by Ron Key
American Signal Crayfish are here and they are spreading virtually unchecked. I first encountered them a few years ago in the Colne Valley where there were actually stocked in some waters to cultivate as food.They eventually escaped and have now spread over the whole of mainland UK. They are much larger than our native crayfish, and carry a fungus that is deadly to them. From an angling perspective they are so frustrating. The crayfish are relentless they will try to eat everything; this includes your hooklink and boilie stop.I gave up using mono hooklinks very quickly as the crayfish nipped the line seriously weakening it.I use soft braids or coated braids now; they tend to fold when nipped rather than deforming but they do need examining regularly for damage.I also hide the hair stop when possible as this is usually the first thing to be eaten, leaving your boilie free for the crayfish to rob you.At best the only indication you will get is a single beep of your buzzer and you are no longer fishing.
One of my favouritemethods of carpfishing is using PVA bags. We all know it can be an absolutely deadly method of catching carp but even more so when used at long range where the carp have rarely come across this presentation. The first time I tried to cast a PVA bag a long way, the bag didn’t stand up to the job and I wasn’t confident with the overall result. So I decided to set about making a rig which would cast well and not tangle. The rig below is what I now use for all my long range bag work, it’s simple to construct, casts well, tangle free and prevents the bag coming away from the lead on impact with the water.
by Pat Gillett Over the last few weeks I have been doing a few short afternoon / day sessions, with the longest one being no more than 10 hours. This really is my favourite type of carpfishing. I have kept the tackle to a minimum and been very mobile in my fishing. By moving around a lot (sometimes up to four or five times) and closely watching the behaviour of the carp I have been able to catch one or two fish when the going has really been pretty slow.
The Midlands Estate Lake I have been fishing is about 4 acres, crystal clear and very shallow (no more than 3 ½ feet deep). It also has an increasing amount of weed has the weather warms up. Stocking levels are not particularly high with approximately 35 fish. Because of the water conditions it really is a better ‘nightwater’ with most angler’s catching very little in the day. But I have always believed in the old adage of ‘catching on my own terms’ and as such I have still not fished a night on this water. (I get more enjoyment catching in the daytime). (more…)
Whenever I cast out any rig I want to be confident it doesn’t tangle and that when it settles on the bottom the hook isn’t masked by any weed or bottom debris. I almost always mask the hook with either PVA tape or PVA foam or both. Trapping the hair at the same time definitely also prevents tangles. In the photo you can see two set ups that I use for 90% of my fishing.
I use the Extra Wide 20mm PVA tape from Kryston and PVA foam nuggets from SolarTackle. I would be totally lost without these products, both of which melt completely and never leave any residue at all.
In the first picture the rig on the left is a simple single bottom bait. In this case the hook is masked with a few turns of extra wide PVA tape which has been licked a bit to make it neat and compact - as you can see the hair is trapped at the same time. This is also a good set up for distancefishing.
Steve Vaughan wrote:
I have just started fishing a new water with a large head of carp to 28lb. It has seen little carppressure and hardly any boilies, however it does get fished for the large bream that live in the lake. The depth varies from 5ft to 18ft, could you give some advice as to how the bloggers would go about fishing for the carp.
Shaun Harrison replies:
Good question this one and one which could be answered in many different ways.
My approach to any new water if the waterclarity allows is to put small traps of bait in likely looking areas then keep walking around the venue until either I am lucky enough to stumble upon a few fishfeeding or until it becomes clear that the carp don’t particularly visit the margins during daylight hours.
If I’m lucky enough to find fish I can then experiment to find what sort of baits the fish prefer rather than going in with the bait I want to use.(more…)
Since James Harrison’s first piece in this magazine about carp captures being a result of many things coming together at the same time and most captures basically being ‘meant to be’, I have got to thinking an awful lot. Obviously, the more experienced angler will always catch a few more because he/she makes sure to be there when the right factors are coming together and the rig is in place ready for where the fish will undoubtedly turn up.
I have looked long and hard at my own fishing and, these past couple of weeks apart, I have never particularly struggled to catch carp and for many years I have used exactly the same rig for all of my bottom fishing on everything except soft silkweed. (more…)
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