Ezine October 2016

IS S U E 2 5 • A U

T U M N 2 0 16

ALAN BLAIR

Chods are NOT for nods!

FEATURING:

ALAN BLAIR JULIAN CUNDIFF STEVE BRIGGS

NASH LAKES Royston

RESERVOIR DIARIES Season 2

• Inside Nashbait’s new factory • Key Cray revealed

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THE BOILIE SPECIAL

BOILIE PACKED ISSUE

ARTICLE TITLE

CONTENTS

NASH E-ZINE • ISSUE 25 • AUTUMN 2016

6 - 17 ALAN BLAIR CHOD CHAMPION

Find out why Alan Blair still rates the chod rig as the finest go anwhere carp rig ever devised.

18 - 19 NASH KNOWHOW - TYING ALAN'S CHOD Step by step for the slickest, easiest chods.

20 - 26 GAME CHANGERS KEY CRAY

Kevin Nash reveals the blockbuster Nashbait 2017 Key Cray launch.

28 - 35 #HOW WE ROLL – NASHBAIT

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Inside Nashbait’s factory of the future, rolling half a tonne of boilies every hour!

36 - 40 BREAKING DOWN BOILIE SUCCESS

Discover Oli’s big fish boilie approach that has hammered Horton this summer.

43 - 47 JULIAN'S Q&A

The best in advice from carp angling’s most experienced instructor.

48 - 55 ROYSTON REVEALED

The inside line on the new Nashlakes complex in Cambridgeshire.

It’s day ticket carping – but better!

56 - 67 STEVE BRIGGS - TAKE HOME LESSON

Think we lead the world in carp fishing? Steve Briggs shares the wisdom he’s brought home from decades of fishing abroad.

68 - 79 RESERVOIR DIARIES SEASON 2 Carl and Alex Smith on their quest to find Big Scaley in 300 acres.

Get the warts and all from behind the scenes of Season 2.

82 - 89 URBAN REDMIRE - ANDREW RISTE Redmire Leneys swimming around next to a Newport housing estate – yes you read it right!

90 - 99 SIMON CROW - THE RIGHT MOVES

The jigsaw pieces that saw it all fall into place, Simon shares the edges that have instantly changed his fortunes for difficult carp.

100 - 103 WHERE THE CARP HAVE NO NAME Three northern reservoirs totalling over 200 acres and a handful of carp – who knows how big they go?

Editor: Colin Davidson Design: BRAVEDOG Web: Kevin Tucker and Colin Davidson Photography: Oli Davies, Tom Forman and Dan Yeomans

www.nashtackle.co.uk With thanks to: Nash Consultants & The Nash Tackle HQ Team.

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NASH E-ZINE SPRING 2016

Get MORE from Nash!

Check out the recent winners on the Official Nashbait Instagram page.

Upload, share and win!

SEPTEMBER WINNER NICK MACKIE Ciztuz

Prize: 1 kg 4G Squid boilies 10mm 1 kg 4G Squid 15mm 1 kg 4G Squid 20mm

AUGUST WINNER CALLUM MARSHALL His first ever river carp, slow sinking bread in a Bread Bomb

Prize: 1 kg TG Active boilies 10mm 1 kg TG Active 15mm 1 kg TG Active 20mm

JULY WINNER MIKE KERNAGHAN Citruz (for the carp, not the Barn Owl – they prefer mice)

Prize: 1 kg Micro Pellet Mix 1 kg Small Pellet Mix 1 kg Mega Pellet Mix

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EDITOR'S WELCOME

Colin Davidson

FROM THE EDITOR And the success rolls on…

F or any of us who started making carp bait by cracking six eggs into a bowl it’s hard to believe the scale of the international market for boilies that we service today.

This issue of the Nash E Zine is dominated by boilies. If you’ve ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes to get your favourite Nashbait recipe in a bag on your tackle shop shelf, you’ll be astounded by the insight into the new Nashbait factory in #How We Roll.

With investment that is off the scale, state of the art food industry processes and advanced computer controlled machinery what Nashbait are producing by the hour is simply astounding. With temperature controlled cooking to protect fragile but valuable food ingredients, fan assisted drying, and constant conveyor systems it is simply bait manufacture of the future, but now.

Perhaps even bigger news is what will be coming off the rollers by the time you read this – the much whispered about Key Cray.

Kevin Nash gives us an exclusive insight into the new Nashbait blockbuster that finally makes natural food a carp bait thanks to the Nashbait exclusive Wild Harvested Crayfish Meal. What’s more, there’s even the chance to be involved in the final stage field testing at the invitation of Kevin himself. Yes you did read that right – you could be hauling on Key Cray long before the expected launch date of May 2017. Find out more in Game Changers.

We’ve got Alan Blair, the champion of the chod, giving you everything you need to know about the rig that remains his go anywhere tactic for boilie fishing. Forget the

fashion to knock the chod listen to what Alan has got to say and think again. Then there’s Oli Davies on the simple boilie tricks that have given him such a remarkable summer catching some of the Colne Valley’s finest, and Julian’s ever helpful Q and A complete with his tips to get more out of your boilies on short sessions.

Add Steve Briggs and his take home lessons from decades fishing in Europe, Simon Crow’s recollections of those little tricks that have on occasion transformed his results and we’ve already got a bumper issue with something for everyone.

Don’t miss the contrasting venues in this issue though, from the behind the scenes of the Reservoir Diaries Season 2 to the challenge of the unknown in a lightly stocked northern reservoir for Russ Kenyon, or the amazing tale of the Redmire Leneys swimming around in the shadow of a housing estate in South Wales. If ever there was a reminder that carp are truly remarkable creatures we only have to look to see the variety of environments where they don’t just survive they prosper.

On top of all that it’s trade show time, and the world is going potty about the relaunch of the most iconic Nash product of all - the Titan. Then there’s new Pursuit Rods, Scope Black Ops carbon sticks and bars and updated Indulgence Sleep Systems plus plenty more besides. We hope this issue gives you more ideas than ever how to catch more using the very best in bait and tackle that we can produce.

"If you’ve ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes to get your favourite Nashbait recipe in a bag on your tackle shop shelf, you’ll be astounded by the insight into the new Nashbait factory in #How We Roll. "

Colin Davidson

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CHOD CHAMPION - ALAN BLAIR

CHOD CHAMPION

ALAN BLAIR

Alan Blair gives you the lowdown on why chods remain his go to rig summer or winter, home or abroad whatever size carp he is fishing for.

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or me the chod rig is my go-to rig, the one I turn to first. No matter where you cast it 99 percent of the time it will be fishing for you. If I am fishing in the margins or a very definite hard spot be it clay or gravel or even an area of firm silt I would always opt to use a different rig, usually a flat in-line with a short link. But let’s be realistic, you don’t get that every time you go fishing, so to be able to turn up at a water and flick a chod out and it always be fishing effectively for you is a Godsend. This element is massively important to me because it is very rare for me to go back to the same venue let alone fish the same swim twice.

When you flit from venue to venue to very quickly be able to position two or three chod rigs and know that you are actually fishing is an unbeatable advantage.

So is there any truth in chods having ‘blown’? I think anything can become less effective with over use but have boilies blown? Do dog biscuits or floating pellets blow? Do particles blow? Nothing really blows at all, you will still catch fish on all of them. Ok, carp might be a bit cuter and more

suspicious of some things, for example a pop-up being two inches off the deck but the rig itself isn’t the problem, it’s the situation.

The mechanics of the rig work time and time again and they always will work. It doesn’t matter what direction the fish approaches from if you get the curve of the chod rig right it will always turn towards the mouth and offer good hooking potential. Couple that with being able to fish over any lakebed, whether it be weed, silt, detritus and it becomes clear why it is so important in my fishing.

I love the Multi Rig, it’s brilliant that I can change the hook quickly, but what I don’t love is that it depends what angle the fish approaches the hookbait from as to how the rig behaves and I think there are times that means you don’t always catch when it gets picked up. A properly constructed chod rig works whatever direction the fish approaches from and in my head it will always turn and provide hooking potential when it is sucked in.

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CHOD RIG BASICS

1

You need a curve in the filament. Some like it more aggressive than others but in order for the mechanics to work you need some sort of curve so the rig flips and turns when the fish sucks it in.

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2

You need to make that hookbait as critically balanced as possible, so when the fish suck at it the pop up and hook are taken into the mouth up easily.

CHOD CHAMPION - ALAN BLAIR

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Don’t fish chods on a tight line. The gradual resistance of a slack line tightening helps to pull the hook point in while not giving any leverage for the fish to use to shake or bounce the rig out.

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Adjust how you balance the bait to how you are fishing the chod. If fished naked on the main line you will need additional weighting to sink the pop up slowly. With a 10mm pop up on a 65 lb Cling-On Leader the bait is already perfectly weighted because of the thicker, heavier leader.

Make sure your chod can spin freely. I see beautifully constructed chods covered in putty that interferes with their mechanics. I wrap the putty round the central barrel of the swivel not anywhere near the swivel eyes.

In extreme weed losing the lead either by tying it on with a weak link or by using an ejector bead will ensure you land more fish than if you retain the lead.

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NASH E-ZINE AUTUMN 2016

A GOOD SPREAD

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arp fishing over bait roughly splits into two categories, what I call spread baiting or fishing over a tight spot.

“Quality boilies, a catapult or a throwing stick and the chod rig are a deadly combination.”

Most carpers are fishing on a tightly baited spot and on a hard, clean gravel or clay bottom. For this sort of work a heavy lead and a short rig does the business. The fish are feeding hard but not moving much so you need an efficient rig for this type of feeding. If you are spodding, dropping bait and rigs from remote

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boats, using PVA bags, sticks and even Method feeders, your approach sits in this category.

Often when I am boilie fishing I prefer to spread bait over a wider area, maybe trying to attract fish passing through or to interest carp in a part of the lake that contains natural feeding areas for example.

Quality boilies, a catapult or a throwing stick and the chod rig are a deadly combination.

We’ve become so stuck into the routine of tight parcels of feed ever since the PVA revolution that spreading bait more widely and encouraging fish to eat single,

CHOD CHAMPION - ALAN BLAIR

larger food items is something that many carpers don’t understand.

Watch cows or sheep in a field and imagine they are carp, a spread of baits rather than a pile would give you a much better chance of one of them coming across a bait, and then spending time looking around for more.

With larger boilies spread around a swim the carp move from one bait to find the next and don’t often inspect every bait once they are feeding. By the time they’ve picked one up as they are swimming and

righting themselves to look for another, the hook is in and you’ve got a take.

The mechanics of the choddy are ideal for these moving feeders.

There is plenty of movement in the rig, with the curve of the Chod Link allowing the rig to spin and find a hold as soon as a carp lifts the hookbait off bottom. The link is short and stiff and hard for the carp to eject plus the rig is up the line away from the lead so a fish can shake its head as much as it likes but there’s no lead there to bounce

the hook back out. Once that hook point is in, there’s just constant nagging or building tension from the weight of the hook and swivel, the weight of the line or leader as it lifts off bottom, and also the weight of the indicator. It’s a brilliant hooking system, and because chods on a slack line don’t offer that traditional initial shock of tightening to a heavy lead, often carp don’t even know they have picked up the rig until it’s too late because there’s no obvious warning sign of a fixed jolt of resistance.

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NASH E-ZINE AUTUMN 2016

THE END TACKLE Confused about how your end tackle should be set up? Follow Alan’s advice to give you the slickest chod set up possible.

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CHOD CHAMPION - ALAN BLAIR

1

Use the lightest lead you can to cast where you need to.

The lead doesn’t do the hooking for you, and the lighter it is the less you will spook carp and the less it will bury into weed or silt.

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Over weedy bottoms use a sliding chod bead. The top stop bead can be positioned as much as 6-8 feet back from the lead to ensure the rig drops slowly and sits on top of weed in the swim.

You need a shock absorber between the lead and the bottom bead to reduce the chances of hook pulls when playing carp on chods. The Buffer Booms in our chod kits do exactly this.

For harder bottoms I fix a chod rig using the gripping bead from our kits. The link is still set a minimum of a couple of feet back up the line to stop a hooked carp using the bomb to shake a hook out.

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SUPER SLACKER

O

nce I have cast my rig out I hold the rod tip up and lay down the leader, letting it sink down. After that (and this can take some time) I allow the mainline to settle down and find its place on the bottom.

