Were Back!

Sorry for the absence these past few weeks but due to work commitments it has been unavoidable but the good thing is we have both been able to try out a few bits and bobs of tackle and as from Friday we will be back with a vengence.So keep a look out and we will continue to do our bit for UK carp fishing.

North West Carp

North West Carp forum
Any compulsive Carp angler with access to a computer and internet will be or have been,(at one time or another),a contributing member of a forum and by far the most popular forum for carp anglers we have encountered is the North West Carp forum.We here are both members and there's not many of our associates that aren't signed up with them.The North West Carp forum is a great platform for debate or general banter with your pals aswell as somewhere you can gain valuable knowledge due to the first class advice it's members are willing to share.The North West carp forum is a great asset to our angling discapline accomodating some great characters who are also an asset to our sport.
The moderators of the forum are always more than willing to help their members out,friendly,firm but fair your manners and respect towards fellow forum members will hold you in good stead with the site with a chance to build your forum status simply by contributing.Start your own threads or comment on others are a couple of ways you can enhance your forum status or simply read away.Remember though the forum is aimed at all ages male or female so any derogetory comments will quite rightly be removed and you may also lose your membership.
The quality and content of the forum are exellent and although it may sound regional please don't be put off. North West Carp are open to anglers nationwide,membership is free and only takes a minute.
Whatever your interest in carp fishing the North West Carp forum will have something of interest for you so if your looking to join a decent forum North West Carp are to be seriously considered.
CAUK

                                  www.northwestcarp.co.uk

Underwater secrets

The submersible camera and the filming of Carp in their natural environment has become a great asset to us anglers who target the species.The abillity to examine the way the creatures behave around the rigs and bait that we have dropped into their homes has progressed our understanding of the carp and their routines far beyond the point of just being able to peer down through the waters layers with a pair of polaroids.
Brought to the attention of the Carp angling community by tackle giants such as Korda and subaqua photographers like Rob Hughes,the use of underwater cameras is set to become more popular as time passes,without doubt.
However,and i am no expert on this subject,but the filming of the Carp or indeed any other fish being angled for in their home environment must take skills surpassing the average keen photographer so for me it's easy to appreciate such undertakings as they bring masses of help to the way i approach my fishing,as i am sure it is the same for alot of other fanatical Carp fishermen.

Underwater Secrets is a site who's author has obviously got the gift/art of underwater filming down to a fine art.From the very first time i visited the site i was fascinated by the quality of the recorded footage.The site authors simple text that is written with each of their videos doesn't try to explain anything away in a know all fashion rather you are left to make up your own mind on what is happening and why.What has been put in the water in terms of rigs and bait are not overly explained,but there's enough for you to make an informed opinion on what's going on down there,besides if there is anything more you want to know about each piece of footage then you only have to ask.Underwater Secrets are obviously more than happy to answer any of your questions judging by the contact links on the site.Lay out and navigation are simple so going back and forth between videos is easy.Filmed in the Darenth valley area over the past 5 years and having a musical soundtrack rather than a narrated one Underwater Secrets is a great site uncomplicated in a lot of ways but totally invaluable in all the right ways.This site is fantastic and were hoping they keep the videos going up on the site for as long as possible.Brilliant!.

Follow this link to Underwater Secrets  www.underwatersecrets.co.uk or you can get to it through your browser,whichever way you get there if your mad about your Carp fishing then you simply need to visit this site.

CAUK
                                               www.underwatersecrets.co.uk

Cemex Longfield Road Lake Fish Kill

 Cemex anglings Longfield Road Lake has been the scene of a mass fish kill incident.There has been no confirmation yet as to what has caused the deaths of the fish but there are early reports that a gill disease may be the cause.Lots of the original fish at the venue have perished and others left fighting for their lives.News of this sort is the last thing Cemex need at the moment as they are selling off their venues.Anglers who have used the lake recently are being urged to get their nets,mats,weigh slings ect disinfected as soon as possible.

JRC Ultracast rods up for grabs

2 x 12ft 3Lb TC  JRC Ultracast rods up for grabs

So here it is Carp Anglers UK's first competition,we've got 2 12ft 3Lb TC JRC Ultracast rods (retail price £109.99) to give away to the one CAUK blog visitor lucky enough to have their name drawn out of the hat at random and all you have to do to enter is fill the contact form out on the right hand side of the screen.Only leave your contact telephone number in the description panel as this and email will be the way the winner will be notified.The draw takes place on Monday the 3rd of September 2012 at 12.00pm,the winner who's name gets randomly drawn from the hat will be notified at once.
Good luck to all that enter.

