An Average Carp Angler

This, I hope, will be an interesting and thought-provoking article. I intend to write on events and observations made, with my analogies towards their outcome. I will not include any recounted tales of fish captures, like… It was my seventh night on the water, I had been baiting the swim for weeks when I saw ‘Gerty the firty’, come in. Last time she was caught was in May, when she went 29.14 the geezer that ‘ad ‘er then was well gutted. Now I ‘oped she’d be a bit bigger so I could ‘ave a p.b. Common, I chucked the whizzo bizzo rig at ‘er, but she done the off.…Nor anything like it, as I find these boring.

I consider myself only to be a very average angler, so I regard myself extremely fortunate to have three talented anglers amongst my friends, who I can learn from. They are more imaginative and innovative, with their ideas, than I will ever be, so I find they influence me more than they will know. I try to pick-up on their best traits – to use, and hijack their ideas – trying to expand on them to help my fishing, when I can. In their own way, they have all taught me a great deal over the years. Bob with rigs and ideas. Chris, with his sheer ability and watercraft. Tim, who is more of a pike angler, has a single-minded approach to fishing different waters. His views on tackle, and I’m also ensured a good laugh when I fish near him, but he is the worst photographer I’ve ever met.

Apart from Chris, who is also a member of some gravel pits along with me, we are all in different clubs. Because of this, the only chance I generally have of fishing with either Bob or Tim is on a day ticket water. I also manage to talk on the phone, about rigs, tactics or bait, to one of them at least once a week.

During the course of a season, I usually manage to fish four waters amongst others that are "one off’s". These are contrasting in their own ways, two of them are estate lakes; one of these is fairly easy well-stocked water, while the other is a dayticket. Then there are two mature gravel pits in the same chain in the Lee Valley, one that is lightly stocked, the other is fairly well stocked and on a dawn to dusk club ticket.

My thing was always bait, or so I thought. I could never get my head around rigs. To me, the fish had always got to pick the bait up first, to get hooked. …And if you had something that they wanted, and felt confident on….

The waters, we fished back in the early eighties, probably didn’t need anything special. Bob, who was also fishing Layer Pits at that time, saw the difference that rigs could – and did – make there, where a slight alteration to his terminal tackle, could result in making a twitchy pick-up into a full-blooded run. Needless to say, he had what was a going bait. When he fished our local water, we didn’t do too much different rig wise from what I could see, or if he ever did, I probably wasn’t there. So, I put the difference in catching down to either location, and that Bob was able to fish midweek, and have a choice of swims, and to the certain maple attractor that he used in his baits. I was/am convinced the carp preferred this to anything I ever threw at them. In all honesty, the carp probably were not quite so clued up on presentations then.

As an example, there was this oldish guy that always fished the same swim. One rod was for whatever came along, the other for carp – this was a swing tipped rod, with a dog lead hooked over a peg in the ground, with the quick release latch, around the reel stem. Along with this primitive set up, he used luncheon meat as bait. This method had seen him through well enough in past seasons. When he got a take, the rod was pulled off of the rests, it’s progress halted by the dog lead. Within two seasons of the water being fished by carp anglers, it was almost impossible for that man, to get a take like that.

A long time ago Kevin Maddocks said something about doing something different from the other anglers. Have you noticed, that when someone comes onto your water, from outside the immediate area, they will probably tend to do better than the regulars. Because they might not be so stereotyped into doing the same as everybody else does, using the same rigs, casting into the same spots, almost everything they do is different. Conversely, if your methods are good enough, you should be able to catch from their local water.

To support this theory further, have you ever been fortunate enough to be in on the start of a new approach. This could mean rig, bait, method or area, on your local water? Did it make a difference?

Having a bait that you have confidence in helps, I now use Mainlines activ8. Along with 5 other anglers on this estate lake, Terry and myself graduated to it from Mainlines Extract mix with Milky Toffee, in June last year. The others had been on cp2000, or cats. In the autumn they moved over to activ8 and caught well with it from the off, unbeknown to them, Terry and I had thrown quite a few kilo’s in between us. The only stipulation we have between us now, is that we have to "put the bait in" whilst or after we are fishing. I’m sure it is because of this, our total catch rate there, eclipses anyone else’s. Generally, I take around a kilo of boilees as well as some particles for a days fishing, most of it goes out as I leave the lake, all in all this is only about 250 odd baits. I’ve been asked by a couple of others if this expensive, the answer is, yes it would be if I was not catching, but as I am….

Also there are one or two others that are using activ8, because we haven’t made a secret of it, the "others" are disinclined to put any quantity of bait in though. If there is a bait team on your water, try to get on it with them. Not by the sneaky way of discovering what they are using, then only using a few baits for a session, and fishing off of their hard work, like these people are doing. By becoming team minded, and relating your experiences to others, everybody will be baiting and fishing for a common cause, so you will be able to find out what’s occurring when you’re not there, and the carp are still seeing your bait, gaining confidence in it further.

Activ8 certainly has something going for it as a viable food source; the fish in my garden pond prefer it to all else when I have crumbled it up to feed to them. They will still be rooting around, searching for it in the weed, when it has long gone. On waters that have a large influx of this bait, the fish do seem to get addicted to it, to the extent where those who are not using it seem to catch little. Another point about its attractiveness is that it will draw small fish to it, which will then, become a visual stimulant to any carp in the vicinity.

