NASH E-ZINE SUMMER 2016
ALAN BLAIR’S BEST FLOATER TIPS EVER! Struggling to get it together on the top this summer? Too many refusals and not enough takes? Check out Alan Blair’s essential guide to the best surface tips ever. 16 www.nashtackle.co.uk
ALAN BLAIR - TOP TIPS
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NASH E-ZINE SUMMER 2016
GET THEM FEEDING. Understand they need a bit of confidence and you need to be fishing for carp that are prepared to take free offerings. But that doesn’t mean feeding for three hours, you can blow chances by over feeding only for carp to drift off. It might only need two minutes to get some feeding going on, and then they are catchable. Get the party started but be quick to capitalize.
FISH IN THE EDGE You might begin at 30, 60, even 90 yards but the end game should always be in the edge with carp slurping floaters along the bank in front of you. You can pick the fish you want, there’s no disturbance, no casting, plus you don’t miss so many because you see it all so clearly. I start the day with the wind on my back, but finish with it blowing into my face where the carp gather.
RISER PELLET is the most deadly bait I’ve ever used – get some and learn to fish with it. Be careful feeding too much, it’s good food and you can overdo it if there aren’t a lot of carp about. Once you put it in you can’t take it out remember, but when you have got a lot of carp to fish for they will eat it almost as quickly as you can throw it at them. Feed lightly to begin with.
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ALAN BLAIR - TOP TIPS
TARGET
Use floater fishing as an opportunity to target a particular fish. People often have a target carp in mind that is their ultimate prize. Being selective is not impossible on the bottom but it’s difficult. On the top you can see what you are fishing for and can choose which carp you present a hookbait to.
‘They don’t take floaters here…’ is rubbish. I’m yet to visit a country or fishery where if conditions are in your favour carp won’t take a surface bait. It might take patience but it’s there to be done. A lake in Austria I visited where floaters ‘didn’t work’ I filled in with Riser Pellet and we had every single fish in the lake taking surface baits. Chloe had the biggest one at 37 lb and all the other anglers packed up and went home!
MATCH THE HOOKBAIT Do everything in your power to match the hookbait to whatever you are feeding. A trimmed down pop up or plastic bait is much less effective than presenting what you are feeding and they are eating. I love an Enterprise Mixer but choose long life hookbaits only when I am fishing for one chance in a day or need to leave zigged baits out for a couple of hours. Always opt to match the freebies, either a banded Slicker Pellet or a Hookable Floater.
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TIMING. Early mornings are as good as evenings, and by early I mean 3.30 to 6.30am. Everyone associates floater with summer daytimes and bright sunshine but on a warm muggy morning you can have the biggest hits of all. The carp seem a little bit more clumsy in their feeding after a bit of down time overnight and fisheries are a lot quieter. You can be in and out and catch loads before anyone else arrives
OVER DEPTH ZIGS have become a massive part of my armoury. Fishing with a single rod on the top you have to be watching the hookbait all the time, and really on it but with zigs you can fish multiple rods and as soon as those rods are sat on alarms both hands are free and you can watch the carp and control the feeding situation much more effectively. It’s exciting watching the water erupt then hearing the alarm, and zigs are much better for multiple catches.
TRY A SLOW SINKING BAIT underneath the free offerings, especially in the middle of the day when feeding has slowed down. Cast it out, let it fall, and if nothing takes it reel it in again and repeat. The movement of a pellet falling through the water is a very natural thing. It’s happening all the time and carp never get caught on the baits that are sinking.
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ALAN BLAIR - TOP TIPS
RANGE On larger waters there are big hits to be had fishing at range. The same as on pits like Rockford where you can outfish everyone else if you can cast bottom rigs that bit further, on bigger venues carp are more confident on floaters at distance. Horseshoe and Drayton are typical examples. Get the Spomb rod out and fish a fixed zig or the biggest bolt machine.
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PVA BAGS are totally under used on the surface, but carp home in on them exactly the same way they do on the bottom. I make loads of pre tied Webcast bags of Riser Pellet and Slicker Floaters the night before a floater trip. They add weight for casting, allowing you to freeline up to 25 or 30 yards. Slip a bag over the hook, get it out there and quite often they are the first baits to be taken.
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NASH E-ZINE SUMMER 2016
CREATE A SLICK on the surface by mixing any oil based splash on your pellets. If it’s choppy carp aren’t so confident taking floating baits but if you create a flat slick they will be much happier feeding in it. The slick also helps you see the controller and hookbait more clearly, and allows you to see how many carp are around and feeding. Don’t forget a slick also adds taste and smell but no food to the swim.
PICK UP LINE For conventional floater fishing with a controller or freelining l use a 12 foot rod, it’s a bum really because ALL my other rods are 9 foot Scopes but surface fishing is the one occasion where the extra length helps pick line up quickly. The line needs to be well greased too, with mucilin or a silicone spray. Zig Flo is good but it needs help to float all day, try to mend the line at 40 yards, it’s twice as quick if the line is greased!
BREAD BOMBS When Bread Bomb fishing you can get away with bigger hooks because of the size of the bait, but a 4 or 2 Twister is a big bit of shiny metal so try Tippexing the exposed parts of the hook except for the point. You get more takes because in good light carp see and recognise hooks on floating baits – even more obvious if you put them alongside a piece of white bread.
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ALAN BLAIR - TOP TIPS
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GET THE FLY ROD OUT For many it means a small investment, but learn to place a fly line accurately on the surface. Carp don’t spook on a fly line the same way they do controllers. With practice you can pick the fly line up in an instant, turn your body slightly and put it back down somewhere else in the swim, absolutely silently.
It’s unconventional but a huge edge. Try twitching and moving the hook bait. It’s such a simple trick but noone does it. Give the handle half a turn and pull the hookbait along the surface. It can induce a very aggressive reaction, like a predator. You can do the same with over depth zigs but be warned the rod might be pulled out your hands before you get it back in the rests!
Never be shy of casting the hookbait directly in front of and at carp, even if they are meant to be difficult fish. Sometimes they take it immediately, sometimes it might take as many as 30-40 casts to get one fish to take. I will follow a fish and keep casting at it until I’ve caught it or I can’t see it any more.
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NASH E-ZINE SUMMER 2016
INTO DARK If you have a 24 hour session and you spend a couple of hours feeding Riser and Slicker then you know where you need to be fishing that night – where the feeding activity is on the floaters! Unless something drastic happens the carp aren’t going to change where they want to be, and you’ve seen where they are from the slurping going on. Don’t stop because it gets dark. Keep feeding and fishing until you get thrown off or the gates are closing even if you can’t see any more. Carp can feed even harder after dark as long as you’ve started the fun and games before it gets dark. Even if you can’t see a controller any more, stick the overdepth zigs out and keep feeding with a Spomb rod on the clip.
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ALAN BLAIR - TOP TIPS
GO AND ENJOY IT! Surface fishing is the best form of angling ever – nothing will ever beat it for excitement. It teaches you more about carp than fishing on the bottom ever will, allows you to see and engage with the carp you are trying to catch and allows you to fish shorter sessions for better results and leave all the unnecessary kit at home.
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Sur-Face Floating Polarised Sunglasses Available with Amber or Grey lenses
Micro-Pak Folding Polarising Sunglasses Available with Amber or Grey lenses
Time spent watching carp is the quickest route to catching more. What you don’t see can’t help you. Nash sunglasses use high quality TAC polarized lenses to cut down reflected glare, allowing you to see deeper into water for vital behaviour and feeding clues.
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