BOILIE PASTE – AN ESSENTIAL ITEM

One of the essential items in my bait bag is boilie paste. This method is extremely effective at any time of the year but becomes even more important as temperatures fall and the fish become less inclined to feed. Anything I can do to attract carp and stimulate a feeding response has got to be done.  Paste is an ideal medium under these conditions. It has all the attraction of your hookbait but dissolves and diffuses over a larger area and amplifies what your hookbait is achieving. The beauty of this is that you are attracting but not feeding, the only food available is your hookbait.

Before application

Initially I used a paste wrap around the boilies. Apple coring the boilie by nibbling the skin from its sides improves the adhesion of the paste to the boilie. Later I started to use gripper leads as an additional method of carrying the paste.  The rough coated flat pear leads with a hole in the centre are my favourites. You can rub the paste into the textured surface and mould paste around the lead and into the hole. Quest Baits pastes are ideal for this being just the right consistency for moulding and having a fairly slow dissolve rate. The paste can be lost from the lead on impact with the water but always remains in the hole dissolving more slowly than the wrap on your hookbait. The particles of paste lost on impact are all located around your hookbait and that has got to be a good thing.  This is a method that requires you to cast more often to replenish the paste as it dissolves.

I fish on a water where lead size is limited to three ounces. This can be a real problem when the fish are showing at range.  My solution was to wrap a three ounce gripper with paste moulded into an aerodynamic shape. The three ounce weight becomes a four and a half ounce weight and is capable of being cast far greater distances. Again the paste explodes from the lead on impact; but provides that much needed attraction when you are fishing at ranges where normally you would be relying on the attraction of a single hookbait.

It’s a method that has certainly put extra fish on the bank for me. Give it a try, you won’t be dissappointed.

Cheers
Ron Key

After

34lb caught on a paste wrap cast to a far margin

Carp Fishing in France

Accurate Casting in the Fog

During this time of the year it is normal to get heavy mist and fog falling...

The sticks point the way

This happened last week whilst fishing Brocard Large Lake in France and after catching a gorgeous looking common I could no longer see the silhouette of the tree line on the far bank to be able to re-cast accurately.

This was a problem as I was doubled up in a swim and my baited patches were quite tight. I had markers on my line to indicate the distance I needed to cast but had a blank canvas in front of me that gave no clue as to the direction.

As soon as the heavy mist lifted I incorporated an old trick of mine with 2 spare bank sticks and left them pointing in the direction I needed to cast from my casting point. The following night the mist came down again blotting out the horizon but after catching another good fish I was able to recast spot on the money again. I know it was as I caught 2 more 30lb plus commons on that rod that night. A great little trick to have up your sleeve.

The trick worked - twice!

Best fishes
Shaun Harrison, Quest Baits

River Carp Fishing Tips, Pt 2 - Challenges

Rob Inns follows on from his river carping introduction with part two of his ‘River Carp Fishing Tips’, covering the challenges facing this type of angling…

ChallengesTo start part 2 of my river carp fishing tips, I want to highlight some of the challenges you will inevitably face when river carping and offer advice on how to combat them. This section is not meant to put you off but it is worth remembering that some elements of fishing are beyond our control.

The first challenge you will have to deal with on any river is the other natural inhabitants of the river, a lot of people refer to them as nuisance fish. In France you have the dreaded and ever present poisson chat in the rivers ready to swarm on angler’s baits. Now I am normally happy to catch fish of all species but poisson chat can be enough to test anyone’s patience, especially in rivers where there are no controls in place to stop them reproducing at will.

Myself, Duncan Hayward and  John Lambert with part of a Thames bream haul whilst carp fishing

On the river Thames the bream take up this role and are always ready and waiting to eat your carp baits. On one swim I have fished quite a lot in the past, we would use an inflatable dingy to drop our baits tight to the overhanging bushes on an island. I remember on one occasion my fishing partner was dropping the baits tight to the island and the bream were picking them up so quickly that I would have my rods all retrieved with bream attached before he had rowed back to the bank. On this occasion, after a while, we started putting them into a keep net to see how many bream we had before we hooked a carp and I can tell you it was A LOT.

