I Guess Winter Finally Arrived!!

It’s amazing that in one week the weather can change so radically. Just one week ago I was packing up after landing my second biggest common ever. The outside temperatures were in the 5°C and it was fairly overcast. The water temp was 6°C during that weekend.

Last Session for January and my Second 40lb+ Common

41lb 8oz Second January Forty

With the weather forecast announcing the arrival of a prolonged cold snap next week, I felt that I had to get back out and do a couple more nights before the cold eventually put an end to the carp’s willingness to feed in winter.

The first few days of the week had been very wet so I was waiting for a 48 hours window of fairly dry weather in which I could wet a line. I really don’t like fishing in the rain. The odd shower is okay, but constant rain I just find depressing.
So Friday dawned bright and dry with a reasonable weekend in sight, and I loaded the car to drive down to the Tortue lake.
I elected to fish the same peg (14) where I’d caught all my fish so far this year. Why change, as the fish were obviously visiting this area? I know from experience they often don’t go far in winter. The water in the lakes was a fairly uniform 6°C.

Chilling in the Hammock

I’d made up a half a dozen PVA bags the night before, filled with 5mm carp pellets and broken Proline Red Devil boilies, so getting the lines out was a very quick affair this time. I had been using Quest Baits Pineapple, as I wanted a smaller  & instant bait for winter, but having run out, I only had the lake specials to use. My hook baits were hi viz tutti fruitti pops fished snowman style. I was hoping that a fluoro bait would give me a chance in the day time, as all the fish so far, had come at night.
With the baits in place and the hammock set up I made myself some dinner.  I climbed into the sack at around 8pm. I lay there reading before eventually dozing off.
At about 5am, a couple of bleeps and a steady run, on my left hand rod, signaled that I’d had a take. The fish did nothing special before rolling into the net. At 25lb it was a nice start. I did a couple of pictures and slipped her back.

What’s happened to Winter?

Croix Blanche 2010: What has happened to Winter this year?

Its funny how the years pass and are so different. One year we have a heatwave in the summer and the next it’s cold and wet.
Take the Winter; this time last year we were in the north pole, we had several feet of snow. In fact it was the heaviest in living memory for most of the people in my village. The temperatures plummeted well below freezing and the lakes were solid for well over a month.

So how different it is this year. 2012 comes in with the warmest start in over 100 years. In fact 2011 was the warmest year on average since records began. We are still yet to have a significant frost…
Its strange that we don’t seem to have regular and proper seasons any more. If proof were needed 2011 is a good case study. We had a spring that was not only exceptionally dry, but the hottest on record. Temperatures were up as high as the mid thirties by mid May.

The summer then quite simply didn’t happen. After a rainy, cold July, August was barely better. The Autumn however did give us some fine and sunny weather.

Carp Fishing « EDC » Kit

Most of us that are into carp fishing are also into most other things ’outdoors’, hunting, camping, hiking etc. With all these activities its important to be well equipped, and in carping there is no shortage of gadgets.
Recently I’ve been looking at some of the ‘Bushcraft’ videos on Youtube by a guy called Dave Canterbury and his Pathfinder School site .He’s also doing a survival show on Discovery Channel called ‘Dual Survival’.  His Youtube site is full of good info that also has a utility for carping and camping out in general. One of the items I particularly liked was his ‘EDC’ or “Every day Carry” kit. (I guess this is a US military acronym.) It basically consists of a mountaineering ‘Carabiner’ with a selection of useful gadgets hanging from it that can be clipped onto ones belt or tackle bag. All the items are quickly and readily available at a seconds notice.

Anyway I figured this would be a really good idea for us carpers to have such a selection of kit. As I already had a large carabiner, I decided to add a few items to it to make my own EDC. This is just my own preference but naturally one can add any tools one finds useful…

Croix Blanche Snow Gallery 2010

New Stock Fish

One of the main Winter tasks on the fishery is stock management, or to be more precise, the ordering of new fish.

In France this means you have between November and March to get an order in with a reputable fish farmer and get your delivery of new fish. Now I’ve never been convinced that winter is the best time to stock, as it’s the time when the fish are at their most lethargic , are not feeding strongly are more susceptible to virus and if they do get a knock in the transport they will heal very slowly.

I do know though that the lethargic state of the fish is the main reason fish farmers chose this period to transport stock, as they do in fact damage themselves a lot less in very cold water. So I guess you have to roll with the way things are done here in France.

