Baits

The past 2 times i've been fishing i've not had a lot of luck. I've been using maggot, sweetcorn and cherry flavoured 10mm boilies and i've had nothing in those 2 days of fishing. A bloke a bit further down on the lake was using cat food and dog biscuits and caught 3 relatively large fish (around 8 to 10 lbs).

Can you recommend which type of dog biscuit and cat food are best to use? Not only that, how do you bait them up? I'm assuming dog biscuits would be on a carp rig but what about the cat food?

Your help would be most appreciated.

Mark

Mark, I know it sounds like stating the obvious, but have you had a walk around the venue without your rods and asked around about what’s catching and what’s not? That’d be where I’d start. My rule of thumb is to do pretty much the opposite of what everyone else is doing, but you need to know what everyone else is doing first. You’ll find that the majority of dog and cat biscuits will be floaters and moving through Autumn into the winter as we are, the confidence of carp taking from the surface is dramatically changing. The two most important factors to consider is to locate the fish and get hem feeding on you’re bait.

What kind of venue is it you’re fishing? Size? Stock etc? what are the tactics you are applying? Are you using one rod to stalk the fish and moving from swim to swim on your trip or are you putting two/three rods out and sitting on the rods? Have you been keeping a watchful eye on the rigs page on the left there and applying this to you’re fishing? Let us know where you’re at with you’re fishing and we will all jump in and advise the best bait and tactics for yu to put more on the bank. But we need to know more about you’re venue, tactics and at what stage you are at?

Coshida catfood only available from Lidl is the one theyre always banging on about in the weeklies

IMHO - forget about the baits for the moment. I got all hung up with baits when I first started. It didn't take long to realise that there are many other things to get right first, most of which "fat boy" has mentioned (I am only using his own and Riks term for him......or was it fat and fattier?).

can't wait to meet up with you and the next event lttle stu!!! ;-)

Why Stu, on a diet??

And why cant we see some clips from last time? I dont care if we (you) didn't catch.

Hi Stuart,

Well at the moment i use a lake at a fishery. It has about 30 pitches on it and stocks up to 20lb commons and up to 25lb catfish. I have seen a big 16lb common come out but the majority are arount the 10lb mark and the biggest i have caught is a 4lb mirror.

The tactics i am going to be using are 2 rods, 1 on a feeder ledger with a carp rig and the 2nd on a float with about 4-6 foot of line from the float to the hook. I may even use a carp rig on this too but i've never heard of anyone using them on a float (saying that i don't know a great deal at the moment as i'm still learning). I will still have maggot and use these as free food and ground bait i usually apply to the ledger and feed a handful every 20 mins or so.

I'm off to read the rigs page.

MArk

Mark, if i was limited to 1 bait for carp, it would probably be maggots(need to win lottery first though.....) and if they're in range, floatfishing can be a much better method than ledgering.
Its already been said not to get hung up on baits....dont get hung up on rigs either! the more you confuse yourself now, the worse it will get.

Ok Mark, we are slowly getting there now. If we start with the basics and take it slowly, then your catch rate should go up and your learning curve will be one you can relate to and rely on at each new stage. This is important and will enable you to become a long term angler as opposed to a season and off angler. Far to often have I seen new carp anglers jump in head first and use the latest technical rigs and applications without having an understanding as to why they are using them. This, often than not, results in the angler becoming frustrated and leaving the sport. I would start by setting up a ledger rig. Try the korda safety rig. Which from your rod tip end will give you a small length of tubing, a safety clip and lead with rubber sleeve. Thread your line through the lot and tie to a swivel. That should surfice for the last yard etc. The rig is designed to lose the lead of the fish gets snagged and leave the fish NOT trailing line and lead etc. For your important last 12 inches, I’m going to suggest a braid hooklength tied using the knotless knott to a size 10 hook. (check out rig page), as a bait I would suggest you try 3 pieces of sweetcorn tied onto your hair. Throw in maggots with aabout 20 grains of corn as losefeed and place your hookbait on top.

