Frank’s November 2020 Blog

Hi everyone I hope you’ve all had a decent Autumn spell for me its been a mixed bag I must admit, let me explain, the two waters I am concentrating on in the UK involve fishing to dense sets of lilly pads and I am literally fishing locked up solid using either goal post set ups or rod butt locks to ensure the rods don’t get pulled in, clutches on the reels screwed down solid, on both waters braided mainline is not allowed so the added problem of stretch in the nylon has to be contended with.

My problem has been hook pulls I have suffered more than a few recently and it has left me somewhat perplexed! You see I was using exactly the same set up rig and bait wise to great effect with hardly any losses up until the end of August then for no apparent reason I started to suffer with fish losses which undoubtedly cost me some very big carp, this is not an option in my fishing so I set about finding the cause and of course the answer.

I changed my usual straight point hooks to the beak point hooks that normally achieve a better secure hook hold but guess what it still happened so then I started to think the fish as the season went on started to feed far more cautiously due to angling pressure and my tight baiting pattern was causing particle like feeding where the fish are sifting more and less head movement is happening which in turn was causing pricking on the outer extremities of the mouth, I shortened the rigs right down but it didn’t improve things at all, I started baiting with a bigger spread of bait and it seems to have succeeded in solving the problem, it just shows how you can hit a curve ball at any time in your angling.

Mid September saw me heading to the airport with my two sons Jamie and Guy and a group of friends to embark on one of our annual trips to Parco de la Brenta in Italy one of our favourite venues, it was weird seeing the airports deserted and felt strange boarding the aircraft and having to wear masks the whole flight, with the air crew acting more like the Gestapo than friendly staff.

We arrived safely at Parco and did the usual draw and me being a jammy sod my name came out first so seeing as I was with my two boys I chose the bigger point swim 1 that would accommodate the 3 of us, we started with my Vital baits test bait called the Mojo [bottom baits} tipped with Enterprise plastic corn soaked in Pineapple and N Butyric, luckily it didn’t take long and my lads and I had some stunning fish including a stunning PB perfect nude leather of 62lbs to Jamie, needless to say he was delighted and it set him well and truly for the week to come.

Speaking of which the previous year on Parco I tested tipping my hook baits with a much neglected glow in the dark plastic boilie snow man style, I did it on one rod as a test experiment in case it somehow scared the fish, I needn’t have worried as the glow in the dark bait rod produced two very big commons at the first time of asking in the night.

I made a mental note there and then that I must try these much forgotten about baits much more especially in these long dark nights in the UK winter

Out of interest the ones I tried were around 14mm on top of a normal bottom bait, green was the colour I used on that occasion. I have not got any yellow as yet but I bet they would be brilliant if the glow in the dark maize results I have had in the past are anything to go by.

I think carp are naturally curious creatures and they will certainly investigate baits that give off a light source, we need all the help we can get to help them locate hook baits, as a bonus these imitation boilies take in flavours and attractors brilliantly and can be more strong smelling than an actual food bait on a lingering smell comparison after being in the water for some time especially over silt.

I had the pleasure of doing a 48 hour trip to my Shropshire syndicate with Tom from JAG the idea being to film the whole affair and show how I go about fishing to snags and heavy lilly pads safely

I was as always very confident of getting some action and sure enough in the night I had 2 bites yet again on the Mojo tipped with my trusty fake Sweetcorn and N Butyric combination one of the culprits was the most sensational of stunning mirrors which tipped the scales at 30lbs a hall of a surprise to be fair as when Tom and I saw the fish in the net we thought it was at least a mid 30 possibly an upper 30.

Tom had a 22lb common that had been a lucky survivor of a nasty otter attack which had seen the common have its pelvic fin bitten off and damage to the wrist of the tail it had thankfully recovered really well, all was looking great until an angler opposite in the boat went out and absolutely filled the lake in with perhaps 15 kg of boilies, you cannot fail to worry about such an event especially when your catching and the guy opposite is fishing in close proximity after turning up a day later than us.

So we had no more action sadly but we considered the trip a success and in beautiful surroundings whats not to like?

Hope you have some great Autumn fish guys

Very best wishes

Frank