Having walked this canal many times in the past, I already have a good idea of where I want to fish, but its a nice day so I’m going to walk the whole length and see if I can see any areas that are holding the carp naturally. An obvious choice would be where the canal breaks, but its over fished here and I cant guarantee that a peg will be available come the weekend. So an overhanging tree, set back into some reeds will be an ideal choice.

For baiting, I’m using Mainline High Impact Groundbait Activated Nut Mix over Mainline Cell Freezer Range Boilies. To help with the piggy bank, I got 10kg of Cell Basemix and added 1kg of crushed Hemp seed to give me 11kg of the sweetest smelling boilies available. Click here for a guide on how to make your own boilies.

The baiting plan will be 2 tennis ball sized lumps of High Impact Groundbait and 100 boilies each day for 1 week. The boilies will range in size from 10-18mm, with the majority being larger. I always like to use a few small baits to get the smaller carp interested, this will make the larger carp feel more secure when feeding.

The timing will play a crucial part in this. There is not much point turning up at different times during the day, carp wont sit and wait for food, they will actively seek out food as part of their daily routine. So I’m going to turn up 1 hour before sunset each day and introduce my freebies to the same patch.

If you have the time, wait around for 30 minutes after baiting your swim. Its a good chance to observe any movement in the swim. Big carp are not shy and will often bash around in the reeds, giving themselves away on the surface. This can only mean good things to come.

My plan is to arrive at the swim at around tea time on the night I plan to fish. This will give me time to get set up, settled down and then time to add my freebies before the sun starts setting. Hopefully dusk will bring a few well deserved bites.

Put yourself in the perspective of a carp, swimming along the bottom following your nose to a sweet smelling day-glo pop-up boilie, I like the pineapple and n-butyric from Vision.  Those perfectly shaped balls of scent look mighty suspicious to clever carp. Its not often mother nature presents perfectly spherical balls of bait to carp, so its safe to assume some natural suspicion on the carps part. They will feel around the bait, unsure about its purpose, we call this “mouthing” the bait, (when a carp is not 100% sure about a bait and decides to drop it and move on.) It usually equates to a few beeps on your alarm and a little kick on the dangler.

So to try and make a bait look a bit more natural, I started chipping away the edges of boilies in an effort to make them less smooth to the touch and appear more natural. In the eyes of a carp, the bait looks like its been sat on the bottom for quite a while and other smaller fish have been nibbling away at it. It also helps to release more of the flavours from the boilie, especially when used on a pop-up.

Here is a small specimen captured using this tactic. Good luck.

If you want to catch your fish again at bigger weights, it’s advisable to carry around a first aid kit in your tackle box. By first aid kit, I mean a bottle of Klin-Ik. Every carp angler should have this essential item in their tackle box. It costs less than a fiver and will last a good while. More importantly, it will ensure the survival of your capture and help reduce the spread for any disease.

Every time you catch a carp, you should do 5 things.

1. Ensure you use an un-hooking mat to stop damage to the fishes internal organs and prevent cuts from anything on the ground.

2. Squirt some Klin-Ik on the hook wound you have just caused by catching the carp.

3. Check for any previous wounds that have yet to heal in or around the carps mouth.

4. Check the rest of the fishes body for any cuts, sores or infections.

5. Treat any wounds with Klin-Ik, document any severe cases and report them to the fishery manager. For extreme cases, you might want to sack the carp and allow the fishery manager to inspect the fish.

Boilie Mix 1

8oz of yellow semolina (local health food shop)
8oz of milk protein (local health food shop)
6oz of fishmeal (local pet store)
2oz of Robin Red (local pet store)
plus mixed spices (local health food shop)
The flavors consist of:
5mls of Megaspice (Rod Hutchinson)
5mls of Seedbait Sense Appeal(Rod Hutchinson)
12 drops RH1 Oil (Rod Hutchinson)
20 mls of Fish feed inducing oil (local trout farmer)
four medium eggs

Boilie Mix 2

10oz semolina (local health food shop)
8oz of milk protein (local health food shop)
6oz soya flour (local health food shop)
20z of crushed hemp (local pet store)
The flavors consist of:
2 tbs Brewers yeast (local health food shop)
2 tbs mixed spices (local supermarket)
20 drops black pepper oil (local supermarket)
4 mls of maple flavours (cathedral baits)
four medium eggs

Here is a guide how to make your own boilies.

2kg of Pigeon conditioner (available from pet shops all over the country) £1.80

1kg of Hemp Seed (also available from pet shops all over the country) £1.00

1kg of Sugar £0.80

2kg bag of method mix (I like to use Van Den Eynde Hi-Pro Carp mix) £5.40

5 litre bottle of distilled water (something like Volvic) £0.99

1 can of Sweetcorn £0.88

Start off by preparing your particles, add the hemp and Pigeon conditioner to a large plastic heat proof container and then boil and add the distilled water until the mix is just covered. (never use water straight from the tap, it is full of chlorine and other chemicals). Give the particles a good stir. The boiling water helps to split the seeds, which allows all the natural flavours and oils to be released.

Once the mix has begun to soak, take the 1kg bag of sugar and 1 litre of water. Add them both to a medium sized pan, then bring to pan to the boil and stir the mix with a whisk until the sugar has completely dissolved and your left with a thick sticky liquid.

