A COUPLE OF
HOURS IN
5m
4m
3m
2m
1m
MEAT
Meat can be a killer
bait for big carp,
but to keep them
interested you
need to have the
resources to hold
them in the swim.
One can of meat is a
lot, but always take
a couple of back-ups
in your bag, just in
case.
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My second approach is the 5m to 6m line.
This has been covered a lot in the past,
but spring is when it starts coming into
its own. Typically it starts to produce a
couple of hours into a session as the big
fish move towards the margins in search of
more feed, and the extra depth you have
by fishing at this distance is vital to the
fish feeding confidently in bright daylight
conditions.
To my mind there’s only one bait I’d
attack this swim with – meat! I like to use
the Bait-Tech N-Tice Polony, a great bait
which is slightly different to most luncheon
meats and also contains a lot less fat, which
can prove very effective for outsmarting the
bigger, clued up-carp. I prepare the feed for
this by using the 6mm blade on my meat
cutter, but always have some 8mm pieces
ready for standout hook bait.
Feeding is very simple on this line but
you need to be disciplined and keep bait
going in throughout the day. I pot in
around a quarter of a big pot at the start
of a session and will loose feed four to
five cubes every 90 seconds or so. This
provides a constant trickle of bait going
in, which will build the swim steadily for
a couple of hours before fishing it, but
before I do go in on it the last couple of
times I feed I’ll increase the bait to 10
cubes to get the fish feeding properly.
Once you begin to catch at five metres it’s
always best to double the amount of feed
you introduce. Around 10 to 12 pieces is
CORN
GROUNDBAIT
Corn as a superb big
carp bait, and acts
both a feed and as
an attractant due
to its bright colour.
It’s filling though,
so don’t over feed
it. This is how much
Tony puts into his
swim at a time.
Groundbait is the
perfect feed for the
margins. It creates
a large area of scent
both on the deck
and up on the water
to bring in and hold
big carp, but without
feeding them up which is perfect as
you want them to
home in on your
hookbait.
about right to keep the
fish in your swim.
Tackle for this line is a little different due to
it being a ‘bagging zone’. You need to be able to land
fish quickly and with minimal fuss, so for this reason
I use a 0.17mm main line. This gives me the option
of upping my hooklength diameter should things
get hectic, although I’d always start on an 0.15mm
hooklength.
Floatwise I find the MAP SD4 in a 4x14 to be the
best for this style, again shotted with a strung bulk
of No9s and plumbed to dead depth. A size 16 B911
would be my starting hook, going up to a 14 if I
needed to fish a bigger bait or I was catching a lot of
fish. Elastic is also beefed up a bit to a 12-16 MAP
Twin Core, which is still soft but has more power for
landing fish quicker.