#angling lines

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Birds diving on my carp bait – what can I do?

Question: I am fishing a 3 acre lake which I have caught plenty of fish from with a good stock of doubles and 20’s.  It is shallow with most areas being 3-4ft or less. The bottom is mainly silty with some harder areas in places. There is a large island in the middle of the lake.

On recent sessions I have been having terrible problems with birdlife picking up the bait. It is mainly tufties. This problem even persists during darkness. I never had it quite so bad before, admittedly this is worse in winter time. Do you have any suggestions how to combat this?

Many Thanks, Cliff

Hi Cliff,

I have faced this situation myself on one or two waters. It is always worse in the winter when there is not so much natural food about for the tufties & coots so they are obviously looking for something else to eat. Also in the winter the water tends to be much clearer (unless it’s overstocked) thus making it easier for the tufties to find your bait.

There are a couple of things you can do which may help you:

1. Bait up when you are not fishing and in different parts of the lake. The water you are fishing sounds reasonably small and so by baiting up different area’s the carp will still find plenty of the bait and soon get a taste for it. I have found that the Quest baits are pretty instant anyway.

2. When you are fishing don’t put out any freebies. This time of year I much prefer to fish single hook baits or small stringers / p.v.a stockings. Try small 3 bait stringers, crushed up baits or the fast dissolving Maximum Action Pellets. I will regularly recast with at least 1 rod, every hour or so until I find the carp. By not introducing any freebies the tufties will be less inclined to search for the bait.

3. One dodge you can use here is to dye the baits black thus making them less visible to the tufties. The carp will still find them through their terrific sense of smell.

It can be very frustrating with the birdlife at this time of year but keep at it and the results will come.

Cheers, Pat Gillett Quest Baits

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Accurate Casting – Hitting The Mark, Every Time!

Many anglers turn up at the lake, spend hours meticulously studying the water for signs of fish, settle on a peg and chuck out the marker float. They find a bar or area of gravel and pop the marker up. Now to get the rods and spod out! I still see numerous anglers just casting at the marker and guessing how close the leads or spod are landing. There is however, a much better way of accurately hitting the marker, without also having to walk 100 yards down the bank…

 Once a spot is located I will clip the line into the line clip on the reel and line it up with a far bank marker before reeling in. I place two bank sticks or pegs 12ft apart (a rod length), attaching the lead to one and with the bail arm open (using the clutch causes line twist), pay line out and wrap it around each peg until I hit the clip, counting each turn. If, for example, I counted out 12 and a half turns, there are 4 yards to 12ft so I would be fishing at 50 yards exactly.

Marking this down on a piece of paper for future sessions, I would then reel the marker line in, clipping up the spod to 12 and a half turns. By clipping the spod to this range, I can bait up quickly and accurately when the marker is not in the water later in the session and even ensure I can hit the spot during future sessions without the need for marker work.

  Josh with a superb 41.06 mirror caught using this approach

  I am then able to clip up the fishing rods, but I allow a certain amount of extra line depending on the depth of water I’m fishing. Because of the way the lead enters the water when it hits a line clip, it falls through the water coming back towards the angler (see diagram), so clipping at the same range as the marker would mean it landing just short of the spot and your baited area. Obviously this is not needed with the spod as it lies on top of the water above the spot and doesn’t fall through the water column.

With this in mind, imagine a gravel bar at 50 yards (12.5 turns) which is 15 foot deep. For each 3 foot in depth I add an extra 1 foot to the distance I need to clip the fishing rod up to around the sticks. If this were the case I would add an extra 5 foot to my fishing line, so although my spod will be clipped to 12.5 turns, my actual fishing rods will be clipped to just under 13 turns. To ensure that I am ultra accurate, the angle of the rod when hitting the clip, is also noted down. By holding the rod at vertical when hitting the clip, 90 degrees to the water level, I can gently lower the lead or spod onto the surface of the water. This ensures each rod hits the clip at the same angle and allows the angler to feel for a ‘donk’ on the lead as it hits the bottom, ensuring I am on the desired spot.

