I arrived at the lake and was amazed by the beauty of a local authority lake. As it was my first time fishing the venue, I had no knowledge of the place, so I decided to fish far enough away from the other anglers and found a peg I liked the look of and put my bivvy up.

I began with a few casts using my TF Gear X-Plus Marker rod, and found it was pretty flat and gravely in front of my swim; but it was also shallow which explained why all the anglers were to the right of me in the deeper water. So after a good hour of searching for a spot to fish, I decide to clip all three of my rods up to a spot of gravel at around 80 yards out.

My Rod set up at Fenrod

My plan of attack was to spod 8mm and 4mm pellets maggots and some Beast Feast 20mm and 14mm boilies, then dust the whole mix off with Beast Feast stick-mix.

The reason there is a variety of sizes of bait and colours is for the visual attraction, and also because the carp are picking different weights of baits which keep them guessing.

Mixed bait

The rig set up was kept as simple as possible with my own little twist. The components you will need to tie this rig are all available from Fishtec: a kurv shank hook of any size you choose to use (in this chase I’m using korda size 8 hooks), a korda flexi ring swivel pair of sharp scissors (ideally braid scissors), a puller tool to get the knots tight, medium sized rig rings, a slice of shrink tube, a needle , TFG putty, a spool of thread and – last but not least – 20lb soft gravel brown korda braid.

Items used to tie the rig

Once you have all the components, firstly take off about 9 inches of braid and then strip of two inches of the coating. Tie a rig ring on to the stripped bit using a half blood knot, then pull a bait over the rig ring so you can get you desired length of hair. Once it is to the length required, tie a knotless knot onto the hook. Slide a strip of shrink tube on to the hook to act as a blow back rig, then shrink it by placing it over steam (watch your fingers!). The final step is to tie a grinner knot onto the flexi ring swivel and as you tighten this knot make sure you moisten with a little saliva so it does not strip any of the coating off near the swivel and make sure it will not slip bye giving it a final tug with the puller tool. Place a little blob of putty on the non-stripped bit of braid and the rig is ready to go.

Completed rig - without bait

As you’ve probably noticed, there is only one thing missing from this rig: bait. I only use this rig when I want to fish a single boilie and maggots at the same time ,and this is where the needle and the thread come into play. Firstly place your chosen boilie on a gate latch needle and gently push it over the rig ring.

Placing the boilie onto the rig (1)

Boilie fixed to the rig ring

Grab a decent sized needle and some thread – cut off a 7 inch strand, then push through the needle eye. Slowly begin to put maggots on the needle and slide them down onto the thread (if you put the needle point through the bigger end of the maggot they will survive longer therefore being far more attractive under the water).

Sliding maggots down the needle onto the thread

Once you have put maggots on the thread (10 to 15 is usually ample) slowly take the thread of the needle and then bunch all the maggots up as illustrated.

Maggots bunched up on the thread

The final stage is to put one end of the thread through the rig ring, followed by two over-hand knots to secure the maggots in place. You’ll left with a presentation (illustrated below), and there’s no doubt you’ll soon be saying, “that’s a bite.”

Maggots secured to the rig ring

The final presentation

And a bite it was! I topped up the swim later in the evening, as I had problems with ducks diving for the baits during daylight. At 5:30am the next morning I had a screaming take; after a long fight I managed to land this beautiful 20lb 4oz common. This made my day as it was the first fish I had caught on the Fenrod.

The end result - a 20lb 4oz Common Carp

You might want to, if you want to improve your catch rate. Fishing for carp in the margins can be extremely productive if you find the right places and apply good angling tactics. How many fishermen/fisherwomen ignore the margins when fishing? They see all that water out in front of them and think that the fish must be out there. I often see anglers using three fishing rods with all of them cast out to the far bank. With so many anglers casting out far it makes the margins a safe place for carp to hang out. In fact, the margins can even be the best places to target the bigger carp in the lake.

Fishing in the Margins

As long as you’re quiet when setting up and fishing, you can take fish from the margins in most lakes. Carp have great hearing and will be able to pick up vibrations from the surrounding bank, so you do need to be as quiet as possible.

