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How to Make Carp Fishing Boilies For Winter Or Summer Good As Professional Readymade Baits!
By Tim F. Richardson
So you want an extra confidence boost in your winter (or summer) carp fishing and you want unique baits no-one else has ever used before? The following ideas for bait recipes revealed here will provide you with boilies, pellets, paste and ground baits easily as successful (or more successful) than the vast majority of better readymade baits - so read on to get this very rich information!
This method of making boosted readymade bait base mixes and homemade baits is not strictly scientific but your fish will not mind as it does include tonnes of very strongly decades-proven real catches based science in terms of the ingredients chosen!
Whole and soluble protein is a big part of this bait article, but this is just a fraction of all the reasons why all these bait ideas here work so well! What you use is partly influenced by the materials you know you need in your bait to affect fish in various significant ways in regards to sensory and brain stimulation to promote favourable behaviours that could make them easier to catch plus what you can personally source and your budgetary considerations. But please remember not to merely stick to using your personally skewed personal choices. Why not get much more creative than this; fish have very different far more acute senses compared to you! Add to this that they are sensing substances in water and not in air (which is an extremely important point to make,) so discover and use what they prefer and not merely what your taste and smell preferences prefer!
As a human, personally I would prefer the aroma and taste of fresh hot roast chicken juices as opposed to hydrolysed earthworm protein. But despite this, I know what the carp will naturally respond to more strongly to because I have actually tested both these substances! Note: Testing of individual substances is not enough - testing substances in actual baits in conjunction with other substances is the real test!
For instance, the extremely common natural amino acid proline contributes to the taste of many substances that carp and we humans instinctively are attracted to and our senses are sensitive to. But to use pure supplemental proline to stimulate carp feeding reveals they need to experience it within a very narrow band of concentration for it to be most effective so it is more complex to exploit it in sophisticated baits even though it works!
This is true of many substances including the use of betaine in boilies where just a minimum of 1 or 2 grams can improve results in conjunction with hydrolysed protein for example. In the case of many essential oils they can be used by measures of millilitres per kilogram mix and certainly not all essential oils need especial care where just a few drops too many can potentially ruin a bait. This takes first hand experimentation and experience. You can always bulk up an essential oil if you are in doubt with examples like hemp oil, sunflower or wheat germ oil and olive oil with mixed nut oil or pumpkin seed oil and garlic oil, orange oil and coconut oil etc.
Note: The use of traditional concentrated flavours (even if they are natural or nature-identical,) is not necessary at all with this particular set of bait ideas given here. This is because as you will see, each substance mentioned has its own intrinsic flavours, tastes, aromas and sensory impacts on fish. However very many anglers are still stuck in the rut of wanting to add an extra concentrated flavour just to give themselves added confidence by feeling they have given their bait a unique label.
Well designed natural baits do not need any label as such to dominate a bait and in fact such items can often make it easier for a wary carp to avoid baits containing recognisable labels! Just consider how many decades sweetcorn, hemp or luncheon meat had been used very successfully, before they were offered for sale to anglers with fashionable added flavours such as strawberry, Tutti Fruitti, banana, Scopex, pineapple and chilli etc?!
Note: All the ideas below can be used to boost or bulk out readymade base mixes and ground bait mixes of all kinds as far as you wish to experiment and refine your own new mixes and versions of them in creative ways. All these things are just examples and all can be removed and replaced in whatever ways you wish.
Using natural substances rich in feeding triggers carp naturally respond very strongly to is a guaranteed way to give yourself confidence in your bait and provide excellent nutritionally rich reasons for carp to eat your baits and be very enthusiastic about them! In this case firstly get some fermented shrimp powder or Belachan block. If you get the powder stuff get a kilogram of it to play with - the cost will be worth it believe me! If you can get the Belachan shrimp paste block instead, then you will need to break it down a bit by doing the following: simply grate it into a large pan and keep adding hot water until you have a nice runny slurry. In the case of the fermented shrimp powder, simply add hot water to produce a runny slurry.
It is easy enough to get a block of Parmesan cheese and grate it or get some pots of grated Parmesan cheese or blue cheese powder for instance, and add this to your slurry. Such strong cheeses are rich in proteins, amino acids, peptides and all kinds of other goodies, including natural form monosodium glutamate, butyric acid, mineral salts and many other things besides. If you wandered why such cheeses have very strong tastes and aromas - now you know! If you include dried tomatoes in your mix you will be improving the taste by including certain excellent bioactive compounds carp are instinctively attracted to plus raising the levels of taste enhancing glutamate in your bait.
Now get yourself a big pot of yeast extract like Vegemite or Marmite and mix this to your slurry - which is obviously getting thicker by now! Now add half a big pot of black strap molasses. Strangely the organic stuff is most often cheaper than the non-organic stuff and is usually a more concentrated gritty product packed with loads of minerals, vitamins, trace elements, plus other factors and let us not overlook its great betaine attraction! I find freshly liquidised garlic a great additive but fresh herbs and spices and fruit, vegetables among other things are absolutely packed with incredibly bioactive goodies.
If you can get CSL (corn steep liquor) why not add a generous helping of this too; the more active the better! I also like to use creamed sesame seeds too, so for example look for some Tahini. If you are American then creamed corn and corn syrup are obviously stereotypical choices just like Canadian maple syrup. You might try liquidised blueberries and ripe cranberries and mulberries for instance, or try pineapple, mangoes, papayas, strawberries and bananas etc. Maybe try Aloe Nectar or fruit syrups! A splash of Vodka is a nice touch and helps keep everyone happy! Your pan is now holding a goo of the type it has never experienced before. You can simply thrash it about with a whisk or fork or use a food blender if you want speed and efficiency.
Like I said previously, it is all down to you what you do, what you add and the amounts of all the things you might include. No it is not scientific and frankly to a great degree Mr Carp will not care as long as long as the ingredients, liquids and additives and other special stuff you choose to use have an excellent reason to be in there to stimulate carp in any of a million different ways directly or indirectly even if they has never been used in bait before! Now add on top of your special mix an equal amount of very fresh large hen eggs and whisk again.
You may have been asking when this stuff is going to resemble something other than goo. Now get yourself a big packet of wholemeal flour. Put it into a bucket and add a liberal dosing of icing sugar. Again take some yourself to help the process along. Any ordinary breakfast muesli can be added too and original Alpen is a good one although something like Jordan Country Crisp is one I like to use as it contains loads of addictive goodies and I speedily crush mine down into finer particles in a bucket using the end of a sledge hammer.
Why not add a tub of dried milk powders or a tin of condensed milk in with your liquids. If you happen to have a health store nearby or a body building friend or use EBay etc, then you can easily get the following 2 ingredients: Many bait companies stock this and other goodie; Calcium caseinate (often called Casilan) and lactalbumin or use whey protein powder. I like using linseeds like Holland and Barret product which has added lactose and I also add all kinds of seeds, from sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds, to millet and canary seed, hemp seed and crushed nuts. If you are a fish meal nut then add some fish meal. Adding LO30 will be a good idea although I know of certain hydrolysed protein ingredients that equal or even better this stuff (and some very enzyme-active and will self-digest your bait more for even better results!)
Anyway, the amounts you use really are up to you, some baits and amounts will be more successful but if you write down all your ingredients and levels and ultimately record the exact bait mix of every test batch you make you can replicate it easily enough so all your best ever baits can always be repeated - and still be secret to you alone!
All you need to do is mix up your dry ingredients extremely well so they are equally distributed in the mix. You powders and liquids will mix together to form a dough or paste which you can use straight away or store or make into pellets or boilies. Always start off with a small batch to test it. This way you can see if it binds how you like and maybe rolls how you like if you want standard boilies. By the way boilies do not have to be rolled into round balls at all! I dispensed with using bait guns or paste extruders, and binned bait rolling tables years and years ago as I simply do not see any advantage today in making perfectly round boilies and I am well against this stereotypical, completely unnecessary boring out-dated practice that can actually make it much easier for wary carp to avoid getting hooked!
Always add your bait powders to your liquids when mixing them. Making your mix slightly damper and wetter than you think you will need is a good thing because you will be well advised to let your ingredients sit and soak up your liquids for at least 12 hours in a sealed heavy duty plastic bag in the fridge. Doing this also kicks off all kinds of synergistic beneficial reactions within your bait. Always make a small batch first to ensure it is OK in terms of the practical consistency you want either for use as paste straight off or to make pellets and boilies or ground baits etc.
If you want to make ground bait using your mix then why not ensure it has loads more bits that will give it life and will easily separate and move away from the mix it being of a much courser consistency?! In the case of ground baits you can go overboard on the liquids and forget the eggs for binding. Many great ground baits can be made by simply mixing your powders at the waterside with your liquids prepared and bottled up ready to add. I find that if cost is an issue, then using a number of reduced price loaves that are easy to break into crumbs make an excellent addition to any boilie or paste base mix type of ground bait. Bait movement and vibration stimulate fish so good things to give your ground baits added life are live foods like worms and maggots although the potential list is enormous if you really do your homework and want to get far better edges!
None of this stuff I have said is new and is well known in the bait making community to differing degrees of use and significance. But the very best stuff does not come for free and I could tell you lots of much more advanced stuff but in laymans language to give you fantastic results. Carp bait making is made easy if you delve further into what is healthy and cumulatively or instantly addictive to the carp internal processes and internal and external senses!
Bait secrets really do exist and there are far more yet to be revealed than any of us can imagine I can assure you. For one thing I am certain that the electromagnetism of certain bait recipes and forms is extremely significant just as the ways that leads, hooks, swivels, plastic tubing, rubber corn etc all impact on carp senses in water.
