2017 - February Update

"I found the fish, although they were the 'wrong' kind…"


It's taken a long time for me to get enough together to write about for February, as I didn't manage to get out fishing anything like as much as I would have liked - I either bailed on sessions because I knew there were other things that I needed to do or just didn't even get round to planning a trip in the first place! Writing and filming have been even slower than actually fishing, but I've managed to do a bit of everything last month, even if you haven't been able to see the results of it all yet!

Fishing

The couple of trips that I did manage to fish were short overnight sessions - the first being a midweek one involving a hack up the M5 in evening rush hour before the return trip the following morning (this time being before the traffic had really started). I'd just treated myself to a new Deeper Pro+ fishfinder so was eager to try it out to see if I could find the fish to cast singles to for the night - I did manage to find the fish, although they were the 'wrong' kind, in a number of large shoals of bream! Despite getting the baits out into likely looking areas based on the fishfinder info and past experience the rods remained motionless all night, and much to my frustration when I reeled in I found this that the Korda helisafe had popped apart (despite me setting up properly the night before and double checking!) Therefore not overly impressed!!

Session two of the month was a Sunday night session which meant that I managed to get down the lake a little earlier and have a wander around whilst it was still light for an hour or so. This time I fished a lake on land by one of the driving ranges near work with the hope that it being better stocked I'd have a better chance of a bite - again no such luck, but in part I suspect this was something to do with the colder weather that pushed in around the same time!

With limited time out on the bank it did give me a chance to sort out my kit hanging around various parts of the garage in the evenings, some of you might have seen the new rod storage I posted pictures of - making good use of the spare pieces of laminate flooring we didn't use when redoing the living room floor!!

Writing 

Even though the fishing hasn't gone particularly well I can say that I've done alright with my writing - if you haven't read my profile for AS Baits (who are providing the prize for the March 2017 bait competition) then head over via this link to have a look. Even if you're not interested in my waffle about them you can at least see some of what they have to offer and some of the cracking fish that have been caught on the bait!

I've also managed to pen this piece (agree it's a little later than I'd planned as it's nearly time for the March update), but I have at least managed to keep the promise of writing an update each month so far! There are also a few other pieces in the pipeline, so keep an eye out for them - the first being the profile on next month's bait competition provider..

Filming 

If you thought that the fishing front of February was bleak, then the filming part of it was even more so! I have managed to add a few bits and pieces to the archive, but nothing worthy of putting onto YouTube yet - they ended up being the types of footage that bind together a longer piece, and I'm sure they will see the light of day at some point during the year!

Overall, it's been quite a quiet month - although I did manage to get out a few times it was definitely a case of enjoying the peace and quiet of the banks rather than getting my hands on an ice block of a fish, and I didn't manage to get anything up for your enjoyment on YouTube. I did enjoy putting the piece together for AS Baits as part of the March competition, and look forward to writing my next couple of pieces over the coming month.

With Spring just around the corner I'm looking forward to the longer hours of light and the fish becoming a bit more active and hungry - and therefore increasing the chance of them slipping up and me finally getting a fish on the bank!!

I hope the start of the year was good for you all as well, and that March (so far) has been kind to you and the rest of the month will continue to be so.


Tight lines,

Rob.

One Life - Liv 4 It, Love It

AS Baits

"A top quality bait with results to match.."

With the March 2017 bait giveaway being a couple of tubs of pop-ups from AS Baits, and maybe not everyone knowing about the company, I thought it would be good to give you guys a bit of background on the company, baits, and some of the results being had on the offerings!

Who are AS Baits?!

More of who is AS Baits?... Ade Summers is the man behind the company and has been making bait since the early 90s. Since then people have been catching consistently using his boilies that have been honed on waters around the shop in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. All the bait is made in his working bait shop where you can visit and see it being made and of course, see all the baits on sale!

What bait do they offer?

There are four ranges of baits currently available from AS Baits - TNT (Tiger 'n' Tangerine), TNP (Tiger 'n' Plum), Inferno (hot and meaty), and Thistle Mix (a fishmeal with fruity plum aromas, named after the syndicate it was specifically designed for). All boilies are available in 10, 12, 14, 16 & 18mm, and all except for Thistle mix also available in 20mm.