Furthermore, this allows me to gently lay the spod or rig onto the surface of the lake, without having a big ‘badoosh!’ each time you cast out.  If I were to hold the rod pointing at the lead as it hit the clip, this would probably be the case and the stretch in the line (100% of my fishing is done with monofilament or fluorocarbon) would have an emphasised ‘bungee’ effect on the lead and spring it back towards me further still, numbing the ‘feel’ of the lead hitting bottom via the rod tip and decreasing accuracy. By feathering the cast to hit the clip as delicately as possible, this allows the lead to have minimal effect on the stretch in the line, making the lead arch in the water column and hopefully land as accurately as possible.

Once I have clipped up, some marking tape or elastic placed by the butt ring when the line is still in the clip allows for each rod to be recast after a capture with ease and not risk putting my hook bait beyond my baited area. By writing the distance, far bank marker and always casting with a 90 degree angle in the rod when hitting the clip, even if I turned up on a Friday night in the dark, I could still hit the same spot every time on the next session.

    Please excuse the terrible paint diagram, but hopefully it aids in describing what I am trying to highlight. The dotted line with a small red dot indicates the marker above a feature. The grey line is the spod, hitting the clip and having no stretch in the braided line landing bang on the marker, depositing bait all over the feature. The black line is the fishing line and as you can see I have put a small orange circle where I aim to hit the clip; just above the water line. This puts minimal stretch into the main line and reduces the arc you can see under the water line. This arc is the reason I add an extra foot for each 3 foot in depth to ensure I land right on top of the bait. As you can see if you were to clip up at the same distance of the spod, you would be landing smack bang next to the float, but due to the arch in the leads descent under water you would be landing well short of the spot. On the surface of the water, you should be landing just behind the marker.

Quite a complicated article I’m afraid, but trust me with practice, this method really is very accurate.

Josh Bennett

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A Run of Big Carp at Grand Orient

Jim Kelly and Paul Cooper travelled out to Grand Orient, a very private 29 acre venue situated mere yards away from the banks of the giant Lac d’Orient. Here’s Jim’s report…

Grand Orient is in an absolutely unique location. Set in the middle of a huge forest that also serves as a nature reserve with no access to the general public; in fact unauthorised people could face a fine of 130 Euros! The nearest road is something like 2 miles away meaning that there is no noise or light pollution.

The lake is in a fenced compound of something like 3 square miles; hence the grounds could be described as extensive.  The satellite picture below shows just a small portion of the forest. The straight lines are forest tracks, not roads.

The lake

Imagine being in an unspoilt forest, Golden Orioles are giving their haunting, fluting calls in the treetops. Pheasants abound, deer roam the woods and there is even the chance of seeing a wild boar. Every now and then you pinch yourself to make sure that you haven’t died and gone to heaven. You are at peace with the world, in an idyllic location. All of a sudden the status quo is broken by the harsh sound of an alarm as a carp accelerates from nought to full speed in an instant. Is this place imaginary? No it is called Grand Orient and it is very real.

The lake is trapezoidal in shape and approximately 20 acres in size, average depth is approximately 8 feet with a firm clay bottom. Fishing is from two banks the other two banks being a causeway and a dam.  The causeway separates the main lake from the stock pond. There are 7 recognised swims each has the choice of bivvying up on either grass or a hard-cored rectangle.

As stated earlier there were a few of things that are going to be improved over the winter. Although the bivvying area is dry, casting and landing fish is done off spits of clay that have been formed by back dragging the lake bottom. These were muddy when we were there so I would suggest taking a pair of wellies in the wetter months. Another problem was access to the East bank as it was very soft after a fair amount of rain and impossible to drive a car round. However, the owner was more than happy to take tackle etc. around using a trailer attached to his Land Rover. The West bank also needed a little bit of maintenance. It is our understanding that these minor issues are on Fabrice’s  (the owner) to do list.  However, none of the above prevented us from fishing or enjoying this unique location.

