Guide to Carp Fishing in France, Part 4 - Baits

All Carpers have their own ideas with regards to bait, and because there are really no hard and fast rules, the question of just how much and what kind of bait is needed is not easily answered; it cannot be answered in words of one syllable, but take this simple scenario: If the carp are feeding actively whilst you are at the lake you can get through stacks of bait!

The above is stating the obvious perhaps, but think about it: Consider the stocking levels at your chosen lake - what size do they go to?

How much bait do you think a single carp of, say, 35lbs, can munch through in one day? The metabolism of carp is such that they will grow fastest at water temperatures of around 25 - 26°C, and maximum growth will continue for as long as the water temperature is at this sort of level - one of the major reasons why carp in many parts of France grow larger than here - it's much hotter, and for longer, than in the UK. It is therefore not unreasonable to expect a large carp to eat one heck of a lot of food - be it particles, pulses, pellets, boilies - whatever. Now multiply that by the number of large carp in the lake? Right - need I say more?

Rightly or wrongly, I belong to the school of thought that believes that it is better to take too much bait than too little. However, it is easy for me to sit here putting that thought into your head, but in reality space is usually at a premium when thinking about packing the car with all the gear, and of course it will depend on how much your are prepared to spend! The vast majority of us would be using boilies as hookbaits and, to a degree, loose feed as well - but boilies are expensive. So unless you make your own and you are confident in what you produce, you will need to think about alternatives. But as a rough guide I usually aim to take at least 25 kilos of boilies for a week-long session, along with 25 kilos of pellets and perhaps another 25 kilos of hemp and a seed mix such as Red Band. Also worth considering is maize, and/or Vitalin - very cheap and versatile. It may all sound a lot, but the last thing you really want to skimp on is bait, and once you get them feeding - you want to keep them feeding.

You may be lucky in that the venue you have chosen is able to provide sacks of pellets and such like, and a phone call or a few exchanged emails can have the matter sorted and arranged so that you collect your bait on arrival. It's worth finding out, but beware, boilies can be very expensive in France, so limit your ordered bait to pellets, etc, and take your boilies with you!

French carp certainly seem to be more 'clued up' on bait, compared to several years ago when they were anything but finicky over the bait. Now, with more and more quality baits being used by both English and European anglers, things have now changed! British Carpers travelling to France used to very successfully make use of ready-made shelf-lifes for years, but as many of the waters saw more and more pressure anglers began to struggle with them; you may struggle to catch as well as others using quality bait.

Choice of boilie is of course down to personal preference, but I would advise taking well-known brands such as those made by Mainline, you know these are tries and trusted. One of my favourites I use, in fact its basically all I'm using at the moment is a bait called 'Eclipse' made by 'Eurotec Advanced Baits'. www.eurotec-angling.com. I know their ingredients are first class and trust them implicitly.

Another consideration is that during the time you are there you will need to make provision for keeping your boilies fresh. What most people do is take them over in a cool box (or boxes) filled with plenty of ice packs, and normally there is a freezer on site for anglers to use so one can regularly re-freeze the ice-packs to prevent bait from going off too quickly - an essential consideration in the warmer weather. For this reason many will use shelf-life boilies, and whilst these are fine, I can only speak from my own experience, and it is my personally preference to use fresh rolled bait. But each to there own.

A way of getting around this of course is to air-dry fresh-rolled bait, I believe this is still preferable to shelf-lifes! One can always re-hydrate them bankside.

Another alternative is to roll your boilies on the bank whilst you are there, however, I would consider this too much of a drag personally, and I prefer to spend my time making up fresh rigs, water watching or drinking lots of beer! However, some might like to try this and it can be done - you can prepare your base mix to include an egg substitute such as enervate gold, or such like. You wouldn't get much fresher than that!

Tigernuts are also worth considering and are a good alternative to boilies. I like them firstly because carp seem to love them, but another plus is that usually they generally don't attract the poisson chats. Worth changing over to if you are having run-less night and reeling in to find your hook is baitless! Nothing more frustrating!

I usually begin any campaign in France with small amounts of bait, after first of all choosing a swim based on prior observations. Hopefully I will have done so after seeing carp crash, seeing one roll or just a dorsal break the surface, it may have only been one or two flat spots that I may suspect may have been caused by a carp - whatever the reason, I will hopefully feel confident they are 'gonna have it'!

”…..perhaps a baitboat full of freebies”

This may amount to a single fluoro pop-up on one, perhaps a stringer on another, and perhaps a baitboat full of freebies, etc, along with my hookbait on another. The latter being especially so if I have been able to observe a natural feeding area from a suitable vantage point! One sign to look for is on the windward side of the lake as one can often see signs of naturals the carp may be feeding on, such as crushed crayfish shells, hatching or hatched insects, larvae, bloodworm. Also strands of weed may have been uprooted which is a sure sign of feeding carp. Try your best to find the areas where they are feeding and put some bait in there.

Once I have caught from a spot I will usually then put more bait in. I actually may have a different opinion than some who frequent French Lakes in search of big carp; in that I believe attracting feeding fish into my swim is of primary importance. I firmly believe that once fish of any kind are feeding this will trigger a response in those you are specifically after. Some on the other hand, will even go as far as advocating the use of just a few very large, donkey-choker type boilies, in the belief that they will only attract the bigger carp. Now whilst this may work for some - including many experienced French and Dutch anglers I might add, it won't necessarily work for us that have limited time on our hands! I'm sure you, the same as me, would be happy to set our sights a little lower and catch some reasonable sized lumps with the chance of the biggie as a bonus.

”….. the primary objective is to get the swim bubbling and the best way to do this is to use pellet, seed mixes, hemp and so on”

An important characteristic of baiting heavily should be stressed at this point: if you are going to lay a carpet of feed in your swim, then expect smaller fish to potentially cause you problems at first (if stocked). Also, if the lake has crayfish and/or Poisson Chat you are going to get problems. If the crays start attacking your bait then you need to consider the use of cages or meshes. So, go prepared! But the primary objective is to get the swim bubbling and the best way to do this is to use pellet, seed mixes, hemp and so on to get them going - you can even use some method balls, incorporating any of the commercially made method mixes - again I can highly recommend Eurotec's S & M Mix - excellent stuff.

It really goes without saying that it is a good idea to find room for plenty of alternative pop-ups such as high-visibility fluoro's, etc, as these provide an excellent alternative to use on, say, a roving rod. Just the same as you would over here; and don't forget your dips!

To conclude:

(a) Check the stock levels of you chosen lake
(b) Take enough bait to cover every eventuality
(c) Take plenty of alternatives
(d) Think about how you are going to keep it fresh
(e) Have a plan of attack for how to best utilise your bait
(f) Finally - have a great time, and tell everyone on Fishingmagic how it all went.