If I am using a finer casting line this can take longer as you don’t have the same weight in the line as something like 15 or 18 lb D-Cam. It pays dividends to let it sink slowly as that slack forms part of the hooking potential of the rig. If I was fishing for example at 70 yards unless it was gin clear and I thought there were fish moving past in the margins that I didn’t want to spook I wouldn’t be too concerned about getting the line all the way along the bottom from hook to rod tip.

I just want 20 yards or so down

on the bottom to help hooking. I will get better indication like that than having the line slack all the way back and being super slack doesn’t really offer any advantages in terms of presentation. We need that indication too as they are not picking up 4oz of lead on a short

hooklink. When a fish picks up my rig and realises something is wrong and moves to try and eject it I want to know about that. I don’t want to wait for a one toner, so semi slack is definitely my preferred approach so I know when something is happening.

“…the pair that had mocked me were now adamant it was the best rig ever.”

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CHOD CHAMPION - ALAN BLAIR

WANT TO GET NAKED?

A

couple of years back I went over to the Continent and I was ridiculed live on camera for using a chod rig, even though I caught a few fish on it. Well blow me down if I didn’t go back this year and the pair that had mocked me were now adamant it was the best rig ever.

Anyway, one of them took me off fishing and he said he would give me 500 Euros if I didn’t catch one from this spot. I put two choddies out, with fish rolling and showing all over them and I blanked! He couldn’t explain it, but we all make assumptions and judgements

and for me it can only have been because I was using 65lb ClingOn leader. The water was clear and shallow and the fish could see it. He had caught lots of good fish from there previously fishing fluorocarbon straight through with a chod on the line. It was a good lesson. It is all well and good finding them but there are times when those extra percentages matter and if I had had my tackle box with me I would like to think that if I had changed to fishing a chod on the line I would have had a bite. So as much as I love using Cling-On be aware of your presentation on pressured, clear venues and refine your set-up. Given the choice I would always opt to use the heavy leader material as I believe it helps with the mechanics of the rig as you don’t get that weight that helps with

hooking using fluorocarbon, but you need to use the right thing for the right situation.

STAND OUT OR BLEND IN?

R

emember chods are a versatile tactic, and that can dictate whether you want a high attract hookbait or whether you are looking to resemble a free offering. When I’m on new venues or in cold weather and bad conditions a single high attract bait on a chod is a brilliant rig for regular recasting to try and find a fish and get a reaction. For times when I’m really working hard with chods to get some action I prefer a pink or white pop up, they always seem to bring the bites. These days it’s Citruz all the way – I don’t tend to carry any other options because it’s always the Citruz that produces, but I do carry different colours and have pots of Citruz Rainbows and Pastels because on any given day one particular colour can far outscore the others.

Colour choice also depends on

time of year and water clarity.

Often I want a chod to give me a well presented free offering in the swim, just another bait for a carp to eat like the others, when there are fish in the area and prepared to feed and you’re spreading quality boilies around this is often the most productive tactic. Later in the year when the fish are wiser I will also

be more likely to match the colour of my freebies.

Remember there are no hard and fast rules though and a bright high attract pop up over food bait boilies can also score well some days. A Citruz pop up over Key free offerings has become legendary, it’s a remarkable combination and just keeps catching them out!

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NASH E-ZINE AUTUMN 2016

AWESOME AIRBALLS! lot of anglers feel that they have to use a cork ball popup on their chod but I rarely fish for long enough to require one.

A few years back pop-ups weren’t as buoyant as they are today, but now most manufacturers produce

pop-ups that stay up for 24 hours even if you pierce them. I don’t use a cork ball and I don’t tie baits on, I just pierce one of our Airballs. It’s quick and simple and I’m confident it won’t fall off. Whatever bait you choose to use the most important thing is to test that rig in the edge and check that it sinks slowly because if it goes down slowly if will fly up fast when a fish sucks at it.

WONDER RIG

the chod rig, and you often hear the phrase ‘chods for nods’.

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W

hen you analyse what advantages the chod rig offers and what it brings to your fishing, like me you’ll find it impossible to stop using it, or maybe you might rethink why you’ve let other carpers put you off it. There is a lot of negativity about

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People often remark that there’s no such thing as a wonder rig but I reckon a chod is as close as you’ll ever get. It took me ten years to refine mine to that point. Tune it, perfect it, build confidence and you will find chods really can be the go anywhere catch a carp rig!

TOP TIP

There’s a misconception that chods are a big carp tactic. The way chods are normally fished I’d agree they can be a bit crude for smaller carp. The answer is to scale them down for the same aggressive hooking and brilliant presentation but with a smaller hook and smaller hookbait. If nuisance fish are not a problem I always try and use a 10mm hook bait. Noone else seems to do it, but it’s definitely an edge.

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NASH E-ZINE AUTUMN 2016

NASH KNOWHOW

TYING A CHOD RIG

When, why and where?

• The most versatile go anywhere rig • Use with pop up boilie hookbaits only • Presents a bait effectively over almost any type of lake bed • Virtually impossible to tangle • Streamlined for long casting • Great for single bait fishing or over boilie free offerings • Resets itself after any interest or nuisance fish activity

3

If you need to leave hookbaits out for long periods pass a 2.5mm metal rig ring on to the hair. Where hookbaits often only need to be out a few hours slide on a Bait Screw instead for faster, easier bait mounting.

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Keep the loop by the swivel small but using the end of the Puller tool, ensure it is nice and round. This helps the bait sit up correctly and gives the link greater movement for better hooking. Small details like this are really important with chods more than most rigs.

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Components: You will need • Chod Link • Chod Twister Hooks • 2.5mm metal rig ring or Bait Screw • Micro Ring Swivel • Lighter • Rig Flame Shield • Puller tool

4

Pass the tag end down through the eye to form the D loop. Thread the tag through the slot in the Rig Flame Shield and offer a lighter to it. Once the tag burns down to the metal shield simply blow it out – no more burned fingers or thumbs!

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A chod needs to be in a C shaped curve, helping it spin and look for a hook hold as the bait is lifted off bottom by a carp. There’s no need to steam Chod Link, you can just curve it around your fingers until you get the ideal C shape.

NASH KNOWHOW

1

Chods require a special type of nylon with specific properties to allow a finished rig to be shaped for maximum efficiency. Alan uses the heavier 25 lb (0.50mm) Diffusion Camo Chod Link.

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Thread the tag end of the link through the small eye of a Micro Ring Swivel. Position the swivel along the Chod Link at the distance you want the finished rig to be.

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Take a short length of 15 lb Armourlink or the fine inner braid from Combilink, pass it through the rig ring and tie an overhand knot to produce a hair the length required for your chosen pop up. Trim the tag ends and blob the knot to keep it secure.

2

Cut a six to eight inch (15-20cm) length of Chod Link and leaving a ‘hair’ of 5cm whip a five turn knotless knot. Alan wraps the tag end of the Chod Link around the whippings twice on the way back down before passing it through the eye.

6

Double the Chod Link back on itself, and tie a simple overhand knot, passing the swivel through the loop.

Using a loop knot allows you to keep your chods really short, other knots aren’t so good because the link gets longer as you draw them tight.

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From start to finish a good choddy will only take a minute or two to tie up with practice. Add a 10mm Citruz pop up and you’ve got quite simply the very best combination of bait and rig to cast almost anywhere and stand a great chance of catching a carp.

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GAME CHANGERS

KEY C It’s Nashbait’s blockbuster bait launch for 2017. Do you want to be part of the promotional team who get to fish with it first? Key Cray is coming…

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GAME CHANGERS

CRAY www.nashtackle.co.uk

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xclusive to Nashbait, and licensed by DEFRA to be used in commercial bait for the first time Key Cray harnesses the incredible nutritional appeal and instinctive food signals from crayfish meal.

The Key was always going to be the hardest act to follow in the history of modern bait making, and yet this ground breaking aquatic ingredient has amazed even Gary Bayes and Keith Sykes, and is set to shake up the carp bait industry yet further in 2017.

“I’m really excited about the new Key Cray because of its

uniqueness,” explains Kevin Nash.

“We were offered a source of cray meal, the first time it has been produced using the whole crayfish, shell, flesh, everything.

It’s been one hell of a journey because you aren’t allowed to introduce crayfish into an aquatic environment so we had to meet DEFRA and argue the toss because it is a processed meal, and eventually we got the license to be able to use it in carp bait.”

Initial reactions from tank carp and pond carp made it clear the crayfish meal was very special: “It reminded all of us of the way carp reacted to

our squid extract, they just went crazy,” continued Kev. “What really stands out is that I gave some of the cray meal to one of our A Team field testers and he keeps piranhas – but they only eat live food not any processed or manufactured feeds. He put cray meal in with them and they were virtually killing each other to get to it.

“From field testing on difficult fisheries it already reminds me of Scopex Squid in the 90s, not just how many are being caught, but also how quickly people are getting takes.”

THE KEY COMBINATION The nutritional profile of the cray meal is exceptional, and with the HNV profile of The Key, Key Cray has been developed from blending The Key with 50% cray meal. After putting several variants out on long term test the attractor package has been tweaked to include another unique blend to Nashbait, a savoury but slightly sweet concentrate with

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amazing big fish track record that can’t be sourced by anyone else.

“The savoury attractor blend has come from Keith, has never been used in a commercial bait and is catching the most by far. It has already caught some very special carp that haven’t been caught for years,” revealed Gary Bayes.

“I saw this happen with the Squid mixes and several other baits I’ve made, in some cases catching fish that were believed dead or stolen. Sometimes it needs a really different bait to catch the difficult fish, and Key Cray is unlike anything else out there at the moment.”

GAME CHANGERS

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RESULT AFTER RESULT Hype over new baits switches cynical carpers off, those who have been around long enough to see plenty of amazing baits come and then go. But like the squid success story of over 25 years, Key Cray is unique, and there’s no doubting its pedigree to catch any carp, anywhere.

In 18 months of development there has been instance after instance of changing to Key Cray and results going through the roof. Alfie Russell with nine

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takes in 15 hours from a seriously tough venue, Mike Wilson with four 40s, three 30s and 13 20s this season all on Key Cray, another tester catching two carp all year, then having FIVE Essex Manor fish up to mid 40s the first weekend after switching to Key Cray. The first bite Steve Briggs had on it was a 72-pounder!

What no-one can argue with are hard results to the guys at the sharp end, catching difficult carp more easily than ever.

GAME CHANGERS

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GAME CHANGERS

NATURE IDENTICAL NUTRITION Possibly one of the most significant advances Key Cray brings is a top quality bait, based on an exact natural food source instinctively recognised by carp the world over.

“Everyone talks about ‘natural’ ingredients but it rarely actually means natural to carp,” said Gary Bayes. “Even maggots are not really natural to a carp, krill and fishmeals come from the sea but our exclusive, licensed crayfish meal

is freshwater derived, wild harvest crayfish.

“It was the wild harvest element that really caught my attention.

All bait companies will have had salmon meal offered to them, it sounds good but in fact if anything farm fed salmon meal is useless in carp baits, repulsive even, whereas wild caught fish turned into fishmeal is an excellent base mix ingredient.

“The fact that our cray meal comes from freshwater is even more appealing, carp hunt natural freshwater food all of the time, to the exclusion of our baits sometimes, they are excited by the chemicals and food signals they sense, I’ve been in the game for a lifetime and cray meal is one of the best ingredients I have ever tested on carp.”

BE FIRST TO FISH WITH IT Kevin Nash is putting together a team of carpers to finalise testing of the Key Cray bait and promote it prior to launch in May 2017. Could that include you?

“I’m looking for people to help final stage testing before Key Cray is launched, good anglers on the right waters,” said Kev, “They don’t have to be massive fish, we’re looking for quality carp, heritage fish, English scaleys for example and also good feedback to help get the marketing ready for Spring 2017. If people want to be part of this, it starts with contacting me, and we’re also putting people in place to manage the testing and promotional team.”

Want to be part of the Key Cray team?

Email info@nashtackle.co.uk

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The Line Up The Key Cray range will be finalized with help from the testers recruited, but is expected to include: Key Cray frozen, Key Cray Stabilised, Key Cray Cultured plus Pop Ups, Hardened Hookbaits, Paste and Liquid Bait Soak. Retail price per kilo is expected to be similar to TG Active and 4G Squid.

