louis

Thanks!!

If it helps, I paid via auto renewal on 4/20. Paypal Transaction ID: 2KV341823K278333U

Hoping someone can help me with the same issue- I should be in the honorary "trustee" group, though for the record I still pay a membership fee bc I love CAG so unsure why I'd be a guest.

To tell you the truth, I really DO use it in salad dressings too. This is a steal compared to the small bottles at the health foods store.

$41

Send in your articles and photographs and get published in the next NACA publication. We are always looking for reports on tournaments and fish-ins, as well as instructional articles, personal anecdotes, books and tackle reviews. Share your knowledge and experiences with our carp angling community! For submission to the “Carp News” section or the front/back cover pages, send photographs of a nice catch along with a short descriptive paragraph. Please include important details such as the name of the angler, the weight of the fish, and where it was caught. Photographs are always welcome! If you submit an article, please try to include several photographs to accompany it. Please note: • Articles should not exceed 2000 words. • Microsoft Word is the preferred format for articles, but any text file will do. • Photographs should be sent as JPEGs or TIFFs in high resolution (at least 200 dpi), but we can manage with other formats. • The DEADLINE for submissions is mid-January for the Q1 issue, mid-April for the Q2 issue, mid-July for the Q3 issue, and mid-October for the Q4 issue. • Submissions must be sent via e-mail to NACA editors- naca@carpanglersgroup.com.

