Fishing report from: Matt & Ren

A week of fishing experiments

This week we moved into Beausoleil as unfortunately some guests had to cancel at the last minute.

Testing a new running clip

This year I’ve been testing a new product from Nash that will come out next year that’s a brand new design of running clip. It works along similar principles to a running ledger and what I like about it is that it combines the advantages of a lead clip and a running lead without any of the downsides of either system. The other big advancement is in rig safety. We’ll be publishing a full video on this when the product comes out and I’ll have some in stock next year to show anglers.

Targeting the ‘bubblers’

I’ve moved away from using my bait boat and instead I’ve been experimenting with using the rowing boat and the Bushwhacker with just 3 sections. This hybrid approach means I can be super accurate and super stealthy which is very important here. Obviously there’s a bit of a knack to it but it’s deadly effective. It’s been especially effective when targeting “bubblers”. I’ve never had much success at targeting carp by going off the telltale feeding bubbles they release from the silt but because this technique is so stealthy and I can get myself close to the action, I can literally drop a rig 12” off the bubbling carp without spooking him. The result has been quicker bites (as long as I’ve got everything else right!)

Bait & rigs

This week I mainly used the Scopex Squid 18mm bottom baits fished as a spread pattern of freebies and plenty of 7mm house pellets. Hook baits have either been single Scopex Squid or a wafter/tiger nut cocktail and a few on double tiger nuts fished over a generous dollop of small seed mix and a handful of tigers as freebies. At the start of the session I started off with 3 small bushwhacker sized traps. All of these were sprung on the first night so I really let them have it with the house pellet. I rested the swim for two days while I was feeding them. When I got back in the game, I set some smaller traps over the top of the larger beds of feed and the bites kept coming. I did get through a number of sacks of pellets but I wanted to take the opportunity to feed the fish now that the oxygen is better. As the week went on, it was obvious from my test method that the fish were slowing down. I had whacked a good load of grub into them. I still had two crackers on the last night so I didn’t overdo it but I didn’t top up with any more so that there won’t be any bait residue from my session when the new group arrives on Saturday.

On the rig front I had a few on a new little mono rig I’m testing and a few on a new multi rig I’m working on. The mono rig will certainly be on YouTube at some point (probably next year now).

On the up

What was really nice to see was that most of the carp I caught were up in weight from their previous best weights. Considering the extreme summer we’ve had with low oxygen, lower than normal lake levels and green algae, the fact that the fish weights are up means that our aeration systems have enabled them to feed when they’ve needed it. While we have seen some massive gains of 5lbs a year from a few of the new carp we’ve introduced, it’s more normal to see 1.5 – 2lbs per year growth. This slow and steady approach is better for the carp and better for us as anglers. Every big-un means that much more because these are not young fish, some of them have been around for a very long time. So we’re looking forward to seeing what happens over the next few weeks!