cold water. That also applies to PVA tape and string too. Simply run a bowl of cold water and do some tank tests. It’s amazing how some do break up as advertised and some quite frankly are rubbish. The new Webcast PVA mesh coming from Nash is very good in cold water so keep an eye out for it! How well does your PVA dissolve? The new Webcast is brilliant when temperatures are still low
If you are using bags or sticks as much to reduce tangles as anything else try using foam nuggets – they are great with single hookbaits. In warmer water I squeeze the ends of two nuggets around the hook and as the water forces its way up the centre it pushes the nuggets apart and off.....bingo. However in very cold water they can stick too well and go mushy. At this time of year put the PVA nuggets in a PVA mesh bag by pushing two nuggets into a loading tube and carefully knot both ends. I then nick the hook point through the outer mesh and cast it out. You have the buoyancy of two nuggets but the tiny bit of mesh your hook point is through soon dissolves in the coldest of conditions and up pops your nugget bag. No tangles, something to bait up to and a perfectly presented rig over any bottom.
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Julian’s Snotty PVA Solution
1
Push two dissolving nuggets down the Webcast loading tube and carefully out the bottom without compressing them.
2
Knot tightly behind the nuggets and snip the foam ‘bag’ off. You can prepare several in advance if you keep them dry.
3
Nick the hook point through a couple of the fine fibres of the Webcast mesh in the centre of the bag before casting.
4
The foam bag keeps the link off the lake bed and when it breaks away it takes the PVA residue with it and allows the rig to settle perfectly over any bottom.
5
When the nuggets surface you have a visual target for free offerings if you want to put any over your hookbait.
Q&A WITH JULIAN CUNDIFF a shift worker, is it worth me fishing mornings Q I’m in the spring or not?
If your time is limited pick a venue carefully for the best chance of action
NEILL ENSON, KNOWLE The honest answer is that it depends on the water you are fishing and picking the right water for the time you have available – it’s called smart angling. Full time carp anglers, or those that have the ability to pick and choose when they go fishing don't have that issue and they can literally wait it out. On some waters it can be midday which is not much use when you and I are at work! So if you are restricted to mornings you need to pick your venue wisely. If it’s a productive water like Chestnut, Drayton or Brasenose then most times of the day and night will be good for a bite and it’s a case of getting in the right areas for a morning bite. When I fished Lakeside and Strawfields 7-9 am was good for a bite BUT only in the right swim. So my advice is UNLESS you know your local water produces in the morning then look for more of an action water. Then you still need to be in the right swim. A few mornings of looking and listening will soon give you the clues you need.
If you are restricted to mornings you need to pick your venue wisely
like the idea of dips Q Ibut surely they wash off the bait as the rig sinks? JASON PADWICK, WAKEFIELD A lot depends on which dip and how long the hookbaits have been in soak and what they are added to. Last spring to autumn I used the awesome 4G Squid and all my hookbaits were left soaking in the 4G Liquid Bait Soak. The pop ups and balanced baits were hand made in early spring and all were glazed in it and have been ever since. All I did was add some of the dip to half of the pop ups and bottom baits in March and gave the bag a good rattle until most of the dip was soaked up. I didn’t want them soaking in it but glazed in it. As my pop ups and balanced baits have been used up I simply add a few more unsoaked ones to the glugged bag. Occasionally I add a bit more glug but by and large not a lot more. These glugged ones really do work better than unsoaked ones I’ve found. Even when wound
in after an overnighter if squeezed my hookbaits still leak out the glug. So picking the right dip for the right bait goes a long way to giving the most powerful, attractive hookbait. Get them soaking now and you will have a big edge over the angler next door who probably only does his the day before. This year the only difference is I will be soaking baits with the Key Liquid Bait Soak rather than the 4G Squid, the principle remains exactly the same. I have no doubt a dip used correctly is a big help, but remember there’s also the option of Cultured Hookbaits that are surrounded by the slow
breakdown culture skin to boost the smell, taste and food signals around the hookbait without needing any dipping in liquids at all. I’ll be using them a lot this year as well! Cultured Hookbaits – localised attraction and no liquid or dipping required
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Q&A WITH JULIAN CUNDIFF
can I conceal my Q How mainline better if I don’t like backleads?