(conditions of entry)
The draw is only open to UK residents
Only 1 entry per email address
Entries will only be accepted via the formlogix contact form on the CAUK blog,entries sent to email links from any of the posts or review articles will not be entered.

Carp Tackle online with free delivery on everything

If your after carp tackle at reasonable prices and also don't mind shopping online then the site i am about to spill the beans on might be for you.After getting the nod on a couple of online tackle shops by a pal of mine and knowing he had a good nose for a bargain i decided to check out the sites he had told me about.After having a look through the recommended sites there was one that caught my eye.Not because it was an ultra fancy site with every widget known to man on it,neither did it boast to sell every product under the sun,but it did deal exclusively in carp tackle and their deliveries to UK mainland addresses are free.See that is a rarity in itself alot of other online tackle shops will actualy charge you extra if you only wanted a packet of say lead clips.I know one online tackle peddler who if you were to order a single packet of lead clips would charge you an extra tenner plus P+P just because the order is so small.It's actually done by quite alot of tackle dealers taking small orders as they must see it as a waste of their time so they charge the extra when infact they should be flattered that folk are using their services in the first place.
The i-net tackle shop that impressed me into writting this post are called Faction Carp Tackle and they make a point of explaining that they absorb the cost of UK delivery as they want to keep the customers prices down as much as posible.The free delivery isn't next day or anything quite as swift as that Faction say up to 5 days from the confirmation of the order but i still say that's a service to admire in a retailer.Next day delivery isn't a problem for £7 pounds it can be arranged without fuss.Overseas orders  are only available as far as the EU and will vary according to the size and weight of the package.
Payment of your items can be done in the usual online methods,Paypal,visa debit and the like with the necessary secure payment logo's displayed.
The merchandise itself is reasonbly priced offering the same quality on most of their stuff than any other i-net tackle store,for rig bits and so on Faction are the ideal retailer to make a B-line for.They also offer a good range of bait from Frank Warwick,Enterprise and Baitzone to name but a few.
Overall Faction carp tackle are decent online retailers and althought they may not have everything in the way of Carp tackle theres bound to be something there that you know your gonna need next time out,together with the free delivery we reckon you'll be sold.Check them out,open an account just in case you may want to take advantage of their free delivery.It's a thumbs up from us.
Here's Full details on their location and how to get in touch.
To order online visit http://www.factioncarptackle.com  or click on the link.
You can email Faction for info mail@factioncarptackle.com they will be more than happy to oblige or you can telephone them on 01926 813487.

Address:
Faction Carp Tackle
The Granary
Stockton Hall Court
Rugby Road
Stockton
Southam

CV47 8HS

United Kingdom

Please note: Unfortunately we do not have a showroom and cannot sell directly to customers at our premises. Sales can only be made via our website.

 

Keele Hall Lakes Campaign continues

Our campaign for the capture of the carp at Keele Hall lakes continues but it's a real challenge.Read our latest diary entry for a full report on how we are getting on.

Keele Hall estate lakes no walk in the park

UK Grass Carp Record Broken

Sorry about the pic guys it's the only one we can get for now

This is the first time a Grass carp has featured on Carp Anglers UK, as mentioned it's not the species that instantly pops into your head when you think of carp but we Carp Anglers UK pay homage to these fantastic looking creatures and to the man who has just broke the UK record,a common or mirror of this size would be the fish of a lifetime but a Grassie that size,well some anglers don't even manage to catch a Grass carp in their lives,the stuff dreams are made of!

101Lb New World Carp Record

A New World Carp Record
Read about this monsterous fish in Carp Anglers UK's Carp News category.

 New 101Lb Carp Record

Ace i3 wireless bite alarm review

Check out our Ace i3 alarm review in the tackle news and reviews section if your on the look out for new bite alarms,it might just help with decision making.

The "Hair Rig" A Brief History

Prior to the development of the 'Hair Rig' it was common practice to mount the bait directly onto the hook.Although Carp were still being caught to some degree it was acknowledged through the observations of how Carp fed that a more effective method of hooking the fish could be developed.The development of the 'hair rig' was no accident,in the late 70's forward thinking anglers Len Middleton and Kevin Maddocks would be the one's to develop the 'hair rig'.Watching the way Carp fed in a fish tank would be instrumental in the design of this soon to be devastating method of bait presentation.
Taking it's name from the material used (a human hair) the new method was to increase catch rates dramaticaly.Seeing how Carp would eat food offerings freely whilst quickly learning to avoid those with monofilament or hook shanks protruding out of them was to be the logic behind the new methods development,by attaching the bait to the hook via the hair it would become apparent that the bait acted far more naturaly in the water thus not spooking the Carp who were wary of food items that did not act naturaly in the water simply because it was mounted directly onto the hook.
This new method of presenting the bait to the Carp would be a revolution,one that would send catch rates soaring,the 'Hair Rig' was born,the great leveler and as history has shown Carp angling was never the same again.

