Short Session Success With Carl Joyce

Due to a heavy workload most of my time on the bank this year has been sporadic at best, moving from 1 day ticket lake to the next, anyway this year I decided my short sessions would be on a local course lake with a good head of carp with most fish being around the 10lb mark, I’ve managed to get down to the lake a few of times this year with success on each visit.
This particular water has a lot of snags at one end of the lake. (fish love snags)
I tend to travel very light using just 1 rod with all tackle and bait put in a bait bucket for ease of transportation the only other pieces of equipment are landing net ,unhooking mat ,weigh sling and a carp-care kit.

Moving from swim to swim utilising PVA bags in the margins, I always prime the next swim roughly 30 minutes before I intend to fish it by scattering a small handful of Krill pellets to hopefully have the fish waiting for me to lower in my baited rig, consisting of white krill popup and a PVA bag of matching pellet glugged in krill liquid for that extra pulling power.

This year has brought me a couple of really good short sessions with 1 session of just 3 hours resulting in me having 6 carp to around 14lb utilising the before mentioned tactics of priming a swim and moving onto the next every half hour.

On another particular session I had been wandering around deciding which swim to start off in, I opted for a swim which has served me well in the past using my usual approach I lowered in my rig into position and began firing a few mixers out whilst I waited for any sign the fish were present in my swim. Well after a few minutes a couple of fish started to take my  floaters with 1 of the fish being a significantly bigger than the others, after reeling my rod back in and changing over to a simple floater set-up I managed to keep the fish interested in my floaters noting the smaller fish tended to hit the freebies a lot faster then the bigger one. I decided to try and split the fish into 2 smaller groups by spraying mixers either side of the swim to thin the numbers, my thinking was reduce the numbers and more chance of getting a hookup from the bigger one I had seen.

JACKPOT--- first cast to the big fish I had seen and she was on, after a really good fight with the fish trying to make the snags at every opportunity I managed to get her in the net, I weighed her on the scales with the fish going 22lb I was over the moon with this 1 as its one of the biggest fish in the lake.

All this just goes to show that you only need a few minutes in the right place.


Thanks for taking the time to read this short blog and good luck on your next sessions where ever they may be!

Find out more about Carl Joyce here.

My 2014 So Far by Asa Duffy

As a full time tackle shop assistant and a father of a young baby, getting on the bank for periods of time can prove quite difficult, so usually my sessions are days or 24hr sessions with the odd 2 or 3 day sessions. I like to make the most out of my time on the bank.

Location

This year I've been concentrating a lot of my fishing on a local weedy lake called the Wingerworth Lido, located in the heart of Derbyshire. Now I'll be the first to admit that Derbyshire isn't renowned for its big head of 30's and 40's, but it does have a lot of waters that are gin clear, therefore the fish are very dark and beautiful to look at. The lake is about 4-5 acre with some stunning looking carp swimming round in it, I like it because it suits my style of fishing I can walk round spot a few fish and hopefully try and snare one or two using some pva bags.

A shot of the Wingerworth Lido

Success on the Lido

Using the solid bag method on this lake has proved deadly as I've had a string of fantastic looking fish, including a fish they call the Italian which is not the biggest resident in the lake but has a very distinctive set of shoulders. As well as the Italian I've caught a string of other fish that are equally as beautiful, and the awesome bit is that hardly anyone fishes for them as the weed seems to put a lot of anglers off fishing it, so the majority of the time I have the lake to myself

A shot of the lovely Italian 

As well as catching regularly from the lido I've done a few sessions on day ticket venues at places such as the A1 pits and Sapphire lakes and have had a few fish, so up to yet I've had a fantastic time carp fishing in 2014 and only hope I can keep catching.

Thanks for reading and tight lines

To find out more about Asa click here.

Great Week in France with Matt Hewitt: Part 1

Well where do I start? 
Me and a few close friends wanted to try lake 5 in Val-Dore, we had never fished it before and had only heard or read what was on the net/Facebook ect. We were all excited and rearing to go the week before so decided to meet up and do the draw.
Me and my bivvy bud Den drew 27 (twin swim) which was 1 of the swims we had pointed out. We left a day early to be fresh for Saturday morning as most of you will know can be a killer on the day with driving there and setting up.. 
We managed to have a chat with the guys who where in our swim and it wasn't looking good! The guys only had 5 fish all week and lost 4 or 5 due to snags and zebra mussel's. Me and Den had a chat and agreed a of plan of attack, we agreed to fish normal with minimal bait as the guys before us said they had put 30kg in.
On Saturday 12pm we were let on the lake.

The swim Den and I both wanted was the right side as there was a nature reserve just off it, with some nice looking carpy spots (over hung tree's, dead fallen tree, snags ect). We decided one of us would fish for a few days there while the other did the rest, then we flipped a coin and Den got 1st dib's. We both got all sorted and set our traps for the night round 7pm. Around 10pm 1st blood, Den had a 1 toner and hit it only for it to snag him and getaway. Just as we where getting in our pit I had a liner on my margin rod, then a full 1 toner to me! After what seemed to be 10-15 min's we banked the 1st fish out the lake, it was a nice mirror 25lb.
Next morning we reeled in and had a walk round the lake to see if any of the other lads had done anything the only other fish that had been out was a 18lb mirror and a tench.
After breakfast and just sorting rigs out, Ian in peg 30 had hooked a sturgeon, so we decided to pop round and have a look as neither myself or Den had ever seen one on the bank.
After what seem like 20 mins Ian managed to land it 37lb of pure muscle.. 
After seeing fish bosh all over our swim and not one run, we reset the traps again for the night. Just as the sun set Dens rod ripped off and within a few mins we had the common on the bank and as we was just sorting her out his other rod screams off. 
After sacking the common we sorted his mirror out which was 17lb and the common at 19lb, we retried to bed. Next morning we reeled in as again as I never had a beep and neither did Den.

