Angling Lines Blog

Oliver Wilkinson wrote:
Hi there I fish at my local day ticket water Birkwoods farm in Stanley Wakefield it is a 10 yr old lake holding hundreds of 4lb carp but there bigger fish my question is how do you get to the bigger fellas if all methods used bring the 4lbs in and there a few bans which are no nuts or boilies I’ve tried the method float fishing slugs corn pellets   surface fishing with bread dog biscuits cat food weetoes your help could make me a very happy lad cheers

Gareth replies:
Hi Olivier,
Silly bait bans unfortunately do you no favours in this case as my usual tactics if I’m plagued by small carp is to use the biggest boilie I can, say 25mm or bigger. While small fish will nibble away at the bait, it gives the bigger fish time to get to your bait…

Ok so this is not possible. There is a theory, mentioned in Hutchy’s ‘A Carp Strikes Back’ and put into practice years ago by Mike Wilson in Kent, called the “Baiting pyramid”.
His theory, that he put into practice and it worked, was to bait heavily with particles, maize, chick peas or maples. He baited several times a week without fishing the swim. He did this for two to three weeks before casting a line.

The idea behind it was that in the natural world the bigger more dominant fish will move onto a regular food source and force out the smaller fish.
You need to give this time to happen as fishing before the big carp move in properly would result in failure. This is one solution.

Secondly you can perhaps use larger artificial boilies… bait with particles, pellets of whatever and fish a big bait the small fish can’t take on the hook. Your method needs to deter the small carp from biting, while giving the bigger fish chance. The large ones will certainly be around the swim.

Finally you could simply try baiting on area with your regular bait and fishing a single hook bait outside your baited area. The larger fish are almost certainly attracted to the feeding activity of the small carp, but can’t get a look in. A single hooker out of the area can sometimes trip them up.

If these type of tactics don’t work, then I fear the only solution is to find a venue with less smaller fish.

Tight Lines
Gareth

Tags: angling, bait, boilie, boilies, carp, Carp Fishing Tips, chick, fishing, maize, method, pyramid, queries, question, solution, tactics, techniques, venues

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