IT’S MONDAY and that means it’s carp blog time. This week we are pleased to welcome the guys from… Nash. Thanks to Nash man Keith Jones for supplying this round-up. He opens it up and adds contributions from some top names.
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NASH CARP FISHING TIPS FOR AUGUST
AUGUST can be a tough month to catch carp; it can often be difficult to achieve any kind of consistency in our fishing at this time of the year.
This is particularly so on many well stocked commercial waters, where the effects of months of relentless angler pressure has made carp that were previously relatively easy to catch, quite hard to tempt. I’ve heard it referred to in the past as a ‘touch of the Augusts’ which kind of sums it up nicely don’t you think?
Post spawning, the carp are hungry so quality food helps to stack the odds in our favour. A high food value boilie will often out-fish everything during August, you don’t necessarily need to use large amounts, and just a few handfuls are enough to get the fish focused on your baited spots. Although I’ve been experimenting recently with small amounts of particles, pellets and other alternatives, when fishing on the bottom, boilies are catching the vast majority of fish for me.
During the recent high temperatures many of us have been struggling with patchy results fishing on the bottom, with bites coming during just one or two short ‘windows of opportunity’ during a 24 hour period. Timings vary but a couple of hours after first light and again during the evening as light levels and temperatures slowly drop seem to be typical bite times. Anglers who have been fishing a more proactive approach and switching between surface, zig, bottom baits and other alternative tactics have been catching more consistency.
Take plenty of options
Looking at the recent catch reports from some of our sponsored anglers, those using the Bolt Machines and Riser Pellets have been catching very well.
The surface ‘bolt effect’ created by our unique Bolt Machine surface controllers can really catch out even the most spooky surface feeders, the tiny Riser Pellets rise and fall throughout the water column and create an amazing feeding response. The carp soon go into an absolute feeding frenzy and once this starts you can catch them on just about any floating hook bait. These pellets seem to trigger heavy feeding from the lakebed to the surface.
Using the Risers and fishing in depths of between two to five feet I’ve had great results fishing pop ups on high chods, these being long curved rigs up to 10 inches in length baited with a bright hook bait. Just recently on one of the hottest days of the year I caught nine carp with these tactics in really unfavourable conditions. I’m actually looking forward to August this year as I’m sure these alternative methods will continue to catch regardless of what the unpredictable summer weather decides to throw at us!
‘Get mobile – the fish are” – says BERNARD ANDERSON
The recent high temperatures have certainly made the carp tricky to catch so I’ve had to work hard to maximise the chance of success. Each year when the water temperatures have risen and the carp have spawned they become mobile!
As the carp become more mobile so do I and my golden rule is to fish where they are and at the moment there’s a good chance this will mean fishing in shallow water. As a general rule, much of the creatures that make up a carp’s natural diet need vegetation (weed) to survive and most of the vegetation holding natural food in any venue will be found in the shallower parts where there is access to plenty of vital sunlight. It stands to reason that the carp will visit these areas regularly in order to find that all important food.
If your chosen lake doesn’t hold that much shallow water then the margins will most likely offer the same sort of vegetation, depths and food stuffs for carp.
Bernard Anderson
During August I will rarely be leaving the house with more than a 9ft Scope rod, net, matt and a couple of pockets full of bait and tackle and I’ll be focussing my efforts on the margins. Tracking carp in the margins is an incredibly exciting pursuit, I also learn a lot about the venue and the carp that inhabit it which will also prove invaluable when fishing a more static approach later in the year.
Bolt Machines and Riser Pellets – an unbeatable combination
For me, tackling up for stalking is a simple affair, fishing close to the bank negates the need for any sort of weight on the line and more often than not I will be free-lining with nothing more than a hook tied to the end of my main line.
Nash Tackle’s De-Cam mono is my first choice main line. It’s virtually bomb proof with exceptional abrasion resistance, it also sinks like a brick and is invisible against any lakebed colour or shade. I’m sure carp find it almost impossible to detect.
Stalking baits, like in all types of fishing, are a personal choice but I find very little beats the humble lobworm, although I’d never leave home without some pellets and bright hook baits and a few floaters. The new mini sized Bolt Machines are also proving perfect for nailing margin surface cruisers.
With angling pressure at a seasonal high, for me, the margins really do provide the best chance of success; the chances are they will for you to – good luck!