In my experience you can’t totally stop these nuisance species picking up your baits but you can definitely cut down on how many you catch, therefore keeping your hook bait in the water for longer without having to recast. The first step for me on the Thames is to use a boilie only approach to baiting; Pellet and particle are great bream attractors.

When it comes to technical steps taken to avoid bream I find using large hooks and long hairs (not long rigs, just the length of the hair is extended) will drastically cut down on the amount of bream hooked. They will however still pick up the hook bait from time to time so it is important to use hardened or coated hook baits to avoid them breaking off the hair.

Another challenge that faces river carp anglers are the public themselves. The fact that most rivers run through public land means that you will not be able to enjoy the peace and quiet that you would experience, for example, when booking a fishing trip on a lake exclusive basis. On the Thames I have grown used to the fact that I will have pretty much constant company throughout my session.

A cracking mid 20 caught after a particularly hectic night on the Thames

By day this is normally fairly harmless stuff such as people asking what you have caught and showing their amazement that there are actually fish in the river at all. By night however, it can be a little more unsettling stuff. It is mainly pub goers that cause issues. I have lost count of the amount of times I have been woken by people letting themselves into my bivvy wanting a drunken chat or somewhere to rest on their walk home after a night out. On another occasion me and my mate were bivvy’d up a couple of metres apart from each other and a couple of guys decided this space was the best place to settle their differences and have a punch up. Which was a great way to be woken at 3am in the morning.

In my experience this is something unfortunately I just have to put up with but the river is normally quite generous in rewarding my tolerance and I have had some of my best catches following the most hectic of nights.

Lunar effectsA lot has been said about the effects that the moons various phases have on the feeding habits of carp and personally it is a theory I’ve never really bought into, until I started carp fishing on rivers.

An upper 30 caught early morning following the new moon on the river Ebro

On my first visit to the Ebro my guide talked a lot about how prolific the fishing was on the river in the days leading up to and following the full and new moons. Our next trip was planned to test this, with the new moon falling smack bang in the middle of our trip.

This Thames ghosty loved the full moon

There is no denying that the carp fishing that week was insanely prolific with the night of the new moon being particularly active right through to the morning, when I hooked my biggest of the night.

This obviously is not proof that the moon affects the carps feeding habits but it is something I take into account when planning my river sessions on the Thames and I have not been disappointed.

Be opportunisticRiver carp are unpredictable to say the least and it is important to be ready to take opportunities as and when they arise. On one occasion when set up in one swim I could see some disturbance on the surface further down the bank. On investigating, I could see a group of carp milling around in the margin. Luckily I have learnt that these opportunities can vanish just as quickly as they appear and I had my stalker rod set up and ready. I flicked a piece of slow sinking free lined bread flake into the group of fish and I was soon attached to 25lb of Thames mirror carp.

A 25lb mirror was the result of being opportunistic

On another occasion I had been watching a swim on a small river in France where everything just looked right for carp (although I had no idea if the river held any). There was a small road bridge and a sand bar that came up out of the water creating a little island.  It just looked right, so I kept visiting the spot to see if I could see any signs of carp and on one of these visits there they were, a group of 4 or 5 fish.

The little French river mirror carp from a spot that just looked right.

As always I was ready to take advantage of the opportunity and a slow sinking bread flake was lowered amongst them. When the line tightened up I instantly realised I had not hooked one of the bigger fish but a small mirror carp. However small it was, it was a great advert for always being prepared to take advantage of opportunities no matter how brief the window.

Once again I hope you find some of this information useful and it helps you put a river carp or two on the bank.

Good luck,

Rob
rob_inns@hotmail.com

For over 64 technical carping how-to videos follow the link – French Carp Fishing

River Carp Fishing Tips - Part 1

Rob Inns delivers part one of his 'River Carp Fishing Tips' series...

One element of carp fishing I have found myself increasingly involved in in recent years is river carp fishing. I think what attracts me to river carp is their wild and nomadic life style. But their ability to travel where ever they wish, coupled with the fact that most rivers do not benefit from stocking programs other than that put in place by mother nature herself, can make catching them tricky at times. I hope this piece can give you some tips that I have learned and implemented personally on rivers not just in the UK but also in France and Spain.

