Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
It’s time to get pinging – Mark Poppleton
The noise made by catapulting pellets is the key to tempting lethargic carp, says Mark Poppleton
FEEDING next to nothing is seen as a golden rule until the temperatures increase. The big dump pots that are used to pile in the freebies during summer are banished to the bottom of your box in exchange for a much smaller version used to sprinkle in the odd morsel of food. Picking up the catapult is also seen as a risk by many due to the reduction in accuracy it offers. Mark Poppleton subscribes to most ‘rules’ within the so-called cold water handbook but he certainly won’t be convinced into not pinging a few pellets from the pouch. “Carp remain lethargic until the water temperature noticeably increases, and you need to work hard to try and gain a response from them,” said Mark. “When pellets are gently tapped in from a cup they make hardly any noise, and if the fish aren’t nearby they are unlikely to even know any bait has gone in. But when they enter the water after being catapulted, the fish hear the noise. I am sure that this intrigues them and draws them into the swim.”
Reduced feeding rate
Although Mark makes the catapult a key tackle item in his feeding regime, he is restrained about how much bait it will introduce. The golden rule of keeping bait down to a minimum still applies, because feeding too much can be the kiss of death. “I’m not using a catapult to increase the quantity I introduce – it is solely about the noise that feeding in this manner creates. “If I piled in the bait there would be a lot of food on the deck and when the carp turned up they would pick off a few bits and back away, reducing my chances of a bite. “Instead, I fire in just two or three pellets every minute or so which equates to less than 200 pellets an hour. If you look at that quantity of bait in your hand, it really is nothing at all.” Mark uses 6mm versions as they create more of the all-important noise than 4mm pellets.
Exploring the swim
When bait is being cupped in it is easy to keep it on a sixpence. But that is impossible with a catapult. As a result the fish will be spread over a slightly wider area. Most pole fishing is done with extreme accuracy, lining up with the same far-bank marker so that the rig is fished in the exact same spot every time. With pellets scattered throughout his peg, however, Mark knows that a little chasing will be needed to locate the fish. “If I kept fishing down the same hole then I would get bites, but I get even more action by exploring my swim. I always fish with half a section more than I need at the start and this enables me to push a metre beyond, left or right to try and locate the shoal if bites dry up.” Plumbing over a wider area is important to make sure that the depth is the same or at least only differing by a matter of inches when you move your rig.
Flavoured hookbaits
The noise of pellets entering the water will grab the attention of resident carp but next up is the potentially tricky part. With loosefeed dotted around the peg, it is then a matter of drawing fish to your hookbait. Mark has a little trick up his sleeve that makes his hookbait look more appealing than the freebies. “A soft 6mm expander pellet hookbait is easily sucked up by a fish that hasn’t properly woken up and isn’t feeding hard, but it is the flavouring that makes it instantly attractive,” he explained. “I add a dash of Bait-Tech Liquid Scopex either to the water when I am pumping the pellets or once they are ready. There’s no doubt I get more bites at this time of year when using it.” Carp can be notoriously difficult to encourage to feed in late winter and early spring but Mark’s tactics are proof that you can frustrate them into a response, no matter how testing the conditions.