WILL THE RECORD BE CLAIMED?
England International and BCAC Champion Wayne Mansford shares how baiting heavily helped him catch the country’s biggest carp
WAYNE Mansford rocked the carp world when he caught a fish obliterating the current British record at a whopping 75lb 2oz. The fallout from the capture was extraordinary, with some of the country’s biggest news outlets reporting the story. Sadly, not all with 100 per cent accuracy... and Wayne has been keen to set the record straight.
Speaking exclusively to Carpfeed, he said: “A section of the media has blown this catch way out of proportion, so first and foremost I’d like to confirm that I haven’t received any death threats.
“There have been some negative comments, but I’d say for every one of those I’ve received at least 200 positives.”
But will Wayne be claiming the record? At the moment he remains unsure…
“I’m still buzzing at catching my new personal best and haven’t really thought about claiming the record. I go fishing for myself and I wouldn’t want to submit a record claim, only for it to be rejected or cause a load more controversy.”
BEING adaptable in your carp fishing is crucial. Different venues, conditions and times of year all require a separate mindset or approach.
On my recent session at Cambridgeshire’s Holme Fen, it was obvious that now was the time to pile in the feed. Here’s why…
For those who don’t know much about Holme Fen’s Meadows Lake, it’s a bigfish venue, with numbers of monsters over 50lb, 60lb and, as I found, even 70lb present. These fish don’t get big from naturals, they get there by eating bait. On this week-long session, I also came with a personal goal – not only did I want a big hit of fish, but I wanted the better ones. To achieve this, I needed to keep them in the swim for long spells.
A great way to do this is with bait. Couple this with the time of year, indicating the winter feed-up would be starting soon, and I had a perfect storm of factors all pointing to baiting heavily.
Get the fish revved-up!
To kick off the swim I introduced four buckets of my favourite particle mix. While many may think boilies are the out and out go-to for big carp, I know the fish in Meadows love pellets and corn. To these two ingredients I add a healthy helping of hemp and finally 10mm Mainline Cell boilies. As you will notice, everything in the mix is small, ideal for the long-duration
grubbing mentality I’m hoping to instil in the carp. This mix, and the amount introduced into the swim, will keep their heads down and really rev them up into devouring every last morsel.
Spots to bait heavily
It’s important to mention the spot I was targeting. From previous visits, I knew there was a silty gully at around 120 yards, with slightly increased depth. An obviously navigable feature like this is a great area to introduce heavy feed.
If your lake is flatter, say, like Linear’s Brasenose 1 in Oxford, I let the other anglers dictate where I will bait heavily.
On that venue, everyone fishes long to the middle, so I will deliberately create a baited spot shorter to stop other anglers encroaching on fish coming on to my feed.
When a spot dries up
As you may have read already, just a morning after introducing the four buckets of mix previously mentioned, I managed to catch not only the lake’s biggest resident and a new PB, but a fish well over the British record. The baiting tactics had already achieved one of my desired aims, but what happened next is a phenomenon several of us have noticed on this lake.
Previously, when Captain Jack was the biggest resident, it was obvious that once it was caught from a particular spot, that spot would die a death. I feared the same would happen this time too, because the spot had produced the lake’s biggest resident at 75lb-plus.
It’s almost as if the big ’un falling from there is enough to warn the other fish to stay away. It’s hard to believe, but the spot did not produce another bite for the rest of the week, My new spot, however, kept the action coming.
When to top up
On my new spot I introduced two-anda-half buckets of the same feed – a little less than before, but more than enough to keep fish in the swim for long spells. I went on to catch 12 more fish from this new area, including two fifties and a couple of forties.
After each fish I would top up the swim with half-a-bucket of feed. Considering that I’m using the largest 17L Fox square buckets, even this is a fair amount. I think the fish in Holme Fen are pack feeders... they enter the swim in groups. While I don’t think all the bait is gone by the time you get the bite, most of it certainly is.
A solid approach
I’m a firm believer that ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ and that’s why the solid bag is my go-to rig presentation. I have a standard bag mix with a few secret ingredients, that I won’t divulge for match fishing reasons, but the basic principle of a solid bag is why I use it. It offers me a tangle-free presentation with a tight patch of attraction around the hookbait. My rig inside the bag is a simple blowback rig, incorporating a size 6 Korda Wide Gape hook to 4ins of Supernatural braid. Short hooklinks work perfectly over beds of particles.
I fished solids on two rods during the most recent session, but I always use my third rod as an experimental rig. There will be times when different fish want different things. So, to pick up the more reactionary visual feeders on my spot, I fished the third rod on a Ronnie rig. I used a small match the hatch 12mm Cell pop-up, so although the bait stands out from the others, it’s not so blatantly obvious as to deter any wary fish in the swim.
So, there you have it – that’s how I caught my biggest-ever UK carp. Nothing fancy, just feed, and lots of it!