If you’re new to carp fishing, then today’s article is very much for you. We’re going to cover some staple tips on how to land more carp this coming year.
These tips will hopefully allow you to bring something else into your fishing or at the very least help put your mind at rest on a few things that you may already do.
Pre-tied rigs
So tip number one is very straightforward, it’s pre-tied rigs. Now when you’re first starting out, I appreciate it can feel overwhelming.
So what I would definitely say is here, do not be afraid to use pre-tied rigs that are off the shelf. They’re perfectly well tried and tested rigs. You don’t have to worry about having to tie your own rigs, which I know at this point may sound a bit overwhelming.
All I would say is to go for something like a Blow back rig. Now a Blow back rig is good for bottom baits. It’s good for pop-ups as well, so it’s a very versatile rig and it catches a lot of fish.
So start with the Blow Back rig and once you’ve built up your confidence, then try tying your own, but don’t let anybody tell you that the fact you can’t tie your own rig is a detriment to you in terms of your skill. It’s absolute nonsense, so ignore them.
Blending in
Next up is blending in and what I mean by blending in is trying to tie the rig that you’re using on the bottom of the lake to the actual lake bed itself.
The first thing that you need to do is go online to the website of where you’re going to be fishing or even worst-case pick up the phone and get in touch with the actual onsite bailiff and then he’ll tell you exactly what you need.
Bait tactics
Now, this comes in many forms. You’ve got something called a spod, which is a capsule of bait that effectively you can just cast straight out onto your particular spot and then it will open up on impact and release food into your area.
You’ve got PVA mesh bags and also PVA kind of mesh sticks if you like and also then you’ve got catapults which are as they sound, they catapult boilies or pellets or whatever it may be onto a particular kind of spot or area; the latter is probably less accurate, but the fact that it’s not as accurate can mean that it’s a nice little spreader bait and the fish don’t get scared of one particular spot.
Now as you can tell, there are three or four different options there and already you’re probably thinking “Well which one is the best option?” and the truth for that is that one is really no better than the other.
So now if you’re just starting out, I would advise you to use the PVA mesh sticks because it’s really quite straightforward. You can learn to tie your own easily and they do very simple kits.
Customising your bait
Okay, the next tip is spicing or glugging your boilies. Now I’m sure you’ve already seen when you’ve been shopping online. There are a million different brands, and ways to find the best boilies for carp there’s always a boilie out there for you to buy. So again, the list can feel endless, but what I would say is its trial and error. The only way that you’re going to find boilies that work for you and just stick to one of the well-known brands and you can’t go too far wrong.
Now the thing with this though is if many people are fishing there are a lot of boilies going in and most people do not spice their boilies in any way. It’s straight out of the bag, straight into the lake. In my opinion, when there’s so much generic bait going into the water, spicing up your boilies is going to give you a bit of an edge.
Carp tax
Now if you haven’t come across this, carp tax effectively, is where a relatively generic product suddenly is worth £10-£15 more because they put a carp brand next to it. So definitely lookout for this.
Don’t feel pressured
Don’t feel put off or pressured by anybody to go out and buy a really expensive kit. Don’t go out and spend hundreds of pounds because some person wants to tell you you’re less of a carp angler because you’re not spending £300. Fish your budget, find something that works for you and slowly upgrade as you go along.
You need to be comfortable, enjoy your fishing and I’m sure you’re going to catch more fish this year and have more fun at an affordable budget for you.
