Carp Catchers Blog

PLEASE NOTE, We will be open bank holiday Monday 27th May. The Closing down sale continues. We still have some Shimano rods left, an assortment of bivvys, quite a few rods and some bits and pieces of luggage. We also still have plenty of terminal tackle. Pop in and pick up a bargain, 50% of everything except Korda, Mainline and Sticky.

The Bivvy’s we have left are as follows:

Trakker
A Lite was £139.99 now £70
Specimen Armo 1 Man was £199.99 now £100
60″ Oval Brolly was £149.99 now £75
Armodome was £479.99 now £240
Crossfire was £449.9.99 now£225
SL Dome was £399.99 now £200
JRC
STI Single Skin 2 Man was £200 now £100
STI Twin Skin 1 Man was £314.99 now £160
Dave Lane TX Bivvy was £359.99 now £180
Cocoon Carp Crib was £119.99 now £60
Contact 2 Man was £219 now £110
Venture
Razorback Bivvy VT5000 was £428.99 now £214
Razorback Nylon Shelter was £219.99 now £105
Angling Intelligence
Airframe Bivvy was £349.99 now £175
2 Rib Shelter (Airframe Light) was £209.99 now £105
Traditional Brolly was £229.99 now £115
If you require them posting out to you, you will have to pay postage of £6.95

We were closed Bank Holiday Monday but we are open again now and will continue the 50% off sale until the end of the month. We still have bivvys, Shimano reels and rods all at 50% off. Call in and have a look.

The Closing Down Sale continues – pop over and see whats left

We will be closed Bank Holiday Monday 6th May and re-open Tuesday 7th May.

We will be closing down at the end of May. We are having a 50% off sale – if you come to the shop. Pop over if you need anything. Thank you all for your custom.

The 2013 edition of the free carp fishing DVD from Korda is out now. Packed full of the latest products and tactics from the Korda lads it’s not to be missed. Here’s a quick sneak preview in this short trailer of what to expect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okcJRbSbaas

Pick yours up in store soon with your next purchase.

Dave

The daylight hours are slowly increasing and with that the temperatures are sure to start climbing soon too. Before long there will be an abundance of natural food swimming around in most lakes and the carp are sure to take full advantage of this and so should you. Spring has always been a good time of year to fish Zig rigs, although this method has only really been brought to light in recent years. For those of you who don’t understand the principle of Zig rigs, they are generally small bouyant hookbaits fished mid water to imitate a natural food source. The small hookbait could be anything from a small piece of foam or cork to a custom made imitation bug or fly and can be any colour or colour combination, although personally I favour yellow or a natural colour such as that of cork. There’s a wide range hookbaits made for Zig fishing, such as the Nash Zig Bugs, Avid Carp Zig Lites and Gardner Zig Rig Foam all of which provide you with a variety of hookbait options.

Zig rig hooklinks are usually light mono hooklinks tied up with something like Korda’s Kruiser Control Mono or Drennan Double Strength. The lighter the breaking strain or lower the diameter the better as a less obtrusive hooklink will get you more bites. The same rule applys to hooks as well, the smaller the hook the better. Although thick weed, snags and other obstacles need to be taken into consideration when choosing hooks and hooklinks as theres no point hooking fish if you are going to keep losing them. The Korda Mixa Hooks or the Drennan Super Specialist Barbel Hooks are both good examples of a good, strong zig hook.

The next thing to take a look at is your lead setup, I prefer a simple leadclip with no rig tubing or tail rubber to ensure the lead is dropped on the take. A large lead swinging around on a long hooklink is a recipe for disaster. Anti Tangle Sleeves such as those from Korda are also vital to help cut down on tangles. Some Pva Tape like Korda’s Woven PVA Tape will help secure the lead in place for the cast.

Once you have all the tackle required to tie up your zigs you need to get out on bank and give them a go. The depths you fish your zigs at is entirely upto you, although its worth varying the depths over your rods to cover as many depths as possible until you get a take and find the depth the fish are sitting at. The Gardner Rig Bin and Gardner Mini Rig Bin are ideal for preparing a range of zigs at home so they are ready to use when your on the bank, saving you having long lengths of mono all over your swim.

Here’s a nice Zig caught Mirror I had on a small piece of cork on a 10ft zig in 12ft of water.

Get out there and give them a try this spring.

Tight Lines

Dave

The advantages of this rig is that it provides all the anti eject properties of a normal fluorocarbon rig but the bait has a lot more movement to help with the flipping and hooking process. The soft hair material also allows the weight of the hook to come into play when the fish picks up the bait.

For this demonstration I used Korda IQ Fluorocarbon, a Korda Wide Gape Hook, a Korda Ring Swivel and ESP Hair Braid.

Step 1.

Remove about 4-5 inches of Hair Braid from the spool dispenser and tie a small overhand loop in one end.

Step 2.

Thread the tag end through the back of the eye of the Korda Wide Gape and hold the hair at the required length.

Step 3.

Moving away from the join in the eye whip round the hook shank 5 times and pass the tag end through the back of the eye again.

Step 4.

Now trim the hair braid in front of the eye, then repeat steps 2-3 with the Korda IQ Fluorocarbon but whip up the shank 7 times and twice on the way back down before passing the tag end through the back of the eye and tighten down gently. Then trim the fluorocarbon above the knot leaving just a little fluorocarbon pertruding.

Please note for the purpose of this knot demonstration the Knotless knot with the fluorocarbon was done without the hair braid already on the hook, when tying this rig you will be tying the fluorcarbon over the hair braid Knotless knot.

Step 5.

Using a palomar knot tie the fluorcarbon to the ring on the swivel setting the rig at your desired length making sure to moisten the knot and tighten down gently before trimming the tag end.

Double over the fluorocarbon at the end of the hooklength.

Now tie an over hand knot round the swivel with the doubled over section of fluorocarbon.

Then pass the swivel through the loop created with the fluorocarbon.

Moisten the knot and tighten down gently. Then trim the tag end.

The finished rig should look like this.

All the knots used in this demonstration can be found by using the search bar in the top right hand corner of the blog. The knot used for the hair braid and fluorocarbon at the hook end was a Knotless knot.

If you have been using fluorocarbon rigs but have been getting funny hookholds then this rig could be one solution to the problem.

Give it a go.

Tight Lines

Dave

The Guru Inline Method Feeders are ideal for small commercial carp waters where the actions comes thick and fast. Guru have designed a method mould to go with the inline feeders and make loading them with method mix even easier. Creating a neat presentation that can be cast accurately, which is very important with this type of fishing.

Step 1.

Attach a short hair rig to the size 11 swivel supplied with each feeder and attach the bait of your choice. Guru’s own ready tied method hair rigs are ideal for the job.

Step 2.

Now place the bait on the hook bait platform.

Step 3.

Take the correct size Guru Method Mould and fill it with the desired amount of method mix.

Step 4.

Now carefully bring the loaded method mould and the method feeder together, making sure the hook bait remains in place and apply pressure to both.

Step 5.

Carefully, making sure not to break up the method mix, push the feeder from the mould by applying pressure to the back with both thumbs.

Your method feeder will now look like this and is ready to cast out.

Give it a go

Tight Lines

Dave