These last couple of weeks with the river season here, i have been fishing it alot, with a couple of friends. we have had a number of carp recently, the only negative is that they have not been any particular size. When it comes to tactics i am fishing tight to the far bank or the near bank, the carp have mainy been caught off snowman rigs, or balanced baits. I tend to use solid pva bags as well. Here are some recent capture pictures.

This weekend i did 24hours down dog lane, the session started of slow with no carp until 5am, it was only 5lb. Through the day the hot weather brought the carp into the the margins and to the surface and i have 7 other carp, all under 10lb though. I had them mainly, on the good old beach caster rig and small pva bags with 10mm tutti fruity pop ups on. Towards the end of the day when it started to cool down, i jumped into a swim which became free, and within the last half an hour i had this 14lb ghost carp, not massive but still a decent fish to end the session.

Redmill is beautiful old estate lake, stuffed with big carp and nice surrondings. im aiming for a 40+

Over the last few weeks ive been having a look at the river and things are looking good for the season ahead. i have started my baitng strategy allready, im putting 5kg of pellits and boilies out twice a week, over a few different spots. Its not cheap but hopefully i will reap the rewards over the summer. i will keep you updated

over the winter and early spring i have been fishing a runs water near me called dog lane, i have fishied it on off for about 3 years, and had carp up to 23lb. since the owner swaped the lakes over it has increased in popularity, so now the carp pool is much beter and has some much bigger carp and a few sturgeon. most the time the carp have been coming at night or ive been on my own so there are a lack of pictures. At dog lane ive found that fishing margins over a moderately baited area works best. Here are a few that i actually got on camera:

I have been having a think over christmas holidays, and tryed to decide wat my targets are for 2010, and this is what i ahave come up with.

     1×30lb+ uk carp

     15×20lb+ uk carp

     5×20lb+ river carp

     1×7lb barbel

     2x uk catfish

i will review this at the end of the year and see how i did.

I started on saturday morning with perfect weather conditions, strong winds blowing straight towards me and a dark overcast sky. At 10pm on the saturday night i had my first run, which ended up with a 17lb mirror carp on the bank, which was on a snowman rig in a solid pva bag. I also had a few tench during the night. Then as dawn breaks i have another run and land a 24lb 7oz linear mirror carp, on the same rod. After then the wind dies down and i didnt catch on the sunday night.

A few weeks ago i took my mate dom for his first proper nights carp fishing, on the avon. The first night came and dom caught a decent carp at 12lb. Morning came and we both decided to do another night, which was a good idea. As the light faded on the second night, i had a screaming run and landed a 11lb common. Then it was doms chance again, as him rod screamed of and had a hard battle with a river carp, he landed his pb carp at 14lb. then before the session finished i got a 12lb common. We were catching these on mainline cell and dynamite malt chocolate in pva bags, fished at the back bank.

This year saw me and my mate go to abbey lakes in central france, we fished fox pool for the week, with little succses this year. The week started slowly with only 2 runs on the first three nights, and still no carp in the net. we decided for a change of tactics and moved to the shallow water on the other side of the lake. On the forth night my mate landed himself a 36lb mirror carp. The rest of the week was dull with little carp coming out of the lake, no the best weeks fishing, but there is allways next year.

In 15 days im off to abbey lakes in france, after some monster carp can’t wait.