Day Session at Ladywood Lakes

Heyup folks it’s K here, well this is a little piece on my visit to Ladywood Lakes with my good friend and fellow fishing companion Ian. I’ll get straight to it. After our hour and a quarter drive down to South Mirfield, it was clearly evident that there was a strong wind however it was a surprisingly mild westerly wind. So as we arrived roughly twenty minutes before we were due any half decent light, we hopped out the car to have a good investigation. There were six bivvies set up near the main car park and although that’s sometimes it’s an indicator of where the ‘hot pegs’ are, we both thought the anglers may have taken the more easier option and setup out of the wind or maybe they were just following where the other anglers were placed – basically being sheep. For these reasons we decided to avoid this area and go somewhere else on the ten acre lake avoiding the angling pressure. On our walk round we stopped at this cluster of pegs that where facing right into the teeth of the wind and even though in winter fish often back off the cold winds, this was a rather warm westerly wind so we both thought there was a good chance the fish would follow this wind. Now the real discussions started between me and Ian as we both had slight preferences for a different area – this is common when you often fish with a partner so it’s important that you both end up with a conclusion  you’re both happy with.

So after a quick chat we formulated a plan, the plan was that we would drop into peg  14 (my preference) and Ian would fish the left hand side of the swim, so he could easily access the water he would have fished if we had went for his preference. Therefore I had the right side of the swim and we both agreed that if either of us were unhappy at any point we would up sticks and move. As the light conditions had improved slightly we nipped back to the car and drove round to our swim and unloaded the gear. My plan was to fish two chods for the first couple of hours and try and cover as much water as possible and if that proved fruitless then I would whip out the marker and find a spot and put a few spods over the top and fish a solid bag or two. As I assembled what was going to be my right rod I whipped on a 14mm DNA pink peril and trimmed the very edge of the pop up to make it appear as it was a barrel. So with the pink beauty attached I punched the rig up towards the road side of the lake in line with a lamppost - so if I was to catch a fish I would know the general area of where I had caught the fish. As I felt the lead down, I was shocked on how deep the lake was as in were talking about a depth in the region of twenty feet! So as I payed off plenty of slack line (as I had to take the lakes undertow into consideration) I set the rod down and set to work on the on the other rod. Instead of a pink peril I whipped on a 14mm PB yellow pop up, another pop up from the DNA rang, I gave the pop up the same treatment as the other one and trimmed its edges so it appeared as a barrel. My thinking behind this was not only would the fish see the barrel shaped bait as something a bit different but also the exposed sides of the pop up would result in more flavours and attractors being released. After another quick punch, my second rig was flying out in line with a bivvy directly in front of me and after a nice solid donk I was happy and again payed plenty of slack off to cater for the lakes undertow.

A mere five minutes after the rods had been cast out, I received a very tentative take on the right hand rod, I tightened the clutch wound down a bit and struck. Although it wasn’t the weighty resistance I was hoping for, I felt a dull kicking on the other end of the rod. After confirming to Ian I had a fish on I started to retrieve line and bring the fish closer in as Ian hastily prepared the weighing and camera gear. After a few minutes the fish was ready to be netted and Ian slid the net under a very small fish that was consumed by the 42 inch net although I was a tad disappointed that it wasn’t a nice double but what it lacked in size made up for in its looks. It was a little corker of around 6 maybe even touching 7lbs and proves that although the fishery has many big fish in it already, it holds back up fish which is a very exciting prospect for the fishery.

With the fish returned I whipped on another pink peril which I duly trimmed down and sent back out towards the lamppost. Not missing a trick Ian instantly wound in his right hand rod and whipped on a trimmed down pink peril onto his stiff hinge rig. We then sat back and had a celebratory brew and marveled in our early success after the brew I sat to work on tying up a few solid bags (I was just simply filling them with crushed DNA S7). I had just started to work on my second bag when the bobbin on my left hand rod hit the blank of my rod and held there; again I tightened the clutch wound down a bit and struck into the fish. Although there was a bit more of a resistance it was again clear from the start that it wasn't one of Ladywood’s thirties, after a couple of minutes the fish was scrapping around in the deep clear margins. After using all of his last reserves of energy he finally succumbs to the awaiting net, upon first inspections me and Ian thought the fish may just touch 10lbs but the scales confirmed a weight of 9.8lbs, so after a couple of snaps we returned her to her watery home. After I promptly whipped on another trimmed down PB hookbait and sent the rig back into the watery abyss.

