Davy Claus relays a tale of when unrelenting persistence and flexibility in his angling paid off.
Johnny Haars – A quick escape…
13th July 2020
Johnny Haars makes good his escape after tough times on his target water…
My spring campaign of ’21 was not really one to remember. After countless blank nights on a new target water, after spawning I couldn’t wait to make a quick escape to a French public lake to freshen up my mind.
Four nights of leave were quickly arranged, and I couldn’t wait. After a nice journey I arrived just after first light. After a quick look around the first reservoir I had in mind, it turned out to be nice and quiet. Even though the water level was high, I still spotted some fish in the central part of the lake. After finishing my tour around the lake (and even checking out another lake as well) I made the decision. I suspected this to be quite a good area, I quickly set up in the swim. I went for a light and spread baiting approach, spreading the rods around in the hope to get a quick bite to see where fish would feed.
After an uneventful first night, by mid-morning I was off the mark, catching two nice mid-thirty mirrors. In the afternoon I managed to bag another two nice mirrors of 39 and 41 pounds. After this nice result the confidence was back, and I changed tactics slightly in the hope to bag a big one.
The next two nights went by without action, but I remained confident, because I knew it could happen. And the longer the wait, the bigger the fish I always like to say. In the afternoon happened what I hoped for, I received a nice slow take. The fish got stuck twice but with the aid of the boat and strong end tackle all went well. After a nice slow fight with a heavy feeling fish from the boat, a huge mirror slipped up on the surface. This was the reward I was hoping for. The deep bodied mirror was clearly spawned out, but still weighed 58lbs 3oz – I was well chuffed to get my first big one of the year. The last morning, I caught another nice small mirror while packing up, leaving the lake with a smile.
Tactics-wise, I tend to stick with just boilie fishing on such big reservoirs to avoid any nuisance fish. The rigs were straight forward bottom bait rigs, made from 25lb Camsoft with size 4 Curve Shanks. Simple, strong and reliable is all you need on these kinds of venues.
Cheers Johnny Haars
LATEST NEWS
Tom Meager embarks on an emotional and obsessive roller coaster of a campaign...
Sam Whittaker embarks on a Belgian road trip, which all came good in the end!
Sam Verstreken rounds up his couple of seasons on his 70 acre pit...
Thomas Bell embarked on a social at Sandhurst Lake, that soon turned into a red letter session!
Lewis talks about his current favoured style of winter fishing, using his trusty Maggot PVA Socks.
Paul Claridge concludes his season with a tale about his purple patch of success on Burghfield lake.
Leon Michael made a trip to Christchurch Lake, banking 5 carp, including the elusive Single Scale!
After the fish had spawned on his target water, Johnny Haars went back for a very special carp...
Ozzy made the most of an opportunity on his syndicate lake at Wasing...
Simon Kenny recounts his latest tale of perseverance...
It was time to have a good catch up with the lads at the TA office...
Freddie Bartley decided that it was time for him to cut his own path in his angling...
Lew's lucky roll continues as he bounces onto a new venue and lands the lake's biggun!
Ben Talbot travels south to Sandhurst Lake and gets a lucky draw...
Johnny Haars makes good his escape after tough times on his target water...
Sam made an opportunist cast to a showing fish. Then they just kept coming!
Lukas Hughes recounts how he extracted one of the highly desired jewels from his syndicate lake...
Lewis Spencer gives us the the 'ups and downs' of chasing down his nemesis...
Jester runs us through his extreme range capture of one of his desirable targets...
Lewis gets a glimpse of salvation at the end of February with a bit of local day carping...
Ant Perry's tale of 7 nights, nine public waters and 1000 miles drive
Marcus Howarth gives us a retrospective look back on a cold winter trip to Ringwood's Roach Pit that all came good in the end...
Sam Ashman capitalises on a few short morning sessions...
Terry Bell adopts a regular pre-baiting strategy on Hampshire's Hollybush complex...
Iban Maes targets a canal steeped in history, one carp in particular caught his attention!
Davy Claus comes face to face with the Dutch record carp, the mighty Black Mirror!
Adam Raveney sent us in this nice little write up from his new mission on a gravel pit...
Sam Verstreken gets to work on a lovely Belgian pit...
Oz Holness relays the tale of what he described as the best welcome back he could have wished for!
