carpepecheur

In sea fishing there is a technique called uptide casting where a wired lead holds bottom against the tide and a good bend shows at the rod tip. When a fish takes the bait the wires are released, the rod straightens and you strike. Obviously not suitable on the Lot BUT …. 5 years ago I posted a video of a technique I use to fish a very tight line. A conventional steel collar is jammed on an inline bomb. The collar catches on the bottom and I wind tight against the lead putting a bend in the rod. When a carp takes the bait, the rod tip straightens and I strike. It works perfectly for me on lakes. I have never tried this on the Lot or any other river but it seems to me worth trying. What do you think? Here is a demo I did in my swimming pool. Watch the rod tip top left. Why I think it works so well is that the small movement frightens the carp and they bolt but it comes up immiediately against the lead and hooks itself.

I think you are probably right. Perhaps the EA should have a Blue Badge system for handicapped anglers.

There seems to be a misconception that technology makes it easier to catch fish. Bluelabel says he is “as blind as a bat” but can still cast within a gnats whisker of overhanging trees on the far bank. I am guessing he wears spectacles. That is advanced technology that helps you see more clearly. (I am NOT having a dig at anyone here just trying to demonstrate a point). Imagine two identical lakes, one is like pea soup and the other is crystal clear. On the clear lake you can see every patch of weed, gravel bar deep hole and watch the fish patrolling around. You may want to take some binoculars for a closer look. Is that misuse of technology? On the pea soup lake you can see nothing except for the odd fish jumping or patch of bubbles. An echo sounder would reveal much more information but it would never give you as much information as you would have fishing the clear lake. What on earth is wrong with that?

Exactly, each to their own. Last year I lost a large fish in snags on the River Lot. Using my bait boat and Deeper I was able to locate a huge, completely submerged tree and could then find a spot where I could fish without endagering the carp. How would you do that with a marker float and weight in that current? As Yonny says it is the way tech is used that is the problem.

You are lucky you do not have severe arthritis like me.

I think it is misguided to dismiss modern technology out of hand. How come it is OK to spend a shed load of money on the latest design of rod blank developed using the latest space age technology or whatever but criticise the use of echo sounders which have been used by water users for decades? It should be horses for courses. I fish a lake of 110 acres with depths of 30 feet. It is very rare to see a carp showing. The banks are only accessible in a few places because of dense undergrowth. I see nothing wrong in going out and mapping an area by boat to find a likely spot where the undergrowth can be cleared in order to reach it. I would love the opportunity to stroll around the edge observing carp movements. On the other hand I sometimes fish a smaller lake where I can do just that and have never needed an echo sounder.

Wow that observation could be taken straight out of quantum physics theory! 👍

If you read Davyd’s posts you will understand that the main answer to understanding the results displayed by the Deeper is experience. The more you use it the more you understand. In response to Elmo’s straightforward question “ does it show … “ the answer is an unhelpful yes and no. hence this rather long post. The only information that can be gathered from a SINGLE ping of any sounder is the strength of the returned echo (reflection) and the time it has taken to be returned. An echo is generated when the ping hits a change in density surface. Generally this is interpreted on a screen as a colour pixel corresponding to the strength and it is shown at a certain depth depending on the time. Remember the ping is not a single point that is sent down and returned, it is actually a wave front that has three dimensions – usually referred to as a cone. There is NO information as to where in that cone – e.g. front and back or side to side – the echo is coming from. So within that cone you may get many echoes which will show on the screen on a single vertical line of coloured pixels (colour depending on strength of signal) The size of the cone is usually described as the angle it subtends at the surface. A higher frequency ping has a narrower frequency cone. That is why you have a choice of two (or even three now) frequencies. Imagine you are sounding over a flat concrete bottom. You will see a pixel representing the exact depth of the water. Vertically below that dot, you will see more pixels caused by signals coming from left and right and fore and aft. These will APPEAR to be deeper – i.e. lower on screen – than the first echo because it has travelled a further distance. The hardness and the texture of the bottom will have an effect on the strength (colour) of pixel received. There is another property of the ping which also depends on the frequency. A higher frequency ping is absorbed more quickly than a lower frequency ping. This means a lower frequency ping can penetrate more. For example it may hit some weed and return a weak signal shown as green then it may reflect off the bottom and get a stronger echo shown as black. You may then think that green represents weed and black represents a hard bottom. Remember this explanation only represents one ping. In practise you get many pings per second. Then you introduce movement to the transducer by dragging it through the water and the interpretation of what you are seeing becomes a lot more complicated. So to answer Elmo’s question, you should understand all of the physics involved in the sounding process and then apply it to direct experience. Calibrate your observation with what you can actually see in the water. IMHO People who say fishfinders remove skill from fishing are missing the point. Fishfinders (echo sounders) give you a chance to apply a whole new area of skill and experience. It adds to, rather than relaces, other hard earned lessons.

