It’s nearly here.

We’ve had hundreds of emails, phone calls and face-to-face interrogations. Just keep your hair on for a few more hours…

The cards will be on the counter, those with cards will be able to use them and you can order yourself a shiny new card to jazz up your keyring from 3pm today.

Order your Bait Up Points Card here.

The Ted Carter Bait Up Points Card will launch at 3pm this afternoon.

There’s a few of you biting at our ankles for the new Bait-Up Cards, so I thought it was only right that I let you all know where we are up to.

The beta testing is complete and the few anglers that took part were happy with the way everything worked. We’re just about ready to roll the scheme out to all of our customers, and the thousands of cards that have arrived at the office will be making their way to thousands of anglers in the in the next few weeks.

Everyone that has registered their interest on the blog post a few weeks back will receive instructions on how to get their card next week.

We will be launching the Bait-Up Card on-line on the afternoon of Tuesday 15th May (apologies to the guys that have had the letter stating Monday 14th). All of our Beta testers will be able to spend their points as of Tuesday and anyone who has received a card with pre-loaded points will also be able to start spending/collecting.

We announced on Facebook last week that we were looking for new members of the Ted Carter team. Even though we were just testing the water (excuse the pun), the response was unbelievable!

There are going to be a number of positions available ranging from Sales Support and Customer Service to Accounts. As soon as we are ready to start interviews the details will be published at tedcarter.co.uk/recruitment in good time.

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This week our manager and assistant manger have been flexing their angling muscles at Dream Lakes in France.

Each year they return with some impressive stories and photos. From the text messages, it seems that records may have been broken. As soon as they return they’ll be blogging with their achievements. But not before they have caught up with the mountains of work that they put on hold for a week.

This year’s Memorial Match in commemoration of our late colleague Eric Sayers will be held at Barnsfold Reservoir on Sunday 10th June.

Fishing will be from 9am to 3pm, with the best 2 fish to count.

Entry is £20 and there will be a raffle on the day.

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Once again anglers from all over the North West will support this match in recognition of Liverpool based and former Ted Carter Southport captain Fred Moss. Last year around 100 anglers competed, many of which hoped to draw on one of the large shoals of bream that having been winning recent matches.

The match will be organized by Ray Pagan and the Maghull Club. The monies raised will  to be split between two major charities that work with children in the Liverpool area. Great cause!

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To help you save a few quid on that new gear this summer we’re offering you ONE PENCE UK POSTAGE & PACKING on all of our products until June.

All items ordered on-line will be delivered for just ONE PENNY inside mainland UK if ordered before midnight on 31st May 2012. That’s 1p per order, even if we have to do multiple deliveries. Whether it’s a pack of hooks or 20 new bivvies for all of your mates you’ll only pay a penny.

Deliveries through Royal Mail, UPS and Parcel Force will be delivered for just ONE PENNY.

Have a root down the back of the sofa and get your order in now, this crazy offer is only around until the sun comes out (well, until it’s supposed to come out.)

Offer ends at Midnight 31st May 2012.

Having been a customer at Ted Carter for a couple of years, even being known to pop in for a regular brew with the lads, the suggestion of Anthony Molyneux working at the shop was initially made as a bit of joke. However, being a painter and decorator faced with the recession at the time, the joke got taken seriously and he’s now assistant manager of the shop!

At 28 years old, Ant’s been working for Ted Carter since August 2010 and is known for his ‘no nonsense’ attitude. He’s involved with all aspects of the shop including the web orders, which often means a lot of picking internet orders, answering phones, serving customers, putting stock out, and bringing deliveries in.

He started fishing aged 8 but as he hit his teens the gym became more appealing and the fishing was side-lined for competitive body building. He invested a lot of time into the sport, known to be down the gym 3 times a day, 6 days a week until eventually injury and lack of time with his now wife, meant putting a stop on it.

Fox Sponsorship!

Ant keeping the shop stocked!

Although he’s very competitive, even as far as wanting to have the latest camera – photography being another interest of his, fishing is his down time. Ant’s sponsored by Fox but isn’t interesting in competition fishing. He’s into his carp fishing as well as river, barbel, and pike fishing and enjoys the time to be able to relax.

Ant has a seven year old Staffordshire bull terrier who he spoils rotten. Unfortunately, having attempted to take her fishing with him a couple of times he’s discovered it definitely isn’t worth the hassle – rods all over  the place,  broken bits of carbon everywhere and constant attempts to jump into the water.

He’s pretty easy going but isn’t one to keep you guessing about what he’s thinking! He enjoys his job and working with the customers is what he likes most, “I enjoy working with the public, you get to meet a lot of characters.”

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Whats Hot Ant?

Find below Ant’s Hot list. This is a list of 5 hot products which Ant thinks are a must for any avid fisherman. To get a more detailed view just click on a product from the list.