All the boilies are complemented by pop-ups, wafters, sticks mixes and hookbait glugs, with TNT hookers and dumbells also available. Ade also produces a high leakage spod mix which is a wicked red colour!

So what's been caught on them?

In a simple word - plenty! With a mention in CarpWorld a couple of months ago after a brace of 50lb fish were caught from Etang de Vaumigny over TNP and TNT boilies, and plenty of catch reports on the Facebook page it's hard to argue with the results - I know from one of the lakes that I fish that this bait really does the business as it counts for around 75% of the catches throughout the season, and the bigger fish in the lake really love it!

What do I think?

I know these baits work, and Ade really is a bloke who knows what he's talking about when it comes to bait and a really nice fella t'boot! I've been able to see the number of fish being caught on them on the lake, and all the photos on either the website or Facebook page show just how good the bait is! My favourite being the TNT because of the light colour and sweet smell, although a mix of TNT and TNP is a great combination due to the bright red TNP grabbing the attention of passing fish.

On a light note - make sure you use the Inferno baits in a well-ventilated space, and definitely wash well after use! It's been well noted on the lake I mentioned earlier that you can tell if someone is using these baits due to the aroma around the back of the swim!! This isn't really a bait to leave in the kitchen at home!

If you want to know more about AS Baits, then visit the website, or go to the Facebook page via the following links

ASBaits.com

Facebook.com/ASBaits

or if you are in the local area then why not drop in to see the shop which is located at

Shop C5
Canal Wharf
Stoke Prior
Bromsgrove
Worcestershire
B60 4JZ

One Life - Liv 4 It, Love It

2017 - The Plans!

So New Year, new start!

I know it's almost the end of the first month of 2017 and I'm only just getting around to writing up what the plans are for the year, but I've been off on honeymoon for the past couple of weeks (even though the wedding was in September!) and so the reality was that I wasn't doing anything apart from relaxing and having a good time - meaning that anything to do with fishing, writing or filming was well at the back of my mind!!

I've decided to break down the targets for the year into three categories; fishing (duh), filming and writing. They are all things that I want to do more of over the next eleven months, but we will see where time takes us!!

Fishing
No point in having a fishing blog and not putting anything about fishing into it!

The main plan for this year is to get a bit more variety into my fishing, last year I spent nearly all the time I actually got on the bank targeting carp from various waters, although at the end of the year I did actually go for a couple of sessions spinning for predators (although these weren't at all successful!).

In 2017 I'd like to fish for and catch:

• Pike
• Perch
• Bream (by design!)
• Tench
• Roach
• Carp

It'd be nice for me to be able to put a weight on each of those fish to achieve by the end of the year, but I think the best plan is to get out there and try and catch at least one of each of them first before putting a weight on it! Maybe this is something that I'll revisit in the middle of the year if the plan is going well!

Filming
This was one of the things that I really wanted to do more of in 2016 - I started off the year by creating a couple of videos for YouTube from short day sessions that I did, but then didn't get out bankside enough to feel like filming the few sessions that I did do.

I'm aiming to put together a monthly vlog to accompany this written blog on what I've done during the month fishing-wise, and to see how I'm getting on against the targets I'm setting myself here - the first of these will be live on YouTube at the same time as this blog post goes up, so if you want to see my talk about my targets this year, and go into a bit more detail on some of the challenges I'm setting myself then click here!

Hopefully, with these monthly videos it'll give me a bit more confidence with the camera, and after being in front of it, so there will be more videos going up during the year actually showing sessions as I do them. Keep an eye on the Facebook page as well, all going well (me being able to work the technology) there will be a few 'Facebook Live' videos whilst out and about too!

Writing
Last but not least!

The plan is to make sure that I write something on here at least once a month - an update of how I'm getting on against the targets I've set myself, what I've been up to in the month, and maybe the biggest piece of angling news that has broken during the month!

I'll also be trying to post a few more pieces as well, similar to my post on boats and about litter, although these will vary depending on whether I feel that I have anything to add to the matter rather than just writing about it for the sake of it!!



If you feel that you've got something that you'd like to contribute to the blog, then drop me a message via the Facebook page and we'll try to put something together!


If you got to the bottom of the post then a big thank you! Keep an eye on here, the Facebook page and the YouTube channel for new content and competitions throughout the year!

One Life - Liv 4 It, Love It

Rob

December Photo Competition

WIN WIN WIN!

Your chance to win again!

