| | | | | | | | Silt Fishing | | | BY Shaun Mitchell | | | | | | | | | I feel the best way to go about this series is to detail “how to” when carp fishing, and include some more easy reading carpy tales from our sessions ot Sandhurst and Astbury Mere...a bit of something for everyone that way. The first in my series is about silt fishing, coming from the North West I've had to adapt to. I also feel after my trips to Sandhurst, it's something you Southerners can benefit from too! | | |
| | | | Going from various conversations with other anglers, the main thing putting them off silt fishing is down to the presentation of your rig and hookbait. However golden opportunities are being overlooked by letting your fear restrain you from angling in the silt. Remember good silt often contains natural food larders, which are obviously going to produce more bites than others. There are a few things to consider when fishing in the silt, and if done correctly you’re in with a shout of a multiple capture on your sessions. I'm now going to talk you through the techniques which will hopefully help you get more bites, and more carp on the mat too. | | Smelly silt Silt is silt right? Wrong. Some silt is productive for takes, others are simply rotten. To identify what silt is what, I like to have a lead around with a bare hook attached to my lead. This will tell you the water depth (from counting the lead down in your head, until you feel a thump which will give you a ball park figure of depth, and also the bottom make-up) and the depth of the silt, by how much the lead plugs in. A good scattering of silt is usually good without being too deep. On retrieving your set up smell it. If it smells rotten then the silt may be bad. If it smells fairly fresh it's good. I'm a big believer that this is due to it being regularly cleaned off by the fish and it's natural present. | | Location, location, location Ideal areas for good silt are on the back or front gully of a gravel bar, where silt deposits under tree lines where the fish patrol margins and islands. These are all good, and the best areas can be found at first light… the open water areas. Brilliant I hear you cry! You can find them by getting up first light, and watching for bubblers. Cast to these and wait until they stop feeding to have a plumb around. If it's the silt your after, clip up and cast back to the area, this is one rod now angling! On day ticket waters you must consider are they feeding on naturals or others people baits? As this can throw you out. To suss it out you need to put in the rod hours and work out where they're up to. Read today and tomorrow’s newspaper if you like, not yesterdays carp news. Doing this will help you predict where they'll feed tomorrow, and set a trap. Knowing where the fish feed and bubble naturally is half the battle won. This will produce more per session than any other method if your application is correct, which we'll move on to next... | | Presentation for silt I'm going to give you a few simple guidelines on how to fish in the silt. And I don’t really feel that it's necessary to alter what people want to use for their own rigs. Rigs for me are a very personal thing, and what works for me wont always work for others and likewise. I like to use a long hook length of about 12 inches or so, so that when the lead plugs in the silt and the rig lay on top and don't get buried in the silt...and more importantly the natural food larder! I also use stringers and pva bags to slow the rig up in the water. It helps it lay down better and it doesn't go in a big pile and it also aids the presentation. Add PVA foam on the hook and your rig is looking pretty and just waiting to nail a feeding carp unaware! I do love this silt fishing!!! | |
| | X Factor Belachan pop-ups...I like to make my own with some added shaved belachan and glug my own bottom baits with liquid belachan. This in silt causes a major reaction to the carp, as they rip the already attractive bottom up in search of MY baits!! Nothing new or ground breaking just very simple and very very deadly… | | Need more convincing you shouldn’t be scared of the silt? You will be putting your hook baits on a natural food larder somewhere where the carp look to feed naturally, and are confident feeding. They will cloud up the bottom concealing your rig further, and this will stack the odds in your favour and increase your chances of a bite. Silt fishing is not the be all and end all, but a method that can be used to devastating effect on 99% of venues! Find the carp, find the silt, set the bobbins, get the kettle on and catch the carp… proper fishing… Tight lines and thanks for reading
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