Diffusion Camo leaders help keep everything sat down on the bottom
JIM LEWES, PORTSMOUTH Carp on most waters know they are being angled for a lot of the time. This puts them on their guard and anything we can do to reduce this fear factor helps. Having a mainline high in the water does not help in any way shape or form. Not only does it stand out when tightened too but as suspended silt and weed drifts into it then it looks more like a washing line than carefully concealed fishing line. Fishing your line slack is a big advantage in that it keeps the line on the bottom NOT above the lakebed. Not only can the visual effect spook the carp but if they catch it with their fins they do panic and swim off. Believe me I have seen it happen many times. So slack lining helps providing your line is not inherently buoyant as some sadly are. I love my fluorocarbon as it sinks like a brick, hugs the bottom and is out of harm’s way. However it’s not the best choice in all waters and sometimes you need a monofilament and the Nash D-Cam also sinks brilliantly and the colouration of it helps blend it in. Keeping your rod tips low and pointing directly at the end tackle helps and avoiding
I love the Diffusion Camo Leaders which naturally sink and are soft and mean that the three feet zone around the hookbait does not have a thick dark line going into it.
very heavy bobbins stops the line being tightened and lifted off the deck. I love the Diffusion Camo Leaders which naturally sink and are soft and mean that the three feet zone around the hookbait does not have a thick dark line going into it. Keeping your line clean by wiping it with a tissue when you wind in helps too. I put a tissue in my right hand around the mainline between reel and butt ring. Winding in under firm pressure doesn’t half clear a lot of crud from your line. All these little tips do make a difference when added up and make that mainline a lot less visual which can only help. PS I don’t like back leads either!
JULES’ TOP TIP Spring is very much the time for one bait or just a handful in the right place. Each water can have its own patterns but 30 years fishing hard in the Spring has taught me that one of the most consistent places for early action is around marginal reedbeds. Carp love to hold up in reeds, they offer some of the first natural food larders and when the sun shines each of those stems is spreading warmth into the surrounding water. Any reedbed getting early spring sun is a great daytime area for a bite. Remember to ensure your end tackle is strong enough and your rods are locked in place securely!
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THE EVOLUTION OF THE EBRO Massive eyes, larger than life fins with sharp serrated spines, faster and stronger – River Ebro carp have evolved into formidable river survivors. And they are bigger than ever!
THE EVOLUTION OF THE EBRO
NASH E-ZINE SPRING 2016
“The pad marks it left behind suggested it had a mouth a touch wider than the width of my shoulders…”
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O
nce a venue characterized by loads of action and smaller carp, Spain’s River Ebro is changing. Today it’s a destination that is producing commons over 60 lb and holds mirrors over 75 lb.Since the introduction of the Wels catfish into the Ebro in the 1970s the average carp weights have increased year on year, as the
big cats continue to eat anything and everything they can fit into their mouths. A 100 lb catfish would certainly have a go at a 20 lb carp if it strayed close enough to be worth a shot. When you consider the cats now weigh in excess of 240lb in the river, nothing is entirely safe any more.
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Having such a voracious predator waiting around almost every corner means every day is about survival of the fittest for the Ebro carp
Last November I was out in my boat fishing for the cats when I hooked a strong fish, but after 30 minutes of being dragged around the fish came free and I was left to retrieve what felt like a lump of weed. Once near the boat the lump of weed soon turned into a cat of around 35 lb, hooked fair and square in the corner of the mouth…. a bit strange?
global carp community still seems to have overlooked what is happening to the Ebro carp. There are huge numbers of German anglers coming for the cats but the carp have been missed by most. Other than a few English anglers, I’ve seen a few Danish parties this year and the carp are still totally overlooked.
I was just trying to figure out how this little fellow had just towed the boat half a mile down the river when I spotted fresh bite marks around its body. The scale of what I had just been battling then became apparent. I’d hooked the smaller cat which had then been hit by another bigger catfish. The pad marks it left behind suggested it had a mouth a touch wider than the width of my shoulders – it’s a pretty extreme environment!
