Carping Allegedly - June 21

Adam Penning’s CARPology films have kept me very entertained of late; in fact, I have watched most of them a couple of times on YouTube (CARPologyTV), and have thoroughly enjoyed them.

I don’t agree with everything Adam has to say, of course, but that is an irrelevance as far as I am concerned. I find both his attention to detail and the thoroughness with which he approaches every aspect of his angling very inspirational, and the films have certainly made me re-evaluate certain aspects of my own fishing. He is also a very clear and concise presenter, which, as anyone who has attempted such things will tell you, is an undoubted skill in itself.

I also love the way our man strides so effortlessly and comfortably through the pages of the thesaurus and in doing so, introducing the great carping unwashed amongst us to words and phrases we would never have dreamt of hearing in an angling film a few years ago. Congratulations Penners, and everyone involved in making the films… awesome stuff!

Attention to detail is everything as far as I am concerned, and although it is not particularly difficult to learn the rudiments of carp angling from books (remember them?), magazines and social media, it is learning the extra couple of per cent that makes that all-important difference, and is the bit that very often sorts the top carp-catchers out there from us mere mortals. 

Original thinkers, and those who have the confidence to tread their own path, inspire me enormously in any walk of life, but particularly in the angling world where I can obviously relate to it more. Being able to come up with that extra two or three per cent will always be a huge advantage. It probably will not be as noticeable, however, on those days when, or those waters where the fish are crawling up the bank and eating bait out of your hand, but rather on the really tough venues where pick-ups are very hard to come by. On really difficult waters, it will undoubtedly make a massive difference. Of course, nobody gets it right all the time, but as in virtually every walk of life, the cream does have an uncanny knack of rising to the top—or at least, I like to think it does!

I was especially interested in Adam’s thoughts on baiting levels, and I wholeheartedly share his views that too many anglers tend to go way over the top with quantities at certain times of year. We live in times where, depending where your allegiances lie, you can buy more bait than you can carry for the price of a Big Mac. That doesn’t mean, though, that you have to shovel it all in within twenty minutes of arriving at the lake. 

Most of the carp I have been lucky enough to catch over the last few seasons have come over relatively small quantities of bait, and certainly on the waters I am visiting, fishing for one fish at a time appears to be the way forward, particularly for the larger specimens.

Every water is different, of course, and each will respond to different baiting approaches and applications, but to think that the more bait you put in, the more successful you will become, is naive in the extreme, and in my experience, it rarely works. Heavily stocked venues where fish are relatively easy to catch are a possible exception, but in my experience, these types of water are quite hard to find in this day and age.

Lake Fishabil in Brittany was certainly one of those waters in the early years, and it certainly did seem that the more ‘nose bag’ you could get in front of you, the longer you could hold the fish, and the more you could potentially catch. Depositing forty kilos of the ever-reliable mix of oat groats, flaked maize and Partiblend, and ten kilos of boilies all over the side of the boat every night, was certainly not unusual in the early days, and even after that lot, we would very often start getting takes off the area within an hour or so.

The mix of groats, flaked maize and Partiblend has served me very well over the years, and has the huge advantage—particularly when you’re using big quantities—of needing virtually no preparation. Simply place the dry mix in a bucket, generously cover with lake water, and leave for 24–48hrs. To increase its effectiveness, add tin of evaporated milk, a good glug of a liquid food and a bit of Nutrabaits Cream or Sweet Cajouser.

I hadn’t used this approach for quite some time when I went to Lac Du Der a couple of years or so ago, and every time I went out to bait up and saw it falling through the depths, it reminded me just what a great tactic it is when used on the right water.

CARPING ALLEGEDLY TUTORIALS

It hasn’t escaped my notice that carp-angling tutorials are becoming rather popular. Some of the higher-profile superstars out there are providing a highly sought-after service, and earning a proper pretty penny for doing so. In fact, such is the earning potential, I hear Lionel Messi is giving serious consideration to walking away from his mind-blowingly lucrative multi-million-euro contract at Barcelona to begin teaching us hairy-arsed carp anglers how to spod to a dinner plate, in a cross wind, with one hand tied behind our back.

Unbelievably, I myself have had a couple of requests for tutorials in recent weeks, and although a few extra quid always comes in handy, I think it is only fair to look at why I don’t deem myself to be the ideal piscatorial tutor…

Spodding, spombing, dot spodding, impact spodding, and whatever other methods are currently used to get six hundredweight of ‘munga’ out into the wet stuff are, without question, a huge part of the modern-day carp scene, and from what I hear, many carp tutorials provide help with, and advice on such tactics. This is all good stuff which will undoubtedly improve your carp angling prowess. My problem, though, is that I haven’t used any of the aforementioned bait propulsion devices since I was hurling a converted Steradent tube around in Shropshire in the eighties.

I think the accuracy of our long-range casting is something many of us would like to improve upon, and I would certainly benefit from an hour or two with one of the masters of the art. To cut to the chase, my casting is decidedly average, and I am no more qualified to offer advice on the subject, than I am on hang gliding! Having said that, I do consider myself as something of an expert in positioning hookbaits and freebies at extreme range… inflate boat, spark up outboard, drive until battery dies, dump the lot over the side. Simples! 

Rigs and hookbait presentations continue to mystify many carp anglers. I imagine that learning how to tie a critically balanced Ronnie in the dark without the aid of a torch, and being shown how to tie an Albright Knot whilst wearing boxing gloves must both be high on many people’s wish lists regarding what they are looking to glean from a couple of days’ carping coaching. My problem is that I know only two rigs, and as my mate Colin McNeil once pointed out, one of them isn’t very good!

I have always believed that coaches have a responsibility to teach anglers to behave in the correct way, and to ensure that they walk away from their session with an increased knowledge of angling ethics and etiquette. With this in mind, were I ever to offer tuition, surface fishing and Zig fishing would play absolutely no part in my syllabus! Both tactics are clearly cheating, and are more reminiscent of clubbing seals or shooting fish in a barrel!

No offence intended, but generally speaking, these are desperation tactics employed by anglers who cannot catch fish using proper methods, and let’s be honest, anything they do catch, doesn’t count anyway! 

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen. I have no idea how to use a spod; I am a distinctly average caster; my rigs are decidedly unimaginative; and I will not encourage you to cheat by using floaters or Zigs…

I am not without my talents, though. On the plus side, I am always supremely confident; I have no problem with waiting for as long as it takes; I can sleep for England; and most importantly, I have yet to come across anyone who can make a better late-night Baileys coffee than me. Prices for tuition start at £3,000 per day!

SMART CARP CLOTHING

Please excuse the blatant plug, but I just wanted to give a quick shout-out to the guys at Smart Carp Clothing. They have recognised that there has been a real gap in the market for top-quality carpy clothing for larger people, and have also spotted that I have a massive future as a male model! The Smart Carp range currently includes hoodies and T-Shirts of great quality up to 5XL, with more products being added as I write. Check out Smart Carp Clothing on all the usual social media platforms or eBay.