English based company Quest Baits Ltd supply bait in many different countries but up until now have not really pushed to get a foot into the Dutch market but this is now about to change.

I was talking to Quest Baits owner Shaun Harrison about this and he explained that Quest Baits had been very fortunate in its growth and have always been able to sell everything they make so haven’t had to go out to find new markets.

He explained he had websites in different countries but now felt it only right to start exploring some of the other countries close to the U.K. Quest Baits now have a much larger production and storage capacity than ever before.

So, having struck a deal to allow F.N.E. Trading in Amsterdam to distribute the range through the Netherlands he was delighted to hear that they would be showing a good selection of the Quest Baits range at the mighty Carp Zwolle fishing show.

With visitors from all over Europe this is the place to be, if you want to promote your bait.

Being a Quest Baits consultant Frans Nestor from F.N.E. Trading invited to come along and help out at the show. I travelled through a very icy Holland to get to Zwolle and be at the Carp Fishing Show on the 4^th & 5^th of February.

My job? Share my experiences on Quest Baits with the many visitors.

Together with a couple of other enthusiastic people we worked hard throughout this weekend in an effort to make the visitors more familiar with the boilies, pellets, pop-ups glugs & dips of the Quest Baits range. A range of baits which is distinguished by the use of pure ingredients, as you yourself would in the kitchen.

The reactions of visitors to the stand were very positive and resulted almost every time in interesting conversations on people’s individual view on carp angling.

The highlight of the weekend was the introduction of Quest Baits newest addition to the range, the Magnum White. Tested in England with very good results by Shaun Harrison and a few selected friends.

Looking back on this weekend, I think it is safe to say that Quest Baits made a great debut at the show and we’ve made good progression on promoting it!

Best wishes

Patricia

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• Sometimes good things come in small packages (2)

Hi,

We are off to Lords lake in May, and was hoping for some advice on what bait to use and the size you think best, ?

Also I am looking to re-line my reels, have you any recommendations on the best line to use, all help greatfully recieved.

many thanks,

Bev

i caught this one on Ghurkka Spice in Slovenia. I'd use it anywhere in the world.

Hi Bev,

It’s a refreshing change to receive a question from a female angler.

I’m afraid I haven’t fished Lords Lake but if I were visiting it in May I would take a couple of baits with me so that I could ring the changes. Almost certainly in May I would have a  fish based bait with me. Something like Special Crab or the new Squid Berry which will be released in March.

As an alternative bait the two most instant ones on waters where they are used for the first time seem to be Rahja Spice and Ghurkka Spice. Both are very different to each other. The Rahja utilises human grade spices and smells like an Indian Curry whilst the Ghurkka Spice is more coca nutty with a more gentle spice blend. I would be happy to use either of these spice baits anywhere in the world at any time of the year. Here is a link telling you a little more about the boilies. http://www.questbaits.com/results.php?category=1

I did a Google search for Lords Lake and see that Angling Lines have it on their books. I’m guessing you have seen this on their site http://www.anglinglines.com/Lords/

Here is a video link of how I tackle new (to me) waters in France which is still very relevant to my fishing now. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsdWCc-fRSU&feature=player_embedded

Regarding line I have bench tested literally 100′s of different lines over the years as I had 25 years working in a busy fishing tackle shop so was sent lots of different things for assessment. Rarely did manufacturers claims match up to the tests I did with the lines. All the lines would be tested fairly the same way. I had to test lines that I certainly had no intention of using but still needed an unbiased opinion when asked about them.

The one carp fishing line that has stood head and shoulders above all others that I have tested has been the P-Line Extrusion (also called Evolution in some countries). I have used this myself for several years now. It lasts on the spool for a very long while, casts nice and has incredible abrasion resistance and superb  ’actual diameter’/'actual breaking strain’ ratio.

After deciding a few years back that this was the best line I could find I have continued to use it and mention to people about it. Line is a personal thing though and most will tell you such and such is better. Interesting though and refreshing assurance for my personal line testing methods is that Terry Eustace (Gold Label) invited various British Carp Study Group members to take their favoured lines with them one night to a B.C.S.G. meeting and he put them all on his line testing machine.

Nothing compared to P-Line Extrusion.

Never pay a lot of attention to what line says on the label as it is rarely accurate.

P-Line 0.34/0.35mm breaks consistently over 20lb knotted. 0.34mm is the sort of diameter you buy when purchasing most 12 and 15lb labelled spools and is my standard carp fishing line.

