ouchthathurt

I’m a bit envious! Good luck mate with the campaign, let’s hope we come out of lockdown in time for spring!

What’s worse is that right now, thinking about the waters I fish, I can’t think of a single scenario where a baiting pole would be of use to me... yet I still want one! 🙄 when I fished a small estate lake, the best spots were right under the overhanging bushes that ran along a dam wall. Problem was you couldn’t cast there. I got around this by taking the elasticated poles from an old tent I had, gaffa taped the joints so it Didn’t come apart then taped an old forked twig on one end with a block of polystyrene lashed on... I stood on the dam bank behind the bush I wanted to place a bait under and threaded this monstrosity out under the bush and out into the lake. Then I flicked the lead and old rig over this floating pole in the water, opened the bail arm, ran round to the dam wall and pulled the pole back in to me, which dragged the rig with it. Then by wriggling under the bush to the waters edge, I could unhook the old rig, attach a baited hook length and drop it into position by hand exactly where I wanted it. I could even donk the lead up and down a few times to feel the spot or clear it of debris. Once it’s in place, nip back to the swim, tighten everything up and jobs a good un. The bush was only about 15ft off the rod tip, but where the outer branches trailed the waters edge, you just couldn’t quite get a lead under there by casting. Such a faff!

I’m watching carp angle now! I’d like a pole like that but they’re rather pricey. Although I’ll use spod mixes and go down that route if I think it’s necessary, I tend to predominantly just fish straight boilies. I have been feeding the same baits for years, and in my experience, I’ve not noticed much improvement in catches using a “spod mix” (hemp, corn, pellet etc) over just fishing over a bed of boilies. Shearwater would do well over a spodded mix, so I went in with that, then one session (it’s about 3hr drive from my house) I left my spod mix at home by mistake so just spombed out a bed of boilies and had just as much action. Obviously, this will be dependent on the lake etc, my waters will fish differently to someone else’s. These days, the spod rod stays in the rod bag and I just pult out a bed of boilies. I’m confident that my baits are being eaten and at the end of every session, I put the remainder of my bait in so they can have a free feed, as I make my own bait and freeze it when it’s made, I don’t like taking it home and re-freezing it and it doesn’t keep too long. So it gets spread about the margins and nature reserve where they can feed safely and I make up a new batch fresh for the next session. I just like to keep things simple (I’m easily confused!) and a bag of boilies is easier to carry around than a big bucket of particle!

I like to chuck in one of those small tins of the golden grain complete with juice, the visual element plus it’s an instant fish puller.

Finely chopped and crushed nuts? I once used peanut flour and fine grade semolina 50/50 with an egg white powder sachet and rapeseed oil - all brought from a supermarket, mixed it all together with eggs and they made pretty nifty looking boilies, didn’t catch on them mind! I’m sure they would work, on the right water.

I couldn’t put a finger on why spodding won’t work on my particular lake, I can remember back to about 2000 when one angler took the place apart spodding 20k of gear out then sitting on it for a week. He emptied the place, after that we were all spodding the granny out of it, and it was all one big blank... roll forward to 2020s, the lake has a new stock, nice young healthy fish, about 90 in 5(ish) acres, yet I’ve not had a single take off a spodded area. Maybe this is more down to the fact I can’t do any more than one night at a time... perhaps those that follow me into the swim clean up! My other water used to produce bites from about 4-8hrs post spodding, shearwater used to respond really well to spodding too, yet a big bed of boilies fished at range used to be just as productive. Maybe with lockdown, when we can finally all angle normally, the carp will be gagging for a nice few Kg of boiled bait that spodding might work again, who knows?

For me wellies are a no no, they don’t keep your feet warm, if anything, I find they can cool your feet down. I tend to stick to the alt berg or magnum boots I wore in the army. Thin cotton socks with thick thermal socks over them. I avoid gortex or waterproof socks as although they stop water getting in, sweat can’t get out and your feet get damp anyway.