It should be pretty obvious that it is not just bait companies that know and can exploit bait secrets. Many bait secrets can come from fields totally unrelated to baits or the food, pharmaceutical, aquaculture or pet food industries or whatever. I wonder where the idea for using glass micro-balloons in pop-up baits came from. Was it from someone working within the surf-board or boat-building industries? How about all those bait secrets used today that come from glue manufacture and design, cleaning and homecare products, or from cosmetics and skin care products and developments, (and so on?!)
Many secrets about stimulants or depressants can be found in the history and developments of the various religions all around the world. Just ponder Christians and their wine, Indigenous American Indians sacred ceremonial herb smoking, or south American Indigenous Peoples vanilla oleoresins, coca compounds, cannabinoids and other substances in hemp for instance or even tea catechins!
Indigenous American indian peoples considered maize and sweetcorn as food from the Gods; it certainly became a vital staple carbohydrate source just like barley, buckwheat rice, potatoes and other carbohydrate sources used by ancient peoples switching from hunter-gathering to farming cultures ruled by seasons and new devices to measure time that we call calendars. I often wonder what the world would be like if we in the western world had not used the year and seven day week system established today!
I was born in February so things like leap years remind me what an hilarious artificial framework and synthetic reference point of human culture and living patterns such things really are! If you think about it time is also a very artificial thing because you can never be at exactly the same time in any one place technically speaking; especially as you and everything else is moving so fast; what an illusion. It is a bit like gravity; it becomes a weaker force as you travel away from the surface of the earth - but you would never know this just by standing on the ground looking up!
Incidentally, how many carp anglers think about the possible implications of water pressure on carp and carp tackle as carp go deeper and deeper - and are such things significant?!
Another thing that you might have noticed is that reproductive cycles of so many species get influenced by electromagnetic forces including hatches of insects for example which are proven to stimulate significant carp feeding. But how much do carp change their feeding and other behaviours in response to these subtle forces that we just overlook. The tides change, the moon rises and falls and the earth revolves around the sun; but how much do we carp anglers care and should all this influence our choice of bait substances and formats?!
I stopped wearing a watch years ago because everything is about relativity and context! But if I did wear one I think the version I would use would be this: It would be a single hand watch showing Mickey Mouse in the centre facing the ten to ten position where the hand would always be fixedly pointing up from the centre!
Many UK carp anglers consider sweetcorn a gift from the carp God via Fred J. Taylor who popularised this bait in the UK and has sadly passed on. I still recall the very first carp section I read in a book by Peter Stone (which dates it somewhat!) In it Fred J. Taylor wrote that as far as terminal tackle for carp is required (after your obligatory strong 10 pound line,) all you needed was a hook - and nothing else! This was an early writing as the bait he recommended was a par-boiled potato with the hook fed into the potato using a baiting needle. This is the exact way I started out carp fishing with a 5 foot long cane rod (and free-lining still works today of course!)
I look back fondly on the real carp fishing pioneers. My early carp fishing memories are filled with romanticism and nostalgia. They are tinged with the taste of excitement of suddenly stumbling upon an overgrown and long forgotten carp pool that has been un-fished for years along with quotes from BB, Richard Walker and Mr Crabtree echoing in my ears! Did you ever notice the similarity between the old paste-balanced crust tactic and the apparently new snowman rig which we were using back in the early Eighties?! Look out for the old stuff because the principles still work and can be re-manifested using modern ideas and newly-available bait substances and new technological materials!
Similarly in music it could be said that everything has been done before considering the limited number of basic notes used (excepting the newest computer-generated ones!) Yet new popular music is made all the time using the same old notes and chord progressions dressed up in different styles and images etc - but they just keep on working!
Today the modern reality is that anyone can discover bait secrets for their own use and also find new ones too that constitute great new edges over competing baits and fish senses! In New Zealand I found it a fascinating wake-up call to be told that potatoes starch is a very popular binder used in carp baits. Corn starch is big in the States and wheat starch as found in semolina is very much a stereotypical bait ingredient in Europe! Personally I am not prejudiced about avoiding semolina and I use good old soft wholemeal wheat flour and whole wheat a lot (and it is a great cheap and effective ingredient for winter baits!)
In fact stewed corn and fermented corn has been and still is a very good carp bait; why should tiger nuts, maple peas, buckwheat or cracked corn get all the glory! Not long ago I watched an old guy catch a good twenty pound carp on a boiled tinned potato on a slow relatively unproductive day. This just proves that any alternative (or original mainstream bait) is well worth a try, and keeping an open mind will catch you more fish than a rigid conventional bait and method approach!
Protein-rich gluten as found in carbohydrates for example, is a very interesting area of study; the commercially-available version of the taste enhancer monosodium glutamate is predominantly made from the fermentation of wheat gluten. It became popular in America apparently after American soldiers realised that their rations of spam for instance did not taste as good as captured Japanese rations which were enhanced using monosodium glutamate! Apparently gluten is an important part of many fish diet formulations in aquaculture. This also relates to commercial butyric acid production and protein fermentation for example. (No-one can deny that butyric acid is not a significant food and bait enhancer!)
OK now onto suggestions on influencing carp behaviours in your favour by exploiting bait substances. Do you consider that you are the only species that releases feel-good hormones such as serotonin when you consume certain food substances?
You are releasing hormones all the time that influence your growth, feelings and behaviours all the time. Have you noticed how steroid using body-builders can actually grow permanent breasts as a side effect? What about sex change women who take the male hormone testosterone to alter their characteristics?
What about women in the menopause who take supplemental oestrogen to help prevent demineralisation of their bones. Study the seahorse (a sea fish) to find out some very strange behaviours in regards hormones and adaptations for survival! Carp seem to like the estrogenic impacts of things like evening primrose oil for instance; I think this is highly significant!
Someone in a Carpworld article said not long ago there is nothing new in carp baits -but obviously that is utterly misleading! I am interested in the truth and ongoing new developments. Hopefully that ex-railway worker will move on and get real! At least I have a scientific background in plant research and commercial horticulture, plus relatives with medical and science doctor ships and professorships from Oxford and Cambridge (to help keep my mind on real possibilities not egomaniacal judgements!)
Now why not consider this: Carp naturally release many forms of hormones all the time that massively decide their natural behaviours (and their more artificial conditioned behaviours when they are stressed by being fished for!) These releases can be either in your favour so making them much easier to catch or not - and your bait is a very big deciding factor in fishing situations!
Just for one example, you can directly manipulate and exploit the influential release of particularly helpful fish hormones by using good bait design! Therefore I advise you to become really expert in learning about carp (and catfish for example) themselves, before you rush out and get lost in the myriad world of bait ingredients, nucleotide enhancers, protein sweeteners, flavour development processes and components etc. (See all my other information which will help you understand carp and influence their behaviours big-time in your favour!)
When you know what turns carp on and why this is vitally important in revolutionising your own results, you will never again feel lost in the worlds of readymade baits or homemade baits! In fact you will be able to keep on producing endless new effective very economical carp (and catfish) baits of standard and completely new formats, incredibly quickly - for life! (For more information see my website and biography right now!)
By Tim Richardson.
Now why not seize this moment to improve your catches for life with these unique fishing bibles by Tim Richardson: "BIG CARP FLAVOURS FEEDING TRIGGERS AND CARP SENSES EXPLOITATION SECRETS!" "BIG CARP AND CATFISH BAIT SECRETS!" And "BIG CARP BAIT SECRETS!" For these and much more now visit: http://www.baitbigfish.com the home of the world-wide proven homemade bait making and readymade bait success secrets bibles!
Friday, 30 April 2010
Carp Fishing Rods - A Practical Guide to Choosing the Right Carp Rod
What type of carp fishing you are going to be doing? This will be the determining factor when choosing your new carp fishing rods. So let's take a look at few of the popular carp fishing styles and factors to gain a better understanding of what rods are right for each of these.
Margin fishing or fishing under the rod tip is an electrifying experience, big angry carp bursting off at 100 miles an hour requires a good rod that can put the brakes on bring control back in your favour. So what rod to choose? Carp fishing this close requires a good shock absorbing rod and i would recommend a "Through Action Rod". The design allows the full energy of the fight to be absorbed from the tip to the grip giving you greater control over the carp in the margins during the fight. A test curve of around 2.25lb is optimal for this style of fishing.
Stalking carp or sight fishing the art of stealth. This type of carp fishing requires a rod with a little back bone when engaging in difficult areas such as weed or snags. Here I would recommend a smaller rod the not the usual 12 to 13 footer smaller rods tend to have more direct control over the carp in this type of fishing. Therefore a 6 to 9 foot rod is best this gives a better freedom of movement in the bushy areas and less chance snagging in the brush and spooking the carp you have so patiently stalked. A test curve between 1.25 an 2lb is perfect for these rods.
Float fishing for carp there are a few considerations to be made here, such as the weight and length of your rods with float fishing. The weight of the rod is important as you will most likely be holding it most of your fishing session so firstly you will want to hold the rod get a feel of it before purchase. Next is length float rods are generally long from 12 to 18 foot this allows the rod to be very responsive picking the line up from the water quickly and easier to flick your float passed 20 yards, the eyelets are better positioned marginally further off the rods to avoid line sticking to shaft. A test curve of around 1.5 to 2.0lbs is best for these types of carp fishing rods.
Method feeder rods a few things to consider here the action can be fast and brutal so your rod choice needs to match. A good 12ft carp rod with a "Semi Through" action is also design to give excellent shock absorbing qualities whilst playing and landing your carp also giving you great deal of distance and accuracy casting to place you bait. Accuracy is extremely important with method feeding as placing the bait in the same hot zone repeatedly. A test curve 2.75 to 3lb is best for these types of rods.
In summery knowing what type of carp angling you wish to pursue choosing a rod will be a lot easier with the knowledge you have acquired. Happy Carping.