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Float-fishing in Rivers On the river-bank: Okay, let’s say you're a competent still water float-fisher, but not on rivers. Well, we have to forget all about still-water tactics period! In all but a few instances, which I'll not discuss at this time, they'll be little help in flowing water. We must think differently, as we’ll be in an entirely different medium on flowing water, whether slow or fast. Understanding how flowing environments affect the fish and their feeding habits is imperative. Catching river fish using floats attached by double rubbers or sliding is totally different to legering with heavy feeders etc. Float tactics are very much more skillful and the excitement when that float disappears is magic, and worth every effort when we get it right. River fishing doesn’t bog us down with a truck load of gear. Just one rod & reel, landing net, back pack and a bag of bait, life is a breeze on rivers. Let’s go fishing! Choosing the venue is entirely in your hands and I’m assuming you know how & where to find fish. I'm hoping you'll have a rod at least 10-12 ft for float fishing. Anything shorter will cramp your style. A rod with a test curve about 1.5 lbs and 12 ft long is ideal to control floats and should be light enough to hold for several hours to alleviate fatigue, not just your arm, your back too. The ideal fishing depth using a 12 ft rod is about 8 ft. If the fishing depth is more than 8 ft, unless you're well practiced, you might find it easier to use a sliding float. Preferably using 2 rings top & bottom rather than the hole through floats, they don't hold back so well. Try to have a selection of slim & thick bodied floats carrying different weights. You won't need many at first, add more to suit the swims you'll be fishing. Forget those fat dumpy things sold as bobbers, unless you're fishing live bait. Finding the depth is very simple. With the float on the line and using more weight than the float will support. Cast out into the swim, if float is set too deep or shallow, adjust it up or down till top of float is just at the surface. Choice of reels will depend on how far we’ll be casting to reach the chosen swim. Using a center-pin reel is the best tool for trotting the stream, but our distance is limited. A good light-weight spinning reel is the obvious choice for swims beyond the distance of a center-pin, but they don’t control the float through the swim as smoothly as a center-pin. Don’t worry if you don’t have a center-pin reel, the spinning reel will work okay for you. It’s just not as good for holding the float back and checking its journey downstream. Casting float tackle to the desired spot will probably be a sort of underarm sideways motion. This puts the end tackle out in a straight line ahead of the float and slightly pointing downstream in the swim. The float is held steady while the end tackle falls through the water. Once settled, the float can be held back slightly on a straight line, the speed of the float down the swim is then checked to suit the flow at the river bed. This might take a few tries till you get it right. Fishing deep swims more than 12ft will require a sliding float. Reaching the swim will be largely as above except the line is eased through the float rings to reach the fishing depth. Also holding back hard on sliders will not work as well as fixed floats. Fortunately the deeper swims are slower and holding back hard isn’t as critical. Color of floats is a personal choice and 2 excellent colors are, brilliant neon orange for broken or shady surfaces, matt-black is best on bright silver water. Black is the last color we'll see into darkness. Lines are a personal choice, braids & Fireline work well on both spinning & center-pin reels and owing to their small diameter for higher breaking strains (10lb = 2lb dia) they’re a good choice for float-fishing, the non-stretch gives a positive strike. Very important, ‘coz you’ll be straightening out an angle in the line before connecting with a fish. Floats held by double rubbers tend to slip a bit at the strike using braids, and might need the occasional depth adjustment. To correct any slip, try a small split shot beneath the float, or use a small piece of 1/16th rubber tubing with a cocktail stick jammed in it. Although monofilament grips the double rubbers better when fixed floats are used it has a lot of stretch, making the strike less positive. To keep tabs on the fishing depth, mark the rod with white nail polish every foot down the length. When you find your fishing depth, wind the float to the rod top & note the depth in feet or which guide the hook is at. That way you'll never lose your correct depth. You can then change your fishing depth & go back to it at will. I don't mean to be technical or confusing here, but we do need to fully understand what happens beneath the surface and how it will affect the float tackle and how fish feed. If we plan to chum, we’ll have to gauge the pace of the current and throw the chum far enough upstream to settle where the fish are. Throw it too short and they'll follow it downstream. We need to visualize what is happening to water both on the surface & below, maybe even to 16 ft or more. In other words, we need to know how water flows as it runs its course downhill. All rivers whether slow or fast behave in the same way. They roll over themselves. In other words, the fastest flow is at the surface and the slowest at the riverbed. Because friction at the riverbed slows the flow of streams, the surface water rolls over and falls below and slows, middle of the flow also rolls over and slows, this rolling over continues the whole depth of the river even at the slowest flow creeping along the bottom, thoroughly mixing throughout its course. The bottom is where most food is found that enters the stream for fish to forage on, so we’ll generally want our bait at or near bottom. Providing dams do not restrict the natural flow of rivers, temperatures remain fairly constant from surface to bottom, according to time of year. I'm a great believer in the 3 golden rules of fishing. A; first find the fish. B; give them a bait we know they'll eat. C; offer the bait on the right method. Bingo! It's that easy!! Okay you now know how water flows; you know where the fish are; what bait they'll take; and they can be caught on float tackle. If the surface flow boils, we’ll need a substantially buoyant but slender type of float, with the main thickness at or near the top to ride the roiling current. Unless the stream is