With everyone using the same bait on a water, thus baiting for each other, the denominating factor definitely becomes rigs. A few seasons ago, four of us managed to dominate a water completely. To the effect that a couple of anglers w
ho had always considered themselves "top rods", became so disillusioned that they would often say they caught, even when you knew for a fact they had blanked. By this combined effort, our campaign there that season relied solely on heavy baiting, with an easy digestible bait. Comprising of, Superseggo, white fishmeal, a horse vitamin supplement, brewers yeast and dried seaweed. The flavouring we used for this was strawberry/coconut, which we had to have 4 litres of, as it was specially blended for us by a flavour house. Although someone was putting better quality bait in than us, which was well established at the same time, theirs was not as effective as it should have been – because the bait we were using, was the most prolific, due to the cost factor and as we all prebaited. Since we used similar rigs, and never held anything back from each other, our results were all very similar. The crucial factor came down to the amount of time spent there, a change of rig may have benefited, but as we were all catching…When does a winning formula not become a winning formula?

I believe carp begin to get conditioned (by anglers fishing a particular style) into expecting certain events when they pick bait up. They might be able to travel in an arc of the radius of the hooklinks length, maybe 30cm before they feel resistance (or don’t) • maybe they’ll feel a certain size weight. If somebody (new) uses a hooklink shorter or longer from the norm, maybe of a different type, the carp will most likely be fooled into thinking it’s either safe, or frighten it into bolting. For a while this method will become the in thing, until the carp suss it out and another approach is required.

If you are getting takes, and landing fish, you can see the efficiency of the hooking arrangement. Look at the hook hold, to see where the hook is positioned. Is it deep inside the mouth, or in the lips? The answers should speak for themselves. It took me a long long time to realise this significant fact. As I said earlier, I was never one for rigs. If you aren’t even getting the pick ups, try looking at your rigs in more detail, and how to improve on them before being concerned about the bait. Obviously, the bait should be acceptable in the first place.

On a syndicate water that I joined a few years back, I was having problems getting takes, with the hooklink materials that I had been using (Ambiflex and Multistrand). Though in hindsight there may have been a problem with the hooks. Frustrated by this lack of action, I tied 6 lengths of 1.5lb Bayer line to make a multistrand type of link, tensioning it, I then glued it about every 50mm, then used the same line to form a doubled loop hair, to which a tutti was attached. The bait had been out overnight so was now going to be comparatively soft, when I got a few bleeps on the delkim, taking the indicator to the top, but not moving the baitrunner that was set on minimal resistance. Thinking this was some sort of linebite I left it, when I wound in I found the hair looked longer than I would’ve normally had it. Closer inspection revealed that the hair had cut through bait. It seemed as though a fish had picked the bait up in its lips, then backed off until it felt resistance, then rejected it maybe.

I fished at Chigboro with Bob one winters’ day. I had a thermometer with me, which was attached to some braid. I threw it in the margins to check out the temperature as there was cat ice in the margins. After an hour or so, I went to get it in to look. As the braid got tensioned, a puff of sediment came off the line as I brought it in. I again threw it out, on re-checking later, the same thing happened. Again, I threw it out, but left it for longer. When I looked at it I could trace the path of the braid. The sediment had again become attracted to it, making its diameter look twice as thick as it was. This was in clear water, so what happens in murky water, when the silt is suspended? For that matter, how does a carp navigate its way around in murky water or on a cloudy dark night without crashing into the banks, especially as you are playing them in? The significance of that discovery was lost on me then, it wasn’t until I started using multistrand with regularity, occasionally I would bring in debris caught up in a spiders web, the easiest way to untangle it was to cut it. I then remembered this episode from a few years previous. I occasionally use 25lb Silkworm, but prefer to use Invisiline or Berkley XL, both for their anti-tangle properties, though this can be combated on braids by simply using a stringer.

Using activ8, and Fishing by the side of Chris, who uses braid for the majority of the time, has taught me that baits must be getting consistently picked up, but ejected. Everybody that fishes with – or near • him will soon realise that he will hook three times as many fish as anyone else. The major difference is that he is meticulous in the presentation of his bait, by the carrier rig. Fishing by the side of him has left a really big impression on me, as I’m sure he has done on others that he has fished with. Whilst he has a more mobile approach, first find the fish • then fish for them, I was content to let ‘it happen’ by being in the right swim. In my early years of Carp fishing my location was so bad, that I would be more mobile trying to find fish in the margins or watching for them rolling, after a while I learned where to find them. Then, I fell into the trap of having favourite swims. You know, the ones with islands and bars and other castable features in them. By being in them, the fish would have to pass through some time, so once the baits were out, that was it, switch off. Chris on the other hand, is constantly active, changing presentations to suit the conditions as he sees them, as well as moving as the need arises, often to another water on the same complex that is more productive for that time of day.

When my Nichollson buzzers (one of the original wheeled magnetic reed switch type), gave up the ghost, I reverted to using antennae type buzzers again. I fished with these AJS buzzers for a few seasons, as the delkim-converted optonics were no longer available, and I wasn’t prepared to pay silly money for second hand ones, as there were continual rumours of Del, bringing new ones out. I’m not sure, if using these AJS’s was a help or hindrance to me, as they did manage to stereotype my fishing.

Anyway, because of the combined sensitivity of the AJS’s and bobbins, this caused me to fish at close range for a few seasons. I found the bobbins (bottle tops or monkeys), would really need to be the correct weight to counter-balance any drift or wind at the time, but not heavy enough to tension the line too much, which would ultimately set off the alarm. Therefore, the sensitivity had to be continually adjusted to suit. To combat this, I would fish with a gentle arc in my lines, but this still emitted false bleeps. To correct this, a quick boot to the bankstick or shove on the butt section, would manage to reset the alarm. On a still day, I could sometimes watch the line getting tightened by fish activity, probably small fish consistently attacking the bait. When this activity died down it meant either that, 1) the bait had gone, 2) there was a larger fish in the area, and it had scared them off, 3) they got bored of playing football, or was it volleyball? Or 4) it was a carp that had successfully freed itself.

