Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
Rich Wilby
Top carp angler Rich Wilby reveals the simple bait mix that ticks all the boxes at this time of year...
Spring baits
IT’S easy to get carried away when spring finally arrives. After months of casting out single hookbaits or a PVA bag at most, it can be tempting to start being a tad more liberal with the throwing stick or the number of Spombs you put out.
But this carefree baiting attitude could still quite easily cost you fish at this time of year, as fishery owner and experienced carp angler Rich Wilby explains...
“A lot of anglers are so glad to see the back of winter but you have to remember that it’s only early spring. Yes, the fish are waking up but their full metabolism won’t have kicked in yet. Their sight and smell still won’t be anywhere near as strong as in the height of summer,” he says.
Bait choice and quantity both need to be taken into careful consideration at this time of year. We met up with Rich at a lake deep in the Norfolk countryside to get a closer look at the food items which he puts his faith in for the weeks ahead.
Essential ingredients
“Spring is all about using small items of bait which won’t overfeed the carp. It really is a case of feeding less but ensuring that you use good quality and attractive baits,” says Rich.
His loosefeed mix contains no more than four different items, but each one has an important part to play.
“The first ingredient is hemp. This is a classic bait that has a proven track record for working well in cool water. Next to go in the mix are boilies, and at this time of year I favour a pale, creamy boilie which is nice and visual.
“Corn is a bait which no carp can resist and again is easy for fish to spot, even when their eyesight isn’t at 100 per cent efficiency.
“I also add a handful of rock salt. This works well all year round but is especially effective during spring. You don’t need to include lots of it for it to work, but at the same time you can’t overdo it, so don’t worry too much about how much you put in.
“I haven’t included them today, but if you want you could also add maggots to your mix. As the water is still fairly cold the small nuisance fish won’t be active, and grubs add a bit of movement to the mix,” adds Rich.
Feeding quantities
How much of this mix you introduce is largely determined by how many carp are in the lake you are targeting. The more heavily stocked it is, the more you can get away with feeding.
“If I was fishing a lake that was a few acres in size and held a couple of hundred carp I would start by putting out six to eight Spombs and then top up with one Spomb after every bite,” he says.
“If the lake was really heavily stocked or the bites were coming quickly together I would put out three Spombs of bait after each bite.”
The other advantage of Rich’s spring bait mix is that you don’t need to make large quantities at a time and end up throwing away bait at the end of the session. All the items required can be added in small amounts and if you keep a few spare tins of hemp and corn in the boot of your car you can always knock up another batch should you run out during the session.
“As well as for Spombing out, this mix is excellent when walking round a lake and baiting margin spots with a couple of handfuls and then looking for stalking opportunities.”
This is particularly useful in spring, because as the carp proved on this session, they can be
anywhere in the lake, so it’s important to spend time looking for them.
“As they’ve woken up, they will be exploring the venue again. They could be in the margins, out in open water, patrolling between weedbeds or island margins,” says Rich.
Spring success
With a chilly wind blowing across the lake, Rich eventually caught a carp from a spot in open water after not seeing a thing in the margins. After a spirited fight a heavily- scaled mirror was drawn over the net cord with a small, bright hookbait hanging from the side of its mouth.
“The rig isn’t anything fancy at all,” confesses Rich.
“It’s a simple coated braid hooklink with a small barrel- shaped wafter tipped with a trimmed- down 8mm fruity pop- up. Anything with a bright colour and acidic flavour is excellent at this time of year.”
Before casting out Rich had added a small PVA bag of mixed pellets and a couple of crushed boilies.
“I don’t include pellets in the Spomb mix, but having a few in a PVA bag fished over the baited area creates a tight spot for the fish to home in on,” he says.
A mixture of light 2mm carp pellets and darker Belachan pellets pump out a strong mixture of flavours into the swim. Because they are so small they break down really quickly too. A few quick pictures of the mid- twenty mirror were taken before Rich returned it.
“I’ve really had to work for this fish today which shows that spring isn’t always the feeding frenzy that some people expect it to be. But if you get your bait choices right and err on the side of caution when it comes to feeding you can still catch some cracking fish,” he says.