One peice of none fishing tackle I wouldn’t be without is the amazing Mosquito Repeller. I have had a couple of these for a few years now and must say they reallyare excellent and only cost a few pounds off ebay. I used to suffer very badly by mosquitos but no more,
I’ve used these on very bad mosquito infested places in France such as La Horre and Salagou and they honestly work. Just 2 x AA batterys and they last weeks simply letting out a very high frequency tone which you can hardly hear. I find that one is enough for the places I have fished in England but I do use two in France and nothing comes in the bivvy. I also think they keep flys away. Very good product I wouldn’t be without.

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I have been asked many times how to go about making cork ball pop ups and fortunately the Quest range of readymade pastes make doing this remarkably easy. Simply take your chosen paste out of the tub – my preference is for Rahja Spice – and add some ‘liquid’ to this to make it damp. I prefer to add a bit of egg white and some bait glug or boilie dip at this stage. If you want to alter the colour then simply add bait or food dye at this moulding stage. Describing the right consistency of paste is difficult in words; I’ve messed about making various paste baits for over thirty years so I know what I’m after. But this initial phase needs to be very moist because the next key ingredient is egg white powder, also known as egg albumen. Most bait companies can supply this but I get most of what I need from Sainsbury’s or Tesco’s: it’s sold as Dr Oetker’s egg white powder as a baking ingredient and comes in convenient boxes of six individual sachets.

Anyway, back to the paste. The egg white powder needs to be thoroughly moulded into the damp paste until the consistency is just firm and dry to the touch. If it’s still sticking to the palms of your hands then it’s too damp and needs more egg white powder. Clean and dry your hands, add more egg white powder and carry on kneading until the perfect consistency is achieved. Leave this to stand for an hour or two in the fridge, just to let all the ingredients bind properly. If I were starting from a dry boilie base mix I’d add the base mix and egg white powder to any liquids I’m using and then use egg whites only. Adding egg yolks at any stage makes the final pop ups take on water and go soft too quickly.

Once you have the paste ready then it’s simply a matter of getting the cork balls rolled by hand. As a general guide I’m generally aiming for 15mm hook baits or slightly bigger, to be honest it doesn’t really matter. I will have a 15mm shelf life boilie as a guide while I’m rolling so I know roughly how big to make them. For a snowman pop up I prefer a 10mm cork ball centre. For a single buoyant pop up I’ll use 12mm cork balls and mould the paste round this. You can buy the cork balls in tackle shops but shop around on line – Ebay for example – and you will get them much cheaper. Now take the required amount of paste and mould it around the cork ball with your finger tips. Then move it to the centre of your palms and roll it to a round shape – use both palms in a circular motion. If it’s too big or too small at this stage then just take some paste off or add some more and roll again.

Now boil the pop ups just as you would if you were making your own boilies. About 90 seconds should do. At this stage they may swell up and seem bigger than you wanted. Don’t worry. I then leave them to dry out on a rack in a warm dry place for at least a week. I want them marble dry, totally rock hard. As they dry out they will shrink. The final stage is to put them in a bait pot and add a little boilie dip or Quest Baits glug so that the baits are just coated. I prefer the glug as I’m going to repeat this process three times. After a few days the shiny glugged pop ups will gradually soak up the glug and become dry again. When this happens I add a tiny bit more glug to the pot and repeat the whole process. The finished pop ups will last indefinitely. To use them on a rig either pierce them as usual onto a hair with a stop or tie them on with bait floss.

This might sound like a lot of effort when written down but actually the whole process is very simple. If you have ever wondered how to make your own cork ball pop ups then this is a method that has worked for me. Believe me this could make a huge difference to your results.

Happy fishing.

Elie Godsi

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Hello,  I would just like your thoughts on size of hooks for different sizes of baits, now I’ve always used a size 8 for 16mm baits, size 4 for 20mm baits , whats your thoughts ?

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My ‘river’ rucksack had just about seen it’s final days so I decided to buy a new one for the start of the river season.