I am a sucker for gadgets and use a bait boat/deeper/drone all the time but here is a product that combines them all into one product. It costs around $750 but am not sure if it is available yet but I know I can't afford it..

Nice photo. There are some very large carp in the Lot and also some big catfish - if you like that sort of thing. I have fished it perhaps a dozen times in the Cajarc region. However, I am more of a lake angler. Good luck with the fishing. I won't mention Brexit. It gets me banned everywhere 😁. Best place to get all the information you need is the international carp forum at Montlucon which is around end of next Ferbruary. It is ahuge event and I think not far from you.

If you have a motorhome you can stay in our village park beside a lake for €4 per night including water and electricity. I could be persuaded to tell you where the hole in the fence to the other lakes is. First trip with small float rod saw several roach on maize then lost a large fish straight into tree roots because clutch was set far too lightly. Second trip 15 lb common on boilie Third trip was a blank but did hear a VERY large splash. N.B. my trips are only for about 4 hour each so plenty of potential yet.

About a month or so ago I had three takes which were quickly dropped before I could react. When I checked to see if my hook was sharp enough, I discovered I had forgotten to tie a hook into my rig. My excuse is anno domini

Many years ago, I was sea fishing and one of the customers got a hook in his finger past the barb. I can still hear his screams as his mates tried to pull the hook out. Then the skipper came out with a pait of cutters, cut the shank, and removed the hook point first. I have always carried a similar pair of cutters ever sicnce.

Sometimes you can find inspiration at the bottom of your garden

This is what I use. They are kept with some forceps and spring balance in a small bag beside my landing net so that I can deal with fish and return it as soon as it is landed unless it merits a photo. Main use is when hook catches in net as well as mouth and is difficult to free easily. Have used the cutters twice on dogs that have picked up discarded hooks.

I don't want to sound sarcastic but you can buy maize from my local shop for €.0.30 per kilo. I use it successfully for ground bait and hook bait provide you are not plagued by small fish. People can get overcomplicated with bait (myself included)

The story continues if anyone is interested? The mayor is on holiday so I have been asking, unsuccessfully, around the village to see if anyone knows the owner of the lakes. I did come across one interesting story. Apparently some 50 years ago the lakes formed part of an estate owned by a Swiss couple. The husband died and the wife wanted him buried on the far bank of the lake. The mayor of the time, who was a rather rotund individual, was summoned to officiate at the brief ceremony. Halfway across, the boat overturned tipping the coffin and mayor into the water. The narrator of this story was unsure of the final resting place of the corpse. Now this IS France and every place has a little story owing more to imagination than historical fact. Nevertheless, if I am doing any clearing to find a swim, I will tread carefully and respectfully. What the story does tell me is that the lakes are probably at least 50 years old. I have located a spot from which fishing is just possible and have been doing some pre baiting. Encouragingly, this seems to generate small patches of bubbles indicating individual feeding fish (as appose to the sheets of bubbles you sometimes get when bream move in). I took my Deeper today to check out the depths. Where I intend to fish, the banks slope away gently down to a general depth of 3.5 metres. However, I have located a large depression which is 4.2 metres deep. I was only using a light lined spinning rod which was unsuitable for the purpose. At one point I got a crack off and saw my £200 Deeper sail into the middle of the lake. Here is a handy hint for you. I had foreseen this eventuality and I tied an orange float to the Deeper via a sort length of line. (See photo) This make it far easier to search for and recover. A short swim was required, which in the current heat was not a problem but at the age of 72 years old I should know better than to go swimming in an unknown lake with margins lined with fallen tree and roots. It is quite an expedition for me to get to the water and I have already learned not to wear shorts. Will all this effort be worth it? All I need is for this heatwave to end. I refuse to fish in temperatures over 100 deg F.

From what I have read on the internet, 95% of UK anglers, who go fishing in France head for the many British owned carp fisheries within an easy drive of the channel ports. I wanted to show that there are plenty of opportunities elsewhere in the country especially if you head all the way down to the Pyrenees. I set out this morning to get some videos of the dozens of lakes within ½ an hour of my home which are never fished. They are usually fenced off, not because the owners want to prevent people from fishing but to avoid potentially very expensive litigation if someone were to have an accident. I took my drone so that I would not have to get permission to access each lake and I started with the smallest which is just on the edge of my village. I was aware of the lake's presence having glimpsed reflections from its surface through the trees in winter when the leaves had fallen. Unfortunately, I got so wrapped up this morniing with this first location, the rest is on hold for the moment. It took a lot of thrashing through brambles and nettles to get anywhere near the water but eventually my dog found a way through. The third of the lakes, about 4 acres in size, proved to be an absolute gem with patches of bubbles fizzing everywhere. We are suffering from a major heatwave at the moment so fishing is not practical. Meanwhile I will visit our mayor to try and find the owner of the lakes and also do a recce to work out how to fish such an overgrown location. Mostly using footage from my phone (so apologies for the quality), I made a short Youtube clip of this morning’s visit. I hope you find it interesting.

