Carp Catchers Blog

Here’s a dumpy carp that I caught recently. It weighed 30lb 8oz and fell to my usual old skool D Rig tied with GLT No Can See Fluorocarbon  to a size 6 Gardner Longshank Incizor . I fished a clear spot in weed at about 60yrds and scattered a kilo of Mainline Activ-8 boilies over the spot.

Best Fishes,

John

Lots of catch reports lately, we’ll get back to rigs and such as soon as I catch up. Still catch reports are good as they show that carp can be caught and gives you the methods they’re caught on. Below is my nephew Julius with a 14lb common carp caught on his first cast on his first carp fishing trip. How happy does he look ? Julius used Dynamite Baits Red Fish Shelf Life Boilies  and a PVA bag of pellets on the hook to bag his first carp. The winning rig was a  Rigmarole CamH2O Fluorocarbon Readymade Rigs . Julius used the new Nash rod and Shimano Baitrunner ST 6000 RA  that he got from Carp Catchers.Well done Jules!!

Best Fishes,

John

After a period of time away from one of my syndicates a recent trip back saw me land 8 fish to 24lb including this scaly scraper 20lb mirror that I’ve now caught 3 times, but who cares when they look like this! All fish came to Atomic Jel-E-Wyre hooklinks with size 6 Korda Wide Gape Hook  tied blowback style. The lead set-up consisted of Armaled Loc-jaw leadclips, ESP Original Camo Leadcore and Korda 3oz pear leads.

Tight Lines,

Dave

Customer Martin Deathridge scored on his first night at his new syndicate. Martins mirror weighed 24lb 4oz and the successfull bait was Sticky Baits Bloodworm Boilies with the same company’s Bloodworm Dumbells as a hookbait. A Combi-Rig tied blowback style with Korda IQ and Korda Supernatural  to a size 8 ESP Curve Shanx Hook helped to trip up the wary mirror.

Best Fishes,

John

To follow on from the recent blogs on prebaiting here are a few pictures to prove that prebaiting brings rewards. These fish were all caught from the same area of the lake after a long period of continuous prebaiting during late winter early spring.

Its really is worth putting in that extra effort.

Tight Lines

Dave

The methods you choose to bait up with will depend on the distances you are baiting and the bait you have choosen to use.

Boilies

If you have choosen to target your water with boilies then prebaiting can be done using a variety of methods. Most peoples choice would be to use a catapult at short to medium range (Anything upto 50 yards) or a throwing stick like the Korda Eazi Stick  for longer range baiting. Both these methods will allow you to bait up with boilies both quickly and accurately without too much disturbance. If you have choosen to bait a spot out of throwing stick range then I would suggest using a good spod setup and a boilie spod such as the MCF Extreme Range Rocket Spod. Spodding out your bait will create a little more disturbance but it will enable you to reach further distances and get the bait out to where you want it. Spodding your boilies can also be a good way to avoid the seagulls diving down and grabbing baits as your baiting up. The method I would recommend for short range baiting with boilies would be a bait spoon, this can be used with a landing net handle or baiting pole depending on the situation you are in. 

Particles and Pellets

Baiting with Particles and/or Pellets can be a little trickier than boilies. If you are fishing the margins or at short range then I suggest you use either a catapult or a baiting spoon and pole such as the AI Baiting Spoon, Pole Float and Baiting Pole (8 or 12 metre available) as they are far less hassle than spodding. If you have choosen to bait an area out of catapult range then a spod is probably your only option. If so I would suggest making sure that you know your sight markers very well and you have your line on your spod rod marked up so you are able to bait accurately at the right distance.

Groundbait

Although I haven’t mentioned this method of baiting in any of the previous blogs I would just like to touch on quickly the methods used to bait up with groundbait. A lot of people are able to ball up their groundbait and throw or catapult it to their spots. For those of you who wish to try groundbait on your water but wish to bait up out of catapult range I would suggest using a groundbait sling such as the Atomic Ballz Out Goundbait Sling. These are very good bits of kit, once you have mastered the technique it is possible to bait up with groundbait balls well beyond the range ever thought achievable.

Depending on how busy your choosen water is and whether you mind people knowing what you’re up to then it makes sense to choose the time of day you bait up carefully. If you wish to try and keep your activities undercover from other anglers then I would suggest baiting up well after dark to avoid being seen. This also has its advantages in other ways. It cuts down on the birdlife activity while you are baiting up and over the area in general. It also means there is bait in the water for a good few hours before the birdlife moves in and finds the bait giving the carp more of a chance to get a look in. 

