Carp Catchers Blog

Tying a pop-up to a D-ring is sometimes necessary when using pop-ups which lose their buoyancy if pierced with a baiting needle. A lot of anglers just don’t have the confidence to tie pop ups because they feel the pop ups may come off on the cast. But if you use the slip knot demonstated below there should be no danger of them coming off . The Bait Floss used in this demonstration was the ESP Bait Floss.

Step 1.

Remove about 4 inches of Bait Floss from the spool and form an overhand loop. (See picture below)

Step 2.

Now form another smaller overhand loop inside that and pass the tag end through both. (See pictures below)

Step 3.

Tighten the smaller loop to form a knot this will now have formed a slip knot with the bigger loop. (See picture below)

Step 4.

Place your chosen pop up inside to loop and slowly tighten it down until it grips the bait, then tighten it fully making sure it tightens down into the pop up. If the pop ups your using are not soft enough for this to happen I find it helps to make a small groove in the pop up for the bait floss to sit in. (See picture below)

Step 5.

Now tie the bait to your rig with 3-4 overhand knots and blob the tag ends with a lighter being careful not to burn the rig or your fingers. (See picture below)

The bait should now be secure enough to stay on your rig for the entire period it’s in the water, give it some practice so you’re confident enough if you have to do it on the bank.

Tight lines

Dave

We are finally well into the colder months of the year now and we have already recieved a few cold snaps of weather over the previous two months with many lakes around the country freezing over for a short period. Only the most hardy of anglers will have dared grace the banks during these colder spells of weather but some of them may well have been rewarded for their efforts.

Winter carp fishing is never going to be and never has been easy by a long stretch but the captures made at this time of year can be far more rewarding. If your going to attempt a winter session then make sure your prepared for the coldest of winter weather. By now the water temperatures will have dropped considerably compared to the summer months therefore slowing down the carps metabolism to a creeping pace decreasing their need for food. The carp will not be that active this time of year with them generally hanging around in their favourite winter haunts, these are normally the deeper more sheltered areas of the lake but every lakes different so use the knowledge you know about your water to help you locate those fish. Dont rule out the shallower areas either, if the weather warms up a bit and the sun makes an appearance the shallower areas will warm up first and the fish know this. Try single hookbaits to begin with and move your rods around your swim to try and help you to locate where the fish maybe holding up, generally if you can catch one fish there is a good possibility of another if they’re interested in your bait. Bait application during the winter months can either make or break a session so don’t over do it unless your sure the fish want some bait, generally start of light with single hookbaits or pva bags and apply a little more if things begin to progress and fish start to show an interest, you dont need large amounts of bait this time of year. Ive had some of my best winter sessions with a tub of pop ups and a bag of stick mix.

If your planning a session this winter don’t be disheartened if you don’t catch as there will be many other anglers in the same boat, just get out there and apply a bit of thought into your angling.

Tight lines

Dave

The absolutely awesome Trakker Armo MKII Black Series Bivvy  Is now in. I saw these at the tackle and guns show at Stoneleigh and ordered some straight away. The Armo MKII Black Series has the same specs as the green MKII Armos with the addition of two rear zipped and velcroed mozzi panels for increased ventilation when needed. Surprisingly the Black Series is the same price as the green MKIIs, but remember they are a strictly limited edition. For more information or to purchase visit the main site via the links. We also have the Trakker Armo MKII Black Series Wrap  which also has zipped and velcroed rear vents.

Best fishes,

John

Customer David Cunnington has reported a new personal best weighing 15lb 14oz. Davids lovely common carp was caught at Mill Farm on a Nash Scopex Squid Liver  boilie topped with rubber sweetcorn. The rig David used was a blowback rig tied using a Korda Longshank X Hook . David also used a PVA bag filled with chopped boilies to tempt his new PB. Well done!

Best fishes

John

Some interesting news for those of you experiencing problems with knots for fluorocarbon. One of the big American line manufacturers has done some research on knots and fluorocarbon. They found that one of the most popular and strongest knots the palomar, weakened fluorocarbon by up to 30%. Gardner Tackle who have considerable knowledge on fishing lines, suggest using the blood knot, which is usually considered one of the weakest fishing knots. So you might want to consider doing some knot tests yourselves armed with this information.

Best fishes

John

New in are the Century Neville Snag Ears and Berkleys Spiderwire Stealth Camo Braid. Both of these items look as though they would give any carp angler a significant edge.

