Ian Russell’s Diary February 2021

9 March, 2021 | Carp | Angler Blogs | Articles | News

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Ian Russell’s Diary February 2021

Ian discusses what’s been a tough month on the fishing front but a productive period where product development with Dynamite Baits and Carp Spirit is concerned. The fishing wasn’t at a total loss though, as an end of month trip to Albans Lake reveals…

February I think for most of us, certainly on the angling front, has been a particularly quiet affair. I soldiered on at Wraysbury 1 North lake for my own personal fishing but with the restrictions imposed on members it became a real struggle. Short session hours and not being allowed to bait up when leaving made the struggle even harder so for me and sadly, February brought no W1 carp to the net.

However, work with Dynamite and Carp Spirit continued and product development was full steam ahead and I have to say that the team at CS have some really exciting products coming out this year.

Dynamite have also just released the Hardened Hookbaits range which is an exciting addition to our ‘Hero’ bait range, not to mention four new Fluro Pop-Up and Wafter hookbaits. These include Squid & Octopus, Tutti-Frutti, Pineapple & Banana and of course the mega consistent Mulberry Florentine. The Wafters are available in 14mm barrels and the Pop-Ups in 12mm and 15mm sizes – something for every situation.

I have also been looking back through my captures since I joined Dynamite and see that 90% of these have been taken on the Monster Tiger Nut range of products. We have five different baits available in our Hero ranges but for me, as soon as I opened a bag of the Monster Tiger Nut baits I was hooked.

I have yet to visit a venue at home or abroad where this bait has not immediately produced results so for the coming year I will be sticking mainly with this range but gradually adding some of the Hot Fish baits amongst it as well. This flavour has a lovely spicy aroma and I’m sure will be just as successful as MTN.

As for my fishing this year, I will be mainly concentrating on my favourite Wraysbury 1 venue (whilst I’m not on working trips) and I have also re-joined the BCSG venue near where I live. Although I have yet to fish it and its my third year as a member, the carp aren’t getting any smaller so I will have a dabble over there when time allows it.

I have however just returned from a lovely day’s fishing on Albans lake in St Albans. Craig, the fishery manager, called me up and invited me to visit the lake for a day to have a look over it for possible future work projects and I have to say what a transformation the venue has had since my last visit many years ago.

After having a look around I settled into a swim which gave me access to a tree lined margin to my right and a large slice of open water in front of me.

I fired a few mesh bags of mixed Halibut and Complex T and MTN pellets down the right hand margin and fished my Favourite Pink Hit N Run Pop-Ups over the top on a Size 6 Carp Spirit Medium Curve Razor Point Ronnie rig. The other two rods I literally cast at any sign of carp I could see…

It turned out to be a lovely relaxing few hours of fishing and I ended up with five takes with a mid double common being the best of the bunch. I stopped off on the way out to thank Craig and Lance for their help and with the words of the big fella – I’ll be back.

 

Well that rounds up my February and with the weather gradually improving and hopefully lockdown restrictions ending soon, we might just all be able to return to some sort of normality.

Stay Safe everyone and tight lines if you manage to get out fishing.

Ian Russell