Using prebait to clear gravel spots is always worth exploring, I used this to good effect last spring as there was a small hard spot surrounded by Canadian that would do a bite if the wind and light conditions were right. I kept putting hemp and pellet on this spot to keep it clear. It worked for a time, then during summer the surrounding weed grew to an extent that meant this spot was no longer fishable. I could rake the spot clean, but the large beds of Canadian between the spot and the swim prevented line lay and landing fish safely. Most people ignore the swim when the weed comes up, yet the swim has a nice silty area that is fishable, yet no one fishes it.

I tend not to do much spodding, but when I do, I just go for pigeon conditioner, hemp, boilie, pellet and a dash of sweet corn. My current water doesn’t respond too well to spodding, although I will give it a go if I feel it’s right. My other water responds to spodding, but I just go for boilie and pellet. Simple yet effective.

Some carp knocking around in the river Stour if you wanna think outside the box?

Looked at hamworthy lake in Poole?

There’s nothing a mod can do to help Elmo... that ship has sailed! Lol! 😛

Looks good mate, (nice socks! Lol!)

I came off social media years ago because I couldn’t be doing with the hassle, after we returned from Afghanistan, my colleague posted some “helmet cam” footage filmed during one of our firefights with the insurgents. (In it you get to see my rear end in glorious detail as I’m heroically sheltering in a ditch!!) it wasn’t a long video, we are patrolling, we get ambushed, we fight back and then extract. Well the abuse we got as a result was laughable, we were called baby killers, (difficult to eat a live one I always found) we were government stooges, murderers, we were criticised by faceless sofa warriors saying how we were “fighting all wrong” etc - by people who had never served in the military and never been ambushed in a mulberry grove by a village, we were called cowards for extracting rather than fighting it out (hey, who cares about the civvies that have to live in the village) it was endless. I don’t understand why people feel the need, they wouldn’t say it to my face after all!

Never too early to start doing the groundwork mate, knowledge is power! Good recon is never wasted. Do you know of any catches from this stretch in the past? If you get down there and can find carp that are active and moving, then it won’t harm to trickle in a bit of bait, just don’t kick the ring piece out of it, a handful here, a few handfuls there, other canal species will clear it up if the carp don’t. In your case, I’d start with the Polaroids and start fish spotting and learning the stock of the stretch. Then I’d lead and rake about to build up a picture of the canal bed and any features. Canal carp love cover over their heads and any occupied canal boats are worth a look, they provide heat and warmth. Just try not to drill a 3oz lead into the side of them, it tends to displease the owners somewhat... baiting spoons are always useful. It’s homework time mate, are there carp there? Can you find them/see them? Has the stretch got form or a history of producing carp in the past? Then swim mapping and baiting spots you see carp on, especially if they are spots you can observe from the bank, if you see a carp in one spot, you can bait one spot, move on and investigate another spot, and another etc then go back and recheck any spots you’ve baited to see if the carp have got on them.

I love getting on the canals, always approaching them with the same basic game plan mate. firstly, location is the most obvious thing, however it's surprising how often it is skipped over. Often, canal carp are not as pressured as their lake brethren, so can be easier to see and pin down. I would start with a prebaiting campaign. But with the current weather, I would probably lay off for a few weeks until the milder weather comes around. Although canal carp are more active and feed in colder temperatures than lake carp in my experience, they will still slow down and feed a lot less in the winter. My start would be with hemp/particle/corn/pellet with a few boilies added. Keep it going in initially to attract all species. As much as I want to stop other species in their tracks, I won't go straight for boilies until I know carp are visiting regularly. Flowing water carp (river/canal) tend to be very nomadic, especially in stretches where there are little in the way of cover or features to hold them, this is where I would attempt to create a reason for them to visit a chosen spot time and again using bait. Once I was happy I knew carp were hitting the spot regularly, I would do away with pellet and corn etc and wean them into boilies to deter the nuisance species and target the carp better. Although flowing water carp are less pressured, they can be spooky - catching one carp off a prebaited spot can spook the others and they often drift away, so I try get as many spots going as possible. Then I can leapfrog the carp on the move and be set up waiting as they reach my next spot. Good thing about most canals is you can follow the carp along the bank. More of my successes come from sections with lots of features and bushes etc, boats and marinas are good places to try. Get a mountain bike and some polaroids and go searching. Carp are always gonna drift from one section to another, unless something holds them. Lock gates, weir pools etc. I find once i am on fish, they're catchable, the trick is to find them first. Find them, feed them, catch them... Rigs wise, I tend not to get too riggy anyway, I believe location and quality bait is key anywhere, especially on a canal or river. Long casting is generally not an issue, so I tend to go for strong and simple gear. My main line is .35mm Shimano technium, (got 20lb b/s on testing it myself) with leadclips or inlines as a lead arrangement. Hooklinks are often just mono or a tough coated braid. Simple knotless knot to a strong size 4 hook. I'm an avid leadcore user, (although if I use leadcore, then I use helicopter rigs as I think they’re safer) although I'll also use rigtube as happily. I want something tough and abrasion resistant, not all techy and complicated. If bottom debris and crayfish are an issue, then pop ups would be my choice, if I can present a bottom bait without any problems, then I'd go for that first. Backleading to prevent boats/kayakers etc catching my lines is important as well as keeping my gear on the path clear so walkers/cyclists don't run it down! I like to keep light and mobile so I can keep moving onto fish if my present spot isn't producing, before finding a night spot in a quiet stretch to do an overnighter. - this I bait regularly to keep the carp interested. Somewhere a little less snaggy and more open for fish safety reasons after dark. It's ok fishing locked up in the weedy/snaggy bits in the day where you can be on it and in control quickly but at night, I want it a bit more risk free where a run off a clutch won't cause issues. The carp will leave the snags and explore more at night anyway, so you make the best of both worlds. Finally, if you can rake the swims of crud and bait them, then try it - if all you do is clear a load of litter off the canal bed, then it's a good thing! I'd try get as much out as possible, anglers are guardians of our environment, rubbish is an eyesore and anglers tend to get blamed - more flak we could all do without, even if we are blameless. Clear the spots of the rubbish and hope the carp gods will smile on you. Canals and rivers are tricky venues, but I love them. They fish through the winter too usually, I've got a little canal lined up for the winter months. Just wish I could get there this winter! oh and check out “canal carping” book by rob maylin and friends, i just picked up a copy for under a tenner online. Good luck mate.

I’ve gone through a fair few sets of alarms, I started with optonic alarms, then got micron M’s, then Steve Neville alarms, then fox again. I loved the micron minis (just been re-released) and the micron Mx which are pretty solid and reliable alarms yet aren’t too pricey. I had the basic Nash sirens which again were good alarms, the £20 versions, have volume control and are fairly sensitive, but a bit too quiet for my taste. The delkim EV are pretty good, volume and sensitivity and tone as standard, I had them for a few years (before the sirens) and they certainly do the job, might pick them up on a deal now the newest delks are out. Only problem I had was they packed up in the rain, I had a set of four and two packed up during downpours. Although, for me, it’s Steve Neville alarms, I love them and had a set years ago, before I snapped them off at the base (older nev’s could have an issue with the base of the alarm around the screw fitting cracking) I replaced them with the micron Mx's. I replaced the delk EVs with another set of nevilles, I love them, they’re simple and the sound of a screaming Neville is awesome. My son has the delks now, he still sleeps through a screaming run...

I fish mainly old disused reservoirs, clay ponds, drains and the odd river.

I think the most important thing to take away is to find a bait that you have confidence in, that’s the key. There are many reputable bait firms out there that can fill your needs, but as an angler you need that trust, faith and confidence that they will work. Whilst I will harp on for ages about premier baits, other anglers will love nutrabaits, or solar or Mainline, etc it all comes down to what you have confidence in. Sometimes the reasons for a base mix can be arbitrary, when I first started rolling bait in the 90s, I was on mainline grange, my mate was on premier aminos. Why? Because I lived in one town where the local tackle shop stocked mainline bases and my mates shop stocked premier. I could walk to my shop, yet to get premier bases, I would have to catch the train. My mates catch rates were better than mine, so I stopped using Mainline and jumped on the train... I’ve been using premier ever since and haven’t looked back. So my faith in premier is higher than that of mainline, I don’t feel as confident in mainline as I do premier, which is stupid really as my pb 42lb 8oz carp was caught on a red plum mainline pop up when I arrived at a lake without any bait... (muppet) yet there will be thousands of anglers that will argue the case for mainline as their bait of choice as it’s done the business for them, just ask Dave Lane and the lads from Korda... initially choosing a base mix can be a bit bewildering, there’s so much choice, but the reputable firms have produced very good mixes, regardless of company, my advice would be to look at your waters, see what the going bait is there, then use that to help narrow your search. Pick a base and stick with it. Build your confidence up in it through catches and soon you have so much faith in your bait that you almost forget about that equation! Don’t forget the most important element in carping, location location location! You can’t catch a carp that isn’t there, the best bait in the world can’t catch carp in an empty swim!

Good luck buddy. 🤞🏼

I’ve got fox rods mate, (torques 12ft 3lb test) and I can’t fault them for action or build quality pal.

The solar club mix is a proven bait with an excellent track record, as is the trigga base mix. I would be cautious about blending the two bases, (if I understand correctly) as they are specifically formulated with specific ingredients. I’d choose one and stick with it. For me out of the two would be the club mix as it’s got some good fish meal ingredients in it, which would complement the monster crab flavour. Maybe consider other little goodies to make the bait unique to you. The bait I make is on a matrix base mix with robin red, shellfish sense appeals, cream stimulant, betaine and salmon oil with a low dose of smoked ham or blue cheese flavour. With pungent flavours like monster crab I like to think that less is more so the bait isn’t completely overpowering smell wise, I think this is better in a long term foodbait, relying more on the inherent pulling power and the nutrition found in a food bait rather than short term “smelly baits” that rely on the scent in larger doses to attract. I do think that beds of strongly smelling bait can be off putting to carp. I reckon base mixes would work just as well as just a base and oils, relying on the inherent flavours and attractors within the base, the flavour is added for a “smell” which we can obviously detect, but can a carp “smell” as we do? Or do they detect the flavour as a taste? I don’t know, but I know adding a flavour makes it smell nice to me, it breeds confidence and that’s half the battle. Decent food baits get better with application, so pick a decent bait and stick with it mate.

Any decent reputable fish meal base mix should do mate, you’re best picking a brand and sticking with it, I’ve been using the same base mix company since 1996 (premier) I always found the monster crab flavour to be a good fish catcher (the original RH monster crab was awesome) but a word of warning... it does absolutely stink and the others in your household may not talk to you for a while. Check out the MC/addicted mix from Rod Hutchinson, give it a google and see what base mix (type) that was on, it was a winner.

A mate of mine used to be mad keen on carping, we were out virtually every weekend, he hit on a run of blanks, got convinced that it was all down to rigs and couldn’t accept it was probably down to the run of things, it wasn’t an easy water and a string of blanks could and did happen to us all. He started chopping and changing rigs all over, still blanking... he brought the underwater carp fishing dvd for some hints and tips, yet it just wrecked his head, he got so despondent that he lost all confidence in what he was doing and eventually hung up his rods.

In this case, I think it was down more to the cast itself, it required a low, hard punch to get it tight under the overhanging shrubbery and then stopping it dead so it didn’t drill into the clay bank that rose up immediately above the desired spot, if that makes any sense! The other rod fished to a more open spot where I could feather the cast went out sweet, the first spot was so tight it required maximum accuracy, a PVA bag wasn’t the one, as I couldn’t get the mark, with the long low trajectory needed, the PVA bag splashed down too soon, a PVA nugget would have been useful, but the bag was safely in my tackle cupboard at home... (perfectly useless!) as the water was gin clear, I opted to use a fluro combi firstly as it was nigh on invisible and whipping the existing braided hooklink to a fluro “boom” was far quicker that tying up new complete hooklinks. An important consideration when I had a carp show near the spot and I wanted a bait placed and waiting.