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GARY BAYES - #HOW WE ROLL

#How We Roll...

An amazing new era for Nashbait begins – step into the future of carp bait manufacture.

The carp bait industry has rarely if ever known investment like it, or a future vision like it. When Gary Bayes pressed the button in the new Nashbait premises it was the end of a 30 year journey designing a state of the art bait production facility, and a glimpse of sheer scale of the Nashbait success story.

manufacturing processes.

“We can make 25 tonnes of boilies per week without breaking sweat.”

“Our trade has gone up every year but last year was a major increase, we’re marketing more and the baits have been so successful that there’s been even more pressure on production,” he continued.

“We’ve invested over £500,000 in the new Nashbait machinery and unit,” revealed Gary Bayes. “It’s been the realisation of a lifetime of ambitions in bait manufacture and takes bait making to the same level as industrial food

“That’s why such major investment has been required – instead of taking one step forward we’ve taken several steps to ensure we remain the largest manufacturer of quality carp baits long into the future.”

“The industry has changed enormously in the time we’ve been involved, and everywhere you look there’s increased competition, pressure to produce more bait more efficiently, and all while raw material costs, wages and transport costs go up.

Nashbait’s world beating baits like The Key®, 4G Squid and TG Active rolling off the new production line by the tonne is far from the end of a story, more a new beginning. Room has also been factored in to expand again to accommodate further investment with even more cutting edge machinery still to come.

“The capacity is huge, nothing can touch it that I know of,” emphasised Gary. “We can make 25 tonnes of boilies each week without breaking sweat. That’s a serious quantity of bait, and like never before we can react to demand literally by the day and ensure baits are as freshly made as possible before they reach the shelf or freezer.”

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NASHBAIT PRODUCTION AT A GLANCE

500

New rollers cut in 10, 12, 15, 20 and 24mm

kilos of boilies per hour from one machine

£500,000 investment

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Continual self-loading extrusion unit

120

seconds from extrusion to producing a finished boilie

GARY BAYES - #HOW WE ROLL

Base mix & liquids automatically blended and mixed

Constant conveyor and paddle based operation

Fan assisted cooling and drying

Computer controlled water flow, temperature and cooking time

Additional production line for custom mixes and Nashbait classic recipes

DEFRA licensed for storage and handling of animal feeds

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NASH E-ZINE AUTUMN 2016

PUSH BUTTON SOLUTION Gary experienced the earliest mechanised boilie production 30 years ago when working with Rod Hutchinson. Today’s machines – in particular the boilie line of his own design now providing the manufacturing heartbeat of Nashbait – are beyond comparison.

"Having rolled baits by hand my eyes were opened by machines. We could suddenly roll more than we could dry, the only issue as you start using machines is that each time you mechanise one step you then have a bottleneck somewhere else unless you mechanise that as well, so in the early days you'd end up rolling in the morning and then packing bait in the afternoon," said Gary.

"As we expanded in our old premises we designed out problems with machines as we added new ones to increase capacity, so each was better than the last, chain drive rather than belts for example and more robust construction.

It's the uniqueness of boilie manufacture that makes the machining complex, because engineers don't readily understand what is required.

"I literally had to do the drawings for each machine but even then engineers always want to add things or change things. I've taken advice but most people don't get what we do. It doesn't fit in a neat little pigeon hole, there's not even a trade category that Environmental Health can apply to us. I had to come back from a trip to Belgium to deal with an engineer who kept trying to add features to one of our machines - I'd had four fish that morning as well," he laughs.

The culmination of his decades manufacturing boilies is a production line that Gary can feed dry and wet ingredients into at one end, push a button and out come finished perfectly round boilies at the other end, just minutes later.

Production capacity on just this one machine is greater than running all the previous machines together, without factoring in the output of the second slightly smaller production line that has been installed.

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GARY BAYES - #HOW WE ROLL

HOT TUB TIME MACHINE Computer calculated control of the cooking time of Nashbait recipes is crucial for consistent production.

No longer are baits simply 'boiled'...

"When making pop ups for example we don't want the water too hot, and we have a level of control on the new machines to less than one degree. Every boilie will be identical in cooking time to ensure valuable and sensitive ingredients are kept at their best.

"That was one of the really important factors in finalising the design and has been pivotal in the success of developing Key Stabilised. Without this sort of technology we wouldn't have moved bait making forwards over traditional shelf-life processes," Gary explained.

With the complexity of recipes such as The Key and Key Stabilised, valuable ingredients such as trace elements and vitamins and minerals are protected by careful regulation of temperature, including the exclusive predigestion process of The Key's complex proteins for maximum nutritional value.

LIQUID LOVE The only element of the new Nashbait production line that requires a helping hand is the introduction of a liquid attractor package.

"We can fully automate if we like but the liquids are still premixed and added by hand, partly for practical reasons to prevent any chances of cross contamination, and also to reduce the chances of any errors," revealed Gary.

SPACE TO SKIN UP One of the most technically complex operations at Nashbait is the manufacture of the deadly Cultured Hookbaits. The success of the unique but time consuming glaze and layering procedure that builds the living culture skin around the balanced core hookbait is heavily dependant on atmospherics.

"It's impossible to make them in humid conditions," revealed Gary. "In the new premises we've put in a purpose made room with a controlled atmosphere to ensure consistency and efficiency. Air is extracted and moisture constantly removed. Previously I had to get up really early and look at the weather, if it was misty I went back to bed and if the skies were clear I'd go and make some Cultured baits," he laughed.

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“…opens the door for some of Nashbait's all time classics to be rolled once more.”

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GARY BAYES - HOW WE ROL GARY BAYES - #HOW WE ROLL

The art of extrusion Bait making is science meets an art. Despite all the technology, research and testing, any production of a bait requires an element of touchy-feely to ensure a customer opens a bag to the very bait in boilies.

"All the baits have their own uniqueness, and that's where a good bait maker needs to understand the properties of each mix," explains Gary. "The speed of extrusion dictates the diameter of the paste sausage and therefore the roundness of the finished bait. The Key swells slightly so we need to extrude it a fraction smaller than the other mixes because just in the few seconds from extrusion to going through the rollers it changes.

"The old Amber Strawberry is quirky too, it has to be mixed and rolled immediately, if that stands after mixing it becomes a really horrible stretchy dough that we just can't roll round baits from."

Scopex Squid comeback?

Have you got a golden oldie Nashbait boilie that you wish you could still get hold of? Whatever your favourite from the 30 year back catalogue of successful recipes, a second machine geared towards smaller production runs, specials or custom orders opens the door for some of Nashbait's all time classics to be rolled once more.

Production capacity has previously limited the baits that can realistically be made available, and with the success of Instant Action, The Key, 4G Squid and TG Active, some classic recipes have had to be dropped due to commercial pressures.

For fans of Scopex Squid, Amber Strawberry, iC-1, Whisky, Tangee Peach or Monster Pursuit, the additional capacity of a second machine allows custom mixes to be rolled without affecting output of the mainstream recipes. From one off orders to specials for baiting teams, boilies - watch this space!

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NASH E-ZINE AUTUMN 2016

BREAKING DOWN BOILIE SUCCESS When is a boilie not a boilie to a carp? Oli reveals the results he’s had when applying boilies differently to everyone else in the edge.

The iconic Woodcarving, a fish that has seen it all caught twice less than a rod length from the bank over flaked boilie

T

his season has been one of my best in terms of captures from the margins, and I can partly attribute that to swapping my usual approach of baiting with micro pellet and small particle for flaked boilie, mixing the Key and TG. There is no doubt in my mind that the boilie, applied correctly has provoked a better feeding response from the fish, and as a result I have actually caught more.

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“Simply by crumbing them or using flake you can engineer a completely different response to exactly the same bait…”

I have never been a massive boilie user which I guess makes me a little unusual in the modern carp scene that relies so heavily on them.

Much of my carp fishing is done right in the edge and those round balls that we use so much out in the lake simply are not as effective as pellet and particle for this type of fishing. Well, that isn’t strictly true – it is how you apply them that is critical to whether they work or not.

It is a conversation that I have had many times this year with anglers, based on my observations of very experienced fish in clear water, watching how carp react to bait.

Sure, boilies are convenient and versatile, but in order to truly unlock that versatility we need to look at how we apply them.

BREAKING DOWN BOILIE SUCCESS - OLI DAVIES My heart sinks every time I poke my head over to check a spot and I see a pile of boilies in the edge. Why? Because in my experience that spot will then be useless for at least a couple of days. You see, for some reason carp very often regard this baiting pattern with suspicion and avoid it. So not only will they not eat the bait that has been put there but they won’t even go near it. Often it is birds, not fish, that eventually clear up the boilies. Baiting the margins with whole boilies isn’t just not doing the person baiting any favours, it is also harming the chances of others who might want to fish that spot in the days following. I certainly wouldn’t waste my time fishing a spot where I could see someone else’s whole boilies.

Even if the carp do eventually eat those baits, the feeding situation created isn’t one that leads to many captures.

Another flake-induced capture, the Little Leather at 38lb plus

BOILIES NOT THE PROBLEM

I love fishing under the rod tip where I can see the carp feed

The ironic thing is it is not the boilies themselves that are the problem – it is the way they are presented.

Simply by crumbing them or using flake you can engineer a completely different response to exactly the same bait, a response not only on a par with particle baits but actually often better. After all, we go to great lengths to make our boilies extremely attractive and palatable.

As a result, not a lot of this highly attractive bait is needed to entice the fish to feed. Just five crumbed boilies, instead of spooking the fish will keep them feeding until every last particle has gone, and as a result the spot will become cleaner for presenting a hook bait on. The longer and more vigorously that the fish feed on a spot while you have a bait on it then the more chance you have of getting a pick up. And all this can be achieved using less bait.

Win win surely?

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NASH E-ZINE AUTUMN 2016

Often it's the older and wiser fish that fall to a subtle trap.

Horton's Sid is around 50 years old

“Just five crumbed boilies, instead of spooking the fish will keep them feeding until every last bit has gone…”

There are many good boilies out there full of attraction and ingredients that fish enjoy eating. By breaking them up this attraction is released far more readily into the water.

using washed out baits would be the answer?

INSTANT ACTION

What really makes them easier to hook is actually getting them feeding. If they won’t feed on the bait you have put in then how can you catch them? More importantly when fishing a busy lake it is pretty selfish to ruin good spots with poor baiting. If everyone plays the game and applies their bait thoughtfully then everybody benefits; spots are kept clean and visited regularly and everyone gets more chances.

Having watched very pressured fish eat flaked boilie regularly within a few seconds of it being in the water I am inclined to disagree. They obviously find it instantly attractive and palatable. Perhaps the success that washed out baits can have actually proves that it often takes time for those round balls to be viewed with enough confidence that the fish actually eat them. Have boilies blown? Of course not, but certainly the traditional application of them is viewed with suspicion by wary and pressured carp in clear water margin spots, and perhaps we need to consider more how we apply them to achieve the best results.

Some might argue that it is the flavour itself, or levels of flavour that is repelling the fish from eating the baits straight away and that perhaps

When particle fishing hook bait choice is endless – after all often there will often be upwards of 20 different types of food item in

When I point this out to anglers I often get a strange look. Surely you want the fish moving between picking up baits… Won’t that make them easier to hook…?

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the mix to keep the fish guessing which one might have a hook in it, and all those different sized particles make it harder for a carp to distinguish easily when one is heavier than another. When fishing over crumbed and flaked boilie, again there are lots of different sized particles, just less variety of textures and tastes.

DOUBLE TROUBLE Something that has worked for me well in both situations is using a double bait rather than just one, whether it be two tigers, peanuts or maple peas. The same applies to boilie hookbaits – I much prefer two 10mm boilies to one 15mm one. I can’t say for sure why it works better, but I’m sure the shape makes it behave more randomly when sucked in and makes it harder for the fish to eject than a single round ball. Of course no rig is perfect and I have watched fish eject this setup, but I have also watched many of them nail themselves too, so I think

cutting edge NASHBAIT’S unique Flake is produced from rolled boilies taken through a cutting and milling process to create a blend of irregular 1-2mm flakes and crumb that settles lightly over weed and silt, spreading a stimulating food signal through the swim. Even the smallest quantities encourage intensive and prolonged feeding.

Available in: The Key® Frozen, The Key® Stabilised, TG Active Frozen and Shelf Life, 4G Squid Frozen and Shelf Life.