Grant johnson is webmaster for a list of clients in a variety of markets and in particular fishing related niches. He writes for FishingAustralia.com.au and owns several websites in more than one niche. He is a full-time Webmaster and Internet Marketer. His passion for fishing began after catching his first fish at 5 yrs of age.
Carp Fishing Rods
Types of Carp Rods
Margin fishing or fishing under the rod tip is an electrifying experience, big angry carp bursting off at 100 miles an hour requires a good rod that can put the brakes on bring control back in your favour. So what rod to choose? Carp fishing this close requires a good shock absorbing rod and i would recommend a "Through Action Rod". The design allows the full energy of the fight to be absorbed from the tip to the grip giving you greater control over the carp in the margins during the fight. A test curve of around 2.25lb is optimal for this style of fishing.
Stalking carp or sight fishing the art of stealth. This type of carp fishing requires a rod with a little back bone when engaging in difficult areas such as weed or snags. Here I would recommend a smaller rod the not the usual 12 to 13 footer smaller rods tend to have more direct control over the carp in this type of fishing. Therefore a 6 to 9 foot rod is best this gives a better freedom of movement in the bushy areas and less chance snagging in the brush and spooking the carp you have so patiently stalked. A test curve between 1.25 an 2lb is perfect for these rods.
Float fishing for carp there are a few considerations to be made here, such as the weight and length of your rods with float fishing. The weight of the rod is important as you will most likely be holding it most of your fishing session so firstly you will want to hold the rod get a feel of it before purchase. Next is length float rods are generally long from 12 to 18 foot this allows the rod to be very responsive picking the line up from the water quickly and easier to flick your float passed 20 yards, the eyelets are better positioned marginally further off the rods to avoid line sticking to shaft. A test curve of around 1.5 to 2.0lbs is best for these types of carp fishing rods.
Method feeder rods a few things to consider here the action can be fast and brutal so your rod choice needs to match. A good 12ft carp rod with a "Semi Through" action is also design to give excellent shock absorbing qualities whilst playing and landing your carp also giving you great deal of distance and accuracy casting to place you bait. Accuracy is extremely important with method feeding as placing the bait in the same hot zone repeatedly. A test curve 2.75 to 3lb is best for these types of rods.
In summery knowing what type of carp angling you wish to pursue choosing a rod will be a lot easier with the knowledge you have acquired. Happy Carping.
Grant johnson is webmaster for a list of clients in a variety of markets and in particular fishing related niches. He writes for FishingAustralia.com.au and owns several websites in more than one niche. He is a full-time Webmaster and Internet Marketer. His passion for fishing began after catching his first fish at 5 yrs of age.
Carp Fishing Rods
Types of Carp Rods
Monday, 19 April 2010
Carp Fishing and Bait Recipe Secrets For Big Fish Success!
Did you know you can tickle carp and make them go into a trance? Why is this and how can such things help you catch carp? Carp can see in the near infrared and near ultraviolet ranges and are far more sensitive than the average human! Also carp hear extremely well too and they can hear sounds in overlapping frequency range to humans (which means what you hear they hear including 10 decibel bite alarms contacting your line!) Carp learn to fear due to instinctively programmed negative associations so anglers must beware of all they are doing! Now read on to discover more about fish senses and how to use them to your advantage to catch more fish!
Did you know certain carp retinal (eye) cells are sensitive to things like caffeine and other substances? I knew a young kid once who drive me nuts because all he kept saying all the time was did you know. I asked myself what he was trying to prove by doing this - he was only learning on the fast-track! Then it struck me that the biggest lesson for me here (that I had long over-looked,) was the fact that so many of us adults pretty much stop asking questions all the time - and that means we are missing out on loads of good stuff to help us catch many more fish!
For instance, why does a carp mind if you throw lots of free baits out to him but then object to you plonking a 5 ounce lead on his head - I don't know! It seems to me he would appreciate all that free food and in response kindly jump on your hook by way of thanks. But then maybe he also does not particularly like hearing the vibration of your tight lines in the water sending out vibrations like so many wind turbines on your doorstep. Or maybe he would prefer a more musical melody coming down your fishing lines from your bite alarms set at full volume!
Maybe a Mozart or Beethoven symphony instead of a boring single note alarm sound would produce more fish bites by stimulating their mood better - who knows! This might sound too far-fetched to be true but carp can hear the vibrations of plankton and chose between areas of different concentrations of them in order to feed on them with much more energy-efficiency; carp are really sensitive creatures.
In fact if you think carp are simple rough types that like their alcohol and rough mating (a bit like many more hirsute macho-appearing beer-swilling rugby fanatics,) just remember appearances can be deceptive. Carp are renowned for biting your balls off and sucking your maggots dry without even getting hooked - they are that sensitive when playing with your baits that is!
The truth is that carp sensitivity makes certain they keep on adapting (and surviving,) and in fishing their sensitivity is their greatest strength against us (if we do not keep adapting and exploiting their sensitivity back against them!) Remember that we sensitise them when we condition them in every way by actually being there on the bank and fishing for them!
We humans as long-lost descendants of ancient teleost fish such as carp still have strange habits and behaviours from the past that help us adapt or fit in faster; so giving us better chances of survival. Here is a strange thing; how is it this possible: The very first utterances that a deaf human baby ever speaks can have the local accent of its mother. Is the liquid environment of the womb significant here in pre-learning before birth?! Of course larval stages of all kinds of creatures do things that only instincts and genetics appear to explain! What do crustacean larvae do in respect of tides, what do baby fish immediately do when hatching out of spawn and what stimulates such behaviours anyway?
Now just because you can see a fish and he seems quite happy and contented it does not mean he had not noticed you creeping along the bank in your Realtree one piece sniper outfit. A carp can see into near infrared so when at the surface or slightly out of the water do you think there is half a chance your own body heat will give you away like you were dressed like a luminescent Ronald MacDonald?! Mr Carp in all likelihood would know all about you in ways you have no conception of and that science has yet to discover.
We like carp are over 95 percent water. Good clean water is getting more difficult to find and even water from reservoirs still needs reverse osmosis treatment and subtle energy treatment to make it far less tainted; the average home water filter is just an inadequate joke. Adult carp take a lot of punishment and can even survive in quite low oxygen conditions and can thrive despite certain pH and salinity conditions, but even they have their limits! We humans are creating carp fisheries but our consumption is gradually poisoning waterways one way or another.
Remember we are what we eat and drink as are carp. The water quality of so many carp fisheries is a very big problem when hot conditions occur and this is something every carp angler needs to investigate to reveal to themselves the reasons why this is. All this can help you make better catches, make better baits and improve conditions for carp and improve our own personal health; carp nutrition is a great teacher of what is great for humans to consume also - so take note!
Now science is arrogant enough to think it knows so much for certain, and yet it does not know what came first - the chicken or the egg. Did a bigger human brain and the ability to walk and talk or make tools come first? Does our ancient reptilian brain used in fight or flight mean we were originally like reptiles, mammal or chickens anyway mammals were present on the scene before dinosaurs appeared and crocodiles were there before dinosaurs too!
There is evidence that some dinosaurs had feathers because that helped energy efficiency, but of course there is no point carp having feathers because they are cold-blooded and are the same as the temperature of the water they live in but a winged and feathered big carp would probably give a really good fight in the water (and in the air too!) See more on chicken in carp baits and their digestible protein later.
In regards to carp, chickens, humans and dinosaurs, maybe things evolved this way: The carp originally hatched amphibious mutant humans and chickens simultaneously (which kind of solves the chicken and the egg conundrum and probably explains why some dinosaurs and mammals went back into the water!) Then the chickens and humans discovered chocolate, coffee, vanilla, coke and chili, and this mixture dwarfed the chickens and made them flightless, and made the humans high so they grew upright and tall and let us see the lions coming (and thus we became the king of the jungle.)
Then during a freak forest fire in the first rudimentary herb and spice garden (near a salt mine,) the humans discovered the recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken which they were addicted to and so began to farm chickens (organically of course.) Then one day while the chickens were playing their favourite game of (you guessed it - chicken,) they hooked up a worm on a stick and a human found the stick, tripped up in a pond and hooked a carp that went for the worm - easy! Thus began traditional carp fishing without bows, arrows (or dynamite) approximately 450 million years ago give or take a week or two and thus the concept of fast food (though limited) it being fried, rare or live on a stick.
But now back to chickens; as you will see there is more to them in regards to carp and us that meets the eye! Science reckons (using the currently known genome,) that chicken DNA represents the closest match to the dinosaur Tyrannosaurus Rex. (Saying that T. Rex is the king dinosaur was a bit premature as in fact, he had bigger competition that looked very similar to him at different stages during dinosaur times so he was not the king at all. But science is not that exact really knowing only what it knows at any moment in time! Note; this applies to future carp bait developments too and the application of new technology and the potential to find new substances - maybe in the jungles of South America before they all get cleared to grow trendy soya beans, biofuels and coke!
Maybe chickens really are T.Rex in disguise and they are all just playing dumb to lull us humans into a false sense of security while we all laugh at all those why did the chicken cross the road jokes!
How about this; the majority of boilies and paste baits in carp fishing world-wide are based on the proteinous benefits and characteristics of common but humble chicken eggs! What does this tell you about the real power of chicken - because he gets everywhere! (Egg-bound boilies are the number one carp fishing bait right around the world!) Now chickens are produced to a great degree from special mutant stocks that make them lean mean thick legged big breasted roasting machines. Purely judging by the billions of chickens produced around the world every year, maybe T.Rex is on his way back and is intent on world domination again!
