Surface Fishing Advice

[Hopey]

This is easily my favourite way of catching carp. Nothing is more exciting than seeing your intended quarry gradually zone in on your bait, and the moment the bait is swallowed is surely the most exciting in fishing….followed by an intense explosion and amazing fight….or more often the frustration of a missed strike followed by untangling your rig from the tree behind you!

 

I absolutely love it, nevertheless I could definitely be better at it.

 

Firstly can I ask: do dig biscuits loses their buoyancy over time. Recently mine (which are quite old to be fair) start sinking after not much time on the water. Don’t know if that is their age, the type of biscuit, weight of hook?

 

Also I do tend to find carp are crafty and well gobble up all the loosefeed and leave the hookbait

 

What is the best way to present it, to fool them?

 

I have tried, free-lining straight to hook; fox bubble floats, standard controllers.

I have used long leaders, short leaders;

I have attached the bait direct to hook, hair rigged, bait band

I have used the standard small Pedigree mixers, the bigger Baker’s dog biscuits, bread, zig bugs

 

Also often I tend to find that the bait drifts very close to the controller, which I think puts them off taking. Why is that? How important is the type/weight of hook? How important is the line used on the leader (I have supposedly line made for surface fishing?)? What about the tackle at the controller end? How long should the leader be?

 

I try and keep my rigs as minimalist as possible.

 

Over the years I have definitely had most success just free-lining dog biscuits direct to the hook, but that has limitations on how far you can fish

 

Less said about waterfowl the better, I don’t think there is a way to avoid them is there?!

 

As I say Ive had some success, but would love more

 

Any advice, opinions, thoughts most appreciated

 

 

Tight lines everybody

[Errrm]

Hi,

 

I have found that dog biscuits do lose the boyancy over time but it is greatly exagerated when drilling into them which allows water to get inside the biscuit quicker, this combined with the weight of the hook means that they sink after a while. To get around this I used to fish with two mixers on the hook which would give me a more time before they sank. Now I would either thread a floating artificial caster/maggot on the hook to negate the weight of the hook (although I'm not sure what this would do to the hooking efficiency) or I would use a pop-up boilie. The approach I would favour out of these would be the pop-up boilie but I would choose one with a similar colour/smell to the mixers if possible (Tiger nut pop-up seems quite good) and cur it down to be shaped more like a mixer.

 

As far as the mixer getting close to the controller, I have experienced this for two reason. The first is that it is just an illusion when fishing at distance and it's difficult to tell how far the mixer is behind the controller so you only see the sideways difference. The second is when using a line which for what ever reason isn't floating, this would cause the line to sink and drag them together. You can buy sprays used for fly fishing which get the line to float better. I would have thought your line for surface fishing would have this property anyway so I would suggest you test it in the margin and watch what is happening.

 

Good luck and hopefully someone the more experienced fishermen can help.

 

Cheers

 

Neil

[Vagabond]

Floating line ? Combination of new and old. Modern braid, old-fashioned beeswax. Candle-grease will do at a pinch, but don't leave it in your tacklebox on a hot day or you will get the fishing tackle equivalent of prawns in aspic.

 

You may find carp spook at the bit of floating line next to the hook, in which case either add a 12" trace of fluorocarbon, or arrange things so your bait is hanging over a lily leaf or something similar.

 

Rod,reel,line,hook and dog biscuit - ie the absolute minimum is IMHO the best option. Plus net. mat and forceps.

Camera optional. Tackle dealers, eat your hearts out.

Edited July 23, 2013 by Vagabond

[robtherake]

Have you tried popping a bait up off a lead so that it either just breaks surface, or hangs sub-surface? Not as much fun as freelining or float fishing but effective nonetheless.

[Mat Hillman]

Try preparing the hookbait mixers the night before - put a handful in a sieve , pour boiling water over them, and the shake off as much excess water as possible.

 

Seal in a plastic freezer bag and leave overnight. They'll soften to a nice rubbery texture without expanding and can then be presented straight on a hook without looking any different to your freebies!

 

Mat

[ayjay]

I do quite a lot of surface fishing - but mostly at short range - often very short range - my favourite set-up is mainline to a swivel, a short kryston multistrand hooklength and a freshly cut reedstem with a small split at each end that holds the line, this provides casting weight if required (not often required but it can help with more tricky positioning) supports the swivel and can be draped over a lily pad or anything else where freebies end up.

 

Edit: Plus one for the preparation method in the previous post.

Edited July 23, 2013 by ayjay

[Andy Macfarlane]

I would use a small hacksaw blade to make a groove in the dog biscuits and then superglue my hook-shank into the groove I've made. You can go even further and make a groove on the opposite side of the biscuit and then put just enough tungsten putty in the groove to invert the biscuit, which exposes the hook on top. The advantage being, you can keep your line clear of the water and the carp can't see the hook or your line poking out from the bottom of the biscuit.

 

You don't have to go as far as adding the putty to the biscuit but if the carp are spspookyr they're ejecting your biscuit lightning quick, it can make the difference.

 

You can also paint your biscuits in fish oil before you cast them out. Not only do your oily biscuits create a nice trail for the carp to home in on but the water doesn't penetrate the biccie quite so quickly.

Edited July 25, 2013 by Andy Macfarlane

[Anderoo]

I just hair rig them now, it's a lot easier than the alternatives. I tie the hook on with a grinner and tie a little loop on the tag end as the hair, and use either one big biscuit or two smaller ones. Another benefit of haair rigging aside from it taking a lot of the hassle out ot it, is that the hook hangs below the bait, so the last bit of line is below the surface. I agree that you want most of your line to float, but you want the last bit to be sunk, or it sticks out like a sore thumb to the carp.

 

PS don't try to use flourocarbon as a leader/hooklength, it's too dense and sinks too much to be any use.

[Sportsman]

I agree with Andrew, you want the last 6 inches to 1 foot of hook length to sink.

French baguettes make very good floating crust bait when they are about day-old.

If using dog biscuits I use a bait band on a hair.

[Andy Macfarlane]

I just hair rig them now, it's a lot easier than the alternatives. I tie the hook on with a grinner and tie a little loop on the tag end as the hair, and use either one big biscuit or two smaller ones. Another benefit of haair rigging aside from it taking a lot of the hassle out ot it, is that the hook hangs below the bait, so the last bit of line is below the surface. I agree that you want most of your line to float, but you want the last bit to be sunk, or it sticks out like a sore thumb to the carp.

 

PS don't try to use flourocarbon as a leader/hooklength, it's too dense and sinks too much to be any use.

 

First time I've come across that idea mate. Yours or someone elses?