This is just a quick blog to talk about the application of bait. As we all know pre-baiting can be devastating on waters, but on very busy day tickets its almost impossible to get a spot going as someone will always be in the swim you have lovingly put all your efforts into.

This was actually last year but I wanted to share a little trick I’ve used to great use over the past few years. I only had a day and night on Linear’s Manor farm and it had been fishing really badly. The bank where I had been targeting was all stitched up so I managed to get in the Browns swim on the East Bank. There had been an unusual long period of high pressure sweeping the UK and Manor had really slowed up. I followed a chap in who unfortunately had a 4-day blank. This swim is renowned for throwing up big fish but the only problem is the weed. It’s a bit tricky to say the least. Some of the weed beds are 12 foot thick around the area. I managed to find some signs of carp feeding a few feet in front of one of the beds, so I was going to have to come up with a fail-safe plan to fish this safely and correctly. As I had a couple of flicks about with a bare lead to make sure it was fishable, it was evident that this was a feeding area. It was really nice clean silt with hardly any weed strands at all. Go another foot and you were never getting a fish out of that weed bed.

I’ve found in the past that sometimes just spodding bait out tight to the edge of a known spot can be a very deadly method but it can also take some time to get going. If you’re there for just an over-nighter you may be feeding up the swim for the next person.

I have been putting bait in early morning and not fishing it until I see fish feeding confidently. If no signs of feeding I won’t cast out until well into the darkness, this could be that I am waiting all day with the kettle roaring, watching for the right moment. This has two advantages; it will establish your spot without any lines in the area so they can feel safe to feed and you will visually see when the fish are feeding confidently. As long as you have your rods clipped up all you have to do is (hopefully) just put 3 rods out with the minimum of disturbance. This may sound like you are missing out on hours of lines in the water when you only have 24, but I’d rather have them feeding confidently than the odd fish feeding. Carp on pressured day ticket waters have seen every trick in the book, so by making them feel it safe to feed they may well slip up. But for obvious reasons if they are having it big time at any point, I’m giving them 3, 3oz leads!!!

It is really important to use the best quality bait you can get to maximum effect. So the carp will really want to concentrate on your feeding spot and not Joe Blogs in the next swim. So I used my trusted spod mix of Sonu Halibut Pellets in sizes 6/8mm, Elliptical pellets in 4/6mm, 2 tins of Sonu super scent hemp/maize, the ever-faithful Code Red boilies, and a good handful of rock salt. Incredibly oily and maximum food nutritional signals. All this was put on the spot and I left it to do it’s work.

At around 16:30 I started to see signs of fish feeding on the spot. It was slicking up and I had the odd roll. I left it until an hour before dark then put 3 rods out on the money as fish started to show more and more. After about 30 minutes, just as the sun dropped I had a take on my left hand rod. The lead came off and I managed to get it in the net with no dramas. It was 25lb 3oz and a real cracking fully scaled. It is Manor farm and every fish is a bonus. I was chuffed to bits.

This swim hadn’t produced a fish for a week and only 4 that I was aware of for the lake, so by just giving it a well earned rest and high quality bait in the area, definitely got me one fish closer to my prize. I’m still coming Kempys!!!

Lee