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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... It seems almost strange that March is finally upon us – officially the start of British springtime. With only two full weeks left of the regular season, it is looking quite ominous that I will be finishing my first season on Oakwood empty handed & although it is certainly not for the want of effort, ultimately these kind of venues typically chew most carp anglers minds up then unceremoniously spits them back out again! Without doubt, this mind-numbing yet captivating lake has tested my angling abilities like no other & with a steely resolve I will return to the lake a stronger & more determined angler next season. If the carp gods choose to reward effort, then I’m expecting something quite special after spending many sub-zero nights freezing my backside off & enduring the intensely long distance walks involved with reaching my swims of choice has not only tested me mentally, but physically too! Our Oakwood blog links can be found below the ‘Oakwood’ section of this page. During the last few weeks, I’ve been making plans for the three-month layoff of the closed season. Having considered various options, I have decided to target a stretch of local canal where I know of a few decent resident fish & I’ve been quietly priming a few spots for some time now, where hopefully I plan to reap the rewards of my labours in due course. In previous years I’ve been wholeheartedly guilty of not having a contingency plan, following the closure of the lake I’ve been fishing – a mistake I don’t plan to make this time around! I’ll be going to the CARPIN’ ON SHOW at Five Lakes Resort, Essex on the 7th March (www.carpinon.co.uk) with a few of my carp fishing pals. Ben Woodhouse will also be down there working on the FIVE STAR baits stand, so it promises to be a good event! I’d also like to take this opportunity to say a big CONGRATULATIONS to my mate Tom Court for landing a new personal best 30lb 2oz common! I had the pleasure of meeting Tom for the first time in France last year & I can’t think of a more deserved angler to catch a fish such as this – Top Angling kid! Following an extremely successful trip to Lac Desire in July of 2009, we have now booked up with Andy & Marie again for July 2010, but to fish their premier big-fish water - Lac Lesmont (www.lac-des-lesmont.co.uk). For certain most of the lads will be getting their bait from Bob Brown at Five Star baits (www.fivestarbaits.com), after seeing first-hand how well it performed at Lac Desire! 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 remainder of the 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: 1st March 2010*

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