The secret of my autumn success will be available online from 21.1.19
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When I was testing this bait out, it accounted for many of my fish. This included 2 x 30 & 6 x 20 including a new PB common.
I couldn’t get my hands on the bait fast enough! And I will certainly use it again this year.
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These little babies were just perfect.
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The release date for what you have all been waiting for – PPS
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This range has been working wonders and has produced some stunning fish for me when I tested it out last year.
![20180922_051334[1].jpg](https://richardhandel.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/20180922_0513341.jpg?w=640)
Notably this stunning PB Common
As the weather starts to cool, do you like to swap over to smaller boilies or do you prefer to go for the high vis single approach?
Jamie Hughes featuring this week on our new “Bait Hacks” Series. Some very interesting things will be coming on this channel available nowhere else this season so def subscribe …doesnt matter what fishing discipline. Will say no more
This could be classed as trip 3 as I was out the other day. Mapping the lake with the Deeper and also in the hope of finding a nice group of fish. With the lake completely void of people and carp, I spend 4 productive hours mapping and discided to come back today in the hope of wetting a line.
So, after another good look round and still no signs of carp, (my rule for this situation, is if you just can’t quite pinpoint the swim you feel confident with, just go for comfort and move on from there). I’ve picked this spot on the smaller lake as it gives me a great view of this lake and the big lake behind me.
I did this to spend some time looking out for fish and the potential of moving swim. One rod has been set up with a bag with a small number of pellets and a bucket load of SF Food Dip. My aim is to keep this rod static and cast a single hook bait around on the other one. Fingers crossed I may pick up a carp or if I am lucky see some signs of fish and move on to them or just take note for my next overnighter.
The static stayed static, with not even a bleep and I did my best with the roving rod and recast every 45mins. I saw no signs of carp and the water was pretty still.
Until next time
Richard
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I am out for my first night of 2019. My youngest was have a friend over for the night and my services were surplus to requirement – phew. I did offer to stay at home but was told it was a girl only weekend.
I arrived just after 9 am and had a chat with another member. He had been on her for a few nights but was still happily blanking. As the Christmas rush was over, the lake was a lot more peaceful and only 3 or 4 of us were on the lake. It took me nearly 2 hours before I settled on this area. I then proceeded to look for some new spots in this area. I hadn’t seen a thing looking around and purely pick this swim due to its location to the back bays and the sanctuary area. Both are holding spots for the carp at this time of the year. It’s been fishing hard for both the day and night anglers over the past month, but from my experience over the last 4 sessions on here and speaking to other old members, this is what generally happens each year and the lake will pick up as we move through January.
Conditions are not too favorable but could be a lot worse, the pressure has started to drop slowly. I find it more about the constant conditions over the winter months.
My right hand was fished on the drop off in a nice area I found with the deeper, this was away from the normal spots in this swim.
And the other was in a very nice weedy area that clearly would hold some warmth and a food source for the carp.
Both areas were baited up with the catalyst active ground bait and micro pellets. They were all soaked in the Catalyst particle syrup. The weedy area rod had a natural 15 mm pop-up and the other rod had a 12 mm Pink Black pepper and Squid wafter on. With this all done, it was time to set camp up and get some food in me.
As the night started to draw in, the liners started and continued on and off throughout the night. I spent a few hours awake, in anticipation of a run, which never materialized. This was a worry, I started to think the rig may have got tangled. It shouldn’t have done but it does happen once a year (just to get you thinking every so often). There was clearly some fish action over the area, just not interested in picking up my hook bait.
With packing up time here, it was time to pack down camp and head home.
And I hope we are back sometime this week.
Until next time
Richard
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This is most certainly my last trip of the year, there are only a couple of days to go before New Year’s Eve. It would be nice to bag my last carp of 2018.
It was a night time set up and there were quite a few anglers on the lake (which was to be expected) Lucky for me, I could get myself tucked away in a bay area away from the pressure from all the other lines. This is in the hope the carp have been pushed into here and no-one else fishes the other end. I may well be luck.
I had checked the area out before I left last week, I could see across into this area and had seen a few flat spots. I used the Deeper and found a lovely mound and signs of small fish.
Exactly where they had occurred last week, I flicked some bait out before heading home. I didn’t think that I would be in here this weekend, it’s more fate than anything else. There were only two other free swims and I didn’t fancy either of them.
I spomb out a mixture of Spotted Fin ground bait and small particles, micro pellets. It was mixed up with a bag of their frozen bloodworm, a small number of whole boilies and a few finely chopped once. I fished a natural pop up one rod and a black pepper squid wafter on the other one, both with tiny bags for good measure. We shall see what the first night brings.
Over the night, my confidence grew with the about of lines I was having. None of them produced a take for me, which was a real shame. Just after noon, I got the Deeper out so I could fine-tune my spots and approach to the last nights fishing. I am very confident that I’m in the right area, just need to convince the carp to feed.
It’s going to be a very overcast day and hopefully, a chance of a carp in daylight hours. It would be a great finish to the year. I have continued to top up the swim with my Groundbait-mix and will fish similar spots tonight.
The second night past with not even a bleep, the fish were clearly more active, just not on the bait.
I was off home pretty sharpish, as the eldest was off shopping with the wife, lucky they called as I was still fast asleep at 0930!
It had been a very overcast night and the day was going to be the same.
It would be next year now when my next trip was due.
Hope you all have a good one.