No kidding; did you know that probably the most viable successful sustainable (for now) protein products used in fish farming (instead of or to supplement fish meals, soya and maize protein,) is poultry protein meal. Chickens get everywhere; from China to South America in markets and fast food joints and get this; you are what you eat! (How things go full circle!) Added to this, chickens have indirectly created unrest, anarchy, mayhem, civil and world wars using their infamous battle cry of who are you calling chicken (humans love to mimic animals right!)
But seriously, you would think by now that the average intelligence male human being would have figured out that actually a chicken is not a chicken at all thus negating any suggestion of a man lacking testosterone fuelled abilities being a chicken. After all, chicken fights (or cock fights if you prefer,) have not been banned in so many countries just because chickens fight each other by tapping each other over the head with feather dusters (they are T. Rex dinosaurs in disguise right!)
Nutritionally-speaking it is reckoned that for all the effort you put into buying and drinking expensive high protein body-building powders based on whey protein concentrates (for all those lactose intolerant, fart-thumping, boob-blooming body-builders out there,) you might as well snack on chickens to get those big muscles you always dreamt of. (To get muscles like Arnold you will be needing steroids but maybe Paxo Super Booster (chicken gravy) will do instead!)
And what about the birds and the bees - what about those attractive birds guys are always calling babes and chicks?! Have you ever noticed the body language similarities between a guy on the pull in a club or at a bar, and a cockerel strutting his stuff with the hens (hilarious stuff or what?!)
Anyway, did you know that dead (chicken) chicks are proven catfish baits for leviathans? Those dead days-old chicks hook the monsters like a jumbo sized pellet never has; like I say, chicken is supreme! I promised you recipes so alongside your liver or fish meal or yeast or braised monkey nut ingredients, try adding keratin and poultry protein meal. Anyway, take your average white or brown fish meals; in a fight with Mr Chicken only the fighting fish tag team partnered with flying fish would stand half a chance! OK so it sounds like I am over-selling this chicken stuff but as fish stocks are terminally declining and English is not a chickens first language (or second language) they deserve a spokesperson!
In the UK chicken boilies etc have been plugged in the media so much by now. Maybe now carp anglers should all jump onto the Dynamite Bait bandwagon and just accept that chicken boilies have had their day, been fashionable and currently tuna is the new boy on the block?! (Note all those poor old halibut pellets that are floundering on the sidelines at the backs of fishing bait shelves now -ah how fickle fishing fashion is!) Do you see how much your perceptions of what is a successful carp bait are really in your own mind and not all based in objective reality?! And does this mean that carp sensitivities to your bait substances have anything whatever to do with your bait-choosing decision-making because I hope for your sake it is because a Tutti Fruitti or spicy tuna readymade bait will not always save you from a blank; it takes the power of thought too!
And if you are an readymade bait kind of guy, and you happen to have at least half a brain cell partly active after all the brand-conditioning adverts and advertorials you probably are not even aware of,) it is obvious that the best time to get on the chicken baits is when everyone else has jumped onto the tuna or other currently fashionable baits! (Have you noticed that wary big fish tend to like baits they have not been hooked on too much recently?!) I think I will bring out my own special unique cunningly-crafted scientifically proven in real-time (from the future) range of post space-age baits based on mutton (young sheep,) just to be different but the same just to please everyone!)
If you happen to have the urge to catch more fish than your average brainwashed fashion-copying modern carp angler, maybe you have realised that making your own homemade baits (made specifically to top all those standard format readymade baits) is a great way to save yourself a fortune. Super-boosted chicken baits are an ideal example to get you those freakishly good fish captures your mates will love to hate you for! But fashion-following brainwashed carp anglers are easy to beat anyway. They are far too fixated on the flashy magazine adverts searching for exciting new stuff to think of asking how on earth their chosen new baits might actually work (or fail) when used by the less than average angler against talented anglers.
Anyway, when you consider all the carp out there with a developed palette from chomping on chocolate, strawberry, Scopex, cranberry, crab, pineapple and chilli bait flavours etc, why would carp not accept roast chicken juices as their brand new favourite boilie flavour?! You really can obtain this genuinely great flavour from my good friend Phil at CW Baits (online.)
Finally why not tip your weighing scale balance in your favour and make your boilies and ground baits different with white meat! Why not add more sustainable and economical poultry protein type ingredients to them? Plus everyone knows cats love eating birds - and if you want a Jurassic sized carp there is no better nor obvious choice than to exploit the power of a chicken (that old dinosaur in disguise!)
In that Hitchcock horror film called The Birds, all the real stars in it were chickens painted black and made to adhere to a strict diet and exercise programme to build them up and slim them down of course! Special effects helped make their beaks and faces look more symmetrical (and the odd feathers were air-brushed out according to Hollywood standards!) But even if you choose not to believe this, just consider that your local ostrich can out-run and out-kick you and makes a meaner bigger omelette than you too; so remember whatever you do - never call him chicken!
As you can tell by now this article was produced purely for entertainment and was written from the place where the chickens end up (after crossing the road,) but for a more practical gathering of truly valuable fishing bait information you need to read on a bit for my bait secrets site and other articles! (For more information see my Baitbigfish website and biography right now!)
By Tim Richardson.
Now why not seize this moment to improve your catches for life with these unique fishing bibles: "BIG CARP FLAVOURS FEEDING TRIGGERS AND CARP SENSES EXPLOITATION SECRETS!" "BIG CARP AND CATFISH BAIT SECRETS!" And "BIG CARP BAIT SECRETS!" For these and much more now visit: http://www.baitbigfish.com the home of the world-wide proven homemade bait making and readymade bait success secrets bibles and further free carp and cat fishing articles!
Did you know certain carp retinal (eye) cells are sensitive to things like caffeine and other substances? I knew a young kid once who drive me nuts because all he kept saying all the time was did you know. I asked myself what he was trying to prove by doing this - he was only learning on the fast-track! Then it struck me that the biggest lesson for me here (that I had long over-looked,) was the fact that so many of us adults pretty much stop asking questions all the time - and that means we are missing out on loads of good stuff to help us catch many more fish!
For instance, why does a carp mind if you throw lots of free baits out to him but then object to you plonking a 5 ounce lead on his head - I don't know! It seems to me he would appreciate all that free food and in response kindly jump on your hook by way of thanks. But then maybe he also does not particularly like hearing the vibration of your tight lines in the water sending out vibrations like so many wind turbines on your doorstep. Or maybe he would prefer a more musical melody coming down your fishing lines from your bite alarms set at full volume!
Maybe a Mozart or Beethoven symphony instead of a boring single note alarm sound would produce more fish bites by stimulating their mood better - who knows! This might sound too far-fetched to be true but carp can hear the vibrations of plankton and chose between areas of different concentrations of them in order to feed on them with much more energy-efficiency; carp are really sensitive creatures.
In fact if you think carp are simple rough types that like their alcohol and rough mating (a bit like many more hirsute macho-appearing beer-swilling rugby fanatics,) just remember appearances can be deceptive. Carp are renowned for biting your balls off and sucking your maggots dry without even getting hooked - they are that sensitive when playing with your baits that is!
The truth is that carp sensitivity makes certain they keep on adapting (and surviving,) and in fishing their sensitivity is their greatest strength against us (if we do not keep adapting and exploiting their sensitivity back against them!) Remember that we sensitise them when we condition them in every way by actually being there on the bank and fishing for them!
We humans as long-lost descendants of ancient teleost fish such as carp still have strange habits and behaviours from the past that help us adapt or fit in faster; so giving us better chances of survival. Here is a strange thing; how is it this possible: The very first utterances that a deaf human baby ever speaks can have the local accent of its mother. Is the liquid environment of the womb significant here in pre-learning before birth?! Of course larval stages of all kinds of creatures do things that only instincts and genetics appear to explain! What do crustacean larvae do in respect of tides, what do baby fish immediately do when hatching out of spawn and what stimulates such behaviours anyway?
Now just because you can see a fish and he seems quite happy and contented it does not mean he had not noticed you creeping along the bank in your Realtree one piece sniper outfit. A carp can see into near infrared so when at the surface or slightly out of the water do you think there is half a chance your own body heat will give you away like you were dressed like a luminescent Ronald MacDonald?! Mr Carp in all likelihood would know all about you in ways you have no conception of and that science has yet to discover.
We like carp are over 95 percent water. Good clean water is getting more difficult to find and even water from reservoirs still needs reverse osmosis treatment and subtle energy treatment to make it far less tainted; the average home water filter is just an inadequate joke. Adult carp take a lot of punishment and can even survive in quite low oxygen conditions and can thrive despite certain pH and salinity conditions, but even they have their limits! We humans are creating carp fisheries but our consumption is gradually poisoning waterways one way or another.
Remember we are what we eat and drink as are carp. The water quality of so many carp fisheries is a very big problem when hot conditions occur and this is something every carp angler needs to investigate to reveal to themselves the reasons why this is. All this can help you make better catches, make better baits and improve conditions for carp and improve our own personal health; carp nutrition is a great teacher of what is great for humans to consume also - so take note!
Now science is arrogant enough to think it knows so much for certain, and yet it does not know what came first - the chicken or the egg. Did a bigger human brain and the ability to walk and talk or make tools come first? Does our ancient reptilian brain used in fight or flight mean we were originally like reptiles, mammal or chickens anyway mammals were present on the scene before dinosaurs appeared and crocodiles were there before dinosaurs too!
There is evidence that some dinosaurs had feathers because that helped energy efficiency, but of course there is no point carp having feathers because they are cold-blooded and are the same as the temperature of the water they live in but a winged and feathered big carp would probably give a really good fight in the water (and in the air too!) See more on chicken in carp baits and their digestible protein later.