The Fishing

When Paul and I arrived at the lake we had a really good look round. As the weather was cold we both decided to fish the deeper water. Paul set up casting along the dam in 11 feet of water and I set up to his left in 9 feet of water. Paul as usual was off to a flyer and by Wednesday had landed something like 13 carp to 39lb 4oz. The carp ranged in size from doubles through twenties to thirties. I on the other hand had only landed one fish, a double. I was reluctant to move as we had a kitchen area set up including a fridge to keep the beer cold. After all we had come together and it appeared antisocial to split up.

During my days watching the water I had noticed a large carp showing in the same place several times in an area just off the causeway. I decided to bite the bullet and move. I moved one swim along and cast 120yards to the area the fish had been showing. I had a fish straight away, a low twenty but very welcome. I didn’t fish Wednesday night as the owner decided to “force” a few drinks upon us and it would have been rude to refuse. I don’t fish if I think I can’t handle the fish properly.

Come Thursday and I spombed a few Kg of boilies into the area and cast out. What a day it turned out to be… I had 10 carp including four 40’s and three 30’s. After every fish I spombed out another couple of Kg of Quality baits boilies. By 8 o’clock I was absolutely knacker and reeled in for the night. The next day I was off to another flyer including a lump of 52lb 10oz. I also lost a much bigger fish.

Paul continued to catch steadily, but alas he didn’t appear to be on the same stamp of fish that I was on. Paul has several theories why this was the case, but who really knows? In total we finished with 42 carp. From one visit it is impossible to state the stocking level or the maximum size of the fish. All we can say is there appears to be a lot of carp and they grow really big.

The Facilities

On site is a hunting lodge situated about 50 yards from peg 1. Outside of the lodge is a covered area with table and chairs brilliant for those lazy summer evenings. Inside is a toilet, shower, a well-appointed kitchen and a dining area with a real fire. An absolute god send if the weather turns inclement.

Due to the isolated nature of the lake there is no mains electricity or drinking water. The toilet and gas shower are supplied via a water tank that is gravity fed. The facility has electric lights powered by a solar panel. There is no provision for charging bait boats or phones. Whilst we were there we boiled lake water for washing up and bought 5 litre bottles of drinking water from the supermarket.

For more information on Grand Orient follow the link – French Carp Fishing. You can also watch the venue video filmed with Paul and Jim below…

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Beware of TIMS!

Shaun Harrison explains his gripe with the TIMS (Thoughtless Inconsiderate Mallet Society) and offers some advice…

This year I decided to spend a little more time on a local venue before the otters move in and wipe the fish out. Unfortunately the so called do-gooders are still releasing otters into an environment struggling to cater for their savage destruction. But, this is another issue and not one for now.

I guess over the 37 year period I have fished for carp, I have in the latter years been rather spoilt by the venues I have been able to fish and indeed the incredible high standard of the anglers on most of these venues. This never really hit home to me as it was the norm and thus I simply got on with my angling the same as others and never really had anything to worry about. It mattered little if a decent angler slotted in next door as they were generally very discreet in their approach so would rarely disturb my baited areas or traps.

What a shock to the system it has been moving back to a normal ticket venue rather than the hand picked syndicate waters I have become used to.

I have kept my ticket for this local venue for several years using it mainly for a little winter action when I am wanting to bend the rods, but like I say with more otters being released around us I felt it time to have a bit of a go during the summer months.

Like all waters I fish, I watch what others are doing and then try and be different. It can be difficult on some waters coming up with a different scenario for the fish to stumble across other than being clever with bait. On here however it has been obvious over the years that most turn up, cast to their comfort zones then pile the bait in.

