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Allan Parbery, Bob Roberts, Matt Brown, Paul Garner, Simon Morris, Andy Green and
Stefan Hanff, for help and advice on any Carp or Coarse fishing topic. Just email your question using the form below and the following week your question will be answered by the expert you picked and posted below in the Question and Answer section.
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30th December 2008
Mark Hibbitt asked:
I'm looking to use Mistral Baits this year, but don't know which bait to use? The water I'm fishing is about 7 acres, with fish stockings of 180, including 5 thirties, and around 30-40 twenties. They like their boilies, what sort of price would I pay for about 30kg of boilies?
Allan Parbery answered:
This is a question I get asked regularly and the answer depends upon lots of variables.
Can I suggest that this lake is a local club/syndicate water with many other anglers fishing it?
If so I would try to team up with one or two other anglers to save a bit of money on the bait firstly, but secondly and far more important it means that the bait is going in more regularly. You can share baiting up chores 3 ways and have a whole better season to show for it.
What type of bait? Well I would suggest that fishmeals are being used on your lake and have been for a few years. If this is the case I would certainly look at one of the No Name range of boilies or something similar. These are high protein fishmeal baits, with the exception of the new Live R which is liver and meat based. Any of this range contain all of the necessary ingredients suitable for catching carp and lots of them too. The prices for these are about £11 per kilo.
It is well worth keeping an eye on our ‘special offer’ page on the website for some bargains. I know that we don’t have any of the No Name range at present but there are many others that would get the job done for you. One that springs to mind is a Monster Crab flavoured fishmeal/birdfood bait that we make for the European market. They are great boilies that contain Robin Red, PTX, LT94 and loads of other goodies. We have a whole load of these boilies that are not quite round so we sell them off for £40 per 10 kilos. The ingredients are all there it is just that a part of the machine was worn just a little too much before we replaced it. If you get 2 or 3 mates to have the same 30 kilos or so you will be in with the very best chance to have a great season at a low price. At my local syndicate this is how we fish. Six or seven of us decide on a bait and stick with it - The No Name original still being the choice of most.
If price is the defining criteria most baits will catch carp for you - it just seems that keeping one bait going in all of the time will help you far more than if you swap and change every week.
The good thing about the No Name and the Monster Crab baits mentioned is that they are also effective for fishing in all but the coldest of conditions - the first time I tried them was in February 2004 and I caught a nice low twenty within 10 minutes followed an hour later by another one a bit bigger.
What you have to do is feed your chosen bait regularly and fish well with them. This may mean scratching your head and thinking about the lake, it’s inhabitants and your successes and failures in past sessions. However as most of the lakes will be iced up now you should have plenty of time to do this.
Have a super 2009.
Mark Hibbitt asked:
I'm looking to use Mistral Baits this year, but don't know which bait to use? The water I'm fishing is about 7 acres, with fish stockings of 180, including 5 thirties, and around 30-40 twenties. They like their boilies, what sort of price would I pay for about 30kg of boilies?
Allan Parbery answered:
This is a question I get asked regularly and the answer depends upon lots of variables.
Can I suggest that this lake is a local club/syndicate water with many other anglers fishing it?
If so I would try to team up with one or two other anglers to save a bit of money on the bait firstly, but secondly and far more important it means that the bait is going in more regularly. You can share baiting up chores 3 ways and have a whole better season to show for it.
What type of bait? Well I would suggest that fishmeals are being used on your lake and have been for a few years. If this is the case I would certainly look at one of the No Name range of boilies or something similar. These are high protein fishmeal baits, with the exception of the new Live R which is liver and meat based. Any of this range contain all of the necessary ingredients suitable for catching carp and lots of them too. The prices for these are about £11 per kilo.
It is well worth keeping an eye on our ‘special offer’ page on the website for some bargains. I know that we don’t have any of the No Name range at present but there are many others that would get the job done for you. One that springs to mind is a Monster Crab flavoured fishmeal/birdfood bait that we make for the European market. They are great boilies that contain Robin Red, PTX, LT94 and loads of other goodies. We have a whole load of these boilies that are not quite round so we sell them off for £40 per 10 kilos. The ingredients are all there it is just that a part of the machine was worn just a little too much before we replaced it. If you get 2 or 3 mates to have the same 30 kilos or so you will be in with the very best chance to have a great season at a low price. At my local syndicate this is how we fish. Six or seven of us decide on a bait and stick with it - The No Name original still being the choice of most.
If price is the defining criteria most baits will catch carp for you - it just seems that keeping one bait going in all of the time will help you far more than if you swap and change every week.
The good thing about the No Name and the Monster Crab baits mentioned is that they are also effective for fishing in all but the coldest of conditions - the first time I tried them was in February 2004 and I caught a nice low twenty within 10 minutes followed an hour later by another one a bit bigger.
What you have to do is feed your chosen bait regularly and fish well with them. This may mean scratching your head and thinking about the lake, it’s inhabitants and your successes and failures in past sessions. However as most of the lakes will be iced up now you should have plenty of time to do this.
Have a super 2009.
15th December 2008
Paul Rogers asked:
I am having real difficulty in casting accurately. I keep ending up in the trees and bushes and wondered how i can stop this. I need to get tight to the snags. Can you give me any tips?
Andy Green answered:
Before I start to answer your question I must say that casting tight to snags should only be done if it is possible to land a fish safely! Many snags have hidden underwater branches etc and although it appears as if the area is clear it is important to be 100% sure as a 'Fish at all cost 'attitude is not acceptable.
