It's crunch-time!

hen you hear someone crunch down into some salty pub snacks, doesn’t it suddenly make you hungry? I defy any man to hear the solid crunch of tooth on pork scratchings and not instantly want a bag. It’s just not possible – especially not with a gallon of ale in your head. Whether it’s a bag of McCoy’s getting destroyed by a fat bloke or a fit bird munching on a Snack A Jack, the crunch-factor plays almost as much part as the smell kicking out from your local takeaway joint. Hear it, smell it, want it!

The top option is obvious, whilst the middle offers a more natural look. The bottom option is great when avoiding nuisance fish

In the underwater world, there are a few things that have a defined crunch. Listening to carp in a tank eating still-hard pellets, water snails or crushed tigers is a real ear-opener! But in my fishing, I don’t think I’ve ever found anything that had the desired crunch-factor quite like the humble caster.

I had a great couple of summers using casters on Richmond up in Lincolnshire, it was something totally different to the norm and the huge PVA bags I was using at the time were well worth the hassle. More recently, I started using casters again after speaking to Mark Bartlett and Kev Hewitt, and hearing about their incredible results on the ‘rastas’.

Gluing casters together or gluing them around bits of foam gives buoyancy and a natural looking cluster of casters

The ‘Jamaican Maggot’ as it’s sometimes called, is a real weapon at certain times of the year, a true leveller in a world of boilies and pellets. I was initially amazed at the quantities both anglers claimed to be getting through, but as they were fishing venues with a high stock density and fishing them very well, they were getting through a lot more than you’d imagine.

My first time on the casters I went to Manor on the Linear complex and after depositing two-gallons alongside the same in hemp and corn onto a small spot, I had six bites through the night. I topped up with just hemp and corn and the fish never returned! Once they pop, they just can’t stop and they become almost transfixed by the casters.

This ‘T’ bar set-up is what loads of specimen anglers use for tench and bream. They catch a lot of big carp along the way for a reason!

My attentions then turned to Baden Hall in Staffordshire, where I’d recognised that most anglers were happy to simply boilie fish. Most of the better anglers are good at chasing them around and fishing without ever needing a marker float, which is fair enough but not my real strength. I prefer to spend a lot of time mapping out the swim, finding something where I don’t need to make any compromises on the rig front. No Chods required, I suppose.

I’m not happy fishing the same way as everyone else and catching my share. Especially not later in the year when you can get the fish going over a bed of smaller baits. The levels of preoccupation are more instant and you get the fish revisiting your area many times, meaning you have more chance of catching more than one or two!

Fake casters are such a close resemblance to the real thing. The only difference is they don’t crunch!

The casters usually enter my thoughts a good few weeks after the fish have spawned and they’ve had time to recover and are looking to replenish and stack a bit of weight back on. They’re catchable – very – and with a good spread of boilies and a few Stiff Hinges you’ll bag a few if you can stay on the fish. Me? I’d rather find a natural larder, a feeding spot the carp have made, and then fill it with bait.

Usually I stick with hemp and corn with loads of 12mm boilies through it, but at this time through July and August the casters get a different reaction. The crunch factor is definitely at play and the carp lose the plot.

After a couple of weeks, the effectiveness wears off but by then, the damage is done. My bankside hours-to-fish ratio is always boosted dramatically by a few good hits in late summer and early autumn, and the caster plays a big part in that. Added to my usual mix, they get a different reaction, a reaction I’ve not seen with any other bait. The issue is, of course, preoccupation. Sometimes the fish get that deep into the bottom digging for casters, they become difficult to catch. You end up with loads of empty caster carcasses and that seems to slow the action down, even though you can usually clearly see the carp are ‘on you’. Often you clock the gulls suddenly diving above your spot, or swans showing a sudden interest in the area. This is a clear sign, in my experience, that the carp are on you like a melting shellsuit.

In these instances, you have to abandon the usual hookbait offerings and match the hatch. It’s been amazing how many times the second day has been slower than the first over casters, as the carp’s feeding habits change. Often, I have to turn to a couple of presentations shown to me by the tench anglers in the Korum brand for answers.

A recent caster munching thirty, one of four in 24hrs. In the sling was a good pint of empty caster shells with every fish

The first is so simple it hurts. Three fake casters on a Hair. For me, it’s only like chucking out two grains of plastic corn, something I do all the time, so I just lob them out there footloose and fancy free. For a lot of anglers that would be a quantum leap, but trust me, it works a charm.

For venues where smaller fish can start interfering, the second presentation is one that Leroy Swan of Kent fame used to write about, that I’ve used since those Richmond days over a decade ago. Super-gluing casters to a cork plug or piece of foam so it looks like a small cluster of casters is a proper winner. This is great for pop-up rigs but can also be balanced in a wafter-style arrangement which I prefer and have found a lot more effective.

These days, I’ll glue a few fake ones around each other for the same effect, as I find it much easier to do this at home than on the bank. Banged on a short German Rig, it’s a presentation that once tried, you’ll turn to again and again. Whether fished over loads of casters or just used with mesh PVA bags filled with casters, it’s definitely a big edge.

So put down that packet of crisps and embrace the Jamaican crunch factor! Before anyone realises what you’re doing, you’ll have an album full of units!