Centre Pin Fishing Reel

When it comes to margin fishing I tend to use a small 8ft rod and centre pin reel; this allows me to fish in-between trees, and other places where it would be hard to use a 12ft rod. It’s best to wear dark green or brown fishing clothing, or better still, use camouflage clothing, as you can blend into the surrounding. I like to find the more subtle features rather than the obvious ones such as overhanging trees, island banks, etc. I like to look for features like undercut banks, posts or trees sticking out of the water, small bulrushes, bushes, lily pads or inlet pipes all these can be ideal feeding spots for carp.

Carp taking bait

I like to use a small float, 8lb fluorocarbon line and a size 10 hook partnered with good quality bait. One of my best methods is to wrap paste around a small boilie, many fish have taken using this approach, as the carp are not wised up to these methods. So as the weather starts to warm up go out and have a go, this is a very rewarding way of catching carp guaranteed to provide a good fight whatever size fish you’ve hooked into.

Landing the Carp

All the best and good fishing!

Fantastic result!

Tape can be used to form stringers or for tying off the tops of solid PVA bags. Tape also has several advantages over PVA string. It doesn’t shrink in water. Due to its thicker profile, the tape holds strung baits better, great for long-range casting. Also, this thicker profile opens a bigger hole in the free baits, allowing more scent to be released.

PVA Tape

Solid Bags

Flat, solid bags that can be filled with all manner of freebies, regardless of the size of bait used. Their disadvantages are that they are slow to form and tie, always pierce solid PVA bags with a baiting needle, as this will help the trapped air escape, preventing it from floating.

PVA Solid Bags

Mesh

Made from woven PVA thread, this stocking material having an open weave, doesn’t suffer from trapped air. Usually comes in long lengths allowing bags of any size to be made up. The other advantage of mesh is that they are much quicker to make than their solid counterparts.

PVA Mesh

Rig Foam

These buoyant nuggets are either hooked on to or folded over the hook before casting. Once in the water, they hold the hook off the bottom until the nugget dissolves. The hook will then gently settle on to the bottom of the lake. Rig foam is indispensable when fishing over silt or weed. When the rig is cast in, the lead will either sink into the silt or dive into the weed and the rig foam will help stop your hook from being masked.

PVA Rig Foam

PVA Liquid Bags

Small stamp size PVA bags that are filled with liquid, such as flavours, slimes or dips. This is a great edge when you are fishing single hookbaits. The liquid puts out a strong level of attraction into the swim, but the only food item is your hookbait. It can be placed on to your hook or placed inside any PVA for a extra edge.

PVA Liquid Bags

Now I may be shooting myself in the foot a bit here, but with the popularity of commercial carp fishing at the moment our riverbanks are almost deserted so finding good fishing isn’t a problem. I’m lucky in that I live only a short distance from some superb barbel fishing, maybe not the record breaking fish of the Ouse but plenty of double figured fish if you put the work into finding them.

Coarse Fishing Tackle Used

Rods

I try to keep as mobile as possible so keep the tackle down to a minimum. Most of my barbeling these days is done on the river Wye and I find the Tfgear new Classic barbel rods is spot on for this. Most of the time the 1.5lb test curve is great, sometimes I’ll up it to the 2lb test curve when I need to use a bit more weight to hold bottom, sometimes upto 5oz. I’m not a great fan of carp rods and bite alarms for barbel fishing and this is just a personal choice.

The Author with a Barbel

Reels

I use a baitrunner type reel for my barbel fishing which can be set to give line on the take, barbel takes can be very savage at times and the baitrunner type reel can prevent the rod from being dragged of the rod rest. A good drag system to one of the most important features that any barbel reel can have and I find the Tfgear Force 8 GT free spool perfect.

Main Line

I have to admit that I’m a fan of TFGear grunt braid for most of my barbel fishing except were there are a lot of rocks and snags on the river bed I would then go for TFGear red mist monofilament in 10lb which has great abrasion resistance.

Rigs and Bait

Again I keep things simple with my rigs, a standard running rig with either a braided or fluorocarbon hooklink to a hair rigged hook. Bait wise halibut pellets are still top of the list and have incredible pulling power; I generally decant some of the mixed halibut pellets into a smaller container, just enough for a session. Small mesh pva bags are made up on the bank and just nicked onto the hook. Another great rig is Matt’s time bomb feeder.

Retaining Barbel

One last and very important point, barbel have no place in keepnets but it is also very dangerous especially after a prolong fight to release the fish straight back into a fast flowing river. I always leave the fish resting in the margins in the landing net for a few minutes to let it regain its strength.

A Barbel