Carp Catchers Blog

I made another trip down to Richworth Linear Fisheries recently and had another good result. I landed 12 fish during my session the biggest being a 30lb 4oz Mirror. All the fish fell to either critically balanced tiger nut or boilie hookbaits with Avid Carp Sight Stops fished at 85 yards to the island over a spodded area of hemp, corn, chops, maggots, pellets and crushed tigers. Baits were presented in Extra Small Korda Solidz PVA Bags using 2.5oz Avid Carp Inline Groove Leads and short hooklinks.

Tight Lines

Dave

The Solar Quick Change PVA Bag System is ideal for anglers who use PVA bags for the majority of their angling. The system will ensure you don’t lose the bag on the cast while improving casting distance and accuracy. The system is designed to be anti tangle and works with any inline lead.

For the purpose of this demonstration I used a Korda Flat Pear Inline Lead, Solar Contour Super Supple Rig Tubing and Korda Size 8 Ring Swivels  was used between the helicopter beads for the rig to be attached to.

Step 1.

Thread your mainline through your desired length of the Solar rig tubing.

Step 2.

Now thread 1 of the beads provided with the Solar PVA System onto the rig tubing followed by the Korda Ring Swivel followed by another bead. If you’re using mainline straight through there is silicone tubing provided for the beads to the grip. If you’re using leadcore then please ensure all beads can be pulled free of the leader to ensure the lead will be lost in the event of your line breaking. Tie or loop your hooklink to the ring swivel.

Step 3.

Now thread on one of the sleeves provided and push the tubing securely inside.

Step 4.

Then gently push the insert out of your choosen inline……

…..and thread it onto your mainline.

Step 5.

Tie a Figure Of Eight Loop Knot  in the end of your mainline and attach the Solar quick change PVA bag clip like so.

Step 6.

Now pull the lead over the clip followed by the sleeve and rig tubing. The finished setup should look like this.

All you have to do to attach a PVA bag is to pull the clip out of the bottom of the lead and hook a PVA bag on before pulling the clip back inside the lead. Then just thread the hook through the mesh of the bag and your ready to cast out.

This set up is particularly well suited to adding freebies with the Mag Aligner Rig and really comes into it’s own during the winter months.

Give it a go.

Tight lines

Dave

The Atomic Tackle Maggot Rig uses the inline lead setup fished helicopter style allowing a large PVA stocking of maggots to be tied to the swivel at the base of the lead. This enables the hook to be secured to the PVA stocking so once cast out the PVA bag will melt leaving your maggot hookbait lying in amongst the other maggots.

For the purpose of the demonstration I used a Gardner Readymade Mag Aligner Rig.

Step 1.

Pull out the large ring swivel from the base of the lead.

Step 2.

Now thread your mainline through the lead. ( If using leadcore or a leader, you will need to splice or loop the swivel on)

Step 3.

Tie your mainline to the swivel, I would suggest a palomar knot. To tie a palomar knot double over your mainline and pass it through the eye of your swivel.

Then tie an overhand knot with the doubled over mainline.

Now pass the swivel through the loop made by the overhand knot.

Then moisten the knot, slowly tighten it down and trim the tag end.

Step 4.

Once the knot is tied pull the swivel into the insert in the base of the lead.

Step 5.

Now you need to either tie your rig to the swivel above the lead. If the rig has a loop in the end pass the loop through the swivel before passing the hookend of the rig through the loop and tightening as I’ve done in this demonstration.

The finished rig should look like this.

The large ring at the base of the lead is for the PVA mesh bag to be tied to, then all you need to do is push the hook through the PVA mesh to secure it for casting.

Give it a go.

Dave

Its getting to that time of year again when maggots are becoming more widely used due to them being such an effective winter bait. Have a go at tying this rig and see how you get on.

The components used in this demonstration were the Korda IQ2 Xtra Soft Fluorocarbon , Korda Wide Gape  hook size 8 and  Korda Micro Rig Swivel.

Step 1.

After cutting your required length of fluorocarbon tie on a Korda Wide Gape using a knotless knot making sure to whip round the shank twice on the way back down to the eye. 

Step 2.

Now thread a micro rig swivel onto the tag end above the hook.

Step 3.

Then pass the tag end through the back of the eye to the front and trim the tag end down to about 3-4mm. This will have created a D shape on the back of the shank for the swivel to move on.

Step 4.

Holding the hooklength out of the way slowly blob the tag end with a lighter to secure it in place. Make sure not to burn the hooklink as this will damage the fluorocarbon and increase the chance of it breaking. Also take care not to burn yourself.

Step 5.

To finish the rig tie a figure of eight knot in the other end setting the desired length of rig you require and trim the tag end.

The finished rig should look like this.

This rig works best with a large bunch of maggots and a couple of imitation pop-up maggots to help counter the weight of the hook. This rig isn’t strictly a maggot rig and can be used with other baits as well. 

The knots used in this demonstration can be found in previous blogs by using the search bar on the top right hand side of the page.

Give it a go.

Tight Lines

Dave

We now have two new products from ESP and Drennan in stock. The NEW ESP Two Tone Striptease Hooklink  material is marginally thinner in diameter and more rigid than the original stripteaze. It is a tightly woven Dyneema core with a translucent polymer coating and has a specific gravity of 1.25 meaning it will lay flat on the lake bed without the need for additional weight. It comes on 20m spools of 15lb, 20lb and 25lb although ESP claim it obtained average higher breaking weights than stated with a carefully tied 5 turn Grinner knot.

The second product to arrive in the shop recently are the NEW  Drennan Buoyant Maggots . These are available in a mixture of shapes and sizes in Natural, Fluorescent or Bloodworm red colours. The range of size means they can have a diverse range of uses from popped up baits to critically balanced bottom baits. They can also be fishing in conjunction with other artificial or real baits as a bait cocktail. The maggots are pineapple flavour and have been dusted with food grade starch powder, although this flavour can be over-ridden with more concentrated flavours. These are a perfect little addition to your winter tactics. For more information or to purchase follow the above links.

Tight Lines

Dave

Ok here’s one for you concerning carp vision. There’s been a lot written in the magazines recently about red mainline like TFG Red Mist  and the fact that red is the first colour in the colour spectrum to disappear under water. Now apparently this only happens at depths of 8 metres plus, but anglers are still using it even at shallower depths in an attempt to fool wary carp. My dilemma is this, one of the carps favourite natural foods is bloodworm which are blood red. So do the carp see the bloodworm? or do they smell them out? If the colour red disappears at depth then surely the bloodworm will be invisible! Another anomaly is the use of red maggots, most of the carp anglers that come into the shop for maggots order reds. The reasoning for this is that they believe red maggots immitate bloodworm, a lot of the magazines also subscribe to this notion. My own experience is that reds outfish white maggots. So what can carp see?