Carp Catchers Blog

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  

Im a big fan of spreading boilies over a larger area to encourage carp to keep moving, especially as the temperature is beginning to drop. Its helps your rigs work more effectively as the carp aren’t stopping to feed, they are picking up the boilies on the move. It also leaves less chance of the fish sussing your baited area. Tightly baited spots do produce fish and I will also use them in given situations but I believe that a spread of bait is far less obvious as the carp only come across the odd boilie over your area. It can also help produce takes faster as the carp are more likely to pick up your bait if they come across it.

This is a nice clean mirror carp caught over a spread of 20mm Baitcraft T1 Freezer Boilies on a recent overnighter where I put all three rods in the same area and spread 150 baits over the three of them. The rig I used a blowback combi rig tied with 15lb  Korda IQ Fluorocarbon   and 2” of stripped Sufix Stiff Silt  to a size 6 Korda Wide Gape Hook .

Give it a go.

Tight lines

Dave

Martin Deathridge had a nice clean mirror carp from Bluebell Lakes Swan lake last week. Weighing 29lb 12oz Martins mirror was tempted from the edge of a weed bed at 70yrds range. Martin was using 18mm  Mainline Cell Freezer Boilies  scattered over a wide area. His hookbait was a snowman with a Cell bottom bait balanced out with a 10mm  Mainline Hi Visual Pineapple Pop Up. The rig Martin used was tied with  Nash Missing Link  in 25lb tied to a size 5  ESP Curve Shanx  hook. Nice one.

Best Fishes

John

I’m not a fan of ornamental carp normally but look at this stunning koi-king carp cross. Caught by regular customer Sean on a recent trip to France it weighed in at 36lb 4oz. Sean was using Baitcrafts T1 Freezer Boilies and he and his companions amassed quite a haul. More on Sean’s trip soon.

Best Fishes,

John

James Kirk had a great result recently bagging himself two gorgeous linear mirror carp. They weighed in at 26lb 12oz and 21lb and as you can see from the photos’ below they are absolute stunners. James was fishing to a hole in the weed in 8ft of water at 30yrds range. The successful bait was Dynamite Baits Chocolate Malt & Tiger Nut Freezer Boilies  scattered over a wide area and the hookbaits were double 20mm bottom baits straight out of the bag. James end tackle consisted of 3ft of Ace Hard On Camo Leadcore   running on a 1oz Guru Square Leads . A size 6 Gardner Longshank Incizor  hook featured in James’ rig. The venue was Wellingborough Lakes.

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

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

Quite a few people have been asking for the new bait from Nash. Well the new Nash Mach 1 Boilies  are now on the shelves. They are a nice dark reddy colour and are based on the scopex squid base mix. The Mach 1 was developed to John MacAllister’s exacting requirements and his results are outstanding by anybodys standards. We also have the Nash Mach 1 Pop Ups  and the matching  Food Dip . However we are still waiting for the freezer bait to come in. For more information or to purchase visit the main site via the above links.

Best fishes,

John

James Kirk had a nice result recently. Fishing a new water James had four carp the best being the 29lb 12oz common carp shown below. The bait James used was 18mm Mainline Fusion  boilies scattered over a wide area. James rigs were tied with 25lb Sufix Black Silt  stripped back 4”, size 6 Gardner Mugga Carp Hooks, 3oz MCF distance lead attached to a Korda Safe Zone Safety Lead Clip, Korda Tail Rubber and Korda Sinking Rig Tube.

Again note that James has thought about the background for his catch photo, making a memorable catch even more memorable. Well done James, hope to see more in the near future.

Best Fishes,

John