Carp Fishing Tips | Why timing is everything - Julian Cundiff
Much is made of location, but it goes hand-in-hand with timing. Even if you are on them, if it’s not at feeding times you can end up very frustrated...ring any bells?
Until I retired in 2018, 80 per cent of my carp fishing was overnighters. When they were feeding after dark, bingo! When they were not, in all honesty, I was camping.
Find out when carp are being caught. Is it during the hours of darkness? If it is, it can often be in specific areas, so see if there’s a common denominator. If they’re coming out in the day then you need to be creative with your time and get yourself there at these times.
A short session at the right time is better than a longer one at the wrong time. At this time of year feeding spells will be shorter, so fish for a bite. Single baits, small mesh bags of crumb and stringers are all winners.
The feeding time was 4-7pm. So I turned up at 3pm, by 5pm I had caught this cracker
Carp Fishing Tips | Go carping on a budget! - Chris Haydon
CARP fishing can be a seriously expensive business at times.
Buying a decent amount of boilies, a ticket for your local bag-up water and all the components to tie the latest rig – it all soon adds up. Fear not, though, as there are numerous things you can do to save a few bob, without compromising your catch rate.
Here’s how to do it...
Going carp fishing doesn’t always have to mean spending lots of money
Get on a club water (£30-£150 per year)
Day-ticket venues may hold some giant carp but they’re often busy, and if you fish them regularly you’ll end up spending a small fortune on tickets. So, why not check out the quieter club waters?
Many annual club books will only set you back the price of a long session on a day-ticket water, and they often hold carp of equal quality. The banks will be a lot quieter too!
Club books are great value for money
Use the ‘golden grains’... (As little as £1 per kilo frozen)
When used correctly, sweetcorn can out-fish all other baits. It’s widely used in spod mixes, but not on the hook for some reason, making it a bit of an ‘edge’. You can feed a lot of it too and it won’t fill the carp up. In fact, the more the better – they love it!
Sweetcorn is a deadly bait for carp. It’s cheap, highly visible and easily digestible
Ready, set, GO! (£1.99 per rig - cheaper options available too)
We all have shedloads of end tackle in our bag which, if we are honest, we hardly use.
If you are going to try a new rig, buy a ready-tied version first to test it out. All the major brands make ready-rigs now and it not only saves time, but also money on components you may never use again.
Ready-rigs are a quick and easy solution to test the latest wonder rig, without forking out on expensive components
Make a little go a long way (1kg of boilies = £9.99 - £12.99)
There is no denying that some of the boilies on the market are phenomenal fish-catchers, but that doesn’t mean you need to pile in kilos of them. Make your boilies go further by using halved baits. Simple!
Chop those boilies to put more baits out in the swim and let their attraction leach off quicker
Cook your own particles (£30 for £25kg from most pet food suppliers)
Bulk-buying raw particles such as hemp, pigeon conditioner or maize is an excellent way to save money. The baits must be soaked for at least 24 hours and then cooked until they split, so they are safe for the carp to eat. You can also add all kinds of ingredients to spice them up. A real no-brainer in the cost-cutting stakes.
When done correctly, cooking your own particles is a real money saver
Lavish TLC on your hooks (Hook file from £4.99)
Just because a hook on a rig has gone blunt, that doesn’t mean it deserves the bin. A little TLC with a hook sharpener should bring it back to life, saving you cash in the process.
Hooks can be brought back to life with a little touch up
Try bread bags (£1 a loaf, will last you a session)
Breadcrumbs in a mesh bag make a great alternative to pellets or boilie crumb. Combine them with a bright pop-up for a real cost-effective winner in the colder months.
Bread crumb in PVA bags is a deadly winter tactic, when minimal feed is required to get a bite (Photo - Mark Parker)
Use fantastic foam! (From £3.99)
When the air pressure is high and carp are up off the bottom, zig rigs can be deadly.
Other than a hook and hooklink, the only thing you need to get a bite is coloured foam. You can flavour it if you wish, but unflavoured foam has taken some of the biggest and best carp in the country, crazy as it may sound.
Foam has caught some on the country’s biggest carp (Photo - Matt Woods)
Recycle your old rigs (FREE)
At the end of a session, don’t just cut off your rig and dump it in the box. Snip off the hooks, swivels and rig sleeves and use them again.
