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10/12/21
Consistency Catches Carp – Mike Holly
BE CONSISTENT
CATCH MORE
Working in the industry, I get to talk to a great cross section of anglers and it’s clear the anglers that catch more than most are those that apply themselves in a consistent way, but what does that really mean?
BLAME CULTURE
CONSTANTLY CHANGING
Well it’s easy to blame a rig or a bait when you blank. This can sometimes lead to an angler feeling like they need to change something in order to rectify that blank. The next time they wet a line they catch and attribute it to the change they’ve made, yet the conditions may have played a far bigger part in that bite than changing the rig or bait. The next few sessions result in a blank again and the angler is soon ringing the changes once more in search of that bite winning combination. Sound familiar?
NO CONSISTENCY
CAUGHT IN THE CHANGE TRAP
You’d be amazed how many anglers get caught in this trap. On the flip side the most consistent anglers, the ones that are catching regularly are often those that change nothing when a blank occurs.
Swapping and changing all the time is bad place to be, it offers no consistency in an anglers approach but it’s easy to see how it happens. We’re inundated with marketing messages about edges that will never fail and these adverts are hard to resist. Marketing will often tempt anglers into trying everything in order to find the holy grail, the never blanking method. Let’s face it, we all blank, nothing in carp fishing in terms of bait or tactics guarantee’s a bite but I can guarantee the weather and angling pressure will be far more impactful to your results than any tactic or bait you apply on the day.
UNDERSTAND THE VARIABLES
CARP DON'T ALWAYS FEED
On the flip side of changing all the time, the most consistent anglers I know have a couple of rigs in the armoury, in my case it’s basically one. So thats rigs sorted, then when it comes to bait they never change, a good bait will always catch carp, IF the carp are feeding and thats the bit we can’t always control.
A good example is dissolved oxygen, unless you have an oxygen meter you’ll never know if the oxygen is good or bad. This thing called oxygen is an extremely important factor that will often dictate a carps feeding habits. Oxygen is used to digest food and carp know when it’s depleted and when it’s readily available, and that will often be bite time. Then we need that sharp hook in the right place, with a bait they want to eat to complete the equation.
BE CONFIDENT
PICK AN APPROACH
Confidence is a huge edge, when you get to a place where you’re confident in your approach it enables you to focus on location. When location is sorted and you’ve applied yourself correctly the results often follow. My advice to many anglers I speak to is pick a rig, with a sharp hook, accompany it with a quality carp food and try not to keep swapping and changing.
Start to get some consistency in your approach, hone those choices and focus on your watercraft. When you get to this place of complete confidence in your rig and bait and you stop swapping and changing all the time, I guarantee you’ll catch more carp.