Then after yet another celebratory cuppa we began to see the odd angler from the other side of the lake stirring and poking their heads out their bivvies. Not long after the bankside activity Ian received a very twitchy take on his right hand rod he struck into the fish and he enjoyed a very spirited fight from another one of Ladywood’s smaller residents. Again after a few minutes the fish was ready for netting and I slid the net under a nice chunky little mirror, when we got this fish on the mat we were both pretty sure the fish would have hit the double figure mark. However the scales treated us to a surprise as the scales read a weight of only 9.11lbs, then after a couple of pics Ian returned her and got on to whip on a fresh pink peril.

Soon after Ian’s fish one of the lads fishing popped round for a quick chat, he informed us that he unfortunately hadn't caught anything and he had been there for the previous two nights and according to him there hadn't been a fish out since Thursday! (We were now at Sunday) After he left me and Ian gave each other a look of sheer shock, we couldn't believe it but we had just proved that an hour in the right place is ten times better than a few days in the wrong place.  A couple of hours passed without an indication so we decided to step up the amount of casts and we started to chop and change the shapes and colours of our bait. Yet after another hour and a half of fruitless attempts we were thinking of maybe moving further down the lake to try and sneak out another fish. However as soon as this idea started to crop in our minds a few lads from the other side of the lake upped sticks and moved round to the area we had in mind, we didn't bother moving next to them as it could hinder their chances of catching so we stuck to our peg and let them get on with it. I decided against putting any bait in as I had noticed nearly all the bivvies on the other side had spod gear around their swims, so it was evident that the baiting approach hadn't delivered the goods. So I stuck with my single approach.

The hours ran down and although Ian and I persisted to chop and change we couldn't buy a bite despite us braving the wind and sticking it out an hour into darkness whilst enduring the temperature drop. As we drove back up to Northallerton we couldn't help but think we had done reasonably well considering the lake hadn't been fishing that well, those thoughts vanquished most of our disappointment about not managing at least a double – the Ladywood biggun will have to wait for another time!

On a whole I really enjoyed my day trip down to Ladywood it’s just a shame it’s not a tad closer but thanks to Gus who makes Ladywood such a pleasant place to fish. I would really recommend this venue to anyone it’s got everything a carp fishermen could want: runs, spacious swims, a superb bailiff and most importantly a good stock of twenties and thirties!

Thanks for reading guys!

Take care,

Kieran McDonnell

Julian Cundiff - Part Two

Part two.


It was really interesting to hear how Jules was dedicated so early in his career. He certainly is an inspiration to the carp world and so down to earth. I wanted to move forward and see how Julian tackled modern day carp fishing and asked him how technological advances has impacted on his own fishing.

"If your talking about technology then I'd say the things that have changed my fishing more than anything, number one it's fluorocarbon! I can't fish without fluorocarbon main line now unless I'm fishing say a really weedy water and it's hit and hold stuff. The first time I started using fluorocarbon I could 'feel' the bottom properly! I got a great idea of exactly what I was dropping on to. My casting became more accurate and that has really affected my fishing.

The second thing that has improved my fishing is the multi-rig. The majority of the fish I catch are on pop-ups. The old braided pop-up rigs would tangle and were a bit of a nightmare to tie but then I looked at the multi-rig and then I steamed it which made a massive difference and I never got a tangle especially with using bits of Solar foam. Everyone else does exactly the same thing. A pop-up rig with a pva stringer or pva bag hooked on and whack it out. I looked at that presentation and thought it doesn't sit properly. I started fishing single hookbaits with foam on the steamed multi-rig and you could see that when it hit the bottom it would kick out and sit perfectly on the bottom.

So I would say that fluorocarbon mainline, the multi-rig and pva foam have made more of an impact on my fishing more than anything else and that 95% of the carp I catch are on that. I fish my fluorocarbon mainline with a Nash Diffusion leader which you can not see under water!" 
I use these leaders as well and have to agree that they are extremely hard to see when they are on the lake bed.
"I still look at other peoples leaders and think why are you using that? They would say to me 'well you would say that being a Nash consultant' but honestly you if put one in the water and look away then look back to it, you will not see it in and they sink quite well. Those and a steamed hooklink that kicks away with a pop-up just off the bottom along with a curved shank hook, be it a Nash or a Gardner and a bit of foam. Those have made a big difference in my carp fishing."

Testament to this Julian has caught carp from 12oz all the way up to nearly 50lbs from venues up and down the country. Varying in difficulties from runs waters up to low stocked pits and with this set up Julian has caught a lot of fish. I have been using the multi-rig for all of my pop-up work since the beginning of the year after seeing an article on the Korda webpage. I have also created my own version of the chod rig incorporating a multi-rig arrangement which allows me to change hooks without having to break down my choddy set up. When I fish a coated braided hooklength I like to use the hooklink tails from Nash to kick my rig away from the lead system which I think creates the same end result as steaming it but Julian had another little tip for the rig.