Century Neville Snag Ears

As I’m sure most of you know Century have taken over the manufacture of the Stevie Neville Stainless Range. Though the snag ears have been around for some time, it’s always been a bit difficult to get a hold of them. Now that Century are involved supplies should be more readily available. The Snag Ears are for snag fishing primarily, but are also great when fishing nearside margins with the rods pointing forward. An excellent bit of kit that does what it say’s on the tin and also looks good.

Century Neville Snag Ears

use the link above for more info.

Berkley Spiderwire Stealth Camo Braid

This looks really interesting and I’ll be giving it a try myself. Berkley have done lots of tests in their fish laboratories in America and they found that fish spook of lines that are a single colour. After trying various combinations they came up with The Stealth Camo Braid. The same tests showed that the fish did not spook off the broken outline of The Stealth. The colour on the Stealth changes every two or three feet and there are about four or five different colour variations.

                                        Stealth Camo Braid

So for all you braid users out there, this is definatley worth a look. For more info click the link above.

Best fishes,

John

Now that winters here many of you will be using maggots as bait. In this blog I’m going to show you how to tie a rig with the new improved Korda Maggot Clip . There is more than one rig that can be tied with the maggot clip and I will feature those in future blogs.

These are the components that I used to demonstrate this rig

Step 1

Cut a length of your desired hooklink material, in this case I am using Korda Hybrid Soft

Step 2

Strip off 4-5 inches of the coating

Step 3

Tie a small overhand loop in the stripped section

Step 4

Cut a length, 10mm approximately of the ESP Sink Rig Tube and thread it up towards the loop. The rig tube prevents the live maggots from wriggling around and masking your hookpoint, a little dodge thought up by Nigel Sharp I think.

Step 5

Thread the Korda Maggot Clip through the loop and push the rig tubing tight to the clip

Step 6

Thread the opposite end of the hooklink through the eye of the Atomic Claw  hook and whip the stripped section of the hybrid soft up to the rig tubing

Step 7

Thread the tag end of the hooklink through the eye of the hook again and pull to bed down the knot

Step 8

Tie the swivel at the other end of hooklink with a figure of eight loop knot

Step 9

Moisten both knots and pull tight to bed them down. I’m using the excellent Korda Pulla Tool in this shot.

Step 10

Thread on the required number of maggots. I was extremely suprised how easily the maggots went on, so Korda really have improved the sharpness of the clip.

The business end of the finished rig

The finished rig

Best fishes,

John

The new ATTS Bite Alarms and Nash Box Logic TT Rig Station have just come in. These babies will make the Ideal christmas presents for carpers everywhere. I’ll do a short review on them below, for more details and to purchase them go to the main site via the links.

ATTS Bite Alarms – ATTx V2 Receiver

The New ATTS Bite Alarms are the ultimate tackle tarts item. However you don’t need to be a tackle tart to appreciate and make use of their unique features. The ATTS’s most unique feature is that it is the first silent alarm, the audible alarm is given by the ATTx V2 Remote receiver. There has been a lot in the media recently about sound travelling down the line and spooking the carp the ATTS will prevent this. The ATTS is the smallest bite alarm on the market and along with it’s silent function and matt black, soft rubber touch finish, the ATTS is the ultimate stealth alarm.

                             ATTS Bite Alarms

                             ATTx V2 Receiver

Nash Box Logic TT Rig Station

The Nash Box Logic TT Rig Station is absolutely brilliant, I’m just amazed that nobodys produced something like it before now. The TT Rig Station organises and stores all of your terminal tackle, PVA, marker floats, leads etc. The Rig Station also stores all of your rigs and comes supplied with 20 rig pins. The most ingenious part though is that the rig station is just that, it doubles as a work station where you can tie your rigs with everything to hand, you can even critically balance your hookbaits. Check this one out I don’t think you will be disappointed.

                   Nash Box Logic TT Rig Station

Best fishes,

John

Customer Ben also had a pike fishing trip to Pitsford Reservoir recently. Ben tempted this 21lb beauty of a pike whilst fishing a copper spoon lure from the back of a boat. The capture was featured in the Angling Times recently and was a Drennan Cup contender. Bens winter fishing goal was a 20lb pike and he achieved it at the first time of asking. Well done Ben!!

Best fishes,

John