9 May, 2024 | Carp | Angler Blogs | Articles

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Ian Russell’s Diary April 2024: Oxlease on Fire!

All the action from Ian Russell’s busy schedule in April which includes a prolific session with Jack Lamb on Linear’s Oxlease Lake for the filming of Carp Pursuit Episode 1, Series 2…

Ian says…

I kickstarted April with my monthly Trouble Shooter Feature for Total Carp Magazine and we were returning to one of my favourite day ticket venues at Manor Farm Fisheries in Biggleswade.

I do like Boonies Lake and try to carry my work out on there whenever possible. So I met Grant at the gate at opening time and low and behold, we drove round to Boonies LOL.

Now I shall keep this short as it is covered extensively in the next Total carp Mag but suffice to say, the lake made us earn our eventual result with five swim moves in 24 hours but we won in the end with some lovely carp banked and Grant even nabbed one of the most sought after carp on site.

You can check the feature out in Total Carp this week!

I then attended what I can only describe as quite possibly the very best open day I have ever attended and believe me I’ve attended quite a few. Outlaw Pro’s Essex Superstore was the venue and everything you wanted from an angling shop day was catered for.

From free – yes free – drinks and burgers to a raffle for an amazing 4×4 truck. So many industry friends were in attendance and it was nice to catch up with Stewart, the Outlaw Pro owner, for a chinwag.

The Monday following this I was filming episode 1 of Carp Pursuit series 2 on Linear Fisheries’ Oxlease Lake. For series 2 we decided to mix things up a little and have a different Dynamite sponsored angler join me in each episode and for the first one, it was the lovely Jack Lamb.

I’d known Jack for quite a while and in fact, it was Jack’s Steeple Lake where I gave good ole Mozza a hiding in the Carp Wars Final – however, I had never fished alongside him until, at least until now.

We set up on a rather flooded grassy side of Oxlease as the far bank was all closed due to flooding so you can obviously guess where most of the carp wanted to spend most of their time! However, we had a film to make so got set up and sorted out.

Jack span the wheel and rather luckily landed on Particles – Phew, pressure off or so we thought…Enter my lovely friend Stevie Coe (Dynamite’s Videographer) who the gave us a choice of rather awkward hookbait choices to use. You’ll have to watch it to see what happened (link below) but we could make up our usual Spod bucket contents.

I put out a whole bucket with the thought process that I could eventually draw some carp across to my area in the hope they would feed long enough for me to nab a few.

Jack was doing his own thing next door and we settled down for some on-screen bits.

The first bite came to Jack just on darkness and over the next 48-hours we managed a few between us including one close to 40lb Oxlease stunner. Again, tap the link at the bottom of this page to check it out.

This year my personal fishing has changed as my RK media ticket was required by the Korda lads so for the first time in a very long time I had no venues for my personal fishing. Distraught was an understatement but I was on the waiting list for Frimley Pit 4 and had been for a while so a quick call to owner mark and he indeed confirmed my ticket had come up for this following year.

This was awesome news as I had not yet fished pit 4 but know it holds some very large commons and is a rather challenging venue so I was over the moon.

I also joined my local club Farnham Angling with the winter in mind. Now I know their venues get rather busy but most of my working life has been spent fishing busy venues so this will not bother me too much. So venues sorted.

I have literally just returned home from my second Total carp feature this month and we chose Willow Park as our venue. Yet another of my fave Day ticket places and in tow we had two  fantastic guys in Shaun and Steve.

To say this trip went well would be a complete understatement but again, to find out how you will need to wait on Total carp.

That’s me done as this Friday I’m on an overnight boat with three friends to fish Jason and Kim Webb’s lovely Etang De Manoir for a week.

Next months Diary I shall let you know how I got on…

Tight Lines one and All

Ian Russell

Carp Pursuit S2 E1 Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tof4iYG1TEA&t=65s