Bob once took me, on a guest ticket, to a pit in the Colne Valle
y that he was a member of at the time. It was here that I learned this painful lesson. Bob had told me which swim to go into, but while I was setting up a fish rolled to my left in the margins. I went along the bank to see where, then decided to move into an overgrown swim nearby, this resembled the type of swim I was used to and it suited my style of fishing • marginal. I had taken some Chickpeas with me, these I had made hi-viz, and they were in condensed milk with a dye that I’d been given. This made them bright fluorescent pink • easily visible in any marginal depth of water. I don’t know what the dye was, but I’d love to get hold of some again. It was a metallic green colour when dry, when it got wet or damp it turned everything red/pink in starbursts. With this, I managed to dye the table, clothes and loads of other things. Because it’s so finely powdered, you aren’t even able to see the particles of it escaping, just by opening the top creates enough friction to unsettle it. Add something damp and wait….

These chickpeas were on one rod that I underarmed down the margins. Another was on a plateau that I’d found, which I baited with a thick skinned, rubbery textured boilee that was almost impossible to squash. This would of undoubtedly have been flavoured with Nutty Krave, a very very old "Nashy" flavour which was probably one of my all time favourites I have fond memories of it, seemingly catching from everywhere I went with it. I remember the bottle going down and down, knowing I’d never get anymore of it Perhaps, if I used it now, I wouldn’t be so impressed with it due to the ranges available now. Also, Nashy never made any attempt to reintroduce those original flavours he brought out as the "Krave" range.

The third rod was cast to the overhanging bushes on the far margins, again with a boilee. I had probably positioned these rods in exactly the same places as every other angler would’ve done, before or since.

Bob occasionally came down to visit me for a cup of tea on and off during the afternoon, which was totally uneventful. As evening turned into a really still night, we watched the fireworks that were getting sent up from some Indian religious festival. Mid-way through this, a carp rolled out in front of me. Bob suggested that I should put a bait on it. I quickly reeled in the plateau rod, to recast it into the general area fortunately managing to get the range about right with the light lead that I was using, to the area that the fish had shown in. Time passed by. Bob then declared that he was off to his swim. Some time after this, the buzzer on the middle rod sounded, the wine bottle top had jumped up an inch or two. While I watched this contemplating what to do, it rose a bit further. From the waters that I fished at that particular time, I’d have expected a run to occur if it was a carp. As it didn’t I put it down to nuisance fish. And reset the buzzer with a quick knock, within five minutes it started re-occurring, I eventually went to ask Bob if the water contained any nuisance fish like Bream • as they were pestering the hell out of my bait. Bob said, that he thought so, but hadn’t ever caught any. I assumed this was the case, and left him to return to my swim. As the bait was rubbery, I knew if it was bream or roach I would be all right in the fact that they couldn’t do much to the bait. As I sat waiting for something to develop, the tugs stopped, and now there was only a gradual tensioning up to the antenna of the AJS, setting the alarm off, but not moving the bottle top indicator. Spookily, as if by some unseen hand had released the pressure, it would switch off without my aid. This continued for a further 15 minutes, or so, then all went quiet again. In the morning on reeling this bait in, it was totally squashed out of shape.

Our analysis of what had happened was that it must have been a "educated" carp that had taken the bait back into its pharangular teeth to mash the bait, pricking itself on the hook/light lead combination in the process. As the hook didn’t penetrate properly, it wasn’t pulled home. Alternatively, the carp had been conditioned into not bolting in those circumstances. A phenomenon we had only heard and read about at that time, but never experienced first hand before. The indications that I had been getting were probably its attempts to eject the bait and hook to finally free itself. If my bobbins had been heavier, or I’d been using Optonics, all I probably would’ve had would have been a rod tip knock that I wouldn’t have noticed in the dark. This was the first time I found carp don’t always bolt off, so maybe they could think logically towards NOT getting caught, after they’re hooked. These days, even though I use Delkims, I still cannot achieve the sensitivity I could with those AJS’s. I believe there are fish that don’t respond to the conventional indication methods. I use Solar quiver-loks, mainly using one type of arm and adjusting it to solid, or free moving by adjusting the tensioner into the quiver position for a tight line. To keep the line under this tension, I use old silicon catapult elastic as line clip, leaving two tails about 25mm long then tie-wrapping it around the butt above the spool. This makes it totally solid, so I don’t get any pre warnings using this method • just a flying take. In addition to this, I’ve stopped using a pod and buzzer bar, and have reverted back to bank sticks. This way, I can have the rods pointing directly towards the baits, hopefully combating any, what might be rod tip knocks, to bending the quiver-lok into the maximum amount of pressure available before it releases, setting the hook. Or, I use the quiver loks in free dangling position, at the hinge for a slack line approach, for more resistance wary fish. I remember reading what I thought was a brilliant article in the old "Angling" Magazine, on twitcher hitting (this was in pre-Hair rig times). This guy had worked out that the longer the drop on your bobbins/needles, the more likely you were of not seeing any movement of the bobbin, but as the bobbin neared the top of the needle on a take, it would then accelerate as it neared the top. He then worked out the distances needed to move the bobbins in 1" increments (pre metric days) on a take. Along with all of this, there was a chart published, this must of had a great effect on me • as I painted my needles in 1" rises, it didn’t help though….

For carp that are more resistance wary, a good method is to position your indicator so that it sits directly before the butt ring (when tensioned), then released to whatever drop you are happiest with. This will exaggerate the amount of movement on the line.

Unfortunately, I have not found any way of setting the Delkims so slightly that they will register the line tightening to the indicator • but not moving it. Having slack line is fine in calm conditions, but when it is windy I keep getting disturbed, by annoying false bleeps. Naturally, I will look towards the indicator. When I look back at the water, I might think what I thought was a fish roll, was only a coot that then pops its head up, or worse still for a Grebe to surface 30m away that I don’t notice.