A BREED APART
The cats are huge but I’m not sure where else in the world where you can go river fishing for carp of the size found in the Ebro today. I suspect the big mirror at Mequinenza might be the biggest known river carp in the world. Yet the
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Having such a voracious predator waiting around almost every corner means every day is about survival of the fittest for the Ebro carp. Any sick or weak fish are instantly mopped up, so any weaker genes will have been slowly ironed out over the decades. These carp do seem to possess a few traits that could give them an edge when they need it the most. They have huge eyeballs and fantastic eyesight. Their selfdefense systems are pretty good too, with huge spikey fins that always seem to be rigid when the fish are in distress. Great care is needed when netting and
THE EVOLUTION OF THE EBRO lifting these carp from thewater as even with the best net meshes in the game, they still do their best to poke a fin or two through the gaps where it inevitably becomes trapped on one of many serrated edges. They are carp but not quite the same as you might know them. More importantly, Ebro carp just look impressive, long, lean and muscular. Even now, every time I see a 40 in the net I think it is a 50 plus all day long, but there’s no pond pigginess to these fish so you never get a gut on them, they are just long and bullet like in their physique.
GETTING SELECTIVE So they’re bigger and stronger than ever before, but I’ve learned there are times and areas where big fish are more likely. There are some areas that hold higher numbers of small carp year round. The shallower bays, or nursery areas as I like to think of them are a great
bet for some good sport, but for large parts of the year they are devoid of big carp. You could catch 16-pounders all day long in these nursery areas where other stretches often produce every other carp that is 30 lb or more. The shoals of better fish are nomadic, and will be found anywhere along the main river that can provide food, shelter or both. During the colder months I favour the deeper water – anything from 8 to 13 metres. In the spring and summer the fish can be caught at every depth, but they are certainly more frequently visiting shallower waters at those times. Of course a day or two of Spanish sunshine in February will soon confuse matters and see shoals of fish up in two feet of water – carp being carp they just can’t help themselves, can they? Tackling the main river a boat and echo sounder are essential really because of the size of it. Even if I arrive at a swim I’ve fished in the past, if I haven’t wet a line there for
Gnarly river carp with big eyes and fins
They are carp but not quite the same as you might know them
six months or more then it’s a good idea to go out in the boat with the sounder and see what might have changed on the river bed before choosing a spot to bait. Quite often things can move during the winter floods and some gigantic new snags can appear in areas that have previously been fantastic spots to put a rig. We’re talking winter floods that move entire trees!
SPREAD BAITING If I intend to fish for more than one day the best approach is still to bait quite loosely over large areas, with the hope that I can stop some passing groups of carp and keep them feeding in my area for a longer period. Gary Bayes has fished the Ebro for longer than me and he was absolutely right when he told me to spread the bait for the carp but keep it tight for the catfish. I see people arrive with sweetcorn and I’m sure it just gets washed through or feeds roach. Maize and tigers are better loose feed because they are denser, but it is still important to take into account the flow of the river and depth of the swim when baiting up with smaller items, especially if the river is pushing through strongly and you’re fishing 10 metres of water. As a rule I’m looking to bait an area the size of a tennis court. Remember the scale of the river, at our HQ the river is 230 metres across, and above the dam at Riba Roja it is 700 metres wide. I tend to bait up to around 25 yards upstream to ensure the rigs are in the baited ‘zone’. Maize tends to catch quickest but the better carp I’ve had from the river have all come on boilies or big pellets. I add 20mm boilies and halibut pellets over the top of the carpet feed to
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NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016 Spread baiting and particles brings the carp reliably
Riggy carp on the Ebro? I think not!
Because Ebro carp like pellets so much we have also, unfortunately, caught some lovely carp to over 40 lb whilst catfishing with four big pellets and a size 4/0 hook.
give the carp a few cherries on top of the cake. The Instant Action Tangerine Dream have been really useful, they are bright, nice and high attract even to carp that have never seen a boilie before and more importantly they are also much less likely to catch catfish than something like 4G squid or any boilie with some fishmeal or squid or a fishy flavour. I give the Tangerines a real good covering of the booster juice as well which can only help advertise the boilies in the swim better. It’s a mistake not to use some halibut pellets though because Ebro carp have seen an awful lot of them. Over the last couple of decades anglers have flocked here to fish for the catfish, and during the warmer months there is sometimes no better way to catch them than with large quantities of the halibut pellet, so the carp have also really become tuned into them. To give you an idea how
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much goes in to the river for the cats, a local tackle shop sold two tonnes of halibut pellets to anglers walking in over a three day Bank Holiday weekend. No doubt all of it went in that weekend. I’ve enjoyed some brilliant results through the winter and into early spring casting single pellet hookbaits to showing carp, but I’m not so sure a boilie, tiger nut or maize hookbait would have had the same instant effect, simply because pellets are a food a lot of Ebro carp have grown up eating. Because Ebro carp like pellets so much we have also, unfortunately, caught some lovely carp to over 40 lb whilst catfishing with four big pellets and a size 4/0 hook. There’s not a lot we can do to stop carp hanging themselves like this. The least riggy carp in the world? Probably!