In regards to carp, chickens, humans and dinosaurs, maybe things evolved this way: The carp originally hatched amphibious mutant humans and chickens simultaneously (which kind of solves the chicken and the egg conundrum and probably explains why some dinosaurs and mammals went back into the water!) Then the chickens and humans discovered chocolate, coffee, vanilla, coke and chili, and this mixture dwarfed the chickens and made them flightless, and made the humans high so they grew upright and tall and let us see the lions coming (and thus we became the king of the jungle.)
Then during a freak forest fire in the first rudimentary herb and spice garden (near a salt mine,) the humans discovered the recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken which they were addicted to and so began to farm chickens (organically of course.) Then one day while the chickens were playing their favourite game of (you guessed it - chicken,) they hooked up a worm on a stick and a human found the stick, tripped up in a pond and hooked a carp that went for the worm - easy! Thus began traditional carp fishing without bows, arrows (or dynamite) approximately 450 million years ago give or take a week or two and thus the concept of fast food (though limited) it being fried, rare or live on a stick.
But now back to chickens; as you will see there is more to them in regards to carp and us that meets the eye! Science reckons (using the currently known genome,) that chicken DNA represents the closest match to the dinosaur Tyrannosaurus Rex. (Saying that T. Rex is the king dinosaur was a bit premature as in fact, he had bigger competition that looked very similar to him at different stages during dinosaur times so he was not the king at all. But science is not that exact really knowing only what it knows at any moment in time! Note; this applies to future carp bait developments too and the application of new technology and the potential to find new substances - maybe in the jungles of South America before they all get cleared to grow trendy soya beans, biofuels and coke!
Maybe chickens really are T.Rex in disguise and they are all just playing dumb to lull us humans into a false sense of security while we all laugh at all those why did the chicken cross the road jokes!
How about this; the majority of boilies and paste baits in carp fishing world-wide are based on the proteinous benefits and characteristics of common but humble chicken eggs! What does this tell you about the real power of chicken - because he gets everywhere! (Egg-bound boilies are the number one carp fishing bait right around the world!) Now chickens are produced to a great degree from special mutant stocks that make them lean mean thick legged big breasted roasting machines. Purely judging by the billions of chickens produced around the world every year, maybe T.Rex is on his way back and is intent on world domination again!
No kidding; did you know that probably the most viable successful sustainable (for now) protein products used in fish farming (instead of or to supplement fish meals, soya and maize protein,) is poultry protein meal. Chickens get everywhere; from China to South America in markets and fast food joints and get this; you are what you eat! (How things go full circle!) Added to this, chickens have indirectly created unrest, anarchy, mayhem, civil and world wars using their infamous battle cry of who are you calling chicken (humans love to mimic animals right!)
But seriously, you would think by now that the average intelligence male human being would have figured out that actually a chicken is not a chicken at all thus negating any suggestion of a man lacking testosterone fuelled abilities being a chicken. After all, chicken fights (or cock fights if you prefer,) have not been banned in so many countries just because chickens fight each other by tapping each other over the head with feather dusters (they are T. Rex dinosaurs in disguise right!)
Nutritionally-speaking it is reckoned that for all the effort you put into buying and drinking expensive high protein body-building powders based on whey protein concentrates (for all those lactose intolerant, fart-thumping, boob-blooming body-builders out there,) you might as well snack on chickens to get those big muscles you always dreamt of. (To get muscles like Arnold you will be needing steroids but maybe Paxo Super Booster (chicken gravy) will do instead!)
And what about the birds and the bees - what about those attractive birds guys are always calling babes and chicks?! Have you ever noticed the body language similarities between a guy on the pull in a club or at a bar, and a cockerel strutting his stuff with the hens (hilarious stuff or what?!)
Anyway, did you know that dead (chicken) chicks are proven catfish baits for leviathans? Those dead days-old chicks hook the monsters like a jumbo sized pellet never has; like I say, chicken is supreme! I promised you recipes so alongside your liver or fish meal or yeast or braised monkey nut ingredients, try adding keratin and poultry protein meal. Anyway, take your average white or brown fish meals; in a fight with Mr Chicken only the fighting fish tag team partnered with flying fish would stand half a chance! OK so it sounds like I am over-selling this chicken stuff but as fish stocks are terminally declining and English is not a chickens first language (or second language) they deserve a spokesperson!
In the UK chicken boilies etc have been plugged in the media so much by now. Maybe now carp anglers should all jump onto the Dynamite Bait bandwagon and just accept that chicken boilies have had their day, been fashionable and currently tuna is the new boy on the block?! (Note all those poor old halibut pellets that are floundering on the sidelines at the backs of fishing bait shelves now -ah how fickle fishing fashion is!) Do you see how much your perceptions of what is a successful carp bait are really in your own mind and not all based in objective reality?! And does this mean that carp sensitivities to your bait substances have anything whatever to do with your bait-choosing decision-making because I hope for your sake it is because a Tutti Fruitti or spicy tuna readymade bait will not always save you from a blank; it takes the power of thought too!
And if you are an readymade bait kind of guy, and you happen to have at least half a brain cell partly active after all the brand-conditioning adverts and advertorials you probably are not even aware of,) it is obvious that the best time to get on the chicken baits is when everyone else has jumped onto the tuna or other currently fashionable baits! (Have you noticed that wary big fish tend to like baits they have not been hooked on too much recently?!) I think I will bring out my own special unique cunningly-crafted scientifically proven in real-time (from the future) range of post space-age baits based on mutton (young sheep,) just to be different but the same just to please everyone!)
If you happen to have the urge to catch more fish than your average brainwashed fashion-copying modern carp angler, maybe you have realised that making your own homemade baits (made specifically to top all those standard format readymade baits) is a great way to save yourself a fortune. Super-boosted chicken baits are an ideal example to get you those freakishly good fish captures your mates will love to hate you for! But fashion-following brainwashed carp anglers are easy to beat anyway. They are far too fixated on the flashy magazine adverts searching for exciting new stuff to think of asking how on earth their chosen new baits might actually work (or fail) when used by the less than average angler against talented anglers.
Anyway, when you consider all the carp out there with a developed palette from chomping on chocolate, strawberry, Scopex, cranberry, crab, pineapple and chilli bait flavours etc, why would carp not accept roast chicken juices as their brand new favourite boilie flavour?! You really can obtain this genuinely great flavour from my good friend Phil at CW Baits (online.)
Finally why not tip your weighing scale balance in your favour and make your boilies and ground baits different with white meat! Why not add more sustainable and economical poultry protein type ingredients to them? Plus everyone knows cats love eating birds - and if you want a Jurassic sized carp there is no better nor obvious choice than to exploit the power of a chicken (that old dinosaur in disguise!)
In that Hitchcock horror film called The Birds, all the real stars in it were chickens painted black and made to adhere to a strict diet and exercise programme to build them up and slim them down of course! Special effects helped make their beaks and faces look more symmetrical (and the odd feathers were air-brushed out according to Hollywood standards!) But even if you choose not to believe this, just consider that your local ostrich can out-run and out-kick you and makes a meaner bigger omelette than you too; so remember whatever you do - never call him chicken!
As you can tell by now this article was produced purely for entertainment and was written from the place where the chickens end up (after crossing the road,) but for a more practical gathering of truly valuable fishing bait information you need to read on a bit for my bait secrets site and other articles! (For more information see my Baitbigfish website and biography right now!)
By Tim Richardson.
Now why not seize this moment to improve your catches for life with these unique fishing bibles: "BIG CARP FLAVOURS FEEDING TRIGGERS AND CARP SENSES EXPLOITATION SECRETS!" "BIG CARP AND CATFISH BAIT SECRETS!" And "BIG CARP BAIT SECRETS!" For these and much more now visit: http://www.baitbigfish.com the home of the world-wide proven homemade bait making and readymade bait success secrets bibles and further free carp and cat fishing articles!
Monday, 12 April 2010
Carp Fishing Bait and Tackle Tips to Catch More Big Fish!
Anyone can catch carp but it is only a small proportion of anglers that catch the biggest fish most frequently! To become one of this special group is the goal of countless carp anglers today. Here are a few very well proven innovative bait tips that you and your carp will find highly stimulating!
Firstly, how many of you use meat baits? Luncheon meat, spam, turkey grill, ham and similar meat baits were exceptionally popular baits in the past before boilies and pellets became all the rage and very many famous carp anglers learnt their trade using this along with bread, sweetcorn, specially-prepared high protein pastes, trout pellets and other fish and bird and pet food baits.
I ask this question because this is a neglected area in carp fishing today, now so many anglers exclusively are using baits like boilies, pellets, natural baits and particles like maggots, fake plastic boilies and rubber sweetcorn. Among the best aspects of meat baits is they are very easily available, are alternative baits that carp do not see all the time and so learn to deal better with and do not fear to the extent of many other bait formats.
One of the best features of meat baits such as luncheon meat is that it has an unusual rubbery texture, is high in attractive oils, yet is water soluble, is nutritious and can be flavoured too. Various bait companies offer flavoured luncheon meat and similar products. Everyone knows luncheon met is a proven bait for lots of species including carp, catfish and barbel in specimen sizes. There is lots you can do with it to improve results that the majority of anglers forget.
For instance you can exploit various brands in your free-baiting so it is far more effective, rather like using very soluble ground baits like tiny pellets. All you need to do is use a few different brands and see which spam and luncheon meats have more or less water content, fat content and actual meat content. Usually a guide to this is the order and percentage of such ingredients in order stated on the label, with the largest ingredients per volume stated first. This means that some meats with have far more water or fat in them compared to other and also less meat. The ones with more meat are often much less water soluble and are best for resilient hook baits, while the more water and fat-filled ones make for excellent free baits.
