Scans of prints. River Thames, Hurst park, early 2000's. The willow tree photo spot. I'm not sure if Matt was ever on this forum, he was on RMC as the Thumb & Blunkett. This was his first ever trip to the Thames with me. He caught this big leathery one on his first night in a heavily pre baited swim. I was desperate to catch this fish. I would love to know what happened to her. I caught her an exact year to the day later, in the exact same swim. I have never seen another photograph of her, apart from these ones here. It was a fish I always imagined could grow so much larger. It had a really big frame for a Thames fish.
First photo that ever went up on the SHB business page on 26th October 2012. It's a Stow fish which was caught in January 2012. Part of a big haul on a day session on S2, one of my first ever trips to the Stow. It got two likes on our work page. Was seen by ten people total. Nowadays the photos we do post on there get clicked on by an average 200,000 anglers across Europe. I didn't even have a personal Faceache account. I set the business page up, which was amazing. Back then they did not make you have a personal profile. No internet friends, I saw no one's feed. Nobodies disgusting looking Sunday dinner photos. No ugly kids back to school photos. I was never added to any poxy **** groups, or invited to play some mind numbing idiot game. I was oblivious to it all. It was truly bliss. The personal profile, had to come years later, when they changed the stupid rules to mean that you had to have a personal profile to control a business page. I called myself Mark Ferlangyboom in protest, until they made me change that too.
Advanced Carp magazine, actually stole photos of me from the Perfection Ground baits private page with a 50+. Printed them in their magazine, declaring me as ‘Mark Ferlangeyboom'.
A proud moment.
Advanced Carp magazine, actually stole photos of me from the Perfection Ground baits private page with a 50+. Printed them in their magazine, declaring me as ‘Mark Ferlangeyboom'.
A proud moment.
Scans of prints. 2006, Sutton 2. The Peach common. Another one of the A-Team from the undercut spot in the dead end swim, fifth or sixth day as a member. I only found the undercut in the first place, by losing a mobile phone. I was on my knees at the waters edge, rig in both hands, mobile phone wedged between ear and shoulder with the mainline in my gob chatting to a fishing friend. The Brown fish, a near 40lber cleared the water under the tree canopy right in front of me two foot away. It shocked the life out of me, I dropped the phone into the drink. Sutton is very silty and bloodworm rich, full of big roach and millions of bream. The water is always murky. I could just about see the light from the mobile phone in around 2.5 foot of water right in the edge. I laid on my belly with my arm at full stretch, I could just feel the phone with my finger tips. All I succeeded in doing was pushing it into the undercut beneath me. I lost the phone, but discovered that I could get a landing net pole three foot under the no fishing bank I was kneeling on. I had caught the big fully and the Unknown from the edge of this undercut. The Peach common was the first one that actually came from three foot under the bank, right in the big girls front room. I was about to rip them to bits over the following couple of weeks from this big undercut beneath the root system of an old tree.
In reply to Post #63
Gorgeous fish.
Gorgeous fish.
In reply to Post #64
"All I succeeded in doing was pushing it into the undercut beneath me. I lost the phone"
Shame you never had an iPhone/FaceTime back then, you could have called the lost phone and watched them feeding!
"All I succeeded in doing was pushing it into the undercut beneath me. I lost the phone"
Shame you never had an iPhone/FaceTime back then, you could have called the lost phone and watched them feeding!
I mentioned the big common the Golden from the park lake being caught on my S2 at least three times in a post last week. That's now four times below. Twice now that particular fish has been caught in the depths of winter (Jan/Feb) on an S2.
I keep posting photographs of monsters getting caught on them over and over again. BlackSpot the Kent 60+ has been caught on an S2 or a Garlic likely twenty times over the past 15 years. I recently posted photos of The Little Grey (TH caster fish) that went 7 years virtually only being caught on an S2. Look at what's currently happening at Welly. The Krill is likely the flagship freezer bait of the past decade. It was trialed at the same time as the S2 was released to the public, on Roach Pit. The S2 absolutely blew it out of the water and back again. I could go on and on with similar examples.
I was never that good an angler in reality. I was just lucky to have had the Sugars2.
