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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+ 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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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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Alternative River Ebro part 1 – zander, roach & carp

zander fishing - alternative River Ebro roach, barbel, carp fish - Riba Roja

It must be the best part of two decades since I first gazed at photos of John Wilson et al posing with huge catfish they’d caught from the Ebro.  I’ve wanted to fish there ever since, but had been put off because in many popular areas such as Mequinenza and Caspe, the “fishing” has evolved into nothing more than sitting back while your rods are positioned for you by someone in a rowing boat, your hair-rigged pellet hookbait tipped over the side with several kilos of loose pellets.  When a bite materialises there is little more to do than winch in an overfed, pellet-addicted lump of a catfish.  This is a far cry from the traditional tactics employed on the Ebro such as “clonking” and boat fishing with a float or lure.  This is what fishing on the Ebro is all about to me – putting in the effort yourself whilst drawing upon the experience of a good guide – and I‘ve always felt the river could offer me more. Despite this watering-down of methods, there are still alternatives available if you can find the right guides in the right areas.  A chance conversation with Will Barnard a couple of …

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Odds, sods and a quick rant…

Fraser Holland first chub - 4lb+

This is another quick post from an internet café.  I’m on holiday, you see, until tomorrow, so burglars you’ve got one last chance! The house is actually the reason for both my blog-slackness and my wider angling-slackness for almost the entirity of the river closed season and beyond.  I finally took the plunge and bought my first place with my girlfriend, Jen. Needless to say, there was a lot more to the whole process than I’d anticipated… Still, I’ve finally started to get a few sessions in, which I’m pleased to say have yielded very few blanks. So far I’ve had barbel to around 9lb off the rivers and a good few carp off the surface on some local lakes too. I also took my 13 year-old cousin Fraser for his first-ever river session a week or so ago where, under my guidance, he managed to land a clonking new PB chub of 4lb 5oz on simple groundbait feeder techniques. Not a bad first river fish at all; I reckon I was 19 before I’d caught a chub of that size. The only thing was the pesky chub was very lively on the bank and every time I pressed the …

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National Fishing Week – Event @ Barlow Lakes this Sunday

National Fishing Week open day event at Barlow Fisheries, Chesterfield, Derbyshire

With National Fishing Week/Month (heck, why don’t they go the whole hog and make it last all year, every year and maybe re-brand the country Great National Fishing Britain or United Fishing Kingdom!) upon us, I shall be once again lending a hand at an event being held at Barlow Lakes near Chesterfield.  The day is being organised by my friend – and qualified NFA angling coach – Kevin Miles.  In the past these events have featured tackle stands, taster sessions for novice anglers, fun matches and displays by the Environment Agency.  This year I am not so sure about the setup (I’ll post more details once I know them), but I know that a local floatmaker is coming down, there are demonstrations of various floats and methods – including the unveiling of a new design of self-hooking controller float – and I’ll be in attendance from 10am ’til around 1pm (the event is open until 3pm), so if you want to chew the fat, discuss tactics or ask me questions on any aspect of fishing then pop down.  there’s no entry fee and the lakes are open all day for fishing if you want to combine the trip with your usual Sunday fishing trip.  …

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