Carp Catchers Blog

Gary Westcott and myself fished in the British Carp Angling Championship qualifier at Farlows Lake recently. Unfortunately we didn’t qualify but we did score five points for the Carp Catchers Team. Gary and I had two carp for 45lb 2oz and also lost one. Garys fish came on his own Innovate Baits boilies, mine came on Mainline Baits Activ-8. We had a great weekend and really enjoyed the experience.

                                                                                            20lb 4oz

                                                                                                 24lb 14oz

Best Fishes,

John

Also in stock now is the Dynamite Baits Savoury Spice Range which is Terry Hearns very own recipe. The Dynamite Baits Savoury Spice Boilies are made using spices, mixed herbs and chillies on a fishmeal and birdfood base mix. This recipe looks like an ideal winter bait though I’m sure they will catch year round. The Savoury Spice Boosted Hookbait Dip  has elavated levels of the attractants used in the boilies. Finally the Savoury Spice Pop Ups are made with the same ingredients as the boilies with added cork dust for boosted bouyancy. For more information or to purchase please click on the above links.

                   Dynamite Baits Savoury Spice Range

Best Fishes,

John

The new Dynamite Baits Sardine & Anchovy Range is now in stock. The Dynamite Baits Sardine & Anchovy Boilies  are a really,really dark green colour due to the added Green Lipped Mussel Extract. These boilies are the fishiest I’ve ever smelt and must catch fish!! The Sardine & Anchovy Boosted Hookbait Dip  is also a very dark green and contains boosted levels of GLM Extract. The Sardine & Anchovy Pop Ups contain the same ingredients as the boilies plus cork dust for increased bouyancy. For more information or to purchase please click on the above links.

                  Dynamite Baits Sardine & Anchovy Range

Best Fishes,

John

We have some of the C.C. Moore products including boilies, pellets, glugs and particles etc. in stock now. I’ll give you more details once I’ve loaded them onto the website. Alternatively, if your local come into the shop and and have a look.

Best Fishes,

John

Michael Siweki had a fantastic result at Dream Lakes recently. He had 40 carp including the massive 53lb 2oz common carp shown. Michaels rig was tied with Korda Supernatural  in weed green to a size 8 Nash Fang Twister  Hook with three 18mm Mainline Cell  boiles as a hookbait. In his report Michael said ” It was b####y heavy”. Well done fella.

Best Fishes,

John

The methods you choose to bait up with will depend on the distances you are baiting and the bait you have choosen to use.

Boilies

If you have choosen to target your water with boilies then prebaiting can be done using a variety of methods. Most peoples choice would be to use a catapult at short to medium range (Anything upto 50 yards) or a throwing stick like the Korda Eazi Stick  for longer range baiting. Both these methods will allow you to bait up with boilies both quickly and accurately without too much disturbance. If you have choosen to bait a spot out of throwing stick range then I would suggest using a good spod setup and a boilie spod such as the MCF Extreme Range Rocket Spod. Spodding out your bait will create a little more disturbance but it will enable you to reach further distances and get the bait out to where you want it. Spodding your boilies can also be a good way to avoid the seagulls diving down and grabbing baits as your baiting up. The method I would recommend for short range baiting with boilies would be a bait spoon, this can be used with a landing net handle or baiting pole depending on the situation you are in. 

Particles and Pellets

Baiting with Particles and/or Pellets can be a little trickier than boilies. If you are fishing the margins or at short range then I suggest you use either a catapult or a baiting spoon and pole such as the AI Baiting Spoon, Pole Float and Baiting Pole (8 or 12 metre available) as they are far less hassle than spodding. If you have choosen to bait an area out of catapult range then a spod is probably your only option. If so I would suggest making sure that you know your sight markers very well and you have your line on your spod rod marked up so you are able to bait accurately at the right distance.

Groundbait

Although I haven’t mentioned this method of baiting in any of the previous blogs I would just like to touch on quickly the methods used to bait up with groundbait. A lot of people are able to ball up their groundbait and throw or catapult it to their spots. For those of you who wish to try groundbait on your water but wish to bait up out of catapult range I would suggest using a groundbait sling such as the Atomic Ballz Out Goundbait Sling. These are very good bits of kit, once you have mastered the technique it is possible to bait up with groundbait balls well beyond the range ever thought achievable.

