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Viewing entries tagged with 'shaun harrison'
Water Birds – the Dreaded Bait Thieves?
Every lake I currently fish I find myself hounded by water fowl all wanting a share of the feast intended for the carp. It’s hardly surprising though as our target species shares a very similar diet to that of the bait thieves. Many years ago I learned to live with simply accepting that diving birds were going to take advantage of an easy free meal, just the same as the birds in the garden will. Yes, they are a total pain, picking lines up and every so often slipping up good and proper.
It was many years ago, way back last century when I realised how important the bird life can be and can actually speed up the capture of carp. As I touched upon above, bait robbing birds and the carp share a very similar natural diet, so, find the birds feasting upon naturals and you can be pretty sure the carp will be close by too and if they are not there at that particular time, you can be sure they will be visit.
My Marker and Spod Reel Set ups.
I would welcome a free drink for every time I have watched anglers cast a marker float out and not be able to get it to rise, then repeat the process again and again whilst spooking anything that may have remained there after the first cast.
Some real experienced anglers I see suffer this problem as well and the biggest cause is braided line or braided leaders. Yes, all the magazines tell us we need braided line for marker work, but for many years now I have used a Co-polymer or a fluorocarbon leader on the end of my braid to stop the frustrating habit of the marker float spinning around the soft braid on the cast and temporarily tangling, which prevents the float from rising. Using too small a lead can cause this too, but this can be seen during the cast as the float separates from the lead.
My Reverse Combi Rig Update June 2020
Following on from yesterday’s ‘Coming out of Lock Down’ blog, I have received a couple of questions about my bottom bait reverse combi rig, in particular the components as well as asking what I mean by the ‘cluster of baits’ I had referred to. Hopefully the following will be pretty much self-explanatory.
Into Lock Down and Back Out Again
The lock down period for me was very hard, just as it was for so many others. I live alone, I have a health issue, so I had to self isolate. Sadly I lost friends which really hit home that this invisible war is for real and not just figures quoted on the television. As much as I am happy in my own company, it took me until this isolated period to realise I actually missed people watching. If it wasn't for the fact that I was still able to take my daily field, wood and hill walk away from everyone else, as well as being fortunate enough to have developed a mini nature reserve in the garden to hide away in. I don't think I would have coped. I really did feel for those who live in city centre flats. It was bad enough working, living and isolating within the little plot of land I have, I couldn't imagine being trapped indoors as well, not having any outdoor space.
Finally, once allowed back out the carp gods smiled upon me.
Leading out of winter - Bait and presentation choice for a new venue?
I am often asked what baits I would use on a venue I had not been to for a long while, or a new venue I know little about. What would be my starting point in terms of bait and presentation?
Frogs = Carp
Once again, nature and in particular the frogs, gave me a clue as to where to go and angle.
Rigs - It's a Confidence Thing
In my last end tackle blog, https://www.questbaits.com/blog/pb-products-hit-and-run-system/ I explained why I like small or running lead set ups which then prompted quite a lot of people to contact me asking my advice on other rig aspects. During the rapidly developing years of rig evolution in the early to mid ‘80’s I was really into rigs. Tweaking, testing and developing different ideas. I was rig mad and was convinced (still am) that some of the things we were doing back then, (we being Baz Varney and myself) gave us one hell of an edge on the waters we fished. Baz was the only one at the time I discussed rigs with. He had an incredibly ‘tuned in mind’ back then and came up with some pretty amazing ideas and between us down the ‘Bass House’ our favourite drinking joint, we would fine tune them after eventually finding the right bits to actually make these rigs up. One rig in particular, we were looking for the right sort of tubing for the best part of a year. It was worth it though when we were finally able to put the rig into action.
PB Products Hit and Run System
Yesterday I re-posted on social media a short video I did on the P.B. Products Hit and Run Safety Lead System https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2P-xrlYAak and overnight a couple more questions have come through to my inbox about them, so it only seems right to go into a little more detail about them.
I was first introduced to these brilliant bits of kit in March 2012 by John Caeyers, whilst we were out in France for a Free Spirit Fishing video shoot. It took me all my gentle charm and persuasion plus sad puppy eyes to convince him that he should let me have one to try.
Thrice Lucky Trio Plus 1 (feeding the critters and the carp)
Saturday I had landed a nice mirror during the morning whilst conditions appeared absolutely spot on with a big low which had moved in dropping the air pressure fast, whilst the wind blew strongly and boy did it rain. These were the conditions I had hoped for to get the fish down in the 19 feet of water I was fishing.
That evening three really nice commons were induced to feed.
Wow - What a Month May Was
What a month that one was!
At the start of the month I was in Italy chasing carp far larger than I usually get the chance to fish for and success was indeed sweet. I came back to catch up on work, caught 3 more nice fish back home, then got called out to France and managed to fit in a couple of days angling there with again a rather pleasing result. Finally the end of the month I was once again rewarded by the carp gods. The following blog covers some of those captures and the different bait approaches I used between Italy, France and the U.K. One baiting approach will never suit every situation.