I Remember reading an article by famous carp angler - Chris Yates, in which he described why he fishes the way he does. He outlined that he prefers to simplify his fishing to the point where it’s basically down to just him, his very antiquated tackle, and the fish.
He seemed to prefer to focus on watercraft and fish observation, taking the bare minimum along to hook and land his quarry. As I read his piece, a chord was struck in respect to how myself and friends go about our fishing too.
I’ve been carp fishing since 1987 and after all these years, I’ve come to the conclusion that you might as well keep everything nice and simple. Maybe not quite to the extent that Chris Yates does, with his rod, line(or is it cat gut?!),hooks,
reel bait and small bag! More like simple in terms of LOCATION, tackle, rigs and bait.
Nowadays, I don’t really feel confident unless I’m on the fish. I remember hearing a phrase which says that you might as well spend a good part of the day walking round, looking for signs of fish, be it bubbling or crashing, and chatting to other anglers, finding out where fish have recently come from, gradually building up a picture of where the fish might be. Then you can set up accordingly, rather than have a pre-conceived idea of what swim you want to head to, based on internet reports from two weeks before. It doesn’t matter if it’s a day ticket water or a rarely fished big pit, the principle is always the same. You have to be on the fish to be able to catch them! Once you’re on the fish, then all the other things seem to fall into place behind.
I’m a great believer in keeping it very simple when it comes to rigs. A very accomplished angler from Norfolk, called Kevin Woodrow, once said that on the kind of waters he fished (lightly stocked, weedy, big fish waters) the conditions dictated what you used i.e. a big strong, sharp hook, strong hook link and strong line. Nothing else would do! On the water I’m fishing at the moment, if I’m fishing a bottom bait then I’ll only use a rig incorporating what Kevin described, because to do anything else would be frankly irresponsible! I always fish it the same way, with a small piece of Atomic Tackle pvc tubing, trapping the hair on the bend of the hook and a half inch piece of shrink tubing pushed over the eye and then shrunk and cranked over, to create the flip over effect. The hook and hook link will be tailored to the water I’m fishing at the time. At the moment, I’m using size six Atomic Tackle ‘Grabbas’ and twenty five pound Atomic Tackle 'Gel ‘E Wire’, with an 18mm DT Baits N-Blend boilie, which is nice and balanced. But on
If I’m using a pop up, then I’ll either use a Chod rig or a hinged stiff link on a rotary set up, depending on the kind of area that I’m fishing. As I described in my last article, you can cast out a chod and if you get a drop, then you’re fishing and it’s a simple as that! If it’s slightly clearer, then I’ll put out a hinge link to allow a bit more play. If you don’t know how to tie one, watch the ‘Terry Hearn ties the Stiff link’ video, on his site. I can’t see the point of me wittering on about how to tie it, when you can watch the video yourself and get it straight from the horses mouth. One bit of advice is that you MUST tie it EXACTLY as he does for it to be at its most effective; either using a cork ball pop up that you’ve made yourself, or, from ‘Lee Laggan at Hookers’. Alternatively, if you’re having problems with the birds, use a normal buoyant pop up from a company such as DT Baits which stay properly popped up for well over twenty four hours and contain only food value ingredients and no horrible powdered glass or other such things! Always beware of other ‘so called’ pop ups, which may only stay up for a short while diminishing the overall effectiveness of the rig. I remember buying three pots of pop ups from a well known company at one of the shows. I asked the geezer how long the baits stayed up for to which he replied “Indefinitely”, “That’ll do for me”, I thought. First time of using them, over at ‘Frimley’ a couple of weeks later, I whacked a couple of hinge links out in the middle, to some bubbling fish. After a couple of hours of inactivity, I reeled them in for a recast. Upon dropping them in the margin, I was gutted to see that my pop ups, were now nothing of the sort and were lying just off the deck. I was unhappy that I’d been fishing ineffectively for a while near feeding carp and I was really unhappy that the bloke had blatantly lied to me.
Finally if I’m using a balanced or ‘wafter; bait, then I’ll use what I like to call a ‘wafter rig’. Basically it’s like a normal ‘no knot’ but instead of whipping seven times up the hook you whip two or three times, trap the hair back and then whip another five or six times, depending on the kind of hook you’re using at the time. If you use a balanced boilie with a big hook and heavy hook link or a maize ‘stacker’ rig with smaller hooks and lighter presentations, the principle is always the same, in respect of the separation qualities of the rig. The hook and bait always work independently of one another, allowing the hook to catch anywhere in the mouth; either when they confidently pull the hook into themselves or on the ejection.
These are, hand on heart, the rigs I use for ninety five percent of my fishing and the same goes for most of my mates. We might use slight variations on the theme but, the point is, that these are rigs that we have TOTAL CONFIDENCE in when casting out. One friend mentioned that a well known magazine editor had asked him to write about some other rigs, to which he replied, that he couldn’t because he didn’t use any others! The point that I’m trying to get across, is that after all these years carp fishing, we have all come to the conclusion that there’s no point using anything else because these are the rigs that do the job when fish are out there and feeding. The trouble is, that you could stick on an all singing, all dancing, brand new ‘bling bling’ chod mark seven as bandied around by the press as the next big thing, and it wouldn’t catch you any more than a properly tied chod rig, less, in fact. The press seem to have an obsession with promoting the next wonder rig, but it’s all a load of nonsense really, designed to drive up sales and sell more magazines. Most of the anglers, I know, tend to concentrate more on observation and watercraft , after all, you could have the best rig in the world out there but if there’s no carp in the swim, then you’re obviously not going to catch them!
On the point of tackle, if your rod, reel and line are up to casting where you want to cast and up to landing a fish from that area, then you’re sweet!
My rods are ‘ESP Paragons’ which cost me sixty pounds from ‘Yateley Angling Centre’, and they can wang a three ounce lead over one hundred yards and are also forgiving enough to zig fish with size ten hooks and light mono. I’ve had them for four years now and they’re blinding rods! On the reel front, I use a set of ‘Daiwa 5000ts’, which I bought second hand from a mate. They are real workhorses of reels that if looked after correctly, will live forever. Line wise, I use fifteen pound ‘GR60’, for most of my fishing, because it’s the best line around. I’ll drop it to twelve for my winter fishing on less weedy ponds.
Bait-wise, I will always use something that I’ve got total confidence in, be it the awesome, new, N-Blend boilie or Pacific Anchovy boilie flavour from DT Baits or a single Tutti Frutti flavoured boilie when I’m fishing bottom baits to one of three proven classic flavours that I use in my pop ups. I’ll fish a different one on each until I get a bite and swap them all over to that flavour. Bait on the day and all that!
There’s no point trying this bait or flavour one week and something else another week because you’ll just end up confusing the issue. Use something that you know works and use it with confidence. I’ve had experiences on
I hope that I’ve given you a good insight into the reasons why I like to keep it simple. Like Chris Yates said ‘It’s all about just me and the fish”. Although I expect he said it in a far more flowery way! I tend to agree! If I’m on the fish with a proven bait that I have total confidence in, attached to a rig which I know works and tackle which is up to the job, then that’s all that matters. This is not to say that I pig headedly use these rigs irrespective of developments in rig and hook design, because it always pays to keep an eye on what’s going on. Someone might bring a hook or hook link out ,which lends itself even more readily to your favourite rig, thereby, making it even more effective. But, until that time, I’ll just stick to what I KNOW works.
Tight lines and bulging nets to you all!
Jamie