NASH KNOWHOW
Carp Kit Specialist
CARP KIT by Carl Smith
Ever wondered what else you can get up to with some of your carp kit? Get some brilliant multi species advice from Carl Smith - rapidly making a name as an all-rounder with just soft Scope Corks and a lot of natural talent!
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NASH KNOWHOW
Carp Kit Specialist
They say a change is as good as a rest, and it definitely works for me. There have been plenty of times in recent years when the carping has been tough or perhaps we’ve just finished a big campaign on a tough water and it’s been great to look forward to the challenge of a different species. What has been so surprising is that we’ve had great results just by using the tackle we already have around and adjusting the terminal tackle a bit. Whether you fancy a crack at perch, barbel or bream it’s a lot easier than you might think. You certainly don’t need to start buying seat boxes that look like the International Space Station – complete with spirit levels, trays and robot arms… If you fancy a change from carp fishing here’s a few things we’ve found about tackling other species, which are often just as much fun as carp to catch and under a lot less pressure! Barbel and Chub First up are my favourite river species chub and barbel. They are both a great alternative early season target when a lot of lakes are closed due to carp spawning. The other top time to catch them is early winter when carp just switch off in some venues and it can become very time consuming to bore them out or wait for better conditions. Virtually any time through the traditional season you can catch one or the other, apart from when the river is flooded badly. A nice thing about river fishing like this is you can get out and enjoy an evening and still get a lot of fishing, where carp trips seem to swallow time up. Even better, on almost all rivers, and particularly in clear water, dusk is by far the best time
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to catch a barbel. Most of our barbel and chub fishing is done on small rivers, and we’ve found the smaller watercourses tend to offer quicker action. On a large river like the Wye, Trent or Severn multiple catches of barbel and chub are possible, but it can take a few hours to get the swim going. On small streams providing you get your swim choice correct, action can be instant making it perfect for after work sessions.
Travel Light Floater fishing is one of the most mobile forms of carp angling, you will often cover large amounts of ground to find the fish, moving swims to get a better angle, moving again if the carp drift elsewhere or the wind changes, it’s not a one swim approach. You don’t want to be carrying lots of gear, especially when it’s really warm. I use the Scope Sling Mat, and thanks to its clips on the side and large strap I can attach my spod rod and net to the outside. This leaves me with a baiting pouch full of mixers and a little bits bag of tackle items and my floater rod to carry. I can pack up and move in seconds.
By the time a rig is tied and I’m ready to go, the bait has probably done its job of drawing the fish out of the snags, allowing them to feed confidently on the pellet. Walking back to each of the swims in the same order I baited them I’ll be aiming to get the rig out with minimal disturbance and then sit tight and wait for a bite. If nothing has happened in 10-15 minutes I’ll reel in and head down to the next swim. If I catch, then after photographing and releasing the fish, I feed another ball of pellet in the swim before moving to on, this gives you a chance of returning to the swim again later and possibly getting another chance. On some rivers which receive relatively more angling pressure you may need to wait longer in a swim, but the beauty of this style of fishing is that if there are catchable chub or barbel in the area a bite is normally really quick and positive.
Quietly does it
Bait and Wait We like to walk our chosen stretch of river, and bait a few of the deeper, snaggier swims. A few balls of micro pellets, wetted just enough to stick together are perfect. Both chub and barbel seem to really like the spicy TG Active. In deeper swims you have to squeeze the pellet mix tighter to make sure it reaches the bottom before breaking up. The perfect hardware is something like one of the soft Scope Corks, so we’re just using the same 1.75 or 2.25 lb rods we use on the surface for carp. Anything goes for reels as long as you’ve got 50 yards of 10lb+ line and a decent clutch. Barbel fight hard, particularly in fast currents and you will struggle to keep up with them by backwinding. Rigs are easy, you can’t go far wrong with a running lead, mono hooklink knotless knotted to a size 10 hook. On the hair it’s
Rotate
normally a drilled pellet, 10mm boilie or a little chunk of good old Spam. If you’re specifically targeting chub use a short hair with the bait right up against the hook because they often pick up the bait lightly on the edge of their lips. Barbel tend to suck the bait right in.