Using the knotless knot to acheive the Hair rig

CAUK

The Hair Rig

Don't believe the hype!

Reading through a popular publication recently got me a little annoyed.The magazine in question is a popular carp fishing magazine which i am not going to name neither will i name the articles writter,see that's not what our blogs about but when something needs saying then we will say it.
The article was on rigs,specificaly the KD style way of whipping the hook to the hooklength.The article goes on saying that the simple ways are the best and all other complicated rigs ie the 360 rig ect are a waste of time yet in the very same publication some 3 years ago the same high profiled angler who says it's a waste of time actually gave a step by step instructed guide on how to tie the 360 rig.Furthermore the article from 3 years earlier couldn't praise Dave Lanes invented 360 degree rig enough saying the rig had accounted for most of his fish in the past 2 seasons.I wouldn't have bothered posting this article if the angler had have mentioned that he had wrote about it in the years previous and that he had changed his mind over time but there was no mention of it.The editor of the said publiction should be on the ball when it comes to issues like this especially when younger members of the angling community hang on the very words some of these high profile fisherman have put into prin,again the editor should have spotted this and sorted the issue,clearly time for some other angler to occupy the pages and without the hypocritical articles.CAUK.

Carp fishing blog

Carp fishing blog,Carp anglers UK has only been online since February 2012 but has still managed to attract over 100 hits a day,a testament to the site itself.Well written reviews honest and unbiased,good advice on how to tie rigs and descriptive venue reports,The Carp anglers UK blog although young and still under construction is set to be a great resource and link to the UK carp fishing scene.

Canal Carp Challenge 2012

These places are stuffed with carp

Many carp anglers are put off when it comes to fishing on UK canals,carp are notoriously elusive the sheer size of the canals equate to a vast body of water.Some canals hold more carp than others and besides from the stretches that have produced recorded carp catches in the past there is not a lot known about what carp are in what canals overall.It is this lack of information and knowledge that has given us the idea of launching the Canal Carp Challenge 2012.Carp Anglers UK are asking England's carp fisherman to take pictures,weigh and record all the details of each carp caught from any of the canals in England.It's common knowledge that the canals hold carp but the numbers and sizes of carp in the different canals across our country are not specific,unlike that of the stillwaters.It is our intention to gather as much information on the canal carp as possible over the coming year and present our findings on the Carp Anglers UK blog aswell as to any other party the information may be relevant to.
For the Canal Carp Challenge 2012 to be a success we need as much data as possible so the pictures and catch records sent to us really are important.The title of our project may suggest that we are running a competition when in fact we are challenging you to go and catch carp of any size and report it back to us.There are no prizes for the challenge this year but the person who sends us details of the most catches (not heaviest) will be named Canal Carp Challenge champion 2012.There will be prizes for the 2013 canal carp challenge a number of retailers have pledged prizes but our first year must generate enough participants to gather the data required for us to make an analysis of the carp content in our canals.
The 2012 Canal Carp Challenge will officially begin on the 14th April 2012,this is when the logging of the information you sent us will begin.This initiative will benefit all anglers in the long run,knowing our target species and the waters they inhabit is one of the most valuable pieces of information we can use in the successful pursuit of the fish we love to catch,Carp!
So if your targeting carp on any of the canals that are situated in England regardless of their size and weight,we want to know about it.

(The Canal Carp Challenge will only be collecting details of catches from canals in England.)

For more information on Canal Carp Challenge 2012 or to report a catch Email: sharpercarper@fishhoo.com 

REMEMBER: Anglers logging catches must supply the following,Name,Email,Location of catch,weight,tactic,bait and a picture.
Good luck and thank you to all who are planning to take part,the information you send us will be very valuable,CAUK.

Fishing in beautiful surroundings,bonus!

Tackle shop Directory painstaking

An update on our Tackle shop directory
Due to the shear amount of the tackle shops and retailers we have in England the job of compiling our directory is a very time extensive one.The decision to publish our tackle shop directory as it is being compiled was made because we thought that any information we could give out to the angling community would be mutually beneficial to both customer and retailer.We want our tackle shop directory to be as comprehensive as possible including not just the phone numbers but email and website addresses also,many directories of this nature fail to even include the shops postcode let alone email and website addresses,it is for this reason that the directory is in a state of construction but please be assured it will be complete soon.
If you own or manage a fishing tackle shop and would like to be included in the Carp Anglers UK tackle shop directory then please email all your shops details,Address & postcode,phone number including a mobile and if you have an email address and a website address include them also.Send them to:
sharpercarper@fishhoo.com