"I use a Nash big ring swivel. If you watch it in the water it allows the rig to kick back towards the lead which means you will never get a loop in the hooklink. As soon as someone hooks a PVA bag on it ruins the presentation  This is because as the lead hits the bottom the bag will pull the rig straight down and you will end up with a loop in it! With this rig you have to use some foam and critically balanced hookbait and I guarantee you it will kick out fully extended. Its only 100% effective if it's fully extended. When the fish picks that bait up if the rig isn't fully extended the carp can get away with it. Once its fully extended and a carp sucks that bait up then the little bit of movement in the ring swivel allows it to go up in to the mouth at full extension then the hook will ping back and catch hold every time."

So as Jules has pointed out this rig needs to be set up properly for it to work effectively. If you browse through a magazine or on a carp fishing website you will come along many rigs that anglers use to fool their quarries from the humble hair tied to the shank to a Whithy or 360 rig. I asked Jules if he thought the world of carping has gotten overcomplicated over the years.

"I think its as complicated as you want to make it. The problem is that when you go fishing and you don't have an underwater camera you really don't know why you have or haven't caught, we have a good idea but don't know. I think that its natural for us as carp anglers to start thinking about it on the bank, ah I must have caught that because I used a yellow pop-up rather than a pink one etc.

If you watch the Korda underwater DVDs the reality is that it is down to just two or three millimetres. The fish sucks and blows, sucks and blows and occupationally it catches hold. There wasn't anything on those that really made a difference between catching and not catching.

I think that every carp angler that has been fishing for a couple of years we will all fish about the same and that there are less and less advantages now. We have all got access to fluorocarbon. We have all access to this, that and the other and its those little bits and pieces that make all the difference. Everybody now can do literally what everybody else does and its trying to think of ways to do things differently that stand out, so yeah in some ways I do think its overcomplicated but with carp fishing, once you stop thinking about it then I think there is that danger of slipping into cast, coffee, read, sleep. Then its like 'where has the last twelve hours gone?'

My view is, and somebody said this to me many years ago but I forget who it was, what ever you do you need to understand why your doing 'that', that could be why you picked that swim, why you set your rods up there, why your landing net is there, why your bivvy is facing that way, why your casting that out, why your putting twelve baits out instead of seventeen. As long as you know why your doing it, even if your wrong, you will get better at it. Its better to do it and do it wrong but at least know why your doing it than to simply just go through the motions."

I get what Julian is edging at here. Too many anglers turn up at lakes and will simple pick a swim that is close to the car park or is an easy walk and cast three rods out without a thought as to where the fish are. The rigs and bait might be perfect for the fish in the lake but if the fish are in a totally different area to where the rigs are then you don't stand much chance of a good run of fish.

"Sometimes I'm the same as everyone else and I do cast them to the same old spot with the same white chocolate boilie or whatever with the same twister hook when I'm at Drayton, fishing at a hundred yards because sometimes I'm lazy and just want to social fish and relax. But that doesn't teach you anything and suddenly your like 'whoa why haven't I caught anything today?' Its only when you think about it and overcomplicate it that you actually learn.

I don't think we know, even with the Korda DVDs and all the best anglers in the world, that at the end of the day we can actually say 'that' was definitely A or B. Occasionally you can have a really good idea the reason why I had a multiple hit was X,Y and Z. I think a lot of the time we get the answer '4' and that it was '2+2' when actually it could have been '3+1.' We get an answer, which is either a blank or a catch, then we go back and ask ourselves a question 'was it  because of ................?'  and we come up with answers to our questions because that's what we do as carp anglers.

Its each to their own, it doesn't matter what you think as long as you enjoy it. Sometimes I just go through the motions, sometimes I have to really work at it and sometimes I think you know what, I could do without catching tonight and just sitting there reading and chilling then have a coffee and pack up at 6 o'clock without a wet landing net. So I do think carp fishing is overcomplicated but if it wasn't then you start going backwards."

Julian is well-known for his short session fishing. He finishes work and heads to the lake for twelve hours or less and tries to winkle one or two out. Gets up ridiculously early to head away for day sessions and if he is lucky a twenty four session. I asked him how he felt on getting on the bank for longer sessions and if that appealed to him.

"Well, yes. I have worked continuously since 1980 and now we are in 2012. That is thirty two years of work and I would say that 95% of the carp I have caught have been between the hours of 6pm and 6am. That is really hard work because I am missing out on what are potentially great fish catching times and now I've got to the stage where I would be going fishing and the chances of me catching during those times are grossly diminished, never impossible but less. I would be thinking if I could stay till ten in the morning or if I could be there at three in the afternoon then I would have had far more of a chance."

You could tell from the way he was talking that Jules really would love the extra time on the bank and he was frustrated.

