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	Welcome...! Like most anglers, I regularly buy the monthly magazines & enjoy reading the stories, especially those from friends that I've met along my angling path. This website has been created along these lines - a blow-by-blow account of my latest angling experiences & some insight into my ideas & methods. Originally, I created the site because I used to trawl the internet looking for anything to do with the West Midlands carp fishing scene, & as you all know, there aint much out there! This site, Royston Butwell's 'black country carpers' & the aptly named ‘midlands-carper’ site are three of just a mere handful available. The site name was taken from a quote of a friend who once said to me "too many anglers are more interested in what happens inside the bivvy, it's what takes place beyond the bivvy door that matters..." After a break of around ten years, I’d got bored of a successful match fishing period, & I decided it was time to return to my all time angling passion of carp fishing, to settle some old scores – namely catching a 20lb common & a thirty. Contrary to popular belief, there aren’t all that many venues close to where I live in the West Midlands that contain carp of this size. Venues such as Cuttle Mill, Pool Hall, & the Riddings fishery at Grendon all boast a good head of twenties, but heavily fished day ticket waters are generally not my cup of tea, although if they hold the kind of fish that interest me, I'm more than willing to approach them. I’m more at home on a water where you’re not likely to see many people, & I can go about my business relatively unnoticed. The kind of water that really gets my adrenaline going, is the type that you never quite know how big a fish the next run is going to produce. Having fished the local canal heavily, you always knew that the next fish was almost certainly going to be a double, with the possibility that it could just be a twenty. I prefer the idea that the next run on an unknown water could produce anything…a double, a twenty, a thirty, a forty, a fifty, or even bigger... Latest... Having returned from France for a few days now, I've been doing some serious thinking about my fishing & how I see it developing in the near future. Even though I managed to bank a new European personal best fish of 41lb 8oz, my quest for a UK thirty goes on. I learned some serious lessons whilst over there & it doesn't matter how many times the 'experts' say 'keep it simple', I always try to stay one step ahead by using quality rigs, bait & set-up that I believe general 'run of the mill holiday-makers' will not go to such efforts to recreate. However, after managing to lose the first five fish that I hooked, I ended up going back to the relatively simple, but robust setups that I used over a decade ago! For certain, these lessons will be observed & employed into my fishing where I've also managed to banish some myths too... for instance, I've never been a huge fan of lead clip arrangements - simply because every time I use them, I get tangles! With their superior 'lead ejection' properties, I've had to use them whilst abroad & now I've persevered with them, I've now come up with a suitable way of using them for weedier waters such as Oakwood with confidence. On top of this, I've also decided to do a complete U-turn regarding my choice of alarms... I've always been a dedicated Delkim fanatic & have had years of unrivalled performance from the three sets I've owned. However, I've always secretly liked the idea of owning some Steve Neville alarms, although the only reason why I didn't purchase some last time round was because I didn't like the idea of the ATTX remote system that I would have needed to purchase to go with them. When the new remote version came out some months back, I gave some serious thought to purchasing a set, but I decided that ultimately, that it wasn't worth 'fixing what wasn't broken'. All of a sudden, I've decided that it's time for a change & in all honesty, I don't have a better reason for making the change than that. I love my Delkims - they do everything I need them to & much more. I have been known to say that I wouldn't own a set of ‘Nevilles’, but rather than just knocking something I've never tried, I believe it's time to give them a go! It was great to spend a week in the company of some great anglers & it was nice to finally meet & spend time in the company of Wayne Kobielusz - a legend up his own garden path. The highlight of the week was most definitely Rich Kane's capture of the 'Fat Controller' @ 58lb 12oz - what a beast! Although the week ended with some controversy, I trust that were all gentleman enough to move on from it in the future & I look forwarded to seeing you all again soon. Please bear with me as I update the Lac-Des-Lesmont page of the site. I'm still in the process of converting, editing & uploading the media file which I hope to complete very soon. I'd just like to relay a note of thanks to Bob Brown at FIVE STAR BAITS (www.fivestarbaits.com) for supplying us with top quality bait for our trip, along with probably the best commercially made pop-ups I have ever used - cheers mate, I'll be ordering again in the