To kick off our monthly photo competition, the prizes for December will be Nashbait Citruz pop ups - a deadly bait at any time of year!

So how will it work I hear you ask?

Simple, two steps:

1. Add the photo that you want to be included in the competition to the comments section of this post on the Carpy Tails Facebook page by the 25th November.
2. From 1st December I will chose 5 photos to be shortlisted for your votes! Then it's down to you to share the post with all your friends and family - the photo with the most likes by the 31st December will win!

So who wins?

1. The person who's photo has the most likes at the end of the month
2. One random person will be drawn from all those who 'like' the winning photo

Decembers theme - Your best dawn / dusk photo!

Good luck all!

One Life - Liv 4 It, Love It

Boats, boats, boats

As anglers I would have thought that we all have a bit of a love hate relationship with boats and people who sail them - they provide features due to the shelter they offer fish, and can help to stir up the water and help encourage fish to feed in the muddied water they've just created, but at the same time can cause chaos when care isn't taken (by both fishers and boaters) and the same piece of water is wanted by both parties!

Unless you always fish commercial waters where boats aren't allowed you'll have no doubt come across at least one boat whilst out on the bank. As I've spent a little bit of time this year up and down the canal I've seen both the respect and pure ignorance that boat users can have - most boaters seem to recognise when there is someone fishing and will attempt to steer clear of the swim that they are in, on a canal this usually means going to the far bank (although this isn't usually the best thing in the world when you are often fishing to this exact spot!). However you do occasionally get the odd wally who can't be bothered to deviate from their path and so nearly wipes out all the rods when they are cruising past, and also very rare (although I did have it once this year) idiot who still continues to travel when the light levels have really dropped and don't have any lights on their boat. I'm pretty sure that there is a cut off time when all traffic has to stop on the water (8pm rings a bell), so I often don't cast out until after this time to allow for minimal potential disagreements with boat users, and so you can imagine my confusion when this boat appeared out the dark at nearly 9pm with someone peering off the front to see where they were going!

I'm also fishing a couple of old gravel pits that have now been converted into sailing lakes, and the contrast in understanding and agreements between fishermen and other water users really is amazing on these - on one of the lakes there are rules to forbid overhead casting when other people are out on the lake, and the regular boaters keep well clear of wherever there is someone fishing. You still get the newbies who don't really know what they are doing and so get blown around by a rogue wind, or the canoeists who get the fright of their life when they paddle round the margins and find you guarding the rod tips from them!

The other lake however doesn't seem to have any of these agreements or rules - so it's not uncommon to have a sailing boat just rock up and sit in your swim (around 40 yards out usually) or have youngsters paddling around the margin and then jumping up onto the bank even in he same peg! I have also seen guys lobbing a lead out when there are boats in the same area of water, so just seems to go both ways!

The main reason that any of us go out and do what we do it on have fun isn't it? So I would hope that common sense would prevail, and gentleman's agreements would be in place most venues where there is multiple uses for the water... When fishing, if there is even the slightest chance that a lead or rig might end up landing near someone who is on he water then don't do it - it might be frustrating that you have to wait to cast but with so much time and effort put into fish safety should the same not be put into safety for everyone? When boating or canoeing / kayaking - please respect those fishing... If you see us on the bank don't sit directly in front of the swim, and if you are going round the margins then go past the swims as quickly as safely possible and at a decent distance so not to disturb or potentially cause damage to fishing gear.

As I said - enjoyment should be the reason we are out there, share it with others!

One Life - Liv 4 It, Love It 

Litter and British Records

Litter

Now this really does grate, and is one of the reasons that I don't really enjoy fishing busy lakes, especially those in the middle of a park - however sometimes it's good to go to these places as you're more likely to get a bite or two, and when it's free fishing then that helps as well... The main problem (aside from the fact that it can get really busy at times) is the amount of litter that some people (and I will say some as I know a lot of people do take their rubbish away) leave around the banks.

I say this now as you may have seen the photo I posted on Twitter this week of a bundle of line with a hook still tied on that was just chucked in the bush to the edge of the swim. The bin that I tidied this into was less than seven steps away, yes seven!!!! I ended up clearing another three or four metres of line from around a set of roots at the front of the swim along with a number of plastic bottles from the bushes either side of the swim in the short morning session I did, and whilst some of the additional litter may not have been left by anglers the amount of line in and around the swim is not excusable!