The season after fishing there with Bob, I lost some interest in carp fishing, so I didn’t fish much that season. Then I got the membership through for the Estate Lake that I had waited a few years for, which I’m still in • just, though the committee keep looking for excuses to try and withdraw my membership, as I had the nerve to criticise them. The latest trick is the Assistant sec
retary has denied receiving a cheque I sent to him for daytickets, then getting the matter brought up in the committee room, without informing me that it hadn’t been received, further blacking my name.

At the time of joining this society I didn’t know anything about it, or anyone that fished there, I was at a bit of a loss about how to start fishing it. I decided to start off by using the type of rigs that I had ended on two seasons previously (which were a version of the sliding rig), and Robin Red as bait, because they weren’t that popular at the time. On my first trip here, I went to the next swim along, to ask the guy there if he’d mind me doing a bit of plumbing, he said, "No, but all you will find is it’s very silty and just an average of three foot." I returned to my swim, disinclined to do any plumbing now. I’d just finished putting a bait on when he walked in. He introduced himself as Brian, and then he took a sneaky look around, questioning my rigs. Feeling very much the new boy, reluctantly I showed them to him, even describing how they worked. All he could muster was, "you don’t need anything like that here", and left. Fishing this "backwater of carp fishing" made me stagnate, as I didn’t need anything advanced. Over ten years on, I still go there, only now I go through the motions, as I find I cannot take it too seriously, probably only staying in the club to irritate the committee.

Some other Bait Company’s base-mixes or boilees used by us are Darenth Valley’s and John Baker’s. Along with occasional use of particles, such as Tigers, Groats, Maples, Chick peas, Hemp and what was a little known mixture of small seeds, originally sold as a Birdfood tonic mixture. Now it, or something very similar, is sold as Anis-twist, probably due to it containing aniseeds! The major difference is it’s twice the price!

I was only able to fish a handful of times on a rich, difficult, long narrow water that Chris introduced me to, before it closed down to angling a few seasons ago. The carp there were very angler shy/aware, when you fished there it was for "a chance". The carp seemed to prefer life at either end. One of them, held thick lily pads, the other had islands and weed. The centre section of the lake was shallow, but with deeper margins, coupled with this there were rushes growing in a parallel line to the bank, ¾ of the way across from one of the banks, creating channels. It was almost impossible to determine which route the fish would take, if they decided to move. Any undue bankside movement alerted these fish straight away, so they would slowly move away, maybe avoiding that area for the rest of the day. It was all right if you had managed to position yourself before the fish arrived, then they were fairly happy doing their fishy things.

The best chance I ever had there, was when I had discovered a couple of the fish down the weeded end. I was able to bait up against the corner of some reeds with a richworth (frozen) tutti. The other rod was placed between the island that I was on and the rushes. I managed to bait up in a diagonal line across this passageway with this "red band" birdfood from Haithes, pouring the milky aniseed flavour residue into the swim to act as a further attractor without alerting them. The seeds, I attached by means of a hair-rigged bead, with a proprietary sticky gel that had just been made available for this purpose. This made a change from super gluing my fingers together. As late evening approached Chris came up for a cigarette and to see if there was anything happening. We were able to watch the progress of the carp down the lake, knowing that they would have to pass over the seeded area. When they arrived, they up ended feeding on the seeds, creating vortexes and swirls on the surface all over the baited area. Anyway, as it got darker they moved off. I certainly never have had any action whilst using this substance, and in subsequent conversations with others, they haven’t either. The only explanation I can come up with is that it must emit a "chemical" smell that the carp find unattractive. I can’t ever remember being so disappointed by not getting a take – before or since. Interestingly, when I retrieved the tutti in the morning I found a small snail on it having a munch, or however it feeds.

It was at this point that I decided to find an alternative method of attaching small seeds onto something that needed to be a totally edible base. I finally decided to do it as a paste that I could scrunch the seeds into, to attach them. All I needed to do was to decide what to use.

Nearby, there is an animal feed distributor’s that only used to do the odd ingredient that could be used in carp baits. Though at the time I don’t think they had realised the true potential of the market, sadly these days they have, and their pricing policy reflects this, also their advert can now occasionally be found in Carp World. I’m sure that you could find other suppliers in Farmers or Animal World or whatever it’s called. I can remember buying, amongst other things, Soya flour and Nukamel there years ago for a fraction of what the bait companies were charging. Also used back then, were Equivite and Codlivine, but as you only needed an ounce a mix, these invariable went off before you’d finished the bag. Nowadays there is a vast range of products available there, with lots of things I haven’t heard of before. The most recognisable ones being the milk proteins in different forms of casiens to whey powders. Through onto fishmeal and birdfoods. These can all be used to make your own baits, or to individualise proprietary bait mixes further. Another place for sourcing other "original" ingredients is a place called Loon Fung, which is a Chinese supermarket on the Eley trading estate in Edmonton, they also have branches in Alperton and in Garrard Street in the West End. Around this time a friend, Dave the Gasman, gave me a small bag of John Baker’s Ashlea pool mix to try. He and his friends had enjoyed considerable success on another water with it, so I was quite happy to give this bait a whirl. To make this more unique I add squid that has been for a spin in a food processor into it, the resultant matter is a grey, thick creamy gluey mess, but you can still make out odd fleshy parts that are a bit like rubber. Now, I have almost stopped using eggs to mix it up with because squid in this condition is glutinous, so I rely on that as the binder. I also include a small amount of omega 7 oil into this bait, as well as olive and sesame oils. It is interesting that I took all my best fish from one lake last season with this bait, though I am not sure as to why, could it be that it is a paste and not a boilee perhaps? It certainly is different to what everyone else uses there.