not too distant future! My thoughts will now return back to Oakwood, where the quest continues & I plan to return very soon... Our Oakwood blog links can be found below the ‘Oakwood’ section of this page. As a proud member of ECHO, I would also like to take this opportunity to remind all anglers that are passionate about carp & their future well-being to renew their membership to this important organisation. Please take time to join @ www.echocarp.co.uk. I would also like to say a big ‘thank you’ to the many of you who have taken the time to give me positive feedback on this website... Cheerz! Good luck for the new season & tight lines. Oakwood - 2009 Onwards What lies beneath...? After the conclusion of my Blackroot campaign in March 2009, I had intended to focus my attention on the Swag, but with the lake being very close to a large council estate & with a lot of youngsters loitering around the pool during the late evenings, I had some serious concerns over my safety. I therefore needed to spend my precious fishing time on a more suitable venue. I got to work straight away doing lots of research & it seemed that the majority of the local lakes were all struggling to fit the criteria I craved – it was paramount that any lake worth consideration had to have secure parking, contain fish to 30lb+ & not be too expensive to fish… & let’s face it, unless you live in the Southern counties there aren’t too many places around like this! Trying to find a suitable venue was proving to be an almost impossible task & at times I felt as if I was banging my head up against a brick wall. After spending some time mulling over the few options available to me, there was one particular venue that I’d had in mind some years previously, & after some in-depth investigation, I realised this venue would fit into my plans perfectly. The lake in question is approximately 80 acres in size & has a reputation as being very hard – due mainly to it’s low stocking levels. My knowledge of the lake was very limited, but I was aware of the presence of some original leney strain fish, known to be in excess of 30lb. There has even been the occasional rumour of fish over the magical 40lb mark & after a few phone calls & some sustained research, I eventually managed to secure my ticket for the 2009/2010 season, along with my good mates Ben & Chris. The lake itself is relatively shallow & whilst it is very well matured with large reedbeds, lilly beds, & heavily tree lined banks, it is set in the backdrop of a busy road network. After spending countless hours searching the internet & speaking to close friends about the lake, what information about the carp fishing I could unearth was painfully minimal. All I knew for certain was that it was not going to be an easy water to fish! With my impending trip to Lac Desire in France in the first week of July with a party of eight lads, we were unable to get our campaign underway as soon as the season had begun, so by the time we’d returned from France, the new season was already four weeks old. However, the following week we headed down to the lake for our first session at the new venue. · Click here to view my OAKWOOD Blog · Click here to view Chris Naylor's OAKWOOD Blog · Click here to view Ben Woodhouse's OAKWOOD Blog In The Beginning... I started fishing at the age of ten, when my mother bought me one of those awful cheap & nasty 6ft spinning rod sets, after I moaned like mad that my elder brother had been given one. It took me ages to actually catch my first fish, which was a tiny perch from under a road bridge on my local canal. After spending my early years with mates on the 'cut', I used to watch the carp swimming up & down certain stretches of the canal, beneath the surface, & was always told "you can't catch them". The more my angling knowledge increased, the more I thought 'I bet I could catch them'. At the age of sixteen, when I left school & began an engineering apprenticeship, earning the mighty sum of £40 per week, I started to buy a two rod carp setup, aimed at having a go at catching these canal carp. After many hours, days & weeks of trudging the canal banks in search of carp, I began to meet some of the guys that were also fishing for them. The first bloke I met was Royston 'Buzzerboy Roy' Butwell. He went to the same school as me, so when I saw him carp fishing under a brolly in winter, with a carp rod, a leger rod & sitting on his plastic seatbox, I had no hesitation in chatting to him to see what info I could gain. Through Royst I met his mates: Dave Edwards, Dave 'Gypo' Williams, Lee Evans, Stuart Lines & Wayne Dunn. They were all 'doing it', & I was eager to get in on the action. I spent a lot of time with Royst & the two Dave's, & that allowed me to keep in touch with what was being caught, & how to catch these elusive fish. Until I could afford to buy all the gear I needed, I would regularly sit until the late hours with them, whenever one of them was doing a session. I was fortunate to see the odd fish being caught, but was all to aware that it wasn't going to be easy! My time on the canal is documented in The Canal page of this website Last updated: 29th July 2010*

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