Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
RIG SPECIFICATIONS FOR CARP & F1s
Step it up!
There is no doubt that carp fight harder so it makes sense to step up your tackle when they are going to dominate the action. Jon adapts most of his tackle when switching his attentions from carp to F1s and believes using the following gear will serve you well.
LINE
“A heavy mainline will keep the rig in a straight line between pole tip and float, resulting in you hitting more bites. The mainline doesn’t interfere with the rest of the rig and, as you will be using a hooklength, the fish will be feeding away from it. Use 6.6lb mainline to an 5.6lb Frenzee FXT Loaded Mono hooklength for carp and 4.5lb of the same material for F1s.”
ELASTIC
“Thick elastics have no place in shallow fishing. This is because something too strong won’t enable the fish to glide out of the swim the moment they are hooked. This forces them to thrash around over your feed zone which will spook all the other fish. For carp I use a 10-14 Frenzee Stretch Hollow and reduce that to an 8-12 for F1s.”
HOOKBAIT
“I always want my hookbait to be slightly bigger than the loosefeed so that it stands out . This increases the chances of the fish taking the hookbait first. I use an 8mm banded pellet for carp and a 6mm pellet for F1s.”
FLOAT
“This is the only element of my tackle that is identical for both species. I find that a 0.2g Frenzee FP800 shows the bites positively for carp and F1s. I always use a bristled float as opposed to a dibber as it helps me read what is going on under the surface. Little dips that you wouldn’t see on a dibber show fish are present and indicate I may need to change depth to get proper bites.”
HOOKS
“You need a hook made of medium wire for carp. I use a Frenzee 1420 in a size 16 or 18 and scale down to a finer 0814 in sizes 18 and 20 for F1s because they don’t fight as hard.”
“If I am missing bites or foul-hooking fish it is an indication that they are above my hookbait and dragging the float under by brushing against the rig. Alternatively, if I get no bites at all they could be sitting slightly deeper. “Over the years I have noticed that you could be catching carp at 18in, for example, and then you catch F1s when you try 2ft. “On one day the carp could be competing aggressively while the F1s may be sat below hoovering up the scraps. The next session it could be the complete opposite so trial and error with the depth is very important.”
Decoy demonstration
Jon has fished all over the country but Decoy Lakes at Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire is probably his favourite venue. Tackling up on Oak Pool – a lake that has a good head of both carp and F1s – he started raining in pellets and lifting and dropping on a rig designed specifically to tease out the F1s. As is usually the case, it took a little while to get the shoal competing confidently but he was soon shipping back an F1 of 3lb. Regularly firing in pellets made sure the fish remained in the zone and, to prove the importance of being active, Jon switched off for a few minutes. During that period no bait was added and the rig was pretty much stationary, leading to no bites at all. Back to the grind and switching depths by a few inches kept F1s coming then a carp suddenly gate-crashed the party. “This happens a lot but if I went back in on this rig and carried on I wouldn’t catch many more carp despite there obviously being a few there.” Jon picked up his carp rig which was set slightly shallower and the result was instant, a 7lb common aggressively hitting the bait. “Having a one-track mind when shallow fishing isn’t going to do you any favours, especially on waters where both carp and F1s are present. “Treat them as different species when preparing tackle and you’ll catch more of both,” he concluded.