Mainline Baits - Carpfishing
Articles
BAIT OR BAIT APPLICATION - WHICH IS MOST IMPORTANT?
To most beginners, bait is the most talked about
topic; everything hinges on that all-important one little ball o 24524k1017y f bait
(presuming we are talking boilies).
There is no doubt that some baits are better than others, some are food baits,
some are attractor baits. The debates rage on as to which is best, my own
choice is to use a bait that has a food value, if the carp keep eating it,
eventually they will get caught on it, the same can't be said for all attractor
baits.
Before we get bogged down as to the types of bait, let's think about one
further point and that is bait application. I believe it far more important
than a lot of anglers realise and needs a lot of practise to really get right.
So here are some thoughts on how to help you apply bait properly. In thinking
about bait and application and in the execution of bait application.
1. PRACTISE MAKES PERFECT
It is no good waiting until you are fishing and then finding out you can't get bait to where you have just put your hookbait, whether it be 40 yards or 80 yards or because the weather is too violent. Learn how to use catapults, throwing sticks and spods with ease, so when you need to you can and you don't miss out on the catching stakes. Remember, someone else who is catching alongside may have practised and be getting it dead right. The result, they catch and you don't!
2. TRY TO ASSES HOW MANY CARP YOU ARE FISHING FOR
This is not as simple as you may think. How long is your session going to be, 4 hours, one night, a week? How long you are fishing will have some bearing on how much bait you want out there when the carp are likely to come across it. A carp can eat 10 % of it's own bodyweight at one sitting. This can be further looked at by trying to asses how many carp are likely to be visiting your baited area. You may be sitting for a couple of days waiting for one carp. Or during that time a whole shoal could have passed in front of you, what do you do? How much bait do you want sitting there? If you are going to have a pound of bait out at any one time, you may have to be constantly trickling bait in to keep it there due to the attentions of other species.
3. GETTING IT WRONG
I see most anglers ruin their chances of catching within the first 10 minutes of setting up to fish. They cast out their rods fire a few boilies out and then sit out the rest of the session. If they catch, all well and good, if they don't, then they blame the bait, the weather, their rigs, the man next door, the shop that sold them the bait etc you get my drift.
4. GETTING IT RIGHT
My own preferred method is the following, upon arriving at my swim, I sit and watch for a few minutes, looking for signs of carp that may or may not give me some indication as to how many carp are about, before I start putting bait out. Initially I will only put hookbaits out and wait a while, maybe ten minutes, maybe an hour. Baiting up can scare carp, you may have dropped right onto feeding carp, the last thing you want to do is scare them away. When I do bait up, I will try to be as accurate as possible and want enough bait in to tempt one carp to take a hookbait, this is often best done with a method feeder or a PVA bag. Backed up with some pellets and/or boilies. If after another hour, no action is forthcoming I will re-cast, along with another application of bait. This is how match anglers fish, they take advantage of what is there and then they work on building the swim up, encouraging fish to come in and feed. It works exactly the same with carp. This is why accurate casting is important, as is accurate baiting up. To keep trickling bait into one spot takes a fair degree of accuracy and willpower, make sure you have both.
5. HOW GOOD ARE YOU?
Try this simple experiment; place a bucket on the grass at 40 yards range. Imagine your hookbait is in the middle of that bucket-sized area on the lakebed. Now the hard part, let's say to start with you want another 10 boilies around that hookbait. Using your catapult keep firing boilies out until you have the ten boilies actually inside that bucket. I would be surprised if you could do without using at least 30-40 boilies if not more, allowing for air movement, inaccuracy etc do you get my drift? The problem is made even harder if you put the bucket at 70 yards, it can seem near impossible at times. Switch to a spod, start at 40 yards and see how many times you can get the spod in the bucket. So you may see written 'put 30 boilies out alongside your hookbait' but you, if you are inexperienced may need to put out 100 boilies to get the right amount around your hookbait,
6. COUNT THEM OUT
When I bait up I don't count how many baits of spods I put out, I only count the ones that go on target. So to put 10 boilies exactly in the position I want, I may have to put out 50 boilies to be spot on. If I want to put 50 boilies it may take 100 to get it right, do you get my drift? Imaging the same scenario with the spod, I am fishing at 70 yards and I want 10 spodfuls around my hookbait, it may take 30 casts to get the 10 just right, that could take hours I hear you thinking and all that work as well.the successful anglers are the ones who work the hardest, not only in thought and effort practising, but also with their thought and effort with their actual fishing.
7. THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING
Is in the eating, as they say. The
harder you work at getting it right, the more often you will get it right. The
more you do that, the more you will catch carp. Much more than some secret rig,
or some wonder bait or some fancy theory about weather patterns of full moons.
It's not rocket science, it's carp fishing. Good hunting.
Andy
Murray
|
