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Back to Academy searchIan Gemson
Ian Gemson stared fishing as a child, fishing for whatever came along. He spent his life fishing in Hampshire with many of the now famous carp lakes on his doorstep.
Fishing matches in a local team on rivers, canals and lakes and winning many events Ian learnt a great deal of watercraft from competitive fishing matches.
Ian has been fishing for 40 years and carp fishing for 12 years. He has transplanted much of his coarse fishing skills across from his early days as a match angler to help him catch many large carp from all across the UK.
Ian runs a Carp fishing coaching company called Smart Carping Limited which aims to help anglers of all ages and abilities to get the best from their hobby. In 2009 Ian's coaching sessions saw fifty twenty pound carp caught and fifty three personal bests smashed in the process.
Ian's PB is a 35 lb 11 oz Mirror from a southern gravel pit.
News from Ian – 16th December 2009
“2009 has been without doubt a massively successful year for Smart Carping. The year has seen me spend more time than ever before on the bank coaching anglers to assist them to get the best from their sport with many personal best smashed along the way.
“The coaching season started in early March 2009 with a brave carp angler keen to get the new season off to a positive start with some much needed coaching. At that time of the year the weather could be cold and it was, despite enjoying bright and sunny conditions during the day, it was cold at night with angthing that was sat outside being wet or damp completly freezing in the sub zero temperatures.
"I really had my work cut out for location was the key to any cold water carping success. The Chub marker rod was set up so we could explore the features in our chosen swim. After a lot of searching we managed to pinpoint a couple of likely spots.
“We needed to introduce a small amount of bait without too much feed content but lots of attraction. With a suitable mix blended in the ground bait bucket we used a Chub spod rod. Just three accurately placed spod full’s were needed to introduce our super attractive mix into the chosen area with this expertly undertaken by the client at last he was able to cast his small hook baited rigs accurately out onto the pre baited spots and set then place his rods onto the bank sticks and bite alarms.
“With the traps set all that was left to do was to put the kettle on and make a brew and in the bright light from the low early spring sun drink our warming tea and carry on with a rig clinic whilst we waited for the fish to pick up one of the rigs.
“As we set about the rig clinic after just three minutes one of Neil’s rods ripped off. In sheer disbelief Neil monetarily looked at me as if to ask permission to get up and hit the running carp. Neil’s Chub Outkast 2.5 tc carp rod was soon hooped over into what was obviously a large carp was soon
“After a long and dogged fight I was able to get the net under the carp as it wallowed in the shallow lake margins. As I lifted the net the strain on my arms told me we had a heavy carp still carrying its full winter weight.
“The first fish on the bank a cracking 21lb 5oz mirror a great start to the session with Neil obviously elated to have banked such a lovely carp so quickly and for me the pressure was off little did we know this was just the start of what was to be a great session. Over the 48 hours Neil managed to bank nine carp, seven of the carp were over twenty pound in weight and two scraper twenty’s the biggest pulling the scales around to 25lb 04oz a great start to the 2009 coaching season.
“The year just got busier and busier with me out four and five days a week coaching men women and children in the finer arts of carp fishing. In April whilst enjoying a session at Thorpe Lea one of the bailiff team Ray, his wife Gemma and step son Callum stopped for a chat. Gemma and Callum quickly revealed that despite Ray being a keen carp angler neither of them had caught a carp.
“Ray challenged me to help Gemma and Callum to catch a carp as quickly as possible. After a little coaching the rods were soon in the water and just three minutes later one of the rods ripped off. Gemma was soon locked in battle with a very strong carp. After five minutes of playing the fish, a worn out Gemma passed the rod to Callum who finally fought the carp to the waiting landing net. The scales settled at 14Lb 06oz a new PB for both of them and two very happy anglers. Job done, challenge met!
“Callum had been bitten by the carp fishing bug and returned later the same day to ask if he could have another go and try to catch a carp on his own without mums help! He had to wait a little longer this time for his fish, just nine minutes which was six minutes to much for Callum!
“I suppose I had set his expectations. Callum bravely battled what was obviously a lot larger fish but with a little assistance he managed to bank his first carp himself and set a new PB at 17lb 06 oz.
“The year raced by with one coaching event after another we were in June and with the prolonged warm spell the carp had one thing in mind and it was not feeding. I was contacted by Darren a keen carp angler who had recently suffered a real lean spell with his fishing and wanted a few pointers to help him get back on the right track to catch a few carp. The session would be held on Yateley Sandhurst lake and I had arranged to meet Darren at 6.30 am in the main carp park, Darren had made good time and arrived early I walked to the main carp park to meet up and whilst helping him unload his tackle we discussed the lake and the swim selection and how we were going to tackle the lake. With Darren’s tackle safely transported to the swim and set up ready to go we got my Greys marker rod out and set about looking for any features in my swim that would be good spots to target for hungry carp. At about 30 yards Darren found a little polished clear spot in the middle of a silt bed just to the left of his swim. With a depth of 6 feet this was certainly a spot to place Darren’s rods.
“We spodded five spod full of a mix of pigeon conditioner, hemp and wild bird seeds blended with sugar and carnation milk to give a sweet cloudy sticky spod seed mix that hopefully the carp would find irresistible. Darren marked up his main line to ensure his casts to the baited spot were accurate every time.