One of the big plusses about meats is you can cut them instantly into any size and shape you like and so make them harder for carp for instance to deal with. The various brands also vary in their relative densities and buoyancies and this can all be used in various ways to your advantage to hook many more fish. I began fishing luncheon meat in the Seventies by actually fishing tiny cubes on the point of a size 10 hook and using a light running lead rig, a hook link of only 3 or 4 inches, a tight line and a very light indicator on the line with the rod pointing straight at the lead. This produced so many carp for me compared to other methods that I still use variants of it using various baits in my fishing for carp today.
As meat can be cut, various specialist and homemade tools can be used to generate uniform or odd-shaped free baits. I really favour using 2 different brands of luncheon meat for instance within my ground baits and PVA bag mixes and big carp love it! I have always found that using nearly square or rectangular baits are much harder for carp to deal with and eject than all those uniformly round shaped baits that the majority use. In the Eighties I used to cut my boilies into squares and in so doing it made them smaller. Strangely enough, this resulted in captures of many carp that had not been caught for a long time, some often with smaller mouths than you would expect for their size, especially in regards to common carp.
I have also found over the years that using a much more water soluble meat bait in a large size on a hair immediately by the hook, and alongside a boilie or pop-up bait has worked wonders for tripping up many wary carp over thirty and forty pounds. I evolved this further and often make homemade balanced protein pastes which are peppered (literally) and liberally, with small pieces of luncheon meat and even tiny chopped bits of worms and sea foods such as mussels, scallops, prawns, squid, and others.
I often made homemade pastes using many forms of oily fish like tinned salmon, anchovies and sardines, mackerel and herring, tuna and cod roe and other goodies. I place my paste actually around the hook and around baits on the hair rig too. This works so well in obscuring the hook from wary eyes and when it breaks down leave an irresistible pile of tiny food items that really trigger feeding and seriously improve numbers of bites from big wary fish.
A variation on this is to prepare homemade balls of ground bait that have been super-boosted with very well chosen forms of amino acid-rich ingredients and additves which often make the soluble and digestible content of many readymade baits look pretty impotent by comparison! I could add things like nucleotide enhancers, amino-rich palatants and complexes of many kinds, flavoured oils, essential oils and many other liquids and additves.
I generally use the very most potent products I can source especially when it comes to making homemade hook baits and PVA bag type mixes. Soaking luncheon meat baits in cubes and cylinders etc (in various sizes) for a few days, in special preparations really works! You might just go for conventional additives hat carp get to experience all the time and may begin to be wise to, such as marine halibut pellet oil, tiger nut oil and extract. Take it from me that adding aniseed oil and fennel oil to meats makes all the difference in colder temperatures as well as being excellent for summer use in high levels!
I especially recommend you try always to be as different and alternative as possible in preparation of your baits because it is this that multiplies your catches of the bigger, older most experienced and wary carp, most of all! For starters you might make a liquid soak using Ccmoore Marine Amino Compound with Feedstim CP or Odyssey XP liquid.
I used to use Rod Hutchinson Shellfish Sense Appeal or Nash Strawberry or Peach palatants but I have found methods to make my own unique amino acid complexes from fermented liver and natural flavour compounds among other goodies that save me an absolute fortune in homemade bait and I very rarely use readymade baits.
I use things like kelp, yeasts and Robin Red to make my own homemade liquid extracts using various special techniques to make such things even more potently bioactive. I am keen on many flavours and flavour components although I research them all as much as possible in terms of their possible bioactivity and past track record, as well as sourcing ones not known by the majority through my horticultural and health food trade contacts developed over 30 years and more.
One product I really do rate at the top of my list for productivity and great value is the hydrolysed salmon protein from CW Baits. This used with a combination of their natural flavours, pure salmon oil, betaine HCL and liquid lecithins is a great starting point liquid for all homemade bait enthusiasts as well as those anglers wishing to differentiate and boost their readymade baits! Good luck and tight lines!
By Tim Richardson.
Now why not seize this moment to improve your catches for life with these unique fishing bibles: "BIG CARP FLAVOURS FEEDING TRIGGERS AND CARP SENSES EXPLOITATION SECRETS!" "BIG CARP AND CATFISH BAIT SECRETS!" And "BIG CARP BAIT SECRETS!" For these and much more now visit: http://www.baitbigfish.com Home of world-wide proven readymade and homemade bait success secrets bibles!
Firstly, how many of you use meat baits? Luncheon meat, spam, turkey grill, ham and similar meat baits were exceptionally popular baits in the past before boilies and pellets became all the rage and very many famous carp anglers learnt their trade using this along with bread, sweetcorn, specially-prepared high protein pastes, trout pellets and other fish and bird and pet food baits.
I ask this question because this is a neglected area in carp fishing today, now so many anglers exclusively are using baits like boilies, pellets, natural baits and particles like maggots, fake plastic boilies and rubber sweetcorn. Among the best aspects of meat baits is they are very easily available, are alternative baits that carp do not see all the time and so learn to deal better with and do not fear to the extent of many other bait formats.
One of the best features of meat baits such as luncheon meat is that it has an unusual rubbery texture, is high in attractive oils, yet is water soluble, is nutritious and can be flavoured too. Various bait companies offer flavoured luncheon meat and similar products. Everyone knows luncheon met is a proven bait for lots of species including carp, catfish and barbel in specimen sizes. There is lots you can do with it to improve results that the majority of anglers forget.
For instance you can exploit various brands in your free-baiting so it is far more effective, rather like using very soluble ground baits like tiny pellets. All you need to do is use a few different brands and see which spam and luncheon meats have more or less water content, fat content and actual meat content. Usually a guide to this is the order and percentage of such ingredients in order stated on the label, with the largest ingredients per volume stated first. This means that some meats with have far more water or fat in them compared to other and also less meat. The ones with more meat are often much less water soluble and are best for resilient hook baits, while the more water and fat-filled ones make for excellent free baits.
One of the big plusses about meats is you can cut them instantly into any size and shape you like and so make them harder for carp for instance to deal with. The various brands also vary in their relative densities and buoyancies and this can all be used in various ways to your advantage to hook many more fish. I began fishing luncheon meat in the Seventies by actually fishing tiny cubes on the point of a size 10 hook and using a light running lead rig, a hook link of only 3 or 4 inches, a tight line and a very light indicator on the line with the rod pointing straight at the lead. This produced so many carp for me compared to other methods that I still use variants of it using various baits in my fishing for carp today.
As meat can be cut, various specialist and homemade tools can be used to generate uniform or odd-shaped free baits. I really favour using 2 different brands of luncheon meat for instance within my ground baits and PVA bag mixes and big carp love it! I have always found that using nearly square or rectangular baits are much harder for carp to deal with and eject than all those uniformly round shaped baits that the majority use. In the Eighties I used to cut my boilies into squares and in so doing it made them smaller. Strangely enough, this resulted in captures of many carp that had not been caught for a long time, some often with smaller mouths than you would expect for their size, especially in regards to common carp.
I have also found over the years that using a much more water soluble meat bait in a large size on a hair immediately by the hook, and alongside a boilie or pop-up bait has worked wonders for tripping up many wary carp over thirty and forty pounds. I evolved this further and often make homemade balanced protein pastes which are peppered (literally) and liberally, with small pieces of luncheon meat and even tiny chopped bits of worms and sea foods such as mussels, scallops, prawns, squid, and others.
I often made homemade pastes using many forms of oily fish like tinned salmon, anchovies and sardines, mackerel and herring, tuna and cod roe and other goodies. I place my paste actually around the hook and around baits on the hair rig too. This works so well in obscuring the hook from wary eyes and when it breaks down leave an irresistible pile of tiny food items that really trigger feeding and seriously improve numbers of bites from big wary fish.
A variation on this is to prepare homemade balls of ground bait that have been super-boosted with very well chosen forms of amino acid-rich ingredients and additves which often make the soluble and digestible content of many readymade baits look pretty impotent by comparison! I could add things like nucleotide enhancers, amino-rich palatants and complexes of many kinds, flavoured oils, essential oils and many other liquids and additves.
I generally use the very most potent products I can source especially when it comes to making homemade hook baits and PVA bag type mixes. Soaking luncheon meat baits in cubes and cylinders etc (in various sizes) for a few days, in special preparations really works! You might just go for conventional additives hat carp get to experience all the time and may begin to be wise to, such as marine halibut pellet oil, tiger nut oil and extract. Take it from me that adding aniseed oil and fennel oil to meats makes all the difference in colder temperatures as well as being excellent for summer use in high levels!
I especially recommend you try always to be as different and alternative as possible in preparation of your baits because it is this that multiplies your catches of the bigger, older most experienced and wary carp, most of all! For starters you might make a liquid soak using Ccmoore Marine Amino Compound with Feedstim CP or Odyssey XP liquid.
I used to use Rod Hutchinson Shellfish Sense Appeal or Nash Strawberry or Peach palatants but I have found methods to make my own unique amino acid complexes from fermented liver and natural flavour compounds among other goodies that save me an absolute fortune in homemade bait and I very rarely use readymade baits.
I use things like kelp, yeasts and Robin Red to make my own homemade liquid extracts using various special techniques to make such things even more potently bioactive. I am keen on many flavours and flavour components although I research them all as much as possible in terms of their possible bioactivity and past track record, as well as sourcing ones not known by the majority through my horticultural and health food trade contacts developed over 30 years and more.
One product I really do rate at the top of my list for productivity and great value is the hydrolysed salmon protein from CW Baits. This used with a combination of their natural flavours, pure salmon oil, betaine HCL and liquid lecithins is a great starting point liquid for all homemade bait enthusiasts as well as those anglers wishing to differentiate and boost their readymade baits! Good luck and tight lines!
By Tim Richardson.
