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QUICK FIX / knots
LEADERS
A well-tied leader knot is not just a tactical edge but essential to safety – here’s our guide to one of the best around...
L
eaders perform a variety of essential functions for the carp angler, yet many shy away from using them because knots are ‘complicated’. First, let’s look at why you would need a leader, and why it would help your fishing. The most common use is to tie a shockleader that, as the name implies, takes the force of the cast. This enables you to use thin reel lines so decent distances can be achieved, but at the same time physically cast big weights with power. This comes into its own with either distance casting using a 4oz 0r 5oz lead or spodding, when your bait rocket could weigh several ounces and yet you are trying to hit a marker at 80yds. Another function a leader can perform is to protect your line in a hostile environment. You can tie a leader from an abrasion-resistant material that will reduce the chance of your line being cut by underwater obstacles like gravel bars, mussels, or even submerged trees. Finally, in this quick guide to leaders, they can be used for concealment. You can use a material that helps the end 20ft or 30ft of your line sink from sight. This can be done by forming a leader using sinking braid or fluorocarbon. So there you have it, three reasons why you should master a leader knot, and here’s our simple step-by-step guide that makes tying one dead simple..
Reliable With a bit of practice you’ll be able to tie this safe, slim leader knot with ease.
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2 A leader is essen tial to take the force and weight of a spod .
Take your heavy braid leader and tie a simple overhand knot in one end, before passing the reel line through it.
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Once you’ve come back down the leader, completing your turns, pass the tag-end back through the knot.
Pass the nylon around the braid leader 12 times, then come back the opposite way six times over the turns alreay made.
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Tighten the overhand knot first before gently pulling the turns down to form a coned leader knot.
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QUICK FIX / Rigs
a Rig for all seasons Simple, fuss-free and deadly on any water
T
urn the pages of any carp magazine and you’ll see a whole host of rigs that are perhaps designed to catch the angler rather than the carp. Here we show you a basic easy-to-tie rig that will catch you loads of fish on any type of venue. All you then have to do is alter the size of the hook to match that of the bait and your quarry.
Hook There are loads of excellent patterns out there, but the most important considerations are strength and sharpness. This is a wide gape pattern with an inturned point that is suitable for most fishing situations. The angle of the eye helps the shrink tube do its job, and the dull finish helps to make it as unobtrusive as possible on the lakebed.
Coated Braid A modern-day essential when it comes to hooklinks, there are loads of different types available. All have an outer coating that varies in stiffness from brand to brand, and definitely helps to reduce tangles. They have the added advantage of being very strong and abrasion-resistant –all you have to do is remove a short section of the coating to reveal the braid inner.
Shrink Tube This tiny little piece of shrink tube, once steamed, holds its shape to create an aggressive angle that helps the hook turn and catch hold. The great thing is that once a carp is hooked, the smaller kicker can flex, stopping the mouth damage associated with the bent hook rigs that the set-up copies. The shrink tube only needs to be 2mm past the eye to be effective.
Silicone Sleeve This tiny piece of silicone helps to hold the hair against the shank of the hook, in the exact position you want it. Placing it level with the hook point is a good all-round position that works well in most situations. For bottom baits you can slide it nearer the barb, which makes the hookpoint heavier and assists the hooking process.
Boilie There are loads of top quality boilies on the market so the choice is yours. But always match the bait size to the size of the hook – an 18mm boilie is matched to a size 4 or 6, whereas a 10mm bait is better on a size 10 or 12. This presentation is also suitable for other baits like particles and luncheon meat. Even Peperami can be mounted well on this rig.
Hair Length On most waters a gap of between 5mm and 10mm is perfect, and will catch you plenty of fish. It is just long enough to allow the bait a bit of movement and enough separation to not hinder hooking. You will obviously have to alter the hair length to match your bait size, although some bait stops with a deep ‘V’ in them can have the same effect of lengthening the hair.
Plastic Corn This serves a variety of functions, and is very useful. Don’t just think yellow. There are loads of different colours, all of which will have their day, so don’t be afraid to experiment – they’ll all give your bait a visual edge. Plastic also gives your bait a bit of buoyancy that will aid your presentation.
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new venue
Feeding Frenzy A chance invitation to fish a new syndicate called The Sitch saw Kev Shore bank over 20 carp in a day session. Correct baiting helped hold the fish for several hours – find out how he did it UKcarp magazine
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catch clinic gravel pits to try k Cromwell Lakes, Newark: www.cromwelllake.com k Bluebell Lakes, Peterborough: www.bluebell-lakes.co.uk k Farlows Lake, Iver, Bucks: www.boyer.co.uk k Richworth Linear Fisheries, Oxon: www.linear-fisheries.co.uk k Bradleys Lake, Glos: www.watermarkfisheries.com
With Google Earth you can clearly see the main features of this lake, and even measure them if you wish.