"Yeah it does become frustrating sometimes. I go because I enjoy carp fishing but if someone said would you put your mortgage or house on catching a fish in these hours then I would say no!" He laughs "I'd rather get there at say 5am and fish till ten in the morning than get there at 5pm and fish till 6am because you miss out on great times. It is what it is though and I'm not complaining as I have caught a lot of fish but there will come a time that I will want to wake up at six and make a coffee rather than winding in and wait till 9 o'clock and see bubbles on the surface and think 'ya know what? I could stop another 2 hours!' It is so frustrating as an overnight angler having to wind in at 6/6.30am and then sometimes people might say to me the next day 'they were all over your swim when you left mate' I know they were!"

Carp fishing is a sport that has seen record growths over the past few years. Its popularity has spread to all parts of the UK and going from a handful of known anglers and magazines to stacks of both. I asked Jules if he thought the sport would level out or keep growing.

"I do think it will keep growing, you can't put the genie back in the bottle! Look at what is on the front cover of the Angling Times and Angling Mail nowadays it is usually a carp but when I was growing up it was nets of 3oz roach or such and such angler with a pound chub but today what sells magazines is bigger fish.

I think the only struggle we have got is the recession, it will hit hard. My view on the recession is it will go on for at least another five years if not more and I don't think it will ever come back to what it was. Cars last longer, there are not as many jobs to go around, people are not inventing new things and there are a lot more people in the country. There is more unemployment, less people paying taxes. They can dress it up as they want but the recession will last a long time. More people will go carp fishing but I think its becoming harder and harder as there are only so many people who are going to buy carp fishing magazines, there are only some many people that are going to buy more carp fishing tackle.

Eventually the margins will become smaller and smaller that some companies will disappear and I think the golden years have gone for a lot of people. I think it will get bigger and bigger though. I have heard for a lot of year people say carp fishing will blow out blah blah blah but there are more people carp fishing now than there ever has been because its attractive. Why would you want to sit trying for a 4oz roach when you can go and catch a bigger carp? I'm not saying that a 4oz roach is a less valuable catch, it may well be more but the only person who can decide is the one going fishing and if he gets a kick out of a 10lb carp then he will keep fishing for them. I don't think carp fishing will ever get smaller I think it might become out priced for some people but it will only get bigger and bigger.

Companies are prepared to accept smaller margins now. At one time it was growing and growing and growing but now I think there is a limited amount of people who will buy carp fishing magazines, carp fishing DVDs and carp fishing books. I don't think if we had five times the number of people fishing next year that you would sell five times the amount of magazines etc, the two are not linked together."

If it wasn't for the internet you wouldn't be sat where you are reading this and there is a lot of information out there for us all. Does it have an impact on the other forms of fishing media?

"There are people that want to read and there are people that want to browse the internet. At one time the only magazine out there was Carp Fisher which came out twice a year or quarterly. Nowadays there is probably too much material out there for us to read but you've got to look at it through the eyes of other people and who are we to say what is right or wrong? For somebody coming into carp fishing would pick up different magazines to what you and I do. The internet has cut down on magazine sales but I think the internet has driven interest in to the sport. Again you can't but the genie back in the bottle.

I prefer to read. I don't have a kindle. I like the feel of a book and I think it is a decreasing market but I want to read  the Telegraph newspaper, not on a kindle or the internet and that's me. I don't think you will see the death of magazines or books but I think they will become a harder and harder media and they will have to move with the times. The days of magazine and book editors being lazy and putting anything in they want are gone. You need to retain sales and people are becoming choosy about what they buy or don't buy."

I had a really entertaining night talking with Jules. His journey from the kid riding around on a push bike and not bothered at all in fishing to a carp fishing guru is quite an interesting one and his knowledge of the sport is mathematical, precise and extensive. Time was getting on and Julian was soon due to be on call so we decided to wrap it up but before I went Jules gave me a quick sneak at his carp study. Wow! What a room. He has kept every clip and magazine that he has done an article or snippet for. All his books and presentations and concert passes litter the walls and desk tops and it was awe inspiring to see them all. 

Jules and his books..

Kiss fan.... just a small one.

We wrapped it up there and I made my way home listening to an album from The Answer with a grin on my face. I had coffee and a chat with a hero of mine and it was one night I will remember for the rest of my days. 

I hope you have enjoyed reading folks and be sure to check back or like us on Facebook to keep up to date with what's happening. 

Thanks again Julian.

Matt.

Julian Cundiff - Legend - Part One

As I set off on my 45 minute trip to spend a few moments with one of carp fishing's true legends I took a few moments to calm myself. I had met Julian once before at Carping 4 Heroes in May this year, we had several cups of coffee and had a chat while watching the carp spawning like mad in front of my swim. We talked about the upcoming Download festival and how we looked forward to seeing Slash playing live. It was a great experience for me and back then I never thought that one day I would be making my way to his house to have coffee and a chat and that I would be publishing it on my blog.

