Cundiff qa winter

NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016

Q&A WITH JULIAN CUNDIFF

Q&A

Julian Cundiff

reeled in a couple of tangled rigs Q I’ve after long cold nights and it’s ruined my confidence. What can I do to stop them? I’m fishing snowman rigs on a coated braid link.

MAX ENTON, LOUGHBOROUGH That’s a relatively easy one to solve – but confidence is such a part of being successful that even an odd tangle can really cripple your chances of catching because you’ll never be sure if you’re fishing effectively.

One easy confidence booster is to watch your end tackle as it flies through the air, up to ranges of 70-80 yards most people can see clearly enough to be able to see that the link and hookbait are separate from the lead in flight. Getting into the habit of feathering a cast to straighten the line and ensure the lead and rig drop in on a tighter line also helps enormously. But there are also simple steps you can take with your end tackle and rig that will see tangles banished for good.

When you use a coated braid always steam it straight. This helps kick it away from the mainline and lead on the cast.

Use a loop at the hooklength swivel end as this also helps the link settle straight and away from the end tackle.

Long hairs can cause tangles. If you have any gap between hook and bait, secure the hair to the hook using PVA tape.

Even without tubing or a leader adding a PVA stringer, cobweb bag or stick will completely eliminate casting tangles.

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notice on a lot of Q Iphotos your rod tips are high in the air and all fished on banksticks? Most other people I see are fishing tips down, slack lines and with buzzer bars - why?

JAMIE COLLINSON, BISHOP’S WALTHAM I can't categorically say why people fish certain ways but do the words fashion

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or carpy ring any bells…? Banksticks offer a more solid setup, they allow you to space your rods out which avoids a lot of problems from crossed lines, and they allow you to point your rods at the end tackles to improve bite registration. I even find them easier to transport than buzzer bars and pods. I use single sticks even on platforms with stage stands for them all, the only time I don't use sticks is if I’m faced with concrete banks!

As to fishing rod tips high I do this in two situations. Firstly where marginal weed

is present in front of me I like the line well away from it hence the tips go up.

Secondly in Winter and or at range I like to watch my rod tips for bites (just like a coarse angler would). I sit low and use a combination of the R3 on maximum sensitivity and my eyes. Single bleep, watch the rod tip gently bend over... that’s a carp. Banksticks and high tips are both for a good reason. I wonder what reasons you would get for a more carpy set up?

Not a time to be worrying about tangles this winter!

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NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016

Q&A WITH JULIAN CUNDIFF

that the middle of a lake is the Q Isbestit true place to catch carp once it gets

and coots are Q Tufties making my life

cold? I’m only fishing a small venue which doesn’t have any out of range areas.

miserable, my rigs keep getting picked up time and time again and even after dark. What can I do to put them off?

ROBIN SHEEHAN, DUNSTABLE A great question and from my observations an accepted bit of carp lore that is wrong as often as it's right. It's an obvious statement but carp are where they are and particularly so in the colder months when they are less active. In the warmer months carp may not be in front of you to start with but if you are there some time they may well move in front of you at some stage. In the colder months they move about less and often hold up in certain areas for long periods.

If you have seen carp then wherever you have seen them is where I'd start each and every time, that simple.

If you are not seeing them and have no previous history or other anglers results to work from then it's going to be inspired guesswork. Dead weedbeds, reeds and sheltered areas would always be my first port of call.

Anywhere south facing that is out of the wind is a good bet as well. On bigger waters with regular pressure sometimes the carp will be pushed out a bit and the bigger casters will benefit. I have seen it and done it on Catch 22 and Drayton for example in the cold and it can make fishing quite straightforward - as long as you can cast! On a smaller water then forget the middle and just get looking, really looking!

spray, dip or Q What booster would you recommend to get a bite on a hard day? Are savoury or sweet additives generally better in cold water?

JEFF MEENE, CHESTERFIELD Boosting a single food item is well down my list of things to do when it comes to getting a bite on a cold, hard day. I actually think it’s more productive to change the colour of a hookbait rather than boost the smell. However, if you are on fish and not getting takes it can help add that extra incentive for a carp

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Small feed items like particle frustrate the birds

STEVE MCKINNON, NORTHAMPTON I feel your pain my friend, is there anything worse? Carp are hard enough to catch in winter without bird life. The best tip I can give you is try not to let them find your bait in the first place. If wildfowl are a problem once my bait is in position I will not bait up until I am satisfied no birds are present. One of the tricks I do is wait till someone else is getting punished then trickle some feed in. If possible I start with a mesh bag or stringer not a Spomb or a catapult. Don’t make

surface also tends to panic most birds and they often take flight.

Fishing darker hookbaits helps a little as does not using bright bag fillings but in anything other than deep water they will still pick it out.

