Steve Clarke is our Linear Fisheries Expert having fished on the Complex for the Last Two Seasons.  Steve spends much of his time on Oxlease Lake where he has caught carp to over 30lb.  He has put together a series of helpful advice and top tips to help you catch more whilst carp fishing on Oxlease.  In this article he talks about the best spots to fish and how successful the PVA bag approach can be.  

Carp Fishing Tips

“Spend as much time as possible looking for showing fish, if you are unable to spot fish then go on a fresh wind.  If that doesn’t work then set yourself up in the middle area with the bay on the left and the island on the right which is a great holding area for carp.”

“If you are using three rods then spread out your PVA bags  (see Steve’s step by step PVA bag guide below) by fishing one rod at 40 yards one at 60 yards and one at 90 yards this gives you great coverage of your swim.”

“If you haven’t had any action within 4 hours then change your setup again to make a fan shape around your swim.  This setup will allow you to fish in all areas around the swim.”

“Once you have caught then recast to the same spot and hopefully the action will keep coming.  If you have further action on that rod then cast another of your rods to the area as the Oxlease Carp Fish tend to group up and follow each other.  If you have a further couple of fish from the area in a short period of time then put 3-4 Spods of your PVA Bag Mix, Hemp and Trout Pellet into the area to keep the fish feeding.”

Steve with an Oxlease Carp caught on a short night session.   This Mirror Carp weighed in at 28lb. Steve used his Oxlease PVA Bag Setup shown below.

Steve’s Oxlease PVA Bag Setup

(Everything inside the PVA bag)

How to:

Step 1

Step 2

Dip the Mini Corn in the Alien Baits Skin (Neutral Pink) then dip the Hinders Krill n Krab Multi Mix the same mixture as in the PVA bag to give the Imitation Corn a coating, then leave the coating to set.  You can use the Alien Bait Skin with any PVA Bag Mix.

Steve’s Tackle Set Up

Fox Horizon Rods 12ft 6 3.25lb

Daiwa Tournament Entoh Reels

Fox Illusion 12lb

Korda Size 8 Wide Gape Hooks

Korda Square Pear Swivel Leads 2oz

If you need any further information then please email info@hinders.co.uk subject line ASK STEVE.

For information on Linear Fisheries please contact: 

Roy Parsons (Head Baliff)

Craig Whithead with a 29lb  Mirror Carp caught from Oxlease Lake at the Linear Fisheries Complex using Steve’s PVA Bag Tactics.  Craig used Dynamite Spicy Shrimp and Prawn Liquid in conjunction with Hinders Krill n Krab Hookers

Brasenose

July 2006

I turned up at Brasenose at around 7.30am and had a quick look around the lake, it wasn’t hard to find the fish as the wind was hacking into the bottom left hand corner of the lake and the fish were crashing all over.  There were a few empty swims between Brasenose One and Two in the middle area, so I was quick to set up and fishing.

As I was fishing in the middle area and directly into a strong wind it was hard to cast my PVA bags to any decent range.  However many of the fish in the lake were showing very close in some cases just off the tip of my rods.  There was thick weed and a nice margin shelf which dropped off and I found the fish were roaming along the edge and were easy to pick up.

My Brasenose Set Up

Fishing three rods meant I was kept extremely busy!!!

Having never fished the lake before and knowing I only had the time to do a day session I chose a light and mobile set up and fish my favourite tactic using the PVA bag that I have mentioned in my article on fishing Oxlease.  It certainly works as the PVA bag is extremely effective of covering your rig whilst also providing sufficient bait to catch one fish at a time.

After about half an hour of fishing I had my first run of the day which turned out to be one of the smallest in the entire lake at about two pounds. It proved to be the start of an action packed day.

I was fishing with 3 rods and was on a lot of fish and having up to two takes at a time so it was lucky that a friend of mine was around to take the rods when I was playing a fish.  This worked against me as he had a lovely twenty pounder one of the biggest carp in Brasenose.

I had about 18 takes in my swim but had to move around 4o’clock as the swim was being closed.  I packed up and moved to left hand side of the bay, continuing my approach of fishing PVA bags but this time fishing at different ranges as I couldn’t find any fish in showing in my swim.  After about three hours fishing and only landing one fish I moved back over to the Car Park side getting as close to the right hand side of the bay.

No sooner had I moved and set up then my first rod was away showing watercraft is an important part of fishing.  Using my tried and trusted method of fishing PVA Bags to groups of showing fish meant I had 27 takes landing two up to low 20 pound, six upper doubles, seven doubles and the rest single pound fish.  Not a bad effort for a day session!!!