CLINICAL COMMON CAMPAIGN
SHORT AND SWEET Wherever possible it will always pay to keep the baited area within casting range, purely for the practicality of getting your rod back into position when you have a take or get wiped out by floating weed and tow. There are two main hydroelectric power dams on the river one at Mequinenza and the other at Riba Roja - which means that at any given moment the flow can speed up, slow down, or on occasion the river even backs up and starts pushing the opposite direction! Mad! Being quite clear
water through much of the system gives rise to plenty of weed growth in the spring and summer, which, combined with varying currents and fluctuating water levels, causes some mega rafts of vegetation to come floating down the river. It almost seems like there is no rhyme or reason to when we get this problem. If every time you get rods wiped out you need to boat rigs out several hundred yards it’s a lot more irritating (and time consuming) than just casting them 40 yards. What’s nice is that vehicle access is very good around much of the river and we often are able to just fish out
the back of a van with customers, it makes everything so much easier. Add the fact that in our local region night fishing is also legal and it’s a very hassle free venue.
Dam at Mequinenza
Riba Roja power Dam – Embalse De Riba Roja
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NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016
This environment is no place for finesse and any weakness will be exposed quickly
HEAVY HARDWARE I’ve made the point that Ebro carp aren’t riggy – what you need from a rig in this sort of environment is purely practical. It needs to be strong, resilient and simple. Standard hair rigs with big Fang hooks are my preferred choice – size 2s and 4s are right for these massive mouths. Lead choice is usually a 6 or 8 oz Tractor Lead, clipped into a Weed Safety Lead Clip with a metre or so of 65 lb Cling-On Leader as my failsafe against rocks, flints and the dreaded zebra mussels which have the ability to slice through pretty much anything except this gear! I always have a PVA mesh bag containing a few 20mm halibut pellets threaded down the hooklink for the cast. PVA tape is an asset when casting
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bags with Weed Lead Clips. Don’t leave home without it! Hookbait tends to be a combination of a single halibut pellet or 20mm boilie, tipped with a 12 x 15mm Boilie Pellet. The demands on the rest of your kit can also be surprising. This environment is no place for finesse and any weakness will be exposed quickly. I’ve had one customer who wanted to use his own big pit reels and within a day he needed our rental tackle because one of his cheap models had literally exploded into its component parts. Bites can be absolutely savage the speed these carp take off has to be seen to be believed. If you haven’t got your rods firmly anchored the whole lot is potentially going in. The first time it happened to me I’d just moved swims,
CLINICAL COMMON CAMPAIGN hadn’t put the peg back in that secures the pod to the ground and all three just disappeared down the bank in an instant. It was a case of run after them and try and work out which flying rod and reel had the spool spinning! Temperature drops can catch you out as well, even in the winter we go from 15 degrees by day to minus temperatures after dark and as the temperatures change your clutch or free spool tension also changes – of that I’m convinced. It’s common sense really, all the metal components are expanding and contracting with the temperature change but not necessarily at the same rates.
Heavy gear has to be standard, heavy leads and PVA bags means 3.5 lb 13-footers from the bank and the 3.5 and 4.5 lb Scopes from the boat which are more practical and easier to handle in the limited space.
FUTURE 50S The Ebro has changed hugely, and is still going places. How significant is the heavy use of pellet in the growth of the carp and how much of it is a natural evolution and change of the ecosystem? I can’t answer that but what I do know is that like the carp, everything else
in the Ebro is getting big, from the bleak to the roach and hybrids. I confidently expect that in three to five years we’ll be looking at 50 lb carp being as plentiful as 40s are today. From city and urban carping to some of the most impressive landscapes the Ebro has got a lot to offer, but more than at any other time it also has the quality of carp on offer that seems to have been almost missed. Few carp venues are as exciting and memorable as the Ebro. More information on guided River Ebro carping is at www.ebromadcats.co.uk or search Ebro Mad Cat on Facebook.
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ARTICLE TITLE 500 Open Access Carp Waters
500 OPEN ACCESS CARP WATERS ORDER FORM Searching for somewhere to fish this weekend? Look no further, as 500 Open Access Carp Waters focuses on venues across the breadth of the UK and Europe which are open to all. Lake descriptions, contact details, carp stocks and best tactics are included, making it an absolute must-have addition to your carping armoury. The very best guide to waters across the UK and beyond!
