urban banxs has certainly taken me to some the countries most interesting carp fishing locations. london has been at the top of the list for a couple of years now and of course there was only ever one angler i was going on that mission with, the incredible alfie russell. well i have just got into london and i’m going to pick up young alfie russellalfie grew up here he knows the place like the back of his hand. he has caught some amazing fish and he is just a gifted angler so we are going to check out some park lakes bits of tidal river canals basinsgo and have a right adventure not long now until i get him let’s see what the city has to offer i cannot wait yes alf it’s the one you watch on the tv have you just woken up have you been having a sleep mate what’s your plans where are you going i don’t know he is the master mate he is the holy grail of london carping
i think we are going to the river yeah i’m looking forward to it going round the a406 for the next 4 hours see you boy well you have a matching one now al oh dear let’s go fishing we are heading towards east london we are going to bow
there is a little bit of river well i say a little bit it’s actually like a spaghetti junction of rivers and canals we are going there and we have a few options we are going there and we have a few options open it would be lovely to catch one out of the river out of the tidal river and maybe out of the canal if we are lucky let’s go find them let’s go catch some hunt them down
you have got all your gear sorted haven’t you have you well or did i pick you up and you hadn’t sorted anything out you have been doing your typical alf i know what the problem is you have been sleeping in the daytime and fishing all night at all manner of places i have been trying to get hold of you this last week and basically alfie is unavailable at any time prior to 6 i’m nocturnal
this is funny this is alan we are the complete opposite so i’m on the dayshift and you are on the nightshift oli you are filming the night shift carl is filming the day shift let’s smash this up we were standing here just saying how it would be nice to see a few how the must get in here with all the oxygen pushing through i said i bet they swim around in packs don’t they alf and as i said the word packs a pack of them came through there are about seven of them
one of them half decent having spotted a few carp, my immidiate instinct was to grab a sawn - off with a bread bomb and have a few casts to judge the fishes reactions not quite the plan to hook a bream almost immidiately well whoever said bream fishing was boring was utterly wrong because that was super exciting there is a few carp knocking about to be fair they are ultra spooky they definitely get fished for there are a couple of lads down there fishing basically alf and i have been presenting slow sinking bread in front of them and they have been darting off they are coming back but i think it is going to take rigs down on the deck
a little bit of bait around it, a bait and wait approach i have managed to catch this pretty made up first bite and all that this isn’t bream banx but as bream go this is actually quite a special one we chose to position our rods before the tide began to rise when we could clearly see the spots that the carp kept visiting heavy inline leads and short hooklinks all packed in solid bags had left us settled in for the night full of confidence there are ladders all around us bar this little section here luckily i brought my own special urban ladder
i thought about bringing the drop net but at the time this seemed like a much better option until i got here and saw quite how far down it is i have already been down one of the manmade ladders and that was alright very firm but i’ll have to give this a go maybe if we are lucky enough to get a bite morning came round and the rising tide had wiped out most of our rods there was still the odd fish in the area but even the rods that hadn't been wiped out hadn't been touched, it was time to get moving. twenty degrees it’s hot where can we go and find a few fish any of the basins yeah we will go down to shadwell i think
there are carp in there nice ones as well i want to try and hook up with dj hatcha i have been speaking to him for a little while have you heard of him you don’t really listen to your dubstep do you not really no he is top of his game and he loves fishing does he carp fish yeah mate it would be nice to hook up with him for a little while
chuck the rods out let’s go and see if we can find them again hopefully get a few bites today and see what the day brings come on the carp well we are down at shadwell basin not long here about half an hour it’s the first time i have ever seen the place and it’s impressive the only problem being it’s got a big algal bloom on it at the moment it’s absolute pea green colour which is going to make spotting fish really quite difficult
i’ve done a lap and met a lad from the flats who has very kindly shown us round we have pitched up here as it is a lot shallower it actually goes down to 30ft i’m going to keep things really simple and just try and catch some of the smaller fish that are in here i’ve got a tiny size 10 fang x with a fake maggot on and i’ll clip on a couple of real ones i’m going to create a single grain of corn rig and maybe fish some little adjustable zigs just keep it simple and try and get a bite i’ve got a special guest coming down hatcha and i’m buzzing to meet the guy properly he’s a mega dj and producer specifically with regards to dubstep
