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An individual, of no great importance, who is unable to see the natural world as a place for competition. I catch fish, watch birds, derive immense pleasure from simply looking at butterflies, moths, bumble-bees, etc - without the need for rules! I am Dylan and this is my blog - if my opinions offend? Don't bother logging on again - simple!

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Sunday, 16 April 2017

I don't get it

Out yesterday evening for another session after a decent carp. Benno had said, in a phone conversation, "you're just as well blanking after big fish!" How right can any man be? It wasn't, however, without incident; my tackle and tactics remain unchanged despite my dry net. At this time of year it's unrealistic to expect huge catches or masses of signs of carp activity. Nope - it's all about watercraft and educated hunches. When I arrived, I spent over 90 minutes walking a two mile stretch trying to locate some fish. One or two "might have beens?" but nothing positive. There were three swims to which I was drawn, all containing open water adjacent to overhanging snags and reed beds. Classic carp swims on these type of venues and less than six rod lengths from the bank - hence the requirement for watercraft and a subtle approach.


I'd made my choice and spent a while watching the reeds before catapulting out a dozen, or so, TG Active (or were they?) boilies and getting both my rods cast in to position. My choice of rig for these early season efforts is heavily influenced by the Korda Masterclass 4 material. I have no desire to use chod or helicopter rigs, but am sold on the "spinning rig" presentation. I've adapted the rig to suit my own situation and have spent some time tank testing the resultant tweaks.

This will take a bit of explaining.
Hook link = Korda N-Trap semi-stiff to a Korda QC Ring Swivel (size 8) , a
Nash Fang Twister (size 7) hook with a line aligner shrink tube cover.
Bait is a 14 mm Camo pop-up plus an IB maize plastic pop-up on
a size 20 micro swivel stopped by a Nash Hook Bead
I'm really fortunate that Alan Turner (aka Camo - please click the link) has his tackle emporium in Ramsgate and stocks everything that any wannabe carp angler could wish for. He also has his own bait range (there's a clue there?) which is far more reasonably priced than the mainstream offerings. I can only offer the advice - "Don't knock it until you've tried it!"
So there I am as darkness approaches, bite-less. Just as I'm preparing to leave my right-hander was away with a screaming take. I picked up the rod and bent into what felt like a small tench. Almost immediately the left-hander was away. Had the fish picked up the other line? It was carnage and I eventually lost the initial fish in a nearside snag. Funnily enough I wasn't unduly troubled - I knew I hadn't been done by a carp. I reeled in the left hand rod to find myself entangled with another carp rig. It was a horrendous contraption, the 4 oz fixed lead still attached! The hook was better suited to shark fishing and the hook link could have been made of fuse wire it was so stiff! There was a piece of anti-tangle tubing and about 3 m of mainline still on the swivel. Had the guy "cracked off" making an under arm swing into the venue? It was agricultural at best. I took it down to Camo's mid morning only to have a carp angler (a decent enough guy) offer support for the offending rig. It takes all sorts and I happily acknowledge that I'm no carp angler. It's a weird world and there are times when I just don't get it!

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2 comments:

  1. Bureboyblog17 April 2017 at 09:25

    Makes you think about the early hairs off the eye of the hook with no aligners. Well, that's what we used and it worked then. I just can't seem to tie tiny enough loops for knotless type knots and haven't even learnt how to tie a grinner so don't use braid anyway unles it comes ready rolled.. perhaps I ought to make more of an effort.

    If the numpty used a bag or a bit of dissolving foam he/she wouldn't really need anti tangle tube? And 4oz so close in? beats me.

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    1. Dylan Wrathall17 April 2017 at 10:30

      I started to use braided hook links in the early 80's - the material was then called "Dacron" and was un-coated. The boily of choice consisted of semolina and soya flour, coloured with custard powder and flavoured with some of the very early Geoff Kemp stuff - chocolate, cream and maple I seem to recall. The hair originally came off the bend of the hook and was tied separately, although we quickly got onto the hair from the eye once we'd seen the original Ritchworth videos. A big lead weighed 2 oz and our rods were 12 footers with test curves around 2.5 lbs - mostly in the tip section. We caught loads of carp using these very simple tactics - it seems to me that today's carp anglers are more easily caught than the fish they seek. One clever bit of advertising and they're like sheep to the slaughter. A 4 oz lead - the only reason the cast is six rod lengths is because I need an angle to get my bait into a gap - what type of rod was he using to chuck such an item?
      I should have got a few photos of the rig, but instead cut it up and threw it in the bin - Dyl

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