Carp Catchers Blog

This is an alternative to the previous Carp Catchers Blog on how to tie The Shot On The Hair Rig. It is tied in exactly the same way except the hair is lengthened by 10mm and the shot is placed halfway along the hair rather than directly next to the bait.

Setting the rig like this means the bait sits up off the lake bed by about 10mm if using a pop up hookbait. It allows the hook to lay flat on the lake bed alway from the bait, making it less obvious to wary carp. This alternate Shot On The Hair Rig  provides good bait separation and ensures the rig is hook heavy, making it more likely to catch in the carps mouth.  Though more effective with pop up hookbaits, a bottom bait can be used and the rig will still be very effective as it is still hook heavy.

Tight Lines

Dave

Another single hookbait which could be utilised well in the winter is artificial baits, preferably the flavoured or high-viz variety as they need some attraction to them. The Enterprise Artificial Boilies 10mm , the Niteglow Eternal Boilies and the Solar Everlasting Hookbaits are all top artificial baits that will work well as single hookbaits. Don’t discount artificial sweetcorn as a single winter bait either the ever popular Enterprise range or the new Cotswold Bait Creations Soft Floating Corn. Imitation baits are resistant to nuisance fish, won’t lose bouyancy, go soft or lose attraction.

Give them a go.

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

Glugging or dipping single hookbaits can improve their pulling power and increase the chances of a run when no free offerings are available. Most pop-ups have a matching dip/liquid to go with them which can be used to soak hookbaits in for increased attraction. Although that doesn’t mean to say that hookbaits have to be soaked in matching dips, you could always try something different and mix hookbaits with different liquids. Try dipping or glugging your singles and see how your results improve. Two of the more popular dips are the Richworth Impact Boilie Dips  and the Mainline Hookbait Enhancement System

Glugging or dipping baits can be messy business, there are items out there such as the Sixth Sense Stainless Steel Dipping Tool which makes the job far less messy.

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.)

Customer Ian Smith caught one of his target fish recently. Fishing a new water, Ian caught the magnificent common carp shown below after only a few nights. The common weighed 35lb 5oz, a little bit down on it’s normal weight. This is no doubt due to the good spawning weather we had a month or so back. Ian fished a light scattering of mixed sized Nash Scopex Squid Liver Plus Robin Red Shelf Life Boilies  to a silty area in open water. The rig Ian used was a 10”  Kryston Super Mantis hooklink tied to a size 6 Gardner Mugga  hook. The hookbait was a Nash Scopex Squid Liver Plus Robin Red  pop up fished an inch off the deck. This guy just keeps catching, well done Ian.

Best Fishes,

John

Regular customer Sean Bown had a session on pit 6 recently and had a very nice result. Sean has struggled on this difficult water but has kept at it. Persistence paid off and three nice commons of 17lb(2) and 19lb 12oz fell to Seans’ rods. Two of Seans’ commons fell to zig rigs with Gardner Black Zig Rig Foam as a hookbait. The other took a Baitcraft T1  bottom bait. Well done Sean, nice one.

Best fishes,

John

I recently christened my new Century NG Rods with this beauty of a lunker weighing 28lb 6oz. The fish came from a spot that I’ve been baiting regularly with good quality boilies throughout the year. My rig consisted of GLT No Can See fluorocarbon tied D rig style to a Gardner Longshank Incizor Hook, the hookbait was a snowman and was lodged well back in the fishes mouth. When I get a bit of time I will show those of you that don’t know how to tie the D rig.

Best fishes,

John

Customer Rob O’Brien used Korda Hybrid Stiff to hoodwink these French beauty’s weighing 32lb and 36lb respectively. Rob was fishing Etang Rendevouz in France and also caught carp of 25lb,22lb,18lb and 15lb in his week long session. Using a snowman blowback rig consisting of size 4 hooks tied to a Korda Hybrid Stiff hooklink Rob cast tight to the margins of an Island. Hookbaits were 3 pieces of maize topped of with a piece of Enterprise Pop-Up Sweetcorn these were put into a pva bag along with 20 freebies. Rob reports that he encountered every weather condition possible on his trip including hail and snow and winds from all directions. This week see’s Rob back at Etang Rendevouz, so hopefully we will have some more photos’ and catch reports from him soon. Good Luck Rob!!

Best fishes,

John

Heres the photo of the first twenty James caught on a recent day session at Headlands Lake. James’ PB carp weighed 23lb 6oz and was caught on a Blowback rig tied with Kryston  Super Mantis , hookbaits were Mainline Activ Maple-8 dumbells .

The photo quality isn’t perfect as it was taken on a camera phone but a cracking fish all the same.

Well done mate

Tight Lines

David ï¿½