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Tag Archives: carp fishing

Ultima Power Steel fishing line – Long-term Test Review

Ultima Power Steel fishing line - best fishing line

I’ve used Ultima Power Steel for 12+ years. In short, I think it’s absolutely fantastic stuff for all legering & feeder fishing, from carp & barbel to predators; by far the best mainline I’ve ever used. It’s clear, very abrasion resistant, has low memory and a very low stretch for nylon line. Power Steel used to be marketed as a coarse & carp mainline but it’s now sold as a sea and predator line. It’s still the same stuff on the spool though! I can’t fathom why it’s no longer pushed towards specimen anglers. With the properties it has, it’s ideal. For the first few years I used Power Steel purely for hooklinks – predominantly for barbel and perch – I was really impressed with how tough it was. I had previously experienced many breakages of mono, braid and fluorocarbon hooklinks when fishing for barbel – especially around snags. It was the part of my set up I had least faith in so I chopped and changed regularly, hoping I’d find something I could trust. After reading good things about Power Steel (back when it was still marketed towards coarse & specimen anglers) and, being familiar with the Ultima brand …

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Carp Fishing Tackle Department at Phil’s Bait & Tackle – Fishing Tackle Shop in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Notts

Carp tackle & luggage for sale at Phil's Bait & Tackle, Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire fishing tackle shop & bait

Click on the image slider below to open a full gallery of the carp tackle department at local independent fishing tackle shop, Phil’s Bait & Tackle at Sutton-in-Ashfield. Phil’s has a large carp fishing & specimen fishing department with large stocks of: carp rods, carp reels, carp bait (boilies, freezer baits, pellets, particles, flavours, glugs, oils, etc.), carp luggage, terminal tackle, hooks, leads, mainline, hooklinks, bite alarms, rod pods, metalware, landing nets, bivvies, bedchairs, unhooking mats, cookware and many carp accessories. Brands stocked include: Fox, Korda, Nash, Shimano, Avid Carp, Daiwa, ESP, JRC, Korum, Chub, Spomb, Dynamite Baits, Mainline Baits, Sticky Baits, Nashbait, Bait-Tech & Solar. Their dedicated carp showroom was expanded in 2019 and features their largest ever range of quality carp tackle and carp fishing accessories, which is open to browse and try out the latest carp gear and there’s always someone on hand to provide advice. Phil’s Bait & Tackle also has a large and very well stocked coarse, specimen, match & pole fishing department. Other services offered by Phil’s include a full range of repair & spares services, including: rod & pole repair service, pole elastication, rod re-ringing, reel servicing, spare parts for some other tackle …

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Fox Warrior+ Carp Rods – Full Cork Handle, 12 ft 3.25lb TC – Tackle Review

Fox Warrior Rod - Warrior+ Carp Rod Full Cork Handle Tackle Review – 12 foot 3.25lb test curve carp fishing rod

The Warrior range of carp tackle from Fox International has long been associated with combining great features with exceptional value for money.  They have been immensely popular and successful rods for Fox, who have released several generations of Warrior rods over the years.  Despite Warriors being used by thousands of anglers, I had never actually used one!  Fox made my favourite-ever specimen rods (a pair of Zandermasters), so when I was offered the chance to use & review a selection of the limited edition Warrior+ (that’s Warrior PLUS) range, I was eager to see if they lived up to their legendary status.  These striking 12 foot Fox Warrior+ carp rods – exclusive to Tackle Fanatics – are finished with a full cork handle.  The blank – the same one used in Warrior S rods – comes in at 3.25lb test curve.  It’s made from low resin carbon and has a beautiful matt finish.  To further enhance the quality finish the rod has a classy anodised aluminium butt cap, etched with the Fox logo. I personally prefer a full handle over an abbreviated one and, even with wet hands, cork does seem to offer a little more grip than Duplon.  So …

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Fox Warrior+ 42 inch Carbon Landing Net & Handle – Review

Fox Warrior PLUS - 42" Carbon Carp Landing Net & Handle

The Warrior range of carp tackle from Fox has long been associated with combining great features with exceptional value for money.  Warrior rods and other hardware have been immensely popular and successful for Fox, over the years.  So when I was offered the chance to use & review a selection of the limited edition Warrior+ (that’s Warrior PLUS) range, I was eager to see if these could live up to their legendary status. In this review I’ll look at the 42 inch Warrior+ landing net, designed for landing carp and specimen fish.  My first impression when I put the net together was that it’s extremely light.  This is thanks to its all-carbon handle and arms. The one-piece handle is a good thickness and, although lightweight, seems very strong.  At the butt end it features a subtle matt grip and a handy Duplon butt cap, which not only helps the handle bounce when dragged along the ground (as opposed to making the hideous scraping noise of handles with metal butt caps when they’re dragged) but it also helps stop the net slip from between your legs when resting it in the water whilst playing a fish.  At the head end you’ll …

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Fox Warrior+ S&M Rod – Duo Spod Rod Marker Rod – Tackle Review

Fox Warrior + PLUS S&M Spomb Spod Marker Rod

The Warrior range of carp tackle from Fox has long been associated with combining great features with exceptional value for money.  They have been immensely popular and successful rods for Fox, who have released several generations of Warrior rods over the years.  Despite Warriors being used by thousands of anglers, I had never actually used one!  Fox made my favourite-ever specimen rods (a pair of Zandermasters), so when I was offered the chance to use & review a selection of the limited edition Warrior+ (that’s Warrior PLUS) range, I was eager to see if they lived up to their legendary status. This is the Warrior+ “S&M” rod.  No, it’s not a sado-masochistic torture device!  S&M, in this case, stands for Spod & Marker.  This is a beefy rod, at 12 feet in length and with a test curve of 4.5lb.  A solid reel seat sits above a fully shrink-wrapped handle which isn’t merely a thin layer of plastic; it is slightly spongy to touch, with the feel of Duplon, and it gets thicker towards the butt which aids grip when casting hard.  The S&M is ringed with 5 x double-legged Fox Slik rod rings, spaced for distance casting, plus an …

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Support Your Local Independent Fishing Tackle Shop

Coarse fishing, match fishing & pole fishing department at Phil's Bait & Tackle - Wagglers, stick floats & pole floats for sale at Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire fishing tackle shop & bait - Drennan, Middy, Sensas, etc.