Get the feel Steve explains the different sensations you feel when pulling a marker float across the lakebed.
master feature-finding Gravel pits are great carp waters but their abundance of features can sometimes confuse. UKCarp’s Steve Broad shows Paul Mitchell the ropes
chell Paul Moitroough Peterb Cambs 2010
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he timebout t g in r a p ou for iss hing. It’s all a y Dear k n a h to say mty gravel pitI flacked. e t o n Just a me right on is something niques tinhem h c e to put ence, which t g t carpginbeats seeing u confid o b a d g to reaes, but nothinbank. in h t e n It’s o and magazin tice on the chell it books put into prac M l u a { ishing, P being f n w o ith your w k c u l Good Broady,
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catch clinic
N
ow I have to picture of the direction the bars own up here – run, which will help predict where Paul didn’t write the carp will end up when in, we met on the following the wind. banks of a Paul explained that he wasn’t an syndicate lake where I regularly go accomplished caster, tending to to test tackle. It is a medium-sized fish short to medium range, and he gravel pit with loads of fish to low always targeted the big gravel twenties and more features than areas that he could find easily. you can shake a stick at. In complete contrast I’d always Paul is fairly new to carping and found that this lake produced well was having problems getting his for me if I stuck to the silty areas. head around exactly where to Most of the natural food lives in position a bait. For him, a couple either silt or weed, so these are the of fish a night were the norm. He areas I tend to look for – that is, of had, however, watched me fishing course, unless the carp are really and had noticed that I was having showing over gravel. Then I’ll fish better results during my for them. They can be short testing sessions. fickle little devils So after a couple of sometimes and love meetings on the making people like bank I offered to me look an idiot. give him an Feature afternoon and finding evening to try uk carp Essential Tip Always use the line clip – it The first task was and point him in ensures that you will hit to get Paul to ‘see the right the same spot every underwater’ via the direction. single cast. feel of the braided What’s it all mainline. For ease we about? used mine, and I got him to flick it Before you really get to grips with out into the main body of the lake, gravel pits, you need to where he soon grasped feathering understand their nature and how the line and feeling the lead down. they became what they are today. Next we had to get him to find Obviously they were dug for the ‘feel’, so that he could tell what gravel, which was deposited many the lakebed was. We practised at thousands of years ago by a river. first in the margins, dragging the That’s why you find pits in river marker over features we could see valleys, and why they fill up with so that he could appreciate what water after being excavated – the the set-up did. With some mental water pushes through the gravel pictures in place it was out to the that’s left and fills the void. main body again to find him an In the Peterborough area the older pits are shallower than most of the newer ones because extraction techniques have got better. The more modern the pit, the fewer the features – after all, any gravel left behind is money lost. The pit we were tackling is fairly shallow and has two or three areas of really pronounced bars. These contain large boulders which can be problematic, causing cut-offs and all sorts of other nightmares. So my best advice to Paul was avoid these areas for the safety of the fish and his own sanity. Before you even set foot on any water it is worth looking at it on Google Earth. This not only gives you a good idea of its layout, but also where prevailing winds will blow. More importantly, if the water is clear and shallow, it is WEED often possible to see many of the The lead locks and holds as it major features and get a good snags strands.
Old hat but still good A small PVA stick, which reduces tangles and aids presentation, slipped on to a hooklink with a standard shrink tube kicker, is still devastating.
area of silt. It didn’t take long before a “Most of the natural look of joy flashed food lives in silt or across his face as he discovered a huge weed, so These are the expanse of the stuff areas I look out for” with the odd patch of weed – perfect. He could feel the sort of got the right components, drag on the rod-tip as he pulled, but he was making life difficult. and the occasional snatch as it The braid was a little thick and the caught a strand of weed. rod, a very heavy old pike rod, was The marker was popped-up and a little too short and a bit beefy. stood out perfectly about 60yds Mine was quickly commandeered out, a nice comfortable spodding – after whizzing the empty spod range. This was the next small out to the spot and clipping-up, I obstacle – Paul’s set-up for this had handed it to Paul to get to grips
gravel A ‘tap-tap’ as the set-up bounces off it.
silt A dull, heavy pull as the lead drags through.
catch clinic with. This is when he revealed his spod mix. It would have caught fish, but once again a little fine-tuning was needed. It was based on Vitalin and very stodgy, making it heavy and hard to get out of the spod when it up-ended. So we opted for a more traditional mix of parti-blend, hemp, pellets, corn and some whole and chopped boilies.
