SURFACE FISHING

There are to many things you can do to complicate fishing on the surface .But if the fish are feeding on the top ,right in front of you ,the last thing you want to do is chuck a massive controller float on top of them. The best and simplest thing to do freelining (nothing on your line just a hook) and when hooking a piece of bread crust your be surprised how far you can cast it.

Another good method is fly fishing with cork ball allthought me and james have been doing it for a few month we have caught loads of big ones.

14lb15oz mirror carp caught using the fly rod at pittlands ,kent

I have tried many methods and baits on the surface and found bread or cork the best.The ones that havnt work so well are plastic dog biscuits ,i found them too big and work better when chopped down.I feel if you see the carp coming up to take your bait and they back off allways chop it down ,the smaller the better.

RIGS PART 1

People ask these questions alot 'wot hooklink should i use?' 'wot the best size hooklink to use?' 'fluorocarbon or Braid?' .I say its what ever you feel helps catch you fish .I like both braid and fluorocarbon for different reasons .

For fluorocarbon i really like korda iq ,ive tryed most fluorocarbons and the iq is more soft and supple and not like the stiffer fluoros.For braids most braids are good ,i like the coated braids for anti tangle reasons including sufix sheath skin,korda hybrid.

I really like supple braids aswell including ESP Sinklink (i use this alot) ,kryston supernova ,korda supernatural ,nash ultrasilk.For size i would say the normal size for me is 6-7 inches ,i have used 4inch rigs on method feeder but cause alot of hook pulls ,the other day i used a long rig when ledgering in the margins i used a 9-10 inch korda hybrid rig and worked really good.ive read alot of magazines and they say long rigs are good for fishing over weed and clay.

Pittlands lakes (16thjuly09)

me and james started pretty slow for pittlands anyway ,caught a few small carp on the method feeder before 9am ,had some breakfest .Got back to my swim and casted a rod to my baited swim (baited with halibut pellets) and few mins later i caught a 9lb 8oz on 18mm halibut pellet.i used a huge halibut pellet cause in B lake there is lots of small carp ranging from 1lb -4lb so a large bait will get to the bigger fish in the lake.


On the way to the other lake we found a dead 8lber floating in the corner ,we told les the owner and he said in was eggbound.Another method to catch the bigger fish me and james found is flyfishing its sound hard but its really effective.We went on to C lake about 12pm and we was about go back onto the other lake when james was in on a fat 13lb (on cork ball with xcalibur tackle's size 8 hook) .we went back to B lake and caught loads of carp on method feeder and ledgerd halibut pellet in the margins .

look out for more blogs in the future about methods ,rigs ,bait ,baitin up and opinions on kent and surrey fisheries ect.i went on C lake the smallier of the three lakes but attaully the harder lake for people that like a challenge and too catch bigger fish :) .the lake has big carp ,big crucains (my pb from A lake is 3lb 6oz) big perch , .i fished on one rod ledgerd halibut (no bait around it)and the other i fished the pole to try to catch crucian,perch,carp ect .i kept catch very small rudd on maggots ,so i change to sweetcorn and lunchoen meat (very small bits on a size 18 hook)



By the end of the day i caught two nice perch ,a crucian about 1lb 7oz ,a f1 about 4lb and on my other rod i caught a 10lb mirror and 8lb common (there are carp to 40lb in A lake)


MY HALIBUT RIG

Korda IQ 6inches ,Xcalibur size 8 super fang hook ,Xcalibur clear shrink tube ,Xcalibur size 8 swivel ,kwick change clip attached to esp gravel leadcore leader with an inline lead (20z) shocker style (if you dont know what that is ,i will make a blog on them in the future) All these rigs ,leaders ect Available from http://www.xcaliburonlinetackle.webs.com/