Carp Catchers Blog

Interesting piece on mosquitoes from David. This blog is just an addendum to it. If you suffer from Mosquito bites carry some anti histamine cream in your kit and it will provide relief from the constant itching. Should you not have any anti histamine cream with you another little tip which should help, toothpaste!! It’s not quite as long lasting as the anti histamine cream but toothpaste will provide adequate relief.

Best Fishes,

John

Rob O’Brien and friends had a major carping haul in France recently. Fishing at Etang Rendevuoz Rob and two friends amassed a hundred carp between them. Rob alone had 37 fish, the biggest being 37lb. The rigs Rob used were constructed from 6” of  Sufix Kameleon  with half inch stripped back, this was tied to size 4 Korda Wide Gape Hook shrink tubed and tied blow back style. The successful baits were Mainline Activ Maple-8  and Nash Scopex Squid Plus Robin Red  freezer boilies fished snowman style with matching pop ups. These were fished over a bed of boilies, pellets and maise. Rob reports that the temperatures were in the 30′s and the water temperature was an incredible 26 degrees centigrade. Well done Rob sounds like you had a great holiday.

Best Fishes,

John

As most of you know mosquito bites can swell up and become irritating and itchy. There are all manner of methods out there available to try and deter mosquitoes from the vacinity and help prevent bites. You can buy a range of natural and synthetic spray on repellents, coils, candles and electronic devices from most camping stores and pharmacists. Most of which are very effective under the right circumstances.

I recently read an interesting newspaper article on mosquitoes which stated why mosquitoes bite us, why some bites come up worse than others and why some people are more susceptable to bites than others.

I knew a few of the facts but it turns out that its only the female mosquitoes that bite as they require the proteins in our blood for their eggs to mature. Mosquitoes don’t actually feed on our blood, they survive on nectar and fruit juices from plants. The reason some people get bitten by mosquitoes more frequently than others is because they appear to be attracted by certain volatile (gas-emitting) compounds on the skin. Which some people emit more of than others.

The reason bites become itchy and swell up is due to your immune system trying to get rid of the anti blood clotting agents which the mosquitoes inject upon biting. Over time your immune system becomes more tolerant and the bites become less irritating. Everyones immune response to mosquito it different and some people react more than others. 

I always carry a little bottle of mosquito repellent in my tackle bag in case I come across any mosquitoes while I’m on the bank, there’s nothing worse than lying on the bedchair trying to catch some sleep when all you can hear is the buzz of mosquitoes flying around you.

Tight Lines

Dave

For those of you carp fishing particularly weedy waters this year dropping your lead is probably a very high priority. Regular customer Ian Smith showed me a weed lead clip system by Nash designed to drop the lead with even less effort than most regular lead clip systems. I always cut down my lead clips when fishing in weed but these lead clips mean you don’t need to. The Nash Weed Safety Bolt Bead  used in conjunction with the  Nash Weed Safety Tail Rubbers  are basically a smaller version of the regular lead clip system which requires less force to discharge the lead and are ideal for fishing in weed. Recently Ian has landed a lot of carp using this clip system and it is without a doubt a factor that has helped him land more fish.

A 25lb 14oz mirror caught fishing in weed.

Give the Nash Weed Safety Bolt Bead and Tail Rubbers a thought next time you’re tackling a weedy water.

Tight Lines

Dave

Tying a zig rig is simple, all you need is a good hooklink material like the Ultima Power Zig, a strong hook and a small section of silicone tubing.

The rig components used in this demonstration were Ultima Power Zig hooklink, ESP Big T Carp Hook and ESP Silicone Tube .

Step 1.

Cut the Ultima Power Zig to your desired length.

Step 2.

Now tie a small overhand loop in one end for your hair stop and thread on your desired choice of pop-up or foam followed by a bait stop.

Step 3.

Then cut a small section (2-3mm) of silicone tubing and thread it onto your zig hooklink.

Step 4.

