Fishing is a Family Affair

WORDS & IMAGES: Jonathan Adams In South Africa there are many tricks that anglers use to help them land the bigger carp, and while some anglers do share their secrets with others, others would rather keep their tips to themselves. I would be the angler that shares information to help other anglers have success at the different venues they encounter. Over the years I have learned several tips and tricks from other anglers which I have tweaked along the way just to make sure I do land fish at these venues. In this article I share what works for me and my family – for the Adams family preparation is a key factor when it comes to visiting a venue, whether it is a new one or one known to us. Fishing opposite margins. Get to know the area and the water you are fishing. Doing research on the venue you are going to visit is very important; use the Internet (Google) to see which baits and flavours have worked at the venue for other anglers in the past weeks. Take note of the season you are fishing in, as fish tend to bite on different flavours in different seasons. There are many groups on Facebook that can help with this information and there is a handful of anglers who are more than willing to share past experiences. Soaking your particle mix/groundbait. Every angler has his or her way of soaking groundbaits. For my particle mix, I take each ingredient and soak it in its own bucket, filling the buckets just enough to cover the ingredients. (See particle list under Tech Info below.) This particle mix I would soak for 24 hours in plain tap water. Soaking particle mix in separate buckets for 24 hours. Boiling your particle mix/groundbait. I normally use one pot; I start with the buckwheat and hempseed. Cook these together until the hempseed has popped open revealing a small white root. After boiling, throw all the hempseed/buckwheat plus juice into a bucket (always keep the juice/hemp oil). For the tigernuts, I boil them until they are perfectly swollen. I usually take a bite of one just to check if it’s cooked properly. Add this into the hempseed and buckwheat mixture, remembering to keep the tigernut juice to add to the mixture. Cooking the maize normally takes a good few hours; keep checking on the water and keep stirring and adding water until the kernels (pips) have burst and you are able to press each kernel flat with your fingers. This leftover juice I discard and the cooked maize would go straight into hemp/tiger juice. Cool down overnight so that the maize absorbs the hemp and tiger oils. Mixing your particle mix/groundbait. After overnight cooling, give the mix a good stir with a long spoon just to marry all the flavours. It is important that this process must happen within 24-48 hours of you arriving at the water venue. Always make sure that your groundbait is fresh and kept in a cool, dry place. Yummy groundbait with a touch of peach. Choosing your hookbait. Select your hookbait to use on your Ronnie/combi rig. My personal choice of colours that a fish can easily notice are pink, white, or orange. The best method is just to use your groundbait as a hookbait so that your hook is perfectly camouflaged into your ground feed. Over the past few months, I have noticed that less is more, so stick to the basics and don't overthink your methods. Preparation is key; hard work, and making sure your hookbaits are critically balanced and ready for the next take. Ronnie rigs are my favourite. These are the methods I used on my recent trip to private waters. I arrived on the Friday afternoon and first of all patrolled the water on my specimen inflatable looking for a suitable area to fish. I found a hard flat bottom on the opposite margin where the water was flowing freely into the dam. This area was perfect. I scattered two scoops of particle mix directly over my hookbait, a Ronnie rig topped with a white trimmed pop-up (16mm coconut pop-up on a 16mm krill boilie). I was confident that this drop was perfect. As the sun went down, I prepared supper and decided to call it a night around 21:00 as I was exhausted. My go-to bait is a trimmed pink sweetcorn pop-up on a Ronnie. Coconut pop-up with krill 16mm boilie. Snowman on a combi rig. Hex Gape hook. Around 02:30 I was awakened by a solid one-toner. With the lead dropping, I had to bully the fish towards me as this area was covered by snags and this fish was diving directly toward the snags. I managed to turn the fish into my swim, switching on my headlamp. The first sight of this fish was truly out of this world. As she came closer, I saw a white figure moving quickly through the water and knew this was a beauty. Slowly putting the net in the water, I managed to land one of the dam’s beautiful albino linear koi! Holding the rod and net in my hands I couldn’t stop shaking, all the hard work had paid off. I quickly decided to place her in the floating sling so I could take pictures in the morning. Heading back to bed I couldn’t wait for first light to properly see what I had caught. At about 05:20 I was up creating my scene to take a photo of this 'mighty white' I had caught during the early hours of the morning. She was perfect, a true specimen of a fish. After taking a few stunning pics, I released her back to the water and started slowly packing up to head home. Beautiful mighty white weighing in at 7,2kg. I learned a lot on this trip; listening to other anglers can sometimes be the cause of your blank. Sometimes you must trust your own research and findings, and as I always say, “just work your swim”. I cannot wait to catch this 'mighty white' in a few years from now just to check out her growth progress. TECH INFO FISH CAUGHT: One carp. RIGS USED: Spinner rig + combi rig, stiff boom, leadcore +/- 1m long , 7oz drop lead. HOOK: #4 Hex Gape. MAINLINE ON REEL: Suffix 0,35mm, 8,8kg, 19,4lb. ANTI-SNAG LEADER: Sensation Pro Series 0,45mm, 13,6kg, 30lb, fast sinking. DISTANCE: Fished opposite margins in three metre deep water. WATER TEMPERATURE: Highest for the weekend – 18 degrees during the day, dropping to 9 degrees at night. Jonathan pays attention to detail. GROUNDBAIT: Particle mix, self-boiled containing 2kg yellow mielies, 1kg maple peas, 1kg hempseed, 1kg buckwheat, 1kg chickpeas, 500g red sorghum, 500g tigernuts (small and large mixed). The mixture was pre-soaked for 24 hours before being rinsed and boiled until mielies popped and very soft inside when pressed by hand. POP-UP: White 16mm coconut pop-up trimmed to fit krill 16mm boilie (Snowman). DIPS & GLUGS: A peachy flavour was added (Twizzler). BOILIES: Krill 16mm, sweetcorn 16mm. Piped out over our bed of freebies with a short-range boilie stick. FISH CARE PRODUCTS: Mouth and body care. FISH LANDED: Albino/white semi-scaled koi – 7,2kg. RUNS: One run/one landed. #da_vat_hy#Fishing_is_a_family_affair#thebankangler

Fishing is a Family Affair

'TIPS AND TRICKS – MIGHTY WHITE'

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