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BREAKING DOWN BOILIE SUCCESS - OLI DAVIES we just have to accept that there is no one rig or bait combination that will hook everything all the time. Once you do accept this it becomes much more about finding the fish and getting them feeding confidently, and sticking to a presentation that you have confidence in.

Groucho at 30lb caught on 2 10mm TG

“…I’m sure the shape makes it behave more randomly when sucked in and makes it harder for the fish to eject.”

A hook bait doesn’t necessarily have to match the freebies, I have caught most of my fish this year using TG Active hook baits but fishing over The

Key Flake, and I’m not the first angler to use these two baits successfully in combination. There is obviously something in them combined that the fish really like.

Don't be afraid to mix and match freebies and hook biat options

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Far more important than rigs and hook baits however is actually creating that feeding situation that will give us a chance of a pickup in the first place, and that is done more effectively by applying our bait correctly. So next time you are tempted to put boilies straight out the bag on a spot in the edge, try crumbling a few instead.

It is still your bait, but you have just instantly unlocked so much more of its potential!

N L PE L O A TO Ten 50s, 20 different 40s and open to all

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CHURCH LAKE £500 PER ANGLER (MONDAY - FRIDAY) OR £3,000 TO EXCLUSIVELY BOOK FOR UP TO SIX ANGLERS COPSE LAKE £500 PER ANGLER (MONDAY - FRIDAY) OR £1,500 TO EXCLUSIVELY BOOK FOR UP TO THREE ANGLERS

nashlakes.com www.nashtackle.co.uk

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NASH E-ZINE AUTUMN 2016

Q&A A multiple catch and even my Granddaughter got involved

Julian Cundiff

area? Your eyes and common sense should be your biggest help here, learn from what happens around you.

I always go hoping for a big hit and well prepared for one with lots of pre tied hooklengths, plenty of bait and two landing nets but also ensure my tactics don’t stop me catching one or two when it's clear that a big hit isn’t on the cards.

catching the odd Q I'm carp on my new water but I only ever seem to catch one, never several. What am I doing wrong?

HAYDEN MCKINNON, SOUTH CERNEY Wow, that’s a million dollar question if ever there was one! Generally the more carp a water holds the more you can plan for and achieve multiple hits of fish.

The lower the stock level the less likely it is that you will have numbers of fish in front of you, reducing the chances of multiple catches. Waters like Chestnut, Linear, Manor Farm and Thorpe Lea are

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heavily stocked hence you hear of big hits at those venues. Firstly, is anyone else catching more than an odd fish at a time on this new water and you're not? Maybe an odd one is what you can realistically expect other than on a red letter day?

If multiple catches are being taken the first thing is don’t worry – a new water can take some time to get the hang of.

Look carefully at what other people are doing that you aren’t. Consider time on the bank, swim choice, the feed and quantity that they are applying or even how and when they are applying it? Are they constantly feeding or maybe baiting heavily and having all their rods on one

Putting myself in a swim which is not hemmed in and allows me to move my rods around helps too, if you’re the sort of angler who likes the quiet corners or small bays then you might find that you catch only one because the fish leave the area more readily than other parts of the lake! There’s normally a simple solution.

Good luck with it and maybe check out September's Crafty Carper where I wrote a full piece on how to bait a swim to deliver multiple hits.

A lot of water to go at is a better bet for lots of carp than small out the way corner swims

Q&A WITH JULIAN CUNDIFF notice you've been Q Isoaking your Key boilies in dip, but you didn't do that when you were using the 4G Squid. Is there a reason?

JEFF PHELPS, MORDEN Well spotted mate… I had a great year in 2015 on 4G but having seen the results that The Key was producing it seemed the obvious choice for 2016. Much of

the time I used 4G in 2015 it was in the form of 'mush' rather than straight boilie tactics. The waters I’m fishing this year respond better to boilies and feeding mush results in problems with bream and tench – remember I have to get up and do a day’s work afterwards as well! So to introduce a similar initial attraction to the swim but with boilies only I decided to cover them in Key Liquid Bait Soak and after a little bit of experimenting and fine tuning it's been working brilliantly. Here’s how I do it:

Julian’s Instant Attract Tactics

2

A dd a handful of Key Stick Mix to the same bag

The boilies are taken out of the freezer an hour prior to fishing and coated in a good splash of Key Liquid. Give them a good shake in a freezer bag.

and shake the baits around again. The fine particles stick to the baits as they thaw.

When catapulted out the baits give off an amazing oil and particle slick which really helps get a quicker feeding reaction on short sessions.

When I use a Spomb I also add some Key Flake to each payload along with the sticky boilies to deliver even more instant attraction.

1

3

4

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NASH E-ZINE AUTUMN 2016 nights a waste of Q Are time in the autumn the days are warm but overnight temperatures often crash?

JACK REESE, HORSHAM In a word NO! Carp fishing is not black and white and there are no guarantees of success or failure. On some waters the period into darkness is seemingly the best and on others not so. However from my own observations it depends which swim you are in. Pick the right swim that does produce carp after dark and it will change your mind, pick the wrong one and you will probably still

think nights are rubbish. Even when nights are not so great by at least having your baits in position in the dark when the carp feed in the morning you will have your traps set and will not be disturbing the swim casting out at bite time. Personally if all I could fish were nights that would be fine with me but if I had a choice I'd go during the period that was obviously producing most of the action. Go when you can and have some self belief. Move when you can, listen and watch for carp showing after dark and never give up. A recast after dark has produced an awful lot of carp for me so don’t ignore fish activity even if you are in your sleeping bag!

Getting the rods out just on dark

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friends are using Q My much higher breaking strain coated hooklengths because they say that stiffness is a good thing - do they work better?

MIKE ORRE, STANBOROUGH Apart from zigs and surface fishing coated hooklengths catch 90% of my carp most years and have done for ten years now. Occasionally I will use braid for PVA bag work and fluorocarbon for shallow clear water work but other than that it’s coated braids all the way. Once a carp gets the hookbait in its mouth the harder it is for it to eject the better.

Generally the stiffer the coated braid the more likely it is for the hook to prick the carp and you are to end up with its picture in your album, so I use stiffer, higher breaking strain versions in preference as well. When steamed they are stiff but not too rigid. If links are too stiff it can cause the hooklength to stand up on the bottom and look very obvious. A coated link needs to be stiff enough to kick the hookbait out from the lead but to still settle naturally flat on the bottom. I use 20 or 25 lb Combilink which offers the perfect combination of the properties I want

" Generally the stiffer the coated braid the more likely it is for the hook to prick the carp and you are to end up with its picture in your album, so I use stiffer, higher breaking strain versions in preference as well. "

Q&A WITH JULIAN CUNDIFF I really need to Q Do bother colour matching? I can't see that I really need three colours of the same breaking strain link material. What do you do?

HARVEY WONSTON, ECCLES Fishing is about confidence and I know some carp anglers are only confident when they seemingly have something for every

eventuality. I like to be prepared but I don’t drive myself crazy over colour matching. End tackle wise Diffusion Camouflage is brilliant, and whatever bottom my leader lands over its chameleon effect means it is almost invisible anyway.

When it comes to the hooklength you don't want it to stand out stupidly but you do need to apply a degree of common sense. Virtually all lake beds have all sorts of things

Plenty of bites on simple rigs and D-Cam leaders

I mix different Q Can flavour baits together or should I use the same pop ups as boilies?

PETER TRUNCK, DAGENHAM A. Great question! My starting point is the opposite to many others, I like to make a hookbait stand out from whatever the boilies that I’m feeding whatever the time of year. Most of the time it's a pop up but occasionally I use double bottom baits too. At the moment I am using Key as my feed bait so my stand out hookbait is a Citruz pop up or Citruz double bottom bait in white or pastel pink.

I typically heavily soak and over sprayed them with the Citruz concentrate so they really stand out from any other baits

around them. Usually (depending on the type of water obviously) it gets me a bite in under an hour but it depends on how prolific I expect the water to be. I’m happy to change the colour of hookbait and from a pop up to bottom bait and vice versa.

on them like weed, twigs, sticks, algae and stones. They aren’t all one colour either are they? In gin clear tap water type venues then yes brown or green may make a difference in tackle visibility but for virtually all real life situations that’s not the case. In weed I use green hooklengths and over mud and silt brown and I don't worry one bit.

Occasionally I rub a hooklength with a bit of mud to take the sheen off it and make it look more natural but that's about the limit of it. Find them, don't scare them, give them something they want to eat and the rest is easy. yellow, white and pink pop ups over feed.

Don't over think things. Carp, even tough ones can be tricked by their own greed and using different flavour hookbaits to your feed bait is a great way of getting more action.

Only if it is clear to me that I am on fish and they are not getting caught on my stand out hookbaits do I match the hookbait to the feed. Clouded water, fish topping over it, odd bleeps and rod top knocks but no carp in the net means a change of approach. With my Key freebies it would be a Key Airball pop up or Cultured Hookbait with maybe a small stick of Cultured Stick Mix. This usually produces action immediately. It’s not just for productive waters either as many of the biggest carp in the land fall to small

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NASH E-ZINE AUTUMN 2016

Q

I hate overnighters when it starts being dark in the mornings. What do you do about food and drink and brew kit? I don't want to carry anything unnecessary!

DARREN BUNCE-WATKINS, RICHMOND I love overnighters at this time of year for precisely that reason - most other anglers have long since given up and at best are doing days only! More carp for me to catch and more swims to choose from...

I am never a big eater when I go carp fishing as friends have found out to their cost when I have nothing to share other than coffee and that's decaffeinated too. What a rubbish angling mate I am.

You have to be prepared when you will be packing up in the half light or dark come October and it’s going to feel like a long day ahead. I tend to have a good breakfast the morning before an overnighter. That doesn’t mean a full English! I believe you are what you eat so I have brown toast, orange juice, coffee and my vitamin

covering one for the night if I need to get up for fish and the first one of the morning. It’s a simple trick but allows me to pack away all my brew kit before I zip up in the sleep system for a quick getaway in the morning.

I'd rather reach for a flask than start up a stove when it’s dark and I am on limited time!

"I will also have plenty of coffee and occasionally a good quality pasta pot (but NOT a pot noodle!)" tablets (Vit C, Multi Vits, Cod Liver Oil and Vit B6). At lunch I will eat a brown roll and two bananas and drink plenty of water, which aids concentration and stops dehydration and lack of energy. When actually fishing I have two seeded bagels with cheese spread, fruit and some plain biscuits.

I will also have plenty of coffee and occasionally a good quality pasta pot (but NOT a pot noodle!).

Before I turn in for the night I make a last flask of coffee for the night which will do me two large mugs,

Q

I saw Alan Blair using a loop to loop connection on his rigs in Urban Banx 8, is that safe and strong enough instead of a proper knot?

NICK HAMWORTHY, TONBRIDGE

You Nash fans have got eagle eyes for this issue haven’t you… For anyone who hasn’t clocked this yet

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check out 15:06 onwards in Urban Banx 8.

Just like Alan I use the loop system for coated hooklengths, in my case for both rigidity of the doubled section and also movement. When I first started using a loop at the swivel end it was purely and simply to allow the hooklength to sit correctly on the bottom. If you tie a coated braid direct to the swivel it inevitably causes the hooklength to loop upwards between the lead and

the hookbait. When you tie a loop it allows the hooklength to drop flat as the bait settles which has got to be less obvious to a nearby carp. The slight amount of movement it gives also allows the hookbait to be taken into the mouth in the first instance more easily without compromising stiffness.

Alan’s tweak using a large loop connection allows a new link to be attached without any metal link clips or sleeves and the enlarged size of

Q&A WITH JULIAN CUNDIFF

"The slight amount of movement it gives also allows the hookbait to be taken into the mouth in the first instance more easily without compromising stiffness. "

the loop allows a hookbait inside a stick or with a small PVA bag nicked on the hook to still pass through the loop. Watch it, a simple but brilliant technique. Looping links on this way loses the movement element I like but as Alan showed the doubled section of the loop at the swivel also helps kick the hookbait away from the lead so improving the presentation.

Alan’s loop knot link trick

1

Instead of tying a small figure of 8 loop at the end of the link make it a good couple of inches long.

3

Pass the loop through the Uni Swivel or Uni Ring Swivel on your end tackle and then open it out.

