It's been snowing recently and with it all melting in a couple of days worth of rain, everything was pretty soggy... Arriving at the venue, I had a quick scout around before settling in swim 2. While I'd been watching the water from the entrance, several fish poked their heads out to open water and the swim also had the added feature of an inflow pipe to the right. At this time of year, oxygen levels are pretty low and any fresh water flowing into the lake is as good a draw as any.

As it turned out, the inflow swim was the only spot to produce a bite in the 24 hours of fishing! A clean common carp of around 12lb ripped off at 4am which saved me from a blank.

Despite moving swims and giving it everything, I just couldn't get another bite... However, I will return! The lake looks fantastic and with a good head of prime condition fish, I've a feeling that once we get into late spring and early summer the fishing will really pick up. Fingers crossed, there'll be another opportunity to head down to Furnace Brook Fishery before the summer is over.

A slow (but HUGE) start but the fishing really picked up as the week went on. I landed 12 monstrous carp in all, with the biggest being a 55lb PB doubling mirror that just blew me away!

A massive thank you to Terry and Steve Smith at Euro Carp tours who made this whole trip possible.

If you're looking to do a trip to France carp fishing, check out the links below and get booking!

Euro Carp Tours

Ever dreamed of breaking your PB carp? Now's your chance!

Euro Carp Tours are proud to announce fully inclusive trips to various big fish venues in various locations across Europe.

Our starting point is BS36 in Bristol with either secure parking options or flexible pick up on route. We will be using both ferry and tunnel crossings in our new fleet of customised vehicles.

All trips can be customised, just ask them and they'll see what they can do!

http://eurocarptours.co.uk/
https://facebook.com/Eurocarptours/
https://instagram.com/eurocarptours/
https://twitter.com/EuroCarpTours/

Innate Baits

I've been a field tester for Innate Baits for several years now and can't fault them.

Innate baits are a family run business that supply high quality bait to fisheries and the public. Fronted by the main man himself Terry Smith, who has a wealth of knowledge from his years in the fishing industry.

Terry's knowledge has been established through a passion for fishing and fishery management, as a fishery owner himself he knows what makes a good bait!

The range of baits have been developed through long term use by the Innate team and our loyal customers.

Fish with confidence - "The natural choice, every time"

http://innatebaits.co.uk/
https://facebook.com/innateanglingdevelopments/
https://instagram.com/innateanglingdevelopments/

Although the river sessions have been fun, I wanted something a little closer to home (the Avon is a good 30 minutes from school) and Windmill Fishery is pretty much on the doorstep. There's 4 lakes to go at: the match lake, the specimen lake, a silvers lake and the carp lake. They all offer something different and I've been tempted back to the carp lake by the recent images I'd been seeing on Facebook - there's been some pretty decent fish coming out!

The big problem with the carp lake however is that the fish in there have been allowed to breed... This means there are millions of small carp between a couple of ounces and the 2lb mark who are more than hungry enough to have a go at anything bait wise. It's gotten so bad that the owners are actually planning on turning the water into a match lake!

But if you're willing to persevere, there are some good fish to be had. As well as countless small fish, I did manage the two pictured here which gave me a good run around. Both were caught on Innate Baits tuna boiles over a bed of hemp and corn.

From chatting to other anglers though, there's been a lot of success with surface fishing so maybe a summer evening session is in order some time?!

It was a slow start but the action really picked up in the arvo with fishing falling to innate baits 14mm boilies and yellow foam on zigs. almost feel that i'm getting there with the zig float too ;)

Happy days - just need a sunny evening now for a couple of hours surface fishing!

This time I went armed with a plan: the advice I'd been given was to bait heavily and fish a rod tight to the reeds and a 2nd a rod length off the reeds on the far margin with a 3rd rod fishing as 'chuck it and see'. I was also going 'large', using 20mm custom boilies from Innate Baits and size 6 hooks (which still seem massive to me!).

And the plan paid off!

Massive thanks to Innate Baits, the custom 'signature' boilies really did the business.