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NASH E-ZINE SPRING 2016
THE LOWDOWN
INDULGENCE LUMBAR SUPPORT CHAIRS NEW for 2016 Nash Indulgence chairs are redefining bankside comfort – using the unique Lumbar Support System to improve posture and adjust support to the individual.
The internal sprung steel mesh flexible lumbar support allows a chair to be instantly tailored to anglers of any size and weight, preventing poor posture and eliminating back pain and discomfort. Tighten the buckle to change the profile of the lumbar support to suit your weight and posture.
THERE’S NO GOING BACK! Office chairs, the seats in modern cars – all of them feature some sort of lumbar support and adjustment because it is so critical for individual comfort. As anglers we sit for as many hours as office workers, and often many, many more, making it natural to build a Lumbar Support system into the new top of the range Indulgence chairs. If you’re not enjoying your time behind rods because of back pain or discomfort, or you can’t fish as long as you used to it’s time to think about looking after your back. ‘We know that the comfort offered by Indulgence Chairs genuinely makes a day to day difference to thousands of anglers. The 2016 Lumbar Support range offers the most advanced and adjustable bankside comfort yet, helping people get more from their fishing,’ said Alan Blair.
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Weight has been reduced through focussing the deep pile foam and topper in key contact areas and removing padding where not required, and all feature an extended rear frame to protect the neck and head from wind chill and improve support.
THE LOWDOWN
Combined with legendary Indulgence hi-strength frames, micro hand wheel adjustment, locking rear leg pins and adjustable legs with mud feet the 2016 Indulgence LS range offer an unbeatable package.
• Indulgence Daddy Long Legs LS (T9720) • Indulgence Big Daddy LS (T9721)
• Indulgence Recliner LS • Indulgence Recliner Big Daddy LS
(T9722) (T9723)
Using the proven Nash design of extended leg length and low level arms to allow anglers to get in and out of a chair more easily, the Big Daddy and the Daddy Long Legs both have the popular higher seating position with the improved comfort from the adjustable lumbar support system.
Offering a lower seating position the Recliner LS and Recliner Big Daddy LS are ideal for maximising space under lower profile shelters such as Recon brollies, and also for more active anglers wanting to cast, strike bites and play fish when targeting busier venues.
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NASH E-ZINE SPRING 2016
ANGUS DICKINSON
MEKONG S R O I R R WA
ht g u a c e ’v u o y se ri rp su t s e g ig b e What’s th other n a r te n e d n a ck a b it S ? g in sh fi whilst carp h tc a c to it a b e th e b n a c ie il o b a world where ! … e is n g o c re n e v e t o n t h ig m u you fish that yo
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MEKONG WARRIORS - ANGUS DICKINSON
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E
ver since I was a boy it has been a dream to travel to the Far East, I never quite understood my own fascination but it has always had a powerful draw for me. Over the Christmas break I finally got the chance I had waited a lifetime for and headed off with some mates to Thailand. Two planes and fourteen hours later we landed in Bangkok. It was 8pm, 30 degrees Centigrade and pretty well 100% humidity. I’ve never been to a place where people go inside to cool off. And for the record whatever you are told about Bangkok it’s most likely true, by far the craziest city I’ve ever been to. It didn’t take long to have our first encounter with some of Thailand’s native fish on the Chao Phraya River. We had a day booked exploring the local temples and whilst on our long tailed boat we pulled up at the back of a monastery. One of the monks gave us a few loaves of bread - Jordan and I thought we were getting lunch but when we turned back towards the river there were suddenly swarms of catfish, like clockwork all waiting for the bread we were about to throw in. We had a lot of things to do and see but fishing in Thailand was something I was absolutely buzzing for! After Bangkok we took a short flight up to Chiang Mai, the old capital. There were jungle adventures, we rode elephants, climbed waterfalls in the rainforest and went white water rafting. We also climbed to Doi Inthanon the highest point in Thailand, above the clouds at the King and Queen’s temples, a surreal experience. After cleansing our souls up north from the madness of Bangkok we jumped on another flight back to Bangkok and then onto Krabi where we were booked to visit Gilham’s Fishing Resort in search of monsters.