I have seen very few over the years margin fish this venue yet it is as perfect a margin water features wise as you could imagine with a sharp shelf dropping off quite fast in most swims and a lovely Canadian pond weed screen keeping the fish and the angler out of view of each other.

My last 3 sessions on there have seen me catch fish out of the edge but the last two sessions I have had my sport cut short after having a few fish by what I refer to as TIMS (Thoughtless Inconsiderate Mallet Society) and when challenged it is pretty obvious they are totally oblivious to the fact that they are ruining their own angling as well as that of others.

Last week-end I had caught a few then a TIM man turned up and proceeded to send shock waves through the bank thus through the water, I had felt the vibrations through the bank rather than heard them as it was so windy, so the fish armed with their ultra sensitive lateral line certainly did and after a succession of line bites from the fish still mooching about on my bait this totally ceased.

Exactly the same thing had happened on my previous session, I had caught and still had fish on the bait then a TIM man turned up and smacked his bivvy pegs in with a mallet. The fish naturally melted away.

The ridiculous thing about this is that it is one of the most basic things we were taught when we started angling, to be quiet and discreet. To be fair after much experimenting in the past the carp don’t seem to mind noise it is vibration that freaks them out and really spooks them. Some fish are more sensitive to this than others but one spooked fish bolting takes the less sensitive fish with them. It is a natural shoal fish defence reaction.

We are angling for wild creatures, treat them the same as you would if you were wanting to get up close to view wild birds.

This blog is a gripe but also a Blog to help.

I guess many just do not realise how sensitive the lateral line on a fish is to vibration. We all know not to tap on the glass of a fish tank, it distresses the fish, so why when trying to track down and catch a fish that can easily swim so far away from you would you want to give it the head start by letting them know you are there after them by beating pegs in with a mallet?

The real sad thing about this little bit of advice is that there is not one swim on this pit where it is not possible to push or screw bivvy pegs in!

Now there is another little tip before I sign off. Bivvy pegs are made with a screw thread as they are often easier to screw into hard ground than they are being pushed into the ground yet rarely do I see anyone taking advantage of the thread provided.

Hey ho!

Best fishes Shaun Harrison.

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New Lake Record Catfish at Molyneux

It seemed to be the night of the big cats last night (August 4th) with two being caught almost simultaneously. Barry in Barn landing a 56lb catfish around 11.30-12pm, whilst at the same time Paul in Stones was battling his own demon in the shape of another monstrous cat…

This one led him a merry dance around the back of the island for quite some time before he managed to tame and bring it to the net, where he found that the battle was not quite won. It was now a case of fitting a quart into a pint pot (one for you oldies out there). Eventually it was bundled into the waiting net, and assistance was called upon to help weigh and photograph the beast… It weighed in at a new lake record weight for Catfish at 75lb’s.

Massive congratulations Paul… Cracking fish!!

For more information on Molyneux follow the link - French Carp Lakes near Calais

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What Lead Should I Use? Pt 3 – Distance Leads

So when do I need to use distanced leads? It’s self explanatory really, to cast towards my maximum casting capability which for me is anything over casts of 90 yards. I am not the best long distance caster, so I do need some assistance with the correct shaped leads for the job… 

For this work I use the tournament type leads, generally around three to three and a half ounce versions.  I find that I can cast these easily up to around 110 yards which for me is usually adequate. I know that a lot of anglers would pooh pooh this distance, but I catch fish and that is all that matters to me. I can present a bed of bait at this distance with a medium sized spomb, and also make an accurate cast as long as the weather does not become too inclement. If I am fishing slightly shorter than this I will use a throwing stick with 18 mil boilies and give a bigger spread of bait.

An example of my using these type of leads was on a recent trip to Nautica where I was casting around 100 yards into open water. There were no features to cast too so it was a case of making my own, by creating a tight feeding area. The lake bed was firm with a fine covering of silt which was perfect for using this type of lead. It was important to get my casts as accurate as possible and I find that I can hit the spot every time with the distance leads. I kept the same area fed all week and took 29 carp from this spot with accurate baiting and fishing.