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Top Five

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• Fox Flatliner Bedchair
• Mainline Cell Boilies
• Fox Arma Point XSC Hooks
• Fox Horizon Carp Rods
• JRC X Lite Chair

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As the shop manager Dave Moult’s responsibilities lie in overseeing all the goods that come in, all the deliveries, all of the orders going out and making sure that stock’s taken down to the shop floor for customer orders.

After 20 years as a loyal customer to the shop, early on in 2011 Dave joined the team as a ‘Saturday boy’ before becoming a full time staff member in October. Having had extensive experience in both area and regional managerial roles, Dave’s more than capable to help run the team here at Ted Carter’s. From working with televisions, wine and pubs he’s finally doing a job that involves what he loves most – fishing!

Having come from a particularly stressful job prior to this one, he’s now able to have a bit of fun and plenty of laughs, and still finds being able to wear jeans rather than a suit a bit of a novelty. His pen pushing days are over and he’s definitely not complaining!

Avid Carper!

Dave pretending to work!

When he’s not working he’ll be in the gym, enjoying a nice glass of white wine or fishing. Dave’s fished all of his life and entered competitions as a junior. He started out on the canals, but now he does it for the relaxation factor and is particularly interested in carp and pike.

For the last 17 years he’s been making an annual ‘lads holiday’ trip over to France for the ‘bigger fish’ and next year he’s off to Mexico or Cuba for some sport fishing. “It’s all about getting outdoors with the wildlife, out with your mates in a tent.”

Dave’s got two daughters and the youngest, 11 year Mia, loves joining her Dad on his fishing trips. And so does Dave’s partner Paula – in fact she’s managed to pull in bigger catches every time she’s joined him on one of his trips!

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Whats Hot Dave?

Find below Dave’s Hot list. This is a list of 5 hot products which Dave thinks are a must for any avid fisherman. To get a more detailed view just click on a product from the list.

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Top Five

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• Mainline Bait
• Fox Luggage
• Diawa Basiair 45 QD Reel
• Korda End Tackle
• Gardner Baiting Needles

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It’s Friday and that means one thing… Rods out tomorrow. It’s been horrible weather this week, but a gypsy did tell me that we’re in for a good weekend. I’m tempted to get out on the bank and I’m sure you are too.

Most of us don’t even need any new tackle and could just jump straight in the car and head of down to the local reservoir, but we do all need bait.

The Bait-Up Cards are a few weeks off yet, so to give you all a shove out on to the bank we’re offering you a massive 50% OFF your BAIT and FLIES in store this weekend. All you need to do is Check In to the official Ted Carter Place on Facebook.

Limited to one sale per customer/facebook account. Tell the person behind the counter that you have checked in and just like magic we’ll knock your money off. They will check though, so don’t try and pull a fast one

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For me this just shows how important the draw bag is, with the days getting shorter and the nights getting colder the fish defiantly know the weathers on the turn. The fish have already started balling up for winter as the results have shown over the last couple of weeks. It’s often been the case of you either catch or you don’t, it’s that cruel I’m afraid.

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Running into the last round at the ever great Cudmore Fisheries it was all to play for. The mighty Ted Carter Southport squad was lying joint second with St Helen’s Saints, so a tense atmosphere was amongst the lads in the café. After a full English breakfast and a few jokes about Mozzer’s Tash the draw was underway. The hopes were high and with the odd good peg being mentioned the team draw wasn’t looking to bad.

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Peg 9 on Arena would be my home for the day with Captain “Cod Eye” Gorrell who would be on the same lake but in another section. Once I’d found out what the script was off the lads in the car park, I went about dragging my tackle to my peg. On first impressions I didn’t really think I was in a very good area but the cold wind was coming in roughly over my right shoulder leaving my peg virtually flat calm. I just hoped the fish wanted to be on the back of the wind rather than following it around to the other bank.

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On tackling up my kit I came into a spot of bother, although the Arena Lake at Cudmore is excellent for fishing, the bank layout has a couple of faults. Steep banks behind most of the pegs make it very difficult to ship back without breaking down twice. This is a pain and makes life hard work when you’re trying to be smooth and efficient while shipping in and out with 14.5m/16m of sausage. Using only two small Daiwa pole rollers, I had to butcher something together to help me ship back to my power top two kit without breaking down twice.

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Check it out. I was rather proud of my creation so much so I’m going to patent my idea and sell it on to Preston Innovations. What do you reckon?

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After assembling my new creation it was nearly the “All In”. My last job was to have a quick look chuck with the bomb rod. Time to give the Matrix 10ft Carpmaster tip rod a go for the first time. The Carpmaster range from Matrix is set to take the short rod revolution apart. Designed for modern match methods on commercial waters, all models can be transported in a made-up state. The 8ft, 9ft and 10ft Carpmaster feeder rods have a unique design which eliminates the joint (fish-playing area of the rod). All feeder rods come with a revolutionary EVA transport holder block which holds the sections parallel and eliminates the use of rod bands.

