After a year with virtually no carp fishing I had a nice return to my syndicate. The 32lb 2oz mirror carp shown below was my reward. It was caught on 18mm Mainline Activ 8 Boilies. My rig was tied old school D rig style with 30lb GLT No Can See Fluorocarbon to a size 6 Gardner Longshank Incizor hook.
Best Fishes,
John
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Here’s a dumpy carp that I caught recently. It weighed 30lb 8oz and fell to my usual old skool D Rig tied with GLT No Can See Fluorocarbon to a size 6 Gardner Longshank Incizor . I fished a clear spot in weed at about 60yrds and scattered a kilo of Mainline Activ-8 boilies over the spot.
Best Fishes,
John
Here’s a nice 35lb 2oz mirror carp I had recently. It led me a right dance as it got into a massive weed bed and even though the lead had dropped on the take I had to go out in the boat to free it. It was well hooked though and it was never going to come off. I used half a kilo of scattered 18mm Mainline Activ-8 boilies as bait and the hookbait was a snowman with a 10mm Mainline Hi Visual Milky Toffee pop up. The rig was tied D rig style with a size 6 Gardner Longshank Incizor hook and a 30lb GLT No Can See Fluorocarbon Hooklink .
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
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
Autumn has to be one of the best seasons on the calendar for carp fishing, as well as spring but we’re not there yet. During the autumn period big carp all over the country start to fed quite hard in a bid to up there weights for the winter ahead. It is not uncommon that all the larger residents of a lake will get caught during this period. This could be due to the fish being in competition for food or just generally being greedy about how they are feeding before the onset of winter. Either way they more often than not make mistakes this time of year.
If you’re planning to fish through this autumn into the coming winter then pick yourself a good quality bait such as the Mainline Cell or Activ 8 freezer boilies, the Nash Amber Strawberry or Baitcraft T1 are all proven winter baits. Big carp know what’s good for them and what’s not, that’s how they got so big in the first place so picking a good quality bait is very important. This time of year it’s also important to find those areas which the carp are prepared to feed and get some bait on them, if you have the opportunity to prebait these spots in readiness for forthcoming sessions then it can pay to do so. Although prebaiting can be a frustrating game if the lake your fishing is targeted by a lot of anglers it can pay off in a big way if everything all comes together. Prebaiting can get the fish feeding confidently on your chosen bait in your chosen areas while there are no rigs in the water. If possible try to prebait on or just after darkness, this will avoid any unwanted attention from the birdlife residing on your water.
If you can it helps to find out as much as possible about captures during the autumn from previous years and the kind of spots they are getting caught from. If you can’t do this then I’d suggest targeting the deeper silty areas as this is where the majority of the carp’s natural food can be found in abundance. Carp are a creature of habit so it can become very difficult to get them to feed in areas they wouldn’t usually visit, so the areas you target must be visited by the carp on a regular basis or you could very well be making the challenge even harder for yourself.
Observation is the key to finding the feeding areas that carp are visiting, first and last light are the best time to watch for feeding carp. Whether that be bubbling, crashing or clouding of certain areas of the lake. If these areas are located you are half way to banking carp in their autumn colours.
If you bare in mind the factors I’ve discussed when planning your autumn campaign then you could well be in for a good one.
Tight Lines
Dave
A nice result for Ben recently with this 29lb 4oz mirror carp from Wellingborough Lakes. Ben was using Mainline Activ-8 boilies scattered over a wide area. Fishing to a silty area Ben used a chod rig tied with a size 5 ESP Stiff Rigger hook on a readymade Ace Hard On Camo Leadcore Helicopter/Chod Rigs . Well done Ben.
Best Fishes,
John
Here’s my latest catch which weighed 19lb 11oz. Though it looks really nice you can see it’s well spawned out, but I was happy none the less. I caught the mirror using my normal rig and it came from the area that I have been baiting regularly with good quality freezer boilies. The boilies I used on this particular occasion were Mainline Activ-8 in a mixture of sizes.
Best fishes,
John