Carp Catchers Blog

I went down to Farlows lake recently for a short session. The lake was fairly busy, but there were a few swims available. After a good look round I settled on one of the open water swims on the smelly bank. The conditions were fairly mild and sunny with the wind blowing over my shoulder as I cast my first rod. I felt the rod down onto a clear area and placed the rod on my pod to allow the line to sink. My second rod was cast about 10yrds to the left of my first rod and placed on the pod also to let the line sink. As I set the indicator on my first rod I noticed the line was going to my left “that’s strange” then the penny dropped,  fish on!! After a fairly decent fight I slipped the net under a nice gnarly old mirror carp of 18lb 4oz.

Result!! It’s great to get a fish right at the start of your session. A 16lber folowed a couple of hours later and that put up a hell of a fight plodding up and down the margins like the monsters do, I just could not get its head up. Both carp were caught on my new sweetcorn rig and the hookbaits were Enterprise Pop-Up Sweetcorn . The hooklink was 25lb Rigmarole  Hydro-Link Silt  tied to size 8 Gardner Longshank Incizor Carp Hooks .

Customer Ian Smith has been catching again. This lovely chunky common carp weighing 30lb 2oz was caught by Ian from the Bluebell Lakes complex recently. Ians’ rig consisted of a 10” ESP Striptease  hooklink tied to a size 8 Korda Wide Gape X  hook. Fishing over a bed of  Nash Scopex Squid Liver Plus Robin Red boilies Ian popped a Nash Scopex Squid Liver Plus Robin Red  pop up hookbait an inch off the bottom. Nice one Ian a real chunky one that.

Best fishes,

John

The New Quest Baits range is now in stock. This Carp Catchers Blog will give a quick rundown of the products. Firstly we have the shelf life boilie range. The Rajah Spice  is proving very popular, based on a birdfood base with added robin red this is an all season bait with a lovely Indian curry smell. For those of you that like a fruity bait the Fruity Trifle  have a mixed fruit with cream smell and is also on a birdfood base. The Fruity Trifle feature a washed out red colour which may help to trip up those wary carp. The Surf ‘N’ Turf  has got loads of really sexy ingredients like Krill, low temperature fishmeals, anchovy extract, liver, caviar, meat products, and black pepper oil, but no added bulk oils so it can be used year round. Finally we have the  Liver B8 Boilies  which are a naturally dark brown colour and have a meat, liver, and blood base with no added bulk oils, making them an all season bait. The Liver B8 has no fishmeal in it, so if your water has been hammered on fishmeals this may be a good alternative. We also have the Quest Baits  pop ups in stock, The Fruity Trifle smell particularly nice and would be good for single hookbait fishing. To compliment the boilies we also have the Boilie Dip to match the above, which is highly concentrated so should be used as a hookbait booster and not a glug. To give your hookbaits a longer lasting boost, try the Quest Baits  pastes a really good edge in winter. For more Information or to purchase click on the above links.

Best fishes,

John

For those of you that fish the rivers or lakes that still observe the old close season, a reminder to make sure you get a rod license. Remember the penaltys’ for not having one are very severe. Licenses can be obtained at the post office,online or by telephone from the environment agency.The new season starts on June 16th so good luck all and tight lines.

Best fishes,

John

Yes this is a carp and one of 30lb exactly. Carp catcher and regular customer Eamonn used his favourite Mainline Cell Freezer Boilies  for a four fish catch including the 30lb mirror shown. All four fish were over 20lb and were caught over a bed of bait. Eamonns’ rig featured a size 4 Korda Wide Gape Hook  tied to a 24lb Drennan Carp Silk  hooklink which was cast to a silty area. Well done fella keep catching.

Best fishes,

John

Yes I know it’s not a carp but we feature all species on the Carp Catchers Blog. Regular contributor and customer went on a sea trip to catch some tope and boy did he. These two 30lb beauty’s were caught on dabs, caught earlier in the day. Rob reports that the sea was so rough he had to hold onto the gunnels with one hand as he was playing the fish. The skipper said that had the wind been one notch higher they would not have been able to go out. Rob has got his hands on a new syndicate ticket and is going on a French carp fishing trip soon so carpy reports and photos may be on their way in the near future.

Toothy critters aren’t they!!

Best fishes,

John

If  you would like to feature on the Carp Catchers Blog simply email your catch photo and a mini catch report to carp@carpcatchers.biz . The fish do not have to be monsters to qualify any size fish if you’ve caught it is worthy. The blog can feature anything of interest be it a theory on fish behaviour or a new rig email it to me. Do not worry about spelling or grammer as I will sort that. Come on guys let’s get talking and hopefully catching more.