Tom Stokes finally checks the last one off the list from his target water, the mighty Baby Black.
Sam Verstreken catches a quartet of big carp from a big Belgian pit...
Chris Beasley talks us through his mega hits on Dinton, before the dreaded lockdown took hold...
Sam Verstreken decided fish a stretch of French canal that had drawn his attention...
Liam Duncan tells us about the thrill of the chase in his pursuit of a rather large and special common...
Craig Edwards reflects on a frustrating week's angling from a few years back on a large boating lake...
Ben Connolly embarks on a little adventure to a large southern pit...
Scotty K submits this retrospective story of his trials and tribulations on a savagely weedy lake...
James Timberlake sends us his latest tales of fishing on the bottom and near the top...
Tom Andrassy lets us in on his clever tactic to get around the imposed leader ban on his trip to France this year.
YAC's Dan Ibbott recounts his last captures from Dinton's Black Swan, after 2 years of hard work...
Steve Reeves is a perfectionist and tells us why he loves our PTFE swivels so much...
Notty kindly shares some nice old carp he's had on our ready tied chod leaders...
Adam Raveney just dropped us a line with his latest report – a 7 bite bonanza session!
Introducing Think Link is our brand new super-strong, low memory hooklink...
Craig Edwards sent us this little write up – 4 years of blood, sweat and tears!
Luke Wallace recently caught this incredible old mirror known as Charlie on his 4th night!
Adam Raveney's first report of 2020 starts with a day session that turned into a red letter day!
With a few spare days at his disposal, Scotty tried to track down some cold water carp...
Lukas Hughes explains how periods of observation and changes of approach finally brought success on a new water.
Steve Renyard elects to fish a social trip with his nephew Ryan at Thorney Weir...
Simon Kenny has been on form again over on Welly, adding another host of big carp to his tally...
Sam Verstreken's catch reports always contain some exceptional shots and this last one was no different...
Thanks again for Byron to dropping by with a memory card full of bigguns...
Autumn… a time in the carp angling calendar when Ozzy always looks forward to with great anticipation.
With Autumn now well upon us, Tom Loraine makes the most of it and capitalises as per usual!
The Hunter's Moon in October paid out in fine style with this immense 52lb zip linear for Scotty K!
Having been off the radar for a little while, it was good to see our old mate Byron...
Thinking Anglers begin to introduce eco-friendly packaging in a bid to create no hazardous waste...
Leaving off from his last report, Tom Loraine drops us a line with more captures from down the Manor...
Hielke Meijer knocks his PB out of the park with this 66lb mirror...
Hielke Meijer knocks his PB out of the park with this 66lb mirror...
Hielke is always on the hunt for something a bit special, and starts on a new 'side-project'...
Simon Kenny keeps his eyes peeled over Welly, banking a monstrous 55lb 8oz common...
Recoil is our super-strong forthcoming stiff rig material...
Tom Loraine has kept up the momentum throughout the summer – his catch rate shows no signs of slowing up!
Here are two recent NW History fish for Tez Taylor after some testing weed fishing...
Luke Mallet drops into the Wharf Fishery and is rewarded with this weapon of a common, plus 2 others...
Oz Holness sent us this bundle of nice old carp from recent months...
Keep on trend with our new brown TA T-Shirts, in our classic brown Pantone.
Tom Loraine continues his good form in his latest catch report on the Essex Manor...
Everything was building up to the inevitable, riding high on his recent success, this news was of no surprise...
Guy Turnbull's spring roll continues, as another target succumbs to his observations and tactics.
Lance Barton has an unbelievable result from the highly pressured Christchurch lake at Linch Hill Fishery in Oxford...
Here’s an update on Terry Woods' latest adventures down on Linear Fisheries Manor venue.
Tom Ringhofer's results of a recent short session where the bigguns' just rolled in like buses!
We catch up with Tom Loraine as his spring campaign really hots up...
Gaz Fareham takes his returning customer Nick Ruddock to Reading's J12 lake for the session of a lifetime...
Tom Loraine shares some of his recent highlights with us...
Guy Turnbull really has had the best start to his spring angling, with this stunning looking old mirror...
Sam Verstreken has had an absolute flier to the spring this year...
Luke Mallet has had a great start to the spring down on the Wharf Fishery…
Terry ‘Tez’ Taylor he fishes with confidence and the success built with each session.
