Last Updated: 5th November 2014 Make no mistake, carp fishing is changing fast. I’m not just talking about the attitudes within our sport, but changes on every front. To an angler like myself who has been carp fishing for thirty years I’ve witnessed everything evolve massively, not always for the better, but there’s no stoping change! In particular the way people actually fish in recent years has changed hugely. Modern baiting techniques leave me a little perplexed it has to be said, and the current trends with regarding how people bait and fish leave me cold if I’m honest. As the seasons change once more and the glorious days of summer slip away almost imperceptibly to be replaced with chilly days and colder nights the carp begin to harvest as much food as possible in readiness for the onset of winter proper. Without doubt this is the time to give the fish plenty of food as their natural greed at this time leaves them open to capture. Throughout this period I switch solely to using boilies. They are an easy food item for big carp at a time when they have a plethora of natural food available to them around the lake. I much prefer to bait up where possible at this time of the year, which sounds easy enough, but the lakes are usually busy, making this job a little trickier. Of course it pays to watch what the other anglers on the water are up to. Where and how they are baiting has a huge bearing on how I go about things. Over the last five years or so I’ve been astonished at how most go about this job. It seems that the majority now fish tight to a mark using distance sticks to fish more accurately than ever before. The knock-on effect of this is that on most lakes I visit the fish are being conditioned to feed in a certain way. Done well, this ‘style’ of angling can be very effective, especially if the angler knows how to feed properly, but for the most part that isn’t the case. Every lake has key swims with key features, a good swim is just that for a reason. The modern approach of fishing tight to a mark with the aid of distance sticks sees areas become very clean over time. Couple this with the fact that most now give the spots away via the number of ‘wraps’ means that the very same isolated areas get baited and fished week in and week out. It seems that the art of angling is dying on its feet with very few prepared to think for themselves any more. This ‘painting by numbers’ approach becomes a self fulfilling prophecy before long and soon the ‘walk out’ or ‘wrap’ spots become the only fishable areas within the better swims and this affects the fishing massively, and is clear to see from someone like myself who watches it go on every week. I couldn’t bring myself to fish in this way, I find it soulless if I’m honest and not carp angling as I know it, but each to their own. If anything, the fact that this goes on allows me to do my own thing more freely, and with a little thought a different approach to the ‘norm’ can pay off hugely. You see, fish that are conditioned to feed off tightly Spombed areas can become finicky in the extreme, in highly stocked waters this is never such a big problem as the likelihood of new fish continually coming onto these areas is high and therefore you can always be sure that the chance of a bite is good as fish drift in and out of the swim. On low stock, big-fish waters though the fish can become very wary very quickly, which leads to a bit of a lottery unfolding as the ‘going’ swims come in and out of form. The result is that these swims fish well for a short period then switch off again. It’s now very common to see one successful trip followed by two or three further anglers struggle before the fish regain confidence and the cycle starts again. Because of this I tend to steer well clear of the better swims on each lake, much preferring to get something going on my own away from the pack in areas I know I’ll be able to drop into even if the lake gets busy. The areas I’ll likely target are rarely clean because they are not fished heavily fished. Don’t get me wrong, where possible I’ll always look for a clear area to fish my hook baits on, as this of course allows for better presentation of the hook bait as well as allowing the rigs to work at their best, but my actual baiting situation will take in a much bigger area. Carp will of course not only feed on clear ground, be it silt ,sand or gravel, but will happily eat in thick weed and over the choddiest lakebed and because of this I’ll happily bait over these areas without giving it a second thought. My boilie-only autumn approach suits this perfectly and I’ll spread the baits thinly to ensure the fish have to actively search out the baits. As we are well aware, moving carp are catchable carp and the further the fish have to move to pick up each individual bait means that the rigs become less important. Well, less important isn’t the right description at all but by moving between baits, say more than a foot apart, means that over weed etc the fish have to work to get each mouthful by dipping down to take a bait before righting themselves and swimming forward looking for the next to snaffle. This very action means that they are more likely to be their own downfall as their movement and momentum can often mean that they hook themselves in the process once they encounter the bait with the hook attached. Carp feeding over tightly baited spots tend to lay tight to the lake bed and feed with their mouths almost continually on the bottom moving very slowly. Put simply, you are making it very easy for them to get a free meal and it’s even easier for them to deal with most rigs effectively without even trying. In this situation the fish can visit a spot many times, have a mouthful or two before drifting off to chew it before returning. The other negative in this tight baiting style is that with boilies now being an expensive commodity more anglers supplement the feed with particles and fine food items, which means that the fish feed in a different way completely compared to when feeding on just boilies and are far more likely to get away with most rigs with ease as they feed without moving. Of course, tightly baited spots can also result in several fish at once feeding in close proximity to one another and it only takes one fish to spook itself by picking up line or ejecting a rig and you can scare them all away never to return. Compare this to a wide spread of boilies where you can have many carp feeding over a wide area. You can pick them off without ruining the swim, and so you can see why I’ll always favour a spread of boilies. To be able to fish a spread of bait and really get the fish searching for them you have to use a bait they really want in the first place. Sure, there are lots of good baits out there these days, but carp will eat most things you put in front of them to be fair, but when you’re feeding them something they really want they will continue to search out those little balls like their life depended on it. Through the autumn I like to give the fish a choice, so I bait with a mixture of boilies in different colours as well as different sizes to further tilt the odds in my favour. Now there’s no real blueprint to most lakes and a few of the places I fish are busy all the time and so baiting one area is very difficult. In this situation I try to just trickle bait into as many areas of the lake as possible, but only in swims I’m actually fishing as I’m always conscious to ensure that my actions don’t have a negative impact on other people’s fishing and this is something we should all try to ensure. Coating baits to kick start the swim is also a worthwhile tactic and this is something well worth adopting for your own angling and it is very easy to do. As a matter of course I always glut my baits fresh from the freezer with Solar’s superb Liquid Gold Marine 17 liquid and add a good amount of boilie dust over the top. I make the dust from the same baits as I’m putting out. at home before I head off fishing. I blitz a kilo or so of thawed baits in a food processor until they become a fine powder and add this to the glugged baits fresh from the freezer along with a good handful of my oily stick mix. the effect on the fish is instant as it fills the swim with attraction and this method is far more effective than using standard boilie. I always do this on short overnight sessions and I can guarantee you that it works incredibly well. As in all aspects of carp fishing going the extra mile and putting in that little bit of extra effort always pays off so don’t just do the same as everyone else on the lake or you will catch the same as everyone else! Think about your approach and you will definitely see your catch rate soar. Be lucky and il catch you again soon. Nick
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 20:06:36 +0000
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