For a good number of years now, I've almost exclusively used the single hookbait and PVA bag approach for most of my carp fishing. Initially, my reason for doing this was simple; I was fishing on reasonably busy waters which, by their nature, received a lot of bait from other anglers.I had come to the conclusion that most of the fish that I was seeing show were over other peoples, or even several other peoples, bait. So, my theory was, what was the point of compounding the issue and sticking more out on top of what was out there, when I could just put out a couple of singles or a small bag, into the area where the fish were showing and stand a fairly good chance of hooking one?
On waters such as Sandhurst lake and other such day ticket lakes, many anglers arrive with a great deal of bait, which they invariably spod or bait boat out to roughly the same areas week in week out. I've noticed over time that the fish have become conditioned to eating all this chuff and munga for up to three days possibly, or even a week later. (After which time the anglers who have put it out there have ,more often than not, pulled their rigs in and gone home, leaving the food safe to eat).
One morning, after getting up early, along the road bank on Sandhurst lake, I was sat there having my first cup of tea of the day, when I heard a good sized fish bosh out down to my left, along the Copse Lake bank. I decided to sit on the sleeper at the front of the swim to get a better view and sure enough another fish clattered out of the water. So I lined it up and made a mental note of the general area and basically packed up as fast as I could without breaking anything. I hurriedly made my way round to the swim that the fish had shown in front of. The rigs that I was using at the time were fairly simple comprising of a 2oz in line pear lead with a short length of lead core tied onto the mainline with a needle knot. I like using this lead set up, primarily for the fact that it enters the water with a nice 'plip', as oppose to an almighty 'splosh', something that I feel is quite important when casting to showing fish.
The rig was equally simple comprising of a size 8 'Kamasan B775' which is a good hook that I have a lot of faith in, being extremely sharp and very strong, which was tied on wafter style to a 10 in length of 10lb 'Sufix Camfusion,' with a couple of inches of the coating removed.
The hair-rig hair was fairly long baited with a combination of one grain of artificial corn and two grains of maize (to ensure a nice balanced presentation) with the hook remaining flat on the bottom whilst the maize stacker wafts enticingly above any chod .
Two rods were cast out roughly twenty five to thirty yards into the general area of where the fish had shown. Each dropped down through a good depth of water, one touching down lovely and soft in the silt and the other dropping with, what I would call, a soft 'donk'. Each went out first cast which I was happy about, keeping water disturbance down to a bare minimum. My gear was, as per usual, in total disarray after the early morning move so I had a quick tidy up and got the kettle on for a brew. While the water was boiling another good fish boshed straight out in front, more left of where I was casting but at the same distance. I only had to wait about an hour or so before I was in on the left hand rod. The take was quite abrupt, pulling up to the top positively and then out of the clip. I lifted the rod which took up a nice bend and immediately had to give line to the fish which started heading up the middle of the lake. To cut a long story short, after a pretty good battle, which lasted around 10 minutes, I managed to land a lovely looking chunky common of 34lb 4oz which, funnily enough, was hooked in the top right hand corner of the mouth, giving me even more confidence in the separation qualities of the wafter rig.
Another single hook bait method which took me a long time to gain confidence in, but I now use for a lot of the fishing I am using, is the almighty Chod rig. After being shown how to tie it properly by a mate several years ago I'd never really had all that much faith in it, relying more on bottom bait or balanced set ups. On one big water that I fished almost exclusively between March and July last year, this was my rig of choice, due simply to the fact that if you got a drop and a touch down of whatever description at the end, then you were fishing effectively. That'll do for me!
It was around mid March, the weather was pretty decent and after a blank night in one area of the lake, I decided to have a move. After a fairly good look around
and a couple of really good pointers thrown my way by my mate, with respect to a few captures throughout the winter, I ended up fishing on a point which faces out to a good area of water with an island to my left and one out in front. I got the bivvy set up and everything sorted, wanting to get the rods out for mid afternoon.
Two chod rigs, one on a bright one and the other on fishmeal coloured bait were cast fairly near to the island about twenty feet apart. One dropped slightly shallower and more positively than the other but I was equally happy with both, each having dropped through a good column of water before touching the bottom. My first cast had gone further than I wanted it to and landed a bit to shallow for my liking, with a really positive donk ,so I had another couple of casts which I was happy with.
