Hi to all from SA

[borntofish]

Hi All,

Looking forward to some healthy discussions, been reading the old posts and yes learnt a few things. It is autum this side so yes for me the start of hopefully a sucsseful winter with the carp.

 

Born to fish

forced to work

[Andrew Burgess]

Hello borntofish and welcome to the Anglersnet!

[*Ant*]

And a big welcome from me as well.

[Newt]

Hi bornto and welcome.

 

Do you use the ground maize balls for your carping? They have always seemed very similar to the US packbaits but for some reason, I've had zero luck trying to convince the UK carpers to give them a try.

 

Otherwise, these folks seem to have a pretty good handle on carp angling. :D

[Gaz51]

Hi borntofish, welcome to the forum.

 

Lot's of tips available from a very wide range of anglers who don't mind sharing information. That's one of the reasons why I hang around here!

[borntofish]

Hi newt,

yes on this side of the ocean maize balls work and work well. i think the secret is in the mixing once you have got it right, you gain confidence in it. remember for years it was the only why we fished here, so most of our tactics are formed around this idea.

The method as i think it is called in the UK, not sure how popular it is there, but as we call it meilie boms, it was for years the only why everybody fished.

Boilies, specialised fishing or what ever you want to call it has only started to really catch on this side, even more so now that the 2008 world chapionship is to be held on this side of the world.

 

Born to fish

Forced to work

[Newt]

We have quite a few carpers here who use pack baits all the time. Main difference I can see is that while the meilie bom is always maize based, pack baits aren't. Millet is popular as is trout chow, rolled oats, and a variety of other items.

 

Ours are probably closer to what the UK guys use in their method feeders but don't use a feeder. The mix is designed to 'pack' around some sort of hook bait firmly enough to survive a cast but then to break apart within 5 minutes or less leaving the hook bait sitting on top of a pile of goodies. Here is a pack bait article I wrote several years ago.

 

Boilies are good if you have a water with lots of nuisance fish that would otherwise destroy your hook bait but otherwise, I still prefer paste or grains of sweet corn or something.

 

I suspect some of our pack bait users will be down your way in 2008 so the results should be really interesting.

 

What's the venue?

[borntofish]

Newt,

The venue is still being sorted out I think, but my guess is Bloemhof dam. The South African Chapionship was held the and a lot of carp were landed, with minimum interferance from the cats. The average catch was nearly 200 kgs for the 72 hour period, that is two anglers on a peg. All fish had to weigh more than 1.5 kgs.

 

We have a few actually quite a few mixes here one you can buy at the tackle shop and is made or put together just using water at the venue.

 

I prefer my own mix that contains a lot of seads and nice things to keep the carp busy in the swim, yes I still put one line in with maize on, one with a boilie, we can now get boilies that do not contain fish meal so the cats are not so inclined to pick the baits up. The Tiger nuts, have these things changed the fishing over here, man every mag you read, tiger nuts, every catch reported tiger nuts, every tackle shop ad tiger nuts.

 

Well I suppose while they are woking and yes they work well why not.

 

Borntofish

Forced to work

[Dick Dastardly]

Welcome to AN Borntofish.Be interesting to read your veiws on things.Never been to SA or fished there but Im sure you must have some interesting stuff going on there.

[Newt]

I prefer my own mix that contains a lot of seads and nice things to keep the carp busy in the swim,

As do I but most of mine use a sweet sryup to help as a binder and the mix needs to sit for 2-5 days after mixing to work properly. I grind the seeds so they also soak up some of the molasses (used for flavor but also help a little with the binding).

 

That being said, I have tried about a dozen different 'layer mash' brands (high protein chicken feed designed to be fed to laying hens) and have found several that will do nicely if mixed at the bank and let sit for only a few minutes. Not sure what exactly is the difference but while most just don't bind well enough to survive a cast, 1 is excellent at binding and another is very good and seems to attract more fish.

 

Using balls of the layer mash about the size of a chicken egg and packed firmly around my hookbait.