A group of carp around the Riba Roja dam

Features

So how do you go about finding a relatively low stock of fish that have miles of river system to explore at will?  The trick is to find yourself some kind of feature; these can be anything as large and obvious as an island or a bridge, to something as subtle as a bush overhanging into the water. What you are looking for is something that makes your swim different to the miles of river either side of it, something that may stop the course of drifting food creating natural larders on the river bed.

How to get the best out of French Carp Fishing in France

I think that it fair to say that most anglers that visit French carp waters expect to catch big carp and lots of them, beating their British PB's by a fair margin.

A feedback report from Villefond, you can even select exact months to see how what to expect throughout the year...

Carp are the same in France as in England, they can be temperamental and totally shut down their feeding programme for weeks at a time. When they do go on the feed anglers can have bumper catches with some huge fish gracing the bank.

There are many companies that provide French angling, either exclusive bookings or shared lakes. Unfortunately the catches that are reported are usually only when a group of anglers have a big hit. They do not provide any information when folks blank or catch very few or even small fish.

Now lets take a look at Angling Lines. Check out the feedback reports that customers put on the web site following a visit to one of the Angling Lines waters. You will see unedited reports and true feedback. If there are issues that are controversial, Angling Lines may add a comment but will not remove the feedback unless it is offensive.

Things to consider before making the decision on what water to fish.

• Firstly look at your angling ability and experience. It is no good aiming for a big fish water that contains only a small stocking of carp if you want lots of runs, especially if you are new to the carp scene. The reason that the carp are big is because of a healthy stocking level, which means fewer fish and fewer runs.
• There are plenty of waters that are available that will provide runs galore, but you may have to wade through lots of smaller carp to catch some of the bigger residents.
• Check out the location of the venue as there can be vast differences in travel times from ports.
• Decide if you want exclusive, shared lakes, bivvy only or a lake with accommodation.
• If you are a bait boat user, clarify if they can be used or not and also check on the availability of power points.

Once that you have selected a venue that suits your requirements.

• Read the feedback reports, baring in mind that some anglers may knock the venue and fish stocks, just because they have had a  poor week's fishing. Read lots of reports and you will get a clearer picture of what to expect.
• Check out the articles, they are written for the benefit of new customers as well as old ones.
• Make sure that you have 100% confidence in your choice of bait and check out what is supplied at your chosen venue, just in case you need a top up.
• If their are issues with Poison Chat or crayfish, be prepared to combat them because these waters usually contain some huge carp. Check out the video's here in the technical section for more information.

Your 1st day at the venue

Now it can be easy to have a pre-conceived idea prior to your arrival that a certain swim will produce the most fish. It is worth taking note of what areas have produced the goods in the past but on the day of arrival everything could have changed. Angling pressure and climate change could easily move the carp to an area of the lake not normally associated with high catch rates.

Watch for signs of carp movement

So what should you do.

• If there is a catch report book, check it out to see which swims produced the previous week.
• Speak to the bailiff or owner, they can usually point you in the right direction.
• I would still get hold of a marker rod, a pair of good binoculars and a pair of polarised sun glasses.
• Study the water looking for any signs of feeding fish, vortexes caused by carp, clouded or coloured water, fizzing or carp showing themselves by crashing or lumping out. This may take a few hours but it could be worth it as you are there for a week. Make the right decision on swim choice could make the difference between a good and a poor weeks fishing.
• Lead and plumb your chosen swim, trying to find an area that you can present a bait comfortably.
• Even if you are using a bait boat it is important to try and find a clean suitable area to fish, at a distance that you can cast to comfortably. If your bait boat breaks down or the wind picks up, you may find it difficult to cast to your baited area, and you will have to start all over again in developing another one.
• Begin a baiting campaign with a little and often approach. Once the carp start feeding introduce more bait accordingly to the ratio of feeding carp that you think are in the swim.
• Always watch the water. The fish may move and if it is possible you may have to move with them. I have moved 3 or 4 times during a week to keep up with feeding fish.