Now thread the point of the hook through the silicone tubing heading towards the bait and set the hair length at about 2-3mm with the tubing sitting at the top of the shank.

Step 5.

Now tie a knotless knot and don’t forget to whip the hooklink back round the knot once on the way towards the eye to prevent it from slipping.

Step 6.

To finish the zig rig off tie a figure of eight knot at the other end.

The zig rig is now finished and ready to use.

If you are not sure about any of the knots use the Carp Catchers Blog search bar to navigate to the relevant knot

Tight lines

Dave

Shop regular John Jones banked a 3o plus common on a new water recently. The fished weighed in at 35lb 2oz and was a fish caught a month earlier by Ian Smith at a similar weight. John tempted the fish back to the bank with a mixed bed of sticky baits boilies and a snowman hookbait. The set up John used was a Korda 4oz lead on a  Korda Safe Zone Safety Lead Clip  and Johns’ rig was tied with Kryston Super Mantis Green Hooklink and a size 6 Nash Fang X Hook. Well done again mate. Nice photo too.

Tight Lines

Dave

Just a quick update to the last blog on new bait products. For those of you that prefer freezer baits to shelf lifes, the Nash Mach 1 Freezer Boilies  are now in stock. So if you want them, we’ve gottem! For more information or to purchase please follow the above link to the main site.

Best Fishes,

John

Gary and I fished the 2009 BCAC Qualifier at Farlows lake again this year. We got down on the Thursday and had a good look round, then had a nice social in the bar that evening. The next morning we were up at first light and after a cup of tea we scouted the lake again. We had a hearty breakfast in the onsite cafe and then the moment of truth the draw!! Gary and I were fortunate and came out second and got our second choice of swim. We were up against some stiff opposition, The O’Connors, Ian Russell, as well as last years winners, but we felt confident. Things started slowly in our swim but after spodding out 3 kilos of 18mm  Mainline Cell Freezer Boilies  I had a run at 9.30pm on a rod fished to an island gap. I managed to get the carp away from the snag, but half way in it kited to my left towards a gap in the islands. The carp had to be stopped so I held on and gave no line and unfortunately the hook pulled argggh!! Gary had a take that night and was cut off almost immediately. Next morning we found another snaggy spot and had a fish within an hour which weighed 18lb and some ounces.

Finally we were off the mark with a nice common carp. The take came to a combi link rig tied with Rigmaroles  Hydro-Link Silt  with two pieces of  Enterprise Pop-Up Sweetcorn  as a hookbait. In the afternoon we tried zig rigs on top of the gravel bars to no avail. We spodded out about another 6 kilos of bait for the coming night. We added some sweetcorn and  Carp Company Icelandic Red Cranberry & Caviar Freezer Boilies  to the spod mix.  At about 5.00pm I had another bite on the island rod which was cut off after about 20 seconds. Another cut off on the same rod about two hours later had Gary and I pulling our hair out. We both tied on the heaviest Nylon leaders we could (leadcore and braid leaders are banned) in an effort to combat the cut offs. Gary had one cut off and landed one carp that night which weighed 19lb plus so now we were in the running. Next morning saw us land another 18lb pluser, which put us well into contention. It was not to be though and at 12.00 the hooter sounded to end another BCAC qualifier. Had we landed any one of the fish we lost we would have qualified.

Best Fishes,

John

Have you noticed how many 30lb plus common carp are being reported to the Carp Catchers Blog? Anyhow customer Martin Deathridge fished an overnight session on Bluebell Lakes Swan lake recently and was rewarded with the 32lb 4oz common shown below. Using a new bait on test, Martin fished over light weed at 60 yards range. The rig Martin used consisted of a 12” Korda Supernatural Sinking Braid   hooklink tied to a size 6 ESP Stiff Rigger  hook. Martins hookbait was a snowman with a 10mm Hi-Viz Mainline Pop-Ups  topper. Nice result for an overnighter Martin.

Best Fishes,

John