Brocard Small was another lake where I put this type of lead through its paces, with a 103 yard cast onto medium soft silt, not the perfect lead but I needed to cast around 15 yards off the far margins. No doubt the lead and boilie were buried in the silt after the cast, but 18 carp found the boilie so once again a good result. I know that some anglers would concern themselves if they thought their bait was submerged under the silt, but having the hook bait under the silt does not bother me too much, as long as I have some free offerings in the near vicinity, the carp will find a slightly buried bait.

This also helped to keep my hook bait out of sight of the crayfish that at the time were very active. Sometimes due to the nature of the lake and the distance that I want to fish, I have to sacrifice the perfect set up, for second best. I just get on with it and it usually works out OK.

Paul Cooper

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What Lead Should I Use? Pt 2 – When to use small leads

There are certain situations were we have to change our tactics to suit a specific angling needs. Here I will out line what leads I use and how I go about getting the best results if I find a shoal of feeding carp in a shallow marginal bay, specifically when to use small leads of less than one ounce. You would be surprised how often this happens on French lakes, even some of the larger lakes.

In April 2012 I was on a field testing trip for Angling Lines at Blue Lake in Northern France. It was a few days into the session when I came across a large shoal of fish gathering in one corner of the lake. I fired out single boilies with my catapult into the shoal to gather what reaction I would get. I got a perfect reaction with most of the shoal  not moving or spooking and the odd fish dropping down onto my boilies.

Within the next half an hour I was ready for my first cast into the corner. I used half ounce pear shaped leads and cast 3 rods in or around the out skirts of the carp shoal. More individual boilies were fired out and the carp remained calm and appeared to be dropping down for the occasional feed. I had an almost immediate reaction with my first run coming after about 10 minutes. I quickly drew the carp away from the shoal and played it in out in open water and then into the net. Out went more individual boilies spread among the shoal,  again with a small lead and hook bait dropped only 40 yards out.

Over the next 24 hours I accounted for 17 carp using this tactic before the shoal moved on. Light leads was the answer, if I had used anything else I would have spooked them from the start and lost the carp.

On another occasion in October of 2011 I was on Boux. I was about 4 days into a session when a shoal of feeding fish moved into a bay to my right. My first reaction again was to fire out individual boilies into and around the shoaled fish to see their reaction. Once satisfied that the carp were comfortable with the odd splash off a boilie here and there, out went an 1/2 ounce lead with a small PVA bags.

The carp then began to feed heavily as my very digestible Quality Baits HG42 was getting devoured quickly. I began to feed the carp quite heavily and the runs began. Over a 48 hour period  this method accounted for over 20 carp to 51lb. I used around 15 kilo of 18mil HG42, which were fired out either with a throwing stick or catapult, spread over an area the size of a tennis court. Again if I had used bigger leads I would have spooked them and lost the shoal. Your hooks have to be ultra sharp using this method, as you are not relying on the lead to set the hook home. The takes are usually violent with screaming runs.

This method does not work all the time but I always have a selection of light leads at hand just in case the situation arises. Paul Cooper

Below are a couple of videos that were made at Blue lake and Boux;

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50lb+ Carp caught at Nautica

This 50lb+ carp fell to the angler at swim 4 on Nautica after 3 hours of fishing, here’s a quick video shortly before she was returned to the lake…

Nautica is an unspoilt, mature French lake of approximately 17 acres. With extensive reed beds and surrounding woodland it has that essential ingredient – character. One hundred hard fighting carp of up to 60lbs, have been stocked. The owner, Guillaume Rousselet, is a well-known big fish angler with an impressive capture record. His mission is well on the way to create a big fish water aimed at the more experienced angler.

Want more info on Nautica? Follow the link - French Carp Fishing