This should get you started as we don’t want to overkill your attention span. The world of complex boilies and rig arrangements are something to be learnt over time. For starters, this should move your catch rate up where you can experience and learn the strengths of the carp and of course how to play these fish. This basic set-up will slowly move you up the ranks. Give us a shout with your next question. And guys, lets ease him in slowly huh?
What’s the going bait over there Mark?

Stuart,

As far as i know, most people tend to use boillies, maggot and sweetcorn. Some people have used other things such as the dog biscuits and cat food, and seeing as it was this that caught most last time then thats why i thought about using them.

As far as rushing is concerned, i started fishing back in March of this year as i took my brother for a birhtday treat. Since then i've been nearly every two weeks since and got more in to it. I have been fishing a smaller lake at the fishery which holds tench up to 8lb apparently and carp up to about the same, but the biggest i have caught in this lake was a 5lb tench and 4lb carp. I have only fished this current lake twice. 1 all nighter which resulted in nothing (very gutted about that one) and 2 weeks ago which also resulted in nothing. So i am only just starting to get in to the bigger fish. It was only recently that i went out and bought a decent rod aswell and it was suggested to me to use a carp rig rather than a normal hook. So hopefully i am not rushing too much. But i am always willing to learn off more experienced people and i do have a lot of patience.

I will study the rig page tonight as an hour just isn't enough during lunch to get all the info. Will let you know what happens this weekend

Thanks
Mark

good luck!

Copying successful people seems like a useful strategy to me. You're probably itching to have another go yourself. I want to suggest that the dog biscuit may have been used to pop up some catmeat. I'll explain this in a minute. You probably know what a pop-up is. Just in case you don't, a pop-up bait is one which naturally floats, but is held at a required distance from the bottom by shot, or something else. See the Rigs Page for more info about pop-ups.

Back to dog biscuit & catmeat. There are various ways to do this without using hair rigs, but hair-rigging is probably the easiest way. So - either hair rig both together, or hold the biscuit in a bait band (you'll also find bait-bands in the rigs page)and put the meat on the hook. Both methods have worked for me in the past. The biscuit will last for ages on the hook if left alone, but usually disappears if you reel it in. If you can, experiment at home to see how it will look to the fish.

You'll need to buy the necessary tools for hair-rigging, but they only cost a few quid.
You will also need to be selective about which bits of meat to put on the hook, but you'll soon figure this out.

In the longer term, my advice is to experiment - but do it in a methodical way. Look at all the advice you've been given and keep looking for more; think it all through carefully; proceed one or two steps at a time - it's all about building up experience ~ ~ ~ ~ good luck and happy landings! >>>Chris

i caught a lot of carp one year using chum mixers as pop ups

I Think your articles are extremely intresting here are a few favourities
that I use
sweetcorn
dead bait coverd in currey
maggots
and coocked prawns

I heard a roumer that boilies

A favourite bait of mine, when people around me are using luncheon meat, is cheap pate from spar. mix it with cornflour or sausage rusk to make it castable, or just smear it over a meat bait, so it falls off and leaves a smell trail around your bait.
Its caught me a hell of a lot of carp on boilie-ban waters!!

I'm on a self imposed boilie ban and I'm having one of my best seasons ever!

Well just to let you know, i tried the dog biscuits on a hair rig for half a day and didn't have much luck, so at around 1 o'clock i started feeding the water with maggots and sweetcorn on a regualr basis (little and often) and a bit of ground bait every now and then. The bubbles soon started to come although they were about 10 - 20 yards away from my hook. So i did the switch to having 3 bits of sweetcorn on the rig and a single maggot on the hook. Low and behold ten minutes later i caught a very nice looking 8lb carp. My new PB!!! How chuffed was i!! So i'll stick to the maggot and sweetcorn and see how it goes. Unfortunately though, it was the only fish i caught all day. But atleast i landed this time!!!

Thanks for all the advice.
Mark