I realise this really upsets internet bait men, trying to sell bait, with their own personal bait theories. I'm not trying to be controversial at all. I'm not trying to sell pop ups. Anyone on my personal social media will tell you I've taken 50 bags off the bookies in the past four days. I'm asking the question honestly. Can someone point out a similar situation in the history of carp fishing? I don't seem to remember a time when the bigguns got caught on the same baits over and over again. Be that tigers, maggots, a certain freezer bait or pop up? We have always talked about baits 'blowing'. Why does the S2 not 'blow'? I don't personally believe that any bait blows. Just something better comes along.
It's now that S2 time of the year. In cold water, they just get even better.
Royston with the Golden, 56lb+ Feb 2024, S2 over his own homemade freezer bait.
Will, Rockford Scopex/Pinepple S2
Dan S2
I keep posting photographs of monsters getting caught on them over and over again. BlackSpot the Kent 60+ has been caught on an S2 or a Garlic likely twenty times over the past 15 years. I recently posted photos of The Little Grey (TH caster fish) that went 7 years virtually only being caught on an S2. Look at what's currently happening at Welly. The Krill is likely the flagship freezer bait of the past decade. It was trialed at the same time as the S2 was released to the public, on Roach Pit. The S2 absolutely blew it out of the water and back again. I could go on and on with similar examples.
I was never that good an angler in reality. I was just lucky to have had the Sugars2.
I realise this really upsets internet bait men, trying to sell bait, with their own personal bait theories. I'm not trying to be controversial at all. I'm not trying to sell pop ups. Anyone on my personal social media will tell you I've taken 50 bags off the bookies in the past four days. I'm asking the question honestly. Can someone point out a similar situation in the history of carp fishing? I don't seem to remember a time when the bigguns got caught on the same baits over and over again. Be that tigers, maggots, a certain freezer bait or pop up? We have always talked about baits 'blowing'. Why does the S2 not 'blow'? I don't personally believe that any bait blows. Just something better comes along.
It's now that S2 time of the year. In cold water, they just get even better.
Royston with the Golden, 56lb+ Feb 2024, S2 over his own homemade freezer bait.
Will, Rockford Scopex/Pinepple S2
Dan S2
Start of April 2017. Second part of a brace of Burghfield 40's, second day as a member. This one was caught on a BBQ coated S2. I made some just for this session. Had them on one rod, caught this fish, gave the rest of the tub away and have never made them again since. They have quite a good average too. You can see from the one on the rig the fish was caught on, that it was not in the water that long.
Since I had found the carp in the open water a month before, by walking the lake in the dark, I had filled it in with so much tiger spunk. I got through three and a half 25kg sacks of dry tigers, just making the spunk for Burghfield & the Nursery poaching pit at Sonning during that month period. I did not use one single tiger nut which I had prepared from those sacks until months later. The whole lot went into a big chest freezer, ready to supplement other free bait for the river Thames when it reopened on June 16th. The spunk itself was applied to boilie crumb, the vessel to get it all to the bottom. A bucket of spunk went out there three times. This was when the really big displays of carp showing started. Very little food content, but the taste of fermenting tiger nuts in the silt which the fish had clearly spent all winter laying in. They remained in the same area for an entire month. I doubt they actually moved more than ten yards in that month. The entire lakes stock was balled up there. No drones, no cameras, just solid watercraft. Unfortunately those days seem to now be gone on most lakes containing big carp, as technology starts to take much of the real skill out of carp fishing. Now anglers just rock up and send the drones up, even on the low stock pits. The days of a watercraft advantage are unfortunately now long gone. You could have just started carp fishing yesterday, purchased a drone with all the associated gear... Now you know where every single carp in the lake is today. A step far too far for me. Where is there any skill in that? Golfers do not want a putter that does all the work for you. Tennis players do not want an automatic racket that will serve at 140mph for you.
Remove all of the skill, the great danger is that you actually remove what makes the very game itself. We need to be very careful, of not doing exactly that as carp anglers with technology in my opinion. Otherwise it will eventually take away what made it so great in the first place.
