carpepecheur

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?

I share your concern if true but where is your evidence.

I understand your point Oscha and because I am uncertain, I do soak and boil the maize. However I have scoured the internet for any factual evidence that raw maize swells up inside a carp and kills it. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence but no hard facts. I did read that a well known carp fishery in Eastern Europe fattens their carp with raw maize although again this might be fake news. Who knows these days? Try this test. Put some raw maize in a jar and let it soak for a couple of days and then measure it and tell me how much it has swollen up.

Wow, things get really complicated in UK. I use straight forward maize (used for animal feed) at 30p per kilo. I do boil it but I am not convinced even that is necessary. The main requirement is to use lots of it over a long period of time. It also makes a good hookbait with 4 or 5 raw graines fished on a hair. It is quite resistant to crayfish.

I have a well-trained border collie and could not contemplate fishing without him. I only have to say the word “fishing” and he is at the door wagging his tail. He will sit and stare at my rod tips all day long. He knows I have a bite before I do and lets me know. I was walking around a local lake yesterday and got chatting to an angler. Dog barked like mad, angler looked up, realised he had a bite, and caught a small perch. His reward is always a swim at the end of a session.

Isn't that idea a bit like going to a carp fishery?

Yes Davyd, I'm afraid it is. Sorry ,I should have posted a link to the story. Here is one example Deaths on Everest by BBC I title the photo "The end of the world is nigh" on other sites because I think it is a great metaphor for the state of the world today. I think it was Isaak Newton who said he made progress "by standing on the shoulders of giants". Well if there are too many people doing it, the photo is a good warning of what might happen.

You know how everyone goes to great lengths to post a cheesy selfie holding their latest big catch, (I also plead guilty to that!), well the following photo of Mount Everest in today’s Guardian puts that into perspective.

That is an immaculate fish Chillfactor and congratulations ... and it certainly had a large hoover. Until you brought up the subject I had never given much thought as to HOW a fish sucks up a bait. I vaguely imagined it sucked water into its lungs or whatever the carp equivalent of lungs is - the bigger the "lungs" the bigger the suck. As far as I have been able to find out, by reading various papers on the subject on the net, the suction is caused by something called buccal pressure (no, I’ve never heard of it either). The carp opens its mouth quickly causing an area of low pressure. everything in the vicinity of the mouth moves in to replace it so the bigger the mouth (as in your photo) the bigger the suck. But once the mouth is full again the suction stops. If you imagine a carp opening its mouth 1 foot above a bait, to get to the boilie it has to take in the whole water column in between. Even with a very large mouth it is hard to see how this would work at that distance. I have just looked at a lot of the underwater videos on YouTube of carp sucking bait. They tend to confirm the action described. They open their mouth and take in one mouthful of suck then have to repeat again. I did see one clip where a carp seemed to swim above a boilie then tilt towards, it suck it up and disappear in a swirl of silt. On stepping through it frame by frame however it was obvious that, at the point of taking, the bait the mouth was very close to the boilie. So I am wondering, Chillfactor , if this is the sort of thing you observed? I spent an hour in the workshop testing this today. I have a carp mouth sized pipe fitted with a plunger. A rapid pull on the plunger replicates the reduced buccal pressure as a carp sucks the bait. I tested a normal boilie, a wafter and pop up weighted so that it only just sank. On no occasion could I get the bait to move unless I was only centimetres away from it. I cannot convince myself that I am missing bites from a carp 1 foot away therefore I will continue to use my 6 cm (sic) hooklink. I have, however, learned a lot today.

I agree with everything you say apart from "a mid twenty can suck up boillies from over 1ft away". I am not saying it is incorrect just that it is a lot for me to get my mind around. I should imagine it depends on how bouyant a bait is. A wafter is obviously more "suckable" than a heavier bait. Even so, imagine sucking up some sherbet with a straw. Obviously, if you get close, it is easy but you don't have to get very far away from the sherbert before no amount of sucking will have any effect. I wish I was clever enough to work out the physics of the situation. You have certainly provided food for thought though.

That is excellent point. The question is how back can a carp still suck up a bait. I do tests with a suction tube in a tank and find it takes an exponential amount of extra suck the further you get from the bait? The next question is how does the carp react when it finds the bait tethered by a short link? Does it back off or move closer to take it? I don't have any ideas I just like thinking about it.

Wow. With all the time and money invested in fishing it is hard to imagine anyone not sharpening their hook each time. It must be the easiest ,cheapest and most effective thing you can do.

I can't remember the last time I lost a fish once hooked. I do use micro barbed hooks, maybe that helps. I think some people put forward a lot of theories that sound good but have no basis when actually put to the test.