An ‘on form’ Lance Barton turns his attentions to Linch Hill fisheries famous Christchurch venue.
For 2019 we’ve lovingly developed our own ‘Camfleck’ camouflage pattern...
Norfolk based Guy Turnbull has kept things rolling this spring with another corking mirror...
Jason Riley used careful observation on Silver End Back lake...
Lance Barton has had a particularly fruitful couple of trips down at Sandhurst lake...
When the message ‘your gonna love this one!’ drops, you know it’s going to be a little bit special!
Stokesy has been adapting his approach to suit the conditions coming out of winter and into spring...
Luke Wallace extracts his latest batch of carp from their reedy sanctuary.
Guy Turnbull had a great start to the year using when he ventured out in storm Freya...
Keep on trend on and off the bank with our latest range of luxurious hoodies and crew necks.
Gaz and Samir leave the cold grey UK behind and head off on a proper boy scout adventure.
Ever consistent Ben Leuty has been in touch with yet another superb slice of winter angling...
Tom Loraine knows that during the winter, you really have to make the most of opportunities as they arise...
Tony Roberts primes a shallow water spot at Farlows Lake, before lowering his rigs in at the optimum time for some January edge action.
Simon Kenny returns to a local lake, The Nunnery, and adopts a 'chod rig' approach.
Simon Kenny's Kingsmead assault culminates in yet another huge 50lb winter beast.
Ben Leuty finished up the year in fine style, in a 10 fish catch using our terminal range 'as standard'.
Simon Kenny's incredible run continues once again at Kingsmead 1, using our TA leadcore and hooks.
Tom Loraine's been keeping busy in December...
Steve Renyard makes a notable comeback to the scene.
An account of Nick Helleur's epic Thames linear...
Our new and improved adjustable rod sleeves are now available at all major stockists.
Tom Loraine's latest catch reports after switching over to TA terminal kit.
Ben Leuty makes good use of our Tungskin and hook ring swivel screws.
A move onto new venue resulted in a 20, a 30 and a 40 for Scotty K.
Liam Fagg kickstarts his autumn campaign with a bang by landing a 40lb plus fully.
Ryan Maxwell banks the highly sought after 'Copse Lake Scaley' from Yateley's famous Match lake.
Simon Kenny's incredible run continues once again at Kingsmead 1, using our TA leadcore and hooks.
Luke Wallace capitalises on the August full moon phase and catches 6 carp.
Olly Lukar's used our 15lb Tungskin and new PTFE swivels in his incredible hit of 27 carp from Bramblemere.
Tom Andrassy dusts off the rods and gets amongst the Conningbrook residents using the new TA end tackle range.
Luke Wallace with 'Victor No Wrist', caught using D rigs constructed from TA Tungskin and hook ring swivels.
Dan Ibbott used our newly released leadcore and swivels to tame this trio of Black Swan beauties.
Simon Kenny continues his run of success over at Kingsmead 1, using our newly released Olive Camo 45lb leadcore.
Simon Kenny's incredible season culminates in his ultimate target, the original Longfield fish known as 'The Woodcarving'.
The expanded and rebranded terminal range is set to drop in a week's time.
An in-depth account of Oz Holness's run up to catching the famous old common known as 'Swirly' - The Queen of the Stour Valley.
A massive well done to Tom Stokes for his capture of the much revered Burghfield Common at 53lb 8oz.
Mick Christie makes a swift move and catches the old Kent warrior knows as 'Rasta'.
Simon Kenny joins the TA team and catches on our test hooks from the off.
Luke Wallace's tale of 'Milton Mayhem' as his summer gets off to a dream start.
Danny Hillier tells his story of his first North Lake 30.
Landscaper Russell Phillips' Woolpack 40lb chod rig caught Fully Scaled
Read on to hear about Rob Beckett's series of hard earned captures from some Kent history waters.
Our new and improved products now come repackaged in minimalist styling, with cool dark greys and fresh green geometric patterns.
Myles Gibson well and truly put our new unhooking mat through its paces, banking 13 fish, culminating in the incredible Petty's Common at 46lb 10oz.
An insight into what Oz Holness has been up to over the past 6 months since he left the fire service to become an integral part of the TA team.
Luke Wallace's winter roll continues into the Spring of 2018!