This is my pb. I got it on my first ever trip last year! 16lb 8oz

Well here i am again. When i posted the thread a couple of weeks back now of why i wanted to learn to carp fish i got great feed back off the members. Well the person that stuck the most sense into me was gidneyboy. I understood straight away what he ment when he said dont run be for you can walk. He also wanted more detail in my post of what bits i had in the tackle box. He also gave me some advise on what to look for on rigs and stuff like potential death rigs and safe rigs. So most days now i have research about rigs what makes them dangerous to fish and safe rigs. This is where i began to start walking i watched alot of episodes of anglers fishing for carp and gained some knowledge on the tactics they where using. Even tho i do not have the money to buy what the pros have i got my self cheap but reliable rod and reels and a pod.

When i research the internet for some equipment i needed i want down to the nearest tackle shop with a list of what i would have liked to buy. The first thing i bought was 2 packs of size six hooks and...

Saw this disgusting video linked to one of ours.
DO NOT WATCH IF SQUEAMISH contains spearing of carp.
Anyone know wtf they are doing? and why they think they're cool for doing it?
wankers.

Thought i'd post it as sometimes things need to be highlighted to stop, or help stop these things.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDQORzbcQ0o

Where do i begin ? Well i have been fishing now for a couple of years i took up the sport when a couple of friends asked me to join them on a little days fishing. So i agreed after there was nothing else to do on this hot day. Well we arrived at this lake i did not have a rod at the time so for a bit i sat and watched it got boring for me not having nothing to do so i messed around as young people do which annoys other anglers. So what i did i snapped a fairly large stick off a tree and tied some line a size 18 hook to the end and i hooked a maggot on the hook. I dipped it in second later i had a fish i lifted it up it was a three spine stickle back i was really made up i decided to buy a rod and carry on going.
when i finaly got a rod and reel we went to a small water night fishing just as we got there my friend seen a large fish surfacing so he tied a piece of bread to it and through it in instantly he had hooked it i took up the job of landing the fish as it got to the net it was a big fish we...

This was originally posted by gidneyboy in another thread. I think it deserves it's own:


If UK anglers really want to get their high horse about anything regarding carp, then we should really look a lot closer to home and the threat that KHV can possibly have on our carp stocks in the future. This virus has the potential to totally wipe out UK carp stocks if we are not careful.
We are now coming into the time of year when this highly contagious virus will start to rear it's ugly head again and it's far more important that we as anglers know about this virus than worrying about something that is happening 3000 miles away.

Once a water has been infected, then it will always be infected, and each outbreak can have a mortality rate of 90% or higher. Pretty drastic measures need to be taken to clear a lake from the virus. These measure include killing every carp in that lake and draining the lake for at least 2 years.

The virus can lay dormant in a lake for years, so an infected lake can look totally healthy but the...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Hx4hB7ZPHQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjVwD9-khpc

Fishing Techniques: Although regarded as a noxious pest in Australia, carp are being fished for deliberately by an increasing number of anglers. They provide good sport when hooked and, in many regions, are available in far greater quantities than the more desirable freshwater species. Carp are usually fished for with lightly weighted, un-weighted or float-suspended baits of bread, dough, maggots, sweet corn kernels, par-boiled baby potatoes, earthworms, shrimps, yabby tails or freshwater mussels. They can be readily attracted and excited by berleying or ground baiting with stale bread, soaked chicken-feed pellets, maggots or sweet corn. Carp are also taken at times on flies and small to medium lures. Regardless of how or where they are taken, all European carp should be killed humanely and disposed of well away from the water.

Eating Qualities: In the past, carp were regarded as inedible in Australia, however they are slowly gaining acceptance in some quarters as a table fish. Carp flesh is soft, watery and full of bones....

Float Fishing
Float fishing is one of my favoured methods for catching carp. I have probably caught more carp float fishing than any other method. Most of the venues I fish are small shallow ponds where using lots of lead is just not necessarily. I much prefer to use light gear to catch reasonable sized carp. Catching a 10 pound carp on a very light float rod is a lot more exciting than catching one on a very heavy duty carp rod. The 12LB carp in the photograph to the left was caught using float tackle on a CTB match rod and 3lb line. If you are disabled and strength is an issue, then there are plenty of extremely light rods on the market that you will not even know you are holding once they are strapped to your arm. The other advantage with float fishing is you don't actually have to cast. A lot of carp will feed virtually under your feet so all you have to do is plonk the float three or 4 feet from the bank, even less, I have caught fish 6 inches from the bank.



