Fishing the method feeder with float bite indication…

A mistake I see far too many anglers doing, in fact I would say 70% of anglers do this, is sitting in the first available swim and setting up straight away. Although it may have taken me a good half hour, I walked around the whole 3 acre lake in the morning mist looking for signs of carp jumping, topping or swirling in the margins. After a thorough walk I chose my swim where I had seen quite a few fish topping mid lake in a swim where I knew of a gravel bar at about 6foot depth. I had taken a while to start setting up –a while wasted as many anglers would say- but I was confident it would pay off!

 

Instead of fishing the method feeder in a delicate manner with a small inline flat-bed feeder it was a case of a big korum method feeder which I could mould a large amount of bait around. The difference with this rig though was I was going to be using a polaris float for bite indication, rather than a quivertip. Before setting up I balled in 2 balls of Chapel Baits strawberry groundbait in which I put a good splash of sweet strawberry glug in. I didn’t add any particle to the mix, as I believe that by leaving the hookbait as the only substantial mouthful it produces bites more often and quicker. Hookbait choice was a 10mm plum and black pepper boilie, again from Chapel Baits, hair rigged on a size 10 hook on 6lb mono. 

After casting out I tightened up to the feeder sinking the float and sunk the 10lb braided mainline then put the rod on the alarm with the tip under the water so that the braid would not sit on the surface, therefore get blown and sinking the float giving false indications. Within minutes of casting to the baited spot I was getting bites then 10 minutes later the float slid under and the alarm screamed and soon after a small dark common was netted. The first of many to come…

By recasting every 15 minutes, regardless of whether I was getting bites or not I often got an instant take, just after the rig had landed, sometimes bringing the feeder with the groundbait still on it! By 10.10am I had landed 7 carp, one being a decent mirror putting up a very good scrap!

After about 11.30 the bright sun started to kill the sport slightly, however with consistent casting and baiting it slowly started to pick back up again until a group of 5 anglers arrived and decided to all sit in the surrounding swims to me when the rest of the lake was free. I have never understood why anglers do this? After about half an hour of people casting within a few metres of my rig I moved to a different swim which I knew well. The 1^st fish from the swim came very quickly and by 12.30 I had banked 11 carp.

As I sat there in the afternoon I noticed quite a lot of roach skipping in and out of the water where they were being chased by perch in a few different likely looking perch spots. I have made notes of where I saw this so in a couple of months time I know of a few good spots for my perch fishing. It is amazing how much you can learn about a venue by just sitting and watching.

In the afternoon the wind started to pick up making it hard to see the float in the choppy water, however the beauty of the polaris float is you can simply let out a bit of line and the float will sit higher out of the water making it easier to see. The fish kept coming in throughout the rest of the afternoon until 3pm when I had to pack up and I had managed to land 20 carp. If only I was allowed to use a keepnet!

  

I asked other anglers what they had caught on my way back, a few had blanked, but most had caught just a few carp. This shows that the tactics and bait not only worked, but also out-fished other methods. The beauty of the polaris float is it allows you to fish any rod you like, and fish a feeder with more sensitive bite indication.

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Tight lines... Michael Wickens

PVA Bag Brace!

Once again my brother had decided to do a night at the very last minute, but of course I wasn’t really complaining. My plan was to fish for a fish at a time and hopefully manage to fish through the smaller carp to get to the more decent specimens, however like most of my recent sessions it would probably fail miserably…

Setting myself up in a small snaggy swim I was confident of a few fish from both my left and right margin. The left margin had a large overhanging tree where carp were cruising on top. Only small, but it gave me confidence! Reeds and brambles lined the right margin. I often fish both margins as they produce the better fish, where as mid-water will produce far more fish, but a far smaller size. After running a lead through both margins I confirmed that the lake bed was clay, so I threaded on a length of clay rig tubing to the 12lb mainline in an attempt to make it blend into the lake bed.

Bait-wise, Chapel Baits Plum & Black Pepper boilies was the choice, fished in conjunction with pellets in big PVA bags fished tight to the margin features. Before putting the rig and bait in with the bag I squashed a PVA nugget and folded it in half over the size 8 hook. By doing so it gave me complete confidence that my rig wasn’t snagged on any underwater snags. With both rods cast out just before dark I set the baitrunner on both reels tight (almost locked up) and sat by my rods ready for a thumping take on the rod tip.

When carp fishing I almost always fish 2 pieces of critically balanced fake corn, as it is such a great, and underestimated bait. I still find it strange how fish would eat rubber, however fished with quality bait fed around it, it will almost always score!

Throughout the night I caught countless numbers of carp; however they were all small, averaging about 5lb. I was starting to get very frustrated being woken up for a carp of this size, but I fished on in hope I could fish through the small carp and the bigger fish would move in… and they did.

At about 4am the right hand rod screamed off and after a good battle on my 2.25lb test curve carp rods I netted a far better fish. With it lying on the mate after just being unhooked the other rod wrenched round too. ‘Oh no, not another 5lb carp’ I said to my brother as he dealt with the other fish, but soon I knew I was wrong by the way the fish was fighting. It kept its head down and kept plodding peeling line off the spool. I’m sure if I was using ‘poker sticks’ -as I call them- like many anglers of today I could have dragged the fish in, but where is the fun in that? Within about 10 minutes I had 2 far more decent fish on the mat and I knew at this point my tactics had worked. Of course though, the inevitable happened and I was plagued by more small carp for the rest of the session, but a good session all the same!