Octoplus Infinity Competition Live and New Carp PB!!

A warm welcome to this week's blog update i hope i find you all well and your nets wet.  Life at the moment is absolute chaos and all i seem to be doing is spending hours upon hours at my desk in work whether during the normal week or then on overtime of a weekend.  What it has meant is any spare time left after spending time with the family has been taken up by sneaking in actual fishing trips and the last thing i have felt like doing after days looking at a screen is loading up the laptop to then write a blog.

The overtime is now coming to an and and i am so relieved, its been a grueller, i have plenty of fishing content saved up so the blogs from now on will be bumper editions as i try to catch up ready for the start of the river season.

So on with the update and what a fantastic update it is with the launch of the Octoplus Infinity Competition with a fabulous 10 ways to enter!!  The next part of the update we look at just how simple my tactics for my carp fishing have been of late and in a world full of hair rigs, balanced baits, pop ups and spodding you can have fun and put fish on the bank with good old classic cheap baits.  The fishing is a few sessions i did on such a method and without really trying too a  PB was broke .

On to the Update...

Octoplus Infinity Competition!!

So around the end of the closed season i was really privileged to have reviewed in detail the Octoplus Infinity Fishing Box.  Working closely with the team at Octoplus it was a pleasure to share this project with them and thanks to all the support the review was given it was agreed to run a competition for someone to win one of these boxes!!

Link to Review: http://satonmyperch.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/octoplus-box-review-and-river-roach-on.html

So the people over at Octoplus have kingly set up a Gleam competition and once you have clicked the link it will present you with 10 options.  Each one of these if selected will give you a chance to enter the competition,  enter all 10 actions and you will have 10 chances to win this fantastic piece of kit.!!

link to gleam comp: https://gleam.io/08J06/competition-win-an-octoplus-bank-seat-box-cushion-worth-97

This box really is a great product for those anglers looking for a study yet light weight box for their fishing, plenty of internal storage and legs already attached for those muddy swims.  i personally will be using this box for my river fishing sessions where i may be walking two of three fields to the river.  It will offer me huge storage for my bait and tackle whilst giving me the option to either stand in the river with my bait waiter of sit down level with the water on the box.  A great bit of kit and one i can not wait to get out and get some use from.

Simplicity Itself - Carp Talk and Carpin' Tactics.....

It is safe to say i might be the only person out there in this decade who has a PB of 10lb3oz, in fact i think there may well be a good head of kids under 5 with a better pb carp.  In essence it is just not something that has been part of my fishing, i grew up on the canal fishing for roach and bream and then moved onto the rivers in recent years.  I did dip my toes into the carp scene a few years ago but in all honestly i think i chose the wrong venue to target, idiots casting, sorry walking, baits metres form my baits and the constant smell of weed floating over on the wind, in short it just wasn't what i call fishing.

The upside of this was i had some solid bite alarms and carp rods that put me in good stead for my pike fishing and ironically enough till the start of this closed season i had certainly caught more pike on them than carp, i think i still may have.  So this closed season came along and with it plenty of over time in work was up for grabs.  Full two day weekends meant there was no chance of a full session on the canal and i needed something that would fit in nicely and into my lap carp fishing fell.  It fit perfectly as i could finish work and be fishing in a matter of half an hour.  So tackle wise i literally have been hitting the bank with two bank sticks with bite alarms, two rods set up with method feeders, a landing net and a bucket full of bait and unhooking mat.

This set up means i can hit the bank with two rods made up, remove the sleeves put the rod together and in the time it takes my pellets to soak i am ready to cast in.  Bait wise it is, as regular blog readers would expect, very simple.  Over the coming blogs there will be many carp blogged about and apart from a session on Cheshire fisheries they have all been caught on baits a simple as bread, corn, micro pellets and a Can of Stinky Stuff.

I am a firm believer in the rule that the actual bait pays the least importance to catching fish and location, time of day and most of all keeping quiet.  You place a bait in front of a fish that feels safe and has no danger receptors alerted you will catch it.  In corn and bread i have baits that i can target the fish on the top and the bottom.  In all fishing there are little edges you can add to get that bite quicker and that for me is where the stinky stuff comes in to play.  Sprayed in the bag of crusts before the session i feel adds that scent into the water and it is interesting how the carp hunt out that smell, a additive that i have up most confidence in.

It all in action you are left with a mobile set up that means you can move on the fish as you see them with ease, this is something that has deffinitly come form my piking sessions over winter, travel light you are more likely to move than if you have set up camp in one swim with the kitchen sink.  Literally not shown in this picture is my landing net and unhooking mat.

