Carp Catchers Blog

Shop regular John Jones banked a 3o plus common on a new water recently. The fished weighed in at 35lb 2oz and was a fish caught a month earlier by Ian Smith at a similar weight. John tempted the fish back to the bank with a mixed bed of sticky baits boilies and a snowman hookbait. The set up John used was a Korda 4oz lead on a  Korda Safe Zone Safety Lead Clip  and Johns’ rig was tied with Kryston Super Mantis Green Hooklink and a size 6 Nash Fang X Hook. Well done again mate. Nice photo too.

Tight Lines

Dave

Carp are very wary creatures when put under angling pressure and they soon wise up and learn the tricks to avoid capture. One of which involves identifying anglers lines and avoiding the areas which they have identified as dangerous. There are a variety of methods anglers have at their disposal to try and eliminate these issues. These include back leads both flying and clip-on, tungsten putty to pin leaders and hooklinks down and now Korda have released their Sinkers. The Sinkers contain tungsten and are designed to pin down hooklinks.

Backleads have been around for years and have been used to good effect by many anglers in deceiving wary carp. The principle of a backlead is that they are attached to your line to pin it down to the bottom.

Clip-on back leads have been used for years and were first used with stones and paper clips. Nowadays there are many available on the market such as  Korda Intelligent Backleads (See picture below). The idea behind clip-on back leads is that once you’ve cast out you slacken off your line and clip on a small weight. Once clipped on you slide the backlead down your line into the margin. This pins it down out of the way of any passing fish, thus concealing the line from their ever wary nature. These also work well in preventing tangles when playing fish under the rod tip as they hold your other lines out of the way. The disadvantage of backleads is they can create unnatural line angles. These unatural line angles reduce indication of bites and can at times cause your line to sit awkwardly, especially in the presence of weed.

Flying back leads such as  Korda Safe Zone Flying Back Leads (See Picture Below) are attached to your line prior to casting out. They are shaped so that they fly back up your line towards the rod on the cast using air resistance. Flying back leads sit closer to your terminal tackle and pin your leader down more effectively than clip-ons. Unfortunately lying back leads also have a few disadvantages as they are affected by side winds, casting technique and also cause awkward line angles if used incorrectly.

Tungsten putty is reasonably new to the carp world but has been used to good effect since its appearance. It can be moulded on hooklinks and leaders to pin them to the lake bed. You can also rub tungsten putty up and down braided mainline or hooklinks further enhancing your presentation. Tungsten putty is incredibly heavy for the quantity you need and it works really well at pinning everything down to the bottom out of the way of wary carp. There are many brands on the market with a range of colours available including  Gardner Critical Mass Putty . (See Picture Below)

The newest product available to modern day carp anglers are the  Korda Sinkers which are tungsten hooklink weights. Korda Sinkers are easily threaded onto your hooklinks to keep them pinned to the lake bed. Sinkers are easy to attach, grip the line incredibly well and are fish friendly. (See Picture Below)

All these products will work to your advantage in the right situations. Give careful consideration to when and where to use them, as if used incorrectly they could hinder your chances of catching. Think about the make up of the lake bed, depth variations, weed growth and decide whether they will work to your advantage. Take these factors into account and you might find, one or a combination of a few of these products will help you put more fish on the bank. Give them a go and Pin It Down.

Tight Lines

Dave

As the river season opens this week I’d like to wish all of you river anglers out there good luck and tight swervy lines. If any of you have a decent catch or a nice specimen, email us a photo and a short report and I will feature you on the Carp Catchers Blog. Once again good luck to you all.

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

The best pike of the season by a Carp Catchers customer so far was reported to us recently by Tom Cox. Toms’ monster pike weighed 25lb 4oz and was caught on a legered roach from our deadbaits section. Tom has been tying his own traces using Drennan Barbed Carbon Trebles  , Drennan Slim Crimps and Drennan 7 Strand Pike Wire. Well done Tom that is one big, toothy pike.

Best fishes,

John

Oliver has been putting in a lot of time and effort into his pike fishing over the winter and it has paid off. Below is a nice clean pike of 11lb caught from the local canal, a decent size fish from a canal. Oliver caught his pike on a roach from our deadbait section. Nice one Oliver!

Best fishes,

John

That man Tom Cox is definately on a roll at the moment. Fishing a popped up lamprey from our deadbait section Tom helped himself to this lovely clean 17lb pike. Well done Tom, keep them coming!

Best fishes,

John

Here’s a nice December perch caught by customer Rob O’Brien. The perch weighed approximately 3lbs a fish that most anglers can only dream about. Rob couldn’t weigh the fish properly as the batteries for his scales had run out. Still it looks the size, well done Rob.

Best fishes,

John

Deadbait Traces

Being able to make your own pike traces can allow you to be a lot more versatile in your fishing as you can alter your trace length and the distance between the hooks to suit your fishing. Making your own pike traces will also save you more money in the long run and can be a lot more satisfying when you land fish on them. To make your own traces you will need a good pair of wire cutters and crimping pliers. (See picture below)

The rig components used in this demonstration were Drennan 7 strand pike wire, Drennan semi barbed trebles, Drennan slim crimps and ESP Hi Performance Carp Swivels. (See picture below) 

Step 1.

Cut a 13-14 inch length of pike wire off the spool and thread a crimp on to one end. (See picture below)

Step 2.

Now thread a treble hook on and double the pike wire over. (See picture below)

Step 3.

Now thread the other end of the pike wire through the crimp. (See picture below)

Step 4.

Then using the crimping pliers flatten the crimp in three central places making sure that no wire protrudes beyond the crimp as your mainline could catch on this during the cast. (See picture below)

Once crimped the hook should look like this. (See picture below)

Step 5.

Now cut a small 1-2 inch length of pike wire from the spool and bend it in the middle passing it through the eye of another treble hook. (See picture below)

Step 6.

Then thread another crimp down the pike wire to your desired distance away from the bottom treble and thread the two tag ends of wire holding the second treble through the crimp and crimp in three central positions again. Making sure that no wire protrudes like before so it doesn’t catch your mainline. The method of using another piece of wire to attach the second hook avoids kinking the main pike wire. (See picture below)

Step 7.

Now thread another crimp down the wire followed by a swivel, then thread the last tag end of wire back through the crimp and flatten in three central places to finish the trace. Again making sure that no wire protrudes beyond the crimp as your mainline will catch on it. (See picture below)

The finished trace will look like this. (See picture below)

You can make your traces to your own desired length to suit bait choice and fishing situation.

Tight lines

Dave

Customer David Cunnington has reported a new personal best weighing 15lb 14oz. Davids lovely common carp was caught at Mill Farm on a Nash Scopex Squid Liver  boilie topped with rubber sweetcorn. The rig David used was a blowback rig tied using a Korda Longshank X Hook . David also used a PVA bag filled with chopped boilies to tempt his new PB. Well done!

Best fishes

John