This man has been there and seen it all, worn the t-shirt, hoodie and hat and must have heard it all before. I thought he must get so bored with all these kinds of interviews and topics and will probably show only a small amount of enthusiasm towards me. How wrong I was.

When I pulled up in front of the garage Jules met me with a smile and a handshake and led me in to the kitchen where he put the kettle on and made us a coffee while I flicked through a copy of Carp Side of the Moon by Pete Springate, I only got to read a little but it certainly looks like a fantastic book.

We had a chat about music, festival mud and next years Download lineup. With Julian being a huge rock fan and myself loving everything from metal to heavy rock and beyond it was nice to break some ice and nerves over the subject.

We got on to the topic of earning a living from fishing and writing but the actual reality of it is not the dream people think it is. Julian himself had been writing articles and stories for almost 10 years before he was  paid for one of them and that was in 1988 for Carpworld. I learnt that consultants only get paid quite a small amount, between £500 and £2000 a year which is certainly not enough to pay a mortgage. And  unless you are employed full time by a tackle or bait company or own/manage/direct one then you will need to work full time and fish in your own time (which requires hard graft and dedication) to get noticed and make a name for yourself in the angling media world. One thing that Jules said as he pointed around his house was 'Fishing aint paid for this' and I think that showed me how Julian has worked extremely hard for what he has got and his place among carp fishing greats.

I asked Jules to sign this for me....

I would love to write for a living though. Not just about fishing but maybe one year I could be sat bank side while typing away at a novel or trying to meet a deadline for some publisher or another, ah the dream.

For a while now I have read Julians monthly column in Crafty Carper and one of the first things I wanted to ask him about it was how it all first started for him. 

"I was never particularly any good at school and I was at a grammar school! The thing with a grammar school is, if you were really bright they looked after you but if you weren't that bright they would just let you carry on with it and not really take an interest in you.
I mean I'm talking four, five or six o'levels was classed as not overly bright and they would just let you get on with it. I never really excelled at anything, I wasn't rubbish at all but I was in the five c's or six c's or five d's sort of area and the only teacher that ever showed any interest in me was a bloke called Eric Taylor.
Now he was a writer and I love to read because I love books. I used to love war stories of Sven Hassel (A novelist of the wartime German army) and Leo Kesler (A pseudonym of Charles Whiting, A British military historian) and I remember he used to watch me as I used to always be reading and he came up to me one day and said 
'You could write those stories,' 
'I couldn't' I said 
'Of course you could' 
he told me 'All you have to do is come up with a conclusion for your story, write that down and then you start your story from there.'
So he taught me how to write and I thought this is the first time I'd done something at school that I liked. I wasn't really into Maths or Geography but English, yeah I like this. So I found something that I liked which was fishing and I used to read all the fishing magazines and now I could write properly too. 
My mum was an author as well and one day I wrote a question to Ask Billy Lane, he answered and it was published. Then I would write little fishing stories for my English work at school. I find it a lot harder to study Law than I do to write a book about my life and fishing."

Obviously I was here to talk to Jules about his start in the sport and how he progressed. I found it really interesting that this carping legend had no real interest in fishing until a chance meeting when he was in his teens.

"I was never really interested in fishing as none of my family was interested in it, all I knew of fishing was off Whitby pier. I was quite lucky that me and a few mates went for a push bike ride near Drax power station and we happened to be riding around the pond on our push bikes, this was in 76 and I was 13. There was an old chap sat behind a tench screen with two rods and a pipe in his mouth and my mates rode past but I saw him lift his rod up and I thought 'what's he doing' so I stopped and watched him lift in to a fish and he played a tench in. And I thought 'that's really interesting.' I watched him and so he explained to me what he was doing and I thought it was absolutely brilliant and I had no interest in fishing at all until then and it was just one of those fluke things that I happened to see this bloke catch, I mean if he would have caught a 2oz fish then I probably would have rode on but it was a tench about 4lbs and I was like wow! And it just looked like he was at peace with the world. It was a really calm day, a little misty and warm and he looked happy and to me it just looked really good. So yeah that's how it all started for me."

I first thought that Julian must have been born with a carp rod in his hand! But as I learnt it was a very different story, who know's what might have happened if a 3oz bream had been on the end of that line? We might not have had the hard rocking carping machine we do today. The sight of that deep green flank and blood red eyes awoke the fisherman inside as he went on to tell me.

