I have been fishing since I can remember.  I caught my first carp at the age of 5 and I thought I knew everything about fishing at the time.  When I joined the HM forces, fishing had to take very much the back seat.  After 15 years, I wanted to get back into it.  After watching TV prorammes and reading all about carp fishing, I thought that was something I really had to have a serious look at.

Investigating locally for a carp water, I found Pallington Lakes to be only 5 minutes down the road and it appeared to fit my needs.  After a few sessions on the bank, I was rapidly learning that the rigs and terminal advice the programmes and magazines featured was an area of huge confusion, basically what was the best set up and approach to take on carp?  All advice was different and with no real continuity.

I met Tini Pomeroy at the fishery and after a chat, she advised me to speak to her husband Simon, as he’d been fishing for years and knew all about Pallington.  Later that day I was set up fishing when I first met Simon Pomeroy.  I asked Simon for any advice he could give me about this new style of fishing.  I had all my terminal set up put under scruinity as I was told how important the ‘last bit’ always had to be.

First to go was my rigs which Simon bit off declaring them junk!  Simon had bought some tackle from which to make up some successful rigs and a short time later my rods were ready to go, all now baited up with the famed Jungle bait.  With this, a carp crashed to the right of my swim and I was told to get a bait as close to the swirl as possible.  Out went this first rod and I set it up on my pod and alarms.  Simon told me to bait up with a few free baits around where we’d seen the fish.  With some more advice, especially about the importance of watercraft, I was left to carrying on fishing.  Twenty minutes went by and the rod cast at the moving fish screamed off!  A short time later I had a new PB carp in the shape of an awesome 19lb 10oz  Mirror. Before I had time to get my bearings one of the other rods went off and before I knew it a another new PB, but this time an 8lb Bream.

Impressed?  I was hooked!

I got to become a regular at Pallington, became the bailiff, the fishery manager and have ended up running the bait side of Pallatrax.  To say a life changing session, the rest is history.

One of my jobs as Bailif has always been to rig check at Pallington for what we would class as dangerous rigs. This immediately opened my eyes that there was alot of gear, but no idea!  Alot of flash camping accessories yet inconsistent end tackle. So many times were the rigs tangled or poorly  presented, that even the most unluckiest of fish would not be hooked.

I then set about to pass on what I had learnt and how it had improved my catch rates no end.  These simple tactics and approaches that I had become used to were now working for so many of the anglers I showed.

I started to fish on a regular basis with Simon and really started to appreciate how his mind ticked to find as many ways as possible to catch fish, even in some really rubbish situations.  It was then that Simon explained his thoughts and questioned why are we fishing with these obviously man made Method feeders and leads right next to our hook and bait!  I had to admit he was right and it was something so obvious I’d completely overlooked it.  He had the idea that a simple stone would more than adequetly do the job of a fishing weight and that there were numerous other benefits.

I’m proud to say that I was there when the Stonze System was developed and as time has gone by have been astonished that anglers from all over the world are now appreciating where we come from, binning lead and using Stonze for all the right reasons.  To be a part of something that consistantly puts fish in the net can only be good, and continues to be something exciting and challenging for me.

Since those days, nothing has really changed for me in how I go about my fishing, wherever I go.  Being very much involved within the Pallatrax set up has meant that I have regulary fished the tactics and baits all over the UK and France.  My results speak for themself with many fabulous and successful fishing trips for whatever species I am targeting.

It is with no bias that I can genuinely say Pallatrax, all of our baits and terminal tackle have been put together for many reasons.  From their fish catching abilities through to the top quality finish, being second to none. There is no GIMMICK here!