very slow, forget about wagglers (long stick floats), we cannot hold back in a good flow on a waggler. We choose our floats by the weight we need to comfortably reach the fishing distance, not the other way round. Having the right weight to reach our target is way easier than struggling to get there with tackle too light. Better to overcast and pull back to the right place. Don't be concerned how big the float is, we counter the buoyancy with split shot or other weights for balance without being pulled under by the roiling current. I have sometimes used large floats that carry up to an ounce to reach a desired spot in the river. In medium flows, split shot patterns for an 8ft depth might be 1 small 12 inches from the hook, 2 slightly larger 18 inches from that and the bulk shots 36 from that. Occasionally one weight a short distance from the hook might be best. Do whatever’s needed to balance the float and make it work. Try different spacing patterns until the float works best in the current. For faster flows more shot may be needed nearer the hook or the reverse of the descending pattern to suit the current. There are no hard & fast rules. If our swim is deepest at the end of the run, we’ll need to find the depth and hold the float back over the shallower section until the float reaches the deeper part, hence why we need a good size float. If we try this with a wimpy light float, it'll keep pulling off course, especially in windy conditions. Nothing is more frustrating than an inadequate float. Big is better than too small or too light. If the current is relatively smooth, obviously the shot patterns can be adjusted up or down to suit the conditions of the current. If the current is fast, we'll have to fish well over depth and hold back hard to compensate for the bait dragging along the bottom, but not too hard or the bait will fly over the heads of feeding fish. Fishing well over depth and holding back is the key in faster flows, allowing the bait to trundle at the same flow on the riverbed. If the bait is dragged along the bottom faster than the flow, most fish will be naturally suspicious of the bait. When fishing deep runs close in or at distance, a good float set up to keep the bait at the right depth is, have most or all the weight to just clear the bottom. This will always ensure our bait is bouncing the bottom or very near it. Don't be afraid to hold back hard, because riverbeds are uneven and fish will take the bait as it rises slightly off the bottom. You may find a high spot somewhere along the run and have to hold back hard to clear it before letting the float go again. In shallower swims, shots or weights can be spaced on the line to suit a variety of fishing depths. Its trial & error but the fish always let us know how they want it. Sometimes, holding the float back real hard while fishing well over depth with all the shots or weights clumped together on the bottom, will work better for slowly inching the bait along. This old style is known as stret-pegging and mostly used fairly close in. Best used resting the rod on a bank stick or one knee. Lifting the rod top slightly allows the current to move the tackle along. Many times this deadly method prompts more bites verses a bait skimming along the bottom. Fishing shallow runs is a bit different inasmuch flows are generally faster. Either trip the bait along the bottom throughout the length of the run or hold back over depth at a slower pace. The fish will let you know when you get it right. Above all, we try to keep a mental picture in our minds of what's happening below the surface. All this might sound a little intricate, but it's really very easy once we have it clear in our minds how we need to present the bait in the flow. If our water is relatively slow to moderate, by fishing over depth, say a foot or so and holding back we control the speed of the bait through the swim, or stop it periodically to trigger a bite. Try to keep an open mind and avoid getting bogged down on favorites with floats, one size suits all doesn’t get it. Every river is different as are the flows from day to day. Carefully read the river and fish it according to the conditions on the day. You’ll catch more fish and get experienced. One thing that has always worked for me is; “simplicity works best!” Fish aren’t Albert Einsteins and they haven’t got me fooled like some anglers. Chumming: Chum for rivers needs to be fairly heavy, neither loose nor solid. Bread-crumbs & cornmeal will disappear as a cloud and might even take your fish further downstream. A heavier real bread base mix is a good start when learning to mix chum, plus it has weight. If your own method-mix is reasonably tight and heavy, try it. With bread, you need to accomplish how to mix the base to the right consistency for tossing to the right place without too much effort and not breaking up in mid-air or on impact. It'll take a while before you're able to get it right and you'll have many frustrating hours getting it to work for you, persevere till you master it. From my position, I can only give directions on what you need & how to do it. Everything will depend on you the chef to get the consistency of the mix right. Above all else, concentrate on the right consistency. If you need more weight there's several ways to increase it. Put a stone in the middle of the ball to be introduced, or mix sand in the mix, mold it round your lead, adding bait samples helps too. So, what bread do we use? It must be stale and dry. We never use fresh bread except as bait! Ask all your friends & relatives to save their whole wheat bread scraps for you. Tell them it's for chum and you want it dried out, not left in plastic wraps, it goes moldy. The best bread is "stone ground whole wheat", but that is $3.50 per loaf, so I know you won't buy that & dry it out. If you get on the right side of a food store manager, he might give you a big sack of out of date bread before it goes to the pig farmer. If he says no, offer to buy it cheaply. Or you can buy the cheaper wheat when on sale for a $1.00. Unwrap it & toss it into brown paper bags and store in a warm dry place. Every day or so, shake the bag up to bring the slices at the bottom to the top to stop it from molding. When it's all hard & dry, store the slices in something like a plastic box, or bucket with a sealed lid. Once bread is hard & dry it'll last for 100 years, that's plenty of time to use it. I have a method of storing fresh soft bread baits that last for years, but that’s a secret and I’m not telling how. Collect some cheapo white