BRYANS ANGLE

So last week myself and a friend took the long 12 hour drive to the lake we fished so successfully last year. Thoughts of big fat carp crawling up our lines were foremost in our minds. I,d had a good session last year landing 17 fish, if memory serves, upto 42lb and was looking forward to hopefully a repeat performance. Once the long haul was over and we had arrived at the lake it was time to set up all the usual paraphernalia needed to survive a weeks carp fishing. After a couple of hours lugging bags from van to swim, setting up bivvies and generally getting sorted it was time to relax. First order of the day was to have a little perch fishing with lobworms from the dam wall as last year a few large stripes were seen following marker floats so it was decided to try for them. After an hour or so we,d had half a dozen perch to half pound and a couple of small jack pike, no big perch showed but it was a bright sunny day so we weren't expecting much anyway. A short walk back to our s...

A spur of the moment decision saw me pulling up to my syndicate water just as it was getting light 2 weeks ago with a mind to catch a carp, well lets face it to try and catch a carp. I opted to fish an easily accessible swim because, to be honest, i was in a lazy frame of mind and didn't really fancy pushing my barrow full of kit very far. I have fished this swim once last October and unfortunately had lost a fish late one night due to a hook pull so know it has form. I,d brought Choccy along to keep me company and he was quite content chilling and soaking up the sun as i went about setting up my home for the night and making myself comfy. Once this was done out came the marker rod and i started to thrash the water to a foam as i searched for 3 likely areas to target the old mud suckers. I wasn't too bothered about the disturbance i caused as my marker was dragged through the swim countless times, or with the depth charge water eruptions as my big balls of boilie crumb and ...

So lately i havn,t had a lot of spare time to go fishing due to work and the ongoing attempts to complete the extension i,ve built on my house, this has meant that i havn,t been to my syndicate for a few months so the limited fishing i have done has been very local and only for a couple of hours at a time. Now i,m not complaining too much about fishing short sessions locally as there is some not too bad waters nearby, and i have caught ok, but its meant i,ve had to scale my tackle down considerably to allow me to be more mobile and chase fish down rather than wait for them to come to me. This has been good fun as i used to be very mobile when i first started fishing and its quite nice to do so again. With two waters being within 1 mile away, another around 3 miles, and miles and miles of  the River Roach and the River Crouch starting within 2 miles away i thought it would be a good idea to kit out the old mountain bike to use as my mode of transport for fishing these venue...

 So i had a few hours fishing one evening on a local park lake last week as i felt the need to get the tackle out. It had been scorchio for the week previous with most days getting close and even hitting 30 degrees but i just fancied a quick and easy trip with the chance of having my string pulled.. The temperature was still in the mid twenties when i got to the banks of this water and started to walk down the side i wanted to fish as the wind would be over my shoulder here and not effecting the water for a good 20 yards out, just how i like it for floater fishing. Unfortunately most swims on this side were taken by day anglers, a very loose term for them, so i walked around to the other side with where the wind was in my face. I was particularly happy about this as although the wind was warm it was also quite strong and i try not to use floats when i fish on the surface. Well i catapulted a few pouches of mixers out as far as i could whilst i set up my gear with a Korda s...

We regularly walk  our dog Paddy over a local country park of a weekend and on our walks there ive noticed theres a lake in the middle of the park. When theres water involved i mhave to explore and upon walking round this small lake i,ve noticed quite a lot of carp activity. On our last visit there it was quite obvious that the carp were very happy to feed on the surface as i saw them bow waving and sipping down insects around the lily pads and marginal reeds. A plan was hatched and later that evening i arrived at the water armed with my stalking rod and a bucket full of mixers and loaf of bread.  It was a red hot evening with not even a hint of a breeze, perfect for surface fishing but not great for a knackered old fisherman walking the 1.5 mile needed to get to the water. After finally getting my breath back i proceeded to chuck out some mixers and straight away the water erupted with carp of all sizes fighting for the free food. Great thought i, banded mixers on the...

So after coming back from my French trip i havn,t exactly had a lot of spare time to get the rods out, so the thinking cap was donned to see how i could get a couple hours dangling in so that i could scratch that nagging angling itch. After finishing work a little earlier than planned i couldn't take it anymore and grabbed a little bit of kit and two of my 9ft stalking rods and took a walk to the local park lake. I,ve fished here a couple of times over the past few years but with its location by a main road being noisy and the fact you get some right old 'Roughuns' wandering the banks sometimes, its not exactly my ideal water. Anyway ignoring the negatives and focusing on the positives, lots of hungry carp,  i opted to give it the evening. Fishing small pva bags full of pellets or stick mix i cast regularly to the ends of the near margin trees in search of a bite. You could see the carp rolling and patrolling these areas regularly so it made sense to fish in close ...

Having booked this trip the previous year it finally came round with alarming speed. It seemed like one day i had no need to worry about getting my kit checked and ready, and then suddenly i,d be heading to Southern France in a weeks time. Oh shite thought I, best pull my finger out and get organised. Fortunately i only had to stock up on a few bits and pieces and get my bait ordered, Eclipse Virus was the bait of choice. 23lb 4oz 18lb 12oz  I won,t bore you with the details of the journey, but it was 12 hours and uneventful with rain falling from the time we arrived in France through the day and also the night. What is worth noting is the amount of sexy looking waters i spotted on the trip that look just ripe for a little dangle. I don,t know if any were private or day tickets but nearly all of them looked like they had not been fished as they were mainly overgrown. A possible bit of exploration soon maybe....... 19lb 8oz 28lb 8oz   28lb 12oz ...

I know I know,  i,ve been a bit quite of late but there has been a good reason for this lack of content. I have been working like a Trojan to pay for a 10 day carp fishing trip to France. Well its been and gone now so i,ll be writing a post about my exploits in the next few days, once i can figure out how to get the bloody pictures of my iphone and onto the computer. Until then i,ll just leave this here to whet your appetite.......

Its been a hard week at work this week and i,m knackered. Couple that with the fact that my better half is working away for the week and i have to look after and walk the dogs as well as keep the house tidy etc, i am well and truly fooked. Its actually 8.30pm as i write this on my laptop and i,m tucked up in bed with the dogs snuggled up next to me. What a lightweight !!!!!!!!! I could of gone fishing this afternoon as i finished early enough but i was too knackered so sat on the sofa watching a series i recorded from sky called Ultimate Fishing Experience, i think thats what its called. Its a rather over enthusiastic chap from New Zealand who was fishing for great white sharks, then striped marlin followed by giant swordbills. All good adrenaline pumping stuff. This got me day dreamimg about the places i,ve fished abroad and the species i,ve caught. I,ve done the carp fishing in France three times now, once on a small lake in the Loire valley region which was actually not...

I finally managed to grab a couple of hours fishing yesterday evening as the better half is away on hols for the weekend. Surface fishing for carp was the order of the day, and with my tackle all loaded up of I set for the gruelling journey of half a mile up the road. Its quite handy living in the back of beyond as within 5 miles I have at least 5 different fisheries i can tackle. Well I arrived and was shocked by what I saw. The club water I was planning on fishing has 8 small pits all old and heavily planted with bushes, trees, lilies, reeds etc and all attractive in their own right. One of the pits I fish is/was heavily planted with bulrush and reeds and has numerous hidden swims where you can easily tuck yourself away and catch numerous species of fish. Well look at what they have done to the place. I cannot understand why they have raped this pit like this, there was absolutely no need. Well after seeing this disgrace I set off to fish one of the other pits on this complex. A...