Hi to all from SA

[borntofish]

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.

 

I always soak my mix, high amount of yellow maize, and a mix that the local co op makes up and sells as garden bird feed, this contains a lot of small seeds for at least 36 hours, then put it through the mincer, i then add chick peas, maple peas, peanuts, the peanuts I always test that when pessed between the finger and thumb they fall apart.

 

I will then put it all in the micro wave for twenty mins. At the water i add hemp seed.

 

The sweetner i use is Stevia a natural sweetner. This is very powerful stuff so I only add it at the micro stage.

[Newt]

LOL - bornto, you may notice that our baiting tactics are just a bit too strange for the UK guys who tend to be really leary of methods they've never seen.

 

I'd lay odds that even though we both do pretty well with meilie bom/packbait tactics and even though you will see posts talking about the benefits of 'doing something a bit different' on pressured carp waters, that about zero folks will want to try either of them.

 

I think that traditionalist may be the operative word here. :D

[borntofish]

I'd lay odds that even though we both do pretty well with meilie bom/packbait tactics and even though you will see posts talking about the benefits of 'doing something a bit different' on pressured carp waters, that about zero folks will want to try either of them.

 

I think that traditionalist may be the operative word here. :D

 

Newt, I can tell you from my own experiance that it is hard to change, it took me two years to except hair rigs/ Specimin fishing as a whole and to trust them, I mean here you are at the water and you are trying something new and the guy in the swim next to you is catching fish, then you soon change back.

 

I think baiting up is important, and using the pack bait method is quick and easy, I have tried spodding, catapults even had a few goes with a boilie stick (fun and games) yes it has its uses but nowhere as quick. Using pack baits I can get the bait and ground bait to where I want, I think the trap set has proved itself over and over. I will also say this, we are lucky no pressure on the fish, so why change.

 

I have fished this method for forty years so why change, most of the time with the same baits. I know some guys from the UK did fish here and took some of our stuff back, the reports I got back is they made a killing on the waters they fished but they ran out of stuff. I still send some stuff to one chap in the UK, he uses it.

He in turn sends me stuff, where I live it is 150Km to the nearest tackle shop that stocks boilies and any stuff I need to make rigs. The local tackle shop only stocks the stuff for the "traditional south african fishing".

 

Born to fish

 

Forced to work

[RobStubbs]

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.

 

Bloemhof rings a bell with me, trying to think if that's where I fished a few years ago. A very big dam but with tons of small (and very small) carp. So many small carp that quite a few of us switched to the cats as they were far bigger and fewer in number.

 

Rob.

[borntofish]

Bloemhof rings a bell with me, trying to think if that's where I fished a few years ago. A very big dam but with tons of small (and very small) carp. So many small carp that quite a few of us switched to the cats as they were far bigger and fewer in number.

 

Rob.

 

Rob,

yes Bloemhof is big, I know a lot of chaps from the UK have fished there with yes the same complaint. The fishing has improved somewhat, a lot of small fish have been netted out.

Cats are stll a pest, any boilie with fishmeal in goes to the cats.

 

I think the problem is going to be accomadation, so a big water will have to be used, but they still have some time to sort out a suitable venue.

[borntofish]

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.

 

Budgie,

Yes I used to belong to a lot of forums a few years ago, made the mistake of getting into discussions about things I new nothing about, the traditional way of angling here in SA is not very fish friendly, so a lot of lobbing is going on to have rules changed and make the angling more fish friendly.

 

What has happend is that the specimin anglers now have thier own rules and do things like most in the UK and the others carry on thier way.

[RobStubbs]

Rob,

yes Bloemhof is big, I know a lot of chaps from the UK have fished there with yes the same complaint. The fishing has improved somewhat, a lot of small fish have been netted out.

Cats are stll a pest, any boilie with fishmeal in goes to the cats.

 

I think the problem is going to be accomadation, so a big water will have to be used, but they still have some time to sort out a suitable venue.

 

I fished there with an English 'company' <cough, cough> but I went back out there just with the SA guy and to a different venue - Bruce Johnson from Eagle fishing safari's - I think he called it then. Haven't heard from him for a couple of years but we used to keep in touch.

 

As for Bloemhof - I know it did odd big fish but very rare. When we fished it there was about 10 of us and we didn't have one over 20lb (7 or 8 Kg ?) and we had literally thousands of fish over the week. Like I said the carp were so small as to be a nuisance hence we went for the specimen sized cats - up to about 35 or 40lb I think.

 

Rob.