Bait

[john conway]

Because of the foot and mouth and the river close season I decided to joined a local (30 miles away is local for me) Angling Association who have several small still waters and one reservoir. All contain the usual roach, bream and carp from 3lb to 20lb plus. These waters are fished very hard and you have the choice of fishing light for the little ones or going for the carp. The carp anglers are the ones who usually catch the bream that run 4lb to 5lb. I’m not into the local politics between the match angler and the carp angler, and they seem quite rife in this club, I would just like to be able to catch the better size fish. I fully intended to eventually fish for carp after a year of targeting the big bream in my local river, so I’ve now decided that my second target fish is going to be carp. I don’t want to be disrespectful but apart from the baits, the tactics for locating the fish, night fishing and plenty of patience are very similar to what is required to catch large bream. While I was down at the NEC I went to a few of the carp talk-ins and made one or two notes on how to fish a water you’ve never fished before and I wrote down the names of a few baits, however, I’ve misplaced my notes on what the panel thought were the best baits. So my question is; if you intended to visited a hard fished club water for the first time what would be your top three or four baits.
As an aside, in past articles on these forums we’ve talked about talking to the younger anglers, well it was a couple of very young carp anglers who were encouraging me to have a go at the carp, and later in the afternoon one of them landed a beautiful 12lb mirror. One or two of the older chaps weren’t too impressed but the young lads enthusiasm I found was very catching.

 

[sam oddy]

If the politics between match v others is rife, your first port of call should be to find out what baits are banned!

Things like nuts and boilies may well be a no go from the start.

Where bans are in force my personal favourites are meat (endless permutations for flavouring, frying, plain etc.) and corn.Pellets, again coarse and trout, generally work well with CSL or hemp pellets as feed.

Good luck.

 

[Andy Thatcher]

Depends un the bans really. But let's be greedy & go for 2 lists !
Boilies banned - Corn, Lobs, strawberry flavoured meat, bread.

No Bans - Richworth Tutti Frutti 10ml boilies, trout pellets, Activ 8 paste, still have corn !

Cheers
Andy

 

[Tony Ryan]

i find that the ban on fishing is given a chance to put something back to the country side ,we should keep off the water that is on land that has sings saying keep off,we as sportsmen should under stand keep our sport open and not make enemies of the farmers.

 

[GrahamM]

On farmland where there is an obvious risk of spreading the disease you're right, but we also have a duty to our own sport, including the tackle industry, and especially the smaller tackle dealers, and go fishing wherever it is safe.

The sport needs tackle dealers and fishery owners alike, and unlike farmers they don't get any compensation if they lose their livelihoods.

 

[Andy Thatcher]

I like that Graham. "Sorry my love I have to go fishing for the good of the country".

On a more serious note I know that the trade is being hit by F&M. The fishing clubs are also being hit hard as well so please don't wait to buy your tickets. The money is usually used to benefit us all.