Source: twitter.com/Rob_OHagan

It's definitely not my intention to say that I'm a martyr, and to highlight the fact that I'd cleared the litter that others left, but to point out the fact that it takes a couple of seconds to look round your swim at the end of a session and check you have everything (including the rubbish) and to put stuff in a bag as you go through the session... If you don't have a rubbish bag with you then drop it in the bottom of your tackle bag and then pop it in the bin when you get home!!

As a wise person once said "Take only memories, leave only footprints, kill nothing but time"

British Records

This is something that has really taken the angling press and social media by storm in the past month and that is the capture of a 70lb carp from RH fisheries 'Avenue'.

The amount of abuse that has been aimed at the captor has been shocking and I have to admit that I did have to leave a couple of fishing groups I was a member of on Facebook because I couldn't be bothered with the amount of 'trolling' about this. Usually I can put up with it but it was beyond a joke! This isn't the only large fish in September with a new 60lb plus fish coming from Holme Fen as reported by Anglers Mail at the end of the month, however I don't remember seeing as negative a reaction as the Avenue fish.

Source : telegraph.co.uk

I tuned into the Fox International live Facebook feed last Thursday with Harry Charrington, and was just in time to see him put across his view on the matter - I thought he was really good as he kept impartial because he was out at the World Championships at the time and came back to the news. This was another Facebook item that was ruined by trolls as I couldn't be bothered to read the same bloke throwing stupid comments at Harry... It must have been a bad couple of weeks because I usually just get on with it but apparently I couldn't those times!!

Iain Macmillan is another person who's put the whole record fish thing in a great way pointing out that at the end of the day a carp is a carp, and in the grand scale of things that are happening in the world at the moment it's nowhere near the biggest issue! Read his full post just below...

"Well what a week, i was lucky enough to be there at Rob Hales ''Avenue'' this week for my weekly 48 hours, and what i saw will stay with me for the rest of my life.  I saw the initial bite, the whole fight, and then i saw the fish go in the net......what a moment for Tom Doherty.  I flung my arms around him and felt so privileged to be able to share the whole event with him, Rob and Josh.  The fish is immense, just immaculate in every way, now fortunately for me my signal is dire down at the lake so didn't see much of the meltdown that FB suffered, but all ill say is to those who've aimed their shallow comments directly at Tom or Rob, is you're life really lacking that much that you feel the need to belittle the capture by name calling and quite frankly pointless remarks ??  The bottom line is its a carp, that's all, it's a carp.  If you don't agree with the weight, its origins, the feeding programme, the owner, the capture, then that's your view, but there is a saying ''if you ain't got anything good to say, then say nothing at all'', you have choices to fish for whatever you like, wherever you like, but to run people down for doing something they enjoy doing is just PATHETIC.  Now i wont have this thread tuning into anything other than positive, and I've not started this thread just to incite hate and slander like others have done, so hats off Tom and Rob, i personally cant wait to catch the fish, and ill do it on my own terms for my own enjoyment, and finally if you're one of those who've found it necessary to run this weeks events down in any way, feel free to delete yourself from my list of friends, and remember this......its only a hobby that's meant to be enjoyed by us all, in what ever way makes us happy..........oh and meanwhile in Syria people are still dying right this very minute, kind of puts it all into perspective doesn't it ??  Peace out. X"

My personal opinion is similar to the two mentioned above - everyone has their own targets when they go fishing, whether it be the biggest fish in the lake, a haul of fish of smaller sizes or just to catch something, it's all about being out on the bank enjoying a fantastic hobby! If you happen to have the chance to fish a lake which has been stocked in a particular way by its owner (and you must remember that they are creating opportunities based on what people want them to/have asked them for) and you get a huge slice of luck in catching a certain large or special fish then you should be congratulated for your skill in catching that fish and get to enjoy every minute of it rather than worrying about what other people are going to say!

One Life - Live It, Love It

Canal Carping

So for all those of you who have subscribed to the +Carpy Tails YouTube channel will know, the latest video is now available to watch!

It's a short session in late February on the canal, and my first time actually fishing for carp on the canal.

I hope you enjoy!

If you aren't subscribed to the YouTube channel then you can via this link, and be sure to know when the next video is on its way!!

One Life - Live It, Love It