Carp Catchers Blog

Anglers in the Colne Valley are worried about the governments plans for a new high speed rail link between London and Birmingham. The powers that be seem intent on pushing the plans through despite the downturn in the economic climate and swingeing cuts in public spending. One of the proposed routes would cut through the historic Savay Lake with towering aquaduct type tracks. This is bad news for all carp anglers as the Colne Valley is home to a lot of carp waters that form part of the history of our sport. If you want to help stop this colossal waste of taxpayers money and save our historic carp waters please follow the link and sign the petition http://www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/stop-hs2.html

Best Fishes,

John

The autumn period has to be one of my favourite times of year for fishing. The leaves are falling off the trees, a lot of anglers start to stay at home due to colder conditions and the fish get on the munch before the impending winter, as this recent capture of mine proves during a session on one of my syndicates. Its a fish known as the “Dumpy Mirror” and weighed in at 34lb exactly. The fish fell to a corkball pop up fished on a Chod Rig consisting of an ESP Stiff Rigger Hook, Gardner Tripwire and 9 ft of ESP Original Camo Leadcore. 

Get out there and bag an autumn whacker!

Tight lines

Dave

Regular Carp Catchers Blog contributer Sean has had a new PB here’s his report. Hi John, just got back from a 24hr session on pit 6 and had my first mirror from there, and new U.K. PB to boot. Fish was 25lbs on the nose and fell to 2 pieces of Enterprise Pop-Up Sweetcorn tied Blow Back style to a size 10 Gardner Longshank Incizor  and 15lb jelly wire. Well done Sean, keep them coming.

Best Fishes,

John

Heres a nice common carp weighing in at 26lb 8oz. The fish fell to a snowman hookbait with a Solar Juicy Pineapple Fluoro pop-up topping the combination. I have had a lot of success this year using snowmans with bright fluoro pop-ups.  The rig was my usual Blowback Rig consisting of  Atomic Jel-E-Wyre  hooklink material and a Korda Wide Gape Hook in conjunction with a 3oz pear lead, ESP Bulk Spool Leadcore  in Original Camo and an Armaled Lead Clip.

Tight Lines

Dave

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

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

Now the weather is starting to warm up a bit and most of you will be looking to get out and start fishing your waters I’m sure some of you will have considered a baiting campaign of some sort. Whether your plan be to continuously bait areas or just to bait a swim prior to sessions there will be a few points that you have to consider.

Bait can sometimes determine the success you have when pre baiting. You want to provide the fish with a food source that can be recognised by them as one that fulfils their nutritional requirements providing them with what they need, when they need it. Now some anglers will choose to use solely boilies for prebaiting where as others will take the pellet/particle route. There is no right or wrong choice but the type of water your fishing needs to be taken into consideration. If you are fishing a water which mostly contain carp then particles and pellets can be a very effective method along with boilies. But if you are fishing a water which holds a large head of other species such as Bream, Tench and Roach etc. then you may find that using particles and pellets will not work very well unless used in larger quantities.

Boilies are an ideal food source for Carp as they are generally highly nutritional and in most cases contain a large quantity of proteins, fats, amino acids, vitamins and minerals. These are all highly sort after by carp in their diet. Choosing the right boilie can be a tricky task with the sheer number of bait companies and choices of flavours available to us as carp anglers. I would suggest choosing a bait that ticks all the boxes in terms of nutrition and digestion. It is no good having a bait that holds all the nutritional factors but isn’t completely digestable to the fish. If they can’t unlock the nutritional factors in the bait then it is no good for them. I would suggest using a freezer bait for a long term baiting campaign but that isn’t to say that good results can’t be had on shelf life baits. Confidence in your chosen bait is paramount. Using a bait you’re are confident in can sometimes be the difference between catching and not. If you not confident you won’t fish as effectively. Mixing up the size of boilies can also help contribute to the success of a baiting campaign as this can confuse the carp when it comes to taking your hookbait. Although the sizes you are able to use can depend on the range your baiting at as smaller boilies won’t reach the spots with a catapult or stick if you’re baiting at a distance. There are a range of good boilies available, Baitcraft T1, Mainline Cell, Dynamite Baits Banana Nut Crunch and Richworth Kg1 to name a few. I would suggest choosing your preferred bait and sticking to it, you won’t be as successful chopping and changing between baits if you plan to establish it as a good food source on your water.

Pellets and particles can be a very effective method of prebaiting. The quantity of smaller food items in the swim means that the bait remains on the lake bed for longer keeping to fish grubbing around and revisiting the area. Although smaller course fish on a water can prove to be a problem when baiting with pellets and particles, purely because they are able to eat the small food items. A lot of people like to use pellets and/or particles to prepare and clear spots of weed and debris as not only will the fish help clean the spot but diving birds will help as they try to pick up food items. A pellet, particle and boilie is a firm favourite.

In the following sections I will cover where to prebait, quantities to bait with and how to go about it. In the meantime there some older Carp Catchers Blogs on the same subject that may be of interest to you go to New Season Baiting Campaign  and Good Quality Baits .

Tight Lines

Dave

This is an alternative to the previous Carp Catchers Blog on how to tie The Shot On The Hair Rig. It is tied in exactly the same way except the hair is lengthened by 10mm and the shot is placed halfway along the hair rather than directly next to the bait.

Setting the rig like this means the bait sits up off the lake bed by about 10mm if using a pop up hookbait. It allows the hook to lay flat on the lake bed alway from the bait, making it less obvious to wary carp. This alternate Shot On The Hair Rig  provides good bait separation and ensures the rig is hook heavy, making it more likely to catch in the carps mouth.  Though more effective with pop up hookbaits, a bottom bait can be used and the rig will still be very effective as it is still hook heavy.

Tight Lines

Dave

This Carp Catchers Blog will show you how to prepare hemp. The fresher the hempseed the easier it is to prepare so try to make sure your supplier (if it’s not us) has a regular turnover.

The first step is to soak the hemp in water for 24-48 hrs. Make sure that there is plenty of water over the hemp as some of it will be absorbed by the seeds. Step 2 is to boil the hemp till the seeds split and a little white sprout appears, if you add a little salt to the water it helps to keep the seeds a nice shiny black. After cooking you can add any other flavourings or additives that you like, although it is more than adequate as it is. Once the water has cooled it ready to use or bag up as required. Make sure to keep the hemp in the water it was boiled in as this will contain all that lovely hemp oil. Also if the hemp dries out it will float!! Freezing is the best way to store your cooked hemp if you are not going to use it straight away. Here at Carp Catchers we do dry Mega Hempseed in 5kilo bags.For those that don’t want to prepare their own we also do our frozen ready prepared Mega Hempseed with maggots, casters plus added betaine. We also have Dynamite Baits Frenzied Hempseed  and for PVA bagging TFG PVA Friendly Red Hot Chilli Hemp .

Best fishes,

John

Hey it’s the 1st of march and the sun is shining and spring is in the air, hopefully we’ll all be able to go fishing soon.

Best fishes,

John