and he loves his fishing too so he is going to come down and chill with us for a couple of hours let’s try and catch a carp thanks for having me al i’ve been looking forward to it pal yeah it’s one of them it’s pea green real bad but we will give it a couple of hours catching is a bonus real deep
go on sunshine yes go on al that’s what happens when the guvnor is about that’s what i was waiting for he’s going to take you round the corner get a lifejacket alan’s going in mate you can’t lose this one i had an inkling i would have to go fine tiny little size 10 fang x with a fake maggot and a couple of real ones
on a little light running lead and i’ve caught myself a little one just sitting there with hatcha and alfie chatting away there was that unmistakeable sound and we are in so obviously before that take we were chatting away about the music about the fishing hatcha have you always done it always mate i think it’s my getaway so you are still doing it now but did you start as a teenager or younger before the music industry and before i ever got on a set of decks
i was going fishing with my mum’s boyfriend down on the river catching little chub and little rudd and even the old gudgeon love a gudgeon then as i got older i got into the carp and lake fishing did you have a period where you stopped because of all the partying do you know what it has always had a bite on me i have always had that buzz of just wanting to get to the lake i like that solitude where it’s mental 24/7 gigging every weekend no reception on my phone with a couple of rods out and a couple of beers
i’m not really a drinker but i like one here and there just because i can just to relax and what about other guys and ladies in the industry are there other anglers i know shabba drops a little fishing bar once in a while yeah shabba and another drum and bass guy heist he does a bit of fishing jim simon baseline smith does he he does a bit of fishing
young man an mc he does a bit of fishing to be fair there are a lot of people in my industry that use it as their escape see i’m the other way round at work every three or four months we go and have a party for a break away so it’s interesting you gave me a lovely analogy earlier regarding your music and fishing some days aren’t great and you turn up to a gig and they are not really having it no-one is up for it and fishing is very similar and then you went on to say when they are lumping out and boshing everyone is having it in the rave
it’s a really cool analogy that’s how i look at it you can turn up at a lake and think this is going to be hard work we turned up today and you were like it’s pea green we are not expecting much but we will have a good go and a chat and whatever next thing you know your rod pings off it’s bonus and that’s the same for you in a dull rave when you drop that one banger they go mad for a little bit and then they all quieten down again straight up
excellent and just quickly for my own information hatcha this dubstep are you the creator the co-creator with a couple of others what happened because we had 2 step garage and it went off for years that’s right did dubstep come straight from there we were selling loads of 2 step in the shop the biggest seller was the garage and the house there were producers coming through like zed bias rsj lb horsepower
they were making 2 step but it was a darker strain of 2 step so i was incorporating this with my garage sets on the local pirate radio stations rinse and flight and flex and upfront people were loving it and people were asking what is this new type of 2 step you are doing and then magazines started picking up on it what is this genre what are the doing and it was literally i was having an interview with someone in a cafe next to the record shop and they asked so what do we call this new strain
on the spur of the moment i said it’s dubstep because it was quite dub orientated at the time and it stuck dubstep and that was it over a burger and a cup of tea i was like yeah it’s dubstep mate the rest is history next thing you know you find yourself flying to america to europe aged 19 happy days lets see where this goes lovely times we should have a night out
you would be more than welcome to bring the team out and likewise like i said let’s get a weekend sorted let’s get a weekend on one of those nice nash lakes one of those little secret locations you know the ones you read about in the magazines that no-one is allowed to fish you have got to be some proper celebrity to get on those lakes we can hook it up hatcha thank you so much for coming down thank you for having me involved it’s been a pleasure
i’ve just swung the van over alf mentioned a couple of little bits of water that he has looked at in the past one of them is no fishing and there are actually a few guys working there now doing a bit of weed removal with a seine net but there is this canal section here and it looks good to fish i can’t see any signs anywhere and i’ve seen a few fish knocking about again no monsters but a couple of proper scaly ones we are going to have a little creep along and see if we can get one did he take it?
