With the onset of summer I can look back fondly on a very successful spring season on my target water near my home in Hurth, Germany,” explains Solar Tackle field tester Peter Zyla.

“Over the spring months I got stuck in to testing Solar’s the new Pink & White boilies, and then from April the new TunaMino test baits as well, and both outperformed all of my expectations. Coupled with carefully planned location choices and some prebaiting I landed 47 carp over the course of 18 trips, with one fifty and 12 forties toping the tally.

“In early spring I caught most of my fish concentrating on shallow areas, and often caught best in a westerly wind. I’d spend time locating the carp, and then find a shallow spot nearby to target using a boilie approach.

“Although I concentrated on fishing over a bed of freebies, either the Pink & White boilies or the TunaMino baits, I found that varying my hook bait and keeping a visual element to it produced the best result.

“The pink or white 4^th Rod Top Banana pop-ups, yellow Top  Banana pop-ups or orange Jacko Pops were my favourites, or a bottom bait matching the freebies, but tipped with a piece of artificial corn. Always the hook bait was coupled with a size 6 Stronghold 101 hook.

“I had hoped at the start of the spring that it would be a good season on my target water, as I started catching right from the off, but I had no idea that 12 forties, a fifty and 33 others would grace my net in just a few months.”