Advice needed.

Hi Everybody,

I'm off to France in a few weeks time courtesy of F.M and I'm in need of some general advice. We haven't decided on a water yet but thanks to some kindly offered advice from Ken Townley I've got a short list to consider. We're going to be based in the Brittany region.

I haven't done any serious carping for a while and I'm looking for some rig/bait advice.

Will I be okay with the following:

Snakeskin/Merlin or Silkorm hooklength 4-8 inches, size four Drennan super specialist fixed with knotless knot, inline lead and about 18inches of Anchor rig tube. I usually rig the boilie to sit tight against the hook shank on the hair.

I've always done reasonably well on 'Quench' as a base mix, will it be a blown bait in France? Ken mentioned 'rock hard fish meals'. How do I achieve these rock hard baits and are there specific base mixes for this purpose?

Also, is it completely pointless to fish with traditional methods like floatfishing with such baits as bread, luncheon meat, sweetcorn e.t.c? Any other thoughts would be warmly welcomed, I really would like to do justice to the wonderful prize F.M has given me, I don't expect to 'take France by storm' but I'd like to bank a carp or two so I'm relying on you chaps to give me an edge.

Regards Chris

I wouldn't have the bollie tight to the hook as this will hamper the hooks penertration and could lead to both aborted takes nad lost fish from hook pulls I would have the hair long enough to accomidate 2 boillies, but only use 1.

I'm not sure about the "Quinch" as I've never used it maybe someone else can help there.

To get your baits rock hard you have left it a little late for rock hard, however, once you have made/purchased your bait (ASAP)hang them up in a net bag (you can get them from Asda, Safeways etc in the washing section)in a warm place ideally in the sun (but not where the birds can peck at them)I have had a couple of kilos in the shed for 2 years now, they started out as 20MM there aboout 12MM now and are like little rocks the fish still take them and the Crays give up on them (dont forget you will need a nut drill to make holes in the bait once air dried).
Good luck!!

solar quench should be fine - most of the decent baits (like this one) dont really blow.try adding squid+octopus to be different if you make it yourself. float fishing with meat and corn still catch "wised up" carp over here, so it'll definately catch fish over there! distance is the only limiting factor, but looking at their booklet, the lakes dont appear to be "properly" fished by "proper" anglers - seems mainly the holiday types. maize would be worth taking, as well as pellets etc. how big a boot have you got!

sometimes mounting a bait tight can produce when long hairs dont....i was getting a few aborted takes this winter with long hairs - screamers where you felt a bump, then nothing. the only thing i could think was that the fish were mouthing the bait and moving off. mounting the bait tight solved the problem - most fish were hooked on the lip, so they obviously werent feeding hard/confidently.
the "looney extension" rig gave fish hookes a little further back, proving it further?
since the weathers warmd up, haven't had the problem and have reverted to long hairs, but are others getting away with it? another thread maybe

Chris

I forgot to say you only want your hook baits rock hard. The softer freebies will get nicely chopped up by the Crays (not unlike some 60s gangsters I believe)and attract the carp.

Hi Dave and Mark
,
Cheers for the input, it's much appreciated.

Does any of you know if I can I buy these 'rock hard baits' ready made?

Regards Chris

chris - if you leave enough baits for hookbaits somewhere warm (airing cupboard/on a radiator) they'll be plenty hard enough. dont forget to "glug"them in flavour/attractors as most will evaporate in the drying process.
only problem you might have is that birdfoods go soft pretty quickly, so it might be worth meshing the baits to deter the crays

Chris, make sure you take at least a few kilos of a boilie that usually works anywhere, such as Mainline Activ-8, Assassin-8, Nutrabaits Trigga. A couple of those toffee bottles of tigers from Dynamite wouldn't go amiss either.

Hi chaps,

Yes Graham, I'd been thinking of choosing one of the regular baits that my carp fishing mates have had good captures on. Either Active8 or Grange. Are they fishmeals? Will I have enough time (four weeks or so.) to prepare these 'rock hard' hookbaits? Any thoughts on bait size? I was thinking of a fairly big boilie, say 18 or 20mm.

Dave, do you mean I should glug these hard baits before drying? Any rig reccomendations? Nowadays I usually treat a hair as a means to effeciently side hook a boilie, and can't remember an undue amount of dropped takes. Although I remember in the early Eighties using hairs up to an inch long and catching well. It's probably fair to say that I never used to encounter fish of the size I'm hoping for in France, I guess a longer hair is less likely to be an issue with a bigger gob? I recall lots of the carp I caught, when using longer hairs, were hooked on the outside of the mouth, in fact nearly always on the 'chin' of the fish.

Regards Chris.

grange and a8 have got fishmeal in them, but i wouldn't call them a fishmeal if you know what i mean!
no, glug after drying.....but your going to have to get your skates on!
without getting too paranoid, you may not be getting many dropped takes, but how many fish are dropping the bait without you getting so much as a bleep? never been to france, but i would use the same rigs, with maybe a size up of hook if there was a big average size of fish. dont expect to go "hauling", fish for one fish at a time, unless they really start getting there heads down......

Hi Dave,

Thanks again mate, I'm going to check out the bait counter at the local tackle shop and pick a fish meal of some sort. I'm hoping to get enough hook baits rolled up over the weekend for hardening purposes. I've still got about five weeks to go. Enough time to cure the hook baits? Do you think I'd achieve the same thing if I accelerated the process by using a very low setting in a conventional oven?

Regards Chris.

still got long enough - i'd be careful with the oven as you might make the baits bouyant! a warm room or airy shed/garage will be fine. if you know anyone with a de-humidifier that will help too. are you buying freezer or readymade?

Just chuck em in your trout pellets.
It works honest.

Hi Dave,

I've gone for shelf life Trigga and BFM boilies and a batch of home mades.

Cakey,

Funny you should say that cos I spent most of sunday morning rolling some boilies from my own recipe with T.P as the base. They look and smell the business!!

Regards Chris