Any Coarse fisherman in ?
Discussion
A different time. Carp fishing was niche, and undeveloped. Now it's mainstream, worked out, all laid bare and on sale in tackle shops, venues elbow to elbow on a bank holiday with matching sets of rods and alarms and tinnies (and often spliffs) on the go in the bivvies. Walker to a great extent started it, of course, the application of an engineer's mind to the deliberate catching of big fish, and Hutchinson and co took the ball and ran with it. It must have been an exciting time to be involved, but it all looks a bit by the numbers to me now.
I used to go match fishing with my dad. He has won a few big competitions over the years and fished in the Ireland team for decades on and off. But he has a stroke last year and it's only now we are getting him back into it.
His plan is to fish the Enniskillen classic next year again... He's won it twice to be fair but if he can't fish it he will Marshall at it.
His plan is to fish the Enniskillen classic next year again... He's won it twice to be fair but if he can't fish it he will Marshall at it.
paintman said:
No reason why you can't use a 'carp' rod for pretty much everything.
I use a Fox 'Warrior' 12' 3lb test curve for coarse fishing incl dead bait for pike, spinning & plugging for reservoir pike (Rutland & Pitsford), general float fishing for anything that takes, light beachcasting & spinning & plugging for bass, mackerel & pollack. Oh, and carp of course!
Works very well.
I did consider a while ago buying a lighter float rod but the local tackle dealer simply said 'Why?'.
Angling Direct is a good suggestion.
Sorry but a 3lb TC carp rod isn’t a suitable all rounder - frankly it’s heavy for most sorts of carp fishing applications. A rod that can chuck a 3.5oz lead 130 yards won’t be suitable for surface fishing and it sure as hell won’t be any good for light float fishing.I use a Fox 'Warrior' 12' 3lb test curve for coarse fishing incl dead bait for pike, spinning & plugging for reservoir pike (Rutland & Pitsford), general float fishing for anything that takes, light beachcasting & spinning & plugging for bass, mackerel & pollack. Oh, and carp of course!
Works very well.
I did consider a while ago buying a lighter float rod but the local tackle dealer simply said 'Why?'.
Angling Direct is a good suggestion.
If you want a genuine all-rounder you’d want something around 1.25-1.5lb TC.
Turn7 said:
Anyone fished at Alder fisheries Leighton Buzzard ?
Loosk a good stup, and I could do some shooting to !
I've got a full carp fishing set up I want/need to downsize.Loosk a good stup, and I could do some shooting to !
Various things in the garage to sell from rods/reel combo, bags, rig boxes etc. If you want to know brands / full list PM me and I can let you know in more detail...if you're still in Herts...
I used to mix my fishing up, summer evenings would be spent 'stalking' usually with some pretty good results from an hour or three fishing.
I used to save the over nighters / long weekends for later in the year.
Bikesalot said:
Turn7 said:
Anyone fished at Alder fisheries Leighton Buzzard ?
Loosk a good stup, and I could do some shooting to !
I've got a full carp fishing set up I want/need to downsize.Loosk a good stup, and I could do some shooting to !
Various things in the garage to sell from rods/reel combo, bags, rig boxes etc. If you want to know brands / full list PM me and I can let you know in more detail...if you're still in Herts...
I used to mix my fishing up, summer evenings would be spent 'stalking' usually with some pretty good results from an hour or three fishing.
I used to save the over nighters / long weekends for later in the year.
I've had two fishing "careers" so far, the initial one at childhood - attending matches with my Dad and eventually going solo as a teenager before fizzling out at around college time.
About 7 years ago (late 20's) a friend mentioned it to me and we both decided to give it a try again - and this lead to about 3 years of fishing almost every Saturday morning and we had some incredible fun. Started out picking out a match rod and basic reel each and just did some float fishing, then slowly worked around different techniques such as pellet waggler, method feeders, winter pike, carp/barbel "camping" fishing, etc. Had some absolutely cracking sessions, including a trip to the Netherlands and a fair few firsts/PB's broken along the way. Personal highlight was Barbel fishing on the River Wharfe, it was magazine stuff.
Unfortunately it fizzled out once again after I went to the US for a year with work. Would love to get into it again, but it's so difficult to "find" 8-10 hours on a Saturday and I've got a first child on the way (little girl, but still maybe a chance for a third 'career' introducing the next generation
)
As for the original question, if you enjoy it you'll end up spending loads on it - it's just one of those things, you think about it when you can't actually do it which usually ends up leading to internet shopping. But you can do it on a shoestring and have just as much fun!