"When I saw him catch that tench for me it was really weird because I really love my rock music and motorbikes and all the loud stuff and the reality of it is we have this" he pointed around. "I live in the middle of nowhere and I love it quiet. To me I'm the worst social angler in the world because when I go fishing I just want to be me with the environment and what appealed to me with what he was doing was it was quiet, it was the middle of nowhere and he looked happy and I thought 'oh that's really good.'

I watched him a couple more times and then I went in to Woolworths and bought a Winfield 9ft Topaz rod which I have still got upstairs and a black Intrepid Boyo reel. You know I was a kid and had no money so what we used to do was use tic-tac boxes as floats, fill them up with a little water until they just sat. 

In the olden days there used to be these proper little fishing shops where we used to go and spend our pocket money on A float or A packet of hooks or a bit of Bayer Perlon (line) and that's how it developed for me. I was just lucky though as the pond that I was fishing was a specimen pond, Drax, where I was catching lots of little roach and bream but every so often I would hook a specimen fish and it would power off and I would think it was a big tench or whatever. I was just lucky that I fished a good water."

We have all been there when that float has bobbed under and you've struck into something that was defiantly not the fish you were looking to catch. I have and that inspired me to up my gear and progress to the bigger specimen fishing. I asked Jules how he progressed to specimen fishing.

"I love reading and I used to read the magazines all the time and see the pictures of the big roach, bream, tench and pike and it got to where instead of putting one maggot on the hook I would but two or three and then you would hook in to say a 6oz roach that took some line off you! And then you progressed on to the bream. I started to fish for bigger fish but had no interest in fishing for carp then. But what is funny was that the bloke who I saw fishing and I was fishing with was Eric Hodson who founded the British Carp Study Group, BCSG, with Peter Mohan in the 60's and he had no interest in carp now at all, he used to call them steam pigs and preferred his tench fishing.

So we used to fish for tench in the summer and then pike in the winter so it went tench, pike to closed season, tench, pike to closed season and then from say 1980 for three or four years I was specimen fishing just for tench and pike. So by the time it got to 82/83 I had had a few little carp (up to about 8lb) but it didn't really do anything for me, I'd seen what I thought to be record tench in the shallows, these big dark shapes moving through the water I had no idea what they where I just thought they were big tench. So I was just a course fishing specimen hunter, I loved my Tench (up to 7lb in Yorkshire), my Bream (to 8lb), my Eels (up to 3.5lbs) double figure Pike they were all good fish to me as I was a specimen hunter. I was a member of the Ebor Specimen Group in York which had Jeff Crawford in it and a few other guys who were carp anglers and I was the young lad that fished for big tench."

It seems as though Julian loved every aspect of course fishing and with him fishing the Drax pond it was only a matter of time before he would get in to the bigger carp, wasn't it?

"Obviously there are a lot of big carp in Drax. Eric stocked it in the early 70s with young fish and I'd say by the time I was fishing it the biggest was certainly a good double figure fish and even though I had a few smaller fish it still did nothing for me. But I remember it must have been in 85 a couple of carp anglers turned up on the lake and I looked at their set up and thought 'wow that is completely different to my fishing.' They had the bedchairs, Cardinal 55 reels and Kevin Maddocks rods. They had Optonics (alarms) and big landing nets, one was reading a Hutchy book, the other a Maddock book. And just as I did with Eric I thought it looked really interesting but it still wasn't enough to pull me away from my tench fishing.

I was still fishing using sweetcorn threaded onto the hook and I remember catching a 12lb 12oz carp at Drax and that was it! There was something different between catching an 8lb fish and a 12lb one. It was just wow! All of a sudden I was starting to get more and more into my carp fishing and then I remember one of the guys showed me the hair-rig in the mid 80s. I thought 'no way is this going to work!' A huge boilie hanging under a size eight hook with a bit of matchstick as a boilie stop!

I remember I was fishing with a girlfriend at the time and I decided to cast the rig over to the edge of a weed bed still thinking it wont work but I'll give it ten minutes as you do but it literally roared off after a few minutes and that was when I thought woah! That was the first time the fish was self hooking as before that you would be sat up all night staring at a Drennan beta light waiting for it to twitch or sit watching a bobbing creeping up, and then when I caught that carp I thought 'I really like this.' 

What interested me the most in Kevin Maddocks was the way he was technical about it all. I'm not particularly free thinking as in I'm very practical and theoretical and all of a sudden Kevin would say 'You want a size 8 hook of this type, you want this and that' and all of a sudden he explained it all rather than me just casting a boilie out or a link ledger and that's when I started to understand what I was doing and then it took hold of me and from then it just went forwards."

So from being shown a hair rig back in the 80s by an angler that inspired him, did Julian ever think that some day he would be such a well known figure in the carp fishing world?

