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From the Jan-Feb 98 North American Carp AnglerBoilies the Dutch Way by Mike van Zij, Amsterdam |
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From the Jan-Feb 98 North American Carp AnglerBoilies the Dutch Way by Mike van Zij, Amsterdam |
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Browsing through your site I noticed that CAG is aware of most or all of the developments of Carp-fishing in the United Kingdom. Because the United Kingdom is the place where modern Carp-fishing is born, it is also a pressured Carp country. The Carp-fisher has to invent the most complicated rigs and the fish is getting smarter every day. For us here in The Netherlands it's much easier. We can use most of the tackle used in the UK but we don't have to go extreme. Simple rigs will do the job most of the time, and if you're forced to use difficult setups, you can always choose to fish somewhere else. Although the Dutch waters don't contain as large Carp as France or the USA, I still find myself in Carp-heaven. Because you are familiar with the concept of boilies, I would like to contribute my opinion in the way to look at them and especially, the way to use them correctly. First of all the invention of the boilie gave us the first bait ever to withstand the interest of other fish for a long period. Not because you can make them BIG!!!, but because you can make them HARD!!!. As you well know, a Carp has grinding teeth, and is therefore a unique fish which can feed on mussels or other hard particles. Probably it will prefer soft bait, but mussels are a (or the most important) part of its food. The first thing to do now is to locate the Carp. Find out where the natural food sources are, observe the water and watch for leaping Carp or bubbles on the surface. Those spots are most likely to be visited frequently by Carp, and therefore a good spot to start feeding. Try to find out what kind of bottom situation you got there (mud, sand, rocks, clay or mussels). You can use a fishfinder for that purpose or a rod with a running lead and a big float. If you want to use the rod, here's how. Put the running lead on the mainline first, secondly put a (hard) rubber bead on the mainline, then a 4 cm peace of hard tubing, another (hard) rubber bead, and finally the float. The beads and the tubing will prevent the float from getting stuck. When you cast, the lead will sink to the bottom and you pull the mainline tight until the float hits the lead. Now pull the mainline from the reel to the first (starter) eye and count. Repeat this until the float hits the surface. The number of times you pulled the mainline from the reel multiplied by the distance from reel to starter-eye is the depth. Now you reel in the mainline again until the float hits the lead and you reel in the whole a few meters and start this process all over. While you reel in, you can also feel on the rod tip what kind of bottom the lead is sliding over. If you drag the lead over sand you feel a steady resistance, if you drag the lead over mussels you feel regular ticks on the rod tip etc. So with the use of the rod you can measure the depth and find out what kind of bottom you have to cope with. Back to the boilies now. Preferably we need a flat hard bottom so the boilies will stay right on top of the bottom instead of sinking in the soft mud. There are many solution for soft mud situations, but I'll keep that for another time. My mate and I use a computer program to calculate our boilies (we are working on a English version). It gives us the possibility to add all the essential ingredients in our boilie that a Carp needs to grow and stay healthy. On the other hand, it gives us the tool to know exactly how much protein there is in our mix. For us this is the most important factor. We use 4 sorts of boilies which we recalculate for summer and winter use. So 4 x 2 = 8 different boilie-mixes. I won't go into this subject right now because that's a complete different and long story. To keep it simple for now you can use ready-made boilies if they are available in the USA. We mostly use 18 mm boilies and sometimes smaller. I assume CAG members are hopefully aware of how to make boilies yourself by hand or with the accessories available in Europe and the UK. I will give two simple recipes at the end in case there are no ready-made boilies available in the USA. Back to using the boilies again now. Find the right spot. Check what time the Carp (or other fish) start feeding. Start feeding 1500 grams boilies (2 hours before the natural feeding time) on the first day. Another 1500 grams the second day (same time, same spot). Another 1500 grams the third day (same time, same spot). Start fishing the fourth day (same time, same spot). If you catch Carp, try to gently squeeze the belly of the Carp towards the anus. Look at the feces that probably will come out, and see if there is a comparison with the ingredients your boilies are made of (we use edible coloring dye in our mix only for that reason). If the color of the feces indeed looks like your boilies, you know for sure this Carp has been eating your boilies at least the day before. This means the Carp found your spot, did like your boilies and most important, came back this day again to feed on your boilies (only). If you catch a Carp on your feeding-spot without feces that look like your boilie ingredients, you caught a Carp which spontaneously visited your feeding-spot, also liked your boilies and was probably attracted by the other feeding Carp. For us this is a reward for the work we put in making good boilies that will work every time we use them for a long period. Looking at the feces we can also determine if the boilies are properly digested and the feces have the desired solid mass. If the feces are to liquid, we know we need to add more fiber or reduce the amount of fat. This way we are able to make a well balanced boilie. On this first fishing day (the fourth day to feed), we fish for 4 -6 hours at the most. If we don't catch any Carp in that time (that happens seldom) we quit completely. This means we consider the spot as worthless for this time and start all over on another spot (same water). If we do catch Carp (even one) we make this fourth day the fourth feeding day also. We pack our stuff and again feed about 1500 grams of boilies. (If we baited the spot the whole time and the catches were poor, we feed a little bit less than 1500 grams because we don't want kilo's of boilies laying there, rotting on the bottom). Feed 1500 grams boilies the fifth day (same time, same spot). Start fishing the sixth day (same time, same spot). By the way, if we start fishing on that fourth day, we throw in about 10 boilies per rod. It can take some time before you get your first bite, but don't start feeding again until you catch your first Carp. Remember there are already 40 boilies in the water if you fish with 4 rods. After every catch we throw in another 10 boilies per rod. If you feed too much boilies when you fish, you reduce your chances the Carp picks up your hook-bait. This is how we fish and I must say with a lot of success. This doesn't mean we or you can't fish instantly, but we prefer this approach. There is one thing for sure, our boilies are laying on the bottom 24 hours a day, they keep in shape, hard and tasty. The boilies are doing there work while we are working and sleeping. If you try this method of feeding and fishing for two weeks at the same spot with the same regularity, you can be almost certain to catch the most and probably the biggest Carp in that area. After two weeks or even a little bit earlier, you can build-up another spot a few hundred meters away and do the same thing all over again. The most important thing is to keep feeding on a regular basis and preferably the same time. Don't skip a feeding day and then throw in twice as much boilies the following day. If we don't know anything about a water, we explore, find the best site and depth, feed for three days and start fishing there for 36 to 48 hours. This way we going to now the feeding time of the Carp and we have the opportunity to watch the movement of the Carp in the area. I'll hope this little article will have helped (some) CAG members to become successful boilie users. Catfood Boilie recipe (not calculated but successful):
Start mixing the whole and add water if necessary until you get a solid dough. Don't make the dough to wet. Make one big dough ball from the above and let it rest for 15 minutes. Make your boilies, cook them until they start to float, scoop them out and let them dry on a big towel (24 hours) until they're hard. Pack them and store them in a freezer until you need them. Work hygienically and keep things (especially your hands) clean because we don't use preservatives and boilies mold easily during the drying period. Avoid any unwanted smell that might contaminate your boilies (soap, detergents, aftershave etc.). Fishmeal Boilie recipe (calculated) (28 grams to an ounce - ed.)
PS We personally don't use any flavors in our boilies. Especially not in our fishmeal boilies. Over time we found out that we didn't catch any more or less Carp by adding flavors. So for us it's a waste of money. Don't forget Carp have a good sense of smell. If you really want to use flavors for your own confidence just add 2 ml maximum to a 500 gram dry mix. If you can smell your flavor slightly it is more than enough for Carp.
Mike van Zij - Amsterdam, The Netherlands |
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