About 7 years ago (late 20's) a friend mentioned it to me and we both decided to give it a try again - and this lead to about 3 years of fishing almost every Saturday morning and we had some incredible fun. Started out picking out a match rod and basic reel each and just did some float fishing, then slowly worked around different techniques such as pellet waggler, method feeders, winter pike, carp/barbel "camping" fishing, etc. Had some absolutely cracking sessions, including a trip to the Netherlands and a fair few firsts/PB's broken along the way. Personal highlight was Barbel fishing on the River Wharfe, it was magazine stuff.
Unfortunately it fizzled out once again after I went to the US for a year with work. Would love to get into it again, but it's so difficult to "find" 8-10 hours on a Saturday and I've got a first child on the way (little girl, but still maybe a chance for a third 'career' introducing the next generation
)As for the original question, if you enjoy it you'll end up spending loads on it - it's just one of those things, you think about it when you can't actually do it which usually ends up leading to internet shopping. But you can do it on a shoestring and have just as much fun!
Just been flicking through some photographs, we'd just done an all-nighter on the final night of the NL trip - canal was churning Bream out all night long and then suddenly I had this monster squirming around in the net. Not the biggest in the world, but the first I'd ever caught and was a great way to end the trip. We set off for the Ferry about 40mins after this was taken, absolutely knackered!
Nice fish.
Rutland Water is stuffed with them & they respond very well to vertical jigging.
I use a Daiwa CF98 AFTM 7-9 fly rod as an 'all round fly rod'. Mostly with WF8 lines.
Most coarse species incl pike & carp plus trout, grayling, salmon, bass, mackerel, scad mackerel, pollack, wrasse & mullet. I tie my own flies so anything is possible!
I was using a fly rod for sea fish long before articles appeared in AT etc & amusing to unload the boat at the end of the day to be greeted by
'That's a fly rod'
'Yes'
'But it's a trout fly rod'
'Yes'
'But you can't use one of those at sea'
'Why not?'
I remember a day in Cornwall when mackerel/scad mackerel were in easy casting distance of the shore. The world & his wife were shoulder to shoulder with normal sea tackle with big floats & bits of sandeel. They caught very little. I 'matched the hatch' with a self-tied barbless fry pattern, short leader & floating line & for the best part of 2 hours had a fish a cast - all returned. A decent mackerel on fly gear is well worth the effort.
Rutland Water is stuffed with them & they respond very well to vertical jigging.
I use a Daiwa CF98 AFTM 7-9 fly rod as an 'all round fly rod'. Mostly with WF8 lines.
Most coarse species incl pike & carp plus trout, grayling, salmon, bass, mackerel, scad mackerel, pollack, wrasse & mullet. I tie my own flies so anything is possible!
I was using a fly rod for sea fish long before articles appeared in AT etc & amusing to unload the boat at the end of the day to be greeted by
'That's a fly rod'
'Yes'
'But it's a trout fly rod'
'Yes'
'But you can't use one of those at sea'
'Why not?'
I remember a day in Cornwall when mackerel/scad mackerel were in easy casting distance of the shore. The world & his wife were shoulder to shoulder with normal sea tackle with big floats & bits of sandeel. They caught very little. I 'matched the hatch' with a self-tied barbless fry pattern, short leader & floating line & for the best part of 2 hours had a fish a cast - all returned. A decent mackerel on fly gear is well worth the effort.
otolith said:
A different time. Carp fishing was niche, and undeveloped. Now it's mainstream, worked out, all laid bare and on sale in tackle shops, venues elbow to elbow on a bank holiday with matching sets of rods and alarms and tinnies (and often spliffs) on the go in the bivvies. Walker to a great extent started it, of course, the application of an engineer's mind to the deliberate catching of big fish, and Hutchinson and co took the ball and ran with it. It must have been an exciting time to be involved, but it all looks a bit by the numbers to me now.
This.I caught my first Carp (10lb 6oz) at the age of 14 in 1976. I had a pair of 10' Fibatube blanks & Mitchell 300's. The subsequent years were exciting times as the rigs and particle baits came to the fore.
I spent the next 20 years Carp & Pike fishing.
Now I do everything to avoid them and fish for Tench & Bream and as it cools off, Perch.
I did a lot of Boat Fishing off the Kent & Sussex coast - that used to be a tiring but great day out.
You see very few youngsters fishing these days and apparently the biggest uptake is by girls, not boys...
