Fishing report for: Tony and Craig

What a way to start the season with catfish to 138lbs and carp to 39lbs!

For the first week of the 2026 season, we welcome French regulars Tony and his son Craig. They’ve been fishing in France for nigh on 20 years but it’s their first visit to us. Tony was keen to do the tuition and learn as much as he could while he was here. Craig wanted his dad to get the most from the session so he dipped in and out.

I had a super fun day with the guys and everyone got exactly what they wanted from the day. It was a real eye opener for Tony just how simple my approach is and he took to it like a duck to water.

They both really enjoyed the feature finding section and we found the time to chat a bit more in depth about why carp do what they do. Tony is now heading home to put 90% of his bits and pieces on ebay!

No messing around

Craig wasted no time at all in putting his plan into action. On Saturday night, he banked an absolute beast of a catfish weighing in at 138lbs. A feat made even more remarkable because he was fishing from the Island point swim and landing a big cat from there is very challenging. As if that wasn’t enough, Tony banked the very same catfish the next afternoon… bonkers!

When I called around on Wednesday, Craig was grinning from ear to ear as he’d managed five carp from the island point margin. Tony hadn’t had a carp yet and Craig suggested a tactical change to move at least two of his rods from open water to the far margin. Tony agreed and by replicating Craig’s tactics over on the snake bank he added a couple of carp to the score sheet.

Craig banked 11 carp to 39lbs from Island point in the end which is really excellent work considering the conditions weren’t great. Carp like stable conditions and when the air temperature is swinging from 0°C degrees overnight to 18°C in the afternoon, it can be tricky.

The carp showed regularly in open water but after trying for them there, Craig made the right call and focussed all rods on the areas that were actually producing the bites. This place can suck you into making the wrong call but Craig saw through the fog and reaped the rewards, very well played.

Bait & Rigs

The guys kept it super simple on the rig front. It was multi rigs all the way with bottom baits or wafters. They mostly caught on simple bottom fished over crushed boilies with some liquid additive, some hemp and sweetcorn. Basic stuff for sure but it doesn’t have to be complicated to be effective!

On the tactics front they also kept it super simple: Bait boat traps of 200 – 400g of mix, driven and dropped with precision. In total they got through about 30kg of bait which is quite a lot early season but they were still only fishing for a bite at a time and if the bites keep coming, then the number of resets add up.