Carp Catchers Blog

Now the weather is starting to warm up a bit and most of you will be looking to get out and start fishing your waters I’m sure some of you will have considered a baiting campaign of some sort. Whether your plan be to continuously bait areas or just to bait a swim prior to sessions there will be a few points that you have to consider.

Bait can sometimes determine the success you have when pre baiting. You want to provide the fish with a food source that can be recognised by them as one that fulfils their nutritional requirements providing them with what they need, when they need it. Now some anglers will choose to use solely boilies for prebaiting where as others will take the pellet/particle route. There is no right or wrong choice but the type of water your fishing needs to be taken into consideration. If you are fishing a water which mostly contain carp then particles and pellets can be a very effective method along with boilies. But if you are fishing a water which holds a large head of other species such as Bream, Tench and Roach etc. then you may find that using particles and pellets will not work very well unless used in larger quantities.

Boilies are an ideal food source for Carp as they are generally highly nutritional and in most cases contain a large quantity of proteins, fats, amino acids, vitamins and minerals. These are all highly sort after by carp in their diet. Choosing the right boilie can be a tricky task with the sheer number of bait companies and choices of flavours available to us as carp anglers. I would suggest choosing a bait that ticks all the boxes in terms of nutrition and digestion. It is no good having a bait that holds all the nutritional factors but isn’t completely digestable to the fish. If they can’t unlock the nutritional factors in the bait then it is no good for them. I would suggest using a freezer bait for a long term baiting campaign but that isn’t to say that good results can’t be had on shelf life baits. Confidence in your chosen bait is paramount. Using a bait you’re are confident in can sometimes be the difference between catching and not. If you not confident you won’t fish as effectively. Mixing up the size of boilies can also help contribute to the success of a baiting campaign as this can confuse the carp when it comes to taking your hookbait. Although the sizes you are able to use can depend on the range your baiting at as smaller boilies won’t reach the spots with a catapult or stick if you’re baiting at a distance. There are a range of good boilies available, Baitcraft T1, Mainline Cell, Dynamite Baits Banana Nut Crunch and Richworth Kg1 to name a few. I would suggest choosing your preferred bait and sticking to it, you won’t be as successful chopping and changing between baits if you plan to establish it as a good food source on your water.

Pellets and particles can be a very effective method of prebaiting. The quantity of smaller food items in the swim means that the bait remains on the lake bed for longer keeping to fish grubbing around and revisiting the area. Although smaller course fish on a water can prove to be a problem when baiting with pellets and particles, purely because they are able to eat the small food items. A lot of people like to use pellets and/or particles to prepare and clear spots of weed and debris as not only will the fish help clean the spot but diving birds will help as they try to pick up food items. A pellet, particle and boilie is a firm favourite.

In the following sections I will cover where to prebait, quantities to bait with and how to go about it. In the meantime there some older Carp Catchers Blogs on the same subject that may be of interest to you go to New Season Baiting Campaign  and Good Quality Baits .

Tight Lines

Dave

In the previous Carp Catchers Blog we talked about dips and glugs but we didn’t make clear what the difference between them is. This Blog will correct that.

Boilie Dips

Boilie dips are normally quite viscose and clear. They have a powerful flavour dissolved in a neutral carrier. Your hookbaits can be left to soak in them indefinitely and this will have an added effect/benefit of hardening them. Boilie Dips can be used with bottom baits, but they are ideally suited to pop ups. A couple of good examples are the  Richworth Impact Boilie Dips and Mainline Hookbait Enhancement System.

Glugs

Glugs are normally quite thick and based on a liquid food source. Very often they will have the same liquid attractors and nutrients as the boilies they represent. Hookbaits can be left in them indefinitely and though both bottom and pop ups can be glugged longer soaking is more suited to bottom baits. The reason for this that glugs or food dips as they are sometimes known are quite heavy and soak right into the hookbaits and this can affect the buoyancy of pop ups. Glugging into a food dip before casting is the more usual way to get an extra boost is the more usual way to use glugs with pop ups. A couple of good examples would be Nash Baits Top Rod Food Dips and Fresh Fish Mussel And Oyster Liquid .