Andrew urges all anglers to use their local tackle shop as often as possible. I grew up in a small village with a few fishing ponds which catered well for kids. The thing was, there were no fishing tackle shops within easy reach of the village, so as a teenager it was always a case of “Get what you can, when you can”, when the chance of a lift to a tackle shop arose! I’d been fishing for 20 years before I finally had a tackle shop in the village I lived, but after a couple of years it had already closed down. The tackle market is a different place to when I was kid, mainly because of the internet. Whilst there are thousands of bargains available out there from the major players, the advantages of having a small, local tackle and bait supplier cannot be overstated. You can’t order a last-minute pint of maggots from the internet, or replace that packet of hooks you realise you’re without, just as you’re leaving the house! Yes, it can be invaluable to go into a large shop and pick up 10 different rods to compare before you commit to that big spend, …

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First Cast – Angling Coaching Sessions – Learn to Fish!

First fish! Fishing is ideal for families. Learn to fish with First Cast angling coaching & tuition

2019 UPDATE – Unfortunately there have been some major changes since I published this page, so I intend to replace it soon with a new resource to help children and beginners get into fishing. Kevin Miles no longer offers angling tuition. Barlow Lakes is now under new ownership and has been rebranded as “Barlow Country Club“. They are hoping to offer their own angling tuition & tackle hire and will open an on-site tackle shop in the near future. Exciting times ahead! There are now many events organised in school holidays where children can try fishing for free or learn to fish for free – with tuition and use of tackle included. Sadly we’ve moved into an era where independent fishing tackle shops are closing down (or being bought out by massive tackle shop chains) and there is a general decline in the fishing tackle trade, mirrored by a rapid decline in junior rod licences issued. Therefore, it’s never been more important to encourage new blood into angling. I’m passionate about this and I don’t believe the “big-name” anglers or the tackle industry do enough to encourage our nation’s youth (obviously there are a few exceptions). That’s why I’m devoting …

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Caught In The Act Review – Parts 1 & 2 – Spring & Summer

Caught In The Act Parts 1 & 2 DVD - Spring & Summer

Caught In The Act is the ambitious latest project from Bob Roberts and Stuart Walker; the duo behind the successful and enlightening (it certainly taught me plenty about how barbel and rigs behave underwater) “Barbel Days and Ways” series, which features some terrific underwater footage.  I am a fan of that series of DVDs and when I heard that this new series was in the making, which dramatically expanded the range of species targeted, I had high hopes for it. The complete films are the result of over 3 years of angling trips to day ticket & open-access club waters, after a variety of species over all four seasons.  Each session is chronicled as a short “act” and there are ten acts in this 2 DVD set, which covers Spring & Summer fishing (Autumn & Winter will follow later in the year as a separate double-disc set).  Stu and Bob don’t have the benefit of an on-hand professional cameraman to film their sessions but instead call upon their own filming experience from making “Barbel Days…” and film each other.  When one is fishing, the other does the filming and vice-versa.  Both Bob and Stu are extremely accomplished anglers, which means that when …

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Farm lake carp – tales of the unexpected

Andrew's PB carp - a 24lb 9oz leather carp caught on an exploratory trip to an unfished carp lake

There are some things that as anglers we just can’t resist.  Such as an invitation to try out a neglected old farm lake “to see what’s in it”. The chances are it could be a real duffer; a puddle devoid of everything but sticklebacks and dragonfly nymphs, but there’s always that chance. That pesky chance. So upon receiving one of these extremely rare opportunities, I couldn’t refuse.  A farmer was investigating the possibility of selling the fishing rights to a couple of acre lake on his property, which had been neglected and unfished (bar the odd poacher) for years.  A quick recce was all I could fit in initially, but I spotted a few carp up to high doubles, maybe even a twenty, plus a half-decent tench hanging in the shade of a fallen tree.  I’d also spotted a lightning fast tail swirl in the margins that really shouted “pike” to me, so I made a mental note to visit properly the following spring. It was difficult to know what tackle to take with me because I wanted to get an accurate cross-section of the species present in the water, but I also hoped to catch the lakes largest residents – whatever …

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Spring Tench & Carp Overnighter

18lb mirror carp caught on light tackle in the spring from Higham Farm fishery, Alfreton

I managed to pick a couple of days break in the early-May rain, to fit in a 24-hour session with Shane Calton.  We visited Derbyshire’s Higham Farm Lakes and tackled up primarily for tench, but with the head of carp, bream and other species in there, we knew it would be difficult to target them solely. Higham is pretty local to me, so I used to fish this place quite regularly for the carp when I was 15 to 18, but I worked out that I have only been there once in the last 12 years! I was field testing a fair bit of Cyprinus night fishing gear, including a bivvy, a memory foam bedchair, a 3-5 season sleeping bag and a tackle barrow, which all performed superbly (Reviews on FishingMagic.com here). Before I arrived Shane had already landed a few bream in the 4-5lb bracket and as I was setting up he landed a tench of exactly 5lb, which was a very promising start. It was to be the last tench we had between us, but we each notched up carp overnight and I also had a bream and a strange fantail brown goldfish-cross thing, which I should have really taken …

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