Looking through loads of different rucksacks the one I decided on was the Gardner Barbel / Specialist Rucksack.

This has proved to be a cracking piece of kit. It isn’t to big, and because of the way it sits on your back you hardly know you are wearing it even on fairly long walks.

The bag has a fairly large main compartment which will take my flask and a water bottle along with a sandwich box, camera and bulb release in a hard case, camera tripod, over trousers and 2 spare spools of line.

There is an insulated top compartment which is a nice touch for keeping freezer baits etc fresh.

There are two side pockets which comfortably take my Avon scales and a weigh sling.

There is also a large front pocket which again is a really nice touch has it comes complete with a mini tackle box which sits inside a mesh inner pocket. I also put another bits box and my polaroids in this front pocket.

Because of the way the bag is constructed it always stays upright and doesn’t collapse in on itself, meaning that you can have all of your tackle to hand in seconds. I always try and make things as easy as possible and this rucksack certainly helps.

I would say that looking at the build quality it will last a good while, as the material is nice and thick and the zips are heavy duty all the way through.

My only slight gripe is that it would be better if you could remove the top compartment (zip it off) altogether has it is quite large, being designed to hold up to 5Kg of freezer baits. This would just make the bag even smaller to carry.

So if you are after a new rucksack, for your river fishing have a look at this one. For about £40 I think it will be hard to beat.

Cheers,
Pat Gillett

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I unwrapped my eBay prize and was impressed until I tied on a hook with my usual five turn grinner. My tests are definitely not scientific but I estimate the knot broke at around half it stated breaking strain. I was gutted, fluorocarbon is not cheap and I’d just bought four spools of it, so I went through my usual armoury of knots but only slightly improving the lines performance.

Then I noticed in very small print on the box that the manufacturer recommended the double clinch knot. I’d never heard of it, and hadn’t got a clue how to tie it. So it’s off to the internet and very soon I’m tying a knot that looks very similar to the first fishing knot I was taught, the blood knot. The only difference was the line is passed twice through the eye of the hook or swivel and the tag end of the line is passed through the two loops formed trapping it between the hook and the turns of line.

I found it difficult to believe that this knot could make a difference, but the change was astonishing. I found it difficult to snap the 17lb line and would have continued but was in danger of cutting my fingers off or pulling the door knob off. I told you it wasn’t scientific.

We are all constantly trying to get that edge, improve our performance. I’m a sucker and I’m constantly experimenting with new products, tackle manufacturers love people like me. What I will always remember in future that new materials require new techniques, don’t be complacent and just tie your same old knots, it could loose you a real lump. What’s the point in having a new hi tech line that is invisible and sinks like a stone if it won’t land a minnow? Every time you tie a knot you weaken your line, do your research and make sure it’s the right knot.

Ron Key

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This was the first cloud I had seen for a couple of weeks and I had almost forgotten what the wind felt like. The usual thought went through my head…“Wish I was fishing now and I bet it isn’t like this in a couple of days when I can go”.

I carried on tapping away at the keyboard trying to concentrate on what I was doing but with that irritating side thought stabbing away in my head. You must have all experienced it – semi daydreaming whilst trying to focus.

I stopped typing and thought to myself what’s stopping me doing the night? I used to do loads of overnighters between work, but guess I have simply got out of the habit of doing so. In fact I had only done one other one this year and that was at the start of this prolonged hot period we have gone through. I had walked in my front door from work and the heat had hit me.

“I’m not sleeping in there tonight”. I mumbled to myself and promptly chucked some gear in the motor and headed off to find a nice lake to sleep beside.

Anyway, back to yesterday. Lunchtime I had no thought at all about going fishing. Then the wind blew my paperwork, I noticed the cloud and suddenly I’m in fishing mode.

I left work at the usual time, chucked the tackle in the motor and before I knew it I was pulting Surf ‘N’ Turf boilies out to an area being hit by the wind.

Here I am back in the office (on time as well) with both a common and a mirror added to my years tally.