Mornin Carping...

So after the session in the previous blog it was clear i had hit on a part of carp fishing i enjoyed.  The location, intimate and atmospheric, grabbed me from the start and it was clear there would be many a hour spent chasing carp here.  A early morning trip and i was pleased to find my mate Ste already bent into a fish on my arrival.  A quick catch up and a few pics taken for him i decided to set up net to him and have a short session hopefully catching a few carp and a catch up, it had been a few weeks since our last pike session.

Casting in i reckon it had been about a minute max before the rod ripped off and i was playing the first carp of the session.  A small common carp was my early reward, a quick snap on the mat and it was back in.  I then lost two more carp hook pulls which was not ideal but we had both caught and on any social its always the aim.

Fishing two rods on the method i felt sure more runs would come but it was some time before my next take and boy was it a savage one with line oozing from the spool a proper one toner!!

Just before packing up time around 9am i had my final take of the session and it was a lovely hard fighting mirror carp that shook my pb as it hit the scales at 9lb8oz, only just over half a pound out, being so close it warranted a picture.

Glad I Decided To Go!!!

So Sunday came and walking around walton gardens i visited the carp pond they have there, a high light of any trip.  It does day dont feed the fish but as an angler you just can not resist. On the day it was not so much bread they wanted but cheesy wotsits!  They wet bloody mad for the things!  Any how seeing these fish certainly got me in the mood for a trip out carping.

Arriving around 6pm I decided to try a new swim and a new tactic.  To this point i had mainly cast into open water but on this session i decided to fish to a sunken snag feature.  I knew i would have to be quick on the rod placed here and early pressure on the fish would be essential so i tightened up the bait runner tension, if only i knew what i was doing haha.  Two rods in with one to my right in the margin i was all set and i sat back to enjoy the evening.  Method feeders on pellets with corn on the hook and a good spray of the stinky stuff before it went out.

Well what can i say only to say i say a prayer very time i relive this moment.  Little taps on the rod tip and then the tip belted round and with it the but if the rod went with it at a 90 degree angle the only thing that saved my rod as the reel landing and hitting the edge of the peg! A savage take and i was amazed when the carp came it it was only a small one!  Heart in my mouth i can tell you.

The drag altered a little the rid was straight back out and no sooner had i set the drag than the right hand rod tore off.  Again a wild take and a scrappy fight from a lovely fully scaled mirror carp.  This was followed by a lull in activity and i was made up to be visited by dave.  A regular on commercial scene he explained how the small carp really tear of but i will know the better ones as the fight and the take will be a lot slower.

The fish then seemed to move into the area i could see a group moving just under the water and the line bites had started again but this time large plucks on the line rather then the odd rattle.  The taps built till the rod screamed off and what a weird looking fish it was a common with a odd shape to it.

This was followed seconds later by a nice mirror carp and was the best of the session so far at 8lb.

Both rods back out on the spots and all hell then broke lose.  A run on the right hand rod was quickly hit and being played and slipped the net under when seconds later my right hand rod swung round, absolute chaos!! Two fish in as many minutes and both rods had been wiped out!.A double hook up and two carp in the net at once.

The two fish rested and returned we where getting on for the 8pm.  A method feeder loaded with the hook covered i made probably the best cast i have made in a long time, it went straight through some over hanging branches with the weight of the feeder pulling the line down through them so in effect my bait was literally under the branches of a tree.  A peach of a cast and that rod was not getting moved for all the money in the world.

A good 20 minutes passed before the rod showed any interest and then taking me by surprise i had a "beep....Beep" on the alarm and a hunger bounce on the rod tip.  I hit it and was met with a solid pulling of a carps head.  Sinking the rod tip i kept pressure on the fish and thankfully she moved out into the main body of the water.  Keeping deep and dave a little quieter than normal i thought this is a better fish.

My arm aching and i had not even seen the fish dave said he thought it was a better on as it seems a harder fight, no screaming runs just a dogged battle of attrition.  Eventually she came up and i took my chance, she was a better fish for sure and i just hoped it beat my personal best. She went 11lb 10oz on the scales so it was a new personal best by a good 1lb8oz.  

A nice common and i decided after this fish it was time to pack in.  Not that there was not fish in the swim but i knew better fish where sure to come on this adventure and a new personal best was good enough for me.  You have to remember here in piking i went from 14lg straight to 21lb in quick time.  I wanted to enjoy the little milestones in carp fishing as they come along and i knew i still had a great chance of beating this PB next time out.

Till next time,

tight lines

danny