All Fish Are Equal

Every now and then, I find pictures on the Internet where people are abusing/disrespecting their unwanted fish species or a fish below target/specimen size. I find this attitude disturbing. 

A fish, no matter its size or species, is still a fish. A fisherman should ALWAYS respect their catches, no matter what they catch. 

I always treat the fish I catch with the same procedure (of course I don't use unhooking mats for 20 gram roach, you silly). Fish welfare is a priority, even when I catch a small gudgeon while barbel fishing or a 600 gram ide while targeting carp.

Naturally, I oppose using livebaits. I don't know how many pike anglers would like me to hook a 10 kg pike from it's mouth and back ... just to "have a big bait". It is not just disrespectful and inhumane thing to do for the fish, but it is more like being in the stone age of fishing culture. It doesn't matter whether the live fish struggling in the hook is a 10 kg pike or a 100 g perch - it's still a barbaric thing to do. (Don't even get me started on the ethics of C&R predator fishing with livebaits. There is absolutely no point there.)

A true modern fisherman has a strong respect for every fish. All fish are equal.

Bream might be a nuisance fish while carp fishing. How we treat the unwanted catches define us as fishermen.

Rig bits, pieces and boilies

Hi all again!

I wanted to write something about rig bits and pieces. Basically, most of what has been written about carp fishing rigs is just marketing work. What I learned from match fishing is that there are no big secrets out there. When someone invents a rig type and catches a carp or two with it, it's virtually in every carp magazine there is. In the meantime the basic bolt rig caught around 60 000 carp around Europe. It's not useless to consider your rigs in detail. Biggest differences are made in small details. That goes to all fishing. It's not about inventing something fancy, but to make small things right.

What my basic rig is: a Prologic C3 #4 hook, tied onto stiff reptilian 25 lbs hooklink material. The hooklink is cut to around 15-25 cm (I mean the ready rig is that long, remember to add some line for the knots). A multi bead is threaded into the line, and the end of the line is tied to a multi clip. This multi clip is then attached to Prologic Distance Leadclip Leader. Tie your mainline to the Leader and attach a lead (50-90 grams) onto the clip. Now you are ready to go carping in most situations. The only situations that this rig type is not good for are weedy bottoms and surface/middle water feeding fish.

My rig bits and pieces on a Prologic bivvie table. And yes, it's snow on the ground.  Luckily we are getting more and more each day.

The most important variable in carp fishing is not your rig. Don't go too fancy. You'll end up thinking about wrong things and waste your energy. Be in the right place when the carp feed, and you'll score with your rig.

Oh, about the boilies. I almost forgot. It is really funny to see the big differences in the UK and Europe carp angling scene. In the UK there has been a trend to fish with small boilies (10 mm or less!) and in France, a lot of good fish have been caught with boilies over 30 mm. The size difference is huge. So how would 8 mm boilies work here where we have huge stocks of nuisance fish? The answer is more than clear. It would be a nightmare to fish with small boilies, because the nuisance fish would always take the bait. So when reading articles about carp fishing, remember to keep in mind the following questions:

1) Is the bait suitable for the fish you are targeting? Nuisance fish problem?

2) Is the bait used in the article designed for heavily fished commercial ponds or big natural lakes?

3) Is there a critical difference in the climate or the water between the article and the lake you are fishing?

4) Is the article about just another "flinga"-paste to put on the boilie/pellet/etc? Is it more of an ad than a "I really use this"-type of an article.

You can come to see my bait bag anytime. You'll see DD Bait all the way. I have used some other brands as well, but the new HNV-series got my attention 100%.

Another Finnish carp going back to freedom.  With 8 mm boilies, I would have been harassed by 1-2 lbs bream patrolling the area. And remember, wild carp are cautious. A disturbance might cause them to loose appetite for many hours. You don't want to have too many nuisance fish on your hook. 

In Bait I Trust

My bait bag photographed somewhere in the deep forests of Finland. I was a bit worried that a bear might get a scent of my candy-smelling bait. I was fishing really close to known bear spots.

There are many different perspectives into carp bait. Some people are radically enthusiastic about their (sponsored) bait, some people hate using commercial baits and tend to stick with the more natural choices of peas and liver pieces. The different views are so conflicting that bait wars are commonly fought on forums, etc. What I would love to see is a bait fight between two bait-sponsored carp anglers. Especially when the real carp pros could catch big carp with tiny rocks painted red!

I can definitely say that I am not a pro carp angler, as I need good bait to succeed. The early days of my carping.... well... I had some bad experiences with baits for their wrong texture and smell. When you combine the aroma of a dump, rotten fish plus a hint of garlic, you get the picture. There are bait that are so foul-smelling that it's just over the top. I mean I'm not a princess, as I have worked in sewage water facility, but some of the bait are just not meant for fish (or any living thing). There are some foul-smelling bait that catch, yes. But the foulness has different levels. It goes maybe like this:

1) Salmon fillet (fish caught 5 days ago)

2) Yesterday's cooked salmon fillet left overnight to the table

3) The cooked salmon fillet in biowaste bucket for two days

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5) The salmon fillet in the dump with battery acid, rotten rats, etc.

When your bait is on the foulness-scale 5, you really need to consider your bait again. Like some fishermen wiser than I say, the bait needs to smell enough to attract, but not too much to repel. You need to remember that carp have olfactory senses (smell) that are about 40 000 000 times more sensitive than ours. They probably can smell the bait so accurate, that they know what perfume your wife is using (If you still have a wife, carp anglers seem to lose theirs).

Well, the carp are also quite opportunistic in certain waters, and the smell of the bait isn't such an issue. But a lot of these opportunistic waters have also smaller fish (aka nuisance fish). The "nuisance fish" in Finland ins't the odd 10 lb tench (that would be a national record), but the hordes of roach, small bream and silver bream. They tend to peck the softer baits off the hook in about 15 minutes. And the medium-hard versions get mauled by vicious crayfish. The bait needs to handle punishment like nothing else.

Believe me, I've seen the evidence! Once I had an underwater camera next to my bait. It was like watching, well... some sort of a washing machine with fish going around, groundbait particles flowing in the water, which was getting murkier every minute because of the fish-induced limbo. I wouldn't put there a carp bait that was softer that a rock. So natural baits are an option in Finnish waters. But most of the time, a very bad option.

Most commonly the problem with the bait is that fish don't seem to care about eating it. Now after long time of experimenting, I have confidence in the bait I am using. When I get definite signs of fish on the swim, I always get them on the hook! And it's as much as I can hope for a bait!

A common carp I caught with natural bait (corn)