Since I had found the carp in the open water a month before, by walking the lake in the dark, I had filled it in with so much tiger spunk. I got through three and a half 25kg sacks of dry tigers, just making the spunk for Burghfield & the Nursery poaching pit at Sonning during that month period. I did not use one single tiger nut which I had prepared from those sacks until months later. The whole lot went into a big chest freezer, ready to supplement other free bait for the river Thames when it reopened on June 16th. The spunk itself was applied to boilie crumb, the vessel to get it all to the bottom. A bucket of spunk went out there three times. This was when the really big displays of carp showing started. Very little food content, but the taste of fermenting tiger nuts in the silt which the fish had clearly spent all winter laying in. They remained in the same area for an entire month. I doubt they actually moved more than ten yards in that month. The entire lakes stock was balled up there. No drones, no cameras, just solid watercraft. Unfortunately those days seem to now be gone on most lakes containing big carp, as technology starts to take much of the real skill out of carp fishing. Now anglers just rock up and send the drones up, even on the low stock pits. The days of a watercraft advantage are unfortunately now long gone. You could have just started carp fishing yesterday, purchased a drone with all the associated gear... Now you know where every single carp in the lake is today. A step far too far for me. Where is there any skill in that? Golfers do not want a putter that does all the work for you. Tennis players do not want an automatic racket that will serve at 140mph for you.
Remove all of the skill, the great danger is that you actually remove what makes the very game itself. We need to be very careful, of not doing exactly that as carp anglers with technology in my opinion. Otherwise it will eventually take away what made it so great in the first place.
In reply to Post #68
"No drones, no cameras, just solid watercraft". Hear, hear. I don't care what others do, as long as it doesn't bother anyone else, but for me it's so much sweeter catching by casting a bait when others are using bait boats with sonars, gps and drones..........a young guy was telling me about his bait boat - just push a button and off it goes to the spot via GPS. All the way showing everything with the sonar and then when it drops the bait lowers a camera on a cable to see how the rig is sitting!!
"No drones, no cameras, just solid watercraft". Hear, hear. I don't care what others do, as long as it doesn't bother anyone else, but for me it's so much sweeter catching by casting a bait when others are using bait boats with sonars, gps and drones..........a young guy was telling me about his bait boat - just push a button and off it goes to the spot via GPS. All the way showing everything with the sonar and then when it drops the bait lowers a camera on a cable to see how the rig is sitting!!
In reply to Post #69
Unfortunately it is rife.... many of our so called leading light are using cameras and drones now.... its a disgrace.
Unfortunately it is rife.... many of our so called leading light are using cameras and drones now.... its a disgrace.
Old photos. Both from the 1952 Donald Leney stockings of DDAP's Brooklands. The common is the original 'big common'. This fish had not been caught for a couple of years before this photo, it was a couple of pounds down on its normal weight and completely empty. There was only a few Leney's left in there at this point. It had a large bit of hessian sack hanging out of its mouth. It went right down in to its gullet. It was clearly stopping it from feeding properly. It could not swallow and was slowly starving to death. Me and Steve Ludlow removed as much as we could. Pulled as much out as carefully as we could, cut it close to the gut entrance. Even though we could not get it all out, It clearly worked a treat. The following year it came out five pound up, at its highest ever recorded weight. It had never gone 30lb+ before, but it went over 32lb the year after this. Not bad for a very close to 50 year old carp at the time. It lived for quite a few years after this.
Scans of prints, special old carp. Photos taken by a good friend who is no longer alive. Good memories, looking at old photos connected to people who had a big influence in your life.
One of the first fish I caught from Roach Pit, Triple Row. I had three in 24 hours. Early spring 2013. Sugars2 cork balls on SHR's fished in the fresh onion weed, always the first weed to sprout in shallow water every spring. Find it, you will find and catch the carp. When the fresh Lilly pads start to sprout in deeper water even before that, the carp will be there like a magnet for a few days. They are so highly attracted to the first growth in the water every spring. This photo of Triple Row was just five minutes after the otter fence was constructed. Its tail had been done by otters. The night before the fence was completed, the otters were riding around on the carps backs out in the middle of the lake. I am sure it was a mother teaching the cubs to hunt. One of the main culprits releasing the otters en masse, was just up the road in the New Forest. Thirty men there on the banks to complete the fence for the weekend and all the associated noise did not bother them whatsoever. Incredibly this fishes tail was heavily treated with some special carp care medicine. It completely re-grew back within a year. You would never have known that this fishes tail had ever been savaged. If the fence had not been constructed at the exact time that it was, the Roach Pit carp undoubtably would have been otter food within weeks.