2

Thread your PVA stick or bag down the link as usual and over the hook.

Pass the hook and stick through the loop and then gently draw the link tight to attach the link in seconds with no need for metal clips of rubbers.

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ROYSTON REVEALED

ROYSTON REVEALED

Serious investment, 18 months of hard graft and hundreds of quality carp – just a few of the ingredients behind the development of the new Nashlakes Royston Complex in Cambridgeshire. It’s day ticket carping – but better!

K

evin Nash is no newcomer to developing fisheries, the remarkable journey creating the Copse and Church Lakes from a blank canvas are testament to his desire to do everything to the highest possible standard. Now the Nashlakes project aims to bring the same fishery excellence to all.

Kevin's motivation comes from a no nonsense assessment of the UK carp fisheries industry: "The want to create a day ticket fishery came from a very simple realisation that although there are a million lakes and commercials littered with singles, doubles and an odd fish that once a upon a time went 30 there comes a point when enough is enough and you don't want to keep catching a dozen ten-pounders on a Saturday," Kevin said.

"Of course you can then access club waters and you might be lucky enough to be fishing for old fish or history fish but club venues generally aren't managed and developed as well as some would like, especially if you are

coming from a commercial with a cafe, and facilities like a tackle shop and toilets," he continued.

"Then there's syndicates and you have to have the money and people often don't have five or six hundred pounds to put down for a ticket. Plus, unless you're really dedicated you might only go a handful of times per year but people still want to catch good fish.

"The Nashlakes project was as simple as asking where can you go and catch 20s and be in with a good chance of 30s. There are places that fit the bill of course - Farlows, Linear, Airfield Lakes and Bayeswater, and they are really busy and it shows what people are looking for.

"We're never going to be there straight away but in two years people will be catching mostly 20s and there will be numbers of 30s rather than a handful.

It's a stepping stone, and there's a clear gap in the market for where we're going."

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• 4.75 acres • Carp to over 37 lb, ceiling weight still unknown • 16 spacious wood chipped swims several of which can accommodate 2 anglers • Secure car parking, with road access to most swims • Parking behind a number of swims • Toilet facilities on site

Car Park Little Bay Norfolk

To Your Left Badger Hole Main Snags Big Bay

Plateaux

Myahs Tree

Slim Fast

Mike Wilson

Long Chuck Ferns

"Wood Lake can be spotty, and if you find a productive area for a rod don’t be shy of moving another rod to the same area. Most swims can fish to some sort of overhang tree cover because the lake is so mature.

Getting tight under these canopies is always good for a bite, especially if you find a firm bottom. Pack your Spot on Stix and line marker, there’s a lot of exciting locked up fishing to be had."

Tucked Away

Diving Board The View Bar

Toilet

Loz Smart "The plateau swim on Wood Lake is a banker whenever the temperatures are high and carp want to be in shallower water and the marginal shelf either side of any swim is reliable for a bite. In the right conditions Wood Lake carp can get through a lot of bait and action can be in flurries so you can go from catching nothing to having no rods in the water in a matter of ten minutes.

In the opening months bright baits will do brilliantly, and Citruz has caught loads.

Be prepared for a scrap the fish all fight really, really hard!"

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Bridge

• 4 acres • Lake record 38 lb common • 24 spacious wood chipped swims several of which can accommodate 2 anglers

The End

• Road access to all swims No.5

• Parking close to or directly behind all swims

Brains

• Toilet facilities on site Caddis

The Flick

Fluff

Nomads

Cooks

Smithys

Neck

Car Park Double

Walnut Roundabout

Bridge Walnut The Vegtable Patch

Alan Blair

The Bush

Centre Double

The Dirty Double

Candy’s Leap

Corner Dover

"To me it's all about fishing in the edge down there, but you do need to invest some time finding an area. Lots of the first anglers on there missed the fact that the margins are very steep in places, so you need to look for flat areas, just lowering the lead around to gauge how quickly it drops away. Even a dustbin size flat area you'll get bites from but if you are putting a rig on a steep shelf you'll be fishing a single hookbait without realising it and will struggle."

Alex Smith "I love the canal section of Kingfisher. The water is more coloured than Wood Lake so the fish are a little bit more confident in the margins, and very catchable on slow sinking baits like bread and worms or floaters when the breeze is pushing down towards the end. A lot of anglers will fish the bowl end because they want to cast but if you can stay stealthy and lower rigs in quietly or flick them across to the far side the canal is a brilliant area. The fish will get up there a lot in the first few months to get away from pressure so the quiet carper could score really well. "

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“PEOPLE ARE ABSOLUTELY LOVING IT DOWN THERE…” Fishery Manager Matt Rhodes has been delighted with the early sport at Royston, and is adamant that it’s one of the few fisheries where being a weekend angler actually works to your advantage.

“It’s fishing better when it’s busy because the carp are moved around more and can’t find refuge in a corner out the way of the anglers,” said the 32-year-old who previously managed renowned day ticket venue Cromwell Lake in Nottinghamshire.

“People are loving it down there and we’ve already seen a number of people become regulars and book weekend after weekend.

There were 33 fish out the first week, then 39 then 29 so the sport has been good and the feedback has been great. People appreciate what Kevin has done, from going in with the diggers and transforming the place down to the way the swims have been spaced and positioned.”

Matt is also mindful that Royston is still an evolving story: “There are still bigger fish to be caught even though we’ve had them to 38 from Kingfisher and 37 from Wood Lake.

I’ve been surprised by how many originals have been showing, out of every five fish there are always one or two that we didn’t put in so the stock assessment is still ongoing and there could be some real big fish we are yet to see caught.”

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ROYSTON REVEALED

ROYSTON REMOVALS Teams of divers spent hundreds of hours on snag removal. The expectation was that large branches and maybe the occasional tree had blown in over the years but the news was far worse than had been expected, with chains and heavy lifting plant needed to remove telegraph poles, tractor tyres, even a car. One tree trunk that was removed was over five feet across at the base and 20 metres long!

PARKING PRIORITY Top of the wish list for a modern fishery is parking close to or behind your swim. It’s such an important feature of successful venues, given a choice between unloading gear out a car or pushing a barrow there’s no contest and it’s enough to make people choose one fishery over another.

At Royston there’s parking behind or close to the majority of swims with access roads and pull ins – which also saves time, you don’t lose an hour each end of your 24 hour trip packing away or wheeling a barrow around.

CLICK FOR CARPING Online booking is another pivotal part of commercially run venues – with fast 4G networks and modern smartphones allowing anyone to book a session wherever they are and more importantly also check availability. Perversely, anglers being able to see how many carpers are booked on tends to encourage more people than put them off because the supposition is generally that a lake will be busy when it might well be quiet and the perfect chance for a sneaky night with less pressure than you expected!

Sessions on Wood Lake and Kingfisher Lake can be booked at www.nashlakes.com

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STEVE BRIGGS

TAKE HOME LESSONS As a nation we are great innovators and inventors and many new methods and tactics originate from anglers in the UK. But that’s not to say that we have all the best ideas. Most anglers use UK style tactics and take them abroad – but are our ways and methods always the best? Having fished alongside some great anglers from a variety of countries they’ve not only influenced my Continental fishing, a few lessons I’ve picked up fishing abroad have without doubt helped me catch more carp back home too. Carp catching skill isn’t a one way street so here’s a few of the take home lessons from my trips abroad.

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The need to feed

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s a rule UK anglers don’t like to use as much bait as our European friends and many like to rely on small traps and singles to get them a bite or two. I know from hard experience that it isn’t always the best way to get a result. Several years ago I was down at Lac Serreire near Limoges in France in August, which could be a tricky time of year, but arrived to see fish fizzing and rolling all around the lake. Yet the news was that catches had been thin on the ground. Bob Davis, the owner at the time asked why I thought the fish were fizzing so much.

I suggested natural food was probably at a high and the fish didn’t want anglers’ baits so much? His take on it was the previous visitors had cut right down on the bait believing that the fish didn’t want to eat much. Bob felt the opposite, that the fish were really hungry and were ripping up the bottom for naturals because there was nothing else on offer.

I thought about that and put between 5 and 7kg over each rod, mainly 4G Squid boilies but with some pellet and particle.

It was a gamble but on the other hand there didn’t seem much to lose.

After a quiet day the first bite came – and then another and another. The carp gradually stopped fizzing and the action started coming even more quickly. I used those tactics every time after that at Serreire and it helped me to catch lots of fish, including the biggest residents of the lake. But that was France – what about England? Well, I never forgot that lesson and some time later I arrived at the West End Lake in Kent for a few days with three friends. It’s a tricky lake and sure enough the guys who had been on for the previous ten days had all blanked.

But the sight that greeted us was a

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Sometimes cutting back because the fishing is hard is the wrong thing to do

familiar one with fish fizzing and ripping the bottom up. When I told the others that I was going to put lots of bait out you could have heard a pin drop and I’m sure they thought I was just going to ruin everyone’s chances.

Once I’d sorted my spots out I set about baiting them with several kilos of 4G Squid as well as the Salted Mini Mix and although it caused a lot of disturbance on that small lake I was sure it was the way to go. All was quiet for the rest of that day but the next morning a fast take saw me doing battle with a 32lb mirror.

All the carp get micro chipped as they get caught there and this one had yet to be chipped meaning that it didn’t see the bank that much. The next day one of my other rods burst into life and I knew from the off it was a better one and sure enough it was one of the sought after 40s at 43lb 8oz. All the other rods on the lake had remained quiet and it was proof once again that sometimes you need to give them food if you want them to eat.

“I’m sure they thought I was just going to ruin everyone’s chances.”

TAKE HOME LESSONS - STEVE BRIGGS

A 43 lb 8 oz mirror from a tough Kent water over lots of bait when conditions seemed poor

Finesse – who says?

Many of the big waters I’ve fished on the Continent have been seriously testing for tackle. Waters like Lake Raduta in Romania and Rainbow Lake in France have taken snag fishing to new levels and as the conditions and situations have become more demanding, so the tackle and indeed the tactics needed have had to be developed to meet the challenges.

Rainbow is probably the most demanding of any of the lakes I’ve fished and if there is any weakness in the set up then those carp will find it! But that has taught me a lot along the way – in particular I’ve been amazed what carp will pick up at times.

Some of the rigs used over there could be considered quite crude, but they still catch the carp and although it might go against our inner thoughts, trying to fine down and give the rigs a bit more finesse doesn’t actually get you more action –

“trying to fine down… doesn’t actually give you more action.”

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NASH E-ZINE AUTUMN 2016 and certainly doesn’t put more fish on the bank.

All of this has gradually changed my outlook on end tackle and the way I approach my fishing. I think I’m probably right in saying that when most people tie a rig they are asking themselves if it will get them a bite. My thought when I tie a rig is more like will this land any fish that I hook? Of course it’s often the case that the fish we most want to get our hands on will be the most difficult to land because of their size and I would hate to think that I’ve lost the fish of my dreams just because I had tried to cut corners on my gear.

Despite what some people think I truly believe that a carp is a carp wherever it lives in the world and so those same principles can be brought back to UK waters. I’m not saying use 50lb braid and size 1 hooks but I would advocate using gear that you think will do the job of landing the biggest carp wherever you fish. In general I use larger hooks than most and rarely use anything less

I design my rigs to land fish not to get me bites

than a size 6 unless I’m surface fishing.

I was asked the other day by a friend if I considered 15lb D-Cam mono a bit too much for open water fishing where there is no weed? I could see why he was asking but I said that my view was that I would always feel happier with the 15lb because it hasn’t ever let me down so I just stick with it and feel confident.

“My thought when I tie a rig is more like will this land any fish that I hook? ” The biggest carp demand strong tackle, so finesse isn’t on my radar

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TAKE HOME LESSONS - STEVE BRIGGS

On Mayfield Lake it was fish bumping in to the lines that gave their location away

Tight lines Whenever I post pictures of my rod set up when abroad invariably there will be one or two people ask why I have my rod tips up in the air with tight lines. It’s a lot more of a grey area this one with tight lines versus slack lines but for 90% of my fishing I use tight lines. The media hype with slack lines over the years has led many people to believe that carp are terrified of tight lines and you won’t catch if the carp see them. In most cases it’s simply not true. If tight lines

were going to scare the fish anywhere it would have to be Lake Cassien with its crystal clear water. On that lake I actually use polyballs back up the line to keep them off the bottom and away from snags and I have to admit that when I’ve dived down in the summer and looked at my lines, they stand out like a sore thumb. Yet it doesn’t stop me catching and as ever we tend to see things from our own point of view rather than how the carp might see things – and of course we tend to think that carp are more intelligent than they actually area.

