Time with Oli and Alan

Carl – Working at Nash Tackle, a lot of people ask us what it’s like to go fishing for a living. It’s always tough answering that question because we don’t like to disappoint them, but the truth is that we actually don’t fish as much as we used to. Getting a job in the angling industry was always a dream for us, and we could not be more grateful and appreciative of getting to work with the likes of Alan Blair, Oli Davies, Dan Yeomans and Lewis Porter. As I type this article, I’m actually in the van with Alex. We had very little sleep last night because this morning we are driving to France for a week’s filming with Steve Briggs. As with most of these trips there’s a lot of filming to be done, and there’s no guarantee we will get a chance to flick the rods out ourselves. In fact, sometimes when filming

someone else is your job, you actually don’t want to cast out yourself. The last two weeks have been full of change, planning and lots of stress. Things have been hectic in both our work and social lives, and fishing is a nice little break from it all. Unfortunately, there has been no time for 24-hour sessions, or even quick overnighters for that matter. Instead, we’ve forced ourselves to slot some angling into whatever one or two-hour gaps we could find. With time on the bank being tight, our tactics and approach has had to revolve around the most instant styles of fishing, namely freelining for carp and lure fishing for predators. Both sight fishing, and using lures are quick and easy ways to catch fish with minimal kit and maximum energy. Our predator fishing is phasing out now

because as water temperatures finally rise it’s time to track down carp in the shallower areas of our local lakes. We have mostly been using bread and maggots to tempt the fish into biting but corn, a side-hooked boilie or even paste will get bites if flicked on to a patch of bubbles. Our most recent session was a trip down memory lane to a secret lake which Alex and I used to fish years ago. This time we were joined by Alan and Oli from Nash who were looking for some quick bites for a magazine feature they were producing. Armed with 6ft Scope rods and a waist pouch full of 11mm floaters and bread we explored the secret lake and found some carp hiding in the snags close to an island. It didn’t take us long to pick out two or three of the larger fish from the shoal of very small carp and rudd. The trick was to cast further than required and twitch the hookbait away from the very small fish when they came up to take it. That way we didn’t disturb the swim by catching 1lb commons and could wait for a beautiful linear or larger common to engulf the bread. Alan caught a bunch of fish, Oli took some photos, and as per normal Alex caught the biggest and best looking fish of the session. I guess that sums up working at Nash!

Alan Blair doing what he does best

We only had time togo freelining for carp, but it was worthwhile

Oli Davies photographs Alex’s chunky common

Floaters and bread picked off some lovely carp