Winter Carp Baits – Thinking Tactics and Rigs

This is the time of year when some of the biggest fish in a lake can be most vulnerable to capture; so winter carp fishing is not as mad as it might first appear! Good planning and preparation including refinement of baits, rigs and use of using warm clothing and equipment is easy. Read on […]

Winter Carping – 9 Things You Need From a Winter Boilie

Another of our resurrected winter carping posts, today’s blog is 9 top tips on choosing your cold weather carp fishing bait.  1. Easily digested – the quicker it’s digested the sooner the carp need to eat again. 2. Low flavour level (that will surprise some!) – if I am presenting baits where I know the […]

Baiting Techniques in Summer Months

Here’s a useful article on how to tackle baiting during the warmer months courtesy of the Quest Baits Blog… The long hot days of summer often mean relatively short feeding spells for the carp (and for many other species come to that) between hours of simply basking in the upper layers of water enjoying the warmth […]

Winter Carp Fishing Video at Old Oaks

Tom Robson and Rowan Charnick had a very successful winter carp fishing session at Old Oaks this February. They had carp on the bank to 55b including 2 x 50s, 10 x 40s, 6 x 30s, 2 x 20s and 1 x 10. An impressive average weight of 39.8lb. For more information on Old Oaks follow […]

Handling Cold Water Carp

A repost from last year, this is a subject I never see covered anywhere despite mentioning it in several of my articles in the past, but it is a vitally important issue which can’t be repeated often enough in my mind. Carp are cold blooded. This means that the carp is the same temperature as […]

An Incredible Christmas Session for David

A Happy Christmas for David Wellard currently fishing Laroussi. He first experienced a successful few days on Old Oaks – in 48hrs David landed 9 carp including 5 forties and the fifty, Christmas day alone bringing him 2 of the forties and the fifty. He has now moved to the bigger Laroussi lake and been gifted an amazing […]

Winter Carping – 4 Great Tips to Put More Fish on the Bank

Jim Kelly fills us in on the first things he looks for when winter carping… I wrote this article some years ago, but my recent post regarding what makes a good bait has bought up the topic of winter carping, so here goes. Winter carping can be one of the most sole destroying pastimes imaginable. […]

Winter Carp Fishing Baits & Expert Tactics

This is the ultimate winter carp fishing bible, written by Tim Richardson, you’ll find everything you should consider when tackling cold weather carping below… 1. Location, location, location! First find your fish; they may be indicated by other anglers catching fish, or come from where you caught previously. Past year’s records of hotspots and over – […]

Tips To Make The Most of Your Winter Session

Well, it’s that time of year again when you are fishing for hard earned carp. Over the next few months I will be fishing very short sessions, in the hope of getting a couple of bites.  Winter is generally a very non productive time of the year as the carps metabolism slows right down due […]

Sorting the Bait as we Approach Winter

Shaun Harrison, owner of Quest Baits, gives us a heads up on his winter baiting tactics… As the cooler weather is now starting to set in it is time for my annual autumn sort out of my tackle and bait but particularly the bait. From past experience I know that some of the baits that […]

The Four Season Approach To Carp Fishing

Well we all know that the carp in this country act differently and feed in different ways at different times throughout the year.  Each season I have a different approach and this has helped me over the years to put a few more carp on the bank, here’s a quick overview of my tactics….   […]

Finding The Right Combination To Catch Big French Carp

Mark Lambert explains how he found the right combination to catch carp on a very tough week out in France recently…   Recently in mid August I had an opportunity to spend nearly a full week fishing Lac Du Villefond. This is a hard lake with some very large fish and August on any lake is one of the hardest […]

Intelligent Baiting For Carp

Big carp can be very difficult to catch, but using bait in more creative ways when carp fishing can really make more opportunities for great catches! Tim Richardson shows you how… Many anglers have not heard about the feeding ‘triangle’ effect. This is where the effect of feeding a swim regularly can influence the behaviour […]

How to Tackle Big French Carp Lakes

French carp fishing holidays, and in particular those provided by Angling Lines, seem to be heading towards the top end of the big carp waters in France. Bigger lakes, with lower stocking density, meaning bigger and better carp for the industrious angler. This obviously means that we have to work just that bit harder to […]

How Much Bait Do I Need For a Carp Fishing Trip to France?

The correct choice of bait can make or break a holiday trip but if you follow a few simple rules there is no reason why you cannot have a great trip. The most common mistake is probably going for quantity rather than quality; it is not worth scrimping on your bait. Many French lakes contain […]

Small or big carp hooks… which are more effective?

Since running a fishery and being involved with Angling Lines Carp Fishing Holidays, I see a large number of UK carpers during any given year. One aspect of current UK fishing seems to be the use of small hooks. Now by small I mean N° 8’s and below. Now I’ve always been a fan of […]

Do your baiting homework before your French carp fishing trip!

Pat Gillett kindly put this short piece together as a follow up to his last article – ‘5 Things To Consider When Choosing Bait For Your French Carp Fishing Trip’.  This piece concerns the actual baiting application whilst you are there and how to get the best out of your trip. The first thing to consider is the […]

Keeping Those Carp Hooks Sharp

If you want a simple short-cut to carp fishing success you’ve come to the right place. This advice applies to any form of fishing because it is so vitally important. Here is a list of simple details that I wish I’d discovered when I began carp fishing when information was in much shorter supply. Over […]

How To Make Your Own Carp Fishing Leads

Ever thought about making your own leads? In the long term it could save you quite a bit of cash. One of our field testers, Jim Kelly, shows you how in the following two videos… Part 1 – What you’ll need and how to mould your leads… Part 2 – How to coat the leads… […]

Tackling Big French Carp Lakes – Finding Features

How confident are you about fishing a 3 acre lake, or maybe a 4 acre lake or even a 10 acre lake? Most anglers would say that they’d know the features to bait up to:- snags, overhanging trees, island margins, the edge of weed beds to name but a few. Now lets increase the size of […]