Best Fishes,

John

Single hookbaits are a good approach all year round although they come into their own during the winter when bites definately slow. Single hookbaits are many anglers favourite approach during the colder months because of their effectiveness at picking off fish in their winter mode which otherwise probably would not have been caught if a bed of bait was used.

There are a wide range of baits out there which work particularly well as single hookbaits. I prefer to use glugged pop-ups for singles but most high attraction baits are suitable. Some anglers prefer high viz baits where others prefer high attraction food baits. My favourites are white pop-ups such as the Baitcraft Snowball, yellow pineapple pop-ups such as Mainline Hi-Visual Pineapple Juice and food bait pop-ups such as Dynamite Baits The Source. This gives me a good enough range to try.

My tips would be to make note of any fish you see show during the winter months this year and in previous years if you know the water well and use these areas as starting points each session. Bear in mind on some waters the fish could well be at range so use simple pop-up rigs that are less likely to tangle and don’t over complicate things too much. And remember if you see fish show it might be worth a cast at them as fish are less likely to move much during the winter so the closer you can get a bait to the fish the better chance of a run.

Tight Lines

Dave

Little David has sent in a catch report.

“ 

I have just returned from quite a hectic session at Welham lake where I’ve got my first season ticket on the lake and decided to test it out as I had high expectations for it this winter having already lost possibly the biggest in the lake!.

I arrived later than I hoped on a Friday night due to homework (typical! My French teacher’s always had it in for me!)and when I arrived with this glum weather I had to set up my rods In a mad dash due to this I didn’t have much of a choice of swims so I decided to share a swim with my friend. After baiting the rods and putting out some bait I decided to speak to a few of the guys next door to me and they had told me that the biggest fish out the whole week had only been 12lb (Quite bizarre for that lake!)

Later on that evening after having some grub I stayed up late having a social with some of the guys, when I finally retired to the bag it wasn’t long before my left hand rod placed underneath an overhanging tree to the far bank that looked very ‘carpy’ ,had rattled off and a few minutes later after a very scrappy fight a new pb lay in my net, it took me a while to get my friend out of bed! But once he decided to shift we got the fish back safely all 16lb 5oz of it so I was pleased to say the least with the result. The rig I used was tied with Korda Hybrid Soft Coated Braid   to a size 10  Korda Longshank X Hook  . Baits were 15mm The Source  boilies plus some home made boilies. I hope to get a few nights down there this ever drawing closer winter in search of a biggun! ”

Little David! ”

Well done David, good luck with your quest.

Best fishes,

John

A method that works well over a bed of scattered boilies is mesh PVA bags of boilies. Using something like  Korda Boilie Funnel Web , a tight mesh bag can be created that practically explodes in the water spreading your hookbait and freebies a few inches apart making the trap less obvious to wary carp. The method is to tie a mesh bag with three boilies in a triangular shape as tightly as possible to create the tension in the PVA, which is needed to throw the baits apart upon melting.  When in the water PVA tightens and pulls the boilies even tighter together before the bags burst and catapulting the baits in seperate directions. The triangles are better than the normal linear mesh bag over choddy bottoms as the hook sits in the middle keeping it clear of any chod. However they obviously will not cast as well.

To tie these PVA bags you need some Korda Boilie Funnel Web PVA, scissors and some boilies, these are air dryed Mainline Activ-8 .

Step 1.

Place three boilies in the boilie funnel web tube and allow them to drop out of the bottom into the PVA mesh. If you are using baits over 16mm then I’d suggest using the largerKorda funnel web size as you won’t be able to create the right shape with the larger baits in the boilie funnel web, for baits 16mm and under the boilie funnel web is best.

Step 2.

Now push the baits into a triangular shape and tighten the PVA holding the baits as close together as possible to create a bait triangle.

Step 3.

Holding the boilies in position tie off the bag, again trying to hold the baits as tight as possible. The tighter the bag the better presentation you will achieve.

Once you have trimmed the tag ends of the knots tied in the bag you should have a mesh bag that looks like this. (See Picture Below).

The mesh bag can be hooked on or alternatively you can thread the hooklink through the middle of the baits and pull you hook through to sit between the three baits, this can actually help the slow the rig down as it travels through the water so might be worth a go fishing over softer lakebeds and as I said earlier keep the hook clear of any chod.

