Carp Catchers Blog

This magnificent beast fought like a demon and weighed 26lb 12oz.

Best fishes,

John

This was the last carp I caught a lovely two tone mirror of 29lb 8oz.

Best fishes,

John

David Cunnington of Glooston near Market Harborough is a regular customer who has just upped his personel best with this lovely 8lb 2oz�mirror carp. David was stalking in the margins at�when his hair rigged�Fresh Prawn��boilie was picked up by the wiley carp. Groby Lakes was the venue David fished on a day session. Well done David !

Best fishes,

John

David has just sent me another catch report and he has upped his personal best once again. Fishing to the far margins under some overhanging trees, again at Groby Lakes, Davids fresh prawn boilie was snatched by this 10lb 12oz stunner. Well done again David keep it up !

Best fishes,

John

In my last blog I talked about a new season baiting campaign and how to apply your bait. I touched on areas to apply your chosen boilies, but which areas should you choose?

Weed Beds

Unfortunately on most lakes in the UK you will be competing not only against the fish but also other anglers, particularly so if you can only fish at the weekends. In order to give yourself the maximum edge you  need to concentrate your baiting campaign in areas’ which are less attractive to the majority of other anglers. Weed beds are great carp holding areas, they are not so good for attracting carp anglers though, so these are a great place to start. Try to find some clear spots in the weed preferably, if this proves to be a problem apply your bait in likely looking spots around the edges. It is possible to create your own clear hotspots in the weed by putting a nice mix of hemp, small pellets, maggots and your chosen boilies into a few carefully selected places within the weedbed itself on a regular basis. The carp will rip out the weed in order to get at the goodies you have put in and as the area becomes clear continue baiting with boilies only. As I said in the last blog though, be very, very careful whose watching! Don’t forget to note down the exact location of your newly created hot spot.

Unpopular Swims

As you walk around your lake you will see the popular swims, the big double swim with nice bark chip or gravel, the swims closest to the car park, swims facing islands or other such features, swims where the grass is all but worn away. These pegs will be ok to fish and bait later in the season when the carp are searching out your bait, but for the moment avoid them like the plague. Look for the unpopular swims and put the majority of your bait in those, trying not to trample the grass, bushes etc. too much in the process so as not to alert other anglers to your presence.

Favourable Windward Bank

The predominant wind in the UK is the southwesterly. South westerly winds normally herald favourable carp fishing conditions, low air pressure, overcast skies, warmer air temperatures and very often rain(the rain not so good in my opinion). Try to find a quite swim or two on the bank into which a south westerly wind will blow and apply your bait.

Safe Areas

There will be places on your lake where the carp will feel safe and hold up when there is a lot of angling pressure on the lake. These will be places where they can’t be fished for, good examples are deep snags, no fishing areas etc. Get some bait going into these safe houses regularly even when you’re fishing elsewhere on the lake, as the carp very often venture out of them under the cover of darkness. 

This may not be a comprehensive list, but it is a good starting place so get out there and have a season to remember.

Best fishes,

John

Well the new Carp Fishing season is well and truly upon us and the carp are feeding hard in readiness for their upcoming spawning duties. So how can we ensure that we catch more than our fair share? A good quality bait, correctly applied, thats how!

Quality Baits

What constitutes a quality bait then? Basically we are talking about boilies. Boilies are speciffically�designed to fulfill all of a carps nutritional requirements, the idea being that the carp will actively seek them out in preference to other food items and believe me they do. I would suggest using frozen baits as opposed to shelf life for a baiting campaign as they do not have preservatives added which may put the carp off in the long term.�Frozen baits�are also likely to have active enzymes added which kick the bait into life, sending out powerful food signals�once they are defrosted. There are many different makes of frozen boilies, the majority being very good. Some good examples are Mainline Pulse�,�HBS Supa Stench , Richworth KG-1�and Baitcraft T1 there are plenty of others too.

Correct Application

To get the best out of your boilies they need to be�applied correctly. The first thing to do is pick a particular frozen boilie and stick with it!chopping and changing your frozen�bait is a big mistake. The carp need to come across your bait and�its’ particular flavour label�frequently so that they can recognise it as a superior food source and then�they will actively seek it out�. How much should you put in? That depends on the situation in front of you, it is better to err on the cautious side to begin with. I would suggest scattering 20 or so baits in the general area of each of your hookbaits. This will get the carp moving between baits making a hook up more likely. If you start to get consistent action start to put more in as even a double figure carp can eat an awful lot of bait.�This is only the fishing side of things though, the baiting campaign side of it is what is going to hopefully give you consistent success.

Baiting Campaign

If you blank don’t worry too much, that’s why its called fishing and not catching! Even the very best carp anglers blank. The positive side is that the carp will eventually come across your bait and will get a free meal without any angling pressure and this will make them less suspicious next time they come across it. Now you need to give them more free meals so that they will recognise your bait as a safe highly nutritious meal, this is the idea of a baiting campaign. Pick three or four�areas of the lake that the carp visit on a regular basis and put some bait in each after your session,�as long as you don’t interfere with other�anglers. Try to pick areas that are not too close together as this gives you more options if the lake is busy when you turn up for your session. It will be even more beneficial if you can bait up your areas during the week as well. A lot of top anglers like to bait up after dark so that other anglers can’t benefit from their hard work so that is something to bear in mind. Now is the time to start your baiting campaign so start getting those boilies in.

I hope this has been of some help

Best fishes,

John

Here’s another nice carp that Ben Mollet caught on his recent session at Peatling Ponds. Let’s have a big smile next time Ben!

Best fishes

John

Here’s a catch report and photo from customer Ben Mollet ” Here is the picture of my leather carp and my biggest mirror of the day.  This was caught on the lovely May Day bank holiday.  We went for a few hours fishing at Peatling Pools and fished Magna lake. We arrived at 10.30 and I set up with a feeder cage on one rod and decided to float fish with bread on the other. You could see all the carp up in the top water and I was getting frustrated watching them all – but patience paid off. I noticed they were tending to swim into one corner of the lake so I changed swims and fished no more than 3 or 4 feet out.

The first catch of the day was my 14lb 2oz leather carp, my P.B. I think everyone in the area heard me shout when I finally hooked into a fish! By 7.00pm I had had 4 fish altogether including the 14lb 2oz, an 8lb 4oz and two others around 6lb/7lb which I did not weigh. The fish were not really in the mood for being caught so I think I did very well and I cannot wait to go again.” Well done Ben!!

 Best fishes,

John

Truly breathtaking!

I have just come back from a really memorable session. Memorable not only for the Carp Fishing but also for the tranquility, good company and truly beautiful surroundings. The Carpy pictures and details of my session will follow shortly but for now I would like to share some of the scenic shots I took. Enjoy!

Best fishes,

John 

In this shot you can see how windy it was.

I have just come back from a really memorable session. Memorable not only for the Carp Fishing but also for the tranquility, good company and truly beautiful surroundings. The Carpy pictures and details of my session will follow shortly but for now I would like to share some of the scenic shots I took. Enjoy!

Best fishes,

John