Depending on how busy your choosen water is and whether you mind people knowing what you’re up to then it makes sense to choose the time of day you bait up carefully. If you wish to try and keep your activities undercover from other anglers then I would suggest baiting up well after dark to avoid being seen. This also has its advantages in other ways. It cuts down on the birdlife activity while you are baiting up and over the area in general. It also means there is bait in the water for a good few hours before the birdlife moves in and finds the bait giving the carp more of a chance to get a look in. 

Tight Lines

Dave

After a very long lean spell customer Sean Bowen has landed a nice common from the difficult Pit 6. It’s not the biggest carp in the world, but they all count and when your struggling size doesn’t matter. Sean broke his blank spell using Baitcraft T1 Freezer Boilies  his rig featured a Korda Soft Coated Braid hooklink tied to a size 8  Korda Kurv Shank Hooks . Well done Sean on, keeping on.

Best Fishes,

John

The quantity of bait you choose to prebait with should be determined by the stocking density of your water. If you are fishing a heavily stocked lake then prebaiting with a small amount of bait my not prove to be very productive.

Boilies

If you are fishing a well stocked lake then I would suggest around 2-3 kgs of boilies three times a week, larger boilies are generally better to prebait with as it avoids the attention of other species such as Bream and Tench. A single fish is capable of eating a very large amount of bait in one sitting, although this will vary throughout the year depending on water temperatures. Carp are cold blooded animals so their dietary requirements are much lower in cold water conditions. In the winter it is possible to reduce your prebait to around 1kg because of this, it will only take a few mouthfuls for a carp to fill itself up and move away from the area. On lakes that hold a smaller stock of carp I would maybe reduce the quantity of bait by a kilo or so unless you know that the fish will accept large quantities of bait without shying off them from past angling pressure. Try to use a good quality freezer boilie such as Mainline Cell , Nash Scopex Squid  or Richworth XLR8 .

Particles and Pellets

If you choose to bait with particles and pellets on a well stocked lake I would up the amount as particles are cheaper and they will recieve a lot more attention from nuisance species. Maybe 10-15 kg per week baited every other night. If you are using tiger nuts to bait up with then please be aware that they are not very digestable to carp and are best used in small quantities. The same goes with what I said above about water temperatures and food consumption so alter your quantities accordingly. It is also worth baring in mind that smaller fish are more able to eat the particles and pellets you are baiting with, so increasing the quantities where large numbers of nuisance species are present maybe required for the carp to get a look in. Otherwise the carp maybe seeing none of your bait and are unaware of the area you are trying to create.

The quantities mentioned above are all just guidelines, each lake, stock and situation is different so go with what you think is best but bare in mind the factors I have mentioned. See also Part One - Part Two

Tight Lines

Dave

Some more new products now. From Nash Baits we have the new Nash IC-1 Boilies  now in stock these have a curry/spicy flavour and are suitable for year round use. We have them in both freezer and shelf life and I’m sure they’ll be really popular. From Gardner Tackle we have the new Gardner Covert Chod Hook which is plated rather than Teflon coated. We all know the problems with Teflon coated hooks, rust around the eyes, loss of hook point sharpness and increased diameter, well the unique Covert plating overcomes these problems and also increases camouflaging. For more information or to purchase please click on the above links.

                                        Nash IC-1 Boilies

                                       Gardner Covert Chod Hook

Best Fishes,

John

A word now on some new baits now in stock. The new Richworth XLR8 Freezer Boilies were developed from an original recipe from Steve Renyard which was a proven big carp catcher in the early 90′s. Steve has now tweaked it with some new ingredients and is 110% confident with it. They are a nice dark brown colour so they won’t spook wary carp. The XLR8 has a sausage/pepperami type smell and looks to be a real winner.We also have the Xlr8 Pop Ups and XLR8 Impact Boilie Dips  in stock.  The Richworth Salmon Supreme Freezer Boilies  are one of Richworths original boilies from back in the day. After continued requests the Salmon Supreme are back and look set to be as good as they ever were. We also have the Salmon Supreme Hookbait Dips and Pop Ups in stock. For more information or to purchase please click on the above links.

Best fishes,

John