Carp Catchers Blog

Here’s a nice 35lb 2oz mirror carp I had recently. It led me a right dance as it got into a massive weed bed and even though the lead had dropped on the take I had to go out in the boat to free it. It was well hooked though and it was never going to come off. I used half a kilo of scattered 18mm Mainline Activ-8  boilies as bait and the hookbait was a snowman with a 10mm Mainline Hi Visual  Milky Toffee pop up. The rig was tied D rig style with a size 6 Gardner Longshank Incizor  hook  and a 30lb GLT No Can See Fluorocarbon Hooklink .

Best Fishes,

John

Another single hookbait which could be utilised well in the winter is artificial baits, preferably the flavoured or high-viz variety as they need some attraction to them. The Enterprise Artificial Boilies 10mm , the Niteglow Eternal Boilies and the Solar Everlasting Hookbaits are all top artificial baits that will work well as single hookbaits. Don’t discount artificial sweetcorn as a single winter bait either the ever popular Enterprise range or the new Cotswold Bait Creations Soft Floating Corn. Imitation baits are resistant to nuisance fish, won’t lose bouyancy, go soft or lose attraction.

Give them a go.

Dave

In the previous Carp Catchers Blog we talked about dips and glugs but we didn’t make clear what the difference between them is. This Blog will correct that.

Boilie Dips

Boilie dips are normally quite viscose and clear. They have a powerful flavour dissolved in a neutral carrier. Your hookbaits can be left to soak in them indefinitely and this will have an added effect/benefit of hardening them. Boilie Dips can be used with bottom baits, but they are ideally suited to pop ups. A couple of good examples are the  Richworth Impact Boilie Dips and Mainline Hookbait Enhancement System.

Glugs

Glugs are normally quite thick and based on a liquid food source. Very often they will have the same liquid attractors and nutrients as the boilies they represent. Hookbaits can be left in them indefinitely and though both bottom and pop ups can be glugged longer soaking is more suited to bottom baits. The reason for this that glugs or food dips as they are sometimes known are quite heavy and soak right into the hookbaits and this can affect the buoyancy of pop ups. Glugging into a food dip before casting is the more usual way to get an extra boost is the more usual way to use glugs with pop ups. A couple of good examples would be Nash Baits Top Rod Food Dips and Fresh Fish Mussel And Oyster Liquid .

Best Fishes,

John

Little David has sent in a catch report.

“ 

I have just returned from quite a hectic session at Welham lake where I’ve got my first season ticket on the lake and decided to test it out as I had high expectations for it this winter having already lost possibly the biggest in the lake!.

I arrived later than I hoped on a Friday night due to homework (typical! My French teacher’s always had it in for me!)and when I arrived with this glum weather I had to set up my rods In a mad dash due to this I didn’t have much of a choice of swims so I decided to share a swim with my friend. After baiting the rods and putting out some bait I decided to speak to a few of the guys next door to me and they had told me that the biggest fish out the whole week had only been 12lb (Quite bizarre for that lake!)

Later on that evening after having some grub I stayed up late having a social with some of the guys, when I finally retired to the bag it wasn’t long before my left hand rod placed underneath an overhanging tree to the far bank that looked very ‘carpy’ ,had rattled off and a few minutes later after a very scrappy fight a new pb lay in my net, it took me a while to get my friend out of bed! But once he decided to shift we got the fish back safely all 16lb 5oz of it so I was pleased to say the least with the result. The rig I used was tied with Korda Hybrid Soft Coated Braid   to a size 10  Korda Longshank X Hook  . Baits were 15mm The Source  boilies plus some home made boilies. I hope to get a few nights down there this ever drawing closer winter in search of a biggun! ”

Little David! ”

Well done David, good luck with your quest.

Best fishes,

John

A method that works well over a bed of scattered boilies is mesh PVA bags of boilies. Using something like  Korda Boilie Funnel Web , a tight mesh bag can be created that practically explodes in the water spreading your hookbait and freebies a few inches apart making the trap less obvious to wary carp. The method is to tie a mesh bag with three boilies in a triangular shape as tightly as possible to create the tension in the PVA, which is needed to throw the baits apart upon melting.  When in the water PVA tightens and pulls the boilies even tighter together before the bags burst and catapulting the baits in seperate directions. The triangles are better than the normal linear mesh bag over choddy bottoms as the hook sits in the middle keeping it clear of any chod. However they obviously will not cast as well.

To tie these PVA bags you need some Korda Boilie Funnel Web PVA, scissors and some boilies, these are air dryed Mainline Activ-8 .

Step 1.

Place three boilies in the boilie funnel web tube and allow them to drop out of the bottom into the PVA mesh. If you are using baits over 16mm then I’d suggest using the largerKorda funnel web size as you won’t be able to create the right shape with the larger baits in the boilie funnel web, for baits 16mm and under the boilie funnel web is best.

Step 2.

Now push the baits into a triangular shape and tighten the PVA holding the baits as close together as possible to create a bait triangle.

Step 3.

Holding the boilies in position tie off the bag, again trying to hold the baits as tight as possible. The tighter the bag the better presentation you will achieve.

Once you have trimmed the tag ends of the knots tied in the bag you should have a mesh bag that looks like this. (See Picture Below).