Until next time
Richard
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This is one of the biggest dilemmas faced by anglers, from beginner to someone who has been fishing for years. Unless you know the lake or person writing the article, you will not understand this situation behind it. E.g venue, stock, weather conditions or water temperature. These all play a part in the choice you have to make. Which sort of bait are they talking about? Boilies, pellets, Groundbait or maggots. Anglers put out kilos of particles in the winter months, they wouldn’t dream of doing this in the summer, well some do.
I don’t wish to confuse any beginners but the major rule must be less is more in the winter. You can never take out what you put in the lake.
My personal approach is to continue to do much the same amount of spombs but change the contents towards the finer bait. Basically, I reduce the number of whole boilies, start to grind them up more, add micro pellets and particle. Now, this is only when I am fishing, as I still prebait with boilies but less frequent in the winter months. This approach only applies to the type of lake I am fishing.
If you are fishing a heavily stocked water and the carp feed in the winter months, especially if you keep chucking in the bait, you will be surprised that the carp will still feed on the coldest days if they don’t have to move far for the food. Just to confuse you more. this can also apply to low stocked waters if you do your homework and know where the carp are and you can keep an eye on their feeding patterns.
This really only applies to the full-on winter angler, if you only go once a month, stick to the less bait as possible. Try over flavoured hook baits and tiny bags soaked in plenty of attraction.
Chopped Boilies
The important parts are to remember is not an exact science but if you fish a lake for a few years you will understand the patterns of the fish and can apply this to smaller lakes.
Time is a big key to the factor, that’s time spent fishing over the winter months, which is certainly not an easy task.
Hope this helps
Richard
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I’ve heard a lot of negative comments about people using the Deeper as they believe it’s cheating and it takes away the fun of the unknown of fishing.
Well here are my thoughts on the matter.
I’ve used a marker float since I can’t remember when and have always spent hours flicking it around the lake and recording depths. I still do this but in conjunction with the Deeper. I have a few issues with markering.
1. Unless you pop the maker float up every 1 or 2 feet, you can easily miss a feature like a 6-inch hump/indentation in the lake bed.
2. Unless you recorded the number of wraps at each point of interest, how can you accurately map out the lake bed? It’s all down to you as to where you make this spot on your map. I found over the years that it was never that accurate.
3. In the case of understanding the complete topography of the whole lake, you would need to transfer your findings to a master copy. This was a pain until Google Maps came along. If you were lucky enough to know someone with an A3 printer, you could get a much better copy.
4. You would always need to carry this around with you and I’ve had the odd disaster with water/rain damaging it. However, with modern technology, this has been made easier.
5. With the number of maker floats I’ve lost over the year’s, the deeper with pay for itself in the long run.
Then along came the Deeper which records all this information. It’s so much more accurate. The lake book feature on the website brings all your hard work to life (in the same way as it has been done in the past but much simpler and with much more options), take a read of my blog on this feature.
This is why I think the Deeper is a step forward and not a cheating tool.
1. Unlike a marker float, the deeper maps out the lake bed, depth and features all in one go. There is no need to keep putting it out and disturbing the fish around a feature you’ve seen.
2. You don’t need to drag it through your swim and past feeding fish as it floats on the surface.
3. Once it’s recorded the information, you can play it back as many times as you like without the need to put it out again. Therefore, creating less disturbance. Some people think this is a problem – you would be doing less time marker floating and its only on the surface. I see the real issue here is the amount of spombing which goes on these days.
4. The lake book feature (that I have mentioned) is perfect for mapping the whole lake and has the ability to measure the distance out to each feature. It’s on Google maps so you can see the features and the horizon marker when you switch to satellite mode.
5. By mapping the lake with the Deeper, you will build up a better understanding of the water you fish. You can see the bigger picture a lot better than with a hand-drawn map.
6. I fish all through the Winter and with the night mode switch on, I could carry on mapping the lake and finding features.
7. I’ve not mentioned the fish icon feature which can be turned on and off, this also appears to be also a problem with some people. Well, it’s just an icon for a fish to help you distinguish what the sonar is picking up. It’s only let you know where the fish are, it does not tell why there are there or what they are up to. This is still down to you to work out, not much difference at all.
8. The amount of time it can save you is such a great help. We are always rushing around everywhere these days.
9. The most amazing thing I have discovered, is that the information I thought I knew about the lakes I fish (and I even have an old hand-drawn map of the lake), is very wrong. The most surprising one was the gravel bars are not bars, they are just cleaned areas of the lake bed at the same depth as the rest of the area. There are a few humps which are indentations and some areas that we thought where up and down all over, are just flat.
In regards to the cheating part. I am not sure where you can draw the line. This can only be classed as a technological advance in fishing, in the same way as we have moved onto carbon rods. The money spent on the development has helped in the advance of these, far beyond the original cane rods. And with the introduction of buzzers and remote systems, would all this not be classed as cheating?
In my opinion, any tool which is going to help the modern carp angler catch a fish in this day and age, who clearly has a lot less time to fish these days, has to help – don’t you think?
I believe a lot of the negativity is born by the lack of understanding of the product. If some time was taken to read and watch a few blogs/vlogs people may realise the Deeper is a great bit of kit. For the money, it’s an amazing bit of technology, which will help you bank a lot more fish. It will save you time and give you a greater understanding of the water you are fishing.
Hope This Helps
Richard
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Happy New Year to all my followers, Sponsors and friends.
May all your fishy dreams come true in 2019.
Richard
Please subscribe to my Video Diary
Please follow my Facebook Pages
Come join my Facebook Group
Hampshire Carp Anglers
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