 Last month I took a few days out to travel to the Champagne region of France and fish a private, 15-acre lake. My sights were set on catching some of the carp that were stocked four years ago and which had hardly been caught since then. But the trip turned out to be far from normal.
The lake is set in mature woodland, and only four swims were created on it. The largest – near the dam – was overgrown by reeds and rushes, and the first job was to make it fishable by wading out and cut a path between bank and open water using a screw-in weed knife attached a landing net handle. After an hour into my task, a massive swirl occurred just two yards from me – catfish! Three 80lb+ wells catfish had been stocked in 2009, and one of them was landed last year just short of 130lbs.
The carp fishing proved to be successful, and although my girlfriend and I landed nothing larger than 25lbs, we did catch 30 fish, half of which were 20s, in three and a half days. Sally had never even fished before, but by the end she became quite adept at playing (and netting) carp and raised her p.b. steadily to 24lb 10oz. Marukyu boilies over freebies produced some fish, but the top tactic involved large method feeders and three grains of popped-up, flavoured plastic corn fished as hookbaits.
The method groundbait was based on a 50:50 combination of EFG 131 and 151 Marukyu groundbaits, mixed with krill powder and a mixture of fruit-flavoured mixed maize (giant, popcorn, red and French).
The area was baited heavily the day before fishing and after each session, and this undoubtedly attracted fish to the swim and kept them returning. One morning we were greeted by the sight of carp rolling, leaping, swirling and bubbling all over the area, testament to the magic of the wonderful EFGs.
The surprises began when a catfish took a 4lb, lake-bred carp, plus end tackle, with a huge ‘crash’ as I played the nipper to the net., leaving me in shock as I retrieved the limp line. I also hooked and lost catfish on four further occasions, the fish being played for between 20 and 40 minutes. Actually, they played me, and at no stage with any of them did I have any control, even on strong carp gear. One fish ripped 15lb line from a tightly-set clutch and 3lb test-curve rod hooped over in a semi-circle, shark-fishing style, and powered 150 yards down and across the lake without even pausing… absolutely incredible power and sheer brute strength!
In retrospect, I’m sure the repeated ‘slapping’ of the method feeders loaded with lemon-sized groundbait balls as they hit the water helped attract and alert the cats to possible food, just as ‘clonking’ with small paddles is a traditional means of attracting catfish.
My guess is that the brutes in that lake weighed 140lb-160lbs. I’ll find out for certain when I return in October to observe the lake drain-down, netting and stock assessment exercise. |
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 4/7/2012
The tactic of encouraging fish to rise up in the water to intercept slow-falling food is not new, despite what is sometimes written in the angling press. It was certainly a mainstay approach for roach fishing for many decades, and in Yorkshire ‘pimping’ was a common means of catching large bags of fish.
The method is really suited to the summer months, when fish are active and are willing to work for their food. It suits any bait which is small and slow-sinking, and it works best where small but regular introductions of freebies induce fish to rise up in the water. Maggots fit the bill perfectly, although newly-turned, light-orange casters come a close second.
The trick is to feed little and often, even before beginning to fish, to draw the fish towards the surface and competing for food. In reasonably clear water, the flashes as they swoop on the bait are tell-tale signs, whereas in more murky conditions you are more likely to see swirls or water ‘boils’.
When conditions are calm or if a light wind is blowing offshore, it is possible to fish with just a line and baited hook, which is flicked into position. A short pole or whip makes this process quite simple. The line should be buoyant so that the weight of the baited hook just causes it to sink. This may require some fine tuning using line floatant and/or a small blob of rig putty around the hook shank.
Bites are detected by watching the line at the point where it is sinking, and takes consist of pulls or sail-away line movements. A used matchstick can also be nicked on the line in top-and-bottom slits to act as a bite indicator.
Aside from carp, roach and perch can be suckers for this technique… and surprisingly large fish, too. If chub are present, they find this rain of food highly attractive, as will ide. Competing fish will be swimming at speed, and it makes sense to use stretchy lines that have in-built elasticity, or rely on the pole elastic to do the job. Notwithstanding their sinking properties – unhelpful in this case - fluorocarbon lines should be avoided because of the risk of breakages.
In more windy conditions, when casting almost weightless end tackle and feeding free offerings may prove tricky or impossible, small nuggets of ‘cloud’ groundbaits laced with bait can achieve induce the same fish behaviour. Some of the EFG range of Marukyu groundbaits are perfect for this purpose, and the addition of dried milk granules before mixing with water makes the cloud even more pronounced.
In the right circumstances pimping is a simple, highly effective and hugely enjoyable. Try it. |
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 15.06.2012
Anyone who has observed the reaction of fish to baits – or watched the DVD underwater footage of rigs in action – will be struck by one over-riding fact: fish pick up baits far more often than our catches would indicate. The old excuse for a blank session (“They’re not having it”) is often way off the mark; more likely, it’s a case of “They’re having it but I’m not fishing well enough to catch them”.
Experimentation with rigs and baits can help convert bait pick-ups into fish on the bank, but in the big-fish world at least, bite indication is a neglected issue. It’s buzzers and bobbins all the time, be they light or heavy, on a short or long drop. Even the simple expedient of using a float is anathema to many specialist anglers, and a fair percentage of them don’t even own any!
