Gaz Fareham
Rig Slot
Spring Tactics
 Finally, after what seems like an absolute age spring is almost in the air and the temperatures are managing to stay above 5º for more than a day or so! It’s been a savage old winter and the fishing has reflected that, most waters I know of have fished terribly and the park lake I spent my time on which is generally a good winter water barely produced a bite a month. After the park had shut on the 15th I did a bit back at Redesmere before the end, the last bite was early November and it closed on March 31st without doing another! It really has been a grueller but finally the carp are waking up and getting on the move making the most of the warm April sun.
Tactics at this time of year are crucial to getting a bite and even though the carp are getting about, because the temperatures can still be a bit hit and miss, I’ve always found you still have to be a bit careful with bait application. Now is the time when I will be starting to trickle a bit of bait into any of the waters I am looking at spending some time on during the coming spring. Not always much but a few kilos here and there can work a treat. Because it’s been such a cold one I’ve spent much of the winter fishing with a lot of singles or only over a small amount of bait so it is nice to be back on the boilies.
Just a Fleck
I expect the carp on almost every water in the country will have had fluoro pop-ups chucked at them all winter. They are no longer a ‘scratching time’ tactic and seem to be employed almost all year around now. Because this seems to be increasingly the case I’ve been finding that the smaller the bit of colour the better. I think it’s fair to say that a lot of anglers are using 14mm pop-ups, that’s a generalisation but smaller 8-12mm baits are often harder to get hold of, more of a pain to roll and also more difficult to fish effectively. There is no doubt that the bright ones are still incredibly effective but I have been getting far more bites on tiny pop-ups or balanced set-ups incorporating just a tiny amount of colour in combination with a food bait. As the carp are just waking up a small fleck of really bright colour seems to be just enough to spark a bit of interest in the hookbait without being too blatant.
The Balancing Act
I have spoke about buoyant bottom baits before, but when it comes to using a bait on the deck I have no doubt that a bait incorporating a small amount of buoyancy is far more effective that a bait straight from the bag. Whether you are fishing over hemp, pellet, particle or even just boilie a balanced set-up will catch you more fish because the mechanics are just so much better. By balanced, I’m not meaning ‘critically balanced’ so it sinks ever so slowly, but rather a bait that has had just enough of the ‘weight’ taken out of it to go a good few inches back into the mouth when taken, a decent length hooklink helps dramatically with this. The element of buoyancy must be taking the carp by surprise and my hook holds have been superb, proving the method is working as intended. I can honestly count on one hand the number of carp I’ve pulled out of in the last 12 months.
There are a number of ways to incorporate buoyancy into a bait, I have been using cork dust in my foodbait hookers for a while now which has worked brilliantly but one of the most simple ways is to fish a ‘snowman’ type arrangement. The bonus with using this type of combination is that it can be tailored to any rig, bait and buoyancy combination you like. My big 25/16mm hookbaits worked a treat at the park in the coloured water over a bed of 18 and 20 mil baits but on the busy venues or in gin clear conditions I’m using a little 10mm boilie and a grain of corn – same principle, different scale. The fleck of colour undoubtedly makes a difference and even big old wary fish seem susceptible to falling for that little bit of bright colour, think how many big ‘uns have fallen to a grain or two of corn of maize over the years?
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