Reclin de Gries, auteur op Angling Escapes

What is Rig Shyness and how to Overcome it?

The fish are difficult to catch in certain waters. This can have various causes. I'll explain in this article what causes this and how you can break through the conditioning in a closed or commercial fishery.

Float Angling in Winter

At sunrise, I hop on my bike with my rod, landing net, unhooking mat, a can of corn, and some hemp. In my pocket, I have an extra float, a box of weights, and hooks ready to stalk the carp. Arriving at the small but oh-so-beautiful water, we take a moment to look around. Where do we see bubbles, ripples, and things like that? Where are the fish?

Make your Own Float

In carp fishing, insight and creativity play a big role, both in static fishing and float fishing. A great example of this is making your own floats. Do you want a long or a short float? Or a stem that's shorter or longer above the buoyant body? Anything is possible! In this article, I'll show you step by step how to make your own float.

Surface Angling in Winter

Winter significantly changes carp behavior: cold water and short days make carp less active and they only feed for brief periods. However, there are clever ways to lure them to the surface and observe them. In this article you'll learn how to successfully surface fish in cold water with minimal equipment, patience and the right strategy. Discover where you need to be, which bait works and how to make the most of winter carp fishing.

Making your Own Float: the Finishing Touch

This article is the follow-up to "Making Your Own Float" and covers finishing your homemade float. Here you'll learn step by step how to paint your float professionally, so it not only looks great but also functions optimally during carp fishing.

The Stone Age

Angling has been practiced for ages. It's in our genes to hunt and angle, and we still do it to this day. It all started with primitive homemade lines, hooks made of bone, bent branches as rods, and stones as casting weights. How simple it could all be back then, and how complicated we make it for ourselves nowadays?

Surface angling for carp; it doesn’t get more exciting!

Concealed under a large overhanging willow, my senses are on high alert as a hefty carp approaches my crust. Leaning at an angle in the water, it brings its big snout under the crust, it could happen any moment now. I try to get my accelerated heartbeat under control, but it only gets faster when I see the crust being sucked in by the carp.

Braided Line or Nylon: the Differences

The choice between braided line and nylon has been a topic of discussion among anglers for years. Both types of lines have specific characteristics and advantages. Below, we've clearly listed the main points.

The Welfare of Carp

I encounter it often in some urban waters: fish with damaged mouths or even completely missing upper or lower lips, fish with old rigs hooked behind one of the pectoral fins, but also fish with damaged scales or multiple lost hooks remaining in their mouth. What can you actually do to prevent this or at least largely avoid it?

Wait or move; Observation is half the work!

Clichés are flying around: 'pressured water', 'wrong wind', 'too low temperature' or 'angling pressure'. Of course, the weather affects the catches, but carp are also stubborn creatures of habit that move according to fixed patterns. And there you are at your spot, while the fish are swimming somewhere else.

The Double Hair Method

A few years ago I read an article about carp fishing with a double hair, specifically for particles. Initially I was skeptical, but I decided to try it myself. My conclusion? It absolutely works! Read on to discover how the double hair rig works exactly and how to apply this successfully in carp fishing.

Make your Own Boilie Stoppers

There are many different types of boilie stoppers available on the market. They come in various colors, sizes, and materials, such as silicone or hard plastic. Additionally, there are different models and shapes, for example, in the form of artificial corn. But did you know that you can also make them yourself? In this article, I explain how to make your own boilie stoppers.