The problems you have with regards to accurate casting are the same experienced by many anglers so don't despair. The method that I have found to work best for placing baits close to islands and snags as well as open water spots is to use the line clip on the reel spool. You need to start by casting towards the feature that you want to fish to,make sure that you cast short to start with and then let some line off and clip up. Make sure that you are standing in the same spot and cast again and see how short you land, gradually increase the amount of line you pay out and you will then find that you can place baits accurately every time, it is best to be patient and take your time as it is better to have a few extra casts and stay out of the trees/snags. Once you have clipped up to the right distance it is time to mark the line so that you can place it in the clip for re casting, I prefer to use a coloured pole elastic for this as it is visible and doesn't affect the distance especially when the marker is placed at the bottom of the reel spool for casting. It is up to you where you tie the marker, my preference is to line it up with the spigot of the rod while the line is still in the clip, when you need to re cast all you need to do is have the marker in the same position, clip up and stand in the same position in the swim. One thing to be aware of when using this method is to make sure that you lower your rod just before you hit the clip, this stops the lead springing back and also helps to avoid line damage. As with most things this is something that becomes easier with practice.
I hope this is of help.
Paul Rogers asked:
I am having real difficulty in casting accurately. I keep ending up in the trees and bushes and wondered how i can stop this. I need to get tight to the snags. Can you give me any tips?
Andy Green answered:
Before I start to answer your question I must say that casting tight to snags should only be done if it is possible to land a fish safely! Many snags have hidden underwater branches etc and although it appears as if the area is clear it is important to be 100% sure as a 'Fish at all cost 'attitude is not acceptable.
The problems you have with regards to accurate casting are the same experienced by many anglers so don't despair. The method that I have found to work best for placing baits close to islands and snags as well as open water spots is to use the line clip on the reel spool. You need to start by casting towards the feature that you want to fish to,make sure that you cast short to start with and then let some line off and clip up. Make sure that you are standing in the same spot and cast again and see how short you land, gradually increase the amount of line you pay out and you will then find that you can place baits accurately every time, it is best to be patient and take your time as it is better to have a few extra casts and stay out of the trees/snags. Once you have clipped up to the right distance it is time to mark the line so that you can place it in the clip for re casting, I prefer to use a coloured pole elastic for this as it is visible and doesn't affect the distance especially when the marker is placed at the bottom of the reel spool for casting. It is up to you where you tie the marker, my preference is to line it up with the spigot of the rod while the line is still in the clip, when you need to re cast all you need to do is have the marker in the same position, clip up and stand in the same position in the swim. One thing to be aware of when using this method is to make sure that you lower your rod just before you hit the clip, this stops the lead springing back and also helps to avoid line damage. As with most things this is something that becomes easier with practice.
I hope this is of help.
25th November 2008
Michael Weedon asked:
I've been using No Name boilies this year for the chub on the river Thame. Up to now I've hardened off the boilies in my airing cupboard to avoid signal crayfish. Am I affecting the attraction of the bait by doing this? Catches have dropped a bit recently.
Matt Brown answered:
There's no easy way around the crayfish issue but hardened hookbaits is certainly worth a go. I think that further air drying your No Name boilies may reduce the attractor signal of the bait slightly but not significantly (although it would depend on how hard your making the baits). I think the value of actually having a hookbait in place is far more of an issue. If you get the chance in clear water through summer, try placing a few of the regular baits and a few of the hardened bolies in front of some chub you can see. You'll find that they'll eat the lot and that bait placement, size and how you introduce it is far more important.
To add attraction to your hookbait, simply add a PVA bag of crumbed boilies to your lead. The crayfish will make short work of that too but the attraction is there while still giving you the benefit of a hard hookbait.
As far as your catches tailing off - this could be a number of things. It might be that the chub are moving to newer areas as winter colour comes into the river and changes the light values or that they need more security as the weed dies off. Quite likely is that simply being caught makes the chub much more wary. A trick here is to place your bait in areas of the swim that are unlikely to have been fished much. If you've been using 15mm baits, switching down to 10mm can really make a difference too.
It is also worth chucking two or three freebies into each swim at the end of each trip to get the fish used to finding bait without a hook in it. Don't use so much that you fill up the fish and ruin the fishing for others. This will work better if you can get to the river two or three times a week. With a quality bait such as No Name, the longer you use it the better the results should be.
I hope that helps!
Michael Weedon asked:
I've been using No Name boilies this year for the chub on the river Thame. Up to now I've hardened off the boilies in my airing cupboard to avoid signal crayfish. Am I affecting the attraction of the bait by doing this? Catches have dropped a bit recently.
Matt Brown answered:
There's no easy way around the crayfish issue but hardened hookbaits is certainly worth a go. I think that further air drying your No Name boilies may reduce the attractor signal of the bait slightly but not significantly (although it would depend on how hard your making the baits). I think the value of actually having a hookbait in place is far more of an issue. If you get the chance in clear water through summer, try placing a few of the regular baits and a few of the hardened bolies in front of some chub you can see. You'll find that they'll eat the lot and that bait placement, size and how you introduce it is far more important.
To add attraction to your hookbait, simply add a PVA bag of crumbed boilies to your lead. The crayfish will make short work of that too but the attraction is there while still giving you the benefit of a hard hookbait.
As far as your catches tailing off - this could be a number of things. It might be that the chub are moving to newer areas as winter colour comes into the river and changes the light values or that they need more security as the weed dies off. Quite likely is that simply being caught makes the chub much more wary. A trick here is to place your bait in areas of the swim that are unlikely to have been fished much. If you've been using 15mm baits, switching down to 10mm can really make a difference too.
It is also worth chucking two or three freebies into each swim at the end of each trip to get the fish used to finding bait without a hook in it. Don't use so much that you fill up the fish and ruin the fishing for others. This will work better if you can get to the river two or three times a week. With a quality bait such as No Name, the longer you use it the better the results should be.
I hope that helps!
