Commercial Fishing Tips | Hard pellets for winter carp with Jamie Hughes
When you think of winter pellet fishing an image of fishing small expanders over micros immediately springs to mind.
But while this may be spot-on for catching F1s, for ‘proper’ carp hard pellets are my choice.
These baits are associated with the bagging days of summer, but they can still be effective in winter if you use them correctly.
I think these baits are better suited to commons and mirrors, and a small quantity of 4mm or 6mm baits is all you need for a day’s fishing.
Setting Traps
The way I fish hard pellets is to rotate a few lines on the pole, tapping in just a small amount of 6mm or 4mm baits and holding my rig right over the top.
I’m setting little traps all around my peg and am waiting for the carp to slip up.
And ‘waiting’ is a key word – you’ve got to be patient at this time of year. You may only get 10 bites, but when they’re from proper fish it’s worth doing.
It’s always worth having a good plumb around to find the different depths of your peg, and you can then try these various areas to find where the fish are sat.
Accuracy is Key
When fishing this way, being accurate is essential, and I will feed almost exclusively with a small pole pot.
Catapults are brilliant in summer, but in winter they spread your bait around a bit too much, and when you’re only feeding tiny amounts this isn’t right.
My rigs reflect this pinpoint approach, and I see no place for strung-out rigs that work through the water.
I opt for heavy floats shotted positively. These are very stable and help to keep my bait firmly in place while I await a bite.
On tackle, I never go too light when fishing for proper carp and wouldn’t go below 0.12mm hooklengths and No8-12 elastics.
Last Resort Micros
If the fishing is absolutely rock-hard then I’ll reach for micro pellets, as these can scrape out a fish when nothing else can. But this really is a last resort.
Micros bring small silvers into the peg, and when you’re after proper carp this is the last thing you want to happen.
The fishing tackle and bait which won Jamie Hughes Fish O' Mania for a third time
Jamie Hughes won the Fish O' Mania final for a record-breaking third time on July 8 2017 on Arena Lake at Cudmore Fisheries with 26kg 900g of carp and silvers.
Now we've got the lowdown from the man himself on the exact tackle, bait and rig he used for the third title. This is how you can fish like a three times Fish O' champion, in his own words...
FLOAT
"I caught most of my fish up-in-the-water with these MAP SF2 foam floats, which have a diamond body and short fat bristle. I had a lighter 4 x 10 (0.1g) and a heavier 4 x 14 (0.4g) set up. Both had a 5-6ft length of line above them to keep the pole away from the fish near the surface. I either slapped my rig in or swung the rig out to cruising fish."
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HOOKS
"Hooks were my favourite Kamasan B911 eyed in size 16. I tied a knotless knot hair-rig with a small microbait band to mount the hookbait, a 6mm pellet."
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LINE
"A great tip when pole fishing shallow is to use a much thicker mainline than your hooklength. I used 0.18mm MAP Power Optex because a thicker diameter is stiffer to avoid tangles. My hooklength however was a much lighter 0.12mm Optex to bring more bites."
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POLE ELASTIC
"Wherever I can I always like to use light hollow pole elastic and Fish O' Mania was no exception. My choice was the pink grade 6-9 MAP Twin Core Hollow Elastic. I expected to catch everything from silverfish to carp up to 5lb. A light elastic means that fish cause less disturbance in the peg when you hook them, as they don't bolt off."
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BAIT
"I catapulted casters as I initially expected to catch silverfish. But it brought a few carp into the peg instead! On the hair-rig I fished a bigger, selective bait the carp could pick out, a 6mm Bag 'Em Matchbaits Super Natural feed pellet. I put all my shot under my float so the rig could swing out easily and the bait could fall naturally."
POLE
"There's only one choice for me, the 16m MAP TKS 901 2G. It's won me a lot of money!"
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POLE ROLLER
"On venues with a raised bank behind you, such as the Arena Lake at Cudmore, you need a pole roller which you can extend to a decent height. I have a couple of MAP Dual Pole Rollers with telescopic legs which are perfect and the rollers themselves are very free moving and smooth, so I can fish at speed."
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LANDING NET HANDLE
"Pay attention to your landing net handle choice and don't compromise on one which is too short. I prefer a 4m version, a Parabolix, because it enables me to net a fish as soon as it pops up, even if this is 4m away! It definitely saves you time in competitions."
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Jamie Hughes guide to using popped-up bread to catch more carp in winter
There aren’t many tactics that will tempt bites from sluggish commercial carp at the moment, but popped-up bread is one that can bring a response says Jamie Hughes..
Carp like this just love bread in winter.
With their appetites hit by the freezing conditions, mirrors and commons are proving hard to fool – but Jamie Hughes has kept the rod-tip hooping round by combining rod and line tactics and this supermarket favourite.
There’s more to it than just chucking out a bit of bread and hoping for the best, and this week the MAP-backed star reveals his winning approach with winter carp.
Big baits
“It’s understandable why people would instantly go for a small hookbait but something big is much better,” said Jamie.
Discs of bread presented on hair
“It will stand out a mile in the clear water and a big carp or F1 can slurp up a big mouthful of bread with minimal effort.
“I punch out discs of bread and then thread them on to a hair rig. I will have no hesitation in using up to six discs at once to make a really obvious bait.
“The buoyancy of the bread will pop it up off the bottom. The lead will sink to the lakebed, taking the bread with it, and the bait will then pop up.
“If you use a foot-long hooklength, that is how far off bottom your bait will be presented.
“Sometimes I will place half a 6mm Bag ‘Em Matchbaits pop-up boilie on the hair rig as well to make it even more buoyant.”
Vary the depth
“The coldest water in the lake will sometimes sink to the bottom and with this in mind, fish could be sat up in the water in the warmer layers. It’s a matter of trial and error to find out where they are.
“I will start popping the bait up six inches and will keep increasing the length of my hooklength until I start getting indications.
“Don’t be surprised if you end up catching with the bread popped up three foot off the deck.”
Click on the image for more on how Jamie fishes with bread for carp
No-nonsense tackle
“You might only get a handful of bites so you need to have faith that your tackle is up to landing every single fish.
A sliding olivette creates less disturbance than a tradtional bomb or feeder.
“Mainline is 5lb MAP Optimum to 0.15mm Power Optex for F1s and small carp or 0.19mm for proper carp, finished off with a size 16 eyed PR36 hook.
“I also use an inline olivette instead of a traditional leger, stopped at the hooklength by a quick-change bead. . It creates less disturbance when hitting the water but is just as aerodynamic as a bomb for casting.
“I carry a range of sizes, from 4g up to 12g, but on a typical commercial fishery where you’ll only be casting 30 yards or so, an 8g olivette will do nicely.”