I hope the two bits above are of help.

Best wishes

Shaun Harrison.

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Which bait and size do you think I need for my Laroussi trip in April?

Shaun Harrison answers:

Definitely take some Rahja Spice with you. It has been a firm favourite at Laroussi for many years, particularly in the smaller sizes too. The Laroussi fish like 10mm’s but it is worth mixing the bait size a little. The lake record has fallen to Rahja Spice on more than one occasion. If I were going this coming year I would also take an alternative with me to ring the changes and that would probably be the Ghurkka Spice. I know they both have ‘Spice’ in their names but are very different to each other hardly sharing any ingredients at all other than the obvious eggs and chilli.

Hope this helps
Shaun

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As a child, I would follow my father every time he went tracking pikes by boat on French lake or when he went fishing roaches with live bait that smelt so lovely that it made you feel like tasting them. Being at the water’s edge makes me feel good and have a huge breath of air long ago.

Then came that famous day on the river bank where we had settled for carp. There was a dazzling, start, a magnificent fight. This moment will be engraved in my memory for ever and that was the first of countless nights spent tracking Dame Carp on the water’s bank. I started on little brooks with superb fighting common carp, and then went on angling on great lakes with the lake of SALAGOU, PANNECIERE in France.

I am still looking forward to spending time at the water’s edge. Learning new techniques again and again, living new fishing situations. I am very proud of bringing my contribution to Quest BAITS and being next to great anglers such as Mr. Shaun HARRISON and the whole team. I am addicted to Rahja spice and Special crab, which have brought me many fish over the year.

See you soon at the blog Quest baits. Email: romu.bayon@free.fr

Romu…

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Marwan Abed

maali-saleh@hotmail.com

Message:

Hi all,

Being lost two years in the web sites I realized that there is a lot of talk around Fishing but there is a little about fishing process itself . As a river carp and barbel angler in the Euphrates ( Euphrates is a large river pass through Syria) I face a problem when legering with fairly heavy lead (let’s say 1 to 1 3/4 onz ) With soft bait ( as a paste or luncheon meet), the problem is that after one or two Tugs (short bite, thirty or forty CM ) the bait break apart and the hook becomes Bait less so there is no chance for long pull witch might enable me to strike and set The hook, , Can anybody tell me how to deal with this or where to find such tactic information.

I know that maybe a hair rigged boilies is a kind of solution but what if I still like To fish with paste and luncheon meat ,also I cannot resort to bolt rig because it require Heavier lead ( above 2 onz) .

Best regards

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21lb winter scaly

Winter is always the hardest part of the year for catching carp. This year I have been adjusting rigs and fishing different hook baits to try and get me that extra bite. I’ve been using pop up rigs lately and having some good results. The best fish being a stunning 21lb scaly mirror.

Last winter was a very hard time for me as I did about 30 sessions and blanked them all. I Lost fish so I was doing something right to get the bites but I just couldnt land them! Having so many blanks in a row really got my confidence to a very low point. That’s why this year I wanted to up my game and try and get a few fish.

So far I have had 7 fish in 7 sessions. Fishing on my local club water and a few day ticket waters, I have fished lakes about 2-3 days after they have thawed out and knew it was going to be tough I have also fished lakes that have been half frozen when I’m there  and I have still managed to get amongst a few. This just shows how much the carp love the Quest Baits I have been using!

Another winter 20 falls to Quest Baits

I have certainly had a better winter already than I did throughout the whole winter last year. When Shaun approached me to be part of the Quest Baits team I felt priviledged to be part of a company that makes such a fine quality of bait. I have had most of my fish this winter on Fruity Trifle. Although I did have a couple on Ghurkka fluoro pop ups including a 20lb mirror.

I am really going to put a lot of effort into fishing in future sessions, I can strongly reccomend to anyone who finds the winter months a tough time to catch carp just to chop and change rigs baits and the spots you are on.You can often have one rod over the bait and one rod you just cast around every 30 minutes to an hour this can make such a difference as the fish normally group up in the winter and once you have found the you should get a few! My killer tactic this winter has been chod rigs and pop up rigs with the fluoro Ghurkka pop ups (yellow).

All carp are most welcome at this time of the year.