Tight Lines

Dave

We now have the Sticky Baits Bloodworm Range in stock now and it has been doing really well for some of our customers. The Sticky Baits Bloodworm Boilies  contain both low temperature and soluble fishmeals, plenty of fresh bloodworm, blood plasma as well as a specially imported. To raise the attractor profile Robin Red and Paprika are also included at the optimal level. We have the bloodworm boilies in both Freezer and shelf life. To compliment the boilies we have the Sticky Baits Bloodworm Pop Ups and Sticky Baits Bloodworm Dumbells. For those of you that use sticks the Bloodworm Bag & Stick Mix contains much higher levels of the soluble ingredients than can be used in the boilies themselves resulting in really high levels of attraction around your hookbait. To increase that attraction even further soak your hookbaits in the Bloodworm Bait Glug which contains a potent fish protein extract, Paprika oleoresin and not forgetting hydrolised bloodworm. The Bloodworm Bait Glug is really thick and Sticky!  If you are using the dumbells or boilie bottom baits, the Bloodworm Paste, which also contains higher levels of the soluble ingredients than the boilies, will boost your hookbaits attraction even further. It could also be a great stalking hookbait in its own right. Finally we have the Sticky Baits Bloodworm Pellets which are one of the best selling specialist pellet of all time. The bloodworm content has been increased and the Hydrolysed Bloodworm Compound has now been added making this pellet even more potent. For more information or to purchase please click on any of the above links.

Best Fishes,

John

The quantity of bait you choose to prebait with should be determined by the stocking density of your water. If you are fishing a heavily stocked lake then prebaiting with a small amount of bait my not prove to be very productive.

Boilies

If you are fishing a well stocked lake then I would suggest around 2-3 kgs of boilies three times a week, larger boilies are generally better to prebait with as it avoids the attention of other species such as Bream and Tench. A single fish is capable of eating a very large amount of bait in one sitting, although this will vary throughout the year depending on water temperatures. Carp are cold blooded animals so their dietary requirements are much lower in cold water conditions. In the winter it is possible to reduce your prebait to around 1kg because of this, it will only take a few mouthfuls for a carp to fill itself up and move away from the area. On lakes that hold a smaller stock of carp I would maybe reduce the quantity of bait by a kilo or so unless you know that the fish will accept large quantities of bait without shying off them from past angling pressure. Try to use a good quality freezer boilie such as Mainline Cell , Nash Scopex Squid  or Richworth XLR8 .

Particles and Pellets

If you choose to bait with particles and pellets on a well stocked lake I would up the amount as particles are cheaper and they will recieve a lot more attention from nuisance species. Maybe 10-15 kg per week baited every other night. If you are using tiger nuts to bait up with then please be aware that they are not very digestable to carp and are best used in small quantities. The same goes with what I said above about water temperatures and food consumption so alter your quantities accordingly. It is also worth baring in mind that smaller fish are more able to eat the particles and pellets you are baiting with, so increasing the quantities where large numbers of nuisance species are present maybe required for the carp to get a look in. Otherwise the carp maybe seeing none of your bait and are unaware of the area you are trying to create.

The quantities mentioned above are all just guidelines, each lake, stock and situation is different so go with what you think is best but bare in mind the factors I have mentioned. See also Part One - Part Two

Tight Lines

Dave

Some more new products now. From Nash Baits we have the new Nash IC-1 Boilies  now in stock these have a curry/spicy flavour and are suitable for year round use. We have them in both freezer and shelf life and I’m sure they’ll be really popular. From Gardner Tackle we have the new Gardner Covert Chod Hook which is plated rather than Teflon coated. We all know the problems with Teflon coated hooks, rust around the eyes, loss of hook point sharpness and increased diameter, well the unique Covert plating overcomes these problems and also increases camouflaging. For more information or to purchase please click on the above links.

                                        Nash IC-1 Boilies

                                       Gardner Covert Chod Hook

Best Fishes,

John

After ten months on his new syndicate customer Rob O’Brien finally caught a carp and what a carp a new personal best!! Rob’s common was caught at first light and weighed 27lb 4oz. The successful rig was tied KD style with Atomic Jel-E-Wyre  to a size 8 Korda Kurv Shank  hook with 2.5oz square lead on a Korda Safe Zone Safety Lead Clip. It was cast to a clear spot in sunken dead weed at 80 yards range with a scattering of 30 boilies around it. Rob is family man with very little fishing time, so well done Rob on your new PB.

Best Fishes,

John