Carp Catchers Blog

After arriving at one of my lakes for a weekend session and finding it busy I made the choice to take a trip over to Welham lake. We arrived at Welham about 2am after picking up a mate from work to find it relatively empty for a weekend. We settled on a couple of swims at the bottom end of the lake away from the other anglers. The swim I choose gave me a nice margin spot, a far margin snag next to the lillies and an open water spot which had all produce for me back when I had fished there years before.

The rods did’nt go out till first light and I got my head down for a very much needed few hours sleep. After no action during the day except the usual bream I proceeded to place the rods back out on the spots for the evening with a handful of freebies over each rod. The left hand rod was waded along the margin and placed gently on top of the soft silt. The middle rod was cast to the far margin snag next to the lillies and the right hand rod was again placed on the open water spot.

The setup I was using consisted of Armaled LocJaw Safety Lead Clips and Armaled LocJaw Tail Rubbers with 3oz Korda Pear leads. A 7 inch length of Sufix Stiff Silt with 2 inchs stripped back, a Korda Wide Gape  hook size 8, a small piece of silicone tubing on the shank of the hook and an extended curved shank using Korda Shrink Tubing

At around 12 pm I had a run on the middle rod resulting in a 14lb mirror and after returning the fish to the water I recast the rod and got my head down. I was woken during the night again by the middle rod but this time a small bream was the culprit. The following morning the margin rod was fizzing and bubbling away and I knew another take was on the cards. About 10 minutes later it tore off and I was in again. This time the fish felt a little better and after a very hard fight with several big lunges for the bush I was fishing upto she was mine. A modest 17.5lb common carp was quickly weighed, pictured and returned.

Later that day I lost a good fish on a zig rig after spending an hour or so observing the fish and the route they were taking through my swim. The rod had been placed a few inches under the surface along a route the majority of the carp appeared to be taking.  After that I recieved no further action and packed up mid afternoon.

Although there were no big’uns , it was nice to get a bend in the rods.

Tight Lines

Dave

Tying a zig rig is simple, all you need is a good hooklink material like the Ultima Power Zig, a strong hook and a small section of silicone tubing.

The rig components used in this demonstration were Ultima Power Zig hooklink, ESP Big T Carp Hook and ESP Silicone Tube .

Step 1.

Cut the Ultima Power Zig to your desired length.

Step 2.

Now tie a small overhand loop in one end for your hair stop and thread on your desired choice of pop-up or foam followed by a bait stop.

Step 3.

Then cut a small section (2-3mm) of silicone tubing and thread it onto your zig hooklink.

Step 4.

Now thread the point of the hook through the silicone tubing heading towards the bait and set the hair length at about 2-3mm with the tubing sitting at the top of the shank.

Step 5.

Now tie a knotless knot and don’t forget to whip the hooklink back round the knot once on the way towards the eye to prevent it from slipping.

Step 6.

To finish the zig rig off tie a figure of eight knot at the other end.

The zig rig is now finished and ready to use.

If you are not sure about any of the knots use the Carp Catchers Blog search bar to navigate to the relevant knot

Tight lines

Dave

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

Have you noticed how many 30lb plus common carp are being reported to the Carp Catchers Blog? Anyhow customer Martin Deathridge fished an overnight session on Bluebell Lakes Swan lake recently and was rewarded with the 32lb 4oz common shown below. Using a new bait on test, Martin fished over light weed at 60 yards range. The rig Martin used consisted of a 12” Korda Supernatural Sinking Braid   hooklink tied to a size 6 ESP Stiff Rigger  hook. Martins hookbait was a snowman with a 10mm Hi-Viz Mainline Pop-Ups  topper. Nice result for an overnighter Martin.

Best Fishes,

John

James Kirk had a nice result recently. Fishing a new water James had four carp the best being the 29lb 12oz common carp shown below. The bait James used was 18mm Mainline Fusion  boilies scattered over a wide area. James rigs were tied with 25lb Sufix Black Silt  stripped back 4”, size 6 Gardner Mugga Carp Hooks, 3oz MCF distance lead attached to a Korda Safe Zone Safety Lead Clip, Korda Tail Rubber and Korda Sinking Rig Tube.

Again note that James has thought about the background for his catch photo, making a memorable catch even more memorable. Well done James, hope to see more in the near future.