Unlike carp fishing, where I will happily set up a bedchair, bivvy, bank sticks and sit back and cook up some food, roving a small river requires a quiet gentle approach and not to put too fine a point on it this is where many carp anglers can let themselves down. In shallow, clear water fish will be on edge all the time and heavy footsteps or casting a shadow across the water can ruin your chances before you get a bait in the water. I wear Polaroids to give me a little more chance of spotting the fish before they spot me! Luckily though, when there has been some rain and the water is coloured the fish feed with much less caution and will move around the river more freely so location and stealth becomes less critical. But remember, no one ever caught fewer fish by being too quiet…
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NASH KNOWHOW
Carp Kit Specialist
Pike, Perch and Zander Predator fishing has really got under my skin, lure fishing comes close to producing the excitement levels of carp taking surface baits. For us, chasing perch, pike and zander fills the gap between carp becoming tricky to catch in winter, and them waking up early spring. For the most part, we cast a range of lures around the place and hope something is stupid enough to come and eat them, although on occasions we do put in the effort to fish with bait and target bigger fish. For pike we rely on mackerel, lamprey or medium size roach. Perch consistently slip up on like prawns, worms and small silverfish deadbaits and zander seem to prefer tiny baits like
Earning Your Stripes a roach head or tail rather than a whole fish. The baits might be similar, but tactics for these three predators are much more varied. For pike you’ve got to have a wire trace. Most still use a pair of trebles spaced apart but with small deadbaits or lives a single hook is safer and so much easier to remove from a pike’s toothy mouth. You must carry wire cutters and long nosed forceps. For most pike fishing, your carp rods and reels are just fine with shorter high test curve Scopes offering the best hooking and easier to use in a boat. There is a lovely guide to pike fishing on the NashTV YouTube channel. (Search Paul Garner Pike Guide)
Perch are great fun simply because you can catch them in so many different ways, in fact we often catch them when targeting other species. Whether float fishing prawns, legering deadbaits or even lure fishing and spinning perch can provide awesome action if you locate a good water. Canals, rivers and even commercial carp fisheries can hold some really good fish. Tackle wise go lighter with a 1.75lb rod and a match reel loaded with 6lb line. Perch don’t fight particularly hard, but they do often live in very snaggy, obstacle filled swims so you’ll need strong enough gear to get them out. My favourite way to catch perch is to walk the venue casting soft plastic lures to try and locate a shoal. Lure fishing covers a lot of water really quickly and then when I catch one or two, I will bait the productive area with maggots, chopped worms and prawns and float fish for perch as bait tends to hold a shoal of perch longer and provide more action than casting lures and taking the odd fish from amongst them.
Eliminate Resistance Never having targeted zander before September last year, a few sessions vertical jigging from a boat on Rutland Water made us realise what we had been missing. Since then we have been hooked and gone on to fish for zander on canals too. Just like perch and pike zander really dislike resistance, so running rigs are the way to go. There is no need for a trace when zander fishing, unless the venue contains pike which may also pick up
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your bait. Single size 6 or 4 hooks, 10lb fluorocarbon hooklink and a roach head or tail side hooked will be pretty well all you need. We fish with a long drop on our bobbins and just like perch and pike we set the hook quite quickly to make sure we don’t deep hook any fish. Better to miss a chance than risk damaging a fish.
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NASH KNOWHOW
Carp Kit Specialist
Bream, Tench and Rudd Undoubtedly three species that most carp anglers probably associate with waking up at 2am to an annoying series of bleeps on the bite alarm! However frustrating it can be to have your carefully placed rig disturbed by a snotty bream, along with tench they can provide some awesome action when feeder fishing. On some waters I cast carp rods out with big hookbaits to avoid them, but then set up a feeder rod and fish with corn and maggots to keep me occupied whilst I wait for the carp rods to rip off.
Your carp rods will be fine for tench and bream, but as most carpers will realise, you can enjoy playing them more with a lighter test curve, softer action rod. Given a chance I’ll actually float fish for all three of these species, but when a longer cast is required a maggot or Method feeder comes into play. Spraying maggots over a float is the most traditional and enjoyable, however some wetted down pellet and feeder can be a super productive way of going about it too.
the best thing since
Fab Frensham One of my most memorable tench and rudd experiences was when I visited Frensham Great Pond to film Duncan Charman and Paul Garner, and despite not getting a chance to fish myself it was just incredible to see how much action they were getting on scaled down carp gear, the guys caught loads of 2lb-plus rudd and plenty of tench before morning and it was time for me to drive home. It left me really inspired, and just recently I sent off my membership application for the lake, ready for my campaign for a 3lb rudd! (Search UK Coarse Fishing on youtube)
NASH BREAD BOMBS - Firmly holding a lump of flake or crust the Bread Bomb offers the ultimate presentation for a summer favourite. With controlled grip you can cast and recast, knowing your bread won’t fall off, the gripper sleeve disguising the hook whilst keeping the point exposed for effective hooking. Fish Bread Bombs popped-up, balanced over weed or on the surface.
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