Now why not seize this moment to improve your catches for life with these unique fishing bibles: "BIG CARP FLAVOURS FEEDING TRIGGERS AND CARP SENSES EXPLOITATION SECRETS!" "BIG CARP AND CATFISH BAIT SECRETS!" And "BIG CARP BAIT SECRETS!" For these and much more now visit: http://www.baitbigfish.com Home of world-wide proven readymade and homemade bait success secrets bibles!
Carp Fishing Tips - 10 Reasons Why You Should Fish the Margins
Over the years I have been carp fishing both in France and the UK I have lost count of the number of carp I have caught fishing the margins. I would go as far as to say it is my number one choice of feature on any water. The less pressured the venue to closer in I would chose to fish. So here are ten of my reasons why, when you turn up at a new venue in France you should not over look the margins.
1. Largest Feature: The margins on any lake are the largest feature. Stretching all around the perimeter and that of any islands they offer a natural barrier where food will accumulate either by wind action or water movement. Food will fall or be thrown in the margins, and aquatic and semi-aquatic life will often lay eggs, hatch larvae or nest in the vegetation lined area of a lake.
2. Fish are Drawn to Feed in the Edge: Pleasure anglers nearly always fish close in, bait close in and throw spare bait in the edge; this in turn attracts fish and conditions them to patrol the margins of a lake. How often have you seen walkers, children etc feed the ducks in the edge? It stands to reason that any food thrown into a lake will also attract and be eaten by the fish. This includes carp, and is all the more true in Spring with flood water entering lakes and the run off from the land being important.
3. The Margins Offer Shelter: The margins of lakes often have overhangs & covering vegetation. Overhangs can on occasions stretch back several feet under the bankside, due to water erosion. Shaun Harrison proved this during a video shoot in December, when he banked a 20lb mirror on inches from the bank. This area, will offer a natural trap for food and shelter for fish species. Most margins are also rich in vegetation such as reedbeds, trees, lilies etc. These plants naturally grow along a margin where they are carried by the wind and currents. They offer a larder for the fish and help reinforce why margins are such a good place to fish.
4. Easy to Bait Up: It is far easier to bait up in the margin. You can do this with a simple catapult for pellets and particles or by hand for boilies. I remember in the 80's when I was fishing all sorts of particles to provide a blanket of bait, that the furthest we could fish was the catapult range of our bait. Fishing close-in increases the variety of baits you can use and avoids the use of baitboats, spods or feeders.
5. Easy to Fish Accurately: The ease of baiting means you can fish more accurately. Accuracy is so important in carp fishing. The margins are far easier to explore with a marker float, and once you have baited an area, to get your rig bang on the money. If weather conditions are against you, you have no worries about reaching your spot. Often a simple under hand swing is all that is needed.
6. Easier to land the fish: Fishing at long range is always more awkward and full of danger. However hooking a carp under the rods top gives you far more control. You are straight away in command. I have on occasions scooped a big lump into the net before it has realised its been hooked. Even if the first rush can be full blooded and brutal, the amount of line in the water and the reduced chance of getting snagged means that fish are more often than not easier to land when hooked close in.
7. Don't need big reels and long cast rods: Fishing the margins precludes the need for stepped up heavy, long distance carp rods. You can use softer more forgiving gear, lighter leads and smaller reels. You don't need big pits to cast 100 yards plus. Some of my friends still fish on the pin...now there's pleasure in fishing!
8. Far Margin is often quieter: If you chose to fish the far margin, and how many of us have ignored that sexy overhang on the far bank or the reed bed opposite? Then you will almost certainly be fishing the quieter part of the lake. Probably and area that is less accessible or inaccessible to other anglers or dog walkers. On waters that see a bit of pressure the carp will move away from this and the far margin is often an area they will hold up in.
9. Most people overlook this area of the lake: Curiously enough, despite all the reasons I have evoked above, the simple fact is most people don't fish the margins. I remember a question from and angler once 'Do you have any a long range swims on your lake?- because I've got rods that can cast 120 yards plus'. This type of question amazed me and my reply was that he'd be better off fishing where the fish were.
Equally even if anglers fish a close-in rod it is often at 20 odd yards, to me the margins are just that, inches off the bank.
10. If you're Too Drunk to Cast Out, Chuck it in the Edge: Finally the great Rod Hutchinson once said in 'A Carp Strikes Back', if you are too drunk to cast out, chuck it in the edge!
Gareth Watkins
For more Carp Fishing News and great fishing in France check out my website at : http://www.croixblanchelakes.com
1. Largest Feature: The margins on any lake are the largest feature. Stretching all around the perimeter and that of any islands they offer a natural barrier where food will accumulate either by wind action or water movement. Food will fall or be thrown in the margins, and aquatic and semi-aquatic life will often lay eggs, hatch larvae or nest in the vegetation lined area of a lake.
2. Fish are Drawn to Feed in the Edge: Pleasure anglers nearly always fish close in, bait close in and throw spare bait in the edge; this in turn attracts fish and conditions them to patrol the margins of a lake. How often have you seen walkers, children etc feed the ducks in the edge? It stands to reason that any food thrown into a lake will also attract and be eaten by the fish. This includes carp, and is all the more true in Spring with flood water entering lakes and the run off from the land being important.
3. The Margins Offer Shelter: The margins of lakes often have overhangs & covering vegetation. Overhangs can on occasions stretch back several feet under the bankside, due to water erosion. Shaun Harrison proved this during a video shoot in December, when he banked a 20lb mirror on inches from the bank. This area, will offer a natural trap for food and shelter for fish species. Most margins are also rich in vegetation such as reedbeds, trees, lilies etc. These plants naturally grow along a margin where they are carried by the wind and currents. They offer a larder for the fish and help reinforce why margins are such a good place to fish.
4. Easy to Bait Up: It is far easier to bait up in the margin. You can do this with a simple catapult for pellets and particles or by hand for boilies. I remember in the 80's when I was fishing all sorts of particles to provide a blanket of bait, that the furthest we could fish was the catapult range of our bait. Fishing close-in increases the variety of baits you can use and avoids the use of baitboats, spods or feeders.
5. Easy to Fish Accurately: The ease of baiting means you can fish more accurately. Accuracy is so important in carp fishing. The margins are far easier to explore with a marker float, and once you have baited an area, to get your rig bang on the money. If weather conditions are against you, you have no worries about reaching your spot. Often a simple under hand swing is all that is needed.
6. Easier to land the fish: Fishing at long range is always more awkward and full of danger. However hooking a carp under the rods top gives you far more control. You are straight away in command. I have on occasions scooped a big lump into the net before it has realised its been hooked. Even if the first rush can be full blooded and brutal, the amount of line in the water and the reduced chance of getting snagged means that fish are more often than not easier to land when hooked close in.
7. Don't need big reels and long cast rods: Fishing the margins precludes the need for stepped up heavy, long distance carp rods. You can use softer more forgiving gear, lighter leads and smaller reels. You don't need big pits to cast 100 yards plus. Some of my friends still fish on the pin...now there's pleasure in fishing!
8. Far Margin is often quieter: If you chose to fish the far margin, and how many of us have ignored that sexy overhang on the far bank or the reed bed opposite? Then you will almost certainly be fishing the quieter part of the lake. Probably and area that is less accessible or inaccessible to other anglers or dog walkers. On waters that see a bit of pressure the carp will move away from this and the far margin is often an area they will hold up in.
9. Most people overlook this area of the lake: Curiously enough, despite all the reasons I have evoked above, the simple fact is most people don't fish the margins. I remember a question from and angler once 'Do you have any a long range swims on your lake?- because I've got rods that can cast 120 yards plus'. This type of question amazed me and my reply was that he'd be better off fishing where the fish were.
Equally even if anglers fish a close-in rod it is often at 20 odd yards, to me the margins are just that, inches off the bank.
10. If you're Too Drunk to Cast Out, Chuck it in the Edge: Finally the great Rod Hutchinson once said in 'A Carp Strikes Back', if you are too drunk to cast out, chuck it in the edge!
Gareth Watkins
For more Carp Fishing News and great fishing in France check out my website at : http://www.croixblanchelakes.com
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
Carp Fishing Tips - Choosing a Swim, What Should One Look Out For?
I'm sure many of you will have seen that there are Carp anglers that just seem to have the knack of getting on the fish and catching them. No matter where they go, they have a sixth sense and can tune into the water. I've seen this on a number of occasions and have been in awe of the talent... because you do have to talk about this in terms of talent. Carp fishing has been democratized and is now accessible to all, but this doesn't necessarily make it easy! How many have gone to France with huge aspirations only to have them shattered once there. So not only can Carp Fishing be difficult, you have to be good at it to succeed.
Selecting the right swim and fishing it in a logical way will help stack things in your favour. So where does one begin?
You'll most likely come up against three types of venue in France. Assuming that the carp aren't boshing out all over the place, where should you start looking to place your baits on a new water?
Lakes: The classic French lake is a dammed river with gently slopping sides, a river bed running down its length, with an inlet at one end and a damwall at the other.
Margins: With this type of venue the margin is probably the largest and most over looked feature. I've lost count of the number of fish I've caught by dropping a bait at my feet or just down the bank a few feet off the margin. You get the cover of vegetation and the fish naturally patrol this area of any lake.
Weed, lilies, etc: Many of these lakes have weed beds and lily pads that just abound with food for carp. Placing a bait in proximity is a good bet for a take.
Overhangs: As with margin reeds the branches of overhanging trees are an excellent place to start. Weeping willows are my favourite and can be real holding areas for carp. They offer shade and safety as well as harbouring food. I remember once landing over 40 carp in a few hours from under a weeping willow. I was only able to fish one rod such was the action... a Method feeder was the successful technique.
Halfway down the slope: I don't know why, but I've always done really well baiting an area just half way down the slope on a classic dammed type lake. Most have these sloping sides and carp seem to patrol up and down them. A steadily baited area can often be productive.