Best Fishes,

John

Customer Ben had his first carp from a new water recently. Details of Bens’ catch are a bit sketchy, but I do no that Gardner Mugga Carp Hooks  and Ace Hard On Camo Leadcore   and good quality boilies feature in Bens’ set up. Well done Ben, keep it up.

Notice that Ben has chosen nice background for his catch photo.

Best Fishes,

John

Our customers have been catching so regularly, that I haven’t had time to do any blogs on my own fishing. I’ve still got plenty of customer catches to post, but I’ll do a quick blog about a recent session or I’ll fall too far behind. I fished hard right through the winter on my syndicate water with no success, but in fairness everybody struggled. I just had to be there to keep in touch with the water and in mid March persistence paid off. I had two mirror carp from a silty patch at 70yrds which weighed 26lb 8oz(photo-1) and 20lb 4oz (photo-2). They were both absolutely nailed(photo 3) on a new, really simple maggot rig I’ve developed. The hookholds were so good that I had to use long nosed pliers right up to the hilt to unhook the fish.  The mechanics of the rig I used over the winter were good, but it just looked too clumsy, so I rejigged it and at the first time of asking two fish, magic!! The components used to tie the rig are Rig Marole Hydro-Link Silt and size 10 Solar Stronghold Longshank Hooks . I’ll show you how to tie it soonish. Photo 3 shows that the fish were hooked with the bait going in, not on the way out, so I’ll probably do a blog about my thoughts on rig mechanics in the near future.

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

 Notice no mouth damage.

Best fishes,

John

I read an interesting piece of research on hook sizes in carp fishing recently. The study looked at the relationship between hook size, mouth damage and catch rates when carp fishing. The ultimate purpose of the study was to try to limit mouth damage to carp in commercial carp fisheries. The results of the study showed that smaller hooks caused less damage and caught more fish than big hooks. However I believe the research was flawed as the hook sizes tested were a size 1 against a size 6. There are very few carp anglers using size 1 hooks, in fact I cannot think of any make of carp hook that comes in a size 1. To be useful in a modern day carp fishery the study needs to be repeated using more representative hooks sizes. I suggest that testing 4s, 8s and 12s would be more realistic. The bait used (sweetcorn) could have also have influenced the results as a big hook with a small bait would have hardly been a stealthy presentation to the carp.

Best fishes,

John

Regular customer Scott had a nice result recently. Fishing an afternoon session at a local lake Scott had two doubles, the biggest of which was a 16lb 6oz common(shown below). Scott caught his fish using a chod rig constructed from ESP Bulk Spool Leadcore  in choddy silt and the new  ESP Curve Shanx Carp Hook  . Well done Scott!

Best fishes,

John

This rig is ideal for use in solid PVA bags when fishing them into weed but it will work in most fishing situations you may come across. Because The Reverse Combi Link Rig is tied with a supple braided hooklink it is prone to tangles if it isn’t used correctly. The components used in this demonstration were ESP T6 Raptor Carp Hooks, ESP Sink Link and ESP Ghost Fluorocarbon Hooklink. (See picture below)

Step 1.

Cut a 6 inch length of Ghost fluorocarbon and start by tying a small hair loop in one end. (See picture below)

Step 2.

Now tie your hook on with a knotless knot, setting your hair to the desired length. (See picture below)

Step 3.

Then double over the other end of the Ghost leaving a length of about an inch back to the eye of the hook. (See picture below)

Step 4.

Cut an 8 inch length of ESP Sink Link braid and pass one end through the doubled over the Ghost fluorocarbon and then whip it round the fluorocarbon towards the eye of the hook 7-8 times. (See picture below)

Step 5.

Whip the Sinklink 6-7 times back away from the hook before passing it back through the Ghost the same way that it came in. (See picture below)

Step 6.

Moisten the knot and slowly tighten it making sure it pulls together neatly to ensure the knot doesn’t slip, a little rig glue may be added to secure it further and trim the tag ends blobbing them with a lighter for an extra neat presentation. (See picture below) 

Step 7.

Finish the rig with a figure of eight knot for quick and easy rig changes. The finished rig, should look like this. (See picture below)

The Reverse Combi Link Rig can be used for both bottom baits and pop-ups. Add tungsten putty to the knot joining the two materials, to pin the bait down when using pop ups.

Tight lines

Dave