‘Buck the trend” – says JULIAN CUNDIFF
With temperatures soaring and weed taking hold at many waters I do see a lot of anglers going through the motions when it comes to baiting approaches. “Oh they are not having it so let’s fish single baits etc…” seems to be the common approach.
Now if that is working well keep at it but I have found that bucking the trend really does seem to make all the difference. Once I have found the carp I spend as much time as possible watching how they behave in that area. They will follow patterns of behaviour which gives you a big edge when you are trying to outwit them. What I have found to work well is to combine particles, pellets and boilies in as small a form as possible and saturate these patrol routes.
My usual mix is 40% hemp, 40% crumbed boilies and 20% pellets. If bream and / or tench are present in numbers I avoid the pellets and go 50/50 with crumb and hemp. I add a handful of small 10mm boilies and some chops just to keep the carp rooting…A good addition is liquidised sweet corn which has all the attraction and no visual spook either! Carp love the combination ( I use Monster Squid as my boilie and pellet ) and not only do they make mistakes over it they root around clearing holes in the weed making presentation easier.
Hookbait wise I tend to use a tiny 10mm pop up on a Fang X hook in 7 and 8 or occasionally a snowman combining maybe a tiger nut and a trimmed Monster Squid pop up so it just sinks. After each fish I top up with a large pouchfull of Soluballs lightly glazed in Monster Squid Arouser.17 carp on 2 overnighters proves how good a tactic it is too! Find them, watch them and feed them…..and reap the rewards!
‘Tackle ‘em on the top” – says IAN SMITH
Our tests have proven that Critical Floaters create better hook holds
With record high temperatures last month there was only one method on my mind and that was floater fishing.
It never takes much persuading for me to get the floater kit out but with more dedicated products from Nash being released like the Session Packs and Critical Floaters to accompany the awesome Riser Pellet I feel better geared up for it than ever.
Work for me is more hectic than ever lately and as we all know the first thing to suffer is our fishing. So knowing that doing my 24 hour session each week will become more and more difficult I joined a little club only 10 minutes’ drive from my house so that once or twice a week I could go up and have just 2-3 hours after work. Now there are no monsters in this lake most of the fish are between 15-20 lbs. but there is 2-3 low 30s in there that rarely grace the bank.
The reason for choosing this lake apart from its logistical position to my house is that it’s only 6 acres but is very deep, 15-20 feet in most places. This may sound quite a strange decision but as the lake is small the fish are never going to be too far away, also you can generally see most of the lake and keep an eye on it from one location.
Secondly, and most importantly, if it’s deep, as soon as the temperature is up even a couple of degrees the fish are well up in the upper layers of the water giving me a good shot of catching them off the top in my short sessions.
To be honest I thought my plan was all going to go pear shaped when I walked around one warm afternoon prior to fishing it. I took a couple of handfuls of chum mixers with me and steadily fed them into an area where fish where clearly showing only for every biscuit to be totally ignored. After walking around the lake and speaking to one chap who was fishing he told me that they had been hammered off the top and I wouldn’t get a touch.
Ian Smith has success on the floaters
Well two days later I returned to the lake to fish this time with a Session Pack of Riser Pellet and some of the new Critical Floater hook baits flavoured with Pure Crustacean Extract. The Critical Floaters look a bit like 10mm pop ups but they actually sit lower in the water rather like a saturated dog biscuit. Tests have shown that they really improve hook holds and convert more occurrences into fish on the bank.
The Crustacean Extract is an amazing surface attractor and carp are drawn to it like a magnet, sorry if this sounds like a blatant plug but these products really are seriously good! Anyway I started feeding the Risers in on the back of a light breeze and let it drift towards where the fish were showing. Well after 30 minutes of the fish picking off one or two bits of the pellet they threw caution to the wind and started going crazy for it.
Once I had got them feeding hard it was just a case of casting well past them with the Bolt Machine controller ( these create a very effective surface bolt effect) and a 6 foot zig Flo hook link with a Critical Floater as hook bait. Within 30 seconds of drawing it into the taking zone the float was zooming across the surface. After a really hard fought battle a nice 14lbs mirror was in the net.
However this was only the start, at the end of my first session I’d landed 5 carp to 22lbs and since then I have made another 6 visits to the lake, none of them being more than 3 hours in length and have landed 24 carp to 31lbs 7oz.
Get on the floaters!
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