Also I used a snowman rig with the fruity trifle bottoms and the chilli chocolate fluros (orange). Around the hook bait I scatter 20-30 baits just so if a few carp do come along it keeps them occupied going from bait to bait. I think bright baits are a very good thing to have in your armoury in the winter because they are brilliant to chuck anywhere and they catch the fishes eye, alot of fish take out of curiosity in the winter. Many lakes ‘shut up shop’ at this time of year as most anglers say. But if you are willing to put the effort in looking for any signs of fish and are prepared to try anything to catch them you will get a couple you can ask most professional anglers about winter fishing and they will say if you dont  think your on the fish move to where you think they might be. After watching a few winter vidoes of the man himself ‘Shaun Harrison’ http://www.questbaits.com/docs/videovault/videoList.php?category=Shaun’s%20Fishing%20Sessions it taught me that going light on tackle so you can move alot easier and bait a few spots to keep your options open.

All of these things can get you those extra couple of fish so the biggest thing I can say is be mobile keep your options open and dont be afraid to experiment!.

Thanks Lee Wheeler.

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• Match Winning with an Apple Core, a cork ball and Rahja Spice Glug! (2)

Warm, high coloured water – perfect !

I was talking to one of my match angling friends at work the other day and he was asking me how I go about locating barbel in the winter, especially on the stretches that I fish, which in general do not hold that many fish.

Most of this guys’ fishing is done on the Middle Severn or River Wye on stretches that hold loads of barbel and other fish. As long as you fish sensibly on areas like the Middle Severn you can catch barbel in literally any conditions. I used to do it myself years ago and have caught barbel with a river temperature of as low has 3.0 Degrees C and an air temperature of 0 Degrees C.

Pick a swim that you know is a hotspot (holds lots of barbel) feed little and often with maggots and you will catch the odd fish even in extreme conditions. This is very similar to the advice a lot of anglers give about winter carp fishing “For a chance of consistent sport pick a water that holds a large number of carp and avoid the hard waters with a low stock density”. This applies to barbel also, pick a prolific stretch and you have far greater chance of  catching a barbel.

However I digress, as I was going to share my thoughts of how I tackle the fishing on the stretches that I fish. I no longer fish area’s that hold lots of fish so my fishing is totally different to that of my match fishing friend.

The first thing that I do now is closely monitor the weather. If the conditions are totally adverse to barbel fishing I now prefer to fish for other species that will still feed properly, pike and chub for example.

If I can see a rising river temperature of 5.5 Deg. C (preferably 6 Deg. C +) then it will be time to get the barbel rods out. If this is coupled with rising river levels then so much the better.

Use proven baits.

Stick to a proven winter bait (winter is not really the time to experiment unless you have found an area with a lot of fish), I would recommend the Quest Baits Rahja Spice and the Special Crab with matching pastes, the latter of which has caught me loads of winter barbel over the last half a dozen winters.

When visiting a stretch for the first time, my standard approach would be to fish a 10mm boilie or a cut down 15mm bait. This will be wrapped in a matching paste. I will add 3 x ½ baits on a pva stringer. This will all be

fished in conjunction with a feeder carrying the mini pellet mix. Using this method (and adding no extra free bait), I would have one cast in each swim that I fancy and generally only stay there for 45 minutes (this is plenty long enough to get a few knocks if barbel are present). On the first couple of trips I would even change swims if I have caught a fish, as I am trying to build up a picture in my mind of a number of swims, thus giving me a few different catching areas. The only downfall with this method is that in the winter the feeding spells can be very short (maybe only an hour) so that by moving about a lot you maybe in a swim that contains no barbel for that short feeding spell. This is worth risking for the first few trips though, as when you have found a few barbel holding spots you can then make sure you are fishing one during a feeding spell.

A chunky Lower Severn barbel, caught after the bait had been in for 1 ½ hours.

Once I have found a few barbel holding areas I am prepared to fish in one swim for the whole of the session, only moving if other anglers are catching and I am not. Whilst fishing (unless the conditions are absolutely spot on) I keep the bait to the bare minimum (as described above) and try to keep the recasting down to say every 1 ½ to 2 hours if possible. I will throw a few baits in when finished (but only a few, as I don’t want to spoil the fishing for others or myself).

Talking about bait, there seems to be a common misconception that in high coloured water you have to use large smelly baits (such has huge chunks of Luncheon Meat), to catch fish. I have found this to be far from the case. Large baits are good when the water temp is still relatively high, but has the winter

A ‘washed out’ – high coloured water Warwickshire Avon double – 1 of 7 fish (3 doubles) caught on a February afternoon.

progresses and the water temperature drops below 7 Deg. C, I have found that even in highly coloured bank high flood water, a good quality chopped down boilie / paste wrap will outscore everything else. This has been proven over many winters now.