To make boilees from it, I got hold of a small industrial deep fat fryer, so I could boil this bait up outside, and I thought I might be able to omit the oils from the mix, then to deep fat fry them in some sort of fish oil. When I boiled these baits inside I had to have all the windows open, and the door to the rest of the house sealed to stop the smell, else it made the house smell of the bait for days. When I originally made these baits in the summer, I left them outside to cool due to their smell when they’re still steaming from being boiled. Within minutes they had attracted a multitude of flies. An entomologist would have the time of his life, as some of these, I’m sure, are not yet known to man. This activity indicates to me that the flies are locking on to the airborne smell source, where they either hope to gain a free meal, or to lay the
ir eggs onto. I also have had this happen with Blashen and other related fishy products. If this happens with flies, what takes place in an aquatic environment where the taste/smell must disperse into the water? How many p.p.m are required by a carp for it to recognise food, and at what distance?

The roach and rudd, for some reason, have left this bait in paste form alone. That really has me puzzled. The only answer that I think might make sense is because it doesn’t contain any sweetener or flavouring so they don’t recognise the bait for what it is.

Some of the ‘advances’ I made in customising baits were through "accidents" when bait making. Once I thought I had added enough Green colouring (to try and outsmart the tufties) into the powered mix, but hadn’t. As I added the powdered mix to the eggs I saw it didn’t change colour enough. I sprinkled some more colour in, and kept kneading it in. Soon it became obvious that I’d be there for ages trying to work the dye into a consistent colouring, as by now it resembled marble with stronger and lighter streaks, which was ideally camouflaged for my purposes, so I left it as it was. When I went fishing with this bait, the others who I was fishing with at the time, saw them and couldn’t believe I’d managed to get my bait looking like that. After that, I would also occasionally combine two different flavours, by making two separate lots of bait, sometimes with different colours, then knead them together into one ball, before splitting them down further to make sausages out of them, so no two baits in the batch were identical.

Driving home from work one night, I stopped off at a chemist’s to get something for the cold I had. He advised me to also take some additional form of vitamin C. Needless to say I got some, in the form of tablets. Later sitting in traffic, not being able to read the instructions properly on them in the dark, I opened the tube and took one thinking that they were chewable. As the traffic started moving again there was a weird sensation as it started to crackle and party on my tongue, then it exploded into froth. I must of looked pretty rabid at that point, as it became worse, with me unable to stop nor spit it out. This did give a new meaning to the old expression "foaming up" though. After this, I thought these could be utilised in the winter, simular to the "headache rig". As an underwater visual attractor – the stream of bubbles as it dissolves as well as a water-soluble taste (Lemon or Blackcurrent), with the Vitamin content doing something in the form of localised enrichment of the water.

A few seasons ago on the Estate Lake, which is pretty featureless – it has branches pushed into the silt for markers, which the carp visit frequently. Obviously, for anyone that fishes these swims, these snags automatically become a placement area for one rod. One season, if you cast within 6ft of one of these sticks, every so often on winding in you’d find you were snagged, or on a take you’d get cut off by some unknown snag, some of the regulars thought this might be Pike activity, so stopped fishing this area. This went on for a while, and then Tim suggested that I try Amnesia as a hook link. This was fairly tricky to tie with the Kinru hooks I was using. The spade end knot looked appalling. Nevertheless, I cast it out, and soon I had a flying take on it, which resulted in a well-hooked carp. I had a few more fish on it before I showed it to a few friends including Terry, who straightaway took the ridiculed its crudity. Soon it was forgotten about as the situation returned to normal. This supposed Pike activity, Tim and I both doubted, as we never saw any swirls or small fish jumping. The only thoughts that I could come up with were that there had been so much uneaten bait in the area that broke down enriching the silt. Thus, creating a food larder for Swan mussels or some other molluscs that had trapped the hook links and cut them as they tightened. As the swim lost its popularity, and therefore its food source, the Mussels moved out. Well?

As I said, In the really early years of my Carp fishing I was able to fish a relatively easy water, here the only baits I thought were needed, were floating crust, sweetcorn or luncheon meat generally bacon grill, all in different circumstances. One day I took a catering size tin of corn, I can’t remember if I caught on it that day, but I ended up putting the corn into a sealed box and taking it home, intending to return the next day. I wasn’t able to, forgetting the corn; it stayed in my tackle bag. A couple of days later when I returned, I still had the corn only now it had fermented and was really pen n’ inkin’, so I ended by up throwing the contents of the box into the lake, then washed the box out in the margins. A short while later I noticed a couple of carp enter the swim. I had never thought of this as a margin swim, preferring to fish to the regular spots of the pads or the gravel bar, anyway they up ended over the baits and started hoovering them up with gusto. They then kept returning until they decided all the granules of corn had gone. In all that time, they weren’t interested in any other baits, including "fresh corn" that I re-baited with before I recast into the area. It was years later that I read that this fermentation process helped in the release of amino acids.

Once Bob and myself planned to do a night somewhere, the only trouble was that we couldn’t find a 24hr dayticket water that we fancied. We ended up going onto a match/pleasure fishing water with plenty of fish. I certainly had the idea that it was going to be really easy after catching a fish in the first half-hour. Apart from an aborted take the following morning, that was the only fish that I caught. Bob ended up with a couple. When we discussed the reasons for this, the main one was that these fish are used to pole anglers with extremely light tackle and tactics compared to ours.

Some days helping out in the Brentwood Angling Centre, is a Match angler, Dave, who fishes Carp matches in the summer months. In these, he uses all sorts of pastes. To look at these pastes, they are not much different from anything we produce, but they are sold in jars called shelf life • whatever that is? The thing that I have noticed about some of them is that they were really oily, this could be how they’re being preserved, as well as being the attractor in them. Dave’s secret to fishing these matches is in the feeding, little and often which is with micro-trout pellets. This gets the fish going on the drop, where he hooks them. The terminal tackle used is 16 or 18 hooks to 0.10 line (this is the diameter and is about 2.1/2lb breaking strain) with a 10 elastic. The thing that really is these fishes downfall, is competition, they don’t always have a chance to inspect any baits, as another fish will snaffle them first. How could we re-create this situation, using it to our advantage? Maybe, by under feeding an area, having just enough bait available for just one fish to feed, this would create competition through greed, leading to not having each bait individually inspected, so if there are a few carp feeding at the same time, one is liable to slip up.