The video below shows how to effectively find features in your swim...

The rest is up to you. I know that there are a lot of anglers out there that are very experienced in what they do, but we are not all blessed with that wealth of experience. The articles and videos that are available on the Angling Lines web site, are put on for the benefit of all anglers, especially for those who are willing to learn and develop their fishing.

I wish you all the best in your future angling. Take a look at Paul Cooper's fishing tips on Quality Baits for some more tips.

Paul Cooper

For over 60 technical videos on baiting, rigs, techniques and tactics follow the link - Carp Fishing in France

Confidence Is The Key, A Report by Paul Cooper

This year has been a difficult year at most fisheries in both England and France. The long warm sunny period that we have just seen, has encouraged massive weed growths on lots of lakes along with huge algae blooms...

This certainly has effected catch rates on these effected waters and bait presentation has become difficult to almost impossible. It just means that a little extra work is needed by the angler to find clear areas to fish too. Even when a fishable area is found it is easy to have your confidence drastically reduced by not using the right bait.

One of my syndicate waters, heavily weeded.

At present my confidence is running high with my new bait and new rigs. Jim Kelly and myself have been getting our heads together along with Simon from Quality Baits to produce a couple of new baits.

Quality Baits Just Krill

The first bait that we put together was a fishmeal bait that we have called Just Krill. When Simon sent us out with our 1st samples I couldn't wait; I was using it within 24 hours and catching fish. The Just Krill was going to be a winner. A few more visits to different waters saw immediate results. This bait was ready for a French trip.

We have also been trying to create a bait that we can use all year round, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. The bait was to be totally digestible with no oils or fish meals that can solidify and lie in the intestines of the fish during the cold spells of Winter.

Quality Baits HG All Seasons

The bait however, still needed to match, if not improve on the catch rates of that of fish meal boilies in the warmer months of Summer.

It is still early days but we think we have come up with the answer in the new HG All Seasons boilie. Jim and I put this through its paces along with Just Krill on the banks of Nautica, a 17 acre French lake with around 100 carp.  Fishing bottom baits only our tally for the week was 29 carp. Both baits produced an equal amount of fish, things were looking good.

31.15 - Results of Just Krill on Nautica

32.04 - HG All seasons on the ultimate barbless hook rig

Our next French trip was due to be to the beautiful water of Brie. This is one of the many Bachelier waters that Angling Lines have taken on this year. The rules are strict and ask that Barbless hooks are used at all times so the Ultimate Barbless hook rig was put through it's paces.

Again, Quality Baits Hg All Seasons and Just krill was our choice of bait. I was brimming with confidence and for some reason the HG All Seasons hit the spot producing most of my runs. Although fishing was unusually slow, we still landed 14 pristine big carp.

A few days after returning home I dropped onto my local syndicate lake with Just Krill and after only a few hours fishing I landed 2 carp including a 27lb 7oz linear.

Just Krill does it again

This week I visited the same syndicate water armed with HG All Seasons. This would be the first trip out to this particular lake with my new boilie. The weed on the lake has flourished this year leaving a large floating platform of silkweed drifting all around the lake. I arrived at the lake around 8.20am in the morning and set up in an area that was at the time reasonably fishable.  I waded out my hook baits scattering around 50 free offerings to each rod. Because of the amount of weed it is essential to ensure that the lead will release on a take and that a barbless hook rig set up was used. For this I set up all my 3 rods with the Ultimate Barbless hook rig to a 18mil bottom bait. Within half an hour one of  my rods came to life which resulted in a 40lb 14oz Common gracing my net.

English 40lb 14oz on HG All Seasons and my barbless hook rig

A massive floatation of weed shortly covered my fishing area, so in came the rods and I went home, confidence still high on my new bait and rigs.

Paul Cooper

For more on bait and over 65 technical videos follow the link - Carp Fishing in France

The Ultimate Barbless Hook Rig

Paul Cooper shows you the perfect barbless hook rig...