Here is a couple of pictures demonstrating the presentation this bag will give your freebies.

The bag still intact.

15-20 seconds after contact with the water.

Give it a go

Tight lines

Dave

After deciding to change waters for the coming winter and due to busy banks I’ve had a little bit of a confidence boost. On my first weekend session from late friday evening to early monday morning I had a bit of a result in the shape of 6 mirror and common carp to 21lb15oz. After turning up in the dark at 8.30 friday evening I opted for the north bank as I had been told it was free of any other anglers. After watching the water for nearly 2 hours I decided to fish up the dam end in the the deeper water or what was left of it anyway as this is where I’d seen the carp showing the most . The reservoir serves the purpose of topping up the Grand Union canal so the water levels can get quite low at times.

During my session I banked 6 carp to 21lb 15oz from 3 different spots using  Baitcraft T1  boilies over a spread of bait which included a spod mix of hemp, Solar Pure Bait BYT and crushed T1s over one of my rods. Most of the bites came during the hours of darkness which meant I had to have all my spots marked up to get them back on the spots in the darkness.

The rigs I used consisted of 15lb Korda IQ2 tied to 2 inches of stripped Sufix Stiff Silt with a size 6 Korda Wide Gape Hook, a small piece of shrink tubing over the eye and tied blowback style.

Tight Lines

Dave

(I should have turned my head torch off for the night time shots, but had forgotten while sorting the self takes. Luckily they didn’t turn out too bad.)

Here’s a couple of nice mirror carp I had on a recent session. They weighed 19lb and 23lb 2oz respectively and were tempted from holes in the weed by Mainline Activ-8 boilies. I used a D Rig tied with 30lb GLT No Can See Fluorocarbon  and a size 6 Gardner Longshank Incizor  hook. I was able to land both fish from the bank in what is an extremely weedy swim by dropping the lead on the take using PVA’d Ace Lead Clips .

Best fishes,

John

Im a big fan of spreading boilies over a larger area to encourage carp to keep moving, especially as the temperature is beginning to drop. Its helps your rigs work more effectively as the carp aren’t stopping to feed, they are picking up the boilies on the move. It also leaves less chance of the fish sussing your baited area. Tightly baited spots do produce fish and I will also use them in given situations but I believe that a spread of bait is far less obvious as the carp only come across the odd boilie over your area. It can also help produce takes faster as the carp are more likely to pick up your bait if they come across it.

This is a nice clean mirror carp caught over a spread of 20mm Baitcraft T1 Freezer Boilies on a recent overnighter where I put all three rods in the same area and spread 150 baits over the three of them. The rig I used a blowback combi rig tied with 15lb  Korda IQ Fluorocarbon   and 2” of stripped Sufix Stiff Silt  to a size 6 Korda Wide Gape Hook .

Give it a go.

Tight lines

Dave

Customer Sean Bown and his friends had a fantastic haul of French carp recently from The Sanctuary. Sean reports

 “Hi John,
A top time was had by all at the Sanctuary in France with 54 fish being banked between the four of us, with 5 40′s and some 20+ 30′s, awesome!!!!
I accounted for 14 of the haul with one 40 and nine 30′s three mid 20′s and one at 12.”

Baitcrafts T1 Freezer Boilies  purchased from us in both 16 and 20mm accounted for all of Sean’s fish. His rigs were constructed wth size 5 ESP Big T hooks tied to either Korda Hybrid Soft Coated Braid  or  Korda Supernatural  hooklinks. Nice one Sean, really good looking fish. Photos’ are pukka too.

                                                                                   38lb 8oz Common Carp

                                                                                   41lb 8oz Mirror Carp

Best Fishes,

John

Martin Deathridge had a nice clean mirror carp from Bluebell Lakes Swan lake last week. Weighing 29lb 12oz Martins mirror was tempted from the edge of a weed bed at 70yrds range. Martin was using 18mm  Mainline Cell Freezer Boilies  scattered over a wide area. His hookbait was a snowman with a Cell bottom bait balanced out with a 10mm  Mainline Hi Visual Pineapple Pop Up. The rig Martin used was tied with  Nash Missing Link  in 25lb tied to a size 5  ESP Curve Shanx  hook. Nice one.

Best Fishes

John