Category: Reviews

Delkim Standard Plus long term review

It has been a long time since I used a Heron style alarm, and recently ( whilst clearing through the loft) i found one of my old bite alarms. I marvelled at the technology that we used to use which in those days was, in effect, little more than a bent wire, a resistor, LED and buzzer. How things have changed. When I was a kid I remember opening a Christmas present one year to find a pair of Optonic bite alarms and being so proud and certain that I was going to catch more fish, alas it was not to be 🙂 the alarms don’t catch the fish the angler does. Still try telling that to an 11 year old.
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Eating on the bank part 2 – dried food ahead

As a followup to the last bit of culinary advice I gave, I thought I would do a followup. Whilst I appreciate that if you are doing a long carp session such as a week in France ( or even 5 years) you might want to eat fresh food, for a quick overnighter freeze dried food cant be beaten. Then again our troops exist on these kinds of foods for months at a time and they seem to be doing perfectly fine. Anyway lets look at the food stuffs on the menu, we have 3 freeze dried foods and 1 boil in the bag / reheat. Continue reading “Eating on the bank part 2 – dried food ahead”

Korda Krusha review

It has been a while since I did a review and so I thought I would take a quick look at an item of tackle that has really made my fishing easier, the korda krusha. Many of you may know that I love PVA bags almost every time I cast there is a bag or pva stick on the end as not only does it increase attraction it also protects your hook point and ensures that you hook is not masked by weed or chod.

Due to the above I really love making up stick mixes but disliked crumbing boilies. Whilst you can fish a stick mix that is completely different to your boilie I do like to ensure that there is a healthy amount of crumbled boilie in the stick as well. Depending on how hard your boilies are this can be done with your fingers but after 10-15 boilies you hands will quickly tire. In the past I used to prepare in the kitchen the night before with the blender but this can be problematic as you never know how much boilie crumb you might need.

Enter the Krusha !
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Marukyu Boilies 1st look

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.
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Echo finally an organisation I can believe in

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.

Nash Trax All terrain Evo – 1st look

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.
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Kelly Kettle review

The humble kettle, I don’t know one carp angler who regularly night fishes without one however I bet that 99% of the time they are the basic kind that run on top of the gas or petrol stove. A while ago I was introduced to the kelly kettle made by the Kelly Kettle Company in County Mayo, Ireland by my wife after I asked her to get me a kettle that didnt need gas. After some googling she managed to find a distributor of these kettles and the rest is history. Please note that if you like to cook inside your bivvy this is not the kettle for you. As there is an open flame you want to keep the kettle at least 2 yards away from the bivvy and rods.
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Interesting Carp Blog time again

Well it is about that time that I post about another interesting carp blog, this time one about a Brit carp fishing a long way from home. Niblet’s blog at www.carpfishingblog.com is a blog written about a UK carp angler fishing in Australia. Remember that in Australia carp are considered vermin and an invasive species so it probably is not the easiest species to specialise in there. My hat goes off to him for persevering in difficult conditions to catch carp and have fun. Anyway check out his blog at http://www.carpfishingblog.com/ which appears to be frequently updated and in the current winter in Europe it is nice to see pics with the sun shining down 🙂 makes a difference to Bosbaan .

Eating on the bank – follow the astronauts example

What we all dream of eating on the bank

For years when anglers have eaten on the bank they have been reduced to “Anything that fits in a frying pan or cant crawl out of one” or anything that has “pot noodle” on the outside. Both are perfectly acceptable food stuffs ( well apart from “nice and spicy” pot noodles…) but they suffer from either not being complete meals or needing to be stored  carefully. I am sure that I am not the only one who on a multi night fishing trip has decided to push some food stuffs expiry date to the limit Diarrhea is nasty when you are near a porcelain loo, a disaster if you are out on the bank.
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