he went down on it good lad no monster but it’s a london stunner oh yeah absolute minter lost his pal who was a little bit bigger and equally as impressive this has certainly made up for it that’s what it’s all about wandering around and finding a few fish and the good old deadly simple tactic of a few maggots on the shank of a hook i’m absolutely chuffed i know everyone says it and i say it size doesn’t matter but it doesn’t
it actually doesn’t look at that proper peach have you got a net or something can you see it i’ll get it for you how are you going to get it are you going to get wet i don’t need an audience it’s a mobile phone are you going to get in for me
where did it go it’s probably in the silkweed somewhere it dropped down there it is sitting on the ledge you are a legend look at that hillbilly phone fishing at least i have got a phone i can give back to them it doesn’t work
have you seen how much it’s raining out here guys it just stopped working i don’t what happened i can’t put my finger on it have a good one bro catch you later we are in two minds we are trying to decide where to do the night tonight but also where we can go now to catch a few fish as you have seen alan has caught a couple of nice ones a common and a mirror but they are not exactly big so we are trying to catch a double
just putting an address in the sat nav for a park lake we will go and have a look and see if we can nick a couple of bites and probably go and get something to eat before going somewhere for the night maybe back to the tidal the bait is there that we put in but we have to remember that our rods will get wiped out at 2am so we had better put them on different spots burgess park full of carp that absolutely love taking a floater in august basically everything you chuck at them is a bite
sounds good alf a quick walk around the park confirmed what i really hoped, it did hold numbers of carp and was definately going to be worth a go in the morning. well alfie and i have just had a look round burgess park it’s alright isn’t it it’s coloured one would argue after walking round and looking that there are a few fish in there and we saw quite a few up on the surface yeah we saw loads on the surface it looks like if we were to get a few floaters and riser pellets drifting across we could get some taking
i spoke to a couple of anglers on there and they reckon that the average depth is 6ft so it is well within the remit of being able to fish fixed zigs comfortably but looking at the time now it is getting on a bit and it’s probably not worth fishing now for two or three hours instead i think now we will go back to the tidal for tonight i have just saved burgess park in the sat nav we will get up proper early tomorrow and head over here get an early night tonight get ready for the carnage at 3am when the tide turns then not long after get in the motor and head over here and try and make a day of it
and see if we can catch some of the better fish out of this park lake let’s do it what are you doing man where are you guys going i really wasn't too keen on going back to the weirpool for our second night i felt alfie and i had fished well the first night but the fish just weren't feeding in that area, instead we went off to explore elsewhere and tryed to find some carp that were actually up for feeding. a nice shady spot i was just going to say the same thing it’s just what we need after a hot action packed day if you lay on your belly
it’s an easy net back of the net oh i hope i am saying that later on there is no point hooking them if you can’t land them absolutely a pointless exercise it’s hard enough hooking them let’s catch one as with the previous night our go to approach was solid bags, however on one rod i did decide to try a chod rig with a bright pop up just to make sure our downfall wasn't our solid bags sinking too far into the deep silt much to alfie and i's disappointment we woke the next morning without a bite
again there were fish in the area, but we were just failing to convert carp sightings into actual takes as the sun slowly began to rise we watched as every aspect of the city crept into life, everything except our bobbins that was. is it on is it a double it was no monster but a huge relief to finally catch a tidal carp from london, the chod rig had come good. as the mullet shoals came in another rod was away. oh nettings tough go in in you go that’s fishing for you we have done two nights on this tidal stretch now i’ve had to chop and change and work at it
it just shows if you work at it there is always a method to catching them and strangely enough in this situation it has been chod rigs and white citruz pop-ups almost an achievement in itself really i have caught a few tidal carp before but each and every one is really special they haven’t got an easy life they have a lot to deal with out there so to be rewarded catching one is quite special made up yeah big up london big up the tidal river carp
how’s your luck i just moved the rod into a deeper hole and within 10 minutes it melted off i’m absolutely made up but i think we are going to give it no longer than 15 minutes then we are going to head off to burgess park and spend the day floater fishing it’s a bit overcast today but that never puts me off floater fishing i am sure they will still be up for a munch do you live on the canal yeah we live on a boat do you see many carp
yeah we saw one yesterday never this big though he is actually from the tidal bit yeah we were watching you that is so cool well done see you later guys have a lovely day priceless that is amazing well done mate good angling let’s go floater fishing
let’s go floater rota so we are down at burgess park and i don’t want to say this but i’m going to it doesn’t half look good for a bite it’s ridiculously hot i’m going to have to get out of this jumper in a minute and stick some shorts on it’s deceiving even though it’s overcast it’s 26 degrees yeah i’m buzzing after a great morning catching fish out of the tidal and now we are here at burgess park let’s do this
