Hello again, I hope you are doing well and have been out
banking heaps of fish. As for me, I have been out targeting a local lake trying
to catch some nice Carp. On many of my local waters the Carp are due to spawn
over the next week, so are therefore at their maximum weight, or not far off.
They need a lot of energy, nutrients and minerals to reproduce which means they
are feeding up at the moment, so what better time to get out and target them.
On my first session I could see several signs of
fish feeding everywhere I looked which instilled me with a lot of confidence.
Choosing a swim wasn’t easy due to the different depths, but I decided to set up
in the middle because I could cast to all areas, leaving my options open.
Within twenty minutes of having my rods out I had a dropped run which left me
doubting my rig. This wasn’t just a one off, it happened several times throughout
the day. I chopped and changed my rigs numerous times after each dropped run,
but I still couldn’t manage to get a good hook hold on a fish. After a
frustrating day loosing various fish, one of my rigs did its job, and I managed
to get a fish on the bank.
With so many fish lost in one session I knew I
had to make some major changes to my approach in order to improve my catch
rate. I tied up some rigs with new hooks so that they were as sharp as could
be. I then added some shrink tube to increase the gape of the hook and to make
it turn quicker. I also added some shrink tube to the bend of the hook so it
would hold the hair in position for perfect presentation.
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With my improved rigs I headed back out to the lake with
high hopes of catching some plump Carp. I know of a few good features to
present bait over, which meant not much water craft was needed, other than
guaranteeing my rig would land on the spot.
Once again, within twenty minutes of setting up I had a run, but this
time my rig had performed well and the fish was hooked. Even though I hadn’t
landed the fish, it felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders and
my confidence in my rigs had been restored. As I landed the first fish of the
session, my other rod ripped off and in no time I had my second fish on the bank.
It just goes to show how much difference a small change in a
rig can make when particular fish are proving to be tricky. If I hadn’t made
the change I don’t think I would have landed either of those Carp. I put a lot
of effort and detail into my rigs to ensure that they will hook a fish first
time and cannot be rejected. If something in my mind is not right or the fish
are rejecting the rig and not getting hooked, I will change it. Besides bait
and everything else that needs to be taken into consideration, in my mind it
all comes down to whether the hook is sharp enough and if the rig will catch
the fish.
With full confidence in my approach to catching these Carp,
and the rigs having proved to work well, I continued to have a great session
banking lots of Carp whilst others were losing them or struggling to get a
bite. Every fish that took my hook bait ended up in my net and kept my confidence
going.
Lambert also joined me for this
session and had some good luck himself. As he didn’t join me for the previous
session he had to put a bit more work in. But when he found out what worked
well, he had some nice Carp, topped off by this lovely common.
Until next time