If a fish picks up a bait and moves it, it should always be possible to detect and react to this. The basic principle is that the nearer the bait the chosen form of bite indication, the better that indication will be. A float a few feet up the line from the baited hook is always going to show a bite better than a butt indicator 60 yards away.
Okay – I feely admit that it’s ridiculous to encourage a carp angler to spend a 48-hour session staring at three floats some distance from the bank. However, it is quite possible to concentrate on a pair of closely-spaced floats for a few hours. After all, your chances of catching fish will be greatly enhanced as long as you work hard to detect bites and react accordingly.
Even if leger tactics are de rigueur, there are some little but important tricks that can improve on the awful bite detection inherent in self-hooking rigs and heavy bobbins (which really tell you when a fish is hooked, not if you have had a bite). On calm days, for example, try watching the bow of line between the rod top and the water surface, concentrating on where the line enters the water. It can be an amazing experience to observe just how many twitches and pulls occur which never cause the bobbin to move or the bite alarm to sound. Striking (yes, striking!) at these indications can produce fish after fish when everyone else is blanking.
When fish are being timid, or picking at their food, such dodges can make all the difference between a red-letter day and a complete failure. |
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 17.05.2012
More than any other period of the year, the late spring and early summer months are THE time to catch tench. Responding to the warming waters, tench become active and hungry in the lead-up to spawning, with the advantage that the female fish will be at their heaviest, pre-spawning weights.
There is no single best method for catching tench, as they will respond to a variety of angling tactics. The classic lift-float method has waned in popularity, but for close-in fishing in relatively shallow water, it is still a killer technique. A large shot, sufficient to sink the float, is fished within a few inches of the hook, with the float (typically, a length of peacock quill or a straight waggler attached via a bottom float rubber only) set over-depth and fished under tension. Bites are usually spectacular, the float rising out of the water and lying flat as the tench picks up the baited hook and lifts the shot. Bread flake, worms, maggots and sweetcorn are all favourite baits for lift-float fishing.
Another highly successful tactic is to bait lightly with (sinking) casters and to float-fish a caster bait tripping the bottom. When used in weed-free situations, this set up allows considerable finesse so that minute bites can be detected and struck.
The entire gamut of legering techniques work well for tench – block-end and open-end feeders, methods feeders, straight legering methods and adapted carp-fishing tactics. Where they have been used before, legered boilies can be the most productive method… with a few tweaks. Firstly, it is often important that the hook-bait boilie only just sinks – ‘coring’ the centre of the bait, and inserting and trimming a cock or foam stick is an easy way of achieving this. Check the bait in the margins to ensure that it just sinks before casting.
Moreover, tench are far less wary of strong flavours than carp, and it pays to either soak your baits in favourite glugs, dips or flavour mixes, or give them a quick dunk before casting. I prefer fruit flavours above others, usually mixing them in a small pot with a liquid sweetner or runny honey; others swear by fishy or dairy flavours.
The excellent Marukyu groundbait range provides ample scope to greatly enhance the effectiveness of any tenching method by attacting the fish in the swim. The addition of a few bait samples (be it hemp, sweetcorn, broken boilies or pellets) will help keep the fish there, ready to be caught.
On silty lakes, the early and late hours of the day are often best, although cloudy days can extend good sport throughout the day; on gravel pits, the most productive periods can be during the main, more civilised part of the day, rather than at dawn and dusk. |
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9/4/2012
It is a fact the majority of coarse fishermen are fair-weather anglers who dust off their tackle at this time of year and mothball it again in the autumn. Before the warmth returns, now is the ideal time to refurbish the essentials.
For me, that means three key tackle items… bait, hooks and line. As long as you’re fishing in the right place at the right time, the essential features of your tackle are that your rod and reel are capable of casting your bait, the fish wants to eat it, and the hook and line do not break. These are the ‘must haves’, and much of the huge paraphernalia we all haul onto the bank is really there simply to make the art of catching fish easier or more comfortable.
If your line experienced any sort of use last season, best to replace it – the time to discover that it has weakened it not when it’s attached to the fish of a lifetime! If it’s relatively new, try casting a small weight as far as you can and reel it back in while gentle running the line through your fingertips. You may be amazed at just how many kinks, burrs and scuffs there are. If the line is undamaged, repeat the cast and retrieve exercise, this time running the line through a damp pad to put it in tip-top condition.
To help prevent future damage, check your rod ring linings carefully for nicks or cracks, and replace any that are damaged. I also clean them with pipe cleaners dipped in white spirit to rid them of grit and grime.
Old hooks need not be discarded, but time inspecting them with a small magnifying lens will help you identify – and reject – any hooks with bent points, incomplete eyes or other imperfections that could let you down at a crucial moment.
Stocking up with good bait is also sensible so that you can go fishing at the drop of a hat when conditions are right. A small, second-hand freezer is ideal for storing perishable bait if you have space; shelf-life baits, groundbait, seeds, nuts and the like are best held in one or more metal dustbins, each fitted with a metal lid. From bitter experience, this is the only foolproof method I have found to prevent rodents from spoiling or destroying your bait. |
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