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What’s the Largest Boilie Size Used for Carp
Fishing?
It can be surprising at just
how big a boilie size for which good-sized carp can comfortably take into
their mouths to eat. I have actually hooked a huge 40 + pound mirror carp on
a 28mm pop-up boilie when fishing in France – I actually lost it in the end,
and YES I still have nightmares about it so DON’T ASK!
I would say it’s possible to use up to 30mm boilies with ease, I would even
say that the bigger carp are capable of eating boilies the size of snooker
balls! However, there are a few reasons why you should consider using such
large boiles to catch huge carp before going ahead with your big-bait
fishing tactics!
Big boilies were used quite regularly many years ago and with a great deal
of success, but carp anglers today understand that using smaller items of
bait seemed to work best for catching carp of all sizes. Many still feel
that the bigger baits simply cause carp to be more wary because they may
have learned to associate them with danger. This can be true on many of the
UK waters, but in fact, there’s another reason why it can be unwise to use
big boilies, and it’s to do with a carp’s digestive process rather than
their survival instincts.
 A Carp's Energy Costs When
Feeding
Carp always try to take the easiest option when it comes to feeding. They
naturally seek to find the greatest amount of food sources, and
nutrition
available with the least amount of effort. In other words, they try to make
sure there’s a greater energy content present in each and every meal to
compensate for the amount of energy used in finding that meal. From a carp’s
physiological and biological standpoint, there needs to be an outcome of
“positive energy intake” – if you get my drift!
It’s bit like us, in that we wouldn’t eat celery sticks all day because it
would cost more energy for us to digest them than the energy we gained from
the food source itself - it’s false
economic nutrition if you like.
Big baits can work against your fishing success because the carp need to
break down a big bait before they can swallow it for
digestion. Having to
chew a big bait down to size will cost the fish more energy to completely
digest a meals made up of larger food items, and because of this they would
be more comfortable in feeding on much smaller items that can be easily
swallowed without much chewing.
For this reason carp will tend to pick up the smaller and softer baits when
given a choice. They can mop up the soft, smaller items as they’ll gain
plenty of energy and nutrients quickly and with little expenditure of
energy.
Maybe this is reason why a good carp fishing tactic is using a fairly big
half boilie of about 18mm as a single hookbait along with a PVA bag of tiny
pellets. The carp will be attracted to the selection by the sight of a
cluster of food, and as it wallops up the small pellet, it inevitably sucks
up the big boilie chop which hooks the fish!
It could also be the main reason why carp seem to prefer chopped boilies
over whole ones. All the time carp anglers are suggesting that the carp are
wary of big round boilies but, it may simply be more that they instinctively
save energy. Wow, if carp keep this up they too could have an obesity
epidemic!
Are there any benefits of using such big baits for carp fishing?
There are some good benefits to using huge hookbaits when fishing for large
carp. A few are:
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More visible to passing fish
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Greater attraction abilities
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Less nuisance fish captures
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Better chance of tackling
crayfish problems, especially if hardened large boilies are used
One other benefit of using bigger boilies for carp fishing is the
possibility of good hook holds. Bigger boilies cause the carp to take more
time to deal with breaking them down inside the mouth, and as a result, your
hook may end up spending longer inside the mouth and this could mean a
greater chance for the hook point to take hold in the flesh. This is more so
if the hair is longer so a larger hook has room to drop down inside the
mouth.
The tactic of using large hook baits may be best when used as a
single-hookbait
fishing tactic!
Applying a New Carp Bait
Fishing for Carp in Rivers
Locating
Big Carp in the Spring
Carp
Location in the Summertime
Finding
Large Carp in the Cold Winter
Location
of Most Carp in Autumn
The
Case for Quality Carp Bait
Fishing Tactics for Snags & Trees
Boilie Placement on the Hair rig
Different types of carp rigs to use
Attempting to Catch Wary Carp
A Carp's Digestive System in Detail
Common
Baiting Tactics When Fishing
The Various Carp Bait
used to Catch Bigger Carp
When to use Pop-ups or Bottom Bait for Carp Fishing
How to
complete a Baiting
Campaign on Lakes & Ponds
The
Basic Carp Fishing
Baits Used to Catch Large Carp
Fishing Tactics when Fishing for Carp during Long-stay Sessions
Advice & Articles on How to Fish for Big Carp
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