As you can probably tell, I'm not really a fan of wanging out markers etc into the swim, especially if I've only got a limited amount of time to fish. To be honest with you, I don't feel comfortable disturbing the water that much and feel much more confident just feeling the lead down into an area that I feel confident fishing either because I've seen fish bosh there or fish have been caught there. I'm happy catching one fish; two's nice if I'm really lucky! I once even caught five in a night including two 30lb + commons on singles and bags but that was an exceptional nights' fishing.
Admittedly, if I was fishing for a fair few nights then I might consider putting a bit more bait out to get more fish feeding but more often than not, I'm happy putting a couple of singles out there fishing effectively for whatever happens to be out there at the time.
I retired for the night. At around eight pm and was woken by a good take on the left hand rod, as the fish was taking line on a very tight clutch. I pulled into what felt
like a good weight on the end, even at distance. Luckily, at that point, he decided to swim towards me parallel to the island and after a good deal of to-ing and fro-ing down to my left and out in front, it was safely netted. Shining my head torch into the net in the half light I could see a lovely sized mirror carp looking back at me with the now paler fishmeal pop up visible in the bottom corner of the mouth. On the scales he went 32lb 8oz .It was my first fish of the season from that water and it was a good un to boot, as you can see from the photo I was well pleased! It's always nice to get your first fish of the year on a new water. Sometimes it takes a while, and other times it happens quite quickly, as happened with this fish. I didn't have any more that day but after a re cast at the same time as the previous day out into the same area with the two rigs now both on the fishmeal baits, I felt pretty confident.
The take came early the following morning once again. It was a completely different take to the previous one, just tightening up to the top and then pulling out of the clip. As I pulled into the fish I could tell that it was heading right, which was a bit of a danger in this swim. So, after a fair bit of side strain and some hair raising shenanigans, I netted the fish which turned out to be a nice chunky mirror of 23lb. It's funny really, in a year I'd gone from having pretty much zero confidence in the rig due to not really understanding the exact fine tuning that was needed to fish it 100% effectively, but after being shown EXACTLY how to fish it and catching on, it it's something that I now use for almost all of my pop up angling.
Another place that I found a bit of success using the single hook bait approach was over at 'Frimley pit 3' a couple winters ago. For most of my fishing during that time I was using pretty much the same set up as I described for the maize stacker rig apart from the fact that instead of tying on the hook wafter style I was tying it on' no knot' fashion with a small piece of 0.5mm silicone tubing pushed over the shank of the hook to trap the hair in the correct position. I always made sure that the top of the bait was touching where the shank met the bend of the hook leaving only a small hair to allow a bit of movement. I was using 'Richworth Tutti Frutti' 18mm bottom baits at the time. These are bait that I have absolute confidence in ALL of the time especially in the colder months. As the saying goes,
"There ain't a carp alive that don't eat a tute!!" Everyone has bait that they have total confidence in and these are mine. Confidence in a bag!
I'd fished pretty hard that particular winter and failed to catch anything. I was only doing day sessions but, nevertheless, gradually began to build up a picture of where the fish were. You'd learn a little bit every day based on fishy activity and the odd bubble here and there. I'd started off in a swim known as 'The Gravelly' which looked out roughly into the middle of the pond but after seeing a fish bosh to my left I moved next door into the stick swim . Rods were quickly re baited, one being cast out exactly where the carp had shown and the other about fifteen yards to the right, both around middle for diddle. The left hand rod had dropped down nice and soft, the other slightly harder.
Funnily enough, after all that blanking I didn't have to wait long for the take which came on the left hand rod. After a spirited scrap the net was slipped under a lovely 22lb common. Well chuffed!
The rod was re cast out into the area and I decided to re cast the other one too onto a little patch of bubbles that we'd seen pop up.
I was just beginning to consider packing up when the right hand rod was wrenched round in the rests and the clutch started whirring. I pulled into the fish which I can only describe as giving me the best scrap that I've ever had from a carp, taking me out on a long line to the right, moving left at range across the swim and then gradually over time coming in closer and giving me a few heart stopping moments in the edge, after which it was netted first time by an angler I'd never met before. Looking in the net we could see that it was a GIGANTIC common! I was blown away. It was later identified as a fish called Charlie and weighed in at 41lb 4oz. This fish is still my personal best and one that I will fondly remember for the rest of my days. An incredible fish caught on a cold, dull January afternoon on a day that I was debating whether to go fishing at all. Just goes to show!
Nowadays, even if the conditions are rubbish and it doesn't look all that inspirational, I still carry the memory of that day to give me a glimmer of hope that something might just happen!
Jamie