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The Subtle Things – Iain Macmillan.
There’s know doubt that there will always be anglers on any lake up and down the land that consistently manage to catch more than the masses.
Some may just get lucky on a regular occasion, some may do more time than others, but most of the decent anglers who catch more than the average, rely on a small armoury of subtle edges or refinements that help to stack the odds in their favour. Most are not ground breaking or represent major steps forward in carp fishing, they are just tried and tested tactics that give the angler behind the rods more confidence in what they are doing.
For as many years as I can remember I’ve always tipped my bottom baits with something or other. This not only gives the bait some added buoyancy, but also raises the carps awareness to its presence and hopefully it will entice the fish to pick the hookbait up much quickly than normal, thus resulting in more bites and fish landed.
GET ON THE MUTANTS!
Since my introduction to the extensive Nash range of artificial baits which go under the ‘Mutant’ banner, I’ve watched my catch rate rocket.
Admittedly not out of sight, but so much so that unless I’m using a Choddy I won’t cast out without one of my artificial balls of wonder!! I have used the standard plastic corn in the past, and I’ve had great success on it, but the Mutant 10 millers are a different gravy, I’ve found that they balance out a 15 mm bottom bait perfectly and give the angler the desired balance between something bright to attract the fish’s attention. This creates a hookbait that flies into the carp’s mouth and puts them bang in trouble at the first time of asking.
For me now, the plastic corn has lost its appeal and I’ve fallen in love with the Mutant 10’s. It’s a confidence thing, I know full well if I tipped my rigs with the Mutant plastic corn I’d probably catch just the same fish, but bugger that, I’m not about to change the winning formula.
Another edge I’ve used for years is to glug my artificial baits, even before my involvement with Nash I used their Sweetcorn Extract for years as a glug. These days since being privy to the rest of their range of glugs, oils and palatants I’ve now started to experiment with the Strawberry Oil Palatant. This stuff smells so good its unbelievable!
It was actually something I saw Nash’s Alan Blair and Matt Downing demonstrating at an open day in the spring, I noticed it was so strong and oily that it turned the white plastic tub a lighter pinky colour.
As with all my artificials, I pierce them before leaving them for months in the oily liquid to soak so it can be properly taken on board, again its just a confidence thing. If you bore them out first then surely more of the liquid will end up in the bait rather than just coating the outer layers.
Not that technical I hear you cry, well the best laid plans certainly are not, like I said subtle changes that WILL make all the difference to your catch rates.
KEEP IT SIMPLE!
It’s the same with rigs, I get loads of people at shows and on the bank asking about rigs and I’m sure the public expect you to have a battery of fancy rigs with all sorts of dangly things hanging off them to boost catch rates, when in fact nothing could be further from the truth. I tend to use 3 rigs for 99% of my angling, which are a coated braid with a size 7 Fang Twister hook for my bottom bait/tipped angling, a Choddy for weedy situations and a zig/floater set up, that’s it!! And I also know that the majority of the so called ‘big name anglers’ use exactly the same.
Steve Renyard who is something of a rig guru, constantly changes his rigs as he is ultra paranoid that the fish get away with it far too often, now I wont argue with Steve’s results as he rinses everywhere he goes, but on the flip side of that I catch more than my share on very standard rigs. At the end of the day I suppose if you put a half decent rig in the right place you’ll catch them, but put an all singing & dancing rig in the right place and the fish don’t stand a bloody chance eh?
STRAYING FROM THE PATH
I’ve had a few instances this year on Monks Pit where I know I’ve been done as the silicone on the shank of the hook has been blown right back up the shank of the hook on retrieval. So with all things going well on the catch rate front I tried changing things about a bit for two reasons. First I’d obviously been done, and secondly I was convinced some of the bigger residents that only grace the banks a couple of times a year were definitely feeding but getting away with it.
It coincided with a bit of filming I’d done with Rich Whilby on rigs, so I got out the old Ting Tong magic hat, fumbled about a bit inside it and out popped 3 lovely crafted works of art in the form of the stiff hinged rig, even Birchy commented that they were too nice to actually cast out into the pond!! Now if I’m honest here I wasn’t 100% sure why I had changed all 3 rods, I suppose in for a penny and all that, but surely the carp wouldn’t know what had hit them if they so much as sneezed near one of them hinged stiff rigs. I’d love to tell the story of how I caught all the big uns in the place now but in truth the following morning I took the things off and went back to what I know, and do best, which is keeping things simple!! And the result a bit later in the month, loads of 30s, a couple of 37s and the icing on the cake with ‘Mr Grey’ at 44.6, stupid bloody stiff hinged thingies eh??
What I’m trying to get over here is just keep an open mind to what others are doing, I mean Lee Birch is catching as many as I am on Monks Pit on his version of the stiff hinged rig only he fishes the boom section with a much more subtle hooklink, again a little edge that works for him, but he was scratching his head as all around him were catching bigger fish than him and I think it was getting to him a bit.
THE RIGHT GEAR
I suggested he move over to the Fang Twister/coated braid rig which I was doing well on, but like me and the stiff hinged rig, Lee doesn’t have loads of confidence in that particular rig so you have to get through the rough times and come up with something that you’ve worked out for yourself and had success on, and believe me the rewards feel even sweeter.
Lee’s time will come, he catches far too many to not have his day, although he had over 60 fish in a season from Monks last year yet no 40, then lads come on this year and have 7 or 8 bites with two of the big boys in for good measure, I’ve worked it out in Lee’s case anyway, its his crocodile shoes (he’s a Geordie boy) nobody catches big uns if they wears crocodile shoes!!!!!
CHODDY BOOSTERS
Another great edge for the Choddy is to fish a bright pop up over your free offerings, this tactic is a bit like the plastic baits theory, as in you are trying to get the carp to come in and nail the hookbait first rather than waiting for the fish to clean you out before buggering off. I know it’s a tactic lads like Gaz Fareham and Jon McAllister swear by, and I’ve included them in my armoury of late with good results to show. I think the underlining factor in all of the above is little things do make all the difference in the long run, and as immaterial or superficial you think they are in other anglers hands, they all provide the ‘personal touch’ in our angling, and who are we to argue with that?
I suppose if we all angled and had the same approach then carp angling would be so stale and the fish would so have the upper hand as they very obviously learn by association and will only get nailed on the same old things, so many times.
I’ll leave you with this bit of advice, we all sit behind motionless rods for hours upon hours, so use that time wisely, think about what you are doing, maybe tie up a couple of modified rigs, they could get you those extra bites. Why not experiment with those artificial baits and flavours? Get busy and get catching, see you next time.
BE LUCKY – IAIN MACMILLAN