As some of our newer lakes, such as Jonchery and Brie, now enforce a barbless only hook rule, our field testers have been set the challenge to find the right rig for the job. This is the rig Paul Cooper found to be most successful when tackling these waters recently.

For over 65 other technical carp fishing videos follow the link - Carp Fishing

Slack Lines vs Tight Lines

Ron and Ken Discuss Slack Lines Vs. Tight Lines in this short video from their fishing trip to Oakview this year.

For more technical videos to get the most out of your carp fishing trip to France click here.

How to Catch Carp 3 - Baiting Tactics

Following his hugely popular video on slack lines and running rigs, Duncan de Gruchy is back at Oakview with a follow up.  This time Duncan reveals his baiting tactics.

If you have missed 'How to Catch Carp in France 1 and 2' you can go straight to them here:
Part 1 - Slack Lines and Running RigsPart 2 - Tight Lines and Shocker Rigs

For over 65 other technical Carp Fishing videos follow the link - Carp Fishing

Carp Fishing Tactics ; Wading Out Baits in a Shallow Lake

Paul Cooper shows you that you don't always have to cast to catch carp.  By wading out to your chosen spot you can place your hook bait & freebies EXACTLY were you want them...



  Carp Fishing tactics & techniques - 65 technical videos to help you put more carp on the bank!

The Weather is Always Perfect for Something

Anglers being anglers we often find ourselves complaining about the weather. Be it too bright, too hot, too cold, too windy, too wet and so on. But, to be fair the weather conditions might not be conducive to heavy feeding at the moment but they are absolutely perfect for taking full advantage of in two ways.

Perfect conditions to go and see with your own eyes what lives there...

First of all I am sure most of us have had our eye on a particular water and wondered if there were any decent fish in them. Well, in the sort of conditions we have at this moment in time things couldn’t be better for going and finding out. Carp in particular but it is also relevant to a lot of other species will spend huge amounts of time in the upper layers of the water in full view to those who put themselves out a little to actually go and have a look for them. Carp can’t help it, they love the sun on their backs and love to sunbathe and cruise around on the surface revealing themselves to the world at a time when most anglers are at home in the garden or perhaps down the pub enjoying a refreshing pint.

The fact of the matter though is just one walk in these hot and bright conditions can reveal so much about what lives in those sparsely stocked waters.

Similarly these low water river conditions couldn’t be any better for wandering along whilst you can see further and deeper into more water than you normally would be able to thus plot your swims for when the river rises and indeed for the winter when a lot of the fish will be sheltering from the full force of the current in areas that are actually on dry land at the minute for a lot of the areas of dry  bank at the moment will be areas you will be placing baits in flood water conditions.

Perfect to plot exactly where those main weed beds are.

Now is the perfect time to note where those weed beds start and end and the fish holding areas may be and more importantly where you will be able to present a rig without constantly getting snagged. Pick the brightest day and walk at mid day with the sun well above thus penetrating more water and revealing more of the underwater world. Simply arm yourself with a hat with a wide brim, a decent pair of polarised sunglasses, a bottle of something to drink and a note book. A camera can also come in handy for visualising what is under the water later in the year.

Happy plotting!

Best fishes
Shaun Harrison.

Courtesy of the Quest Baits Blog

Ten Quick Carp Angling Tips

Here’s a few quick tips courtesy of the Quest Baits Blog…

1) Location – Depending what you are after. If you simply want to catch as many as possible then set up on good shows of fish, but the larger ones can lead more solitary lives and can often be found in quieter areas.

2) Feature-finding – Adding a fluorocarbon shock leader to the end of a braided main line will cut frustrating marker float tangles right out. Plus it is less visible in the water if you leave the marker in place for a while.

3) Rigs – Don’t get tempted to swap and change all of the time. Find one that works for you and stick with it. This will leave much more time to worry about the more important things in carp fishing such as finding the right area to put it.

Summertime Baiting

Here's a useful article on how to tackle baiting during the warmer months courtesy of the Quest Baits Blog…

The long hot days of summer often mean relatively short feeding spells for the carp (and for many other species come to that) between hours of simply basking in the upper layers of water enjoying the warmth of the sun on their backs.

