Carp Catchers Blog

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

Rob O’Brien and friends had a major carping haul in France recently. Fishing at Etang Rendevuoz Rob and two friends amassed a hundred carp between them. Rob alone had 37 fish, the biggest being 37lb. The rigs Rob used were constructed from 6” of  Sufix Kameleon  with half inch stripped back, this was tied to size 4 Korda Wide Gape Hook shrink tubed and tied blow back style. The successful baits were Mainline Activ Maple-8  and Nash Scopex Squid Plus Robin Red  freezer boilies fished snowman style with matching pop ups. These were fished over a bed of boilies, pellets and maise. Rob reports that the temperatures were in the 30′s and the water temperature was an incredible 26 degrees centigrade. Well done Rob sounds like you had a great holiday.

Best Fishes,

John

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

Here’s a real cracker of a carp caught by Terry Hearn. Terry caught this 43lb 8oz beauty on a Dynamite Baits Chocolate Malt & Tiger Nut Pop Up  while field testing the new bait. Nice one!

Best fishes,

John

Tying a pop-up to a D-ring is sometimes necessary when using pop-ups which lose their buoyancy if pierced with a baiting needle. A lot of anglers just don’t have the confidence to tie pop ups because they feel the pop ups may come off on the cast. But if you use the slip knot demonstated below there should be no danger of them coming off . The Bait Floss used in this demonstration was the ESP Bait Floss.

Step 1.

Remove about 4 inches of Bait Floss from the spool and form an overhand loop. (See picture below)

Step 2.

Now form another smaller overhand loop inside that and pass the tag end through both. (See pictures below)

Step 3.

Tighten the smaller loop to form a knot this will now have formed a slip knot with the bigger loop. (See picture below)

Step 4.

Place your chosen pop up inside to loop and slowly tighten it down until it grips the bait, then tighten it fully making sure it tightens down into the pop up. If the pop ups your using are not soft enough for this to happen I find it helps to make a small groove in the pop up for the bait floss to sit in. (See picture below)

Step 5.

Now tie the bait to your rig with 3-4 overhand knots and blob the tag ends with a lighter being careful not to burn the rig or your fingers. (See picture below)

The bait should now be secure enough to stay on your rig for the entire period it’s in the water, give it some practice so you’re confident enough if you have to do it on the bank.

Tight lines

Dave

We are finally well into the colder months of the year now and we have already recieved a few cold snaps of weather over the previous two months with many lakes around the country freezing over for a short period. Only the most hardy of anglers will have dared grace the banks during these colder spells of weather but some of them may well have been rewarded for their efforts.

Winter carp fishing is never going to be and never has been easy by a long stretch but the captures made at this time of year can be far more rewarding. If your going to attempt a winter session then make sure your prepared for the coldest of winter weather. By now the water temperatures will have dropped considerably compared to the summer months therefore slowing down the carps metabolism to a creeping pace decreasing their need for food. The carp will not be that active this time of year with them generally hanging around in their favourite winter haunts, these are normally the deeper more sheltered areas of the lake but every lakes different so use the knowledge you know about your water to help you locate those fish. Dont rule out the shallower areas either, if the weather warms up a bit and the sun makes an appearance the shallower areas will warm up first and the fish know this. Try single hookbaits to begin with and move your rods around your swim to try and help you to locate where the fish maybe holding up, generally if you can catch one fish there is a good possibility of another if they’re interested in your bait. Bait application during the winter months can either make or break a session so don’t over do it unless your sure the fish want some bait, generally start of light with single hookbaits or pva bags and apply a little more if things begin to progress and fish start to show an interest, you dont need large amounts of bait this time of year. Ive had some of my best winter sessions with a tub of pop ups and a bag of stick mix.

If your planning a session this winter don’t be disheartened if you don’t catch as there will be many other anglers in the same boat, just get out there and apply a bit of thought into your angling.

Tight lines

Dave

This rig can be used for a variety of baits, such as boilies, plastic baits, maggots and pop-ups when weighted down with putty or shot. It looks like a very complicated rig to tie but it is infact simple but effective when used correctly. The components used to tie this rig are Korda Hybrid Stiff Coated Braid, a Korda Wide Gape Hook, Korda Weed Green Shrink Tubing, ESP 0.5mm Silicone Tubing and Kryston Heavy Metal Plus.

Step 1.

Cut about 10 inches of the stiff coated braid off the spool strip about 3 1/2 inches of the coating off and tie a small overhand loop knot in the end for your hair stop.

Step 2.

Now thread on a 3mm length of silicone tubing. (See picture below)

Step 3.

Being careful not to snag the braid thread the point of the hook through the silicone tubing with the point heading towards to hair loop and slide the hook round so its sitting with the silicone on the top of the bend on the shank. (See pictures below)

Step 4.

Now thread the braid through the back of the eye to the front and adjust the length of the hair to suit the bait you intend to use, then tie a knotless knot making sure the silicone tubing is still sitting at the top the bend on the shank, this is done so that the bait weighs down the point of the hook helping to drive the hook in but obviously move the silicone tubing down the shank a bit for pop-ups. Remember to whip the 1st turn of the knot away from the join in the eye. (See picture below)

Step 5.

Cut a small piece of the Korda Safe Zone Shrink Tube so its long enough the cover the knot and give about 8mm of shrink tubing below the eye of the hook. (See picture below)

Step 6.

Using the Solar Rig Cone steam the shrink tubing over the kettle to give the shrink tubing an inturned curve, but be careful not to make the gap between the point of the hook and the tubing too small as this will actually hinder the rigs hooking ability rather than enhance it, also make sure not to burn the hooklink if your steaming it over your stove on the bank. (See pictures below)

Step 7.

Now tie a figure of eight knot at the other end of the hooklink for faster rig changing, i prefer to make my rigs around 6 inches in length. The figure of eight knot is used for this as it won’t cut into the coating under tension. (See picture below)

Step 8.

To finish the rig steam it straight over the kettle or pin it straight on a rig board but be careful not to straighten out the shrink tubing by pinning it too tight, then complete the rig with a couple of blobs of Kryston Heavy Metal plus to pin it down to the lake bed. (See picture below)

The rig is now complete and ready to cast out.

Tight Lines

David