K. SPECIMEN CARP FISHING: Finding the Golden Thread for Big Carp Fishing

WORDS: Gilbert Foxcroft | IMAGES: Lee Foxcroft, Adriaan van der Merwe & Hier Gaan Ons Alweer Living the Passion! I get bombarded with almost the same questions every day about how to target a dam (wild or urban), what to feed, what hookbaits, what rig, and sometimes it even goes as far as: “I am standing at Dennekruin, so what distance should I fish?” This prompted me to delve into my recent history going back 4 years up to the present to see what my friends and I have been doing and the successes we have had during this period. Get yourself a cup of coffee and a note pad as the advice I am about to give you can be used everywhere as long as you don’t chop and change all the time. GOING BACK IN TIME 2018 This amazing fully scaled mirror carp of 39lb14oz was the largest of 43 carp during the 2018 trip, filming the Hier Gaan Ons Alweer series. Inanda Dam was the venue for our 2018 Hier Gaan Ons Alweer TV show, and with very little knowledge of the venue in general we took the advice of the local Carp Anglers and fished their preferred 15m deep water with 4 rods while fishing 3 of the other rods on a steady slope in 7-8m water near a bay, and one rod in the bay in between two weed beds in 2,8m water. Our feed consisted of freshly cooked maize, freshly cooked tiger nuts, freshly cooked hemp and Mainline Diamond White 15mm boilies which I cut in half with my Korda Boilie Cutter. I added a generous amount of coarse salt - this mix has been the basis of almost ALL my fishing up to now. Why change something if it keeps producing the desired results? The 15m water produced 3 runs in 2 nights - 2 being catfish and one carp of 23lbs. Our 3 rods fished in 7m water produced 11 fish on the first night, all in the region of 20 to 30lbs, but then our single rod in the bay started producing and did not stop until we eventually packed up to have the programmes edited. We ended the session with 45 runs of which 2 were the mentioned catfish and 43 marvelous carp topped by a stunning 39lbs 13oz fully-scaled Mirror carp. Feeding Approach Our typical feed consisting of maize, tiger nuts, hemp and broken boilies. We started off by feeding a wide area with one 20 liter bucket of the mix as explained above, followed by a repeat of this at midnight. After that we only used the same mix to use as mousetrap with one hand of the mix over each hookbait, every time we dropped a rig. We did mess around with one rod, fishing structure at over 500m, then very deep water and back to where the locals advised us to fish, but eventually it was only the shallow single rod that kept producing. We even placed a second rod on that spot, but then the area died off and as soon as we removed the second rod, the spot came alive again. Rig and Lead System The famous KD Rig, using a #4 Korda Krank with 20lb Korda Dark Matter uncoated braid. This was in the Pre-Spinner Rig era. This was an expensive session for my lead collection, but as we had to drop the leads because of the weed, our results would have been pretty dismal if we were penny-wise and pound-foolish. Due to us dropping the leads on the take we lost no fish and walked away with a 100% success rate. We used the KD-rig as this was before the Loop & Booms and Spinner Rig rave. I used two tiger nuts (drilled out) and placed a 6mm piece of cork in the drilled-out part to join the two tigers. I trimmed them a bit on the outside before dipping them in the Super Cast Spiderman dip. The plan was to make my hookbait stand out from the salty feed and it worked a charm! It rained non stop for 2 days at Inanda dam We used a hybrid drop-off lead system as introduced by Korda. The end result of a very successful strategy, that stood the test of time – two 30-pounders plus. 2019 and 2020 This 28-pounder male common from Roodekoppies caught during the filming of another brilliant Hier Gaan Ons Alweer season (Season 18) The rig that swung my head – color and flavor in combination. Rig building made easy – the best of the best put together off a shelf, so easy, yet effective. I am combining these 2 years as we did two radically different sessions at Roodekoppies Dam, and with COVID-19 hitting us in 2020 our plan to do a wider tour did not materialize. I fished Roodekoppies quite a bit and used the exact same methods as above, but started playing around with first the Fluorocarbon D-Rig (made famous by Danny Fairbrass from Korda) to the Loops & Booms and then the Spinner Rig. My hookbaits were either a bright Yellow or Orange Mainline Baits Pop-up or an XXL Tiger nut drilled out about 5-6mm deep with a piece of foam inserted for elevation as well as a sighter. My feed remained the same, although I sometimes add a few Lupins or Maples just for effect, but in essence I use the same. On the Hier Gaan Ons Alweer shoots we were sponsored by Super Cast with their Monster Mix and all I did was pour off the water, washed the particles with dam water and removed the water before adding coarse salt to the mix before going out to feed it. A Miracle That Changed My Way Of Thinking A mid 20-pound common caught post-spawn proved the color effectiveness theory. Maize on its own can also be a magic strategy. After the 2018 Inanda trip it was time for the Roodekoppies Winter Bonanza, but the weekend before that I had to host a clinic between the Roodekoppies Hengeloord gate and the Caravan Park. During this weekend I decided to see what would happen if I only used a liquid sweetener