This teamed up with a Daiwa TD-X 3012 is definitely the ultimate fishing playing set up. Daiwa have really pushed the boat out with this one. Featuring the new push button spool that still delivers that valued front drag performance or the addition of the high impact ‘HIP’ line clip, handed down from the Basiair? Give it a waterproof drag that was developed for the Certate and an exquisite machine cut spool, that’s how! The quartet of TD-x reel also operates on seven bearings, 4CRBB and 3BB. The precision made DIGIGEAR and Advanced Locomotive winding produces a remarkably high and smooth winding power match anglers now expect. Even the handle has been reconsidered with the creation of grips made from high density EVA. This hardened foam offers excellent grip even when wet and they continue to rotate freely even under loading.

Enough about that, back to the job in hand of catching the creatures that make all this possible.

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All in and the final round was underway. Starting on the bomb, loaded with a single punched piece of meat soaked in Marukyu SFA 430  just to help give it an extra kick. My plan of attack was to just chuck and chance for the first hour whilst building up the long pole line.

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Five minutes in and I start getting what looked like a very sky line bite with the tip moving back and forth slowly. Sitting on my hands waiting for a proper wrap round that didn’t happen. Then the tip moved round then stopped, having nothing to lose I picked the rod up only to be greeted with the rod arched round. A short but strong fight saw me slip the net under a 2lb Barbel, this had to be one of the strangest bites I’ve ever had. This just goes to show even Barbel can be shy at times, I loaded back up with another piece of meat to repeat the process. Terminal tackle consisted of the above rod and reel,  my main line was the reliable 8lb Daiwa Infinity Duo. A 1oz Prestons Gripper lead as the bottoms can slope on Arena specially when chucking close to the island. A size 7 Korum snap link swivel stopped with a Korum quick change bead. 0.19mm Guru N-gauge hook length to a PR36 size 16 with a bait band or quick stop to the hair.

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An hour and 15 minutes later and I’m flying high. I’ve put 6 Barbel and 1 Carp in the net. Unbelievable that I’ve have caught everything on a single piece of meat. I haven’t fed a thing on the bomb line, clearly there must be a few fish out there. Speaking to soon brought on a quiet spell. Time to give the long pole line a look.

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A big pot of Magic Krilled maggots kicked the peg off nicely. Looking for a Barbel, Skimmer or big Carp on the long line. My first chuck resulted in another Barbel, this was the start I was looking for. My second chuck was a waiting game resulting in nothing, with the water being cold and colour dropping out of it I felt the fish just didn’t want to be on the pole line. Forcing the peg with another big pot of Krilled maggot. Resting the swim I went back out on the bomb, a short while later another Barbel was safely in the net, followed then by another Carp. This was the quick burst of fish I was looking for as other anglers around me were starting to catch me up. Another quick look on the pole brought nothing so i added another section on and had a look passed my feed. This resulted in an acrobatic Skimmer then another Barbel. I started to get the feeling the fish didn’t want to settle over a big pile of bait but yet if you didn’t feed any kind of quantity you just wouldn’t get an indication.

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Back to the bomb line again to see if the fish have settled. It’s been strange really, how can I get a run of fish, then nothing for 20 minutes? Even though no feed has gone in, to draw the fish back to the swim, they always came back and settled. That’s where Captain Cod Eye was sat with the wind in his clock, god he must have been cold. The water temperature must be a touch warm in my swim, hence why the fish have settled there.

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The last hour brought me another great run of fish. Totalling 10 Barbel, 3 Carp and that daft Skimmer. Hopefully this should have been enough to get the section and possibly a framing position.

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The scales come round tipping 59lb into the weight sling. “Get in“ another section win but weights of 80 and 90lb have put me out of the frame being the first misser. Jimmy Hinges of The Saints was second in the section. Yes I’ve beat my man, but he has also got good points with a section second.

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Back to the café for a brew and a butty, while waiting for the results to come in. Sadly it was quite good enough. We got beat by a point for 2nd overall in the league, only to two teams go through. Obviously we’re all gutted not to get through to the semi-final’s but there’s always next year. The whole series has been full of if’s, but’s and maybes but it just wasn’t meant to be. Good luck to Drennan and The Saints for the Semi’s and I hope you do well and keep the reputation up for the class of anglers coming out of the North West.

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Tight line

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Phil Allton  |  Ted Carter  |  Marukyu.

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Coming Summer 2012

Bait Up is the new points scheme created by Ted Carter to help you save money on the products that you buy the most. Collect big points when you buy your bait in-store, on-line or over the phone and get points for everything else too! Simply register your Bait Up card to redeem your points as vouchers to spend with us.

If you’re like me you’ll have a Tesco Club Card, a Nectar Card and god-knows what else, so I’m pretty sure that you get the idea. More information will be available soon. Registering your interest below means you’ll be first to know…

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