Will Raison Baits for the margins
Daiwa’s Will Raison offers some timely advice for spring
FEEDING is where I’ve seen so many margin swims messed up. This normally happens because anglers feed too much instead of too little.
Remember that in less than 18 inches of water there’s not a lot of room for manoeuvre from the point of view of the carp, so a peg filled to the brim with bait will get the fish into a bit of a frenzy with swirling and crashing and bashing around. This will only lead to fish being hooked in the tail or belly and ultimately a trashed rig.
Of course, on the flipside you cannot afford to feed the margins negatively with tiny amounts of bait. This simply won’t put enough into the peg to encourage any number of fish to settle – a happy medium is called for. Here’s what to do...
GROUNDBAIT AND MAGGOTS
There’s nothing to beat this combo for the margins and it’ll work all the way into October – but rather than wait until halfway through the session to feed, I’ll attack from the word go by potting in six to eight balls of groundbait packed with dead maggots and corn.
This means that when the fish do want to move into the shallow water, there will be something there for them to eat.
When the time comes to start fishing here, a lot depends on how and when you feed more bait. If I am not actually fishing the margins, instead priming it with a little extra bait every half-an-hour or so, the groundbait goes in loose as opposed to in a ball. This will spread out and create an area to get the fish feeding in.
With the rig in the swim, I then change to feeding a ball of bait with the intention of placing my hookbait right on top of it, hopefully where the fish will be concentrated.
TOPPING UP
I normally top up after every fish, as I’ve seen how carp can demolish pints and pints of bait in no time. Once I’ve caught, another ball of groundbait, dead maggots and corn goes in.
The only exception to this will be if I catch a carp within seconds of dropping in. I may then have a quick look to see if its mate is still feeding – if not, another ball is potted in.
SIZE OF BALL
In terms of how big a ball I feed, much depends on the reaction of the carp. If I think there are not many fish about and they don’t seem to be feeding that well, this may be around the size of a golf ball – but if the carp have rocked up in numbers and are really having it, this is upped to something the size of a tangerine to keep hungry fish happy.
GROUNDBAIT CHOICES
A margin mix is quite different from anything else, in that it should be rich in feed and carry a lot of particles. This isn’t riddled, as I want to keep all those bigger pieces in the mix to give the carp something substantial to eat.
When using dead maggots, I’ll make up around 10 per cent of the mix with Maggot Meal – baked and ground maggots that adds real punch to the mix. The groundbait is mixed to a damp consistency to allow me to make a ball easily, but to also carry lots of freebies.
A WORLD WITHOUT CRUMB
If your fishery doesn’t allow groundbait then you’re only left with the particle route to go down. In this situation I would use hemp, sweetcorn and luncheon meat.
I can remember at Gold Valley, when only brown crumb was allowed, that I’d regularly feed the margins with three pints of hemp at the start and then throw in hemp and meat over the top. In terms of size of meat cubes, I’d try and match what I might want to use on the hook later on – 8mm or 10mm.
In terms of baits, big is most definitely best! There’s no point in using small hooks and light lines to try and get more bites. When the carp are feeding, they’ll happily engulf massive offerings on big hooks without a thought.
Almost any bait will catch, and on some fisheries, paste and catmeat are popular, but I try and limit my tray to just four baits.
I think dead maggots, when used with groundbait, are hard to beat but I appreciate that many waters don’t allow groundbait.
In this instance, good old meat and corn are tough to beat!