Carp Catchers Blog

Here’s a couple of nice December mirror carp caught by customer Ian Smith. They weighed 18lb 8oz and 17lb 6oz respectively. Ians’ fish were caught from a silty spot over 5 kilos of  Nash Scopex Squid Plus Freezer Boilies  which just shows that carp will still feed heavily even in the coldest of weather. The rig Ian used was tied with a size 10  Korda Longshank X Hook  and ESP Striptease Hooklink snowman style.

Nice winter catch Ian well done.

Best fishes,

John

Spinning Traces

The components used in this demonstration were E-SOX Titanium Pike Wire, Berkley Cross-lok Snap Swivels,  Drennan Micro Crimps and ESP Hi Performance Swivels. (See picture below)

As with the deadbait traces, a good pair of wire cutters and crimping pliers are needed.

Step 1.

Cut a 12 inch length of pike wire and thread a crimp onto the wire. (See picture below)

Step 2.

Now thread a snap swivel onto the wire and thread the pike wire back through the crimp. (See picture below)

Step 3.

Then using the crimping pliers, flatten the crimp in three central positions. (See picture below)

Step 4.

Repeat the past three steps with a normal swivel on the other end of the pike wire. (See picture below)

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

The normal swivel can be tied to your mainline with the snap link at the other end being used to quick hassle free lure changes.

Tight Lines

David

That fella Oliver has been at it again. Using his trusty bike to keep mobile Oliver tempted this 8lb pike with a roach from our deadbait section. Well done Oliver!

Best fishes,

John

Just a quick word of warning to those of you who plan to get out over the colder months for a couple of nights fishing, we all know how tempting it is to close the bivvy door right down and stick the kettle on, cook some food or fire the lantern up for a bit of extra warmth but please try to avoid doing so without adequate ventilation as the gases given off by these bits of equipment are actually very harmful. The gases given off, especially Carbon Monoxide, are colourless and odourless so you wont even notice them building up in your bivvy during the periods your door is closed but there are some serious health risks involved, it can also prove fatal if prolonged exposure to such gases occurs. So please be careful when using your cooker or lantern in your bivvy and make sure there is adequate ventilation to let any noxious gases escape.

Follow the link below to read more about Carbon Monoxide poisoning and its symptoms.

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Information

Customer Oliver Jarvis has been braving the cold weather to catch himself some nice pike. The one shown below weighed 9lb 14oz and was caught on a legered eel section from our deadbait section. Well done Oliver!

Best fishes,

John

Now that winters here many of you will be using maggots as bait. In this blog I’m going to show you how to tie a rig with the new improved Korda Maggot Clip . There is more than one rig that can be tied with the maggot clip and I will feature those in future blogs.

These are the components that I used to demonstrate this rig

Step 1

Cut a length of your desired hooklink material, in this case I am using Korda Hybrid Soft

Step 2

Strip off 4-5 inches of the coating

Step 3

Tie a small overhand loop in the stripped section

Step 4

Cut a length, 10mm approximately of the ESP Sink Rig Tube and thread it up towards the loop. The rig tube prevents the live maggots from wriggling around and masking your hookpoint, a little dodge thought up by Nigel Sharp I think.

Step 5

Thread the Korda Maggot Clip through the loop and push the rig tubing tight to the clip

Step 6

Thread the opposite end of the hooklink through the eye of the Atomic Claw  hook and whip the stripped section of the hybrid soft up to the rig tubing

Step 7

Thread the tag end of the hooklink through the eye of the hook again and pull to bed down the knot

Step 8

Tie the swivel at the other end of hooklink with a figure of eight loop knot

Step 9

Moisten both knots and pull tight to bed them down. I’m using the excellent Korda Pulla Tool in this shot.

Step 10

Thread on the required number of maggots. I was extremely suprised how easily the maggots went on, so Korda really have improved the sharpness of the clip.

The business end of the finished rig

The finished rig

Best fishes,

John

Customer Ben also had a pike fishing trip to Pitsford Reservoir recently. Ben tempted this 21lb beauty of a pike whilst fishing a copper spoon lure from the back of a boat. The capture was featured in the Angling Times recently and was a Drennan Cup contender. Bens winter fishing goal was a 20lb pike and he achieved it at the first time of asking. Well done Ben!!

Best fishes,

John

I don’t want to sound preachy, but I’d like to have a word about carp care. All you carp anglers out there should have a decent unhooking mat suitable for the size of carp you’re fishing for, but how many of you have something to treat the hookhold or any wounds your prize might have. We have a certain duty of care to the fish we catch, so we should all carry something to treat any wounds or ulcers they may have. The Korda Carp Care Kit is an excellent product which fulfills this need. The kit which was designed by the lads at Thinking Anglers has two different bottles of treatment and treatment applicators all in a handy, compact case. The two treatment bottles have different uses, one is for any mouth damage and the other is for any wounds or sores on the body. The Korda Carp Care Kit offers our quarry the best possible chance of a speedy recovery. So please if you haven’t already got one or something like it, invest in the future of your sport and get one. 

Best fishes,

John

Many of those of you new to carp fishing and many of you that are not, will think looking at the carp fishing mags that every one is catching but you. This is not the case, if you look at how many catches appear in the magazines and add them all together the number is miniscule in comparison to how many people actually carp fish. Not catching or in carp speak, blanking, is part of carp fishing and should fire you up to succeed in your next session. I pride myself in being quite consistent when it comes to catching carp, but at the moment I’m blanking like a good un’ and it’s really got my brains going into overdrive. Forget Dr. Wii’s brain training go carp fishing. Seriously though, I’m not the only one blanking, the syndicate as a whole is struggling. There has only been one fish out in 18 days and there’s been a heck of a lot of rods hours fished for that one fish. I’m really enjoying it though, but as my girlfriend Angela said, I’d be enjoying it more if I’d caught one. So if you are blanking too, don’t despair you are in good company. The carp are in their autumn/winter transitional period, which puts them out of sorts and off the feed. This transitional period, which happens every year, seems to have started a lot earlier this year and many lakes across the country are fishing poorly. So as I said previously don’t despair, keep on keeping on and the rewards when they come will be well worth it.

Best fishes,

John