Help on carp baits and ground baits and other methods

[henda11]

ok this is the deal, ive been finish 2 days in a row, im using a feeder and a simple hair rig with a strawberry boilies, im getting the swim going etc... with the groundbait and i am catching jack **** lol...excuse my language, anyway..i was wondering if anyone could give me a decent list of boilies or baits, and a good list of groundbait and mixtures..thanks

 

also what other feeders can i use for carp?

[Anderoo]

ok this is the deal, ive been finish 2 days in a row, im using a feeder and a simple hair rig with a strawberry boilies, im getting the swim going etc... with the groundbait and i am catching jack **** lol...excuse my language, anyway..i was wondering if anyone could give me a decent list of boilies or baits, and a good list of groundbait and mixtures..thanks

 

also what other feeders can i use for carp?

 

Hi Henda

 

In my humble opinion, bait is one of the least important factors in fishing and is most likely not the reason you're blanking. Anglers, and specifically carpers, are constantly being marketed to and told that the reason the 'names' are catching is because they're using a wonder bait or extremely clever new rig. It's not - they're fishing nearly all the time at waters that hold very big fish and they're good anglers.

 

I would say that these are the most important aspects of fishing, in order (taken all together, you get 'watercraft'):

1. Location. If you're fishing where there are no fish, no special bait or rig will help! On most lakes, a lot of the water will be empty of fish at any one time.

2. Feeding. Not exactly what you feed but how and how often. Even in a fishless swim careful feeding can entice fish in and encourage them to feed, or make a passing fish pause for a quick feed. And in a swim where there are fish, careful feeding will keep them there and keep them feeding.

3. Timing. Carp will spend a lot of their time not feeding. If you can fish for them when they're feeding you're more likely to catch them, and that may be a window of a couple of hours at dawn or dusk.

 

If you get the above right pretty much any well presented bait will catch you fish.

 

All this changes from water to water of course, which is why there are no real answers. Even on a water you know well things change from hour to hour depending on the weather, time of year, time of day, the number of people fishing and how they're fishing, etc etc etc!

 

Sorry if this sounds patronising, it's not meant that way - I just don't want you to spend a load of money of expensive bait when maybe all you need to do is change swim and fish at a different time of day.

 

As a few general pointers:

 

Boilies are not the only bait - try sweetcorn, luncheon meat, maggots, worm, bread.

Carp are not the only fish - if you're not catching floatfish a maggot and catch some roach and bream!

Dusk and dawn are good times to be fishing.

On many lakes carp will follow a warm wind and hide at the back of a cold one.

All carp everywhere like hemp! Use it as an attractor.

Carp generally like quite shallow water near weed/lillies/reeds/trees.

 

Good luck!

[henda11]

the lake where i fish is definently stocked with fish, last week wen the kids were off school on the friday there was the club lake baliffs fishing and they had been there since the night time and one of them came out with 17 carp.. i know theres definently fish in there as they a netting scheme to check the stocks and there was 200+ carp over 5lbs not to mention the 17 20lbs they found

[Guest Brumagem Phil]

henda, the carp are spawning right now which makes fishing for em VERY hit n miss. You'll bag up one day and swear blind the place has been netted if you fish it the next day!

 

Give it another couple of weeks and things should become more predictable.

[Rich Habbershaw]

henda, the carp are spawning right now which makes fishing for em VERY hit n miss. You'll bag up one day and swear blind the place has been netted if you fish it the next day!

 

Give it another couple of weeks and things should become more predictable.

 

Spot on with that one Phil, fished two weeks ago at my local private pond and caught 17 carp ... the following week, zip *lol*

 

Like the earlier reply said, try fishing for other species if the carp aren't playing, though be warned I think some species spawn the same time of year as carp .... I think bream do?

[Anderoo]

the lake where i fish is definently stocked with fish, last week wen the kids were off school on the friday there was the club lake baliffs fishing and they had been there since the night time and one of them came out with 17 carp.. i know theres definently fish in there as they a netting scheme to check the stocks and there was 200+ carp over 5lbs not to mention the 17 20lbs they found

 

Sure, it's not that there aren't any fish but rather that they're either (a) somewhere else (another part of the lake or a different area of your swim) and/or ( not feeding while you're there. Maybe they feed mainly at night?