My old dog Casper absolutely hated the otters so much with a real passion, he wanted to kill all of them constantly. Every night when they came to the fence he would be there waiting for them. He did not have a single bad bone in his body for any other wildlife whatsoever. He hated those otters with a real passion though. He'd chased a massive dog otter into the river one night on the river bank at Fen Drayton as a youngster. This otter was a very regular visitor to Fen, coming up the river every night. Likely from Ferry lagoon next door. That all stopped when Casper chased him into the river that night. He despised them with a real passion after that. He allowed a gang of young motherless ducklings to sleep under our brolly next to him every night at Fen. He was their guardian and they 100% knew it. Exactly the same thing happened on Roach Pit in spring 2013. This gang in the photos here, knew that by keeping close to Casper at all times, they were safe from the killers behind the new fence.
My old dog Casper absolutely hated the otters so much with a real passion, he wanted to kill all of them constantly. Every night when they came to the fence he would be there waiting for them. He did not have a single bad bone in his body for any other wildlife whatsoever. He hated those otters with a real passion though. He'd chased a massive dog otter into the river one night on the river bank at Fen Drayton as a youngster. This otter was a very regular visitor to Fen, coming up the river every night. Likely from Ferry lagoon next door. That all stopped when Casper chased him into the river that night. He despised them with a real passion after that. He allowed a gang of young motherless ducklings to sleep under our brolly next to him every night at Fen. He was their guardian and they 100% knew it. Exactly the same thing happened on Roach Pit in spring 2013. This gang in the photos here, knew that by keeping close to Casper at all times, they were safe from the killers behind the new fence.
Another forum member sadly passed away yesterday. Tim Marshall. Tim who lived and fished in the States now, had been suffering a horrible terminal illness for more than a year. Tim caught his PB from one of the famous French lakes whose name escapes me on one of our S2 around 2017. A real proper monster. He loved pioneering giant lakes in the US. It was Tim Marshall and Gerry Giles (OldGeezer), both ex RMC & CarpForum members who were constantly asking me to write a book about my personal fishing and the hook baits. In Gerry's case, it was literally never ending. He was so stubborn minded, but so genuine with it. Last Christmas was clearly going to be Gerry's last. He was already soon to be in an end of life hospice, I had recently done the bookies for a life changing sum of cash. I wanted to make Gerry's last Christmas as special as it could be, asked him if it was okay first out of respect. He would not have a single bit of it. Was totally adamant it would not be his last Xmas bless him. In a world full of people who would rob you blind as quick as look at you, he was something completely different. An incredibly honest and genuine man. What you have been reading recently on here, was for both Tim and Gerry twisting my arm. I have no interest whatsoever in writing books. That's why I have been writing stuff on here whenever I'm in Brazil with my youngest son and have the time, for them really. Both Gerry, and now Tim have now passed.
I've had lots of lovely messages on our work phone from anglers about what they have been reading. It's Gerry and Tim that you owed your thanks too. Both of them are at peace now. Both proper men and anglers, a very sad loss to carp fishing in general.
I've had lots of lovely messages on our work phone from anglers about what they have been reading. It's Gerry and Tim that you owed your thanks too. Both of them are at peace now. Both proper men and anglers, a very sad loss to carp fishing in general.
Scan of print. River Thames, Hurst Park, Hampton sailing club, late 90's.
In reply to Post #74
very sad to hear of Tim's passing.
wonderful man & an absolute gent. I tried to make arrangements to finally meet up with him this year but unfortunately he was too sick to get out. He was the first person to mention to me that wild carp will very rarely get caught from the same area in a lake more than once & when you find a new spot they are typically easier to catch. When I went back & checked mine & friends NA captures he was absolutely spot on & it's subsequently changed my fishing.
RIP buddy - I'll raise a glass to you this evening
very sad to hear of Tim's passing.
wonderful man & an absolute gent. I tried to make arrangements to finally meet up with him this year but unfortunately he was too sick to get out. He was the first person to mention to me that wild carp will very rarely get caught from the same area in a lake more than once & when you find a new spot they are typically easier to catch. When I went back & checked mine & friends NA captures he was absolutely spot on & it's subsequently changed my fishing.
RIP buddy - I'll raise a glass to you this evening