Bombs away Paul’s first cast went skywards and plummeted down to land many yards short of the marker. Ah, time for a little casting tuition and in no time at all he was hitting the mark like a professional. After 10 spods I stopped him, explaining that there was now a good base out there and we could always top it up if he started catching. Next came clipping the rods up for the spot. Instead of doing a couple of fake casts, I got him to walk the rods out alongside the spod rod, then add a tape marker to his line. This killed two birds with one stone, as once he got to know the water he could find spots without the marker and still be accurate. For the final part of our mini lesson I showed Paul how to tie a simple but effective rig using a coated braid and size 8 hook with shrink tube, and replaced his monster boilies with a dumbbell and a grain of fake corn, adding pieces of putty to the finished rig
to pin it to the lakebed. The last piece of the jigsaw was a quick and simple stick mix made up of crushed boilies, small pellets and a tin of sardines. Small sticks were soon tied and threaded on the hooklink. These prevent tangles, protect the hook point and add a bit of attraction. Paul soon had the rods positioned, the marker was retrieved and he set about getting his stuff ready for the fast approaching evening. Hardly had the bivvy been dumped on the grass ready to go up when the alarm sang its tune and fish number one made a mistake – a common of very nearly double figures. Paul carefully returned it before going through the routine he’d been shown…fake cast way down to the right, exposing the tape marker; clip-up; check the rig and hookpoint; add another stick; cast to the far-bank marker. As far as I could tell the rig landed perfectly and we were ready for action once again – well, not quite. The bivvy was halfway up before the same rod was in action again and a slightly bigger common was banked. Sure that Paul was getting to grips with this pit I said my farewells. The following morning my phone rang at some unearthly hour and it was one very happy carper. Paul had landed four more carp and two bream. No wonder he was chuffed!
Lesson 1: Spod mixture
k A good spodding mix should be light enouogh to exit the bait rocket as soon as it upends, so I suggested parti-blend, hemp, pellets, corn and some whole and chopped boilies, with a tin of sardines in oil for that extra bit of attraction. Steve’s spod mix
✓
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Paul’s spod mix
k This shows the open texture of my own spodding mix (left) compared to Steve’s original stodge. Vitalin is a good ingredient, but too much and you have ‘porridge’.
SUCCESS A good double was Paul’s quick reward for getting the basics right.
Catch Clinic: UKCarp, Media House, Lynchwood, Peterborough PE2 6EA or email steve.broad@bauermedia.co.uk
paste tricks
The Power of Paste
Chris Rose reveals how he gets the best from one of the most underused, yet highly effective carp baits around – paste!
carp burger This Fox Paste Bomb just needs a final squeeze to make it deadly.
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t really does surprise me that more anglers don’t incorporate paste into their bait armoury, especially since the popularity of boilies is at an all-time high. A boilie, after all, is simply some paste that has been boiled for a short time to give it a hard outer skin. This skin has the obvious benefit of making the bait harder for nuisance fish to whittle down and easier to bait up with – however, a big downside is that a lot of the attraction of the original paste is lost in the cooking and the rest is locked inside by the skin, vastly reducing the effectiveness of the bait. I therefore like to incorporate paste into my fishing and I often use it in conjunction with boilies to maximise my chances.
Boilie ban venues
IN A HURRY This carp was hooked even before all the paste had released from the paste bomb.
For some bizarre reason there are still venues around the country that ban the use of boilies. Most do this because they rather naïvely
“By substituting paste for boilies I can enjoy some fantastic sport” think that boilies are harmful to their fish, when in truth they are the total opposite. It has always struck me as weird that on most of these venues paste isn’t banned, although it contains exactly the same ingredients as a boilie. I don’t allow these bans to put me off fishing such places, however. By substituting paste for boilies I can still enjoy some fantastic sport, and so can you. There are a number of different ways that I incorporate this bait into my angling and in this feature I am going to show you exactly what I do…
Preferred paste It’s not that hard to make your own paste, but I see no reason to get my hands too messy when companies such as Mainline Baits and Bait Zone make such a great job of it. Mainline produces a range of fresh, frozen paste that exactly matches its range of freezer bait boilies. My two current favourites are the Cell and New Grange. Bait Zone produces a number of interesting pastes too, and the one I have been having great success on of late is Particle Paste which, as its name suggests, incorporates
small particle baits. The pastes from Mainline are quite firm and take longer to dissolve than the softer Particle Paste, which breaks down in no time at all. By combining the two types of paste on a Fox Paste Bomb I can ensure I have a stream of attraction near my hookbait for a long time, something that really will entice a bite. I do this by moulding some Mainline paste around the Paste Bomb, then wrapping a layer of Particle Paste around it. Once the Paste Bomb is on the lakebed the Particle Paste will start to dissolve
into the water, sending out strong food signals. By the time this paste has dispersed, the Mainline type will have started to break down too and continue to emit its attraction around the hookbait zone.
Boost your boilie
Another great use for paste is to create a wrap around your boilie hookbait. The main benefit of this is to make the boilie a whole lot more attractive. I simply create a small disc of paste and then wrap it around both hookbait and hook. This gives me a really ‘active’
Make an Arma-Mesh Paste Hookbait 1
Start by placing a small piece of your preferred paste into the Fox Arma-Mesh dispenser.
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Push the paste out of the bottom of the dispenser so you are left with something that looks like this.
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Tie an overhand knot tightly above the paste to secure it in position. Unlike PVA, the mesh won’t dissolve.
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Now simply thread the paste hookbait on to the hair and you’re ready for small fish-free action!