fishing – Page 11 – The Masterblanker

The Big Carp Hunter, an inspiration for us all ?

Jake Langley Hobbs, his continuing five year mission to seek out new carp and new carp waters, to boldly go where no carp fisherman has gone before.

It has been a while since I posted about another blog but I just wanted to post about The Big Carp Hunter buy Jake Langley Hobbs. What makes this blog different you say ? well it is a blog written almost entirely from the bank side about a man who is spending five years on the bank. I think that if he has not done so already he should put himself down on the Guinness book of records for the longest session ever. He posts one blog item per day unless he is travelling and covers the trials and tribulations of life on the road in Europe.

In the blog he covers he doesn’t just cover the fish he has caught but also the ramifications of fishing a 36 day blank. Lets just go over that again, he has a 36 day blank… some anglers don’t do 36 sessions per year and yet he still remains up beat after 36 days with no fish. I think it is also worth pointing out that unlike the rest of us ( well me) his European sessions are not to over stocked puddles but mainly to what could be considered to be an inland sea to most. Due to the stock densities it might take 30+ days before the carp can even be found and to keep you enthusiasm up after all that time with out a fish is admirable. Only last April I was a little depressed after spending 1 week with out a fish ( well loads of poisson chat). He also has several posts going over the finer points of how to survive long term on the bank, to anyone who is considering fishing even one over night session it is essential reading.

Anyway head on over to http://thebigcarphunter.com and give it a read, the humor he injects and his upbeat attitude even in the face of massive adversity is heartening and a lesson to us all. The next time you are doing a session at your home water , 30 mins from home and it gets a little cold, have a thought for Jake on the bank through out the winter with only his laptop and his 2 dobermans for company.

Out zander fishing with www.fishingamsterdam.com

As you can see from the post Winter Wonderland it is cold, damn cold at the moment. This has led to me being housebound for 2 months unable to get out as the lakes have been frozen. Due to this I have been going up the walls suffering from fishing related “cabin fever” so much so that my wife ordered me to go fishing at the 1st opportunity. As I had been out with Juul from FishingAmsterdam.com before it seemed the logical choice if I wanted a 1/2 decent chance of catching a zander to book with Juul.

The date was set and I was full of anticipation, at 07:40 sharp I arrived at the pre agreed meeting spot to be presented with a cup of hot coffee and a croissant, not a bad start and it bode well for the day. Juul discussed the options as to the quarry and as zander were on the menu ( figuratively) we decided to start on them and then around lunch time swap over to pike as the day brightened up a little.

We arrived in the Ijselmeere before 08:30 and after a short journey began to fish for zander using the vertical jigging technique ( some of my UK readers my be unfamiliar with this technique so look back here for an article) and rubber stick baits. Alas the day did not start out all that productive with only a few missed takes. Zander at any time of the year are finicky biters but in the winter they practically just nudge the bait. You end up striking at the slightest vibration in case it is a zander just inspecting the bait.

One of the things I really like about Juul is that generally he will also fish as well ( depending on the number of guests) which means that if he is not getting takes then you know that the area is devoid of fish. This is quite a confidence boost as with zander it is easy to start to think that you are doing something wrong… some times there are just no hungry fish in the area. Anyway a brief move to another hot spot saw us again jigging away waiting for a hungry fish, and before long there was the telltale gentle pluck on the lure, and I was in.

People often say that zander don’t put up much of a fight and sometimes they are right, however not today each zander put up quite a scrap and they continually dived and dived for the bottom but each were eventually beaten by the net.
Continue reading “Out zander fishing with www.fishingamsterdam.com”

Review – PB Braid Pliers

I bought the above cutters on the recommendation of a mate who owns a tackle shop in Holland. He was madly enthusing about them to a customer standing in front of me and in the demonstration he picked up a section of 4lb braid ( thinner than cotton) and was happily snipping off 1 and 2 mm sections. After seeing this I decided that I had to have a pair and I have to say they are just that good. If you want a pair scissors that will cut almost anything ( including the shank of a hook apparently – though I have never tried) and then go back to cutting fine braid, these are for you. Normally when a really successful product appears on the market other tackle manufacturers are quick to leap on the band waggon and product their own version. Strangely PB products are still the only manufacturer that supplies this kind of cutter.

Verdict – buy them I have had them for 1 season and they are still as sharp as when I bought them. They can go from snipping wire traces to snipping fine braid and never miss a beat. Buy a set for each tacklebox they are that good.

Winter Wonderland

Some of you might be wondering why a lot of the posts recently have not been about fishing but have been about rigs and reviews, well for the last month most of the waters I would like to fish have been completely frozen. The pic above shows one of the lakes around here and as you can see it is absolutely solid. If it doesn’t start to thaw out soon I will have to start ice fishing. I am getting cabin fever it has been so long since I wet a line. Still there is light at the end of the tunnel I have taken a day off of to go fishing with Fishing Amsterdam next week. Here is hoping that the canal is defrosted enough to get the boat out !

Anyway until then there will be limited numbers of catch reports as there is 3″ of ice between me and the carp and pike.

