Nuts about Carp

Nuts about Carp's creation has come about because of the love we have for our fantastic sport. It is our intention to develop the site to cater for all beginners and seasoned specialists alike. Hopefully you will all find something on here of interest to you.

Covering all aspects from tackle, tactics and watercraft, rigs and leads, swim choice, venues, bait and not forgetting most of all Carp Care. Although primarily aimed at Carp fishing, the site will include other species, reports and guest writers too! Hopefully this should give plenty of scope and interesting articles for all to read.

I have been an all-round angler for some 28 years now. My fields being aimed more at Carp and Match fishing though. I also regularly Sea fish and Fly fish too for Trout, Salmon & SeaTrout. I have studied fish at college and worked on fish farms breeding Carp, Koi and Ornamentals. I have also been involved in the production of Salmon eggs and worked as a sales consultant for a fly fishing company.

Above all this Carp have always stayed at the top of my list for targeting regularly and I can be seen on the banks most weekends bivvied up for the duration or sat in a quiet corner stalking that elusive big fish.

My co-writer is my best mate of some 20 years now. We went to school together, he was my best man at my wedding and we've shared a lot of fantastic times together on and off the bankside too.

Stuart is a seasoned pro on the rivers and can be found on his 'very local' River Avon in Hampshire chasing those elusive 16lb+ monster Barbel. Stu has many other skills developed in both match and carp fishing. His best carp stands at well over 47lbs and he has a huge list of other big fish to his name as well. Stu fishes almost every day and you will hear a lot about his and my exploits in the following pages.

There is a page dedicated to our fishing reports which I do hope you'll find interesting, amusing and Im sure probably sometimes damn right hilarious as it doesn't all ways go to plan. There's always some sort of mayhem to report, from being thrown in 3 times for three different personal best fish in one night. To Stuart getting covered from head to toe in mud and cow muck whilst trying to help me move my stuck car out the goo!

We'll discuss baits and introduction methods, lines, hooks and the latest rig ideas too. Hopefully finding something that works!

I like to prepare all my own baits and I hope to share with you all my successes and failures. A lot of my fishing is done on small ponds, some gravel pits and I regularly head abroad with Stuart for a weeks Carp hunting. So far we have caught Carp up to 50lbs abroad and over 30lbs here in the UK. We both like to fish for alternative species regularly to add a bit of flavour to our fishing. Stuart is mad keen on his Barbel fishing and I must admit to having a bit of a soft spot for them too. Most of our time is spent on the Hants Avon and Dorset Stour where we have taken specimens to 14lbs+. As I said earlier Stuart currently has his eyes set on a particular fish over 16lbs+ and if I know Stu he'll catch her this new season. Good luck bro! 

We are hoping to develop the site more and more each week and I hope that you guys reading this will enjoy it and have lots of input too. Please do use the Forum and the Email link to send me any pics and catch details you have and lets make this a really cool site! Alternatively if you just want to chin-wag or have a question then send me a mail anyway and we can discuss any fishing things you like.

Carp fishing and Carp catching are two different entities in them selves. Fishing for is one thing but actually catching them is another! Sometimes I have sat for a week with just a single run to show for my efforts and then there are the sessions that you cant seem to do a thing wrong. We all hope and pray for these magical sessions but unfortunately they are far out weighed by those blanks or very slow ones.

Saying that there are those incredible trips that it all comes together for you and the bait, swim, weather and fish feeding all seems to happen together and suddenly magical things happen.

By discussing these trips that 'come together' we can get an overview of why all these aspects affect our angling results and what we can do to improve our chances of catching again next time.

It doesn't matter how good the tackle, angler, bait, weather or venue, sometimes you just wont get a take and I do feel that fate does play a big part of our fishing. When things get hard and your struggling to find the enthusiasm to get all that kit out and get down to that frozen bank side, maybe its time to take stock and have a think about why you go fishing in the first place?

Yes, we all love fish but. We love the peace and tranquility of that secluded lake. Being there is possibly the biggest aspect of all. Catching fish is second to this. If the fishing is hard and your struggling again and again on that hard gravel pit, improve your chance of catching and increase your confidence by changing venue. Select somewhere with more 'easier to catch fish'. There's no shame in admitting defeat sometimes, I've done it many times and it's always worked for me. You just need to put a bend in the rod sometimes to get you back on track!

I hope that the following pages help you do just that.

Tight lines.

Keith & Stuart.

 

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