“On my local water Mayfield Lake most of my sessions are short morning trips or at most day sessions and it’s important to know quickly if fish are in the swim or not .”

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NASH E-ZINE AUTUMN 2016 For UK fishing I often compromise a little by fishing semi-slack lines, but remember having lines up off the bottom can actually be a useful thing.

On my local water Mayfield Lake most of my sessions are short morning trips or at most day sessions and it’s important to know quickly if fish are in the swim or not. Fish bumping into the lines is actually the best way of finding out and after baiting up and getting the rods out if the fish were there I would normally get a few liners before actually getting a proper run. At no time did I ever find that the fish left the area because they were ‘feeling’ or seeing the lines and spooking. The only time the liners would stop were if the fish had eaten all of the bait that I’d put out and then all I had to do was introduce some more and the liners would start again.

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The flip-side of that is that I’ve known totally naïve fish to be wary of lines. In the USA I baited a spot and watched carp feeding on free bait but they wouldn’t touch the hook bait – they weren’t spooked by it, they would just avoid it. That was until I put the hook bait in slightly deeper water where it wasn’t so visible and then the rods never stopped going off! Acton Burnell in Shropshire is one lake that seemed to respond better to slack lines and I caught a couple of good 30s from there after swapping tight lines for slack. It’s a more complex subject this one but I rarely, if ever, use slack lines on the Continent and it doesn’t stop me catching, and I use them for my most of my UK fishing too.

“For UK fishing I often compromise a little by fishing semi-slack lines, but remember having lines up off the bottom can actually be a useful thing. ”

TAKE HOME LESSONS - STEVE BRIGGS

You often won’t pick up the biggest in multiple catches with lots of smaller carp

Too much of a good thing?

Read any of the magazines in the UK and they mostly talk about aiming at getting more bites, recasting if you see fish, moving swims if it’s not happening and all the rest. There’s nothing wrong with that but I noticed many years ago that a lot of Continental anglers who were focused on catching the biggest carp were prepared to sit and wait whatever was going on around them.

I can remember vividly times at Lake Raduta in Romania where I would get myself in amongst the action and gradually build up the numbers believing

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For the big fish patience is part of the game, you can’t force it to happen

that a big one was just a matter of time and thinking that the poor guy on the other side from Austria, Hungary or wherever must be absolutely gutted seeing me catching all the time whilst they were sitting behind motionless indicators. By the end of the trip I’d sometimes have caught over 100 carp with the biggest going just over 30lb, whereas the guy opposite had waited patiently for one or two takes and yet they were from huge carp!

At first I put it down to luck but eventually I had to concede that although I thought I was fishing more effectively I was just wearing myself out wading through small carp, and was attracting more and more in to the swim with constant baiting and rebaiting. It took a long time but in the end I did realise that sometimes you just

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have to be patient and let things take their course rather than trying to force it.

I’ve learned that the biggest fish are often loners that stay away from the bigger groups of younger fish and although everyone always wants to hear the alarm sound, if you want the big ones then sometimes it’s best to sit on your hands.

I suppose the best example of that back home would be fishing on The Mere as there were so many days and nights on there when it just wasn’t going to happen and trying to force it would have just driven me around the bend. I had to be patient and just keep going and watching for the small windows of opportunity that would open up now and then. They say that patience is a virtue and I’ve learned to be more patient over the years from my experiences abroad.

“They say that patience is a virtue and I’ve learned to be more patient over the years from my experiences abroad"

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CAUGHT!

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TAKE HOME LESSONS - STEVE BRIGGS

Rich pickings

one Dutch guy called Jos who seemed able to keep the fish in front of him for a whole week or two, receive constant action and only Being born and brought up in the once he’d packed up would the fish Darenth Valley it should have been drummed in to me from an early age move on. that quality baits would consistently “I put twelve baits out for every rod catch the most. When I was starting and that holds the fish in the area,” out the Fred Wilton theories were he told me. At first I couldn’t see cutting edge but I wasn’t a believer that twelve baits for each rod was – and my £1 a week pocket money going to keep any number of fish wouldn’t have got me very far with in the area – but it seemed to work! milk proteins anyway!

He went on to explain that he’d learned all about the importance of During my early years on Lake quality bait from the great Belgian Cassien I normally managed to get angler Luc Coppens, who had some amongst the fish, mainly by being great results at Cassien. Jos told me very mobile but the fish wouldn’t that Luc was using one of the old hang around and after catching a Nashbait recipes with the squid in (he couple, they’d move on and I’d be wasn’t sure which one) and his swim chasing them again. I couldn’t pin was constantly alive with fish. Jos them down – but I often watched

went down the same route and it changed his fishing forever. Cassien has never been an easy water and to be consistent there you’ve got to be on top of your game.

I could see the results with my own eyes and it was a big lesson for me too. You didn’t need boat loads of bait all the time, if it was good enough the fish would keep coming back for more. It changed my outlook on bait forever and to be honest I’ve never looked back.

Now whenever I plan a trip home or abroad, the first thing I sort out is bait. Just like Luc Coppens found all those years ago the Nashbait recipes have the quality to keep the carp coming back for more.

I learned a big lesson about bait quality at Cassein

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BEHIND THE SCENES

RESERVOIR DIARIES SEASON TWO Want the inside line on what really made a success of Reservoir Diaries Season 2? From the baiting pyramid to the battery changes, read the warts and all account from Alex Smith, half of the fishing mad brothers Carl and Alex.

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RESEVOIR DIARIES

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S

o why did we go back for another go? We caught plenty on our first Reservoir Diaries campaign topped with an amazing 30lb common and a near 40lb mirror. We could have moved on, in fact we briefly did, but there was always that nagging feeling that the res had the potential to throw up more big, very special carp.

Our first night back in March I fluked a small common, it was so unexpected, we didn't even have the cameras ready to film which is why the footage of the fight was so shaky. Needless to say we had the cameras on standby from the next trip onwards – and then blanked the next 6 nights… no-one ever said it would be easy!

CARP KILLERS Those half dozen blank nights dampened our enthusiasm again pretty quickly so we looked into fishing another large, local syndicate and amazingly managed to get banned before we even cast out!

You may know we made a video on our local park lake targeting a 40 lb common. Turns out a couple of people on the park lake at the same time who didn’t catch it decided they didn’t like us… maybe because we both did catch it?

Frustratingly these two were on the new syndicate and spreading rumours about us to the fishery owners. Suddenly we weren’t welcome. When Carl and I went to get our ticket, the owner told us that all we would do is kill the carp we caught. Unbelievable! I guess success in others brings out the green eyed monster in others.

So it was back to plan A and The Res, which made us even more determined to smash it, catch another whopper and make Season Two. Also we knew that big scaley carp was living in there... We found it hard to call it a target fish because surely we would never catch it in a water so large but it gave us the inspiration we needed to fish every possible night for as long as it took to catch another good ‘un! Over the next couple of months it was hectic. Work and college would finish around 5-6pm, we would have dinner and were off to get the rods out.

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“…the owner told us that all we would do is kill the carp we caught."

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NASH E-ZINE AUTUMN 2016 A change in the weather meant action was always to come

THE TOP OF THE PYRAMID Something we didn't give away in the video is how we built the interest in the area from the beginning of the campaign, and the secret was the good old Baiting Pyramid.

To begin with we would tip in a couple of kilos of the Slicker Spiced Hemp each night.

All the hemp would be eaten because the bream would get on it too, but within hours even when it was gone the chilli flakes left a lot of taste and smell in the silty bottom to keep the fish digging, this in turn cleared the lake bed of any leaves or debris on the spot and we could be confident of always presenting our rigs perfectly.

Looking back we approached it just right with the baiting tactics, using the hemp at the beginning then switching to more maize and boilies before stopping the maize altogether and relying solely on big boilies only which were so much more selective for the carp.

“It didn’t matter if the weather got better or worse, as long as it changed there would be bites.”

In just a few weeks the bream and carp together quite literally dug the lake bed out where we were feeding, it went from silty to really rock hard. Not to be wasteful of the liquids in the Slicker Spiced Hemp we would pour this over our 20mm TG Active shelf lifes to pump more smell and taste into the water.

This way we could get away with feeding less but having more attraction in our area.

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CONSISTENT...

CRAP! By the time we were into the routine of the overnighters we began to recognize an absolutely cast iron pattern in the action. We made the point in the first film that we were catching carp as they passed us either on the way out of the nature reserve that was out of bounds or as they came back in to the nature reserve from the main body of water. This time we worked out a bigger jigsaw piece, and it was simply that if the weather was consistent the fishing was crap. Whenever it changed, that was when we caught. It didn’t matter if the weather got better or worse, as long as it changed there would be bites.

We’d go from blanking for night after night in hot weather to catching several if it cooled down or the wind picked up. Even if it was hot and then got cold we’d still catch. In steady hot weather the carp would always want to soak up the sun in the shallows where it was out of bounds, but if it didn’t get cold at night they just wouldn’t come out of there.

If we got colder overnight temperatures with a change in weather suddenly the carp would be coming down the reservoir away from the shallows further because they didn’t want to stay in just a few feet of water and we would catch them as they passed our baited area. It worked the other way and if the weather had shifted to cooler and the carp were more comfortable in the main body of the res, then when it changed to hot again we would be catching because they came past us again because they wanted to be back in the shallows for the warmth.

The daily weather cycle didn’t always affect

the carp enough to move them over our baits but any major change in the weather and were waiting for action rather than hoping for it.

TAG TEAM TACTICS, AND UP EVERY TWO HOURS...

People never realise how much effort goes into the little ingredients that make a film work. You can’t have a fishing film without having the bites captured by the camera but that brings with a lot of hard work.

Every night we would set the camera up behind the rods before going to sleep but then we would need to set the alarm every two hours to change a battery. Yes we have lots of batteries… The video wouldn't be finished without the takes on film, but you try getting up every two hours, it was punishing.

The nights when the shoals of carp moved over us were crazy, our best night we landed 6 carp which meant no sleep. But Carl and I work as a team and the way we still managed to get some rest was by taking the nights in turns, like tag team fishing.

One night I would sort the rods out and land the fish whilst Carl would rest and vice versa but when we felt like we had a good fish on we would wake up each other to get some action footage. In fact a couple of nights when I thought I had a better fish on, Carl just didn’t wake up at all after me shouting and screaming at him.

Luckily though we managed to get all the real big fish on film.

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A BRIDGE TOO FAR It’s odd but by far the biggest feature in the entire reservoir has proved utterly rubbish to get a bite from through both campaigns.

We experimented a lot with the position of the rods, and as we showed on the film with an old photograph there’s actually an old concrete road and a large bridge under the water that the stream used to run underneath before the reservoir was created.

The lead absolutely smacks down if you clip up to land on the road, but other than one carp in our first campaign the road and bridge together have not produced anything.

There’s even an underwater tunnel beneath the bridge but we suspect that has silted up solid.

The old stream bed was by far the most productive of all, and you’ll see us donking a lead from the rod tip in the boat to accurately locate it – check out around 14:20 on the film.

There’s a two metre wide channel, but it’s only about six inches deeper except for the tiny section of really silty central gulley about

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RESEVOIR DIARIES

“When it happened this time the answer was simply to lengthen the hooklinks by a couple of inches, and after that we didn’t lose a single carp for the rest of the campaign.”

40cm wide running through the centre of it.

We clipped to fish on the down slope into the stream bed and it produced bites time after time. The Smith Brothers’ little black book was used to record all the spots and measurements in wraps around the Spot On Stix so we could always make sure we were landing rigs on the money.

KEEP ON MOVING It’s odd that we lost a few carp in the spring during season one, and then exactly the same thing happened when filming season two. When it happened this time the answer was simply to lengthen the hooklinks

by a couple of inches, and after that we didn’t lose a single carp for the rest of the campaign.

Watching the res carp in the shallow out of bounds they seemed to move a lot more than other carp we’ve seen on different fisheries. It’s almost like they are constantly moving and less willing to settle and nose around. In contrast the park lake carp nearby always seemed to be grubbing around almost motionless when they were feeding.

Because we were using big baits and the baiting was designed to encourage carp to move around looking for the next bait the extra couple of inches seemed to help get the hook that little bit further in as a carp moved off.

What we did get more and more fussy about was making sure our hook points were sticky sharp every time we cast out. The points of Fang X size 4 and 5s are very keen but we knew the mouths of the carp in the res were hard, really bony and needed sticky sharp points to set properly so if there was any suggestion a hook had lost that real sharpness then it would be changed.

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FILM WITH NO FILLING By the end of July we had fished so much we hated it! But as usual if you put in the effort, rewards follow. Two big commons, three of the rare mirrors, one of them being the actual big scaley mirror, our target all those months previously! In all honesty there's never been a moment whilst fishing that I've been so surprised. And when Carl slipped it over the net cord the cheer that came from our swim was so big you could probably have heard us from the opposite end of the res almost two kilometres away!

After landing big scaley initially we were over the moon that we had the content for a Season Two follow up but then we realised that we had barely filmed any filler footage, just captures. It might not seem that important but it is 100% necessary to put a quality 30 minute film together. We went back for filming only sessions, obviously we took a spinning rod at all times but the main aim was to capture atmospheric footage at the times of day when the light was best, early morning and late evening.

With our filming we always want to experiment with different techniques and this season we tried not only raw photo timelapse, but a hyperlapse which is a timelapse with a tracking motion. In our case it was travelling the length of the res with the clouds whizzing past. This took a couple of attempts but through trial and error we got a hyperlapse that we used in the final cut. We had to drive the boat up the res at around 1mph whilst taking a photo every three seconds. It took a while but was worth it as when we got back home we could put all the photos together and turn it from 700 individual photos to a 6 second long video!

Extremely time consuming but massively rewarding when you can sit back and watch something different you have created.

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“After landing big scaley initially we were over the moon that we had the content for a Season Two follow up but then we realised that we had barely filmed any filler footage, just captures."

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BIG SCALEY, LITTLE SCALEY One of the best things after our first film was hearing from another local carper who had fished the res years earlier – we even saw a picture of Big Scaley when it wasn’t so big!

Delivery driver Dan McGowan from East Hoathly in East Sussex caught her at just 15 lb back in 2005.

“The res was on my way to and from home and I wanted to fish it the moment I saw it,” he said. “Its size was the first thing that drew me to it but the more I watched it the more I noticed the fish and the fact that no one else was really fishing it at all. I had it to myself more often than not, a wild and utterly majestic place. To this day I still absolutely love it there.

“Delivery driver Dan McGowan from East Hoathly in East Sussex caught her at just 15lb back in 2005" “The scaley mirror was one fish that was a bit bigger and now ten years later it’s nearly 40 lb. None of the fish were known back when I fished it, that's not to say they hadn't been caught just that there were no pictures online or anywhere else to look for.”

Interestingly the then Little Scaley was caught by Dan from a similar area of the res to where we caught it, and even better he caught it on Nashbait too – prebaiting three days before his visit with 8 kilos of Scopex classics and then adding another couple of kilos when he arrived.

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MAKING THE FINAL CUT After a number more filming only sessions (which might have included just a little bit of spinning…), flying the drone, filming timelapses, using the slider and filming hundreds of gigabytes more footage, it was time to edit the whole video together in Adobe Premier Pro. We disappeared into our bedrooms for hour after hour and after a month we’d finally agreed a final edit we were happy for the world to watch.

We fished 60 nights, used stacks of bait and caught hundreds of bream but most

importantly a number of very special carp.

Sometimes Carl and I look back and wonder about the amount of effort we put in and the amount of sleep we missed out on by doing so many nights. But every single time we look at the photos of those reservoir carp on our computers there's no questioning it. From the disappointment of the blank mornings to packing up in the wet to waking up one morning in my sleeping bag with a slug slithering across my face – all memories we’ll take with us from our two amazing campaigns. We hope you’ve enjoyed watching them as much as we have enjoyed producing them!

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URBAN Redmire Andrew Riste

The first time I fished Lliswerry Pond was back in the summer of 2002 and was without doubt a session to remember... for all the wrong reasons.

A

t Lliswerry you could sometimes be forgiven for thinking you are sat beside the stunning Redmire Pool with its overhanging willows, thick weedbeds and large areas of lilies. It has always reminded me of A Passion for Angling and I would never be surprised if Chris Yates and Bob James

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turned up on their bikes armed with tweed hats and split cane rods.

A 400 year old limestone quarry with crystal clear water, the pond is very weedy with two small islands one at each end, the majority of the pond being very shallow. The fishing can be very intimate

and is perfect for stalking at close quarters, carp sending up sheets of bubbles as they have their ritual early morning feeding spell. But this pond does have a few differences to the fabled Redmire Pool‌ it’s smack bang in the middle of a housing estate in the heart of Newport, South Wales.

URBAN REDMIRE - ANDREW RISTE

A beautiful lake in an unlikely setting!

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The odd drunk… and motorbike Despite being surrounded by a concrete jungle this little gem of a venue contained some of the most stunning dark Leney strain carp I had ever seen - long, heavily scaled woodcarvings. After seeing a few photos of these ancient carp I just had to try and catch one. My first session I decided to fish a Sunday night with a friend, he warned me to be vigilant as people had had problems with cars being broken into, kids making themselves a nuisance and the odd drunk staggering past their swims during the night.

We packed our gear in my mate’s pride and joy a classic red Fiesta XR2i and then headed to the pond. We opted for parking the car near the local shop where it would be safer overnight and then walked the five minutes to the pond.

Once on the lake it was hard to believe that this place actually existed in such an urban area, I was completely engrossed watching the dark shapes gliding in and out of the gaps in the weed and through the large beds of lily pads – it was incredible. Despite the fact there was a loud motorbike screaming around the lake it didn’t take long to get a few fish feeding on the surface on dog biscuits, they just carried on slurping up the mixers despite the carry on and after placing my controller float perfectly into a small hole in the weed within minutes the water erupted and I was soon playing my first Lliswerry Pond carp. The fish immediately buried itself deep into the thick weed but after keeping steady pressure I finally managed to keep it moving and net both the fish and a big raft of weed at the same time. Pulling the weed away I could just about make out my prize and was greeted with a long prehistoric looking 20lb linear that just blew me away!

A short time after I'd returned the fish I heard a loud crack which was followed by something whizzing straight past my head, seconds later there was another loud crack followed by a bang as something ripped

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URBAN REDMIRE - ANDREW RISTE

“Despite being surrounded by a concrete jungle this little gem of a venue contained some of the most stunning dark Leney strain carp I had ever seen - long, heavily scaled woodcarvings"

through the side of the bivvy. As we looked up we saw a couple of lads with an air rifle running off towards the estate. We gave chase but as I glanced back I then saw two of their mates ransacking our gear so I had to spin on my heels and chase those toe rags off instead.

They had planned a military operation to distract us while they stole our fishing gear but luckily nobody was hurt and they only managed to pinch my little FM radio and my mate’s four cans of lager. We considered packing up after what had just happened to us but as it was starting to get dark the lake started to get quieter and with a few fish showing in the deeper water we decided to stay – sadly without beer or music.

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Doughnuts after dark Around 2am we were awoken by the sound of an engine revving and bright floodlights illuminating the whole lake as a car was speeding around the playing fields on the other bank opposite us, they started doing laps of the field and then doughnuts and figure of eights whilst wheel spinning and ripping up the grass. A Police helicopter soon arrived above us shining a large spotlight on them before the car tore off back into the estate with the helicopter in fast pursuit as the sounds of sirens wailed in the distance.

We both stood there absolutely speechless with what we had just witnessed, then suddenly out of nowhere the car reappeared again screaming back across the field before coming to a halt, the joy riders then piled out and set the car on fire before running off. We couldn’t believe what was happening in front of us.

As soon as it got light we packed away our fishing gear vowing to never return after the night from hell we had just experienced. We left the lake with our tails firmly between our legs as some poor person’s vehicle smouldered away in the field opposite. As we approached the shop, we realised that our car had gone,

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and then reality began to set in. We couldn’t believe it, we had watched them driving around in my mate’s car and did nothing as they set it on fire. We’d had absolutely no idea. We laugh about it now but at the time it was terrible I was speechless, really quite shocked. My friend's Dad came to pick us up, he found us sat on the shop wall with all our fishing gear sprawled out on the pavement. It was without doubt the worst fishing session I've ever experienced.

Some 14 years later I noticed an online catch report from Lliswerry Pond, a very large dark linear mirror, and intrigued by the report I did a bit of digging only to find out that the pond had been taken over by a small group of dedicated local anglers back in 2006 who had formed a non profit club called New City Anglers. From what I could gather the place had been completely rejuvenated, and eventually curiosity got the better of me and I decided to go and take a look for myself.

Nervous first day I decided to fish a day session initially as I didn't really fancy doing a night after my

URBAN REDMIRE - ANDREW RISTE

last experience! I pushed the barrow along the graffiti strewn lane that led to the pond, and I couldn’t help but notice the place was absolutely spotless. After spending a few minutes chatting to a local tench angler I decided to set up in area where I could fish to a small island where I’d spotted a few fish fizzing up in amongst the light silkweed. A mix of chopped Cappuccino boilies mixed with sweetcorn and pellet went out tight to the island with my 15mm Cappuccino pop ups each side of the spot.

Within ten minutes of the rods being out I had a nice tench on the right hand rod, and after quickly recasting within moments the left hand rod was away but it was definitely no tench and after a long battle where the fish tried everything to bury itself in the weed I managed to net a dark 22lb mirror and an absolute warrior. The bailiff Pat came over to take some photos for me and once the fish was returned we stood chatting about the pond and how it had changed so much since I had last been there that fateful night of the car theft, air rifle pellets and thieving kids. Pat and his team had done an amazing job and for no profit whatsoever, even dropping the price of the ticket to a mere ÂŁ20 a year. For the quality of the fish on offer it seemed an absolute bargain. The work that had gone into improving the quality of the fishing was impossible to ignore.

With a renewed confidence in the safety of the lovely little lake I started fishing a few midweek overnight sessions between work, catching the majority of my fish during the dark hours but also catching a few stalking with free lined bread into small holes in the weed using the simple but deadly Bread Bomb resulting in over 20 carp on the bank up to mid 20s. They are some of the most impressive carp I have ever caught in this country and to think they have been caught from a lake that was once almost a no go area for anglers makes them even more special.

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“…Now it is a place where people take children, walk their dogs, feed the ducks, the carp anglers can fish safely and there aren’t problems, it’s working brilliantly.”

Award winning wildlife initiative The man behind the absolute transformation of Lliswerry Pond has been 66-year-old Pat Bill from nearby Ringland, and his efforts along with an army of community minded helpers have scooped awards and seen the success at Lliswerry used as a role model for other regeneration projects.

“It was run down but back in 2005 the local community won grants to tidy it up and that was when I got involved,” said Pat. “My interest was that I work for South Wales Swan and Bird Rescue and there were birds being injured and I wanted to find a way to work together with fishermen to make it a better place. Wherever there is water there is wildlife, and wherever there is water there will be fishermen so you have to co-operate and work together,” he emphasised.

“Now it is a place where people take children, walk their dogs, feed the ducks, the carp anglers can fish safely and there aren’t problems, it’s working brilliantly. The kids on the estate have grown up which helps but everyone also knows the rules and they know they will be banned from the area if they cause problems.”

Pat modestly admits they have won ‘several’ awards for their efforts, and he is now working with the Council on similar schemes. Yet he maintains it’s more important that the community benefit than winning awards.

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Redmire Connection Lliswerry has a link to record breaking Redmire Pool. The story goes that in the 1980s a chap brought fingerlings back from Redmire in buckets and they were put into a few different lakes but predominantly Lliswerry and another fishery down the road which has since been closed to fishing.

We’re pretty sure plenty of them were moved in the bad old days when fish movement wasn’t recognised as a crime or dangerous but some

survived and they have also bred and the carp in Lliswerry are a genuine link back to those Leney record breakers. We suspect some of them are at least 40 years old. It’s a little bit of carp history that not a lot of people know about. To have the chance to fish for such history fish for twenty quid a year – where else can you get that? Pat is there every single day and you have to give him credit for the opportunity he has given us to fish for those carp.

A Lliswerry Leney – would you bet against it looking like this?

