Andy Spreadbury's Fishing Blog

There was a time back in the day when the only boilies available were the ones we made ourselves. Boily making used to be part and parcel of the whole process of carp fishing and was an essential skill until bait became commercially available. Today, it still has relevance because it enables you to use something which is unique, quirky, personal, and completely different to what anyone else uses. That’s why I have decided to make my own again after all these years - pop ups in particular since they are at ‘the business end’ of things so to speak. The ingredients: 1 egg 5ml Profile Plus Tiger Nut flavour 5ml Cathedral Baits Coconut flavour 3ml Cathedral Baits Intense Sweetener 2 teaspoons Mainline Try Colour Yellow a good squert of Tiger Nut Goo approx. 9 tablespoon of Polaris pop up dry mix. Mix all the liquids together Add the Polaris dry mix. Roll out Boil for 2 minutes and dry on paper towel for a couple of days. Coat with Goo to preserv

When you go and fish a new water for the very first time, make sure you find out as much about it as you can so you have at least some idea of what to expect and how to go about things. In the case of Linear Fisheries near Oxford there are literally hours of YouTube videos featuring the many lakes which are available on a day ticket. Not only are the lakes accessible to all, they hold a terrific number of carp up to fifty pounds, with many forties resident in virtually all the lakes. If ever there was a venue to get a new PB then this is it! It’s not as simple as that. It isn’t ever is it? I decided this would be my venue of choice since I’ve been wanting to try somewhere different for some time so I was off in the car at the crack of dawn, braving the jams on the M25, and almost three hours later was standing beside Oxlease Lake - the home of the fifty pounder. It was rammed with anglers; in fact there were so many there the car park was full and vehicles had been left all over