6 June 2015 – Catch Report from: Team Fish It Baits

Fish It Baits anglers get the whole Beausoleil experience with some massive catfish banked and plenty of stunning carp!

This week we welcomed Fish It Baits boss (Chris) and his crack team of field testers who were keen to do some product evaluation on our water with their baits. Lead tester Jay led the way with carp from the off from short of the aerator. Jay kept the traps small and fished for one bite at a time to keep the runs coming and caught a hatful of specimen carp ranging from low twenties to mid thirties. While resting the swim most days, Jay had great fun trying to stalk some of our big carp as they laid up in the margins in some shade. At one point he told me he saw the big grassy, a massive cat and a large carp all sharing the shade of the same tree! It’s rare sights like this that make a trip to Beausoleil such a memorable occasion. Jay’s a very experienced and capable angler but no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t fool our carp into taking his offerings while stalking. It has been done but it’s very very hard. I love the fact that he gave it a proper go mind!

A little baiting experiment

Right now the clarity of the water at Beausoleil is at the best I’ve ever seen. You can actually see the bottom in 3ft of water which if you’ve been to the venue before you’ll know that this is very unusual. It’s a very positive sign and an indication that we did the right thing this winter with our massive silt removal project. Chris used this to great effect as he was able to trickle bait into spot where he thought the carp would feed and evaluate their reaction to the free offerings. What was interesting to note was that if they only dotted 6 or so baits on a spot, after a couple of hours they were all gone. if they put more in (20 in a tight group) the carp stayed well away and ignored these as a blatant trap! I still believe that we have a lot to learn about baiting strategy. It’s so easy to put too much in and kill your chances stone dead before you’ve even started! Everything Chris tested worked so he’s obviously a man that knows a thing or two about bait! On the fishing front Chris’s objectives were very clear…. one 80lb catfish. Well, he got off to a great start with a 62lb, followed it with an 85lber, then a 90lber then a 92lber. Job done I reckon!

For Bernie and Sam the week was a slow one, they had a social up on the dam wall for the first 3 days but only had one carp to show for their efforts between them. I met Bernie on Wednesday and he fancied a move down the other end and I told him to go for it as the carp were there in numbers. Bernie switched to Jay’s snowman presentation (pink snowman and a little PVA stick) and flicked one out towards the aerator from the home swim and was into a carp within a few hours. A new PB of 33lbs made the effort of the move worthwhile! Bernie had another nice upper twenty from 2 rod lengths out in front of home swim too. Sam stuck to his guns of baiting the snake bank margin and it just didn’t happen. He did manage a low twenty and got smashed by a big cat… that I’m afraid  is why it’s called fishing and not catching! As always it was great to meet them and share in the highs and lows of their holiday and we very much look forward to welcoming them back in the future.