BUMPER TIPS SECTION PACKED WITH EXPERT ADVICE TO HELP YOU CATCH BIGGER & BETTER FISH
THIS MONTH’S HIGHLIGHTS:
• Top catches – some of the best big carp you’ve landed recently
• Jacob Worth details 10 steps to follow for urban carping success
• Round-up of the latest tackle l Improve your casting accuracy – Part 1 of Rob Hughes’ new series
GIANT MIRROR TOPS MEGA GRENVILLE HAUL
PAYING close attention to the wind direction proved crucial to Paul Bacon’s big-carp haul from Grenville, with this 59lb 12oz mirror being the biggest of 32 fish landed, nine of which were over the 40lb-barrier.
Faced with an easterly wind on the large Cambridgeshire syndicate water, Paul decided that it was too cold for fish to follow and so, instead, set up in a familiar peg on the back of the chilly breeze. With the wind off his back, he baited a spot at 38 wraps range with a generous quantity of 8mm and 12mm DNA Bug boilies which had been soaked for two days in a matching flavour food liquid.
"I hadn’t fished Grenville since last August, so Paul, the owner, said I could do a longer session than normal," he said.
“Things got hectic pretty quickly but, as the fish in the venue travel in large shoals, I was getting 24-hour spells of almost non-stop action followed by a blank day. This allowed me to catch up on sleep, replenish my rigs and recharge my batteries!”
20-YEAR QUEST COMES TO AN END
AFTER two decades chasing big European carp and catching numerous fish between 50lb and 69lb, Roo Abbott (37) finally fulfilled a long-held dream during a recent trip to Domaine de Bouxier in France when he landed his first ever 70-pounder!
Fishing with his pal, Ben Whittel, the pair enjoyed a carp-filled session on the 52-acre venue, landing a sixty, five fifties, seven forties and two thirties, as well as the lake’s third-biggest resident.
Using a bait boat and echo sounder, they pinpointed some deeper holes in which to position their rigs.
Maggots fished hard on the deck with long-hair blowback rigs tied with OMC size 4 Lock hooks and Blend hooklinks were Roo's winning tactics.
MILTON ABBAS HAT-TRICK
LATE winter and early spring carping is often associated with bright single hookbaits cast at showing fish – but Stuart Morgan proved that you shouldn’t be afraid to get a bit of bait out there!
Feeding 4kg of 16mm Sticky Krill boilies throughout his 24-hour session on Dorset’s Milton Abbas, he banked a trio of stunning mirrors to a best of 34lb 2oz.
He presented matching Krill pop-up hookbaits on rigs tied with size 5 Fox Wide Gape Long Shank hooks and 25lb Camotex Semi-Stiff hooklinks.
WELL