BEWARE THE BLANK One of the best things about Thailand is how cheap everything is. We stayed in a beautiful bungalow, and paid £40 each for three nights. To see the sights in Krabi where Gilham’s Resort is based we rented mopeds
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MEKONG WARRIORS - ANGUS DICKINSON for what we worked out was £3.20 per day. There were amazing beaches and limestone cliffs and there was a feeling of being in paradise.
"And for the record whatever you are told about Bangkok it’s most likely true, by far the craziest city I’ve ever been to"
We were collected to go to the fishery the following day and on the way picked up an American traveller who was going back after blanking there for a day. That and the fact that the lake had been fully booked by a stag party the previous week and they had apparently all caught nothing did put some doubts in my mind. Even though the stag party were more interested in drinking than fishing I hadn’t flown halfway around the world to blank, and we only had one day. On the plus side, Gilham’s was possibly the most beautiful looking lake I had ever seen, real postcard stuff. You weren’t going to use telegraph poles and pylons as skyline markers to sort your spots out, there were mountains and tropical forests as a backdrop. After a briefing from the bailiffs I doubled up with Jordan on the grounds he’d never fished before, and Ash went in his own swim. Of course Gilham’s is a commercially run holiday venue so each swim has a gazebo with chairs to give you somewhere to get out the sun and even a fan to keep you cool. Even better you could order food and drinks to be delivered to your swim. Wicked!
ON THE BLOWER We had a huge corner to fish to and there were two dispersers – like aerators but on the bottom for keeping the silt moving around. Two deadbaits fished across to the far margin and two rods on boilies and pellets by the dispersers was logical enough and then we would take turns hitting takes. It did seem a bit weird flicking boilies and in-line leads around in those surroundings, like the same sport but a completely alien environment where it shouldn’t really fit? But we’d been told everything in Gilham’s ate boilies so we were going to Spomb a bit over the top and recast regularly and hope the activity in the swim brought some interest.
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NASH E-ZINE SPRING 2016 The rods went out just as the day was beginning, within minutes the first one was away. Jordan said that it was my go first as I had cast the rods out and I didn’t need telling twice and bent round into the first fish of the trip. After a few tail walks and a lot of jumping my first fish was in the net, a lovely 10lb Nile Perch, a species I had never caught before and which fell to the deadbait. Like buses it wasn’t even a minute after the first fish was returned that we were away again, this time it was Jordan’s turn. Having never really fished before it was great to see him hooked into a hard fighting fish. It tore around in the margin and was really going for it but Jord really took to a rod and reel straight away and after a few tips through a ten minute fight the fish broke the surface and slipped over the net cord. The cheers went up and looking at him dripping with sweat and shaking from adrenaline I knew an angler had been born, what a pleasure to be part of. A mid double Asian Redtail Catfish was the prize and we were both ecstatic. Less than an hour into the day we sat back for the first time and breathed a big sigh of relief and finally drunk it all in. We were in Thailand, fishing at Gilham’s and had already beaten the blank. We couldn’t get over how surreal the fishing was, every now and then we saw Siamese carp crash out like dolphins, and there was the odd crashing sound that was exactly like pushing a pig off the side of a boat. Amazing, ridiculous, it was all sorts of things!
SIAMESE TWINS The morning rolled by, we continued to steadily bait and recast the rods as we had planned and by 11am I was connected to another fish, this time on a boilie. It’s an odd feeling not having any idea what you might have hooked because there are so many species. I have never had a fight like it, line was being ripped off and we’re not talking light gear either, we were kitted out with 50 lb braid straight through. The drill at Gilham’s is that when you hook a fish you
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blow a whistle so the bailiffs know you are in, basically because you could be attached to something that weighs 500 lb… The fish I was attached to finally tired and was my first Siamese carp. I was shocked at how hard it had fought, it was only 35 lb and apparently they went nearly five times bigger than that. It really is a different world. We slipped the fish back and just like that another rod was away, Jordan’s turn again. It was becoming evident that the fish were moving over the bait quickly as the runs would come in doubles, we would get two takes and then a short break. The runs the fish went on were mind boggling, they would just go and go. It was more like big game fishing than the sport you’d expect from throwing boilies about. It was a shorter battle for Jordan but as soon as the carp broke the surface we knew it wasn’t a 30-pounder. As it broke the surface for a second time I started shouting to Jord it could be a 100-pounder. When it went into the net the biggest cheer went up from everyone who had gathered to watch the fight unfold. Jordan got into the water with this amazing animal, we didn’t weigh it or get it out and
“The runs th were mind b would just go
he fish went on boggling, they o and go�
MEKONG WARRIORS - ANGUS DICKINSON
make a fuss because the fish can get really stressed but the bailiffs reckoned it was upper 70s maybe an 80-pounder. It was such a sight to see someone who had never really angled before cradle a giant in his arms, and the smile said it all! We slipped her back not expecting any action for a while but no longer than 20 minutes
had passed before I was into my third fish. The fight was so similar we knew pretty much straight away it would be another Siamese carp, and after 15 minutes of pulling me about she hit the back of the net. Another absolute chunk, not as big as Jordan’s last but still a mid 60!