and only played with the colour of the high-density foam I intended inserting into the top of the Tiger nut hookbait. My experiment started with an orange piece on my left hand rod, white on rod 2, Yellow on rod 3 and red on rod 4. I dropped the rigs by boat and fished 8m water with only a wide spread of my normal feed and one scoop over the hookbaits. Within an hour I got a take on the lefthand rod with the orange foam. I then sapped the left- and righthand rods and again I got a take on the orange bait. I then removed the red foam and replaced it with orange to now have two baits on orange. The result was 2 fish on the bank. I then added a 3rd and for the fun of it a purple piece on rod 4. The result was 4 fish on the bank in no time. I then followed this approach the following weekend in the river section of the dam where I drew a peg and although arriving 6 hours after the competition had started, I finished with 52 fish at an average weight of 23lbs per fish. The effect of color was dramatic – I used these high density foam punched sticks to experiment. We decided to shoot the Hier Gaan Ons Alweer show at Roodekoppies Hengeloord, but had the public join us for the weekend. We fished 2 nights for the TV show and an extra day to do a clinic and fish-along for the public. Our approach was exactly the same, but Super Cast introduced a new additive called Pandemonium to their range and this is all I changed to the approach. Hookbaits remained an XXL Tiger nut with orange foam, but we fished Korda Loops & Booms ready-made rigs and Ready-Made Spinner rigs and the then newly-launched Korda Heli-Safe lead system. The result was 119 runs with 119 Carp on the bank. We also managed to help 47 anglers land carp on that open day with 27 Personal Bests. The proof of the pudding is in the eating – a perfect hook hold. In 2021 we fished a fuller Roodekoppies and a slightly different area where we also fished the margins, but the result was the same. We fished a normal weekend session and used Super Cast’s Toffee Daddy, Pandemonium and Spiderman dips, but the feed and hookbaits remained the same. We fished the Korda Ready-Made rigs and lead systems as the previous year (why tie when they are pre-made to perfection?) and at first caught our fish in the 10m deep water, but during the second half of the weekend caught carp only from the shallow areas in-between the banks of Knotweed. A perfect result right amongst the Knotweed. 2021 The plan paid off with Adriaan cashing in on another stunner. In 2021 we broadened our horizons and Adriaan van der Merwe and I went back to Roodekoppies but decided to experiment with Mainline Baits Pop-Ups as hookbaits only. We fished Korda Spinner Rigs on Heli-Safe leadcore leaders, but used the same feed as always. This time we added PVA stick mixes to the plan. We only fished from 05h00 in the morning to dark and pre-baited at midnight. Our plan worked as we landed no fewer than 45 carp for the weekend and lost only one fish on a sunken fence in the shallow bay. All the fish came from 2,5-3,5m water. Our typical PVA stick mix consisted of a handful each of a variety of Mainline Groundbaits hydrated with the famous Cell Liquid. Go to www.foranglers.co.za and search “stick mix” to read the full article. A small tightly bound PVA bag, consisting of the mix and the rig ready for action. Just short of 32 pounds – what a piece of Harties Gold! Adriaan and I also fished a private estate at Harties for a YouTube video we still need to finish off and replicated our plan from Roodekoppies with amazing results. We landed numerous carp to over 30lbs, so when it came to Season 20 of Hier Gaan Ons Alweer, we decided to fish the public area at Ifafi and again replicated our plan, but instead of feeding as we do at Roodekoppies, we used only one scoop of feed over the hookbait and PVA stick. We were aware that anglers were fishing Ifafi on a regular basis and with lots of feed going in there, we did not want to over feed and therefore only used the mousetrap method. We were under pressure to produce as we only had a 2-night session at our disposal due to other pre-booked sessions by other anglers, but we managed 25 fish in 2 nights with 3 fish going over 32lbs and the balance in the low to upper 20lbs class. Mission accomplished I would think? Conclusion Even small waters like Bergsig produced stunners on the same technique. We stuck to our plans for the past 4 years and kept our feed pretty much the same throughout, with the addition of coarse salt and Mainline Bait Pop-Ups at the end. Don’t go and re-invent the wheel. Stick to our plan and if you are new to the sport, go to your nearest tackle shop and purchase a few Korda Ready-Made Loops & Booms, some Korda Dark Matter Putty (it is so important to place a fair- sized piece of putty on the krimp portion of the rig, as it makes the rig turn) and some Ready-Made Korda Leadcore Leaders. You don’t need to change your rods and reels as they are tried and tested, all you need to do is change the end tackle. Good Luck! Bonus content for For Anglers: The use of technology is crucial when selecting the productive features. Note the activity on the screen. The biggest fish on Hier Gaan Ons Alweer Reeks 19 – Just shy of 33 pounds. A hard-fighting male caught at Ifafi during the production of Hier Gaan Ons Alweer Reeks 20, also pushing the scale well over 30.

K. SPECIMEN CARP FISHING: Finding the Golden Thread for Big Carp Fishing

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