...

Generally, as water temperatures cool the carp, particularly in water with limited stocking levels, will become lethargic during the winter months and feed for very defined periods. Only by gaining experience on a particular water will you learn when those periods are.

A structured approach from many anglers is to fish with very little if any free offerings, in favour of dipped single baits or stringers etc. Fishing right through the last two winters I have personally found that this approach may not always be the best and a sensible introduction of bait during the session can pay dividends encouraging lethargic fish into moving therefore searching for bait which otherwise they would ignore.

My own top winter baits are sweet corn used in conjunction with trout pellets, betamine pellets and / or hempseed. If I am attacking a water where tiger nuts are allowed, then I will take some with me that have been cooked in coca cola. These used with hemp can be absolutely devastating on the right...

The name The Monument is derived from the old relic that is located on a hill overlooking the fishery. It is the remains of an old water windmill
The Monument as of today has over 300 fish of which 294 are original stock that are still only 8 years old. Now we also have an unknown quantity of magnificent 3 year old fish weighing between 8lb-16lb.

The Monument holds: -
30 x doubles, 200 x 20’s. ,Over 60 x 30’s up to 39lb ,At least 5 x 40’s

Record fish: carp 49lb
website: www.themonumentcarpfishery.com/
phone: 01952 463141
nearest town: Shifnal, 1 mile

Carp reels will need to be matched to thecarp rod. Depending on the distance you are going to be casting and the line strength and diameter you will be using, you need a reel that can hold the amount of line required. Choice of actual carp reel is very much a personal thing and you need to be comfortable with whatever you choose. I would recommend trying a carp reel on the rod you will be using it with. A good fitting is essential as is good balance. I would certainly try to buy a carp reel of the baitrunner type. If you are going to be using two rods and maybe waiting for a long time for a run, you can't always watch it the whole time, and a carp needs to be able to pull line free from the reel before you can strike. If it can't then a big carp can pull the whole rod and reel into the lake; believe me, I have seen it happen more than once! OK, so you could open the bail arm, but try this on a windy day and you will wish you hadn't. It can also produce disastrous messes on a strike if you forget you have done it. A baitrunner is simply a mechanism whereby a switch is set...

How do Carp Digest their Food?

To explain why certain baits are attractive to carp, we need to understand something about its digestive system. Inside the carp’s mouth, the buccal cavity is lined with a folded membrane with tough ridges. The mucosa is covered in microscopic projections called papillae and is richly provided by mucus goblet cells and taste buds. The palatal taste organ on the top of the mouth traps the food against the bottom of the mouth. Non-food items are expelled through the gills. Larger items are spat out. Approximately 97% of what the carp takes in is ejected. At the back of the mouth are the pharyngeal teeth. These are aligned in three rows on each side of the mouth, with three teeth in the innermost row and one tooth each in the two outer rows. The teeth are positioned below a tough calcified pad. Food is ground between it and the pharyngeal teeth. The duct which carries the ground up food to the intestine and receptive sack is called the oesophagus. It is lined with...

The Weather Changes in the UK and How it Potentially Affects Carp Behaviour and Feeding


Evidence suggests that European monks introduced carp into the UK around the turn of the 17th century. Since then, anglers have been studying the carp and its environment as a means of locating and catching the fish. In the 1990s, much work was done to determine the impact of the moon, wind direction, air pressure changes, oxygen content and water temperature on carp behaviour.

The Moon

Questions have arisen as to whether the moon phases affect carp fishing. Many saltwater fishermen use solunar tables to calculate prime fishing times. The tables are based on a combination of moon phases and sun/moon rise/set times and rate the various time periods each day. There is some computer software available that can do solunar calculations, but these are usually only suited to North America. It is uncertain how moon phases would affect freshwater fishing as there is no tidal factor to consider.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoBFEdTdhHU