ouchthathurt

Rock salt (any salt) is a good attractor as all fish need to replace salts lost through osmosis. Carp are always losing vital salts required for metabolism and isotonic balance (like humans that require approx 1.2-3g of salt a day to replace what we lose) as the salt is absorbed into the carps surrounding environment. If you have two fluids, like in the case of a carp, the surrounding water and their blood stream the two fluids will always try to balance out (trying to simplify this!) So a fluid with higher salt concentration like the carps blood will lose salt to the surrounding water. This is why saltwater eels change and look different to freshwater eels, they are the same fish, but when entering salt water, their skin thickens, the slime thickens and other changes happen to minimise this osmosis - balancing - otherwise the high concentration of salt in the sea would travel over into the bloodstream and cause excessive salt build up in the eels bloodstream leading to organ failure and death. The carp will find salt attractive as it's an essential ingredient in their basic mineral needs for health yet it's a tricky element to find in their natural environment for the most part. amino acids are an essential ingredient required to break down protein chains to make them digestible. Worms are said to be high in amino acids. Carp are thought to be able to detect these acids in tiny concentrations, it's a fascinating subject, but only the carp really know, and not one carp will talk - even under torture! They enjoy waterboarding for some reason... The use of compost or soil as a groundbait has potential, after all soil is a recognised groundbait for perch - one handful of soil holds a high number of organisms etc than the population of the UK - soil is a living entity. Even the clouding or darkening of the water (if clear) will act as an attraction as carp may believe it's caused by other feeding fish and investigate. It's a new smell, something different, the curiosity factor may be of bigger benefit than any Ph change. I'm not sure you would be able to affect a noticeable difference in PH as it would soon be absorbed into the water column. It might need a large amount of soil to make a difference? I don't know, whether the acid and alkali would just mix so the difference is negligible... Yet carp can supposedly detect minute changes and particles so the negligent change of PH in an area may be all you need...

These are the rolling guns I've been using, they last for ages! I'm about to replace the one I have as it's finally worn out. I knock up several kilos on a weekly basis, I always keep a Kg or two in the freezer so I've got bait if a chance for a bankside visit appears, plus I try keep a Kg or two going into the lake on a weekly basis, even if I'm not fishing, just to keep the carp interested in my bait and eating it risk free. I use a small gardener rolling table, i find that if I have a little measuring guide, then I just gun out all the mix into sausages that are cut to the right length using my measuring guide, then I place two sausages in the rolling table with a large enough gap between them so they don't get mashed together through the rolling action. Give them a quick going over with the table, tip them out into an old plastic Tupperware box then another two sausages etc etc until all my pre prepared sausages are used up. then refill the gun, measure out and cut the sausages and repeat. Doing it this way, rather than measuring out the sausage, then rolling, then measuring out another sausage then rolling... Etc was usually quicker. Either way, the rolling table is much faster than the old method of rolling each individual boilie by hand!!

Well done fella, nice result!

It was an old accepted method of making bait, rolling them as normal, then placing them in a paper bag and air drying them in the airing cupboard until they go hard. I tried it, but to be honest, I didn't see much difference between them and boiled baits. I used to put them on cocktail sticks before putting them in the airing cupboard so when they were ready, i would pull the cocktail stick out and be left with a hole through the middle for the hair. I found that all I was doing was dehydrating the baits, so once in the lake, they re-adsorbed the lake water and softened up - there's a thought, a bait with the appearance of a washed out boilie! other ways I tried was to increase the egg albumin levels and boil for 30secs just to skin them, (experimentation is necessary dependant on base mix) so the middle of the bait was still a paste. or put the baits in a steamer to skin them, this can produce the skinned paste effect that may suit your needs.

If looking for a high attract fruity pop up, then I use main line Polaris pop up mix, bit of egg albumin (egg white powder from a supermarket baking isle) a red bait dye (in small quantities to give me a pale pink colour) premier peach flavour. To be honest, as I use the same base mix and attractor/flavour/additives combination when rolling my own bait all year round, I tend to just stick with that, making up a one egg mix of my usual base mix, adding egg albumin and wrapping the paste around a cork ball. I personally don't see the need to swap over to a high attract pop up in the colder months. I've fed the carp all year on my usual bait recipe, so why change? It's an accepted food source and they will pick it up if they find it in winter. Last winter, I continued to fish over large beds of boilies just as I did through late summer and autumn, as they just kept eating it. I'm sure that because the food source was available, even when the lake was half frozen, the carp were still active and cleaning up beds of bait. The energy source was there, so they were able to expend energy to feed. The amount of bait a carp can consume in a single sitting is linked directly to the dissolved oxygen levels in the water, like all animals, we need an increase of oxygenated blood to our digestive system when eating, a carp as we know, gets its O2 from the surrounding water, in winter, the lakes often have a much higher level of oxygen, dissolved into the water, often to the point of oxygen saturation, as opposed to summer, when the warmer temperature causes O2 to escape the water into the surrounding air. So winter carp can consume a reasonable amount of bait in the winter. Of course, being cold blooded will slow them up, but if they can find a constant food source, then provided they can replenish lost energy with a decent bait, they are more likely to remain active. I've seen it enough times, it gets cold, less anglers are out, less bait goes in, the carp can't find the energy source to sustain their current level of activity so they slow down to conserve what energy they do have, they move less, therefore using less energy, therefore don't need to feed as often. I have seen this technique work better on smaller waters where they are more likely to come across my baiting, then larger venues, but it's worth considering.

I've been using the aminos basemixes for longer than I can care to remember, I used to buy robin red separately and add it myself, then Tony pointed out that I could just buy aminos RR with the red already added... Hmmmm... Felt a bit silly at that point! Spending more money to make a base they already sold! Just knocked up another load of bait this afternoon, aminos RR, with their awesome salmon oil and cream stimulant additive, plus a few extra bits and bobs, betaine, shellfish sense appeals, smoked ham flavour, egg albumin, and salt. With a dash of red dye to really make the bait a nice bold red. I use the same bait all year round and it keeps catching wherever I take it, what more could you ask? I do sometimes think I should update it, but then again, why? It's been going into my venues for years, the catches haven't dropped off and when I feed them, they will demolish it, so why fix what isn't broken?

Thought of the day? I didn't seem to notice a summer this year...

I often use larger leads than the "accepted" norm - for instance, at the moment I'm using 3.5-4oz leads routinely. I have chosen the lead size to suit the angling situation that I'm in. my last water was tiny, approx an acre, a lovely dinky estate type lake, with a good head of carp to 35lb where the angling was up close and personal. A lead on their head was the kids of death. So I would often use leads of 2.5oz. These were flicked into the margins or lowered under the rod tips. I wanted a lead with enough mass to ensure the hook set properly on bolting, yet minimise disturbance when casting. However I did find towards the end that the carp were used to dealing with leads in the standard 2-3oz range and were often getting away with it. So I went up to the larger 3.5-4oz range but flicking them into the bankside foilage above the spot and lower them in by hand. That upped my catch rate as they weren't used to seeing those leads or dealing with them. Another little trick I used to do was when the carp were stacked up in the narrows (the lake was triangular in shape) they would be in the narrow bay in numbers, the narrows were covered by 2swims that didn't really produce, even if the carp were in the narrows as the water was shallow and placing a bait in the narrows just spooked them out into the main body every time. I would fish the swims to the mouth of the narrows, placing baits quietly along the patrol routes they used to travel in and out of the narrows, then purposefully cast a bare lead into the narrows which made the carp drift off out of the narrows, along their patrol routes and over my baits... Caught every time! My current water is a largish deep windswept pit that suffers from undertow dependant on wind strength. I find the bigger leads help me feel for a drop in the deep water, as well as in the wind and undertow - as well as being larger, it's easier to keep a direct line to the lead without moving the lead or allowing the undertow to pull the lead off the spot.

I've been using premier baits for nearly 20yrs, I've never seen the need to change. I use them for all my basemixes, oils, additives etc. I use a different flavour company though, purely as premier don't do the flavour that I have been using for the last 14yrs for my baits. I roll all my own baits and pop ups, and have nothing but praise for Tony and the guys at premier.

I've used maggots quite a bit last winter and had a cracking few sessions on them. I found that it was best to split them into smaller quantities as a lot of maggots all wriggling together creates warmth that caused sweating. Keeping those that were not for immediate use in airtight bags with the air squeezed out put them into suspended animation and keeping them in a cool bag allowed them to be stored for a week session quite comfortably. When exposed to air, they soon woke up again. To be honest, I always had better success using a small pva bag of maggots and a magaligner rig rather than spombing the granny out of it. Most pva bags will take several handfuls of maggots easily which when placed on known feeding areas, produced bites far more regularly than a huge carpet of germs. Usually, for a 2night session 2-3pints were ample. I had carp to 37lb+ on pva bagged maggots and a magaligner/medusa rig arrangement.

Couldn't put it better myself mate. Pitting our wits and experience against a living creature that is capable of its own process of thought and learning by association. This sport never stands still after all. I've moved onto a new venue, several rivers and drainage dykes all meeting at an EA pumping station, and it's like starting from scratch, the buzz of walking the river banks, wondering where the hell to start is awesome.

Well experience comes from trial and error, I have rigs that i am happy with, I reached this conclusion as a result of going through the trial and error phase in my formative years as a new carper years ago. Simple thing was there wasn't really anything in the way of dedicated carp mags that were available when I was trialling things, I remember early issues of carpworld coming out and devouring those, but other than that, if I wanted to indulge in rig information, it was reading books or talking to other anglers on the bank. I used to have junior anglers who would ask me to teach them rig tying, and why not? I learned how to tie a hair rig from an older carper who showed me on the bank. I also get confidence from choosing the correct venue, I have two club books that I fish. One lake fishes better in the summer when the other is choked with weed, yet in the winter when the first pit dies a death and the carp seem to vanish off the face of the earth, the second pit is now far less weedier and the fishing is coming into its own. It fishes well right through the winter and into spring. Knowing where to target and when is also key to catching regularly.

My next river target!

Confidence is a funny thing really, and I have found that the more you learn the more things appear that can eat into your confidence... If I could give an example of what I mean... when I first started carp fishing in the mid 90s, I used to fish a local water and go down with a couple of mismatched fibreglass carp rods and a couple of scrappy mismatched reels, precariously balanced on a couple of bent and wobbly wire rod rests with hair grips pushed into painted corks for bobbins. Hooklinks were whatever the reel line was, terminal tackle was a few random bombs, swivels, beads from my sea tackle box and hooks being drennan super specialist hooks. All arranged in a running rig. Bait was flour, water and vanilla food flavouring mixed together and baked in the oven! I would bury a hook in this baked "thing" and toss it out into the pond. In my happy "ignorance" I sat in supreme confidence and caught my share of carp. roll on the times and I still go to this pond of my youth, with my youngest son carp fishing, so do I set him up with baked dough on hairless hooks and mono running rigs? No! He uses tubing, lead clips, coated braid and boilies... Why not the dough balls? Because I wouldn't be confident in catching, yet logically there's no reason why it wouldn't work. I used to use a primitive zig arrangement using bread crust - popped up 2-3ft from the bottom and caught lots of carp, yet now my confidence in zigs is zero. Why is this? Simple, my fishing hasn't used zigs for years and as such, I am not experienced in their use. When I've chucked a zig out on a slow day, it's not produced - damaging my confidence in it, yet in reality it was the angling situation or the angler at fault, not the method. yet my confidence comes from my experience, I've fished some difficult waters over the years, lakes, rivers, canals, ponds, inland seas (all UK waters) and can now happily sit on a difficult water waiting for weeks for a bite, knowing it is part and parcel of this type of water. I have developed a bait over very many years, using the same base mix since 1996 with the same flavouring, additives, etc. I make my own baits, and now I have so much confidence in my bait, it's not a consideration for me. It works, it's never let me down, it catches and has lasted the test of time. What more do I want? Rigs are the same, I use the same basic rigs, tweaking them to suit the situation, I don't look at the mags, don't get hooked up on the latest wonder rigs, I just use what has worked for me, so it's another thing I don't need to worry about. I have rigs to go to if need be, but why complicate things needlessly? For me, it's cutting down the variables. If I know my baits and rigs are going to work, then I don't need to worry about them. I can therefore put those considerations to one side knowing they will work, so I can concentrate on location and the task in hand of looking and locating carp. Once that is cracked, I can plan the way to fish the swim, knowing my baits and rigs will do the business. If I'm trotting up a string of blanks, then I can cast my mind back over years of success using the baits and rigs, so I know that they work, rather than having the latest bait or wonder rig on the end that I've only used for 5mins, which will eat away at me, is it the bait? Is it the rig? Is it just that I'm fishing a water that only does a few bites a month to a syndicate of a dozen carpers and I need to keep the effort up to get a result? Confidence for me is making my own baits, using rigs that I know works and working on the most important aspect in my mind... Find the fish in the first place!

Fair enough mate, I've been using premier aminos for 20yrs now, used to add robin red myself, now just order premier aminos RR base mix off the premier website. I've got complete and absolute confidence in it. It costs £55 per 15kg (£67 with VAT + postage) and will last you months if you only make bait once a week. Buying in bulk may be cheaper pal.

It is the bad times that make the good times good mate!

I spent 13yrs in the army... One thing I've got left over from those days is an entrenching tool (a mini fold up shovel) I'll leave the rest to your imagination! I did a few courses over the years where you would use a sheet of cling film to catch the "deposit" before wrapping it up and putting it in a nice Tupperware box to take away with you! I tend not to rely on that method these days...

Is it just me? Or does anyone else feel that these things like hook sizes is driven by an element of fashion? It seems that 10-12yrs ago, size six was a big hook and a size four was for the continent! Or is it just me? I use 4s now for 90%+ of my fishing and have done for several seasons, yet I forget why I changed...

That's not to say small hooks won't work, I think any hook with enough separation between hook and bait will do the job, some anglers believe smaller hooks bury deeper. It's confidence in what you're doing with decent tackle and effective rigs that may be the key. I use what works for me.

I remember to smile sometimes! I don't really put pressure on myself, angling is my escape. I just love being there. If I lose a big fish or blank or have a bad session, I can usually shrug it off and not think about it again. I once fished wraysbury 1 for a whole season every weekend, I had one take after a whole summer and into the colder months (from a carp as opposed to tench) and lost it about 3yards from the net... Bizarrely, I burst out laughing! (I still find it amusing even now... Work that one out, because I cant!!)

It would seem I tend to go for the "monged zombie" look... No alcohol or narcotics were used in the taking of these pictures...(unbelievably!)

I found over the last few seasons that I lose the buzz on and off, usually it was seasonal - as I learnt the water I was on, it became obvious that they had shut down for winter. I was wasting my time. I had another water that I lost enthusiasm for during the summer months as it was so busy. I only had two of the "A team" to catch - a 35lb+ common and a 21lb+ linear. But the lake, which was only about two acres, was always packed out which I didn't enjoy. I brought a cheap club ticket with a new pond on it and that got me going again. I had a new challenge and it fired me up to get the rods out until the winter when the two acre lake was empty of anglers. I returned for a two night session on the two acre lake, had it to myself and caught the common at 37lb 10oz and the linear at 24lb as a brace in a 4hr spell, both on maggot rigs. (I haven't been back) It's easy to get stuck in a rut and if the venue isn't calling you back each time, then maybe it's time to bid farewell and look for a new water to fire you up again? mind you recently, I've not been getting on the bank as much as I could, although I want to be there when I cant, when the opportunity comes up, I can't be bothered! Unfortunately, this is down to working long hours and not having the energy to get going!

I found over the last few seasons that I lose the buzz on and off, usually it was seasonal - as I learnt the water I was on, it became obvious that they had shut down for winter. I was wasting my time. I had another water that I lost enthusiasm for during the summer months as it was so busy. I only had two of the "A team" to catch - a 35lb+ common and a 21lb+ linear. But the lake, which was only about two acres, was always packed out which I didn't enjoy. I brought a cheap club ticket with a new pond on it and that got me going again. I had a new challenge and it fired me up to get the rods out until the winter when the two acre lake was empty of anglers. I returned for a two night session on the two acre lake, had it to myself and caught the common at 37lb 10oz and the linear at 24lb as a brace in a 4hr spell, both on maggot rigs. (I haven't been back) It's easy to get stuck in a rut and if the venue isn't calling you back each time, then maybe it's time to bid farewell and look for a new water to fire you up again? mind you recently, I've not been getting on the bank as much as I could, although I want to be there when I cant, when the opportunity comes up, I can't be bothered! Unfortunately, this is down to working long hours and not having the energy to get going!

I tend to stick to size fours all year round for my fishing, unless using maggots, then I use a magaligned 6 widegape. For ronnies, I use a size 4 curve, same hook for blowback rigs on braided or coated braided rigs with long hairs. Flurocarbon bottom bait rigs and hinged stiff rigs I use fox stiff rigger hooks also size 4. I get good firm hookholds with size 4s although with bottom baits, prefer a decent separation between hook and bait to allow the hook to drop/turn and do it's job. (I use soft braided hairs on bottom bait flurocarbon rigs for this reason.)

No worries mate, it's worth it, personally I always get more of a buzz catching carp from a canal or river than lakes now. It's the element of the unknown, having to work at it, I get a sense of achievement from a canal carp weighing mid doubles that I probably wouldn't even weigh or photograph out of a lake. Very best of luck pal.