"Funnily enough" he laughed "I don't really say this a lot but when I was growing up in school you probably wouldn't have recognised me. I used to be the little fat weird kid that liked Fishing and Kiss ( an 80s rock band) who lived in the country side and his mother is a vicar, now that isn't a great social outlet believe you me! And I remember my mum saying to me 'it doesn't matter what other people think about you, you like what you like, you don't have to like what other people like.' 
So I was going fishing and enjoying it and listening to my rock music and enjoying it. Everyone else was 'I like Grease and I like the New Romantics and I like dancing' I would say 'Well I like Rock music and motorbikes' and that other stuff was not for me.

 I have always been what I like is what I like and I wont bend it for other people. I remember going to a fishing meeting in 1986 before I had a car or anything and my dad took me. I watched Roger Smith and Bob Jones who were in the Savay book, I could recite their chapters. They were doing a slide show and I thought to myself, I could do that, I could do that talk. And they explained what they did. How they 'went down to the pond and cast out and caught a carp' and I looked at all the kids watching them as though they were superheroes and I thought to myself 'I want to make something of myself and whether its right or wrong I don't care what people think and one day I will be doing slideshows and people are going to know who I am.'

I literally thought that I was going to change myself. I looked at where I lived and realised I'm never going to catch bigger fish than what I have here or a greater number of fish so I created an image for myself to stand out from the crowd because all carp anglers were the same. They would all be slightly overweight and had combat gear on and never washed or looked after themselves on the bank. The only people that stood out to me were Kevin Maddocks and Ron Hutchinson. People that people gravitated to were ones that they could remember visually.

So I made it so that people would remember me visually. After that I started writing a lot and I got put down for that so many times for being un-famous from my area. People were saying 'Who are you to write for Carpworld? Who are you to be writing for Carp Fisher?' So I got a lot of slagging for it but I was determined that I was going to do it my way and on my terms and so I created me. My brand.

I took inspiration from Kevin Maddocks, I copied his analytical approach and the writing style of Tim Paisley. I used a few peoples ideas but I didn't want to be like them. I didn't want to be lets say the next Terry Hearn, or the next Danny Fairbrass or Ali Hamidi. I wanted to be me, the first Julian Cundiff.

It wasn't easy at all! It does not make you popular to try and stick your head above the parapet. So yeah I did think that I would be remembered but could never imagine what would happen. I always looked long term and thought about what I did today and how would it effect me tomorrow or next week or next year or in ten years on. Which is what a lot of people don't do now. They will look at what they are doing now and only what effects them now and then a year later when it comes to bite them on the bum and they haven't looked far enough in to the future and they think 'Ah crap, yeah I have caught a few fish but what do I do now?' I never wanted that, to be scraping a living on the bank catching big carp. I always looked long term with everything I did. I knew what I wanted and I knew what I had to do to get there and I did it my way rather than copying other people."

So that's the end of part one guys. It is quite a lengthy read so have a brew and then read part two where we cover the more up to date side of carp fishing, rigs and where he thinks the sport is headed. 

Matt

Mark Watson

I have wanted to do a few interviews to improve my article work and penmanship and spied Mark Watson from Nash Tackle on Facebook and asked him if we could do a short interview. He agreed and I suggested we carry out the interview online as Mark works full time as do I and schedules can clash.

I thought I would start asking him about his fishing roots and how he got started carping. So with brew in hand and slippers on I had a quick chat with the 36 year old taxi driver.

Me - So how long have you been fishing for and was carp the first species you targeted? Can you remember landing your first carp?

Mark - I've been fishing since I was about 9 or 10.
I started off trying to catch anything that swims and targeted just about everything before carp. Mainly chub on the river Don or south Yorkshires Navigation canal and tench on a club water called the long pond. A few mates had started carp fishing and I followed them.

My first carp came in a match my grandad had entered me in with his local pub and it came from Elvington Lake near York. Towards the end of the match I'd only had a few perch so I crammed as many maggots as I could on a size 16 hook and cast as far as I could with my 9 foot quiver rod. It whacked round just before the end of the match and after a good fight a monster mirror of 2lb 2oz was netted giving me 3rd place in the match. I still have the trophy I won today

Mark with a gorgeous 38lb Common, slightly bigger than his first.

Me - Haha excellent, so your full time employed and a consultant for Nash Tackle how did that come about and how do you find juggling the two together?

Mark - The Nash thing started almost 10 years ago when Gary Bayes took me on as a field tester for the bait. Things progressed from there to being a consultant. Balancing full time employment with them is easy. They've never put any pressure on me to do anything and I'm lucky in that I find writing easy. I'd do more if I had more time.

Me – Sounds great mate. How much time to do you get on the bank? Do you mainly do days or 24hr sessions or longer?

