Tuesday, 15th.January
The Back Lake, The Pads
09.50New Year, new rods, new reels, new tactics…
For the very first time and at long last I have managed to get in The Pads, for this is where I believe the fish are holed up and where I think I’ll get my best chance of a Back Lake carp.
The new rods are a set of three Wychwood Extricator Plus Tens. Ten feet long and three and a quarter pounds test curve, the shorter length preferred to enable greater accuracy in casting so that I can fish all three rods on one spot.
Over the Christmas period when I was confined to ‘barracks’, unable to fish (I had to sell all my rods and reels to raise the cash for the new kit) I did a lot of research into two of what are arguably the best anglers in the country - Kev Hewitt and Mark ‘Bart’ Bartlett. Both have represented England at international level on a number of occasions and have distinguished themselves in both competitive as well as ‘domestic’ carp fishing. They both fish the same way and this is no coincidence…
There are several Youtube videos by both anglers and their approach is almost identical - solid bags; but not just any old solid bags.
For those seeking details of the rigs, bags, and pellets used - and why, I would refer you to them, just put “Kev Hewitt solid bags”, and “Mark Bartlett solid bags” in the search feature of your Youtube App. However, in a (very small) nutshell: the smallest pva bags, packed with pellets no bigger than 2mm. Use of a four-inch supple braided hook-length tied to a number seven ESP ‘Gripper’ hook balancing a single plastic sweetcorn such that the eye of the hook just sits on the bottom.
Like many, I find it very difficult to use something plastic as a fishing bait but of course the essence of the approach is that the carp are not after the bait per se, but inhale it serendipitously (accidentally) whilst taking the one or two mouthfuls that constitute the bag contents.
Years ago I had some success with this approach whilst fishing the Highfield Syndicate near Canterbury. Round about August, the fish notoriously ‘got on the snails’ and no-one (and I mean NO-ONE) could get a bite on a boily. Either side of this period boilies were the preferred bait; whilst they were on the snails however, then nothing seemed to work.
I decided I would try to use a solid bag approach using Hemp in simulation of the snails (and treated with salt to make them pva ‘friendly’) as the bag contents, and a small ‘necklace’ of Enterprise Tackle artificial Hemp on the hair. This produced fish when all other methods failed and on reflection it did prove the value of using a buoyant, plastic bait, in amongst mouthfuls of feed they were prepared to eat. And so it is here…
I’m hedging my bets though because I only have the solid bag on one rod (and a little ‘off the pace’ as it were - not quite as close to the far reeds as I would like. Two ‘Ronnie Rigs’ to short ‘Korda Boom’ booms are on the other two rods and these are fishing nicely against the reeds (within a foot or so). Both carry pink ‘Northern Special NS1’ pop-ups. Pink is the preferred colour since the Korda ‘Underwater’ videos prove definitely that pink baits are singled out, whilst those of a beige or pale yellow colour all around them are left alone. On top of these offerings I have scattered corn. I was able to walk around to the far side and bait up by hand - not a lot, just enough to get a bite; carp seem to love corn and in the winter particularly they are a soft, digestible food, unlike boilies which are full of protein and fill the fish up in no time. The way I see it is, it’s like eating a plateful of salad as opposed to a plateful of steak; which would fill you up the sooner?
So there we have it. Too soon to give the verdict on the new rods and reels but my first impressions are very positive.
12.00
Christmas leftovers for lunch - two mince pies and a cup of ‘Yorkshire’!
The essence of ‘the method’ (not THE METHOD - as in Method Feeder) is Accuracy. Both Kev and Bart stress the importance of accurate baiting and accurate presentation. What is the point of spreading your options thinly about your swim? Once you have identified ‘The Spot’, three baits on it give you three times the chances that one bait would. You’ve only got to watch the ‘Underwater’ videos to see the number of times we get ‘done’ without even knowing it. Three baits multiplies your chances by three; if one of them is sitting on a stone or your hook-length is held up in some way - you would never know and only one bait on your spot would not be fishing well. Three baits positioned within a foot of each other also narrows the ‘corridor’ along which the mainlines are up off the bottom and advertising to the fish they are being fished for. Casting three baits hither and yon all over your swim effectively nullifies the middle rod altogether as the only way carp can approach the bait is from out in the lake towards you; I feel that they won’t cross these lines just to get to my offering! Much as I would like them to!
13.45Just had a chat to a guy walking round, about the Perch fishing on here. Reckons he’s had them to two-and-a-half but there are much bigger ones in here. Mmmmm. Must have a go at that.
A thirty pound carp was caught last week, I think he said from ‘The Hidden’. Generally however, things have been very slow lately. What fish that have been caught have been during the hours of darkness.
16.00
All set for the evening. Well almost…
I brought the rods in and went round and introduced a top-up of corn onto the spot; came back and re-cast all three rods and this is where things went a little ‘South’ as they say.
Range and position are critical in this peg. Near enough is not enough - I feel I have to be within inches of the reeds opposite to get a take. Although it took several goes to get the two ‘Ronnies’ bang on the money, the solid bag - forget it! Try as I might I just could not get it right. I went too far to the right, then too far to the left, then into the reeds. After half a dozen bags had been wasted I gave up and put a third ‘Ronnie’ on and even this took several attempts to get it in position.
The problem is the solid bag is a ‘one shot’ deal; you only get one cast at it. It’s either on the money or it’s not and you have to reel in and put another bag on. Where inches are critical it’s just not the way to go. Open water yes. Casting to very confined spots, absolutely not! Lesson learned!
16.20
There’s some activity from small fish. They’re probably after the corn I baited with!
21.00
Late night cuppa. Sitting up listening to the shenanigins going on in Parliament re the Brexit vote.
I had a couple of line bites not long after dark. First the right-hand rod, then the middle rod. Must have been fish picking up the line and moving from right to left. There’s something out there!
Wednesday, 16th.January
08.00Blank. Nothing. Nadda…
Unlike some of the blanks I have done on here I think there is much I can take away from the session. Although I didn’t catch anything, I fished well, adapting from my original plan and putting myself in the best possible shape to take advantage of any opportunity should it arise.
The failure to get the solid bags on the spot was understandable and predictable. With a ‘one shot’ technique such as solid bag fishing, you get only one chance - your bag lands either on the spot or it doesn’t. It simply does not lend itself to repeated attempts at hitting what is an extremely small target area. The problem is that the reed-line is not parallel to the bank; it angles. Cast slightly to the left and you are short of the reeds; cast slightly to the right and you overcast and land right in the reeds. Clipping-up helps of course but the clipping-distance varies according to whereabouts along the reed-line the target spot is.
The new rods and reels are a definite advantage. I love the new Wychwood Extricators and although it is still early days I think it well worth paying the extra for the 40T carbon. They are light, cast a solid bag with ease, but have none of the ‘poker’ action my 12ft. Fox Horizon 3.5s did. Most of all however I love the balance of these rods. I have recently discovered how to assess the balance of a rod - and to quantify it. Put a reel on the reel seat and balance the rod on one finger and measure the distance from the middle of the reel seat to the ‘balance point’. The further the point of balance is away from the reel seat, the more un-balanced and ‘top-heavy’ the rod is. My Fox Horizons and Wychwood Riot 75 reels resulted in a balance point about a foot up the rod whereas the new Extricators balance just an inch or two in front of the reel seat.
High Tensile carbon is what you get when you pay more and the benefits in terms of lightness, stiffness, and balance, are well worth it.
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