So there are a few of my thoughts on winter barbel fishing. Up until the last few seasons I never used to fish for barbel until October and I still think the Winter can offer the best fishing (certainly quieter banks and the fish are in peak condition). On many winter afternoons I have taken a brace of doubles (or more) with only me and my mate on the stretch we were fishing. Stick to a proven bait, keep a close eye on weather and river conditions (can be a small window of opportunity), be prepared to move about and find the fish and you can have some really good barbel sport.

Cheers,

Pat Gillett

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It was time consuming and if I’m honest pretty boring rolling baits but by then the companies that would do it for you had appeared, manufacturing good baits that wouldn’t break the bank.  It didn’t take us long to recognise that they also did the job better than we did and bait making for me soon became a thing of the past.   I did carry on making my own pop ups for a time after that preferring cork ball pop ups to some of the baits that were available at the time. Things change and new ingredients are discovered and now even my pop ups come straight from the jar. Their buoyancy is guaranteed and identical for every boilie, no need to keep tweaking the rigs every time you put a new bait on.

One change to my fishing that buying bait from a company like Quest Baits made to my fishing was the ability to change baits to suit the situation. The range of baits, pellets and hook baits allows us to experiment in a way we never could before and make instant changes.  In the past it was likely we had filled a freezer with one type and size of bait and we would use it for the whole season or even many seasons.   This could be restrictive because as we all know now a change of bait, an alternative hook bait or even a different colour can make a difference to your catches. I usually travel now with at least three different boilies in the car. Often they are in different sizes too.  This is supplemented by Maximum Action Pellets and Micro Feed and glug for extra attraction in my mesh PVA bags.

Amazingly even this sometimes is not enough for me and recently I was looking for a more discreet hook bait for the winter.  I wanted a wafter something I could tailor precisely to the weight of the hook I was using.   I had experimented by trimming the sides an ordinary pop up so I knew it could be done in principal, I just wanted something that would last longer on the hair.  Quest Baits sell base mixes, pop-up mixes and flavours, so after a chat with Shaun I bought some tubs of Natural Pop-Up Mix and Fruity Trifle and Chilli Chocolate flavours.  I needed something to mix with the pop-up mix to take away some of its natural buoyancy and Shaun suggested semolina as it allows a decent leak out of flavour and doesn’t particularly alter the smell of hook baits – plus it won’t mess the rolling up. He did say by adding normal base mix to the mixes the hook baits would water log quicker and as the carp wouldn’t get to eat the hook baits then the semolina (available from most of the larger supermarkets) would be fine for what I wanted to do. After some experimentation I came up with a two to one mix, that’s two spoonfuls of pop-up to one spoon of semolina.  All my bait making equipment had been disposed of years earlier so the baits were hand rolled and cut into small irregular cylindrical sections.  So don’t let the lack of equipment put you of experimenting to produce your own unique hook baits.

Shaun can provide everything you need to create them apart from the semolina (he must be one of the few bait companies that doesn’t have a stock of semolina – they don’t use it) ensuring they complement your usual Quest Baits perfectly.  During tests in the kitchen sink the baited hooked drifted slowly down and lay flat on the bottom, exactly what I wanted.  I forgot to mention that I’ve also over flavoured them, because much of the time they will be used a single hookbaits. I intend to try them out soon and although in winter catches do slow down it will be interesting to see the results. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Cheers Ron Key

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• Shaun Harrison Diary 6 (1)

Living on my own I find it too easy to go through life enjoying myself and in recent years have tended to put more and more decorating type jobs off, thinking ‘I’ll do it next week’ but never do!

I'm quite lucky where I live with a nice choice of walks

I like to have an hour walk in the morning before work with Brook my Staffordshire Bull Terrier bitch.  Being quite fortunate where I live I can alternate this between a wooded hill walk or a river walk without having to get into the car and drive anywhere.

It was during one of these morning river walks that I spotted a few chub in my local river which were larger than I had seen before. Now these weren’t monsters by any stretch of the imagination but were larger than I had realised were living there.