Yes that’s exactly how to do it. It is a simple and cheap method. Slide your weight onto the line so that it is free running through a large ring. Take a wine cork and push some stiff wire into one end to form an eye that is just slightly narrower than a large float stop. Slide the cork float onto the line so that it slides freely. Now put a large float stop on the line. Tie a zig on the end of the mainline (or use a short length of “invisible” leader if you think your fish are very shy). Push the float stop a measured distance from the zig. I like to use 3 metres if the water is deep enough to avoid any chance of the float spooking the fish. At this stage it is impossible to cast because the long 3metre distance between float and hook will tangle and also the force of the weight will slide everything down to the hook. Wind some PVA tape CLOCKWISE around the body of the cork (make sure it is dry ). Now wind the 3 metre hook length around the PVA ANTICLOCKWISE until only the zig is left. Nick the hook of the zig into the PVA and you will find everything holds rock solid. After casting, the PVA melts freeing the hook and it floats up, unwinding the 3 metre hook link as it goes. Let the cork float to surface. Pull in 3 metres of line and you now know your zig is on the surface. Then simply take in the amount of line you need to fish at your required depth. When you land your fish, the 3 metre hook link is not a problem because the float stop can now be simply slid along the line to shorten the length to something more manageable because there is no longer anything to hold it firmly in place. Sorry it is a long explanation. It is far easier to do than to explain but it works flawlessly for me.

I made my own a few years ago .............................. then bought a bait boat

Welcome to the forum. In answer to your question it is certainly possible to do what you suggest. It is simply a question of measurement skills and casting ability. Whether you can or not is, of course, down to you.

I came across a very distressed lady whilst walking the dog. Her dog had picked up a treble hook in its paw. It then tried to bite at it and ended up with his paw tethered to its cheek and was in A LOT of pain. We whisked it to the vet who sedated and operated immediately. He said dogs picking up discarded hooks was quite a common problem.

That is understandable Yonnie but it is one of those things you have to experience to understand. I was shown around a local farm because I made similar comments. In my mind, the ducks love the force feeding. In the old days the farmers wife used to use a gadget with an archimedes screw, sit the duck on her lap and force feed it with maize. Nowadays, the feeding tubes are all automatic but come feeding time they are queing at the gate to be let in and fed. When I was there, one duck got left behind at feeding time and it created merry hell to be let in and fed. Of course I am only talking about local, traditional methods. I am sure there are are industrial sized units which are less kind - like any form of animal husbandry these days. Like everything on the internet, it is hard to separate fact from fiction.

Yonny said “No arguments, this is a healthy debate lads” I totally agree with that sentiment. Surely this is what forums are about – sharing ideas and experience. But he also said “I think we're all agreed that unprepared particles are a no-no all the same.” And I can’t agree with that statement. I will say that where there is doubt, err on the side of caution and soak and boil but I would also like to see some evidence of raw maize doing damage to a carp. A farm near me supplies foie gras using a system known as “gavage”. Ducks are force fed maize to make foie gras. To the best of my knowledge no ducks have ever exploded and died due to the maize swelling up. Nevertheless you will read heaps of stuff on the internet with people, who have no actual experience of what it is really like, telling everyone how bad it is for ducks. So much so that foie gras is now banned from restaurants in California. OK ducks and carp are different creatures but I hope you get my point. JH92 said “I left maize soaking for about 2 weeks and it was the best looking maize I’ve seen. about 3 times the size and would squish in between your fingers, I boiled it and completely ruined the batch, it blown basically all the kernels so no good for a rig. I do wonder if you soak it for long enough, do you really need to boil it? “ I have never observed maize expand to three times its size but if that makes it mushy isn’t that the point. All you can be doing is adding water to the maize. So if it expand 3 times then two thirds of it is water and nowhere near as harmful as a raw grain three times its size. There seems to be a mis-conception that a swollen maize is just as harmful as a hard raw maize. But in my opinion the best idea posted on this thread was by Oscsha who said “Maybe we're doing it wrong by using boilies that meet a carps needs , as they may eat less due to their nutritional need being fulfilled , this leading to the fish being on the feed less. Playing devil’s advocate a little” If the carp have to keep eating and re-eating raw maize to get any benefit from it, it keeps them feeding longer and makes them more catchable. That is a VERY interesting and original idea. The big question is – is it safe?