“The rigs we used were very simple. The size eight swivel was removed from the leader and a quick link was put in its place. The speed clip was heated in some hot water and crushed with a pair of pliers to allow the quick link to slide into the body where the swivel would normally go. This gave us a simple running rig set up which would register the slightest of shy bites.
“A size 8 hook was set up blow back style system using a whittled down dumbbell boilies and a piece of yellow corn to top the rig off was how we set up our hook lengths. The rig was pulled into a walnut size PVA mesh bag of mixed pellets to ensure the rig did not tangle on the cast and the PVA bag of attraction stayed upon the hook during the cast.
“With the lines clipped and marked and the PVA mesh bags of pellets mounted upon the rigs Darren cast them out into the lake. With the rigs hitting the line clip Darren removed the line from the reel clip and set about sinking my line. Using fluorocarbon main line meant that he was able to sink the line out of the way with most, if not all, of it resting on the bottom of the lake, out of the way of the wary carp. With the line sunk all that was left to do was to put the rods on the alarms and put the light bobbins to the mainline before switching the alarms on. The traps were now set.
“The day passed as we undertook different rig clinics only broken up by regular tea breaks and lunch time fry ups. The weather had certainly changed with the bright sunny weather of the previous days being replaced by cloudy skies and a warm wind blowing strait at us.
“The bright day slowly changed into a warm dark cloudless night, the stillness of the lake was only broken by the occasional carp head a shouldering in front of us. I stayed up as late as I could watching the lake for signs of feeding fish only going to bed when I just could not stay awake any more.
“Just before dawn at 3.00 am Darren’s right hand rod ripped off with the alarms screaming at us to get up and do something. A very tired Darren appeared from his shelter and stumbled across the swim to his rods which were quite literally jumping in the rod rests as the Shimano reels struggled to release line quickly enough to keep up with the fast swimming carp.
“As Darren lifted into the carp and slowly tightened the clutch it became apparent this was no small carp. The Chub Outkast rod had been flattened and the Shimano’s clutch just could not slow down the angry carp Darren had on the end. After what seemed a life time Darren eventually started to gain line on the fish and yard by yard the big heavy ponderous carp was brought closer to the waiting net. Fifteen minutes later and after several long runs the carp was drawn over the waiting net to both of our relief. Darren’s first question was how big is it?. Having seen the fish at rest in the bottom of the net looking very long with broad shoulders I was convinced it was a forty but felt uneasy at telling Darren he might have beaten his PB by twenty pound so I told him it was a big fish and let’s see what the scales told us. With all of the fish care equipment already set up all we had to do was to wet the unhooking mat and weigh sling down then unassembled the landing net and take the fish to the unhooking mat to take the hook out of the fish. As I lifted the landing net from the water it was obvious this was a very heavy carp and as we laid it on the waiting mat our head torches reflected upon its huge flanks only then did Darren start to realise he had blown his old PB out of the water and this might be a forty pound fish.
“With the carp safely unhooked and placed into the Chub weigh sling we placed it onto the scales and waited for them to stop bouncing. It seemed to take forever but eventually we ready 35 lb 11oz a new PB for Darren and a great result for Smart Carping.
“As Darren posed in the early morning light I took loads of pictures to ensure I had captured this memorable moment for Darren.
“One of the bailiff team later told us the fish is Known as Nigel Fish and its normal weight is over forty pounds!.
“A Shattered Darren went back to him bed at 4.30 am tired but a very happy angler, his morning was going to get disturbed again as at 5.00 am as I stood next to Darren’s rods watching the water his left hand rod ripped off.
“I called Darren but got little response from him a second more urgent call to him was met with a disbelieving Darren telling me to stop winding him up. The third more strongly worded shout finally got Darren out onto the bank and lifting his rod into another fast running Sandhurst carp.
“A very tired but elated Darren could not believe what was happening he was again doing battle with a strong and determined carp that would not give in. The Chub kept a steady pressure on the hard charging carp, and all too quickly another large Sandhurst carp was lumbering in the net sat in the deep margins.
“Darren’s accurately placed rigs had bagged him a nice common not as big as the mirror but still well over twenty pound. The scales registered 26 lb dead on a nice fish in anyone’s books.
“Smart carping has been able to coach a broad spectrum of anglers with a very wide range of abilities, from Wives who are keen to share their husbands a sons hobbies, a partially sighted angler and experienced anglers both young and old who are just a little confused about what tackle and rigs they should be using when where and why. The year has seen me undertake eighty coaching events across the south of England managing to smash seventy personal bests and bank sixty one carp over twenty pounds during the coaching session. As I look back over the year a few of the highlights would be the biggest mirror carp at 35lb 11oz and biggest common carp at 26lb both falling to Darren’s rods, largest carp haul in one coaching session twenty two carp banked. I have had a great deal of fun and I hope I have left a lot of people with some great memories of a great coaching session and full of confidence in their fishing abilities.
“With Chub sponsoring Smart Carping Limited 2010 is already looking to be a better year than 2009.”
Tight Lines
Ian
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