bread and dry out the same way. You'll need this to make your own bread-crumbs. Whenever possible, make a chum mix to withstand a controlled smooth swing out on the rod & line with a lead inside for weight. This is the most accurate way to chum, 'coz when it reaches the bottom, you strike it off and the chum will be precisely where you want it. You could say on the end of the fish’s nose. None of this will scare the fish, quite the opposite, they fight each other for the bait, and you'll get very positive bites. Okay, we've got lots of hard stale bread stashed in plastic buckets and today we're going fishing and we'll be chumming with bread and samples of hook bait. Fill a couple of plastic shopping bags with dry whole wheat bread, we're taking it "as is" to the river. You'll also need a fine mesh nylon bag with a draw string neck and cord (from camping supply shops) to soak the bread in. When fully saturated, using your hands, squeeze out all the water of 2-3 slices at a time. Place the whole lot in a bucket and thoroughly mash up the bread. Nylon collapsible mixing bowls complete with carrying straps are better than a bucket, unless you want to sit on it. After thoroughly mixing, gradually add some dry breadcrumbs to the mix as a stiffener until you judge it will stay together during flight & falling thru the water column, but only just. Adjust the consistence of the mix by adding water or breadcrumbs until it works for you. Flavors should be added at the first mixing process, other ingredients & bait samples last. Chum is just a medium to titillate the fish’s senses & offer them your bait. Experiment until you're happy with results. Confidence in what you create is essential when chumming. Getting it right can make or break the days fishing. Now the tricky bit many anglers screw-up on, exactly where to put the chum. Again, nothing is cut & dried. The river can be different from day to day, time of year etc. even in the same swims. This is why mixing the chum at the river scores over mixing at home. We make the mix per the conditions, plus you're using river water, not from the tap. If doing a pre-chum for a couple of days prior to fishing, it might be easier to mix at home and take some dry to add in case it needs stiffening up. You'll need to chum upstream but how far? Depends on several factors, depth, current speed, & how far you plan to trot the bait. Unless you have experience of the swim it will be trial & error. A little trick to judge the current speed is to throw a stick into the head of the swim & watch it go downstream. Count how many seconds the stick takes to complete the course. Bear in mind the surface flow is fastest and the bottom might be half that. Deep swims equate a much slower pace on the riverbed. Wearing polarized sun-glasses, place a ball of chum say 10 yards upstream and watch where it lands & how it breaks up on descent. Ideally, it wants to land on the bottom at the head of the swim or slightly below to ensure you’re chumming the entire length of the swim. If it lands too far down or too soon adjust the surface landing spot. Slightly above the swim is better, the current will eventually carry it thru the swim. On the other hand you might want the chum to collect in a depression or hump at the end of the swim, thus creating a feeding hot spot, throw further downstream. According to how the chum breaks up on landing & descent, the consistency will need adjusting. It shouldn't land in a solid lump or explode too soon and be swept waaaaaay downstream. None of this is hard to achieve but it will take patience & judgment before that certain magic happens where your judgment becomes more right than wrong. This is how to make poor-mans white bread-crumbs. Put some hard dry stale white bread into a box say 16'’ x 16"x 8"on a solid surface, using a 4-7 lb hammer standing on its head. Smash the bread and reduce it to fine & large breadcrumbs, then transfer them to a 1/8th mesh nylon bag and sieve them into a bucket, throw the larger stuff back in the box, add more bread and keep smashing, repeating the process until it's all reduced to fine crumbs. Put into gallon Ziploc bags ready to go fishing. You can pre-make tons of crumbs and store in clean 5 gal buckets with well sealed lids. Don't reduce the stale whole wheat chum mix to bread to crumbs, leave in whole slices until ready for use. Note: If you decide to use white bread instead of whole wheat as base mix, you will need plenty of bran in the mix to help stiffen and break up in the water. It is very difficult to squeeze water from white bread by hand. Without roughage to break it up, it’s unlikely you’ll get the consistency right and it’ll look like sludge on the riverbed. All the above is very basic. Once you get the hang of it, over time your float-fishing skills & chumming from the riverbank will get much more inventive & sophisticated. I hope this small amount of information will help gain your confidence to float-fish rivers. If you truly fish center-pins, you'll have more fun than most anglers can only dream of. My 2 original Alcocks Arials have helped me catch 1000's of carp to 25 lbs plus from rivers during my 25 years living in America. The ultimate way of float-fishing in rivers is from a boat, but that’s a different story. Have fun, and may your next fish be your best. Don’t catch ‘em all. Terry Mardell aka T-angles

CAG is now up to 10 B&T members! Please support those that support us!

Joe Babbitt, Long time friend of CAG and carp enthusiast has added his business to the list of CAG B&T Supporters: Carp Fishing Holidays On the St. Lawrence River The St Lawrence Experience provides carp fishing holidays on the mighty St Lawrence River, which is extremely heavily stocked with long lean powerful carp that cruise along the American - Canadian Border. The St Lawrence River is over 1000 miles long and over a mile wide in many places. These powerful carp will give you an amazing carpin' experience to tell all your friends about when you return. Fishing from your base at Waddington on the banks of the St Lawrence River in New York State,USA. you will have the use of a boat so you can access the rivers' inlets and bays, but some of the best fishing is to be had no more than two minutes walk from your base. Your host, Joe Babbitt, will work tirelessly to ensure you have the holiday of a lifetime. Top quality tackle hire is inclusive of the price of your holiday. You can order bait which will be waiting for you when you arrive. In fact all you need to do is turn up for that Carping holiday of a lifetime.