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 A number of times over the last couple of years various people have suggested that I do a blog. I have never started one as I kept thinking who want’s to read my waffling meanderings anyway I owe a man, Roy, a big thank you and he has asked me to do something so here goes. I will start with a very brief intro and then bring you up to date with the last 10 months or so.
Having Carp fished for over 35yrs I have been through most of the phases that us Carp Anglers tend to go through, total fanaticism when every spare moment was spent on the bank, to now a days where a much more laid back attitude prevails. I can say without reservation that today I enjoy my fishing as much as I ever did if not more.
Over the years I have had some cracking fish of all sizes and often some of the smaller fish have been the prettiest. One of my better Mirrors is a nice fish of 43lb 10oz.
And one of my best Commons to me personally, not the biggest by far, was a cracking fish of 27lb 12 oz. my first fish from Englefield Lagoon a very hard local water of 45acres with a very low stocking for it’s size, the lake was considered busy if there were more than 6 anglers fishing it.
I have to say that as much as I love catching big Carp size is not the most important factor I just love Car
p fishing, the whole scenario, the people and culture, well most that is and everything Carpy. Over the years I have met many fantastic people along with the odd A*****e thrown in, making I like to think some very good friends along the way. The banter and the atmosphere that is part of most Carp lakes is fantastic with many an hour whiled away putting the Carp world to rights over a few cans or a brew or two.
Much is talked and written about in respect of the technical aspects of our sport, bait, rigs and tackle so I will refrain from the general in depth discussions and restrict myself to my own fishing and what works for me.
Up until fairly recently my personal fishing has been restricted to some extremely hard waters local to where I live, waters where the fish don’t all have names and aren’t rammed with anglers from bank to bank. This adds an additional element to my fishing as you never know what that next run will produce, the fish of a lifetime or a new pretty double steadily building itself into the next monster.Generally however it will mean that my catch rate will seem extremely low to many but as I’ve said circuit waters and the rat race aren’t my cup of tea. I suppose the nearest I ever come to that is fishing the “World Carp Classic” in France each year, which I have done regularly now for the last 6 or 7 years, but more about that a little later.
 A year or so back now I became aware of a company called Marukyu, a Japanese company who for many years has specialised very successfully in producing very high quality foods for Kio Carp. Marukyu had decide to enter the UK bait scene, given their background I found this very interesting as their expertise was unquestionable. I was therefor very keen to see what they had to offer and watched the UK development with great interest. Towards the middle of last year I started to use one or two of their products namely the EFG142 Explosive Ground Bait and the Special Formula Additives which I have found make up my perfect bag mix, I am convinced that this has helped put a few fish on the bank from some not too easy waters and not always Carp
As always as soon as the bookings opened Paul and I had entered the “World Carp Classic” once again. Once this competition gets hold of you you can’t let go, the atmosphere and camaraderie is just fantastic and over the years we have made many friends from many countries. As individual anglers we have been very lucky in that we have consistently been able to find some one willing to sponsor us with bait and on occasions tackle etc. Unfortunately for us our sponsor of several years advised that in the current financial climate they could no longer sponsor unknown individual anglers so it was looking as if this year we were on our own. Over the years I have entered the competition we have done OK winning a Section the first year and another year coming 18th over all out 130 pairs so over the 7 yrs. I have fished the competitions I don’t think that a bad result. But this year it looked as if we were fishing for ourselves which in some ways is nice because it takes off some of the pressure which is rightly there when someone has put their faith in you and sponsored you with bait and/or tackle.
At the beginning of March Paul and I went to the Farnborough Carp Show which is right on our doorsteps as I live in Reading and Paul in Basingstoke so is all very convenient. As always at these shows we bumped into various friends and acquaintances always an enjoyable element of such events. Towards lunchtime after many stops for cups of tea and coffee a familiar sign caught my eye, there in front of us was the Marukyu stand laden with loads of goodies and lots of people to chat to. For the next couple of hours we talked nothing but bait, looked at various bait components and how they reacted in the test tanks all of which confirmed that my approach with my bag mix had been correct. Over lunch we talked of nothing but the Marukyu baits and the advantage they would give us at Lac de Madine. After lunch we returned the stand and started questioning various people about possible sponsorship, eventually we were pointed in the direction of Roy, Roy Marlow that is, Development Director of Marukyu UK, he was in very high demand and consequently very busy so after a very brief chat he gave me his email and said to contact him the following week when he was back in the office, but warned that he had all but used up his budget for this year. As requested I contacted Roy and we discussed various options regarding the sponsorship and kept in touch over the next few months and around August Roy confirmed that he would provide us with bait for the competition, star man. A couple of weeks later various boxes of goodies were delivered to my home address and as I looked through the contents I knew that all we needed now was a reasonable swim in the draw. See for yourself, quality bait with a totally different approach – http://marukyu.co.uk/
For our sins my fishing partner Paul and I help out Ross Honey the founder and organiser of the “World Carp Classic” by organising and transporting the Sparsholt Marshal Team for the event as well as vital equipment needed for the organisation and logistics of running such a large international event – http://www.worldcarpclassic.com/ Late 2010 Ross also launched the “World Catfish Classic” to be fished on the mighty river Ebro at Chiprana in Spain. The inaugural event took place at the beginning of June and the 28th May 2011 saw me boarding a plane as part of the support team for the event along with a Team of Sparsholt guys who would support and Marshal the event. What a 10 days we had with anglers coming from as far as the States to take part.
