| BIG RIK | |
Rik started fishing at the age of four on his local tiny tidal river, catching eels and small wild trout on worm. Not having had any angling family members, all his early fishing was solitary and this seems to have carried through to the present. He currently lives in the depths of Hampshire, and so is within easy reach of some excellent venues. He has in the past, and still does, fish for most species, although his greatest love is for carp fishing, which is how the majority of his time is spent. He now finds himself more thrilled with overcoming the intricacies and problems associated with catching carp, rather than the actual weight of the fish he catches and the so-called glory that goes with it. |
When I say old baits, I don’t mean par-boiled potatoes and bread crust, ie, old fashioned baits, but baits that appear ‘old’ to the carp or, more importantly, not fresh. By this I mean not a freshly cast in bait, but one that appears as if it’s been sat on the lake bed for a fair while and thus may be determined as being ‘safe’ by the fish. Obviously we can cast in and not move our rigs for three days, but that seems pretty senseless and goes against the grain for most of us, either for a lack of confidence in leaving the rig in situ for such a length of time, or longer, is the case for most of us, as we don’t have three days to waste at the lakeside. So what’s the advantage in having a bait that looks a few days old? In waters that don’t see much pressure or where the stocking levels are elevated so that the fish have to actively compete for all food, then there wont be much of an advantage, but on waters that see endless angler pressure, or where the numbers of anglers outweigh the number of carp, then thinking about your baiting situation can pay big dividends. If everyone who is fishing refreshes their hookbaits and ‘pults or spods out another fresh helping of food, then they are just highlighting the fact that they have set a new trap.
So how about we cast out a new hookbait and give some more freebies, in case they’ve been eaten, but we make them look as if they’ve been in the water for a few days and so don’t shout ‘danger’ to the fish? So how can we achieve this with our baits? Washed out boilies have been around for a while and are the simplest to create Throw some boilies in water and leave them for 3 or 4 days. Easy. OK, there are a few ‘rules’ that may be good to follow. Don’t use tap water, it contains too much fluoride, chlorine and other chemicals that may taint the bait.
Rain water is good, lake water is better. Don’t break up or crumb your baits before soaking them, or else they’ll just turn to mush. Soak them first and then if you apply slight thumb pressure afterwards, they will split easily. Pellets Bigger pellets, 14mm and 21mm, can be given the washed out look, but it only takes about 24 hrs to create and they’re left with a sticky mush on the outside. Pellets need to treated carefully after soaking, as they are quite delicate and can disintegrate when handled less than gently. Feeding by hand or spod is OK, but more than a gentle ‘pult will see more on your head than in the lake. Particles Once your particles are cooked, then you can drain off the oily or flavoured water (and keep it for a different method) and replace it with lake water. You are then left with particles on the bottom that don’t have that just spodded smell about them. A kilo of particles, a few handfuls of pellets and a few dozen boilies that have all been given the treatment and you’ll have a baited patch that appears a few days old and may well give a safe to eat to signal to Mr Carp. It doesn’t work on all waters, as the glugged pop-up over a bag of pellets is still the cherry on the cake that a lot of carp will eat, but educated and pressured carp will only be tripped up so many times on the same method. |