 After breakfast and tea we reset our traps, with Den going for pop up in almond goo and myself going for half cell with half stick pink to act like a wafter. 
Around 2 pm Den had a screamer and then lost to the snag. We had nothing that night. 

Part 2 to follow

Find out more about Matt HERE and take a look at the Diem Ranges Here

   

Catching up with Spencer Wright - 2014 Part 1

Living in the location I do on the sunny Isle of Wight, Summer is always a bit of a slow time, fishing wise with the majority of my syndicate waters closing between June and September to let the fish recover from spawning, meaning that my fishing time is few and far between. I do get the odd chance to fish on the mainland, but with the extortionate prices on the local ferry's along with family and work commitments always means that times are few and far between, so I make up for it giving it my all through the Winter months pulling out all the stops in the Spring, when takes are hopefully plentiful and the fish are quite often at there heaviest weights.

 So, with this in mind, I thought that my initial Blog would be a brief year to date covering my fishing and some of the highlights, to which, thankfully there have been quite a few....

  This stunning image was taken very early one morning when for a few minutes the sky turned into a burning sea of colours and I was lucky to experience mother nature in all her glory.

My year started on a local Syndicate called Blackwater. It is a relatively small lake of about 6 acres with roughly 150 fish in to about 40lb's depending on the time of year. As with all my fishing, time is at an absolute premium with only an overnighter available to me, meaning that most Friday nights would see me leaving work at 5pm heading for the lake and reeling in the following morning, which would be my fix for the week. With this in mind, I have had to make my own opportunity to make things happen, so to speak rather than just turning up and casting out and hoping for the best. So, as I have done for many years, Pre-baiting was my key to success. Finding an area out of the way, where hopefully I would remain undisturbed and left to get on with my own devices, or at least that is how I hoped it would go.

Rascal at 40-3

My small secluded part of the lake was prepared with bait at least 3 times a week and thankfully the captures continued to flow, right from the start, proving my tactics and location were spot on. I started with a flurry of 20's up to 29+ before the weights of the fish started to increase. Firstly fish of 32 & 33 before hooking into something really big. The scales settled at 40-3 and a mirror to boot that was kindly named after my best friend and bank-side partner for over a dozen years, Rascal the carp dog who'd we had lost just two moths previously. I was also elated to catch one of the lakes jewels so early in my campaign, especially as the fish of that size were few and far between.

Nailed

Amazingly, not long after this another biggie soon found its way into the bottom of my net, this time pulling the scales down to 39-11 and was testament to the effort that I was putting into baiting the spots and keeping them primed up.

As the weather started to improve, more anglers started visiting the lake, so provisions had to be made to make other area's available to fish, as my area had become hugely sought after. With this in mind, I started baiting other swims to ensure that I had other options available to me with spots spread around, hopefully to take advantage of once again.

I had fished to my absolute limits. It was so hard, wading through floods of water and mud so thick. Setting up in complete darkness in the middle of nowhere, alone, just for 12 hours of angling but the rewards were there and I was willing to sacrifice myself in order to make those gains which seemed to pay off by the catches that I had been fortunate to make. 

39-11

With Spring well under-way and the season changing and mother nature awakening from her Winter slumber things were obviously coming good. Little did I know what other exhilarating moments I had to come, but for now, that will have to wait until my next instalment.

Just remember, nothing is impossible. Its just a case of thinking if you want it enough to make it happen...

Until next time, tight lines....

Spence

Find out more on Team Member Spence here and check out the Diem Product Range too.

Mark Woolley On 24 Hours

Team Diem - Mark Woolley

I fished on a local club water with two of my friends Gareth and Chris. Although we were just getting together for a social and catch up, we decided to fish a friendly match between the three of us. 

With pressure high we all decided to initially spod over zigs, with the intention of fishing bottom baits over the spot at night should we feel the need. After a few hours of spodding over zigs we were yet to manage a capture, however on the far bank there had been a few fish out on boilies. 

I quickly switched a rod to a snowman set up, with a CC Moore helrasor critical edge which I'd pre soaked in almond goo. This turned the white pop ups a bright pink colour. I fished a CC Moore livesystem 15mm bait to complete the snowman and both baits balanced a size 6 Korda Krank hook. I fished a 7 inch rig made from N-Trap soft. This would ensure that my balanced snowman hook-baits would always kick away from the lead set up, which was the new Korda COG lead system. 

As night drew in I decided to fish both of my rods on the bottom and over the spot that I'd been spodding over the zigs. I spombed out some livesystem boilies and I was set for the night. 

During the night Chris managed two carp and a few bream, Gareth was still yet to catch but I had managed four carp to 17lb 14oz. It was a very cold night with the mat freezing over at one point and I didn't want to wake Gareth and Chris for photos. So I only managed a trophy shot of my first capture, a 13lb scaly mirror. 

The following morning Gareth recast a zig with the mornings sun in full blaze, and after a number of spods of slop over the top he'd earnt his first capture of the session. 

Take a look at the new Diem range HERE to find clothing perfect for every session.