i’ve got a couple of cheap loaves of bread a bag of gyro bug mix a squirt of crustacean extract and i have got some real sloppy spod to go out there i’m going to keep it going out on the spot and try and bring them right up in the water and drop a couple of zigs in the middle of it as i was walking up someone has just jumped in the swim to the right of alan where i was originally so i think i will just use one rod and floater fish today well it would appear that there are quite a few more fish two swims down from here
someone has turned up with a load of tortillas and flatbread and crisps and peppered the surface and the carp have started to show a bit of interest we are going to head down there and chuck out little hook baits amongst it we have been here for an hour and a half now no harm in moving down there to see if we can get one a bit quicker stop no listen stop there is carl and alex that’s carl there is oli davies that’s alan blair that’s alfie
not fishing today no on summer holidays loving it hello nice to meet you get a picture with the boys do you want a big group one as well take these lads and give them a go when you catch one send me the email so i can see how you got on with it i don’t believe this are you sure they will do you some bites
i don’t believe it thank you so much it was a better reaction than i got here yesterday some guy was going you are the geezer from korda you look like the geezer off the korda team no mate that’s not me it’s really nice they are out on an adventure i remember doing that when i was a kid getting out on my bike and riding for miles with your pals looking for new things new spots they are doing just that and fair play to them
it’s a scaly one a linear finally got one it’s been tough i was saying to al i’m shaking they are going mad and it was really windy when we got down here it was you oli that said there are a lot more fish down there we came down and there were a load of these poppadoms just drifting across but in amongst them there were a few swirls so we got a couple of zigs out
it was still windy at the time but it calmed down and a few fish started to take was it worth it it was worth it as i have managed to catch another one and we have got a nice linear in the net as if you haven’t caught a scaly badman bangers and mash let’s get him out and i’ll show you what he looks like put him back missed a couple now
i think was is happening is i am getting a little bit carried away with myself a little bit excited i’m still fishing these two zig lines and as soon as i put the spot cloud out they are coming up and taking it but my zigs are just too short so i am actually going to chill out a bit and retie two longer zigs they are about 3 feet at the moment and they need to be about 5 feet i’m going to chill out and stop making manic casts off the surface and try and get these zigs working properly for me
it was just minutes after adjusting the depth of my zig and i was in annoyingly it swam strait behind a big post in the water and went solid clearly the fish was badly snagged so i left the rod and continued fishing with the hope it would swim back out the snag after time the takes have come pretty quickly as the wind has died down and now there are a lot of fish taking i have been steadily trickling in riser pellet and a few floaters in the swim yeah he shattered me my wrist is aching they are still taking are you allowed to swim in here no i’m afraid not why would you want to
i’ve got one stuck if you allow me to swim out i can free it i have literally just walked past a sign saying no bathing i saw the same sign poor fish it is stuck round these random poles they have put in the middle of the lake whats that you see the poles sticking up he has gone round one of those on your line
it’s not a police matter it’s not a criminal offence to swim in the lake see you later if it has been a quiet day for you it will give you something to do i won’t be coming in there after you put it that way these two can well they have basically said they are not going to nick you carl you are allowed with permission kind of granted by the local police carl prepared to swim out and unsnag the fish just seconds later though i was in again.
right if you are going to go swimming carl please get me a carp in the name of duty and fish safety my line was pointing straight down to the base of the pole, it was safe to say we were all desperate to land this fish however i could feel the line grating against the concrete at the base good effort i didn’t feel a fish i just felt the line going round and round maybe it was gone before i swam out there it’s quite tiring though
well you needed a shower do you know michael phelps he is my cousin did you see how quick that was it’s in the blood after carl had swum half way across the lake, i thaught my chance would be over but to our surprise the disturbance seemed to excite the carp into feeding even more i have lost two i have now hooked a third one i have just got to land it
buzzing all i wanted from this whole trip was a brace shot and now we can go common head to head cheers al look at this big fish this is a carp and i caught him from this lake can you see his mouth so he ate a small white pop-up this is what he had for tea flavoured in a citrus flavour
that was his food look what he ate look what the fishy had for lunch say bye to the fish bye bye yeah a proper old bruiser to be fair it couldn’t have gone a lot better sometimes it doesn’t go like that in fishing but we have worked incredibly hard and this time it has been so worth it
get that dorsal up well that’s it let’s call this a wrap big up london big up alfie thank you you are welcome brother let’s slip them back let’s do it again soon definitely westside
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