Anyway, every time this lake is match fished, these anglers are on small hooks and light lines with critically shotted floats that would show if a fish farted near their bait! Even a small fish would be able to take the bait with ease. Th
e best comparison I could make for this is the Carp Porter barrow. For years I used a wheelbarrow, ridiculing the few anglers on the water that had one. Saying, what a waste of money they were, as mine was only 20 quid from a builders’ yard. One day one of them told me to load my tackle onto his one. It was then transformed into almost being weightless, which in some ways is the purpose of the well-balanced float. The fish finds exactly the same effort in moving the hookbait as it does the free samples, subsequently this will maximise the indication on the float for a strike.

I am not advocating using a float either here. On another match oriented water I have watched as two or three carp fed over a bed of maples close in the margins. There were vortexes coming up and every so often one of their tail lobes would wash at the surface as they worked their way around the baited area. It was obvious they were used to ejecting objects also, as there were small sticks and debris rising to the surface at the same time. After a good 10 minutes they left without giving a visible take. More bait was introduced on a couple of more occasions and the same thing happened. There is no way that these fish hadn’t taken the bait in, at least once in that time. This was on using a float with a long tail to minimise the disturbance of the carps body and fins on the line giving false takes. Recently, I was told of another float fishing method where the float is set under depth by an inch or so. Only this time it rises to the surface on a take (probable like a Polaris missile) indicating the bait has got picked up by a fish, this will eliminate all of the false movements of the float.

The other Estate Lake is day ticket only. Last time Chris and I fished here (late May), we were told, how the carp society had instigated the abolishment of the close season. The bailiff forgot to mention that, when there were close seasons, he had opened for close season fishing on (I believe) March 15, which I think, rather negated the point. I remember having to travel to Tri-lakes in Surrey for any close season fishing, before almost every other place was opened. He went on to say that fish spawn from March to October, as that’s when catfish spawn, so it wasn’t worth having a close season. Freebie loose fed boilee’s are banned, apparently due to them containing dangerous amino acids, but you can use stringers and bags to put baits out! Two seasons ago, in the autumn, I was caught firing out a few baits at dusk. He had the cheek, or was it stupidity to ask, what I was doing, as if it wasn’t entirely obvious. I didn’t realise that he must have been having a really bad day, as when I told him, "I was baiting up for the next day", he banned me for life.

This season, I went around scrounging empty shelf life bait bags, which I got a few strange looks for, then I planted these into one of the bins at the lake, so when he emptied the bins he’d get a shock to think that the dreaded shelf lifes were being used.

The other waters are club run gravel pits. One opens on the 16th and is only dawn to dusk; though there are bailiffs that are allowed to night fish, there are restrictions on the usage of bait here also.

The other water opens on the 1st, it is rarely fished by any of the other members, as the controlling club have another water nearby which is well stocked, so most members go there for a take. This is my favourite water because it has so many different features, along with overgrown banks. The pit is about 20acres, awkwardly shaped, with one side 20ft above the water, the other side of the pit is totally overgrown with overhanging trees and bushes. Having this high bank can be an advantage to spot fish and clear spots in the weed, but there are disadvantages. The main one being there are only three only areas that you are able to fish from, which the carp are never in front of, or near. Diving Coots may have made the many clear spots that can be seen on the water.

Due to its irregular shape, it seems larger than it is, with many inaccessible areas, bays and inlets. Splitting the pit in half is a series of islands, dividing the water further still into four main areas. Over the years the pit has become really neglected. I thought this was due to most working parties being held on the other pit, with only the easier accessible swims here receiving any attention by a few Tench anglers. Therefore, there is only a handful of swims that get truly looked after, (at the time of writing I visited the pit to get a few photos for illustrations to find it more overgrown then ever). A couple of seasons before this, I assisted in gaining membership for a friend, Derek, who is generally described in Carp Society blurb as, short round and perfectly formed. The only problem he had was he couldn’t see over the vegetation into the water when he visited the pit, so he never fished there. If he visited the water now he might get mistaken as coming from the fukarwi tribe, as I’m led to believe they go around shouting out • where the… which sounds like • we’re the….

When I mentioned how over grown the pit had now become to a full member, I found out it had become a SSI. I have left it in as I think the points I make about this type of water are relevant. Anyway, I think it is worth avoiding the "popular" areas on any water, as the carp surely will when the season starts. To re-open any swim, as and when. This also stops anyone nicking them before you get there • there’s not much danger of that here though! Twice before, on other waters, I have had an "awkward" swim tucked away that nobody wanted to fish, only for it to be "discovered", then made into a two man bivvy size swim by cutting into, and flattening the bank surrounding it. The effectiveness of it being peaceful is then lost! I’m sure more of the members would make the effort in fishing this water if they realised its true potential. The first season that I fished it, I caught fish verging on double figures, these were fairly easy to locate and catch in the summer months.