 Prior to the event Ross had launched “The Friends of the Ebro” campaign to fight the abuse of the fish and litter problems that are so prevalent in that area. Prior to the event the marshals and local volunteers removed something in the region of 25tons of litter – http://www.worldcatfishclassic.com/component/content/article/42
All in all the “World Catfish Classic” and the “Friends of the Ebro” campaign were both massive success. The competitors caught cats to 91 kilo and the competition went right to the wire with the winning fish being caught in the last 30min, the winning margin a massive 0.6 kg. How close was that when you consider the massive size of the fish being caught! Everyone had a fantastic time so roll on the “World Catfish Classic” 2012 can’t wait to get back out there. Caught my first Cat one evening off the jetty next to the Barak where we were based during our stay, not massive but I was happy which is all that counts.
 By the time I got back from Spain my local syndicate waters had closed as they run a closed season from the end of May through to the end of July. By the time I’d sorted things around the house the BCSG AGM was upon us. So on Friday 24th June it was off up to Northamptonshire with my tackle and a large cooler box full of meat for the BBQ, to Alan Taylors syndicate waters for a long week-end as I ended up staying until the following Wednesday. I have to say that until the Monday morning not much serious fishing was done, plenty of drinking and socialising and of course the all important AGM. Suffice it to say that a good time was had by all and we didn’t poison anyone with the BBQ, well not as far as I’m aware anyway. Great venue, thanks Alan, great company , good food and plenty to drink so a good time was had by all.
Unfortunately for me the fish decided sex was of more interest than my baits and no matter what I tried, and I did, the indicators remained motionless. I enjoyed my time on Alan’s waters and have now got a good idea of what fish are in that particular lake as they cavorted in front of my swim for the next couple of days poking their tongues out at me. Yes I could have packed up and gone home, but hey I had a bait in the water so there was always a chance, the weather was nice and it was a lovely venue so what the hell.
 Having got a new dog at the beginning of the year, a rescue we got from Battersea Dogs Home, has severely restricted my fishing this year. Shouldn’t complain as he’s a cracker but being a Doberman/Staffy cross has meant he has required a lot of work as he was only 7 months when we got him but it’s been worth it as he’s turned into a lovely dog. He has a brilliant temperament, getting on well with all other dogs and he loves people, although at something like 35kg of solid muscle can take some holding.
Every year we spend some time in North Devon with a friend who moved downthere a few years ago. Fortunately Mick is an avid angler and loves to fish at every opportunity. I was never able to convert Mick to a full blown Carp angler, to use his words he like his home comforts too much. Mick lives about 20 minutes outside Barnstable and is fortunate enough to have plenty of decent day ticket water within a 40 minute radius of his home. So it’s feeder rods and and light lines, great fun with Carp ranging from 3lb to mid doubles the average being in the 8lb to 9lb range, brilliant! Using my normal bag mix of the Marukyu Exploding Ground bait mixed up with the Special Formula Additives instead of water produced arm aching action with us catching on average 40 – 50 fish each in a 4/5hr session.
The Friday following my return from Micks saw me driving west again but this time to Herefordshire and the Mecca of Carp Fishing, Redmire Pool. I have been fortunate enough to fish the pool twice before and the excitement never diminishes however many times I go to this magical water. Once you step through that gate it is like walking back in time to an era when everything you fished with you virtually had to make yourself. That schoolboy enthusiasm returns and with every step you take around the pool the anticipation grows.
For many that go to the pool catching is not top of their list just being there is sufficient, looking out over the dam encapsulates it all.Now to see if the Redmire Carp would succumb to the charms of my bag mix of Marukyu goodies, Let’s not forget that there is nothing in Carp fishing that hasn’t been tried at the pool at some time as well as loads of things that never made it into the mainstream of the Carp world. I was in the Evening Pitch and fish were very evident in front of  me, cruising in and out of the fairly prolific weed beds that covered this end of the lake. The occasional fizzing that burst to the surface showed that the fish were feeding even now in the middle of the afternoon., Well I had until midday on Sunday about 46 hrs.’ to try and fool one of these wise old fish that has seen it all, been there, got the T-shirt, so nothing major.
Now to get the rods sorted but first I mixed up a couple of Kilo of my bag mix with the usual Marukyu ingredients together with some small pellet, maize and chopped boilies. I was not going to over feed the swim and as I would only be using 2 rods introduced just 3 orange size balls into each of the two areas where my hook baits would be placed, these areas would be topped up as required.The rods baited, balanced maize on one and double 6mm boilie on the other and both placed in a small PVA bag of” THE MIX” out they went to their allotted spots.
Now to sort out the bivvie and get settled for the week-end ahead and as I did, fish could be heard rolling in the weed beds around the baited areas. Sorted I settled back with a brew to watch the fish fizzing over my baits it looked very promising. Oh well time to sort the BBQ out and get some grub on I suppose as a few hungry guys were starting to arrive in my swim. With plenty of activity in my swim I kept it topped up with an additional ball of bait every two or three hrs. as from the clouding in the swim the Carp were clearly on the baits. Saturday morning came with continued activity but no takes, these fish were very adept at avoiding hook baits that’s for sure. Every one was struggling with the same frustrations, and most of us took to stalking in an effort to get a fish. Paul who was a couple of swims along in the Stumps was having better luck having already landed a couple of nice fish by casting to showing fish in the lighter weed beds. Another shout from Paul had me running to his swim to land another fish and this was a pristine 20lb Redmire Common, nice one Paul.
 Later that day one of my traps did it’s job and a lovely Redmire common graced my net. The mix had done it’s job again as frenzied feeding had been obvious in the swim for most of my visit but these fish certainly know how to avoid your rigs.
All in all another excellent Redmire week-end, a very special venue, excellent company, good food and a few fish as a bonus what more could you ask for. That is what Carp fishing is all about!!
Ok I’m getting there we are now up to August so I am taking a break here to give the fingers a rest. Also I need to get myself sorted for next week-end as I’m off to deepest Kent to fish a couple of Medway Valley Fisheries waters which I am really looking forward to.
By Ralph Dennett
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