I went and fished that Chad lakes one night during the week and got woken up at 4 in the morning to my alarm screaming with my line getting taken half way down the lake. I got a new PB with this nice looking Carp at 16.3lb. I was even more happy in the morning to hear that out of 5 I was the only person to catch in the night too! I must be doing something right!  

Wicklow, on the east coast of Ireland, is the new jewel in the Irish sea angling crown. In the past, the south and west coast of Ireland have dominated catch reports leaving the east almost forgotten, but this is about to change! I spent two days recently in Wicklow fishing with new charter skipper Kit Dunne aboard his boat “Lisin 1” targeting smoothound. I can only describe the fishing as incredible and it was one of the highlights of my summers fishing! I was to join a g...

Hi all I have been invited to be a Gulp Army field tester and blogger so this is just a small blog to introduce me self. My name is Ian Thomas I’m 44 years old I’m a Ceiling fixer by trade from Shrewsbury Shropshire, I have been a carp angler for the past 32 years and run two carp Syndicate lakes in Shropshire. In the winter I spend most of my time at Bluebell lakes, during the summer months I’m on my local lakes. My UK PB is a 43lb mirror from Bluebell. I also go to...

Well I was back down the Tarn Saturday afternoon looking forward to a relaxing two night session,and with my Dad planning on joining me on Sunday for the night, I choose a swim I had caught a few from the week before which would give us plenty of room to spread our rods out on a quiet Sunday night. A chat with a few other people fishing tells me that its still very slow and only one fish has been out in the last 24 hours! Saturday night saw me get a twitchy pickup which the ...

I have just returned from the WCC in Italy. What an outstanding event that was! I was asked by my friend and River Ebro fishing guide Gary Sheridan to fish with him in the World Carp Classic on Lake Bolsena in Italy. I had to think about it for all of 5 seconds then of course said yes! Unfortunately we ended up in what turned out to be an unproductive swim and section which stretched for about 2 miles. Not one carp landed in the whole section. My first competitive blank si...

Just joined the Gulp Army September 2012 with the winter in front of me” No pressure there then” I’ve used some of the range in the past with some success it was the particle bomb bolie in 16mm. I used it fishing over a seed mix spodded out to a gravel bar in one of the syndicates I’m in. Had a 2 small commons to 15lb. The bigger of the 2 pictured below The stamp of fish in this lake is fantastic. But they don’t give themselves up easily. So it will be a good test of the G...

Back in May of this year, the guys from Inland Fisheries Ireland asked if I wished to take part in the Twaite Shad survey again, similar to the one I was involved in last year. This would involve two days angling sampling on the River Barrow and the River Nore, a large tributary of the mighty Barrow. The Nore, notable for salmon, brown trout and sea-trout also receives a run of Shad through the May-June spawning season, although little is known about this. We fished long...

My regular crew and I purchased four of these suits at the beginning of the year with the intention of giving them a thorough testing along with the general abuse typical of salt-water angling combined with rotten Irish weather! We found our suits to be comfortable and extremely warm. The extra room around the arms allowed for easy casting whilst shore angling, and being a two-piece suit, there was also the advantage of removing the jacket on warmer days. In fact, these suit...

My first trip on this new lake that holds carp to high twenties. The bait Berkley Tuna & Spice. When we got there a strong wind was blowing across the lake and it was also full with anglers. Both of which hindered my catch rate for the 24 hours we were there. Things got off to a slow start not having my first fish until 17:30, which was when the wind died down a little. I had 5 fish from then on till 22:30. I wasn't too disappointed though as I had my first ghostie com...

This is a lake I have fished a number of times and is in the Chateauroux region of France this is a bum numbing 7 hour drive from Calais but as you can see from my photos well worth the effort. We arrived at the lake on the Saturday lunchtime we had a look round and George the owner gave us the guided tour pointing out were fish had been caught the previous week then it was down to the lodge for a cup of tea and the all-important draw as usual I lived up to my nicknameas ...