Bonus fish from simply taking note of the weather conditions. I can’t drop everything for a session when conditions look good but I can squeeze a quick overnighter. I can see myself getting back into routine doing a few more of these quick overnighters. What better way to start a working day than with a carp in the net? I’m sure I drove the 30 odd miles to work with a contented grin on my face.

Just a little bit of effort can result in a lot of self satisfaction and reward.

Best fishes

Shaun Harrison

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For years Dave has carefully monitored the moon phases and atmospheric pressures in relation to carp captures and has indeed written at length on the subject in Carpworld.

I have all good intentions of doing similar but find myself sidetracked with excess work etc and end up not recording as much as I would perhaps like to do. I have mixed feelings on understanding too much about our prey as like most others I fall into the category of angling when I can rather than when the conditions are spot on.

Knowing the conditions are totally hopeless for catching carp has never really bothered me that much as I feel these are the times when the larger fish can and do occasionally slip up.

I find it easier in my mind to run with simple rules concerning weather/atmospheric and moon phase conditions. I don’t really want to clutter myself with knowing that a particular time slot on a particular day so long as the weather doesn’t mess things will be the time for a bite. If I am on a 24 hour session I like to keep it broader in the hope of several chances.

This is why I really like Dave’s comment of ‘big moon big common’. It is vague enough to fit a day either side of a big full moon and you know what it seems to be a very good gauge. Why this one hasn’t struck me before I don’t know but since Dave planted the seed in my head I have been monitoring this and it is proving to be a very accurate statement with big commons coming from several waters I am in contact with around the full moon period.

Saturday 26^th June was another ‘full moon day’. I was at the British Carp Study Group A.G.M. and the telephone went. It was John Patterson, he had just landed a 48lb common! The list of ‘Big Moon Commons’ continues!

Best fishes

Shaun

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37.08

Hi all,

just a quick report after coming back from France where I fished for a week. It was a really tough week with really cold temperatures and hardly any sun! I had to resort to wearing four layers most days as the North Easterly wind that’s been around for ages was really nasty.

I was fishing into thick tall weed in 12′ of water and it was impossible to find the clear spots without full sun, making life really hard. The sun came out briefly Monday afternoon, I found a gorgeous tiny gravely spot and had this lovely 37+ common from it.

I then spent two days trying to find that spot again with a prodding stick. I had two takes off it and had this 32 common – fought like a demon – just look at the paddle on it. Lost the other one and managed a 28 from open water. There were some really big fish caught that week on the lake but I wasn’t lucky to get in amongst them.

Home made rhaja spice pop ups did the job. With a lot of time on my hands I was playing around with a rig I’ve been developing for a while now. I tied a few up on the bank for use on a weedy water when I got back. I really liked the look of what I’d come up with and was itching to try it when I got back. Next time I’ll let you know how I got on, suffice to say my season just got better and better.

Tight Lines,  Elie Godsi

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Silk weed – love it!

I must admit it does make me smile when I see anglers trying to find clear areas to present their baits when confronted with a swim full of silk weed.

Silkweed harbours a lot of natural food particularly shrimps which the carp love which in turn means they will regularly be visiting these food rich areas as a matter of course. The natural world is baiting up for you constantly if you take time to find the natural food harbours.

Rather than try and find clear areas to present your baits you would do yourself a far bigger favour to find the ‘hotspot’ areas of weed containing the most food.

Simply cast out with a heavy bottom bait on leave it a few seconds to settle then wind in. The bait will help get the hook down a little further into the weed so it becomes a mini grapple hook for gathering samples. Examine what you have wound in and see what sort of creepy crawlies there are. If there is nothing then try another area until you encounter life.

You can learn so much by just simply winding in. Even in weed free waters I always take time to inspect any bits on the rig and always smell the lead. This tells you so much and is again something I rarely see other anglers doing. You can waste a lot of time fishing in ‘bad silt’ when a quick smell of the swivel on your lead would have told you it wasn’t a good area.

Now I’m really struggling with the written word to explain different smells so the best I can do is that areas to avoid will smell a little like rotten egg and the areas to definitely give a go will smell more like soil in the garden.