Loop Knots, which is better ?

We use a lot of knots in fishing and particularly in carp fishing. One of the most often used knots is that used to create a loop. Whether it is to create a loop on the hair or in your mainline to create a loop for your leadcore we tie a lot of loops. In recent conversation with anglers I realised that many people use the overhand loop knot to create their loops, something that I also used to do. A few years ago I was shown the figure of 8 loop knot and I have found it to be far stronger and so it amazes me that some people still use the overhand loop.

In the words of Harry Hill,

“I like over hand loop knots, I like figure of 8 knots, but which is better ? There is only one way to find out….. Fight !”

I have therefore decided to run a fair and independent test to compare the 2 knots and finally put to bed the notion that the overhand loop knot has any use as a load bearing knot.

First lets look at the knots themselves and how they are tied

Figure of 8 loop

first make a loop ( note that I am using fluorescent string to make it easier to see what I am doing)
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The evolution of a rig – the big pig line aligner rig

Let me begin this article by stating, for the record, that there is no original thought in this rig. This is not to denigrate the article or my thinking in the 1st line but there is very little “original thinking” in 99% of carp rigs today. Almost all carp rigs are just an evolution on someone else’s ideas or are designed to encourage people to buy more rig components. The main exceptions to this in recent years ( after the hair rig) have been the Drig, the Chod rig the combi rig ( and coated braid ) and the now ( thankfully) banned “bent hook” rig. There have possibly been more but these are the ones that I can think of and the ones that I use or have used on occasion.

This rig is the product of several years of thinking and would not have been possible with out ” a little help from my friends”. To explain, earlier in 2009 I was a little annoyed that I couldn’t get a good hook hold which was strange as when I 1st started to use long shanked hooks that is all I got but over time I managed to migrate to short hairs and stiff flurocarbon and the hook holds got poorer and poorer. Then a chance discussion with a mate ( who is sponsored) and an impromptu rig clinic on the bank and I was set straight. later in the year whilst on a fishing holiday I had the chance to have a good look at a mates rigs and ( with his permission) incorporate a good chunk of what he was doing into my rig design. Not only did catch rates improve but also losses decreased which was crucial at the time due to the hard fighting nature of the fishing the lake.
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Review – CCmoore Meteor

A wise man once said, “bait is unimportant compared to watercraft, any bait if palatable will be eaten *if* the carp can find it”. These words have been the foundation of my carp fishing, however that is not to say that quality bait does not matter, it does matter and matter a great deal. My philosophy behind bait choice is that the bait must possess one of two qualities,
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My 1st Shark !

Ok well not really my 1st as I have caught dogfish off of the Kent coast and a small sand shark off of the coast of South Africa but this was the 1st one for quite a while.

As you know I am in SF at the moment, and whilst I was over here I thought it rude not to try out some of the fishing that the bay offers. A brief skirt around the bay ( well around pier 39) led to the website of San Francisco Boat Rentals run by Captain Tony. An early morning start led me to the boat at 9am sharp ready for a days shark fishing. As I arrived I could see that the tide was really high, amazingly high. As we went out into the bay and started fishing I could see that the water was moving at an amazing rate, indeed a poor sailing boat was having some issues making any headway into the current even with its spinnaker out.

To summarise the day, I had a really good time and would recommend Tony’s charter services to anyone, whilst the fishing was slow I am certain that this was due to the amazingly high tide and the conditions that it produced as with that much current the fish were probably not feeding all that well. Anyway only 1 fish was caught ( loads of crabs though) to yours truly and it was a tiny, fin perfect spiny dogfish. After a brief photo op, the shark was gently returned to the water whereupon it swam off strongly. Sadly itg didnt bing friends and it was the last and only action of the day. If the weather / tide changes over the next few days I might try again…. however there are vineyards to be visited 🙂

spiny dog fish

Check out the Golden Gate Bridge behind me, catching a shark ( even one so small) in these sorroundings is a memory I will treasure forever.

Review – Fox Horizon SFD rods

Well some of you may know that I was unhappy with my rods, don’t get me wrong they were fine rods but 2 3/4 lb tc middle / tip action rods were not actually cutting it where I was fishing. I have lightweight rods in my stalking kit so I decided that to go with my new Fox 12k reels ( well not so new now) what better than a set of Fox rods. I had the advantage of a “try before you buy” when I met up with Mark for a quick session earlier in the year and I was very impressed. So armed with this knowledge I bought myself a 3 some of rods off of the Internet.

When the rods arrived it was like Xmas and I couldn’t wait to get on the bank with them, I popped out to Bosbaan for a quick session in August. Well I was noting but impressed. As you can not loose feed in the lake I tend to fish with largish PVA bags or sticks. This used to present an issue to my previous rods as they lacked the backbone to really punch out a 3 Oz lead and bag. Not so with the Fox rods, they load up nice and slow and release all that power exactly where you want them. Some of the casts in the lake are 85-90 yards and with a big bag it is a difficult cast. Sure, anyone can punch a single hook bait out to 150 yards but add a bag and you really sort out the pack. Continue reading “Review – Fox Horizon SFD rods”