The following morning I was feeding them 10mm boilies and soon our varied dog walks saw us not varying it at all and all of the walks were down the river as I started to get these fish waiting for their breakfast each morning. Brook didn’t seem to mind the ‘same old’ routine as she was included in a few boilies treats herself which she didn’t get on the hill walk.

It was whilst feeding these chub that I stumbled across some barbel – again not monsters but lovely to see on the river where I had first cut my angling teeth. I had caught tiny gudgeon sized barbel there 10 years previously whilst teaching Ruth to trot a float and to be fair had forgotten about them. Now it seemed they had grown on a little and would be good fun to try and catch on such a tiny river. On a stretch of around a mile I had found 5 barbel. 2 pools had 2 in each (along with lots of chub) and one pool had just one and again with lots of chub. I ended up watching and feeding these same 5 barbel every day not actually seeing any others.

Now with just 5 barbel found in a 1 mile stretch and of a size that would hardly raise an eyebrow I found myself surprised at getting really obsessed by trying to catch one of them once the season started.
June the 15^th I couldn’t believe it I was like a kid on Christmas Eve, struggling to get to sleep in anticipation of the new season starting in the morning. I wanted to fish for these fish in daylight hours,  thus not bothering to be there at midnight.
I may as well have simply gone and sat down the river watching and soaking in the atmosphere as I hardly slept that night anyway. Out of bed at silly O’clock and Brook opening one eye as if to say you’d better not be expecting me to get up yet I was soon scuttling off down the track on my own.

To show how confident I was of instant success I actually got the video camera sorted out and on the tripod ready for my first cast (well, lowering of the bait actually) of the season. The chub and barbel had been hammering into the Rahja Spice with gusto every morning  so after a few minutes I was amazed that nothing had happened. I re-positioned the hook bait being convinced that I must have dropped it in weed or something but no. Everything was as clean as a whistle.
15 minutes and I could bare it no longer, I crept forward and peered into the crystal clear pool and for the first time in a few weeks there was not a single fish in sight!

Not monsters but they proved to be a real challenge.

Maybe these fish weren’t going to be the walkover I had first thought they would be? I had been baiting 3 areas over the previous few weeks and neither of these produced a single pluck on the rod tip. I really couldn’t believe it but did find it rather amusing that I had taken everything so much for granted expecting to catch the fish easily that I had been feeding for so long. They had even been hammering 20mm boilies by this stage.

Whilst walking back I spotted 4 chub in amongst some streamer weed and cast a free lined lump of Rahja paste upstream so that it could trundle down in their line of vision. All 4 immediately charged for it and I really didn’t know which had grabbed it but at least I had saved a blank as one of the four fish was soon scuttled over the net.

I then left to pick Brook up for her  hours march before work. Yes, I went back to where I had fished and then realised why I had perhaps found pools devoid of fish as another angler was coming back from further upstream. I am now convinced he had fished the same pools before me – it would explain a lot.

Blast from the past carp angler Nige Cobham.

The following day I found myself driving down to the Bristol Avon to fish a guest session with carp fishing blast from the past Nige Cobham. We had both been promising this trip for about 5 years but somehow or other we had not finalised a date. It was originally going to be the last week-end of the previous season but family health issues had put paid to that one so we decided upon a gentlemanly laid back leisurely trip for the first week-end of the following season. I liked the sound of the laid back leisurely approach.

Nige and myself had got the British Carp Study Group Forum back up and running again after I answered a post by him ‘Is there Anybody Out there?’ We got a little banter going and soon a few more joined in and  now I find myself busy with the Moderators job having to visit it several times a day but this has nothing to do with the Bristol Avon really.

I was greeted into the Cobham household with a glass of red thrust into my hand! – the week-end had started!

By the time we should perhaps have been thinking about getting down the river for the dawn chorus we thought it better to finish our wine and get a little sleep. Later that day a flushing toilet awoke me and dragging my clothes on I wandered down from the guest room to be greeted by quite a few empty bottles of wine. I guess we must have spilt a few of them as we couldn’t possibly have drunk all of them, although there were no stains anywhere!
Fiona – Nige’s better half had already been down the Gym and was now preparing some food for us. It really was like being on holiday!

Nige and myself walked our dogs (Brook was of course down there with me) Jazz his Retriever got on really well with Brook so much so that when the time came to actually go fishing (I told you we had promised ourselves a laid back start to the season) she decided she was going to stay with Fiona and Jazz. It was the first time I had seen her not bothered by the fact that I was going out without her. The fact that it was pouring with rain could have had a tiny bit to do with it.

