Tactic of the Week
Dr Paul Garner on why you have to try fishy baits for carp
NATURAL baits come in many different forms, but have you thought about using fishy baits for carp?
They are about as close as you can get to the natural diet of carp, and while we might not think of coarse fish as being fish-eating piscivores, given half a chance they will devour these proteinpacked morsels with relish.
From shellfish to tuna, there is a massive choice of fishy baits around, all of which have a strong fish-catching track record. Here are a few of my favourites and how to get the best from them.
COCKLES AND MUSSELS
These small bivalves can be bought either in their shells or ready to use. You can catch on the cooked versions, but they are much better used raw and as fresh as possible. Being quite rubbery baits they are tough enough to use on the hook, and are the perfect size too. Try cockles for smaller carp, while mussels are ideal for specimen-sized fish.
Shellfish are quite expensive to buy so are best kept for the hook only. Try fishing them over pellets or groundbait. Don’t be surprised if bream, tench and roach come along too – these baits will catch just about everything! Mussels also make a brilliant barbel and chub bait for the rivers.
A few years ago I experimented with using liquidised mussels as a boilie additive and found them to be very effective.
Just mix the liquidised goo with eggs and add it to your paste or boilie mix to produce a bait that the carp love and which is totally different to anything else out there.
PRAWNS AND KRILL
Krill has become the buzz-word in boilie circles, but how about
whole krill or prawns on the hook?
Prawns are a go-to bait for perch anglers targeting commercials, the only ‘problem’ with them being that they catch loads of carp and bream too.
Use raw prawns rather than the cooked versions, as these are definitely more attractive.
Prawns are tough baits, so are best used on a big hook with the point exposed. I keep my used
hookbaits and mash them up, adding them to my feed.
Giant krill is another superb hookbait that you can often find in tackle shop freezers.
Large enough to fish on a size 12 hook, it will catch just about every fish that swims.
In fact, when I tested this bait on a local commercial I managed to catch eight different species in just a short evening session.