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The Right Move

by Simon Crow

It’s easy to fall into the habit of fishing in exactly the same way each time we go, but experience has taught me that being one dimensional isn’t always the best approach. Sometimes a simple change can completely change your fortunes…

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THE RIGHT MOVE - SIMON CROW

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Eyes on the prize A

very old mirror called Arnie was on my target list from the tricky Manton Old Lake in North Lincolnshire. I joined in April 2012 but when I arrived for that first night I didn’t get a good vibe from the lake. It was very busy with few areas without lines in the water.

Surprisingly I was lucky to catch the second biggest fish in the lake on that first night I fished, a real brute of a carp called Big Scaley at over 37lb. That capture instilled some enthusiasm into me and when I left with a big smile on my face the following morning I had a completely different feeling about the place.

Arnie was a tough prospect, he had a very unpredictable track record and had a habit of going ‘missing’ sometimes for a couple of years. I chalked up a regular string of overnighters over the next few weeks with my main focus the island out in the middle.

I was catching on most trips, including several of the A-Team residents. I was doing so well the bailiff didn’t recognise some of the fish I was catching. When I started he’d given me a disc with photos of all of the carp in Manton, and by the end of the Spring I’d added a dozen fish that he didn’t know were in there!

By the start of July my tally of fish was approaching the half century mark. I’d been told a good season was a dozen fish so in my mind I had the place sussed other than the obvious problem that I was missing the number one target, Arnie. He’d not been caught for over a year and I couldn’t understand why I’d not caught him. I was catching nearly every night, racking up fish after fish over well baited spots.

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Looking - the most obvious solution if you are trying to catch one particular fish.

Arnie at 45 lb 12 oz, still my biggest UK carp off the top - first cast!

"My eyes nearly popped out when there in front of me was the fish I wanted" All of my sessions had been overnighters between work. I’d not really had the time to do any stalking as I was usually tight for time. However, towards the end of July I saw a few fish holding up close to some marginal reed beds and went for a look. My eyes nearly popped out when there in front of me was the fish I wanted!

He didn’t hang around for long, but that week I found him again and again in the same place and got him going on floaters before selecting him out. This was before Scope rods were invented, I was using

an old 6 foot fibreglass rod because the swim was so overgrown and the scrap Arnie put up on such a small rod was incredible. At a massive 45 lb 12 oz he remains the biggest UK carp I’ve caught on the top. What a memorable capture, and one I would have completely missed if I’d stuck to the static fishing that had been producing so well. It was the first carp I’d caught off the surface at that lake on my very first cast - if only I’d gone looking for him a bit earlier in the year!

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More of a mouthful A

nother memorable carp I tripped up with a change of approach was the big mirror Baby Baz in Tyram Hall. I joined in March 2014 and the lake switched on quite early in the year. I caught on my first trip which included a couple of really nice carp to mid 20s.

I found success using the small bait approach and to begin with it really worked well, using the bright white Coconut Crème boilies from the Instant Action range. They were perfectly suited to the cold weather in South Yorkshire, really smelly and visually attractive.

It didn’t take long to start finding my way and quite quickly into my campaign I was getting amongst the A-Team members.

Cluster at mid 30s was the first, followed by a real character known as Casper, a really old northern 30 which is a lovely orange colour.

Arthur was next in line, closely followed by perhaps the most difficult fish to catch from Tyram, Big Lin at 37 lb.

By the end of April I was catching almost every trip, a mix of doubles and twenties, but by this point I started doubling up on some of the smaller fish which prompted me to have a rethink. Baby Baz had been out a couple of times already since I joined, both times to bigger baits than those I’d been using. I knew the action was likely to slow down if I switched tactics but I wasn’t there to just catch fish. I wanted the venue’s biggest so something had to be done.

I convinced myself I needed to switch over to 20mm Scopex Squid hookbaits, doing away with the Coconut Crèmes. Almost instantly the action slowed and I put in a few blank overnighters which was unusual given how it had been going. It played on my mind

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“It didn’t take long to start finding my way and quite quickly into my campaign I was getting amongst the A-Team members”

THE RIGHT MOVE - SIMON CROW

but I decided to stick with it as something was telling me the bigger bait method was definitely the way to get the one I wanted.

Just over a week later I turned up to quite a busy lake and was contemplating going home until I saw a fish lump out in front of where I was stood which convinced me to stay. A short while later I was into my first fish on the bigger baits, and during the night I was woken to a single bleep on the Siren.

The indicator was up tight against the butt by the time I was at the rod and whatever was on the other end had weeded me up. I

needed to take to the boat and the fish did nothing until I got above it when all hell broke loose. The rod was almost pulled from my hands as it surged off on the first of several runs. At one point it was pulling me and the boat around with it. Whatever was on the end was one seriously angry fish, and when it eventually surrendered itself it didn’t surprise me one bit that it was the venue’s biggest fish, exactly the one I was after. At 39 lb 1 oz I was absolutely made up, the icing on the cake to a brilliant spring campaign but only after a change of strategy.

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Ups and downs G

oing way back to 2003 I was fishing in the south of France at the legendary Cassien. I’d fished the lake a few times with reasonable success but all of my trips were fairly short

by Cassien standards at 6 or 7 days due to having a young family at the time. The trouble with such short trips was that I was just settling into the fishing when I needed to leave for home. Very often my fish were coming towards the end of the week when I’d just started to put the pieces together.

The hardest part was getting on fish. The lake covers 2500 acres, has three massive arms and lots of bays and snags, with depths down to 120 feet in places. I arrived for a week-long trip in July and settled into an area known as third point in the North Arm. Steve Briggs had been there the previous week with great success, but warned me that the fish were lying deep to escape the heat of the day and it was important to not put the rods out and just sit on them all day.

Out in front the water dropped to almost 100ft which was a headache. Where do you start with four rods when you have those depths? Steve had given me a massive tip off, but one thing which made it hard was he told me how they were switching depth regularly. One day he was catching from 45 feet and then the next day he was getting bites in 37 feet.

I was roving rods all over the place which was hard going with temperatures in the mid 30s. We weren’t allowed on the lake during the nights and to access the swim I needed to row 45 minutes from where we’d left the car. To get to the depth required I

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“Steve Briggs gave me the tip off about the changing depth preferences each day – and he was bang on. ” then needed to row several hundred yards out, so it was a good job I was in good physical shape. Thankfully I had some good shelter from the sun during the day, hiding myself away in the thick trees at the back of the swim.

I staggered the rods at different depths, starting at 45, 47, 50 and 52 feet. The plan was to give them an hour or so before moving them, repeating the process until I found some fish. I’ll never forget the feeling I had when I found them each day, it was such a great sense of achievement.

The mornings would start off slow until

I’d found them, and then the afternoons went into complete meltdown as I had take after take. On one day alone I landed more than fifteen fish!

I stacked up exactly 50 carp during the seven days I was there. If ever there was an example of really pinning down the fish day to day, this is it. It was incredible fishing and I was so worn out at the end of the seven days from a mixture of the heat, rowing and general non-stop fish handling that I slept for 24 hours when I was home!

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Going over the top S

ometimes we get suckered into doing things other people are catching on when actually doing the exact opposite can pay off handsomely. One of Kev’s favourite sayings is that if you fish like the rest you catch like the rest.

had the pick of swims and sat waiting for something to give me a sign. It didn’t take long for a fish to poke its head out in front of the Outlet Swim which had some cracking open water spots choked in weed.

Back at the Manton complex on the New Lake lads had been catching well on choddies. I rocked up to find the lake empty,

I fired out three chods to sit on top of the weed but never had a touch the first day.

I then lost a fish to a hook pull during the

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THE RIGHT MOVE - SIMON CROW night which really knocked my confidence.

I’ve never liked the choddy but because the lads were having such great success on there with it I followed suit. Well as soon as I lost that first fish I had to change. I’m not keen on the mechanics of the chod rig as it doesn’t lend itself well to the natural feeding action of carp. When they feed they suck at items, usually from a few inches away. Because a chod rig is fixed in position on a short pivot a carp has to mouth it or suck from very close quarters - the reason people suffer a lot of hook pulls using it.

“Within fifteen minutes of casting the long links out my I was into a well hooked carp and a short while later I was holding the most sought after fish in the lake, Diamond Scale at 30lb-plus" To get the presentation I wanted on top of the weed I decided to do something really old school and use very long confidence rigs. I tied up 24-36-inch braided links with critically balanced hookbaits which would come to rest on top of the weed. I changed the 3 oz leads to 1½ oz so they didn’t sink too deep into the bottom, the idea being that my hookbait would rest in an obvious place on top of the weed which was a couple of feet up from the bottom.

The change worked a treat! Within fifteen minutes of casting the long links out my I was into a well hooked carp and a short while later I was holding the most sought after fish in the lake, Diamond Scale at 30lb-plus. I went on to land six fish over the next few hours with another couple coming through the night before I had to leave for work the next day. It was such an instant and positive reaction to a change of presentation. I often think of that session whenever I hear people talking about going rigs because it was a classic example of an old fashioned one completely out-fishing the so called ‘best one’.

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Where the carp have no name…

Russell Kenyon

Don’t ever believe there are no surprises still swimming around in the UK. Despite a newborn son and less time than ever Warrington, Manchester carper Russell Kenyon has been exploring three mighty northern reservoirs – catching fish to over 30 lb as a result of incredible effort, legwork and dedication.

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WHERE THE CARP HAVE NO NAME

T

otalling over 200 acres between them but with no real idea of stock levels the 33-year-old engineer surprisingly stumbled across carp straight away: “They were in the edge and they were big fish, we’re talking the north here but there were two or three 30s, the same number of upper 20s and an odd double with them,” Russ recalled.

Stripping his kit down by replacing it with Scope gear and having the persistence to put in some serious time looking has paid dividends on a water where the potential is still largely unknown.

“I just keep walking until I find them, because I’ve had no success trying to second guess the fish, or getting ahead of them and setting traps, you have to get eyes on them and put rigs close to them,” he explained.

“What makes it even more difficult is that they seem incredibly aware of lines and leads and there have been any number of times where I’ve cast at showing fish only for them to stop showing altogether. I’ve moved at 5am to get on fish and by the time the rigs have gone out the fish have shown absolutely everywhere except where I’d cast,” Russ revealed.

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“There aren’t that many fish because already I’ve started to recognise the same groups of carp that I see together, it’s not an easy water. Someone else I know who is fishing it has had a run of 30 blank trips.”

Staying mobile and fishing the edges with Cultured Hookbaits has been a winning formula, seeing Russ hook a number of the reservoir’s carp in just a few short sessions including the chunky 30-pounder on this issue’s cover, and an amazing haul of four carp in a day to 27 lb from a venue that might only hold 40 fish in 80 acres.

His biggest came after a terrible run of three losses, on a venue where chances really can’t be thrown away.

“I just had to put to down to one of those things,” he said. “My rigs normally land 95% of everything I hook so you just have to keep the faith and stick to what you know.”

After casting at showing fish on arrival, nothing happened – not unusual for the venue. But as the sun warmed up Russ knew they would be in the edge somewhere and found carp in a cobbled bay. Putting TG Active Cultured out on all his rods with a sprinkling of soaked freebies Russ almost blew his chance through paranoia.

“I went down to the rods after an hour to make sure I’d slackened my clutches, and while I was there two carp swam straight past. I sat very still!” he laughed.

An hour later the same two carp swam past

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WHERE THE CARP HAVE NO NAME

again, this time dropping straight on to his spot, one of the carp taking the hookbait without hesitation.

old Tom Wolstenholme, whom he had recently met at the reservoir walking around with his Dad.

“It was like slow motion as I watched the fish shake its head, I glanced at my R3 and it began to scream as the line peeled off my little BP6 reel. After losing my previous three takes, it felt like I was playing the fish for hours. When I finally pulled it over the net cord, I knew it was one of the fish I wanted. It was one of the bigger ones, and may never had been caught before.”

“He seemed very switched on, keen to listen and learn and although I’d only messaged him a couple of times on Instagram I asked him to come and do my pictures,” Russ continued. “He was at a horse show with his sister, walked all the way home and then got his bike and pedalled several miles with flat tyres.

When he arrived he ended up getting wet through as well, getting in to do the returners. Thanks for your efforts Tom!”

Weighing the mirror at 30 lb 1 oz Russ immediately messaged keen carper 18-year-

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