RINGER TO THE RESCUE Match ace Steve helps readers with their shallow fishing tactics
David Parker, York
“Feeding and then slapping the rig straight on top can be deadly”
SLAPPING involves rotating a rig with hookbait attached repetitively around the pole-tip, letting it splash on the water to mimic the noise made by loosefeed as it lands. On its day it can be a deadly way to catch shallow.
The beauty of slapping is that it creates a fish-attracting noise but, when a carp moves in to investigate, the only bait it sees is your hookbait, meaning a bite is highly likely, because if the fish wants to eat it literally only has one option!
Keep rigs simple
Slapping normally involves fishing anything from 8ins to 18ins deep so rigs are very simple. Let’s take Lambsdown Lake at Meadowlands, where I am today, as an example.
The carp average 5lb to 10lb so the mainline is 0.19mm N-Gauge. I like a heavy mainline, as it helps to prevent any potential tangles. Float choice, bearing in mind I’m likely to be fishing very shallow, is an MW Cookie, a dibber-style pattern with a wire stem to enable it to sit quickly once it has landed. This is important when fishing very shallow. It’s also buoyant enough to support large hookbaits such as 8mm hard pellets.
The shotting pattern is a mini bulk set 4ins from the hook, and normally made up of two or three No10s. I like a mini bulk – not only does it make the rig more positive at bite detection, but the bulk makes an extra splash on the slap, so you get the splash of the float, the mini bulk and the hookbait.
My hooklength is 4ins of 0.17mm N-Gauge, typically to a size 14 Super MWG hook. I will alter my hook size, though, depending on the venue – for instance, if I was after small carp and F1s I’d switch to a size 16 Super LWG Eyed.
Master the slap
So how do you slap? This is the key thing to get right and there are different opinions as how many times you do it, but I have always done it as follows;
Slap the rig twice by rotating it round the pole so that the rig hits the water each time, then, on the third slap, let the rig fish.
The reason I do three slaps instead of just the one is purely down to the fact that it allows me to make more noise to attract the fish.
When I let the rig fish on the third slap I do so for 10 to 15 seconds and then repeat the process – bites tend to come as the hookbait is falling through the water.
A little tip in terms of hitting bites is to try and stay tight to the float – for example, on the third slap keep the line as tight as possible between pole-tip and pole float. If you do this, you’ll miss far fewer bites and also find quite a few bites will pull the elastic out before you have time to react!
It’s also worth mentioning here the length of line between pole-tip and float. A short line of 6ins-8ins will definitely see you hit more bites, but it’s far easier to slap effectively with a longer line of around 18ins. Therefore, it’s well worth experimenting on the day to see what works best.
To feed or not to feed…
With regard to feeding, it’s all about mixing it up – at times you will definitely catch more by feeding absolutely nothing and just slapping the rig.
At other times, though, you’ll have to feed to draw fish in, then stop feeding and slap to catch them.
Alternatively, feeding and then slapping the rig straight on top can be deadly. As you can see, as far as feeding goes it’s very much a case of mixing it up to see what is most effective on the day.
Pick pellets for the hook
On the bait front, if I had only the one choice then it would without doubt be pellets.
For big carp, quite often I will feed hard 6mm pellets and slap an 8mm over the top. The reason is that an 8mm pellet makes a far better noise, being that much bigger.
That isn’t to say pellets are the only bait to use, as you can slap with others such as meat, casters and even maggots – all will work. As far as carp go, though, I reckon pellets really do take some beating as a bait for fishing shallow.
It works for F1s too
That isn’t to say that slapping only works for carp, because it’s deadly for F1s too.
Going back to hookbaits, if we are talking pellets then it’s an 8mm for big carp and a smaller 6mm for carp and F1s. Of course, it’s well worth experimenting, especially if you know there are fish in the swim but you can’t catch them.
I always carry a tub of 6mm and 8mm pellet wafters. These can be deadly if the carp are feeding really high in the water because they sink that little bit more slowly than a hard pellet.