Best fishes,

John

Best

We are now stocking a selection of the new Ace Terminal Tackle range. I wasn’t too keen to begin with but Max Cottis came in and demonstrated the range to me and I was suitably impressed. The  Ace Hard On Camo Leadcore   is very heavy and the diameter is a lot thicker than most so the abrasion resistance should be really good. It comes on a 25m bulk spool with two decent splicing needles and is available in camo weed, gravel and silt. The chod rig has become extremely popular of late and if you dont fancy splicing your own have a look at the Ace Hard On Camo Leadcore Helicopter/Chod Rigs  . There are three leadcore helicopter/chod rigs to a pack and you get a choice of size 8 Cyclops and Quick Change Cyclops Helicopter Swivels and are also available in camo weed, gravel or silt. For those of you that like to balance your tiger nut hookbaits the Ace Tiger Nut Drill  has a specially shaped tip to help prevent splitting. The tiger nut drill comes supplied with 5 cork sticks and replacement cork sticks are also available. The Ace D-Spool Line Stripper is a handy gadget for quickly stripping line of your spools and is designed to be used with a cordless drill. Finaly, most coated hooklinks have a camo outer but a different colour on the inner braid. Aces’ Camo Core  has a camo outer coating and the inner braid has exactly the same camo pattern. Camo Core is a soft coated braid which is available in camo weed, gravel and silt. This is just a selection of the new products from Ace for more information or to purchase follow the above links to the main site.

Best fishes,

John

Now the weather has started to warm up the fish are moving up in the water and are often seen cruising in the surface layers, a lot of anglers choose not to go after them with floater gear as they have limited fishing time and wish to relax behind static rods, while others find it too frustrating. There is an alternative to surface fishing, the zig rig, that could well help you bank one of those cruising carp.

The zig rig is a statically fished suspended bait on an extra long hooklink. The most popular hooklink material for zigging and floater fishing is Drennan Double Strength .  

The use of zig rigs is a very productive tactic on days were the fish are up in the water but is a tactic that is normally overlooked due to the difficulty of setting them up and getting them out into the lake due to tangling. Tangling can be reduced by the use of soluble rig foam or better still a small mesh bag filled with floaters nicked onto the hook. Kordas’ Boilie Funnel Web PVA System  is particularly good for making small mesh bags and melts quickly with no residue.

Setting up a zig rig is easier than many anglers think, a simple lead clip will be more than enough in terms of a lead set up.  Firstly you need to find out the depth of the area you wish to fish. To decide these areas observe the carps patrol routes as they cruise just below the surface.

Once an area and its’ depth has been selected, the next step is to decide the depth under that water you wish to present your bait. As I said earlier this can be determined from observing the fish you’re targeting  and estimating how far below the surface they are. Now you have decided on the depth you wish to fish you need to tie your hooklink to the correct length. For example, if you have choosen to fish an area that is 8ft deep and the fish are cruising about a foot under the surface then you need to tie up a 7ft hooklink. Once you’ve tied up your hooklink you’re ready to go.

A few tips that might help with using zig rigs.

Lay the hooklink down on the ground or coil it round in the bottom of a bucket to cast the rigs out.

Coiling the hooklink up and tying it in a coil with pva tape can make casting easier. 

Try as many different colours baitwise as possible to determine the best colour to use, black foam works well as it stands out against a light sky. Gardner Tackle do a good range of  Zig Rig Foam  including black.

If the fish are up in the water try and observe what they are eating if anything, especially this time of year as there are a lot of fly hatches which will get the fish feeding on food items up in the water. Remember if there is a fly hatch happening and the fish are feeding use a small piece of dark foam, flies aren’t bright yellow!

I believe that colour is the key with zigs and not the flavour, you are trying to imitate natural food items or induce a take from a curious carp, you are not normally trying to get the carp feeding on free offerings. Although feeding free offerings can be a good tactic on heavily stocked waters. Spod a sloppy mix that doesn’t contain many free offerings over the top to bring carp into the swim and get them feeding up in the water where the zigs rigs have been placed. 

Hook choice can be a crucial factor. You need a strong, small, sharp hook that will sit at the optimum angle two patterns to try are the ESP Stiff Rigger , especially for pop ups or the ESP Big T Carp Hook  for foam. A size 10 or 8 should be sufficient.

Lead size is also crucial, use the lightest lead you can to achieve the distance you need. The reason for the light leads is so that you do not bump the fish off while playing it on a long hooklink

Give zig rigs a little thought and adapt them for your water, you could be pleasantly surprised with the results.

Tight Lines

Dave

Customer Merv Pennel fished a weeks session on a lake in Northern France and had a fantastic 23 fish catch. Included in Mervs haul was the gorgeus brace of 50lb mirrors shown below. Merv tempted his haul over a big bed of particles, Mainline Baits Response Pellets  and boilies from the Essential Baits stable. Strangely Merv had no commons until the final 12 hours when he had 6 on the trot. The rigs Merv used consisted of Korda square inline leads, a Kryston Super Mantis Dark   hooklink tied to either a size 8 Korda Wide Gape or a size 6 Korda Longshank X Hook. Well done Merv good angling.

51lb Mirror Carp

52lb 2oz Mirror Carp

Best fishes,

John