I add the stock to the stock pond, you’ll remember if you’ve read earlier posts on this blog that I received over forty 20lb plus fish in November 2010. These fish were introduced to the stock pond, fed over the winter and moved to the Croix Blanche lake in June & July 2010.

Crushing the Barb

I saw a post by Henry Gilbey on his fishing blog about crushing barbs while sea fishing for bass. Now I know that he is using trebles and we don’t in carp angling, but the question of crushed barbs is an interesting one.
I remember when we did the Remy video that they insisted we use barbless hooks only. I have previously written about “Barbed vs Barbless”, so I won’t go over that again. But are crushed barbs not a better way to go than either barbed or barbless. Barbed vs Barbles
I have been doing this for a long as I can remember, for the simple reason that, while I didn’t want to use a barbed hook, I couldn’t find the barbless version of the model I like…ie. Drennan Continental Boilie hook. So for years I’ve been crushing the barbs on these hooks.
I think it was Tim Paisley who wrote about the advantages of a crushed barb, as it leaves a small bump on the hook, that helps avoids the movement and sewing machine effect that can happen with a barbless hook. It remains however far easier to remove, and more importantly give the fish a chance to shed the hook if it breaks you off or gets snagged. The penetration is better than a barbed hook but it does stay in better than a pure barbless.

Maps,Navigation and GPS

Not really a fishing topic this, but one about something that I find useful when travelling to a new venue.

I’ve already written on a couple of occasions about GPS units and how much I like them as navigational aids in France. In fact I’ve used the Tomtom One now for a number of years and would be lost without it. Most of the units on the market are of the street navigator type, which are perfect for getting from A to B and finding ones way around a city, but they give very little  or no information about the type of terrain one is on and many don’t have any info at all on lakes, tracks to lakes etc. For this an Ordinance Survey topographical map is the best tool.

Now topographical GPS devices do exit also, aimed at hikers and offroaders they are like an electronic geo-referenced Ordinance Survey map. They give you your exact position and allow you to install very detailed maps of your chosen area. But, and this is a big BUT, they are extremely dear for the best ones. The Garmin Dakota 20 or Twonav Aventura are in the 400-600€ bracket and that is without the 25:000 scale  maps that cost over 100€ each. This for me was a real deal breaker…I just can’t afford that amount on a gadget.
However recently I have found a great plugin on a French GPS site that allows you to turn your Tomtom into a great off road/fishing tool. The plugin is called “ttmaps”.

Coolest Carping Accessory Ever!

Well now we have all seen « Realtree », clothing, bivvies, rods..Well everything imaginable in the ubiquitous camo pattern.

Everything?

Well perhaps not quite. I came across this accessory in a French tackle shop “Realtree” seat covers for my 4×4. Now as I was in the market for a set of front seat covers to help protect the upholstery from wet dog, dirty fishing clothes and all the junk I end up carrying in the car,  these Browning camo covers seemed just the ticket.

The sales blurb reads:

BROWNING: UNIVERSAL SEAT COVER
» Universal bucket seat cover fits most standard bucket, seats including GM seats with built in seatbelts
» High quality, heavy polyester fabric is treated for water repellency and dirt resistance
» Foam backed fabric keeps seat coller and helps it breathe in hot weather
» Browning logo on a quality woven patch is prominently displayed
» Patent Pending custom fit

Anyway I couldn’t resist them so now have a set what has to be the coolest Realtree accessory ever for my car.

Cheers
Gareth

Five Best Fishing Vehicles!

by Gareth Watkins
Over the years I’ve had a whole range of different vehicles that I’ve used to get myself fishing. In the early days it was my parent’s cars, so whatever they had at the time, and varied from an Audio 80 to a Triumph Dolomite. Not always very practical… Since then I’ve had several different types of car and they all have advantages and disadvantages. Here then, is my choice of Carp fishing vehicles. My latest car is a Nissan Terrano, that replaced my beloved camper… the camper was great but not a practical car for working around the lakes.

Vans :
The first type I had when starting my own fishery was a small compact Renault Express van. Now in the UK the Escort Van was virtually de rigueur in carp fishing circles.. I saw so many of these. These type of vans are small, compact and carry a vast amount of gear. Only real draw back is they are two-seaters. If you have more people to carry you need to look to a larger vehicle.