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If you can, try to locate the fish before
choosing a peg.
Locating
the carp, or any possible patrolling area is a largest part of carp
fishing success.
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Use fishmeal-based boilies during the summer and
autumn, try 50/50 mixes or bird food types of bait during winter and spring.
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Add plenty of salt to particle baits, especially
the cooked types like hemp, maize, tares, beans, partiblend seeds, maple
peas and chick peas. Carp love
the taste of salty foods. As a rough guide, add one tablespoon of salt to 5
litres dry particles.
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Try adding chillies to some particle baits. Carp
seem to love that hot "kick" from those spices. Roughly add 2 tablespoons to
5 litres particles.
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If the standard carp baits like boilies don't seem to be working,
try using maggots.
Here is a maggot carp rig to try. You can fill a small PVA bag with
maggots to get some free
offerings out at distance. Or you could even half-fill the bag with dry groundbait to
give off a cloudy attraction. (If you are concerned about maggots wriggling
away or into silt try using previously frozen dead maggots.)
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When the water is cold such as in the winter,
try casting your rigs a little more frequently, and target different areas
in order to place a hook bait close to the fish. Cold water slows down the
movements of carp so there's less chance the fish will swim towards your
bait. In the summer, you can lay traps in possible patrolling areas and wait
for the carp to find the bait.
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Use different sizes of pellets or particles in a
spod mix. This helps confuse the carp, it also gives you the option to use
various sizes on the hook.
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Add high sources of vitamin C to your bait. I
often mix my method up using orange juice rather than lake water. You can
also try soaking fresh boilies in orange juice in order to give that
distinct flavour and extra sugar.
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If you're worried about overfeeding the swim
then use breadcrumb groundbait with just the attractants added but without
all the particle baits included. this way you get all the attraction without
filling the fish.
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Whenever you can, try to stay away from using
round bait. Far too many carp are caught on round baits, you want to be
different. I sometimes just square up the hook bait with sissors.
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Try crumbling a multi-vitamin pill into your
method mix. Carp love highly nutritious foods!
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If you're fishing a new water, try using
brightly coloured bait with high attract smells. Only switch if you know
there are carp in the swim and you are having no action.
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Try to get carp competing for the bait. When
carp compete for food they lower their guard and are easier to catch.
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In the winter try fishing the silt areas at the
bottom of gravel bars.
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Always try to camouflage your end tackle to suit
the lake bed you're fishing on. I sometimes weight down a spod with leads,
then cast it out and let it sink to the bottom, then scrap up a sample of
the bottom. I can then create my end tackle to suit the same colour. If
possible I try to do this a few days before a fishing session.
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Always use good quality bait when fishing for
big carp.
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If you're catching carp in a certain spot then
you want to place your rigs in the exact same spot every time you cast. To
help do this, place some marker line or a small piece of tape
on the main line once you have the rig in your preferred area.
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Rather than throwing unused particle baits into
the lake at the end of the session, take them home and freeze them. Many particles such as
hemp, maize, chick peas and beans can be frozen and kept, even maggots can be frozen
and used for another carping session.
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To help stop a banked carp from jumping around
when trying to remove the hook, try
covering up the eyes with a wet cloth.
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Try not to throw out too much bait at the start
of a session, try the "little and often approach". Remember you cannot take out
what has already gone in!
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Try not to overfill a spod it will cause
spillage in mid flight. It may also alter the course of the spod.
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If fishing a pressured venue, don't add too many
bright baits to your spod mix. Bright colours often spook shy carp, only add the bright colours if the neutral colours don't work.
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In cold weather try soaking hook bait in neat
liquid flavourings. These are usually much stronger helping to release
attractant over a longer period.
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To help locate the distance of the fish in the
swim, fish with tight lines and stagger the rods at various distances. If
you get line bites on the rod closest to the bank then you know you're
fishing to far with the other rods.
