Baiting At The Right Time Is Crucial!

Although summer is a magical time to be on the bank, with the beautiful sunrises and perfect BBQ-on-the-bank weather, the fish spend as much time as us basking in the sun; making them tricky to catch at times. In hot temperatures, getting the baiting right for what’s normally short spells of feeding is crucial. Weather can obviously affect this, but if we take a nice spell of good old British summer temperatures, these would be my tips for the warmer months.

I’ve found giving carp plenty of options to keep them occupied is a great way of extending bite time. I like to use lots of small baits and particles with different breakdown times to create a banquet in the swim. My typical mix would be something like 10mm Mainline Cell, 10mm Essential Cell, crushed and halved 15mm Cell and a good helping of Activ-8 Response Pellet. The reason I like using this mix is the amount of bait you create with all the bits and pieces. This keeps the carp grubbing around and instigates a feeding frenzy when the carp move in, that often keeps them in the swim for a longer period of time.

The time I bait up pretty much stays the same right through the summer. Because carp spend lots of time being active in the day using up lots of energy swimming around the lake enjoying the heat from the sun, I like to bait up late afternoon when the sun drops and I find the bite times to be between midnight and 10 a.m. as a general rule depending on weather conditions. Once the sun’s up in the day, the carp tend to spend most of their time in the upper layers or basking in snags. If you’ve got access to safe snag fishing that can be one of the most exciting styles of angling and a carefully placed rig and a handful of bait can be a great way to slip up a carp when they aren’t feeding on your baited area during the hot period of the day.

Also, Zigs can be a great method during the hot daytime period and if you get the depth that the carp are swimming at right, you can often get some fantastic results for making the effort when the bottom rods aren’t producing. Hookbait-wise, for my Zigs will nearly always be black foam soaked in liquid or my ever-faithful Pineapple Juice pop-ups in 15mm. Spodding a wet fine mix over Zigs can also make the carp switch on and the Mainline Souper Zig Mix is fantastic for this. Don’t waste those dormant spells in the midday sun, give the Zigs a go and get some extra fish on the bank!