The carp might be in the weed during the daylight hours but they are more likely to be away from it after dark.

For this reason I bait sparingly during the warmest period of the year and pay particular attention to the times I introduce bait. If the carp are only going to be feeding for a short period I certainly don’t want to be baiting and risking spooking them at this time. I generally find the heaviest feeding will take place sometime between midnight and the first couple of hours of daylight when the temperatures are at their coolest. Because of this I will generally create my baited area around lunch time during the hottest part of the day. This gives the swim plenty of time to settle down again ready for the carp moving in to feed during the cooler parts of the day.

Bait placement is also very important at this time of the year and seeing the carp basking in weed beds during the daylight hours can be very misleading as those oxygen giving plants do the total opposite in the dark and the fish will usually move away from them. So, even if the carp appear to be spending all of their time in the weed I would definitely advise you bait one area away from weed – you may be surprised how many more fish will slip up away from where you think they are going to be feeding.

I work at simply trying to tempt a fish into having a little feed rather than pile the bait in hoping for a big hit. Once the bait is in you can’t take it out again and certainly during scratching times I would rather have just a few tempter baits in the swim than kilos of bait and small baits are always my choice when I don’t think the carp are going to be feeding heavily. Over the years I have found that particle baits really come into their own during the hot weather.

Quest Baits Garlic Feast

I prefer to blend my particles combining seeds, beans and peas along with broken bits of boilie. The Quest Baits Garlic Feast blend that I originally put together for the Mangrove carp contains 20 different particles. This gives a different sort of visual stimulation for those fish that have ‘seen it all’. Carp are like many other animals in as much as if you can encourage them to eat just one morsel of food they will often carry on feeding. The trick is to get them to sample something in the first place and the more varied the presentation the greater the chance of achieving this.

If the nuisance species are a problem with particles then I bait lightly with broken boilies and present a boilie which I cut bits away from (apple cored) on the hair. Quantity wise I am more than happy with whatever I can hold in one hand.

Roll on the low air pressure and slightly cooler weather when the carp feed for longer periods of the day and I can start baiting more heavily.

Best fishes,
Shaun Harrison

Does low air pressure influence carp to feed?

One of my  instruments that I use to catch that weary carp is to watch the weather. After a long period of high pressure in those summer months, when we have those nice warm days and pleasant nights, I am always waiting for that break in the weather.

The lakes come alive in low pressure with all sorts of fly hatches taking place. Just watch the Swallows and House Martins chasing the hatches as they skim the surface of the water. This is the time to get out the rods.

The calm before the storm…

This happened today! I watched the weather on the TV at breakfast time and could see that they predicted a band of low pressure crossing the UK from the West which would be pushed along by the Jet Stream.

Rain with thunderstorms was on the menu so I contemplated a few hours on my syndicate lake. I arrived around midday and went into a corner of the lake where the wind was pushing. Intending on only a short session I wanted to make the best of my time. I put out 2 rods both baited with Quality Baits Squid and Orange 16mil bottom baits. Around the baits I put out around 20 free offerings and sat down and waited.

My 3rd run in half an hour, a 27lb 11oz beautifully scaled mirror

It was slightly overcast and warm and I could see that on the horizon a storm was brewing. Within the next 1/2 hour I had 3 runs, missed the 1st but landed the other 2, one of my stockies and a lovely scattered scaled mirror of 27lb 11oz.

Thunder clouds approaching

No sooner that I had returned the fish the heavens opened accompanied by an almighty clash of thunder, followed by torrential rain.

The wind changed direction and I saw the fish move out of my bay and went on this new wind to the far side of the lake. Mission accomplished I wound in the rods and headed off back home. Good timing and good bait, you can’t beat it.

Paul Cooper
Read more on Carp Tactics and Watercraft here

Splicing, Lead core and it's uses...

With lead-core being banned on most venues due to the danger to fish welfare, Paul Cooper shows us some of the alternative uses for lead-core...

Including being used in the construction of the combi-rig and a replacement for heavy mono on a marker float set up and spomb. 

  For over 60 other technical carping videos follow the link - Carp Fishing in France