Some of you may have noticed the odd comment on my blog from Jon Perkins who runs the site http://www.carp-fishing-holidays-france.com/ as Jon always has an interesting opinion I have asked him if he has any thoughts that he wanted to post here as a discussion article and to my delight Jon has agreed. So in the future look out for posts from Jon as he always has an interesting point to make and will make a valuable contribution to the site.
Welcome aboard Jon !
Preamble, I originally wrote this for Spiegel magazine last year and it was archieved in the articles section, however looking at my hits I can see that no one was able to find it so I thought I would recreate here as a post so that people can find it.
Introduction – CV Safety Rig
Please note I am not the originator of this rig, I am merely someone who cares about fish safety and wants to get the knowledge out to people that there are safer ways to fish leadcore helicopter rigs. On some of the lakes I fish I have seen some horrible contraptions all under the banner of helicopter rigs.
There are some disadvantages to this rig. Unlike the original CV safety rig, which used a piece of metal called “the bit” which was free to rotate around the lead core, and allow the hook link to spin ( hence the name helicopter rig), this is impossible with this setup. I have not, however, had tangle issues so far so I am not sure if it is worth investigating incorporating a piece of wire into this setup. I have found a source of the original “CV Bits” ( called rather helpfully – the bit ) from Harefield tackle the originator of the “CV” or Colne Valley brand. Check back here for a follow-up article on a rig using “the bit” and recreating a bit of history 🙂
Continue reading “CV Safety rig, the best way to make a leadcore helicopter rig”
Quick test of embedded media
[local /wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Thorney_MVI_2748-1.flv nolink]
Let me know how it plays
This weekend was the Carp-forums.com Silverlake carp Fisheries Social event with a special guest appearance from John O’Driscoll who ran a superb rig tutorial going over the rigs he showed in the last issue of Carp World.
Continue reading “Carp-Forums.com Silver lake Social”
Every time I pick up a magazine it seems that screaming from the front cover are normally the words “NEW RIG” or “TIE THE WONDER RIG – We show you how” and yet fish still continue to get caught on simple easy to tie rigs. In a previous article I pondered some simple “beginners rigs” and I think that perhaps I misnamed them as beginners carp rigs. They are nothing of the sort. They are simple rigs granted, and good for the beginner but a hell of a lot of fish also get caught on them by more advanced anglers.
Take the rig above for example, it is a simple SSC curved shank hook tied to a small length of coated braid. This rig has accounted for huge numbers of fish both for myself and for many other anglers yet you very rarely see it in the magazines. Why you might ask ? well the cynic in me would argue that it does not seem “sexy” enough and certainly will not sell much in the way of advanced end componentry. The other reason ( and I suspect the real reason) is that you can only show rigs like the one above so many times before they stop being “new”.
Continue reading “Carp Rigs, How complex do you need to go ?”
Well it has been a while but I did my 1st carp session the other day for 8 years in the UK, I expected it to be a momentous occasion with fireworks and perhaps a marching band but no it felt just like fishing in the Netherlands 🙂
As it was a 1st session and because the British Carp Championships were being held at Thorney Weir ( my 1st choice) I decided to go to Lizard Fisheries near West Drayton as they have 2 lakes one of which is an alleged “runs ” water and I wanted an easy start. Tackle was prepped, sandwiches were made and an alarm was set and at 05:00 the next morning I was stumbling bleary eyed into the car so I could make it to the lake for dawn.
On arrival at the lake I realised just how cold it is still, although it has been topping 18 degrees in the middle of the day just before dawn, it was a bone chilling 1.5 degrees and soon all of the coats and fleeces were making an appearance. I may have looked like the Michelin man but at least I was warm, however withing the hours I was really wishing I had brought my thermals and even perhaps a hat and gloves. Let this be a lesson to you all, even though it may be mid 20’s in the middle of the day it is still damn cold in the night / early morning.
Continue reading “1st session on the Lizard”
Those of you that know me personally know that I am a bit of a tackle tart, and by bit I mean a lot 🙂 so when I spied these Marukyu boilies in my local tackle shop I just had to get them to have a try. Normally I am very single minded in my boilie taste being that for the last few years I have been using CCmoore Meteor for almost all of my carp fishing. However there has been a great deal of stirring about these boilies on the forums and with that in mind I thought I would give them a try.
Continue reading “Marukyu Boilies 1st look”
Some of you may have heard of ECHO, the English Carp Heritage Organisation, and the work that they do in representing the views of us – the ordinary carp anglers. Their stated aim is to support programs that maintain the health and welfare of the the carp in t he UK. Now for those of you thinking that carp are not native to the UK. You are right, the group is not trying to stop any carp being imported, even the famous “Leaney” carp were imported from Holland back in the 1930’s, they want to ensure that the carp that do come over ( if they do) are free from disease and do not cause disease outbreaks when they get over here. As well as representing the voice of the carp angler in the wider issues that surround the sport. Too many fisheries have bee destroyed by uncontrolled importation of carp from different world wide locations were KHV is endemic. Think of foot and mouth disease, in some countries it is a fact of life and the whole nation heard has it. Well in most EU countries this is not the case and I think that we all agree that it is a good idea ™. Echo want to ensure that the same protection is in place for our carp stocks.
If you are a carp angler you really should join, for your membership you not only get a fancy ECHO badge as above but also the quarterly magazine with articles form many famous carp anglers and even the odd article from me 🙂
SO what are you waiting for ? if you care about your fishing get on over to their website and join now, it is only 20 pounds and so for less then a couple of KG’s of bait you can make a difference for the future of carp fishing. By the way you don’t have to be based in the UK, I was a member when I was based in the Netherlands, if you are carp angler you need to be a member. If you are still not convinced pop over to Carp-Forums.com to the ECHO section and have a read around, the people there are super friendly and will always answer your questions.
Well new fishing locations need new kit and as I had just bought myself a car I was determined to get the one thing I had always wanted.. a barrow. Following some advice from some friends I decided to pop down to Harefield Tackle and found that it was only 5 mins drive from my house. When I got there I was med by friendly staff who not only showed me some new places to fish but also showed me their barrow range. The shop stocks barrows by Chub, Nash and Daiwa and after checking all of them I found that the new Nash Trax ALL Terrain Evo was just the ticket.
After getting it home and setting up all my gear on it I can say that it only just fits, I was considering the smaller one and am now really glad that I didn’t and opted for the largest one they do.
Continue reading “Nash Trax All terrain Evo – 1st look”
well now that I am settled in London the 55th thing I need to do ( after just buying a car) is find a water or 2 to fish. I think I have at last one sorted by the lovely chaps at Carp-Forums but I am always on the look out for more options. If you know of a carp syndicate that has places that would let in a refugee of the Dutch fishing circuit into their numbers can you drop me a mail via the contact me button at the top of the page or by leaving a comment to this post ? I am primarily interested in waters around the west of London / Heathrow way. I am not looking for waters that contain 40+ ( though it would be nice 🙂 ) but for a water I can relax on and just enjoy catching carp.
Quentyn
The Masterblanker 