Cundiff Q&A Autumn

NASH E-ZINE AUTUMN 2016

Q&A A multiple catch and even my Granddaughter got involved

Julian Cundiff

area? Your eyes and common sense should be your biggest help here, learn from what happens around you.

I always go hoping for a big hit and well prepared for one with lots of pre tied hooklengths, plenty of bait and two landing nets but also ensure my tactics don’t stop me catching one or two when it's clear that a big hit isn’t on the cards.

catching the odd Q I'm carp on my new water but I only ever seem to catch one, never several. What am I doing wrong?

HAYDEN MCKINNON, SOUTH CERNEY Wow, that’s a million dollar question if ever there was one! Generally the more carp a water holds the more you can plan for and achieve multiple hits of fish.

The lower the stock level the less likely it is that you will have numbers of fish in front of you, reducing the chances of multiple catches. Waters like Chestnut, Linear, Manor Farm and Thorpe Lea are

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heavily stocked hence you hear of big hits at those venues. Firstly, is anyone else catching more than an odd fish at a time on this new water and you're not? Maybe an odd one is what you can realistically expect other than on a red letter day?

If multiple catches are being taken the first thing is don’t worry – a new water can take some time to get the hang of.

Look carefully at what other people are doing that you aren’t. Consider time on the bank, swim choice, the feed and quantity that they are applying or even how and when they are applying it? Are they constantly feeding or maybe baiting heavily and having all their rods on one

Putting myself in a swim which is not hemmed in and allows me to move my rods around helps too, if you’re the sort of angler who likes the quiet corners or small bays then you might find that you catch only one because the fish leave the area more readily than other parts of the lake! There’s normally a simple solution.

Good luck with it and maybe check out September's Crafty Carper where I wrote a full piece on how to bait a swim to deliver multiple hits.

A lot of water to go at is a better bet for lots of carp than small out the way corner swims

Q&A WITH JULIAN CUNDIFF notice you've been Q Isoaking your Key boilies in dip, but you didn't do that when you were using the 4G Squid. Is there a reason?

JEFF PHELPS, MORDEN Well spotted mate… I had a great year in 2015 on 4G but having seen the results that The Key was producing it seemed the obvious choice for 2016. Much of

the time I used 4G in 2015 it was in the form of 'mush' rather than straight boilie tactics. The waters I’m fishing this year respond better to boilies and feeding mush results in problems with bream and tench – remember I have to get up and do a day’s work afterwards as well! So to introduce a similar initial attraction to the swim but with boilies only I decided to cover them in Key Liquid Bait Soak and after a little bit of experimenting and fine tuning it's been working brilliantly. Here’s how I do it:

Julian’s Instant Attract Tactics

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A dd a handful of Key Stick Mix to the same bag

The boilies are taken out of the freezer an hour prior to fishing and coated in a good splash of Key Liquid. Give them a good shake in a freezer bag.

and shake the baits around again. The fine particles stick to the baits as they thaw.

When catapulted out the baits give off an amazing oil and particle slick which really helps get a quicker feeding reaction on short sessions.

When I use a Spomb I also add some Key Flake to each payload along with the sticky boilies to deliver even more instant attraction.

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NASH E-ZINE AUTUMN 2016 nights a waste of Q Are time in the autumn the days are warm but overnight temperatures often crash?

JACK REESE, HORSHAM In a word NO! Carp fishing is not black and white and there are no guarantees of success or failure. On some waters the period into darkness is seemingly the best and on others not so. However from my own observations it depends which swim you are in. Pick the right swim that does produce carp after dark and it will change your mind, pick the wrong one and you will probably still

think nights are rubbish. Even when nights are not so great by at least having your baits in position in the dark when the carp feed in the morning you will have your traps set and will not be disturbing the swim casting out at bite time. Personally if all I could fish were nights that would be fine with me but if I had a choice I'd go during the period that was obviously producing most of the action. Go when you can and have some self belief. Move when you can, listen and watch for carp showing after dark and never give up. A recast after dark has produced an awful lot of carp for me so don’t ignore fish activity even if you are in your sleeping bag!

Getting the rods out just on dark

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friends are using Q My much higher breaking strain coated hooklengths because they say that stiffness is a good thing - do they work better?

MIKE ORRE, STANBOROUGH Apart from zigs and surface fishing coated hooklengths catch 90% of my carp most years and have done for ten years now. Occasionally I will use braid for PVA bag work and fluorocarbon for shallow clear water work but other than that it’s coated braids all the way. Once a carp gets the hookbait in its mouth the harder it is for it to eject the better.

Generally the stiffer the coated braid the more likely it is for the hook to prick the carp and you are to end up with its picture in your album, so I use stiffer, higher breaking strain versions in preference as well. When steamed they are stiff but not too rigid. If links are too stiff it can cause the hooklength to stand up on the bottom and look very obvious. A coated link needs to be stiff enough to kick the hookbait out from the lead but to still settle naturally flat on the bottom. I use 20 or 25 lb Combilink which offers the perfect combination of the properties I want

" Generally the stiffer the coated braid the more likely it is for the hook to prick the carp and you are to end up with its picture in your album, so I use stiffer, higher breaking strain versions in preference as well. "

Q&A WITH JULIAN CUNDIFF I really need to Q Do bother colour matching? I can't see that I really need three colours of the same breaking strain link material. What do you do?

HARVEY WONSTON, ECCLES Fishing is about confidence and I know some carp anglers are only confident when they seemingly have something for every

eventuality. I like to be prepared but I don’t drive myself crazy over colour matching. End tackle wise Diffusion Camouflage is brilliant, and whatever bottom my leader lands over its chameleon effect means it is almost invisible anyway.