Remember small seeds like Slicker Hemp and the Salted Mini Mix help you keep feed in a swim that birds can’t eat, the same with the attraction built up from regularly casting dipped baits or bags.

I set my rods up with the front rod rest high and the butt low as possible. The R3 is set as sensitive as possible (default setting out the box, don’t panic!) and the line is fished as tight as possible without lifting it up around the end tackle. I use the heaviest bobbin I can, and find the 40 gram Slaphead perfect. I sit low on my trusty Nash Bum Buddy and watch the tips. Usually a single bleep

on the R3 will alert me to a take. I watch the rod tip and if the rod tip is sat all differently to when I cast out, or moving or shaking in any way I will strike. Usually the tip will pull over and stay over, with a carp on.

Striking at single bleeps is not like striking at a dipping float where you miss more than you hit. They are generally on already, just not tearing off with the end tackle.

heard you describe Q I’ve striking at single bleeps

One from the middle, but only because that was where they were!

to take the hookbait. At this time of year the Citruz Concentrate spray is the pick of them all. Be it a pop up or bottom bait a few squirts with the atomiser really adds some punch.

I tend to overspray my hookbaits when I get them so I have pots of Citruz bottom baits and pop ups already boosted. In time this soaks through the porous skin and the additional squirt lakeside is a bonus.

I have always done better on sweet than savoury in the cold unless I am campaign angling fishing a water week in week out and introducing a savoury food bait. Beware thick glugs and dips in the cold as they may look potent but they coat and

it obvious to them from the start and your life will be infinitely easier.

Another trick is to feed floating baits to draw the birds away from you, this can also have the advantage of revealing if carp are in the upper layers too. Shouting and waving a net is as much good as a chocolate fireguard but a Spomb cast towards birds tends to really panic them if its free from feed. Lifting the floating braid behind the Spomb up off the

seal in the boilies natural attractors.

You want a finer liquid to infuse into the bait’s skin – and also readily come out again.

Citruz Concentrate is the pick of all the boosters in cold water

in winter and hooking carp. I don’t want to miss out on fish but I’m not confident striking an odd bleep?

JIM FARENSEN, FARMOOR Yes I do strike single bleeps... at times ! Normally carp tend to take the hookbait in, prick themselves on the hook, feel the resistance of the lead and then panic and bolt off so giving us one toners. But there are occasions where they prick themselves and seem to just shake their heads to seemingly get rid of the offending hook. This can happen all year round but is certainly more prevalent in the colder months when they are a little more lethargic.

To improve my chances of spotting a carp that is hooked but not bolting

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NASH E-ZINE WINTER 2016

Q

Do you still use braided mainline? I was tempted to switch to Bullet Braid this winter to exaggerate line bites and indications.

MALCOLM RAWLINGSON, NORWICH Yes and no. I am a big fan of both fluorocarbon and braid as mainlines resorting only to monofilament in thick weed where I want great abrasion resistance and a degree of stretch when hooking and holding.

The benefit of braid is that it has virtually no stretch and whatever moves at the end tackle is reflected almost like for like in movement

and sound at the R3 and Slaphead.

At range this is a big advantage as it means you spot carp that are hooked and not bolting off and even carp which do bolt off you can be in immediate contact with, stopping them kiting into snags for example. For its diameter it will also be much stronger than mono which means you can cast long range

without the need for shockleaders.

So all good you'd think? Because braid is so vastly different to monofilament it is quite a specialist line and needs some getting used to. You need to load it correctly and also look after it correctly to avoid wind knots which can cost you the entire reel’s worth of braid – expensive! Numbers of fisheries also don't allow braid full stop and finally because it is dark braid can stand out on sandy clean bottoms especially in clear, shallow waters.

That said if you want to improve bite registration, are fishing at range and are prepared to get to grips with it Malcolm rather than give up on it after one or two trips then I can thoroughly recommend it!

I be fishing over Q Should silt rather than gravel at this time of year? My mates keep telling me that’s where the natural food is?

DEL BRINTON, WINSFORD Without sounding like a broken record, as Tim Paisley famously said they are where they are… to the point and oh so true. If you honestly are not seeing signs of carp and have nothing else to go on then one of the factors to consider is where the remaining stocks of natural food may be. At my lakes it tends to be in dead or dying weedbeds or in the reeds but it may be that your water doesn’t have those features, in which case any remaining natural food will be in the soft silt rather than over hard gravel.

I would however avoid dark and smelly silt especially if it has trapped leaf litter in it. That kind of silt in my experience tends to deter rather than attract carp. You are looking for clean soft silt your lead settles in and

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as Tim Paisley famously said they are where they are…

does not come back discoloured and smelly. If you bring back a big fat wriggling bloodworm or two on your end tackle or link then you may well have found a productive area.

Also get into the habit of sniffing your lead after you retrieve it, you’ll work out the difference between potentially productive ‘sweet’ silt and the black yucky stuff very quickly!

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