The mesh bag can be hooked on or alternatively you can thread the hooklink through the middle of the baits and pull you hook through to sit between the three baits, this can actually help the slow the rig down as it travels through the water so might be worth a go fishing over softer lakebeds and as I said earlier keep the hook clear of any chod.

Here is a couple of pictures demonstrating the presentation this bag will give your freebies.

The bag still intact.

15-20 seconds after contact with the water.

Give it a go

Tight lines

Dave

After deciding to change waters for the coming winter and due to busy banks I’ve had a little bit of a confidence boost. On my first weekend session from late friday evening to early monday morning I had a bit of a result in the shape of 6 mirror and common carp to 21lb15oz. After turning up in the dark at 8.30 friday evening I opted for the north bank as I had been told it was free of any other anglers. After watching the water for nearly 2 hours I decided to fish up the dam end in the the deeper water or what was left of it anyway as this is where I’d seen the carp showing the most . The reservoir serves the purpose of topping up the Grand Union canal so the water levels can get quite low at times.

During my session I banked 6 carp to 21lb 15oz from 3 different spots using  Baitcraft T1  boilies over a spread of bait which included a spod mix of hemp, Solar Pure Bait BYT and crushed T1s over one of my rods. Most of the bites came during the hours of darkness which meant I had to have all my spots marked up to get them back on the spots in the darkness.

The rigs I used consisted of 15lb Korda IQ2 tied to 2 inches of stripped Sufix Stiff Silt with a size 6 Korda Wide Gape Hook, a small piece of shrink tubing over the eye and tied blowback style.

Tight Lines

Dave

(I should have turned my head torch off for the night time shots, but had forgotten while sorting the self takes. Luckily they didn’t turn out too bad.)

For you carp anglers who fish through the winter we have the new Baitcraft Snowball  and Super Tutti Freezer Boilies in stock. These baits are dedicated winter baits, that will work year round. We also have the Attractor Pellets  and Pop Ups  to match. For more information click on the above links to go to the main site. There will be a lot of new product information in coming Carp Catchers Blogs as we have loads of new stuff.

Best fishes,

John

Here’s a couple of nice mirror carp I had on a recent session. They weighed 19lb and 23lb 2oz respectively and were tempted from holes in the weed by Mainline Activ-8 boilies. I used a D Rig tied with 30lb GLT No Can See Fluorocarbon  and a size 6 Gardner Longshank Incizor  hook. I was able to land both fish from the bank in what is an extremely weedy swim by dropping the lead on the take using PVA’d Ace Lead Clips .

Best fishes,

John

Martin Deathridge has been at it again catching this nice 34lb 5oz common carp from the Bluebell lakes complex. Martin used 18mm  Mainline Cell Freezer Boilies at 120yrds range to tempt his fine catch. The rig Martin used was tied KD style with Korda Hybrid Soft  to a size 6 ESP Curve Shanx . The hookbait was a snowman with a Mainline Cell bottom bait and a 10mm pineapple Mainline Hi Visual pop up. Well done, keep them coming. If  you want to know how to tie the KD Rig see previous blog.

Best fishes,

John

Autumn has to be one of the best seasons on the calendar for carp fishing, as well as spring but we’re not there yet. During the autumn period big carp all over the country start to fed quite hard in a bid to up there weights for the winter ahead. It is not uncommon that all the larger residents of a lake will get caught during this period. This could be due to the fish being in competition for food or just generally being greedy about how they are feeding before the onset of winter. Either way they more often than not make mistakes this time of year.

If you’re planning to fish through this autumn into the coming winter then pick yourself a good quality bait such as the  Mainline Cell  or Activ 8 freezer boilies, the  Nash Amber Strawberry  or  Baitcraft T1 are all proven winter baits. Big carp know what’s good for them and what’s not, that’s how they got so big in the first place so picking a good quality bait is very important. This time of year it’s also important to find those areas which the carp are prepared to feed and get some bait on them, if you have the opportunity to prebait these spots in readiness for forthcoming sessions then it can pay to do so. Although prebaiting can be a frustrating game if the lake your fishing is targeted by a lot of anglers it can pay off in a big way if everything all comes together. Prebaiting can get the fish feeding confidently on your chosen bait in your chosen areas while there are no rigs in the water. If possible try to prebait on or just after darkness, this will avoid any unwanted attention from the birdlife residing on your water.

If you can it helps to find out as much as possible about captures during the autumn from previous years and the kind of spots they are getting caught from. If you can’t do this then I’d suggest targeting the deeper silty areas as this is where the majority of the carp’s natural food can be found in abundance. Carp are a creature of habit so it can become very difficult to get them to feed in areas they wouldn’t usually visit, so the areas you target must be visited by the carp on a regular basis or you could very well be making the challenge even harder for yourself.

Observation is the key to finding the feeding areas that carp are visiting, first and last light are the best time to watch for feeding carp. Whether that be bubbling, crashing or clouding of certain areas of the lake. If these areas are located you are half way to banking carp in their autumn colours.

If you bare in mind the factors I’ve discussed when planning your autumn campaign then you could well be in for a good one.

Tight Lines

Dave