Reverse your mainline (FREE)
Instead of respooling each season just reverse the line on your reels by loading it onto a spare spool, and then pop the spare spool back onto your reel. The used line will then be on the bottom, and fresh stuff on top.
No need to throw away fresh line, just reverse it onto your spare spools
Fish dawn to dusk (FREE)
Night fishing means buying a bivvy, bedchair and sleeping bag. Instead, get up early and to the lake before first light. The fish generally will be showing, and you can jump right on them while everyone else is snoring!
Night fishing can often be unproductive on some waters, just get up early and stay late
Buy cheap, buy twice! (PRICELESS)
Make savings elsewhere, but it’s vital your rods and reels are up to the job. See if your local tackle shop will do you a deal. You only need two rods. You will then only need two alarms, two sets of sticks and a two-rod licence too. Big savings!
Having good quality rods and reels will ensure you land more fish. You only need TWO!
Carp Fishing Tips | Solid PVA bags vs mesh - Lewis Read
Both solid and mesh bags are useful tools to have in your carp angling armoury and the choice between the two methods is dictated by the angling situation.
The solid bag method with a small balanced hookbait is almost a ‘cast anywhere’ guaranteed presentation. When packed correctly, a solid PVA bag will never tangle, and always creates a consistent trap. You can add all sorts of PVA-friendly liquids and powders to boost the attractiveness of the parcel. In my own experience, the only limiting factor occurs when fishing in very deep silt. Sometimes the whole PVA bag can sink so far into the silt that the benefits are largely lost.
The solid bag is almost a ‘cast anywhere’ presentation
The single greatest thing about mesh bags is their wonderful convenience. You can put almost any dried bait in a bag, tie off a tight parcel and hook it on. This amazing versatility and speed means that they are used to great effect by anglers all around the world. From a tiny mesh bag of boilie dust threaded on to the hook to stop the hair tangling, to a big PVA bag hooked on and lobbed out to create a one-mouthful trap, mesh bags are a one stop hassle-free solution to having freebies next to you hookbait. With larger bags you need to make sure you feather a cast just before the lead hits the water to maintain good presentation with both lead clip and helicopter arrangements.
Mesh PVA bags are wonderfully convineient
Carp Fishing Tips | Choosing a swim on big waters - Adam Penning
Rarely, if ever, is the stock of carp in a lake evenly spread. Some areas will have very few visits from carp, while others could go months without seeing a fish at all! To me, the only reason to ever fish any swim is because you have seen something that tells you fish are present. That could be a specimen showing itself or it could be more subtle.
Maybe there is one corner of the lake where the water is a totally different colour to the rest? Perhaps, if there’s no wind, you can spy clusters of bubbles?
Whatever the clues, once you have seen it, you’ll need to stand still and look for more indications because, more often than not, these will be forthcoming if you are prepared to invest a little time and patience.
Instead of being in a blind rush to get into a swim and crack on, take time to actually look for the fish. I won’t even contemplate setting up until I have some degree of certainty that I’m in the same place as the fish!
I won’t even contemplate setting up until I have some degree of certainty that I’m in the same place as the fish!
Carp Fishing Tips - Does the hinge or chod rig select bigger fish? - Kev Hewitt
I have heard this on a number of occasions.
I think the myth probably came from Terry Hearn’s big-fish success on the hinge rigs way back in his early days.
What you have to remember is that Terry was fishing lakes with mainly big fish in them, so he was always going to catch big ones on the rig.
I used a version of the hinged stiff rig for over two years almost exclusively and my catch rate did not improve or decrease, and I certainly didn’t pick out all the bigger fish and avoid the small ones.
Don’t get me wrong, I caught plenty of fish and the odd big one came my way.
Kev is no stranger to catching big carp
I am a great believer in a situation whereby if you get a fish feeding or competing for food, you will catch it on any well-presented rig which suits the bottom you are fishing over.
The components you need to tie the hinge rig
Overall, the hinged stiff rig is certainly a decent presentation for most bottoms, as your hookbait will be presented well, even in light weed and leaf matter.
But I don’t for one minute believe it will pick you out bigger fish.
The completed hinged stiff rig