A Question Of Carp

Stuart says, “There are no doubt hundreds of questions we novice carp anglers would like to ask the experts, but unfortunately, for various reasons, we sometimes feel awkward doing so.

Rik and Stuart

“So what I'm going to do is get under the skin of one of our most experienced carp anglers, Big Rik, or Carp Angler, as he's known on the forum, and shoot all those questions at him that you always wanted to ask, which will, as we go along, be turned into a series of features covering various carp fishing topics.

“As these articles run their course no doubt many questions will arise. So If you're just getting started, or are an improving carp angler (or an experienced carp angler even, who just wants another opinion) and want to get under the skin of the expert, email me with your carp fishing questions at stuartdennis@msn.com and I'll go banging on his door without a care in the world and post the results on here!”

PART 3 - SETTING UP

By now, you would have gathered that we are moving through this series in a step-by-step methodical manner. The thinking behind this is that eventually we'll have a complet series that covers every topic from turning up at the water's edge through to packing up and going home after a successful session!

So far we've learnt 'How to Tackle a New Venue' and 'Marker Float Techniques'. You can read these articles by clicking on links below.

Our next 'port of call' is of course, how to set-up our rods and reels and concentrate on our tactics in order to say hello to Mr Carp! In this article we are going to start at the very beginning, based on the questions I've received from you all so far.

Okay Rik, I hope you're sitting comfortably mate, so here goes! We know where we're going to fish, we know what depth and the contours we have in our chosen swims. We are going to continue with our original example of fishing one rod to the island (straight in front of us) and another to the bed of reeds (a margin area to left of us).

So firstly, how do we position our rods? Do we have the tips in the water? Do we set them both up to point straight ahead? Or do we separate them onto individual bank sticks based on the fact we have one swim to the left of us in the margins and one swim straight ahead at the island?

Rod-pod set-up A lot of this is down to personal choice and I don't believe it makes a great deal of difference. People suggest that if you are fishing running leads then your rod tips should be pointed towards the terminal tackle but this unnecessary as I find that more friction is caused by the lead movement than by the rod tips being at an angle. If you're fishing hard banks or platforms then a pod is the only choice, if you want to fish single banksticks, then do so. Tip height should be dependent on a few factors, such as wind, marginal weed, wildfowl, steepness of bank, etc, etc. Getting the line as unobtrusive as possible would be my main criteria, so if you feel that you can get the tips underwater without them snagging up on marginal weed, then this may be your best bet.

What are the differences and/or advantages between using a pod set-up, a goalpost or quad set-up and just a plain rod-rest set-up? Or is this just a personal preference?

If you are fishing near to any feature that you wouldn't want the carp to swim around on its initial run, then you need to ensure that they are unable to take too much line from the spool. Quad style pod If this means tightening the tension on your baitrunner or fishing a tighter clutch on non-baitrunner type reels) to achieve this, then the chances are that any bite will be quite savage as the fish is unable to take line easily and this may cause exaggerated movement at the rod end. Fishing with a single, central rod rest and buzzer bars, or with a high centre of gravity pod, may well cause your set-up to be unstable, so in this case a goal post, or quad style pod set-up would be preferable and more stable.

Regarding buzzers and bite alarms, this is a question sent in from Clwyd Jones: “First of all, best of luck in the new venture - I'm sure there are lots of beginners such as myself who look in to the forums and automatically assume that most if not all the contributors are experts in their own right - thereby making me reluctant to ask a question for fear of sounding like a prat! Here goes. On impulse I bought myself a bite alarm (nothing fancy) and other than knowing it screws into the bank stick, where do I go from there? Do I need a 'bobbin' and if so how do you put it all together? What about setting the alarm? Can you help please?”

OK, first things first. A bite alarm is just an audible indicator, you will also need a visual indicator to accompany it. This can be of many different designs and would depend on such things as personal preference, fishing style, weather conditions, etc, etc. Most people go for either of the two main designs, and these are either a hanging bobbin style indicator or a swinging arm type. Goal post set-up Most indicators are designed to be located between the bankstick and the alarm head and stay permanently in situ. Both styles will have a form of line release clip at the top, into which you clip the line to secure it until a bite develops. When a fish either pulls line or slackens it, then the indicator moves accordingly and when you lift the rod or strike, then the line is pulled from the clip and the indicator drops away from the rod.

So my rods are sitting tightly in position on my chosen rests, (whether this is my pod or goalposts), my lines are cast out, I've clipped my line into my swinging indicators and I've turned on my buzzers. What about positioning my reel's bale-arm? I understand you need to set your bale-arm in such a position that it cuts back on the amount of angles between the spool, through the rod, etc, to the bait, thus keeping a tighter contact?

I like to get it so that the bale-arm roller is at the top of the spool. Single rod set-up This means that the angle from the butt ring to the bottom of the indicator and then to the spool is as acute as it can be, so this accentuates any movement from the fish. This gives a better visual indication.

To re-cap then - we've made our choices on rod positioning, buzzers and rests, etc, and we've positioned our bale-arm correctly in order to cut down on angles, so now we need to concentrate on the baiting up of our swim before we commence with exact tactics for the task ahead. So there you have it, although we will be covering rigs, hooks, leads and hookbait, etc, over the coming weeks, our next article will be loose feeding and pre-baiting. Please send in any questions regarding particles, etc, to stuartdennis@msn.com and we'll try to cover them in the next article.