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NASH NASH E-ZINE E-ZINE SPRING WINTER 2016 2015
CARE PROGRAMME What really impressed us was the level of fish care at Gilham’s. The fish are kept in the water as a blanket policy, and you get in with them. It did occur to me that I might stand on a stingray but in the excitement of having caught something you just get in and rely on your heavy duty flip flops to protect you... The fact that there are alligator gar and snakehead in the lake means there are plenty of things that might not necessarily be pleased to see you! The bailiffs do all the unhooking, and once you blow a whistle for ‘fish on’ they arrive on bikes and have all the unhooking and fish care kit, from pliers to get big hooks out to medi kits and even special floating cages to net the long arapaima – like six foot floating shark cages. The welfare was the highest priority like the best run English fisheries, and it was great to see.
PUSSY SHARE We were having the time of our lives but Ashley had only caught a naughty bit of sunburn and it was obvious we were in the best swim. I tried to cheer him along but fishing can be as cruel as it is kind. The daylight was fading, the bailiffs had come round to let us know that we only had around 20 minutes left but before the final whistle could go Ash shouted that he was in. What a turn up, and just what we all needed. Arriving in his swim my first reaction was I didn’t know a clutch could spin so fast. The bailiffs saw the same thing and said the dreaded word – MEKONG! Now the Mekong catfish is famous around those parts for being one of the hardest fighting fish in the lake. The bailiff explained there was no question we’d be there into dark. Then Jordan started screaming as well! Just like
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Ash, he was struggling to keep a rod in his hand. The fish tore up the lake towards Ash, the bailiff grabbing the rod and swimming up the lake and under Ashley’s line and re-emerging in swim four. As he went to give the rod back to Jordan he literally disappeared, this powerful creature had decided to continue running and had dragged the bailiff back into the water. After a second or two of eerie silence he surfaced, rod still in hand, we strapped a pad to Jordan to ease some of the pressure and the fight continued. By this point the lake had closed as everyone who had been fishing had congregated around the two swims that we were playing the two fish in. Knowing that we had two Mekongs on with a decent crowd the pressure was on, the atmosphere was tense. The bailiff then told us that the longest Mekong fight they had witnessed was an unbelievable ten hours, neither of them wanted to be attached to these fish for that long. After an exasperating 40 minutes both Jord and Ash were still attached, Jordan’s was evidently bigger as he was bent over in pain and literally couldn’t do any more. I gladly took over after watching them both for nearly an hour, as we swapped it was like the fish knew there was a different person playing him and he tore off, stripping 150 yards of line in one burst. Going on an hour we heard the shout from up the bank, and knowing Ash had got his in spurred me on. I cranked down and gave it my all knowing this could be the chance to get a brace shot of two
MEKONG WARRIORS - ANGUS DICKINSON
magnificent creatures. No more than five minutes later he was in the net, with a huge cheer from the crowd behind. We all got in the water to embrace our prizes, looking up to all the smiles and cheers from the crowd was something I’ll never forget. A brace of Mekong catfish weighing a combined 270 lb in our arms. The cameras came out, flashing away and all three of us knew we had had the day of a lifetime. We moved on from Krabi a few days later and continued to travel Thailand. Visiting Phi Phi and Khao Sok on our way back to Bangkok. But sitting on the flight home we all agreed that fishing at Gilham’s was by far the best day we had in Thailand and we all would go back tomorrow. I would like to thank everyone at Gilham’s for letting us fish at such short notice and for giving us a day that none of us will EVER forget.
“We all got in the water to embrace our prizes, looking up to all the smiles and cheers from the crowd was something I’ll never forget”
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ISSUE 23 • SPRING 2016