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...
Now November has arrived, the summer seems little more than a distant memory & I am left wondering where all those weeks have gone. In all, I reckon I've done around twelve sessions at Oakwood, one on the canal & the rest of any chances I’ve had have been short evening stalking opportunities during the season. Recently, I've really been cursing my luck with almost every opportunity that has presented itself - I've been scuppered by one event of bad luck after another... Trust me, this isn't just me whinging because I haven't caught many fish since the end of August; things just seem to be going against me generally. For every time I have left a warm house in the evening to get to the canal side in the dark & proceed to get cold & wet for two hours then pack up again, I believe that eventually the carp gods must provide me with some reward for all the effort & persistence that I've continually put in. Oh boy have I worked hard to sneak out a couple of biggies from the canal before the winter really starts to bite hard & action begins to grind to an absolute halt... After what has seemed like an extremely long wait, I managed to sneak out a mid-double mirror from the stretch that I've been fishing just recently & with that capture, I'm hoping that it may have finally 'stopped the rot' & perhaps a few more fish might now just come my way. To put this capture into context, I was so incredibly relieved to have caught this fish, it didn't matter how big it might have been - it was a carp at last & gave me some desperately needed confidence!!! The good thing is that I really have got my canal plan into gear now & I'm sure it’ll begin to produce a few more fish in the near future...
Our Oakwood blog links can be found below the ‘Oakwood’ section of this page.
Be sure to attend the BLACK COUNTRY CARPERS Autumn show, being held on Saturday the 20th November at the Beacon Centre for the Blind, Wolverhampton. There's a cracking line-up with guest speakers Gareth 'Gaz' Fareham, Darrell Peck & Ian Bailey along with Ruth Lockwood & ECHO Midland Regional Organiser Ben Woodhouse giving a short talk about the plight of E.C.H.O, so for anyone who hasn't joined & would like to, they will be able to do so on the night. Gaz's new book 'the Forgotten Chapters' will be available for purchase on the night, as well as lots of other carp angling merchandise. This is the third social evening that BCC has organised & with guest speakers such as Rob Hughes, James Turner & Lewis Read in previous evenings, the event is gaining a good reputation & is steadily going from strength to strength. I'll certainly be there, so feel free to say hello & make sure to bring along plenty of spare pennies, as it is a charity event for three brilliant causes - Help For Heroes, E.C.H.O & the Beacon Centre for the Blind.
For more information, click on the flyer above or contact Nick Winwood @ nickwinwood@hotmail.co.uk/ 07912 057766.
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.
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
