31lb Common Carp

Winter Carp Fishing

For those who don’t know, carp and what’s known as “cold blooded”, in other words their body temperature drops with the water temperature that they live in. This is unlike “warm blooded” animals such as humans, dogs, cats etc., who’s inside body temperature stays the same no matter how cold it is outside.

The effect of been “cold blooded” on the carp, is that they become less active as their body and water temperature start to drop. That means that they need less energy to move around and consequently they eat much less, which is why carp fishing in Winter is generally much harder in the Winter than the rest of the year.

What this normally means in terms of fishing is that as the carp eat a lot less, you have to use less bait. If fishing boilies, I very often tend to use just single hook baits. If it’s a clean bottom I will often use a bottom bait, if there is a lot of leaves, debris etc. on the bottom I tend to use a pop-up, to get the hook etc. clear of any rubbish.

As with any thing in fishing there will always be a time when you find that you can introduce loose feed in the cold months, it’s a case of getting to know your water. If I am going to loose feed I like to use a pva stringer, or a small method feeder with a ground bait that has ground trout pellets in.

I’m not a fan of adding oils to a bait in Winter, if you feel you must, keep the amount right down to 5 to 10ml. Be aware that some oils thicken up due to cold temperatures, which might not do much to help your flavour escape out of your boilie. If you intend to add an oil and your not sure how it behaves in the cold, place a small sample of it in the fridge overnight. If it doesn’t thicken up your OK.

My Bait

People ask me what bait do I use to catch a huge fish like that, and I say use mainline baits they are new to the sport of fishing, you can get all different flavours like Grange CSL, Active-8, Winter-8, Assassin-8, NRG, Active Maple-8, Fusion, Pro-Active Pineapple in all shapes and sizes. You can also get mainline response pellets which are a superb attractor to induce any carp into a feeding response, as the pellets slowly dissolve, releasing high levels of taste and attractors into the direct area in and around your hook bait. The response pellets are designed to be used in conjunction with boilies to create the ideal feeding situation. Read the rest of this entry »

15lb Common Carp

Pva Method

When you are finding it hard to catch carp stick on a Pva bag. A Pva bag is a little dissoluble bag which when filled with pellets can be used as a ground bait. But you are thinking why not slingshot or throw it out, Ill tell you why when you slingshot it out or throw it you can miss or forget there you are, With a Pva bag when you cast out your rod the pellets fall right next to your bait and the bags are cheap. And you can also get Pva mesh.

Why Not Make Your Own Rigs

- Cut a 30cm piece of the 10lb braid/mono
- Tie one end of the braid/mono to the swivel
- Cut two small 7mm pieces of rubber tubing
- Slide one of these pieces onto the 10lb braid/mono
- Tie the end of the 10lb braid/mono to the hook
- Slide the piece of rubber tubing along the 10lb braid/mono over the hook eye
- Cut a 10cm piece of the 3lb braid/mono
- Tie a loop either end of the 3lb braid/mono – this is your hair
- Thread the hair through the other piece of tubing
- Slide the tubing onto the hook

Why Not Make Your Own Boilies

To make boilies what you do first is to make a flavoured paste. This paste is then rolled into many small balls, boiled, (hence the term boilie), left to dry and then frozen .

To do this you need eggs, a liquid flavour, a sweetener and a base mix. The use of a sweetener in boilies is personal choice. I always like to include one myself, as I believe it makes the boilies taste better. I have never been able to ask any carp if they too like sweeteners, but all I can say is, that I seem to catch an awful lot of fish on baits that include them.

Pop-Ups

The idea behind this is simple, the base mix is prepared in the normal way, but before boiling a small amount of base-mix paste is rolled around a cork or Polystyrene ball. The baits are then boiled in the normal way and left to dry. That is all there is to it, you know have you’re pop-ups. Because the baits are not microwaved there is no need to add extra flavour, but there again there is nothing to stop you increasing the flavour levels in you pop-ups produced in this way, for “high attract” hookbaits.

Pellet Binder

Dips, glugs, soak and oils can be used to boost the attraction of pellets as well as bilies or particles. I often pour dedicated Activ-8 dip over my Response Pellets before using them-this further increases the attraction.
One favourite, simple method is to add a glug of dip into a plastic bag containing some pellets and a few broken boilies. I then blow air into the bag and hold it sealed, to form a kind of balloon. This allows me to shake the whole lot up and spread the dip around. I then release the air and leave the contents for 10 minutes or so. These pellets and broken boilies can then be added to a PVA bag, thrown in by hand or spodded.
Liquids can also be added to pellets and left to soak for 20 minutes or so, which softens the pellets,allowing them to be bound into balls for catapulting out or on a Method feeder.

Step 1 – To Make The Perfect Bait

Pour a few pellets into a
bowl or bait tub. Just use
what you need.

Step 2

Pour your liquid into the
pellets. Use Mainline they
are very good make.

Step 3

Mix the liquid around to
spead it evenly among
the pellets.

Step 4

You’ll now ned to leave
the pellets to soak up all
the liquad.

Step 5

After 20 minutes or so you
will be able to bind the pellets
together.
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Two Lovely 19lb Common Carp’s

Be Different

Always remember that carp are primitive creatures that learn by association. In other words if every time you picked up a plate of chips, somebody stuck a great big hook in your mouth, after a couple of times you’d soon think twice about about picking that plate up again. You’d move on to something else like steak, but once you’d been tricked again a couple of times, you’d move onto something different. What I’m getting at is that if you can change you approach to fool the carp it can pay great dividends in the number of fish you catch. Look at the size, colour and type of boilies that people are using, try and find out what flavours they are on.

However doing the same as everyone else, at times this can work for you. There is one water I know where everyone uses Active-8, Fusion, Tigar Nut, boilies by Mainline, indeed so many of these boilies go into the water that the fish think they are now natural food.

Always pay great attention to the state of the bottom of the pool that I am fishing. The first time you visit a water or fish a new area of a pool, smell your boilie after it has been in the water for about an hour. If it smells OK then you do not have a problem, if it smells like you’ve tucked it under someone’s sweaty armpit for a day, then your fishing over silt. Maybe it’s just me but I never feel confident if my bait comes back stinking. After all carp hover up silt all the time into their mouths when they are looking for food, but it just doesn’t do my confidence any good.

FOR HELP OR ADVICE PLEASE EMAIL ME AT: help@commoncarp.co.uk Copyright © 2007 Read the rest of this entry »