WHAT’S IN YOUR BOX?

Very few carp anglers have the rich pedigree of Simon Bater. This month we take a peek inside the tackle box of the former record-holder...

WITHIN big carp circles, Simon Bater needs little introduction. But to the uninitiated, this is a man who has caught countless huge carp, including a former British record in the shape of Two Tone at 65lb 14oz, and the highly-revered Black Mirror.

He’s not one to court the headlines, and spends much of his time keeping well below the radar. Far from being a fair weather angler, he fishes for carp near enough all year round, always keeping an eye out for intimate waters to keep his carp angling fix going through the winter months.

Here’s a sneaky peek inside Simon’s carp ‘tackle box’...

PVA mesh 1 stocking - I don’t use PVA for loosefeeding purposes, more for anti-tangle reasons. For example, when using long hairs with bottom baits, I sometimes thread a grape-sized bag of crumb down the hair before mounting the hookbait.

2 My ‘tackle box’ itself - It’s actually a timber decking screwbox, and has a measuring ruler on the lid! At the bottom are a collection of leads (I don’t use a separate leads bag), dead rigs and corkballs in various states of disrepair.

3 Go-to rigs - I’m a big fan of 360 rigs and stiff hinge rigs and use them for 80 per cent of my fishing these days. I’ve always thought you lose fewer fish with pop-ups, and with these rigs, once you get a bite, it doesn’t fall off.

4 Home-rolled corkballs - These are my ‘Golden Grahams’! They’re a fruity, creamy bait and I’ve had a lot of success on them down the years.

5 Rig tools - Invaluable little gizmos, especially the green metal pen, which I use for straightening out booms and rounding off loops. It’s also good for cleaning your fingernails when the action is a little slow ....

6 Split - These are just to balance out rigs really, 6 either on their own or with a little bit of tungsten putty moulded around them.

7 Seagur Fluorocarbon - I use this purely for leaders when fishing close in over gravel and other brightly coloured substrates. I’ve seen so many carp spook off leadcore in these situations, plus I use braided mainline, so can’t use it straight through as it’s too visible.

8 Coated braid - This is for bottom bait rigs, and for the boom sections of stiff hinge rigs when fishing over an undulating lakebed. Over flat, hard lakebeds I’ll use Mouthtrap for the boom sections.

“You lose fewer fish with pop-ups and with these rigs, once you get a bite, it doesn’t fall off”