Margot 40+ carp caught on HG42
I have recently been carp fishing in France at Etang Margot, one of the Angling Lines venues, and once again HG did the trick.
To read my full article on the Margot trip click here
Paul Cooper’s 2012 Fishing Diary
Paul Cooper
Paul Cooper’s Fishing Diary continued
Monument Lake
In March this year I visited Monument Lake in Northern France which is one of the new Angling Lines waters for 2012. During my visit to the lake I experinced 4 seasons in one week, from freezing temperatures to highs of 18C and thanks to our new range of HG baits still managed to put a lake record of 47lb 5oz on the bank along with 11 other good sized carp.
Click here to read the full article on the Angling Lines web site.
Also during my visit to Monument, Martin Barker, who is the owner of one of the other A/L venues, Oakview, visited the lake to conduct a short video.
The new lake record of 47lb 5oz
Click here to view the video on carp fishing tactics at Monument Lake in France.
Paul Cooper
47lb 5oz a new lake record
I,ve just returned from one of Angling Lines new venues, Monument lake. This is going to be a top venue for carp fishing in France, with 5 acres of water and a good head of big carp it surely is going to throw up some surprises in the future.
I arrived at the lake on Saturday 17th March to fish the official last week of Winter. The beginning of the week was difficult as the temperatures had dropped dramatically to around freezing with heavy rain. I managed a couple of upper twenty pound carp but after my 3rd move on the lake and into the 5th day, I managed to locate some feeding fish. I set the trap with all my rods being baited up with either Hg42 or HG47 bottom baits on my version of the blowback rig.
one of the 25+ carp
Within the next hour I had a run on one of my island rods and has that reached the net off shot a second island rod. Having dealt with the first carp a mirror of 25lb 7oz I was onto the second rod. The fish had run into a snag just of the island so off I trundled to release the carp from the snag, leaving Paul Brooks to look after the rod end. With a bit of persuasion the carp swam off up the lake. I returned to the rod and after a long hard fight landed what is at present the Lake record of 47lb 5oz. The 47 came out on the new HG47, what a coincidence!
I went onto to capture a few more fish with my total captures being 12 carp averaging in the upper twenties.
Click here for Paul Cooper 2012 Diary
Click here to read the Angling Lines catch report
Carp fishing in France with over 35 venues
Paul Cooper
Bait
It is now the beginning of February and I’m already thinking about what bait I will be using for the Blue Lake trip and what quantities I will require. This to me is the most important aspect to a successful fishing trip………….
Click here to read the full article
Click here to see part 2 of the video blogs
Carp fishing in France with 35 lakes
Angling lines tel: 01773 590077
I have been travelling over to France with Angling Lines for over 10 years now and every trip is different. This year I will be fishing a number of Angling Lines waters, one being Blue Lake in April this year. My fishing companion for this visit will be Jim Kelly and there are a number of pre-holiday procedures that I shall be going through before travelling…………………….
Click here to read part 1 of the blogs
Click here to see the video of part 1 of Paul’s Diary
39lb 4oz mirror caught on PVA parcel
I have put together a video showing how to make a compact pva bag so that you can cast it accurately and smoothly at a reasonable distance. The bag will hold together until it hits the bottom of the lake were it will disolve leaving your bait in position sitting on a small pocket of free offerings.
To see more of Paul’s tips click here
51lb-11oz carp caught on the Blow-Back rig
I started to use the blow-back rig last summer and have had huge success either with or without the hair. These short videos were made last October while I was on a short fishing trip to my local syndicate lake.
I starting using the rig in conjunction with Quality Baits HG42 I have caught in access of 70+ carp to over 51lb. If fished correctly and in the right circumstances the rig rarely missis the oportunity to make a bite develope into a run, with very few fish lost through drop off’s.
Watch these short video’s where I have explained in detail how to construct both rigs.
For more carp fishing tips from Paul go to Paul Cooper field tester tips or click here.
Occasionally on some of my trips to French lakes I encounter problems with nuisance species, especially in the warmer months. In this video I have gone through some basic steps for protecting baits from Poisson Chat and Crayfish.
Paul Cooper shows you how to construct the ultimate pop-up rig.
Note from Paul; ” I didn’t make it clear on the clip why I use the short tag of 30lb Seaguar. Well, it keeps the shrink tube in place because although appearing stiff, without the Seaguar the shrink tube does not maintain its shape_ _ _ _
click here to read more and to see a video on how to construct this rig
No matter how good an angler you are or how poor, if you have no confidence or have lost that confidence in your bait you are bound to fail.
On a recent carp fishing trip to a new Angling Lines venue called Domaine De Boux, Jim Kelly and I were both armed with our confidence booster, Quality Baits HG42. With each of us having 20 kilo’s each and no other bait it would be a complete success or a complete failure.
18mils ready made frozen boilies were our choice and on the 22nd October we arrived at the lake.
Our first job was to select 2 good swims on the 10 acre lake, in close proximity so that we could erect our kitchen( a wide oval umbrella with sides). We decided to make our home for the week on the dam. This would give us a wide variety of water to go at from margin fishing to some of the deeper water of the lake.
I have fished this lake on 2 previous occasions so my knowledge of the water was a lot greater than that of Jim. I selected the right hand side of the dam which gave me access to the North eastern bank, a no fishing area which was reed lined and had shallow margins.
I used my marker float to lead the bottom and to test the depths in front of me and settled on an area 100 yards out in 11 foot of open water to begin my campaign.
1st carp of the session 31lb 1oz
I introduced around 2 kilo’s of 18 mil HG42 boilies some whole some crushed by using the rowing boat provided on the lake. 3 rods were cast on or near the baited area and it was not long before I landed my first carp a 30lb 1oz specimen. More bait on my baited area as the light faded for the evening. I would be using my throwing stick to top up the swim following the capture of a fish.
By 10pm on Monday night I had caught 7 carp off my baited area, all on HG42 bottom baits which included a 33lb 1oz mirror with the rest being in the low twenties. I did seem to be into some of the smaller fish on the lake.
At half past midnight I had another run off my baited area and seemed to have hooked the bottom of the lake. After about 20 minutes I landed my first fifty of the session a 50lb 4oz specimen.
50lb 4oz
This seemed to kill the swim, as this was the last fish off this baited area for the week. The fish appeared to be wising up to baited areas, a change of tactics was required.
With my throwing stick I spread 3 kilo of 18mil hg42 boilies over a large are in the bay to my right and cast single hook baits in the middle of them. The action started around 1am on the Wednesday and carried on until 11pm on the Thursday. I landed 14 carp in total which included 3 upper twenties, 7 thirties and 2 mirrors of 49lb 14 and 49lb 3oz.
49lb 14oz
49lb 3oz
By this time I had moved 2 rods out of the Bay, cast 100 yds into open water, with pva bag crushed boiles and a single HG42 bottom bait. This produced my final 3 fish of the week, a low twenty and 2 fish on at the same time a 51lb 11oz mirror and a 30lb common.
51lb 11oz
I finished the week with 27 carp, all caught on HG42 bottom baits, that’s what confidence does for you.
Paul Cooper
To read Jims article which has been published on Angling Lines web site visit( Angling Lines article)