I went off on a small tangent there but smelling the weed will also give a lot away. Sometimes the weed smells nice and fresh whilst other times it can be past its best so to speak. Similarly the colour varies a fair bit and I’m always happier fishing on brighter coloured silk weed than I am on dark weed which sometimes comes back almost black.

Standard bottom bait still very visible on silkweed

Anyway back to the presenting of baits in silkweed. There are two simple rules I apply. The first is to avoid any stiff link type materials as the presentations generally look awful if you go to the trouble of having a look. I much prefer to use either a soft braid or simple monofilament in normal breaking strains. The mono often stands out far less visibly than braid and as silkweed generally grows best in clear water this is something to bear in mind. If conditions allow try a simple 8, 10 or 12lb nylon hook link. You may get a pleasant surprise how many bonus takes you get.

The other thing I do is use barbless hooks in silkweed. I have written about this subject in the magazines before but three different correspondences over these past couple of weeks have prompted me to put a few thoughts back down on paper thus this Blog.

Now I will get one thing straight I am not a lover of barbless hooks at all and choose to use barbed hooks when allowed to do so apart from when fishing in silk weed.

Quite simply a barbed hook fished in silkweed makes it difficult and sometimes impossible for a carp to actually get a bait and hook into their mouth. Hardly an ideal scenario when you need them to do this as easily as possible to stand a chance of catching them.

If you are suffering a lot of hook pulls it is possibly simply a case of you making it difficult for the carp to actually take the hook bait. Next time you wind in a ball of silkweed drop it back in the margins then drop your rig amongst it. Next simulate a carp over it. Remember when a carp wants to stop swimming they have to back pedal their pectoral fins. The larger the carp the more water movement they create. Now try and pick that bait up and nine times out of ten the barb will be stuck in the weed hindering the free movement of the bait.

Now remove the barb from the hook or do the same experiment at the side of it with a barbless rig. Pick up the bait and it comes out as easily as it should. Believe me I hate barbless hooks but don’t even consider using barbed when fishing in silkweed.

Now I know there are often clear areas amongst the silkweed but these in my mind have already been cleared of a lot of the natural food and to try and land the hook bait on them can lead to a lot of swim disturbance through re-casting.

Now just sit back and think about it for a while. You have found a clean patch of gravel 50m out which is a couple of metres long shaped like a banana. You proceed to introduce a couple of hundred boilies with the catapult or throwing stick. Now how many of those free baits do you think are going to actually settle on the clear area?  A lot of the bait will end up in the weed and the carp will certainly find these and eat them.

Baits presented on the clear areas arouse suspicion straight away. It is where a carp is expecting to find a trap and it’s difficult to conceal your tackle when fishing into a hole in the weed as the weed closest to you holds the line up so in effect you are tight lining to the lead and bait in an area where the fish will be slightly more on guard. Definitely not an ideal situation and now that you have a method which will allow the carp to take the bait easily in the silkweed where most of the freebies are why bother to make things difficult for yourself?

Don’t worry about the carp finding your bait – they will. They find bloodworm buried in silt and tiny shrimps hiding in weed and those I have tried to smell have never had a smell I can detect. All the baits I use do – nuff said!

So, there you have it. A few little silkweed fishing secrets learned over many years and handed over on a plate.  Never avoid silkweed – carp don’t.

Best fishes, Shaun

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When you open a bag of Chilli Chocolate the first thing that hits you is the powerful chocolate aroma… but the clever thing about it is the subtle chilli & pepper taste. It surprises many people to learn that carp adore a spicy flavor.  It’s true that the fruity sweet flavours do well too… who can doubt the effectiveness of Fruity trifle… but baits like Rahja spice prove without doubt that they have a like for the spices too!

My first sessions proved conclusively the effectiveness of the Chilli Chocolate.  I also received the combination hooker to me bait set.  It comprises  pots of 15 & 10mm glugged hook baits & pop-ups.  Extremely practical!

See you soon at the waters edge!

Romu

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