Add the boiling sugar water to the container with the Pigeon conditioner and Hemp seed, then stir vigorously for a minute or two, (a good mix is essential). Then cover the container and leave the mix for 48 hours. Return to the container every 8 hours and give it a quick stir with a wooden spoon. Make sure you keep a tight seal on the container.

After 48 hours, return to the container and using a colender or sieve, separate the liquid from the particles.

Add the particles to large pan, then fill the pan with your sugar water and boil the mix for 30 minutes. Keep your excess liquids, you’ll need them later.

Once you have boiled your particles for 30 minutes, separate the liquids from the particles again and put the particles into your large container and keep the liquids to 1 side.

Then take roughly 1 third of the mix, put it into a food processor and liquefy it. This will release all the natural flavours and oils into the mix. All these natural oils drive the carp crazy and stimulate their feeding triggers.

Mix the liquified particles back into the container with the boiled particles and begin slowly adding your method mix. Stir the mix with a strong wooden spoon or hands if you don’t mind getting them dirty. Be sure you get right to the bottom of the container and pull the mix to the top to maintain the same consistency throughout.

Finally, add your can of sweetcorn and give it one final going over with your hands or spoon until the sweetcorn is evenly distributed throughout the mix.

Use the remainder of your liquids to help bind the method mix and particles together until you find a good consistency. This mix will weight 6.5kg and give you between 60-80 tennis ball sized portions. That should be enough method mix to last you 48 hours and at a cost of less than £10. 

The Pigeon conditioner has an aniseed smell to it, that along with the sugar and additives from the Van Den Eynde Hi-Pro Carp mix simply drive the carp crazy.

The fist time I used this mix, I netted seven carp in a 24 hour session. I hope it brings you similar results.

To start, take a length of braid and tie a loop in it. I always make a large loop, so that the knot is in the centre of the boilie and acts as a grip to stop the boilie moving out of position.

Then I add the boilie using a bait needle. Thread the bait needle through the boilie and then hook it into the loop. Then pull the loop back through the boilie. Then place a bait stop into the loop and pull it tight to the boilie’s surface.

Next, slide your hook down the length of braid until it is in position. You want the have the braid running along the shank of the hook. Don’t position the hook too close to the bait, but don’t have it too far away either. The idea is to find a happy medium, so that if a fish sucks up the bait and the hook. Too big a gap will mean the fish will only suck up the bait and you wont hook when you strike. If its too close, the fish will feel the hook when mouthing the bait.

Now that the hook is in place, hold the braid and hook in place by closing your fingers over the eye. Then wrap the long length of braid around the shank of the hook, ensuring that the short end (with the bait attached) runs parallel to the shank. Wrap it 8 times then pass the braid back through the eye of the hook. Gently pull the knot tight.

You can use this rig with any bait you like, its not just limited to boilies. You can make loops of corn with some fake pop-up corn mixed in to create pop-up corn balls. You can hook pellets, although I prefer to use bait bands for pellets. You can hair-rig surface baits too if you wish. This rig has endless uses. Start experimenting today.

The use of enhancers is totally up to you, I like to add all kinds of stuff to my mixes, they have never let me down to date. Confidence in your bait is essential, so putting the extra effort in here will pay dividends in the future.

Eggs serve 2 purposes in the mix, the first is to bind the mix together making it malleable. The second is to help hold the bait together as its boiled, eggs harden when boiled, this is exactly what happens to the boilie. Hardened baits last longer on the hair rig than a soft one would.

Lets start by making the base mix. You can either make your own base mix or buy premixed base mixes from all major suppliers. I like Mainline’s Cell base mix or if you want to make your own you will need;

8oz of Semolina
4oz of Ground Rice
4 oz of Soya Flour

Weigh out the appropriate amounts of each ingredient and put them into a large plastic bag, bin liners are good. Fill the bag with air and pull it tight so that you can shake the contents thoroughly and have an even mix.

Many anglers like to add things like crushed hemp seed or robin red bird seeds to their mix. If you decide to add either, about 3-4oz will give a good consistency to the mix. Too much and the mix wont bind, your boilies will fall apart easily and you will waste time and money.

Now that the base mix is ready, its time to prepare the liquids. Take 4 whole eggs and crack them into a bowl. Beat the eggs with a fork, making sure not to add too much air to the mix. Too much air will cause your boilies to form bubbles when they are boiled. If you want to add any extras to the mix, now is the time. For a mix this size, you will want to use the following amounts;

3 ml Sweetener
5 ml Colouring
3-5ml Flavouring

Make sure the eggs and additives are well mixed.

Now its time to mix the base mix with your liquids. Don’t add all the mix at once, slowly add the powder to the liquids. Take 1 cup of powder and add it to the liquids, give it a good mix and it will go like sloppy weetabix. Leave it for 5 minutes, allowing the mix to absorb as much of the liquid as possible. Then add another cup full of powder and kneed the mix just like bread doe.

Now all that remains is to roll out your baits into the appropriate sizes and boil them for 2 minutes. Once boiled, remove the baits and allow them to dry on a drying tray. If you don’t have a drying tray you can use a clean dry towel or news paper, just keep the baits on the move or they will stick to the surface.