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Carp Floater Fishing

T

Trevor Davies

Guest
Want to catch my first ever floater carp this season and was just wondering what BS line most people use?

Planning on visiting a commercial this weekend to get one or 2 under my belt before venturing onto a water where they run a bit bigger.

Am planning on using either a 1.25 TC avon or my 1.75 barbel rods with 8lb line. Bought some Fox inline bubble floats which are fished bolt rig style and will be using long hooklengths of 8lb Double Strength to a small hook.

Any suggestions/ tips would be greatly received.

Cheers

Trevor
 
Gear sounds fine, something well worth considering is the Ultima floating mono (the hollow stuff), mate swears by it, and he has caught shed loads of very big fish using the 10lb as main line, with fluro hooklenghts, braid is good, if you are allowed to use it.
peter
 
Is that the line with the weird profile (not round)? heard good things about that too, will have to find a shop near me that stocks it.

Cheers

Trevor
 
Long hook link (I use 15lb flouro) of at least 6 foot if not more, a fine ish gauge hook, rub your hooklink with a candle to make sure it floats and stays floating. I superglue 2 mixers (I saw a groove into them for the hook shank to sit in) onto a size 12/10 to make sure they sit in the water at a similar depth to the free offerings (hook don't make sit lower). Most important bit is to get the carp competing for the feed - I tend to pult out a single mixer at a time but at a constant rate, make sure of the wind direction, ideally fish into the wind so the freebies are washed towards you and not away thus taking the carp with them.
 
I believe the hollow Ultima line is called Flo cast.
Another way of attaching mixers is to drill them and attach to the hook with a piece of very fine wire(5amp fuse wire or look in the fly tying section), saves superglueing your fingers together!
peter
 
I've had some reasonable success on the imitations. They are robust enough to stay on the hook esp if small fish are pecking at the baits. Also, my best tip would be to fish evenings. Your chances increase massively as the light fades as your tackle becomes more difficult for the fish to see and they naturally become more confident.
 
Dan why do you use fluorocarbon and then make it float? Doesnt this make it 'visible' so negating it's near water RI benefits? When trout fishers fish a dry bait/fly they sink(or try to) the last foot of line above the fly. They often use co-polymer lines as they float naturally. 15lb fluoro must look like a tow rope when floating on the surface. There have been interesting reports of using small amounts of tungsten putty above the fly to sink the last foot of line just below the surface/ maybe this would work for carp fishing.
geoff
 
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i just use normal line straight , only if the fish are at distance, i will use a controller.
 
10lb line straight thru for me too, if i have to fish at distance i just add a controller and stop this with a float stop. I use my old JW Avon at 13ft so i can lift the line quickly on the take. Last summer i spent a couple of hours getting the Carp feeding only to go and loose a good fish soon after casting a bait to them, whilst relaxing with a ciggie i handed my mate the rod and said he could have a go for them, first cast he was into this

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Instead of going down the dog biscuit root get yourself a sack of floating trout pellets;)
 
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as for hookbaits,i use pop ups cut down and into shape,last for hours and they are flavoured..i use a barbel rod,baby baitrunner and 10lb mainline and drennan double strength fly leader,as mentioned treat the leader so it floats..as for feeding,slowly trickle the mixers/pellets in until they really going for it,then cast past the feeding fish and slowly draw the bait into the feeding zone,also by doing this,your hook length is nice and straight..

luke
 
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Geoff Blakesley said:
Dan why do you use fluorocarbon and then make it float? Doesnt this make it 'visible' so negating it's near water RI benefits? When trout fishers fish a dry bait/fly they sink(or try to) the last foot of line above the fly. They often use co-polymer lines as they float naturally. 15lb fluoro must look like a tow rope when floating on the surface. There have been interesting reports of using small amounts of tungsten putty above the fly to sink the last foot of line just below the surface/ maybe this would work for carp fishing.
geoff
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Geoff, my experience says that surface feeding carp spook if they feel the line, thats why I float it, its out of the way. The reason for 15lb is its just what i had - but its pretty stiff and ensures that the bait is away from the controller (another spook factor). Have you ever seen someone fish the beachcaster rig? thats awesome if you can set it up! Get yourself up to Knotty and have a go, they are pretty easy up there and run to a decent ish size
 
Anyone ever tried fishing a bait just under the surface to try to imitate a bait that is sinking? Apparentlythe carp think the bait is safe and take it with less caution according to Colin Davidson in the AM.

Trevor
 
why not try the brown floating putty, i have had many carp on this after using it as a controller and had a carp take the dollop of putty rather than the small biscuit, try it it works fine and the hook sits exactly where you want it to;)....j.w
 
Trevor Davies said:
Anyone ever tried fishing a bait just under the surface to try to imitate a bait that is sinking? Apparentlythe carp think the bait is safe and take it with less caution according to Colin Davidson in the AM.

Trevor
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Trevor, fishing a zig rig just under the surface and then feeding floaters over the top is a very good method but nowhere as exciting, I only use this method if fishing at distance and then feed using a spod.
 
Follow Dans advice and find out how to use the beachcaster rig.
It will absolutely take lakes apart if ithey have not seen it before.
Phil.W
 
Another vote for the beachcaster rig.
Also found that sometimes that bit of difference can bring results - floating boilie, fishmeal or any other mix 'cake' - essentially a whipped up boilie mix - and also had some fish on floating luncheon meat.

I also had a fair few fish on a small bait suspended under the main floater - the hook was in the suspended bit. Have watched carp nudge the main lump and take the suspended bit.
Cheers
Bob
 
http://yfrog.com/63beachcasterrigp

Since I me mentioned it - here is the set up - not sure about the milk bottle top though!
By careful though - some places ban it and some carpers don't like it one bit!

Have fun! I'll stick with a normal controller though and trying to get them competing for the freebies!

Another top tip - take a pint of mixers, put in a polythene bag, add 1 tablespoon of boiling water and your choosen flavour (halibut liquid works well) blow up the bag, seal and shake like hell - bang in fridge for an hour or 2 and hey presto hookable flavoured mixers - the mixers have a lovely rubber texture
 
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You are right dan I need to get to knotford- especially as I am only 20 mins away. I had a long chat to a guy who was fishing the beachcaster rig at knotford. It is very impressive and looks as if it can't fail. He used binoculars to checK that the bait was sitting correctly on the water. If I remember correctly he used a jiffy lemon with water in as the float - or was that another guy on leeds knotford? - please excuse age related forgetfullness! I used to have success with the carp using mixers flavoured with strawberry using the method you describe.
 
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