As well as fishing here, that season, I also joined a syndicate water. During that winter I was hospitalised, then I was off work under "doctors orders". As springtime came I used to walk around this pit almost everyday when conditions were right. I could generally find a few extra fish up to what I would guess twenty pounds, along with the double figure commons with relative ease. Before I had a chance to wet a line in there that season, I had investigative surgery done, then was advised to stay relaxed until an operation date came through, which meant I wouldn’t be able to fish for along time. It was October when I got the all clear, which wrote off that season, as I only went where I could park close by. One evening during the next close season, I got a call from Chris telling me that he had earlier that day seen a few fish with one or two defiantly upper twenties, possibly thirties, which were the rumoured fish that I’d never found. I arrange to meet him there the next day. Straight away we started seeing odd fish in groups of 2 or 3 lazing in the sun, then we came across the main concentration of a further 10 fish. This totally amazed me, as until then I had never seen any mirrors in the pit before, so now I was convinced there had been a introduction of fish from the other water. This was in one of the areas that the small commons could usually be found. We put some b
ait in the vicinity and watched their reaction to it before we left to go and look at another water in the valley, also so we wouldn’t spook the fish from that area. We both started that season on different waters, and during our visits that season we never located those fish again. This season we only found them once in the same area as the previous year. As we watched, they seemed to become agitated and drifted off. We again baited the area, deciding that we would only fish when there was a clear-cut chance. We also decided not to try for anything else there in the mean time, in case we managed to get the fish feeding on the bait, only for a smaller fish (that we hopefully had already caught) to come in and spook off, taking the mirrors with it.

Being so overgrown, finding a fishable swim in the areas I want, is an adventure in itself. There are swims in certain areas that I have seen before, but as the growing season has got under way these places have become lost, indicating nobody has visited them let alone fished there (check out the photo). Finding the fish is the hardest part, due to the lack of them. Because of this, and the lack of attention the water receives, the fish are naturally cautious of any bankside presence even when you’re dressed in drab greens and beige’s to blend in with the vegetation. They will slowly drift away to another area. Imagine if you went to the shops the same way, day after day, you’d soon get to know your surroundings and suss anything suspicious. If you suspected a psycho was waiting up a tree with a machete, you’d avoid the area like the plague and go to a different shop, wouldn’t you? Why should an extremely wary carp be any different?

During sunny conditions the carp sometimes seem to favour the steep sided bank; I’ve often found them here under those conditions. The sun shines onto this area all day long, I think this heats the surrounding soil, which then radiates through into the marginal swims warming the water, attracting them. This place can make it an excellent stalking area in the right conditions, if you can spot the fish there.

I only managed to go the pit three times last season, fishing on one occasion when I did locate some fish. Here I take three rods already rigged up for: 1) floaters, 2) freelined baits, and 3) bolt rigged baits. These should cover almost any opportunity immediately, if it arises. Also, I take my quiver that has the obvious things like landing net, bank sticks etc in. The bag I use is meant for a laptop, this has loads of separate compartments and pockets for all the other things. I’ve adopted it as a stalking come tackle bag, for my ordinary fishing. This stops me turning my rucksack out every time I go there to find I’ve left something at home, at some stage or other, as leaving tackle in any vehicle here is suicidal due to the amount of tea-leaves and vandals around. I suppose if you drive an ex-Brinks Mat lorry, it would be ok. I use my un-hooking mat as a kneeling pad or as a seat, as well as a shield to barge through the tall vegetation that surrounds the pit, with the laptop bag inside that. On small waters or ones that receive a lot of pressure, or have some kind of bankside disturbance, the carp seem to accept this as a fact of life. They are aware, but don’t always venture too close until the noise dies down.

One little lake I used to fish several years ago with Bob midweek, when I was able to, and at weekends with another guy, Terry, who was probably the first person I ever saw "enhance" his hookbaits, by pricking the outer skin to allow the permatation of the inner paste. Also he took eyedropper bottles of flavour for his sponge floater, that he’d drip flavour onto before casting it out into the pads. As well as these flavours he also would dunk them into this other liquid, but wouldn’t tell me what it was, later on I found out this was Amino-plus. Another method that he used was to soak some hookbaits over night or for however long it was before he had a take. Then on recasting he would use one of these opposed to a fresh one, as it should be in the same stage of breakdown as the freebies already out there. Often this would produce a take when fresh bait wouldn’t. Sometimes now, when I make my own baits, I will give one batch a 20 second boiling time or just enough for a light skin. These are destined to be put out straight away at the water, so I will have an almost immediate breakdown on them. The rest are standard times.

Bob and I had an attempt at flavouring – what I think now was probably – chum mixers, with neat Amyl butyrate that his Dad had given to him one close season. We fired plain ones into the pads, which got the carp up feeding on them, and then we fired out some coated ones. The fish knew they were there but would not go near them for quite a while. So I smeared some onto a finger to taste it, instantly it burnt my tongue, I was spitting for ages! On the can it did say industrial solvent! This was on Scouts camping site, which is where I met Tim. I remember at the time, both Bob and I were concerned, with the noise and disturbance the scouts would inflict on the lake. Because on a Friday evening as "they" arrived it was bedlam. The adults would be pitching the tents and stuff, the scouts and baby scouts would be down at the lake with the challenge that who could throw stones the furthest, it didn’t matter if you or your bait was there.

In the first season that I fished there, we left the lake alone during the school summer holidays, under the impression that there would be twice as many little brats about. That was a big mistake, as it was actually quieter. One moment it could be a tranquil carp lake, the next it would be like Southend on a bank holiday as they all would come down the hill, with the canoes, on trailers or tied onto their mini-buses and assorted vehicles. As Baden-Powell, or whoever it was, that was supposed to be in charge untied the boats, the little sods would run riot • again.

Quite often when they went splashing into the water in an area known as the beach or poles, (both these are so called through obvious reasons), to make rafts out of oil drums and pallets which they had brought down and would lash together. As bad as this seemed at the time, after they had left the water for a meal, carp could be seen milling around where they had been. Bait cast into this area would often produce a take. Sometimes it was possible to get a take with the canoes on the water. This once happened to me, I thought the canoeist had caught the line with his oar! But this ended up with a carp on the bank.