We generally fell back to Carp fishing if we just fancied a lazy day, no trekking about - just camping for a few hours, nice breakfast and plenty of coffee. It certainly wasn't engaging, but I did enjoy geeking out a bit on making my rigs on a midweek evening.
Never did any multi-day sessions as the waiting list on our membership for night passes was years long.
We REALLY had fun chasing my unicorn fish - never had a "good" Tench but had so, so many close calls. One comes to mind, got up silly o'clock on a spring morning and raked out a peg at a local farm lake which rarely had more than just the two of us fishing it. I was fishing waggler about 12 feet out, weighted a few inches from the hook to encourage a proper lift-bite if something came along. Around mid-morning my peg just erupted in 'tench bubbles' and a few seconds later the float just popped up and laid flat on the surface... textbook stuff!
After a short fight, it rolled off the hook. I got a good look at it though and it was a really black looking tench - probably 'only' 5 or 6lbs but would have easily been my biggest and to have caught it in such a "tench" way would have made my year. Eh well
We discovered rivers quite late, had a good winter just walking up and down the River Dearne with light float tackle and picked out a few nice Chub. Some summer sessions on the Wharfe led to some great barbel which is some of the best fighting I've ever had, pretty sure the fish I landed were in a better state than I was by the time it was in the net!
Never did any multi-day sessions as the waiting list on our membership for night passes was years long.
We REALLY had fun chasing my unicorn fish - never had a "good" Tench but had so, so many close calls. One comes to mind, got up silly o'clock on a spring morning and raked out a peg at a local farm lake which rarely had more than just the two of us fishing it. I was fishing waggler about 12 feet out, weighted a few inches from the hook to encourage a proper lift-bite if something came along. Around mid-morning my peg just erupted in 'tench bubbles' and a few seconds later the float just popped up and laid flat on the surface... textbook stuff!
After a short fight, it rolled off the hook. I got a good look at it though and it was a really black looking tench - probably 'only' 5 or 6lbs but would have easily been my biggest and to have caught it in such a "tench" way would have made my year. Eh well
We discovered rivers quite late, had a good winter just walking up and down the River Dearne with light float tackle and picked out a few nice Chub. Some summer sessions on the Wharfe led to some great barbel which is some of the best fighting I've ever had, pretty sure the fish I landed were in a better state than I was by the time it was in the net!
Can anyone help with a brief rollcall of top to bottom quality tackle ?
In my youth I had an Abu reel, Milbro rod, efgeeco baitbox and the rest was all woolies own....
These days I know nowt and its hard to guage what good value and whats not....
I was going to got the gamefair on Sunday, but plans have changed....howver, theres a new Angling Direct superstore opened in Slough that I will prob visit Sunday....
In my youth I had an Abu reel, Milbro rod, efgeeco baitbox and the rest was all woolies own....
These days I know nowt and its hard to guage what good value and whats not....
I was going to got the gamefair on Sunday, but plans have changed....howver, theres a new Angling Direct superstore opened in Slough that I will prob visit Sunday....
Depends on what gear you’re looking at, and many of the brands have premium and budget ranges, but something like;
Ron Thompson (cheap)
Middy/Shakespeare/Okuma (budget)
Daiwa/Drennan/Grays/Sonik/Shimano/Fox (mid range up to premium)
I own more Drennan rods than any other brand, and more Daiwa reels. Big fan of Drennan generally. I have the matchpro ultralight float in 14’, Acolyte Plus float in 15’, Specialist Duo Avon Quiver, tench & bream, and distance tench & bream, and they’re all cracking rods. Their Red range stuff is cheaper and still very good.
Ron Thompson (cheap)
Middy/Shakespeare/Okuma (budget)
Daiwa/Drennan/Grays/Sonik/Shimano/Fox (mid range up to premium)
I own more Drennan rods than any other brand, and more Daiwa reels. Big fan of Drennan generally. I have the matchpro ultralight float in 14’, Acolyte Plus float in 15’, Specialist Duo Avon Quiver, tench & bream, and distance tench & bream, and they’re all cracking rods. Their Red range stuff is cheaper and still very good.
Intially a cheap light Match rig....
Mate has lovely little Shimano reel I can buy new for about £16
Was shown a Maver 11 foot Reality rod the other that looked very nice for the money.......
Currently just want to rig up a cheapy Match rig and fish some commerncial ponds to see if its something I want to get serious about.....
Mate has lovely little Shimano reel I can buy new for about £16
Was shown a Maver 11 foot Reality rod the other that looked very nice for the money.......
Currently just want to rig up a cheapy Match rig and fish some commerncial ponds to see if its something I want to get serious about.....
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