Short Session Success

Also the name of a very well written book by a true legend. I was doing some thinking the other day and wanted to work on a way of getting a fair amount of attraction in to my swim but not to overfeed the fish, so I looked to Mr Cundiff for inspiration and found several comments on his use of Nash Baits Soluballs as a freebait.

While I was in Erics in Leeds the other day they had a clearance bin full of Soluballs so I grabbed several bags of the Pineapple flavoured ones which I intend to use for my winter fishing, but as I had a few hours spare the other evening I decided on trying a light baiting tactic out on a local little water, Stillingfleet.

Pineapple Soluballs For A Cheap Alternative To Feedbaits

I decided that seeing as time was limited, I had less than four hours on the bank, that I would have to sacrifice some time to locate the fish and on my second walk around a small carp poked its head out near a reed bed so I dropped the bucket and grabbed my rod bag and cradle from the car. Unfortunately my rods were still set up from the surface fishing I failed at last time I was out, so I decided that a handful of SBs along the reed bed would hold any carp in the area as I set up my rods, 1 with a solid bag set up and the other with a lead clip.

As I was finishing tying up some sticks I looked up and was shocked at the amount of fizzing and boiling that was coming from along the reed bed! I franticly got my lead clip rod sorted with a blow-back rig tied to a size 7 Fang X hook and Suffix Camoskin. To this I attached a MS Snowman using the new Nash Snowpots (love them!) threaded on a bag and flicked it to the reed bed. It wasn't long before it was away, in fact it was just as I was tying up a solid bag on the other rod, and after a spirited fight which took me all over I put the net under a cracking little common.

Little Beauty! 

On my bag rod I started off with my favourite colour wafter a Milky Malt, in a small bag loaded with DNA mini-pellets, boilie crumb, hemp oil and some crumbed Soluballs. But after a few aborted takes I decided to change from the wafter on a blowback rig to a single piece of Korda slow sinking maize on a KD rig. The bag had been on the deck for only a matter of minutes before it went with another little common. 

Unfortunately it was time to pack up by this time and it only felt like I had been on the bank for a matter of minutes. But I had two fish on the bank and it had cost me (less ticket price) a grand total of 75p to fish. 

Not a massive amount of bait but it worked! 

Even though it was such a short session I felt I learnt a lot from it, the use of very little bait is something I have always shied away from but now will be something I will use when the situation calls for it. 

Tight lines. Matt.

My Take On The Twister

A few months ago I went on a session with my mate Mark Watson and he showed me his variation on the now classic Multi-Rig. So I've taken his variation and added my own little twist to the rig for when I am fishing over a clear bottom.

First I start off by taking a small amount of soft braid and tying it to a length of fluorocarbon hook link with an albright knot. A super strong knot that gives a cracking pivot point for my rig putty.

Albright Knot and Monster Squid Purple

Once the knot has been tied its time to choose a hook and for this rig I only use a hook that is super strong and sharp so I choose the mighty Twister hook from Nash. I use them in both size 10 and 7. The size 10 hooks are quite big for a 10 which I love as they balance out a 10mm bait perfectly. For this rig today I am using a size 7 in conjunction with a 15mm pop-up. 

Twisters, super strong and sticky sharp. 

With my hook chosen I now tie an overhand loop knot on to my braided section. This loop determines the hight my pop-up will sit off the bottom and I prefer my bait to sit a few inches of the deck so tie my loop accordingly. Next I take my hook bait and thread it on to a micro ring swivel, I love using a swivel as it gives the bait so much more movement compared to a standard rig ring running on the loop. Once the bait is in place and the tags are blobbed down I attach the hook to the loop exactly like you would with a normal Multi-Rig, follow this with the hook bait and finish off by looping the braid back around, securing the bait to the rig.

Micro Ring Swivel for maximum movement.

All that is left now is to add a small length of shrink tube the eye of the hook. This makes the gape wider and flips the hook super fast allowing it to catch hold aggressively in the carps mouth.

Angled Shrink Tubing For Fast Hook Turning

Now all I do is add enough putty to the albright joint so that the bait sinks slowly. I don't like to over shot my pop-ups anyway but with this rig I found the more I balanced the bait out the better it kicked away from the lead system and sat fully extended. I feel that this gives me perfect presentation and also has a very good amount of the 'reset' factor. If the bait is picked up or wafted around I know the fluorocarbon will kick that balanced bait back out and be sitting pretty again.

My finished rig. 

All I do is add a diffusion anti-tangle sleeve to the rig and then tie it on to the swivel with a grinner knot or a loop and quick link and the rig is ready to rock. 

I have been using this on a variety of venues and caught a few fish topped with this mid-double big plated which was caught on a clear spot in between some weed beds on Monster Squid Purple pop up and a small spread of matching baits. 

Multi-Rig-Combi-Link Caught Big Plated Mirror

I wouldn't use this rig on a bottom that is weedy or silty as I feel presentation wouldn't be as good as it is on a clean bottom.

Thanks for reading and have fun. 

The Hobo.