The scouts didn’t always have it their own way. When they asked what we’d caught, Tim would tell them Cod or Piranha, or a species of fish like it as well as warning them they’d get eaten. We also loved playing practical jokes to scare them away from the water. We would get a empty drinks can or bottle (that they’d left), take it along the bank and tie it to line, placing it strategically in the way, knowing they’d have a desire to kick it. As they went for it, the can would either shoot off, up or into the water, or just along the bank, as we’d pull the line. Then we’d tell them the lake was haunted. Quite a few years later on the Estate water when Tim was in it, we decided to play a similar trick on an angler called Bradley. This time it was a duck the shoot had neglected to collect earlier that morning. We threw a spool of line across an overhang
ing branch, then tied the duck to it, hoisting it up to the branch so that hid it. When Tim released the line, the duck would free fall landing at head height. I went to get Bradley passing a fellow member, Charlie who was a friend of a friend, coming the other way. I tried to convince Brad that Tim had caught a large fish, but he suspected a trick was up, the week previous we had put a Herring onto his bedchair, making it look like it was eating his crisps and nicked the rest of his food. Another time we’d got hold of his camera and gave him a few surprise "trophy shots", laughing about what would happen when he got them developed, surprisingly he has never mentioned that. So wisely, he declined to return with me. Making my way back, I now saw Charlie biting through the line, then he threw the Duck into the bushes. Seeing me he decided to have a go telling me how irresponsible I was. I think I fazed him by agreeing. He then asked what I would’ve said if it was a couple of old ladies that had found it, or had been walking around the lake. Obviously he didn’t expect the flippant answer he got, as he didn’t seem too struck when I replied, "oh, I tell them they were trespassing and direct them away from the lake". Suddenly it occurred to me how had he managed to see it. When I had left, it was 20ft high, camouflaged by the branch. Innocently I asked how he had seen it? He obviously thought I was now seriously taking the mickey, as he came up to me in a head to head confrontation. "Just because I wear glasses it doesn’t mean I’m blind" he growled. Things had obviously taken a turn for the worse. To no avail, I tried explaining it wasn’t meant for him; suddenly I wondered where Tim was in all this commotion, as I looked down the bank towards his swim. I could see him peering out of his bivvy, laughing, Charlie followed my gaze, then suddenly saw the light and became humorous again.

Another story of the same lake is of this guy called Benny. Around 8 o’clock every Friday evening he would wind his rods in to "go and get something to eat", which really meant the local pub. With the lake situated a long way from the car park, it was quicker and easier to walk along the footpath there, this also meant he could have a drink. Apparently, when he returned after closing time, he was always noisy, disturbing everyone at the lake. Being out in the wilds, the walk to the pub entailed going alongside the wood that surrounded two sides of the lake, then across two fields, a bridge over a stream, then through another field. The return journey being the direct opposite, using the far tree line silhouettes as guidance. This particular evening he returned more worse for wear than usual, he decided to take a short cut through the woods to get back to his swim. On entering the trees, he soon found it was darker inside than outside due to the leaf canopy above. This effect was further amplified by there not being a moon. Soon he was totally lost and disorientated, blinded by the darkness of it all he kept stumbling into brambles and fallen branches, he decided to call for help so he could work out the direction that he needed to stumble his way back to the lake. Though this wasn’t that far, and everybody was able to hear him no one came to his assistance and answered. Logic finally got the better of him and he spent the night in the wood. As light came, he found out he was only 25yards from the path around the lake.

The Scout Lake was also the location of one of the worst times I’ve ever had in carp fishing. I had 10k of what had previously been an successful HNV bait on the water, mixed at source by a bait dealer, who had offered to mix, weigh and seal it in bags at no extra charge. Because this would save me weighing out ounces of this and that, and as I would have a consistent mix of ingredients in the bait, I went for it. I never saw the need of prebaiting with this, because others were baiting with their baits. And I thought the fish would still recognise the attractor from last year. I just fished it from the 16^th. I had one aborted take on this bait within a few hours then nothing else for weeks on end. I kept on baiting with it, convinced the bait must catch, as I never saw any old bait rise to the surface (something the old milk protein baits did, or the ones we always tested did). The resident Coots and Moorhens may have eaten any of my bait that floated though. I ended up altering flavour levels for each trip, with no joy. Eventually, out of desperation, I bought a packet of Hutchies protein mix. The next trip, I ended up with three fish, which I felt relieved at. There must have been something in the bait that made the carp avoid eating it, what, I don’t know. Maybe if I’d only bought the ingredients separately, I could’ve isolated it….

To summarise my thoughts, I would put the emphasis on locating fish first, then on bait, firstly quantity of bait, closely followed by quality. These are however infinitely interchangeable, to the respect of your bait needs to be the most complete and nourishing food source available at any one time. It’s no good having the best bait in the world if the fish don’t see enough of it, as they won’t grow confident in it. Nor baiting with an iffy bait, as the carp will consistently reject it after sampling just a few. Try to employ different tactics than the others. Fishing in the quieter areas where the carp won’t always be so suspicious of finding bait, especially if you keep a trickle of bait going in, how about using a single half bait in the margins with nothing around it? Everyone throws in their old hookbaits here, don’t they? Try to use the most supple hook links possible to deceive the carp into thinking that the bait it’s just picked up is safe, then a good choice of hook pattern and size. My favourite hook is again a Nashy product, a size 8 type 1, in the old green packs, though these are not available anymore. They had a nice long point on them as well as a decent gape, spade kinru’s are nice also, so are the Isema’s of Mainline, which are probably the best available hooks currently on the market. If you feel its warranted, a few touches on a sharpening stone will help the majority of hooks, though not all like this. On certain waters this can be fatal as after a few hours the point will have etched away, maybe by the acidicy of the water, so leaving the coating on in these conditions as a protection is advisable.

Phil