The River bed: I'm not sure actually in the river bed is the best spot but if will certainly hold food in its silt. I guess it depends what type of silt it holds. I have done well fishing close to these. In fact the first time I fished La Horre I have a rake of fish casting to the stream bed landing some 68 carp in a weekend.
Silt: I've never been a fan of fishing in the silt. I'm always afraid my bait will be buried or that the silt will put the fish off feeding. (Some of it smells really foul). However if I can find a firm area next to the silt I feel confident that my rig is presented well and that it will be found. The natural food in the area will attract the fish. Also any harder spot on a silty lake bed is almost certainly caused by feeding fish.
Gravel Pits: Dug out for sand, gravel and chalk these holes in the ground can vary in size form a few acres to many tens of acres. I have always found them the most interesting places to fish. Perhaps because I grew up fishing on them in the Harefield area as a boy, but I enjoy their varied and unpredictable nature.
Margins: Often deep and steep, they can be excellent areas to start. I've had countless fish from under the rods. The same basic rules apply as with a classic lake. The margin is the largest feature. I always start with at least one rod close in. If you can combine it with a feature so much the better, ie. Reedbed, gravel run, lilies, gully... These areas are easy to bait accurately and get a bait right on top. When I first got the Croix Blanche my favourite method was to walk a bait down the margins and drop it in the edge. Margins can also be the far margins.. often quieter and less disturbed, a far margin rod will always be high up my list of spots to try.
Gravel Bars/Patches: Most pits have really uneven bottoms, and the use of a marker rod to give you a good idea of the variation is essential to my mind. A bar will be a natural larder for the carp, so you can bet that a bait on or near it will get picked up. I like to use a marker rod to find gravel, as I know it is likely to hold food for the fish. This is particularly the case if its near silt as it not only offers a close by natural food supply, but and area the a bait can be presented on effectively.
Gullies: I think it was Rod Hutchinson who wrote that he had more success fishing in the gullies as opposed to on the bars. I suppose that a bait placed smack bang on the top of a bar gets to be a bit obvious after a while, the fish are therefore more likely to spook off it. By placing a bait in the deeper water nearby you can often get pick ups.
Islands: I remember reading in an old carp mag that if there is an island in casting distance, fish it. Well this has worked well for me over the years. I've always managed to get fish for island margins. I guess the rules that apply to the general margins are the same for islands.
Rivers : More and more anglers are coming to France to fish the rivers. Wateways like the Seine, the Moselle and the Lot are now famous for their large carp. Many anglers have difficulty getting to grips with rivers, especially if they have grown up fishing uniquely stillwaters. I was a bit like this until I started fishing the Seine regularly in the 90's.
Bends: Anywhere that the river slows is worth a try. A bend will naturally slow the current and here the fish will find food. Bait a slow run on a bend and you'll get fish coming onto your baited area.
Bridges: Bridges offer shelter and less light. I have always down well fishing close to these river crossings. I usually fish close to the pillars, dropping bait in the slack water to the rear of these.
Locks/Weirs: Again these offer an artificial brake to the running water and one that holds food and therefore the fish. I imagine most of you have seen how, unfortunately, rubbish can accumulate near a lock or weir, so then do food items that the carp will feed on. Weir pools offer eddies and slack water that allow you to hold the bottom and bait an areas that won't see your free offerings washed away.
Backwaters: Often silted up and overhanging with branches and fallen trees, the backwaters offer a safe haven for fish and one that usually holds a few lumps. I have found that too far in to these areas the silt can be a real problem, and as rivers are not the cleanest of waterways, it can often be quite foul smelling. However the entrance and exit areas that still offer slack water can be hotspots. This is particularly true at night when the fish come out to explore the river.
Islands: As with stillwaters an island offers an obvious feature to try. Overhangs and fallen trees again would be a good choice. The downstream end of the island will have slack water that will almost certainly hold fish.
I hope these tips will give you an idea how to choose a swim when you first walk around a new venue. But don't forget, use your eyes and look for signs of fish. These will be particularly important. If you see a fish crash out get a rod on it... you'll have time to plumb around during your week to see where you think it may be feeding. I've had some cracking sessions simply by fishing to showing carp.
Tight Lines
by Gareth Watkins
For more Carp Fishing News and great fishing in France check out my website at: http://www.croixblanchelakes.com
Selecting the right swim and fishing it in a logical way will help stack things in your favour. So where does one begin?
You'll most likely come up against three types of venue in France. Assuming that the carp aren't boshing out all over the place, where should you start looking to place your baits on a new water?
Lakes: The classic French lake is a dammed river with gently slopping sides, a river bed running down its length, with an inlet at one end and a damwall at the other.
Margins: With this type of venue the margin is probably the largest and most over looked feature. I've lost count of the number of fish I've caught by dropping a bait at my feet or just down the bank a few feet off the margin. You get the cover of vegetation and the fish naturally patrol this area of any lake.
Weed, lilies, etc: Many of these lakes have weed beds and lily pads that just abound with food for carp. Placing a bait in proximity is a good bet for a take.
Overhangs: As with margin reeds the branches of overhanging trees are an excellent place to start. Weeping willows are my favourite and can be real holding areas for carp. They offer shade and safety as well as harbouring food. I remember once landing over 40 carp in a few hours from under a weeping willow. I was only able to fish one rod such was the action... a Method feeder was the successful technique.
Halfway down the slope: I don't know why, but I've always done really well baiting an area just half way down the slope on a classic dammed type lake. Most have these sloping sides and carp seem to patrol up and down them. A steadily baited area can often be productive.
The River bed: I'm not sure actually in the river bed is the best spot but if will certainly hold food in its silt. I guess it depends what type of silt it holds. I have done well fishing close to these. In fact the first time I fished La Horre I have a rake of fish casting to the stream bed landing some 68 carp in a weekend.
Silt: I've never been a fan of fishing in the silt. I'm always afraid my bait will be buried or that the silt will put the fish off feeding. (Some of it smells really foul). However if I can find a firm area next to the silt I feel confident that my rig is presented well and that it will be found. The natural food in the area will attract the fish. Also any harder spot on a silty lake bed is almost certainly caused by feeding fish.
Gravel Pits: Dug out for sand, gravel and chalk these holes in the ground can vary in size form a few acres to many tens of acres. I have always found them the most interesting places to fish. Perhaps because I grew up fishing on them in the Harefield area as a boy, but I enjoy their varied and unpredictable nature.
Margins: Often deep and steep, they can be excellent areas to start. I've had countless fish from under the rods. The same basic rules apply as with a classic lake. The margin is the largest feature. I always start with at least one rod close in. If you can combine it with a feature so much the better, ie. Reedbed, gravel run, lilies, gully... These areas are easy to bait accurately and get a bait right on top. When I first got the Croix Blanche my favourite method was to walk a bait down the margins and drop it in the edge. Margins can also be the far margins.. often quieter and less disturbed, a far margin rod will always be high up my list of spots to try.
Gravel Bars/Patches: Most pits have really uneven bottoms, and the use of a marker rod to give you a good idea of the variation is essential to my mind. A bar will be a natural larder for the carp, so you can bet that a bait on or near it will get picked up. I like to use a marker rod to find gravel, as I know it is likely to hold food for the fish. This is particularly the case if its near silt as it not only offers a close by natural food supply, but and area the a bait can be presented on effectively.
Gullies: I think it was Rod Hutchinson who wrote that he had more success fishing in the gullies as opposed to on the bars. I suppose that a bait placed smack bang on the top of a bar gets to be a bit obvious after a while, the fish are therefore more likely to spook off it. By placing a bait in the deeper water nearby you can often get pick ups.
Islands: I remember reading in an old carp mag that if there is an island in casting distance, fish it. Well this has worked well for me over the years. I've always managed to get fish for island margins. I guess the rules that apply to the general margins are the same for islands.
Rivers : More and more anglers are coming to France to fish the rivers. Wateways like the Seine, the Moselle and the Lot are now famous for their large carp. Many anglers have difficulty getting to grips with rivers, especially if they have grown up fishing uniquely stillwaters. I was a bit like this until I started fishing the Seine regularly in the 90's.
Bends: Anywhere that the river slows is worth a try. A bend will naturally slow the current and here the fish will find food. Bait a slow run on a bend and you'll get fish coming onto your baited area.
Bridges: Bridges offer shelter and less light. I have always down well fishing close to these river crossings. I usually fish close to the pillars, dropping bait in the slack water to the rear of these.
Locks/Weirs: Again these offer an artificial brake to the running water and one that holds food and therefore the fish. I imagine most of you have seen how, unfortunately, rubbish can accumulate near a lock or weir, so then do food items that the carp will feed on. Weir pools offer eddies and slack water that allow you to hold the bottom and bait an areas that won't see your free offerings washed away.
Backwaters: Often silted up and overhanging with branches and fallen trees, the backwaters offer a safe haven for fish and one that usually holds a few lumps. I have found that too far in to these areas the silt can be a real problem, and as rivers are not the cleanest of waterways, it can often be quite foul smelling. However the entrance and exit areas that still offer slack water can be hotspots. This is particularly true at night when the fish come out to explore the river.
Islands: As with stillwaters an island offers an obvious feature to try. Overhangs and fallen trees again would be a good choice. The downstream end of the island will have slack water that will almost certainly hold fish.
I hope these tips will give you an idea how to choose a swim when you first walk around a new venue. But don't forget, use your eyes and look for signs of fish. These will be particularly important. If you see a fish crash out get a rod on it... you'll have time to plumb around during your week to see where you think it may be feeding. I've had some cracking sessions simply by fishing to showing carp.
Tight Lines
by Gareth Watkins
For more Carp Fishing News and great fishing in France check out my website at: http://www.croixblanchelakes.com
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