Spod Soup Creates Huge Attraction

Having had a relatively slow start to the year on my main waters, I really wanted to catch myself a few carp and fortunately I knew just the place. Spring in the U.K. is a great time for zigging, a method I enjoy using, and a day’s zig rigging is exactly what I decided on. The venue I decided on was Thorpe Lea, a relatively large water in Staines, a town on the River Thames in the borough of Spelthorne in Surrey, England, renowned for holding plenty of fish. The carp are predominantly scaly upper-doubles, with a nice head of twenties to back them up, so a few bites would be more than welcome. The weather was perfect upon my arrival at the lake, with bright blue skies and the steady warm glow of the sun beaming down on the water’s surface. You need the fish to be up in the layers when zigging and the sun is a magnet for them. With the fish undoubtedly cruising around in zig territory, I went off in search of a swim for the day. I chose an area that commands a decent chunk of the lake’s open water, which would increase the chances of fish passing through the area throughout the day. It’s really important to have as regular fish traffic as possible, and a swim in the middle of the lake is often a good shout, particularly on the higher stocked venues. The Skywinder spod is perfect for delivering your soupy mix to the area. Darrells sloppy spod mix is formed using some pellets, High Impact Groundbait and lots of water. It wasn’t long before I saw the first fish of the day throw itself clean out of the water, at about 130 yards range, straight in front of me. I was planning to spot a load of soupy mix in order to create a huge cloud of attraction, but 130 yards is an uncomfortable range to sod at so decided to drop short at around 100 yards. When zig rigging it doesn't really matter whether you’ve got clean ground beneath the rigs or not, but if you have, then it will enable you to drop onto bottom baits for the night ahead - my mix will always contain a few larger food items and these will sink to the bottom. After the day’s zig rigging is over I simply switch over to bottom baits and cast back to the same spot and onto the bait that’s landed on the spot throughout the day. This is where it is important to make sure that the spot you find at the start of the day is clean, at a comfortable casting range, and that you have the distance logged. Marking your line is always advisable and saves you from having to keep wrapping your line around the distance sticks. Adding Goo to the spot before casting will further increase the level of attraction and food signals sent into the water. With my spot located, the rods and sod clipped up, it was time to get some bait out. The soup that I had concocted was a mixture of pellets and High Impact ground bait, which would ensure that plenty of food signals were emitted into the water - not to mention the huge cloud it would create. Ten spots later and I was ready to get some rigs out, something which couldn’t have been easier as I was using the new ready-tied zigs. All I had to do was choose a couple of hook baits, and on this occasion I went for yellow and black. These have been my most productive colours by far and to begin with I had one on each rod. If a certain rod then produced more than the other I would waste no time in switching them both onto the favoured colour. Before long I had two rods perfectly in position over the spot and all that was left to do was bait, not wait, but bait. A zig rig is a long mono hook link which enables you to suspend a bait in mid water - Darrell fished them six feet long, three quarter depth. When fishing with the spot soup I like to keep the bait going in and that big cloud of attraction ever apparent. The idea of the spot soup is to create a huge area of attraction that contains very little in the way of edible food items. The sight, smell and taste of cloud will often turn the fish into a frenzy and as they search desperately for food, they stumble across your foam hook baits suspended nicely amongst it all. That’s the theory anyway. A big lead will enable you to fish with tight lines, and will also ensure that the lead drops off on the take. My rods were probably in position for around ten minutes before I had the first bite of the day - I was still retrieving the spot as the rod burst into life and as I picked up into the fish it wiped my other line out too. I had a bit of trouble landing the fish because of the extensive silkweed build up on the line but eventually I bundled the fish into the net. It was a typical fish for the lake, a mirror of around 16 pounds with a nice cluster of scales along his flank. With the pictures done it was time to get the rods sorted and back in position. The bite had come to the yellow hook bait but for the time being I would keep one each colour. Accuracy is key and Darrell uses the Cygnet distance sticks to ensure that his bait and rigs are positioned right on the money every time. The rods were re-positioned pretty quickly and I got straight back on the spot rod, depositing a steady stream of cloud over the spot. I kept the baiting going until the same rod was away again, and once again it wiped out my other line and got badly tangled amongst all the silkweed. Unfortunately the fish fell off a few moments later and I was left with two tangled and weeded lines but no carp! I decided there and then that I would drop down to fishing just one rod. I was doing all I could to avoid trouble: both rods were set up so that the large 4oz lead would eject from the lead clip easily, and my lines fished tight for improved bite indication, but it didn’t seem to be making any difference! With both bites having come to the yellow hook bait, it was a single yellow piece of foam that I cast back to the area. Like before, I began spotting over the top, trying to keep the bait as accurate as possible, but it seemed to go quiet. After half an hour or so I stopped baiting and left the rig to sit out there for a while without the disturbance of the spod, which can sometimes work both for or against you. The spod can act as a dinner bell or a warning bell for the carp, so with that in mind, if your bites slow up, like mine did, try resting the swim for a little while. Hook bait choice is crucial and it’s always worth playing around with a few different colours until you work out which one they want most. Yellow proved to be the favourite of the day and accounted for both of Pecky’s fish. A good half an hour passed without action and it began to seem like the second rod would need to go back out. This time around I attached a yellow piece of foam to that rod too, as it seemed to be the winning colour. My bites had come while spodding, so once the second rod was back in position alongside the other, I began baiting again. The water is pretty clear and that big cloud of would be unmissable to any passing carp. I imagined that the fish had just pushed back out toward the middle slightly and as long as I kept working the swim, I’d get bites once they passed me again. I decided to start squeezing some of the chocolate candy Goo into the spot as well, which would further boost the attraction levels sent into the water column. The more you can do to draw the fish in, the better. Tight lines are a must when zigging as they offer the best bite indication for the job. A thick crust of bait from the spray when casting had pretty much encased my whole body when one of the rods started ripping line from the spool on the left rod. I was on it in a flash and picked up into… nothing? I couldn't believe it, I was sure a fish was hooked but strangely there was nothing attached. I grudgingly reeled the rod in, rigged it up again and then sent it straight back out to the spot, determined to catch another one. The silkweed was an absolute nightmare but not wanting to be beaten, Darrell soldiered on. It took a while but just as I was coming to the end of my bucket of soup the right hander finally signalled a take, with the Stow Bobbin falling slack. Wasting no time at all, I began winding up the slack until I met with the resistance of what certainly was a carp! I have to admit I played the fish like it was going to be a 60-pounder, praying that it wouldn't fall off… fortunately it didn’t, the hook stayed firm and I was soon sliding the net under a chunky-looking linear. Covered in spod soup but delighted to have a carp on the bank. The carp was around 21 pounds I would guess and made a nice end to what had turned out to be a rather demanding day on the bank, bit it’s always nicer when you have to work hard for them. She had a little mark on her so before I slipped her back, I made sure to treat the wound with the Carp Care Kit, something we should all carry.