When it comes to the hooklength you don't want it to stand out stupidly but you do need to apply a degree of common sense. Virtually all lake beds have all sorts of things

Plenty of bites on simple rigs and D-Cam leaders

I mix different Q Can flavour baits together or should I use the same pop ups as boilies?

PETER TRUNCK, DAGENHAM A. Great question! My starting point is the opposite to many others, I like to make a hookbait stand out from whatever the boilies that I’m feeding whatever the time of year. Most of the time it's a pop up but occasionally I use double bottom baits too. At the moment I am using Key as my feed bait so my stand out hookbait is a Citruz pop up or Citruz double bottom bait in white or pastel pink.

I typically heavily soak and over sprayed them with the Citruz concentrate so they really stand out from any other baits

around them. Usually (depending on the type of water obviously) it gets me a bite in under an hour but it depends on how prolific I expect the water to be. I’m happy to change the colour of hookbait and from a pop up to bottom bait and vice versa.

on them like weed, twigs, sticks, algae and stones. They aren’t all one colour either are they? In gin clear tap water type venues then yes brown or green may make a difference in tackle visibility but for virtually all real life situations that’s not the case. In weed I use green hooklengths and over mud and silt brown and I don't worry one bit.

Occasionally I rub a hooklength with a bit of mud to take the sheen off it and make it look more natural but that's about the limit of it. Find them, don't scare them, give them something they want to eat and the rest is easy. yellow, white and pink pop ups over feed.

Don't over think things. Carp, even tough ones can be tricked by their own greed and using different flavour hookbaits to your feed bait is a great way of getting more action.

Only if it is clear to me that I am on fish and they are not getting caught on my stand out hookbaits do I match the hookbait to the feed. Clouded water, fish topping over it, odd bleeps and rod top knocks but no carp in the net means a change of approach. With my Key freebies it would be a Key Airball pop up or Cultured Hookbait with maybe a small stick of Cultured Stick Mix. This usually produces action immediately. It’s not just for productive waters either as many of the biggest carp in the land fall to small

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NASH E-ZINE AUTUMN 2016

Q

I hate overnighters when it starts being dark in the mornings. What do you do about food and drink and brew kit? I don't want to carry anything unnecessary!

DARREN BUNCE-WATKINS, RICHMOND I love overnighters at this time of year for precisely that reason - most other anglers have long since given up and at best are doing days only! More carp for me to catch and more swims to choose from...

I am never a big eater when I go carp fishing as friends have found out to their cost when I have nothing to share other than coffee and that's decaffeinated too. What a rubbish angling mate I am.

You have to be prepared when you will be packing up in the half light or dark come October and it’s going to feel like a long day ahead. I tend to have a good breakfast the morning before an overnighter. That doesn’t mean a full English! I believe you are what you eat so I have brown toast, orange juice, coffee and my vitamin

covering one for the night if I need to get up for fish and the first one of the morning. It’s a simple trick but allows me to pack away all my brew kit before I zip up in the sleep system for a quick getaway in the morning.

I'd rather reach for a flask than start up a stove when it’s dark and I am on limited time!

"I will also have plenty of coffee and occasionally a good quality pasta pot (but NOT a pot noodle!)" tablets (Vit C, Multi Vits, Cod Liver Oil and Vit B6). At lunch I will eat a brown roll and two bananas and drink plenty of water, which aids concentration and stops dehydration and lack of energy. When actually fishing I have two seeded bagels with cheese spread, fruit and some plain biscuits.

I will also have plenty of coffee and occasionally a good quality pasta pot (but NOT a pot noodle!).

Before I turn in for the night I make a last flask of coffee for the night which will do me two large mugs,

Q

I saw Alan Blair using a loop to loop connection on his rigs in Urban Banx 8, is that safe and strong enough instead of a proper knot?

NICK HAMWORTHY, TONBRIDGE

You Nash fans have got eagle eyes for this issue haven’t you… For anyone who hasn’t clocked this yet

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check out 15:06 onwards in Urban Banx 8.

Just like Alan I use the loop system for coated hooklengths, in my case for both rigidity of the doubled section and also movement. When I first started using a loop at the swivel end it was purely and simply to allow the hooklength to sit correctly on the bottom. If you tie a coated braid direct to the swivel it inevitably causes the hooklength to loop upwards between the lead and

the hookbait. When you tie a loop it allows the hooklength to drop flat as the bait settles which has got to be less obvious to a nearby carp. The slight amount of movement it gives also allows the hookbait to be taken into the mouth in the first instance more easily without compromising stiffness.

Alan’s tweak using a large loop connection allows a new link to be attached without any metal link clips or sleeves and the enlarged size of

Q&A WITH JULIAN CUNDIFF

"The slight amount of movement it gives also allows the hookbait to be taken into the mouth in the first instance more easily without compromising stiffness. "

the loop allows a hookbait inside a stick or with a small PVA bag nicked on the hook to still pass through the loop. Watch it, a simple but brilliant technique. Looping links on this way loses the movement element I like but as Alan showed the doubled section of the loop at the swivel also helps kick the hookbait away from the lead so improving the presentation.

Alan’s loop knot link trick

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Instead of tying a small figure of 8 loop at the end of the link make it a good couple of inches long.

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Pass the loop through the Uni Swivel or Uni Ring Swivel on your end tackle and then open it out.

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Thread your PVA stick or bag down the link as usual and over the hook.

Pass the hook and stick through the loop and then gently draw the link tight to attach the link in seconds with no need for metal clips of rubbers.

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