Paul Cooper explains why his favourite times of the year to get out on the bank is Spring, which in 2017 starts on the 1st March. With budding shrubs and trees, flowers and even weeds, the landscape colours up with new life.
If you listen to the experts you would never use a fishmeal boilie over the winter months. My thinking was the same, however over the years my views have changed drastically. For the past 2 years I have continued to fish through the Winter months, feeding and fishing with Squid and Orange from Quality Baits. […]
Our field tester Paul Cooper explains why La Fonte is the right French carp lake for you if you’re after plenty of action!
That very 1st French carp fishing trip can be daunting, especially if you are in a party of anglers that are all virgins to the French carp scene. The possibility is that you will be fishing for very wise big old carp that have seen every rig, tactic, and bait available. I think that there are a […]
Here’s the video diary from Paul Cooper & Jim Kelly’s visit to La Fonte this April, a well established carp lake in the Perche region of France. This 7 acre lake is ideal for up to 5/6 anglers and can best be described as a runs water! Just 1hr 40 drive from Caen and 3hr 40 […]
Well, it’s that time of year again when you are fishing for hard earned carp. Over the next few months I will be fishing very short sessions, in the hope of getting a couple of bites. Winter is generally a very non productive time of the year as the carps metabolism slows right down due […]
Paul Cooper has just returned from a carp fishing trip to Alder, where an unusual approach really paid off…. This will be my second summer vacation to Alder Lakes, the last being in July 2012 where I banked 101 mirror carp. That particular week it averaged around 30C all week and every fish came out during […]
French carp fishing holidays, and in particular those provided by Angling Lines, seem to be heading towards the top end of the big carp waters in France. Bigger lakes, with lower stocking density, meaning bigger and better carp for the industrious angler. This obviously means that we have to work just that bit harder to […]
Angling Lines field-tester Paul Cooper answers an anglers questions regarding the features and lake depths for each swim at Blue Lake. The lake is a 15 acre gravel pit and varies from 3ft at its shallowest to over 15ft at its South West end. It’s a fascinating mixture of bars and areas of sand, rocks, gravel, […]
How confident are you about fishing a 3 acre lake, or maybe a 4 acre lake or even a 10 acre lake? Most anglers would say that they’d know the features to bait up to:- snags, overhanging trees, island margins, the edge of weed beds to name but a few. Now lets increase the size of […]
One of the worst thing about cold weather fishing on short or long sessions is having cold hands and feet. This Winter I purchased 2 Whitby Hand warmers from Go Outdoors and they’re a discovery worth mentioning on this blog. They cost £13.50 each, there are other makes such as Zippo available but they are a little […]
In the February of 2010, I was thrown into the deep end by taking on a local estate lake and running a carp syndicate on the lake. I had been a member of the syndicate for a number of years and had fished there since 1985. When I first fished the lake there were 12 […]
These days I spend less and less time on the bank and appear to be catching the same amount of carp as I was doing a few years ago when I was concentrating my campaigns on night fishing. Not too many but enough to satisfy my interest. In 2014 I spent 2 nights in total […]
A few years ago I joined a new carp syndicate lake that I had been trying to get onto for a few years. The initial reaction I received was a stone-waller and I could not get past the first hurdle of Mr Arrogance (the syndicate leader). He did not know me and that was that. Eventually Mr […]
One of the main challenges that I come across on a field testing trip is getting that first run. Swim selection on a new lake can mean the difference to a successful week or failure. I have been lucky in the past with some excellent catches on some difficult venues, but not all of the […]
It’s that time of year again when we start to scratch for the odd take. The carp are at their best weights after feeding up through September and October ready for the winter. Their stomachs should be full on naturals and hopefully some of our boilies as well. As the days shorten and Winter approaches, […]
Earlier this year Paul Cooper was in conversation with an angler who was travelling out to fish Alder in September. We thought the information passed on would be worth sharing… Hi ***** I will try and go into as much detail as possible to make your week a productive one; Alder Lake Alder Lake can certainly produce the goods. […]
Below is Paul Cooper’s write up from his August week fishing at one of his all time favourite French waters, Domaine de Boux, a 14 acre lake infamous for it’s big carp since the 80’s…. Sometimes you can take your fishing ability for granted, making your expectations too unrealistic for your own good. This visit to Boux in […]
In this final section I will outline some of the more unusual leads I use, ones that are designed for a specific purpose and very effective… Cone shaped leads – I first saw these leads being used at Grenville Lake by Dennis, a very experienced and confident angler that followed the fish around this 72 acre […]
So when do I need to use distanced leads? It’s self explanatory really, to cast towards my maximum casting capability which for me is anything over casts of 90 yards. I am not the best long distance caster, so I do need some assistance with the correct shaped leads for the job… For this work […]