Mark - The max I fish is a 48 session every week. I work Thursday to Sunday so can fish Monday to Wednesday. Being there midweek is a massive edge. Obviously other things in life pop up in life that get in the way but 2 nights a week is what I like to do. I'll do more day sessions through the winter.

Me - Obviously being a Nash consultant you must get a good look at their range of tackle, what would be the item you would never leave home without?

Mark - Twister hooks, I've even adapted rigs to incorporate them. The long straight point, wide gape and strength are what make them a bit special.

Me - I have read loads about them, Julian Cundiff can’t rate them high enough. So do you prefer a bivvy or a brolly? And are you a door open or closed kinda guy? Which of the Nash Bivvies or brollies would you use till the end of your fishing days? (may they be long and fruitful)

Mark - I currently have a Titan and a brolly dome and it depends on the weather as to which one gets used. The brolly dome is lightweight and perfect for summer sessions and I also use it for days in winter. It gives more protection than a normal brolly and has a mozzy mesh which is essential. The Titan is rock solid and is what I use when the weather gets a bit rough. I'm almost 6 and a half foot tall and both bivvies are high enough for me to be comfy in. I've been in bivvies in the past that must be made for midgets!!

Mark in his bivvy watching the water. 

Me - I’m in the same boat mate, just a tad shorter at 6 foot 3! Do you use Nash rods and if so, what are they and how do you rate them for performance?

Mark - I used century SPs for years then switched over to the NRXDs and the difference is unbelievable. The SPs were good rods but the NRXDs are in a different league. Everything from their casting, playing fish to being so light for their strength makes them the best rod I've ever used by a long way. That may sound like a consultant blatant plug but I'll back it up. If you or anyone sees me on the bank I'll let you have a play with them and see for yourself!

Me - I have just got a pair of Enitity rods through earning some Nash vouchers and I think they are pretty bloody awesome. I was talking to Lee at Broadlands and he was saying the NRXDs are something special too. I know a lot of anglers are keen on carp care, which of Nash's mats or cradles do you use?

Mark - All anglers should be keen on carp care mate. I've had the carp cradle for a few years and it's perfect for the job. Not having to lift the fish too high for the pictures and not having to find dead flat ground are a couple of advantages. A lot of my pictures are self takes and having the cradle makes framing the shot a doddle.

Me – True, all anglers should be but not all are. With the cradles being so good and not too badly priced most should be able to afford one. My Peg 1 multi mat is looking a bit tired now. What are your views on the Peg 1 series? Do you think the budget end of the tackle is worth it or do you recommend that people should buy the best they can afford at the time? (Generally speaking)

Mark - The peg 1 range is quality kit and is aimed at the specialist angler. Nash do the Hooligan gear for a budget range and there's good gear in there that doesn't cost the earth. I've just done my level 2 coaching course and will have a set up from the hooligan range for beginners to use. I also know of UK carp up to 54lb that have been landed on the hooligan rods.



Spending money on fishing always has to be a balance. It’s better to have mid or low range gear then still be able to afford bait and tickets. There's no point have top of the range kit and nowhere to go!

Me – Thank you so much for this mate.

A stunning 45lb 6oz Mirror... 

So a short and sweet interview about a few items of the Nash range that Mark likes to use. As Mark has mentioned he has passed his level 2 coaching course and we be doing tuition next year so if you are interested I would give him a message.

Thank you again to Mark and I look forward to testing out those NRXDs!

Hello There!

Heyup It's Kieran here, As I haven't formally introduced myself yet I thought I might take the opportunity to do so now. I'm sixteen years old and am a madly enthusiastic fishermen, I'm currently a DNA baits and PB Products fieldtester and I'm really enjoying myself doing it. I fish a variety of waters around here such as Welham Lake, Carpvale doubles, Manor, Pool Bridge and a few others and in the near future I hope to broaden my horizons - next year I'll be able to learn to drive which will see my horizons broaden even further. Also I'm a very keen writer and my real ambition is to become an angling journalist and hopefully with a bit of luck and skill I will hopefully achieve this.

As Matt has mentioned in the past we first met at my carp cup qualifier at Pool Bridge and since then we've been talking and a real friendship has blossomed - all through this wonderful sport! It's obvious that the two of us are going to embark on many angling adventures and I'm really looking forward to them. It's already clear that Matt's going to be my runner next year and we've already started prepping and knocking a few ideas about, it's great as we are just bouncing anything off each other. Another plus of Matt being my runner is that he's able to keep my nerves in control, he helped me out a lot last summer so that's another thing I don't have to worry about. Roll on next summer!

Blog wise your in for a treat as Matt has been working hard and over the next couple of weeks you'll see two interviews that he's done, one with Nash's Mark Watson and the second from the Yorkshire carping legend and a true carping inspiration so sit tight and watch this space because your in for a treat.