Down the river I was really impressed with the total wild beauty of the place but Nige was getting rather concerned. There were no barbel to be seen at all. The water really is crystal clear and although we could see chub and roach as well as the

I was impressed with the total wild beauty of the place.

occasional perch there were definitely no barbel in sight bar one which we couldn’t really get at. The rain stopped by the time I had been given the guided tour of all the little pools and hiding spots of the fish  and we fished a rather pleasant few hours in a weir pool side by side, one rod each and generally catching up on what we had both been up to.

I was lucky enough to catch the only fish whilst sat there which turned out to be a lovely chub which gave a good account of itself after taking my Ghurkka Spice Paste.

I then went for a wander around and stalked a few more chub on free lined Rahja Spice paste. There were no barbel to be found but I really did enjoy the chub stalking on a light 11ft Free Spirit Hi ‘S’ Specialist rod and small reel.

Soon it was time to retire back to Nige’s for a Indian Take Away that Fiona fetched whilst we were driving home followed by a little more of the red stuff which helped us to keep on talking a total load of nonsense late into the night.

Sunday and we were back on the river and then it soon became apparent what had possibly happened to the barbel that had once been abundant on the stretch. I had again gone off stalking and found a few fish that

Nige feeling for those first tell tale signs of a fish.

I had been stalking the day before but only this time two of the chub had rip marks on them which were open and bleeding. Now these had definitely not been like that the day before. Another shoal further down river had freshly marked fish as well. It seemed to be as though the otters had moved into the stretch. Unfortunately otters tend to catch the largest fish first due to there being a bigger surface area to sink their claws into. I was sure this was why no barbel were present.

From being invited to fish a stretch where you would usually be eyeball to eyeball with double figure barbel to not being able to find any other than one in an area totally out of reach it really hit home to me what

The people who have released these will have a lot to answer to as fish disappear and the otters starve!

immense destruction otters can do. Yes, they need to feed but their food source hasn’t been taken into account by all the do-gooders who have been releasing these back into the wild. Our rivers no longer have the annual runs of eels that they used to so the Otters original natural food source is no longer there. They have no choice but to take what is available and this means big fish as most of our rivers these days have less and less of a small fish population.

The otters are going to be very hungry soon with no fish left to go at. I wonder if the do-gooders will think about what they are doing messing with nature when the otters turn to the bird life and domestic cats etc for their food?

The otters have to eat. There are worrying times ahead – very worrying times for all anglers.

Shaun Harrison

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• Shaun’s Diary April 2011 – Part 2 (0)
• River Season Opening Week-end (1)
• Critical Bait Choice – Why Struggle with Un-Proven Winter Baits? (3)
• Barbel session – bad luck and good luck! (1)
• 20mm Boilies in the Winter (0)

After a few months of  fishing sabbatical, due to the birth of our daughter, I’ve decided to go fishing again. I had chosen a rather small pool in our town and decided to do some light pre-baiting for two days with Quest Baits Pineapple Crush boilies, around 200 grams each time.

The first fish banked on Pineapple Crush

According to the weather forecast in the morning there would be some rain and during the day the sun would come through. Sitting through the rain seemed the simple solution for this short session.

Around noon I got the first take. Unfortunately, after getting contact with the fish, I lost it. The point of the hook was slightly bent, so I had to change rigs. Only an hour later, the rain was gone and the sun did indeed come out, shining brightly over the pool… That’s when the second fish announced itself and a few minutes later I was able to net a small but very nice looking common. It is always nice to catch a fish during the winter, no matter

2nd fish and you can see another take on the left hand rod!

what size!

Not long after that another fish picked up one the hook baits and as this fish rolled on the surface, I immediately saw I had hooked a nice mirror!! Of course photos are being taken, especially when you hook a winter carp.

Next… the unthinkable happened…another take!!!

Gerard with the final fish

My husband Gerard took this rod so that I could put my cute little mirror back properly and by the time I was ready, I could net another nice looking common with undoubted growing potential.

Despite losing the very first winter take, my guess is due to a wrong choice of hook, we managed to catch 3 nice looking fish in a rather short day session of just 4 hours.

Again, not a big fish, but you have to appreciate every fish you manage to catch, especially during the winter!

Sometimes good things come in small packages

Patricia Boer

http://www.dutchcarplady.com/

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• The Dutch Carp Show in Zwolle (1)