2021 Q1 North American Carp Angler Magazine

CARP ANGLER

IN THIS ISSUE:

SPECIAL GUEST ARTICLE FROM FRANK WARWICK

SPECIAL GUEST ARTICLE FROM FRANK WARWICK

CAG FALL 2020 BIG 4 WINNERS

CAG FALL 2020 BIG 4 WINNERS

CAG NEWS AND EVENTS

CAG NEWS AND EVENTS

FOCUS ON ONTARIO, CANADA

FOCUS ON ONTARIO, CANADA

GUEST ARTICLES FROM JUSTIN LAMARE AND IAIN SORRELL

GUEST ARTICLES FROM JUSTIN LAMARE AND IAIN SORRELL CATCH UP WITH MARK WATSON AND JAMIE CLOSSICK FROM THE 'CARPCAST' CATCH UP WITH MARK WATSON AND JAMIE CLOSSICK FROM THE 'CARPCAST'

I hope this edition finds everyone healthy and looking forward to getting back out on the banks in the near future. For most of the country, the last three or four months have bought winter weather and frozen lakes and I for one am itching to get out and experience the wonderful experience that is carp fishing. Personally, over the last 6 months I have cancelled several trips and fishing excursions so the thought of being able to travel and fish is very exciting.

In this online edition we take a look back at a couple of CAG events from last year and also look forward to this years’ competitions and congratulate the newest Champion of the Queen recipient.

We are pleased to share several great guest articles, with Frank Warwick giving us an insight into rigs and Iain Sorrell delving into some very interesting topics. It is great to see Canadian carping featured with updates on Ontario, and a great article featuring some of the fishing on offer.

I am also pleased to have caught up with the guys from the Carpcast podcast, the original and in my opinion, the best carping podcast out there.

As always we rely on our members contributions and I want to thank everyone; both past and present who has contributed to this magazine over the years. Without your input the magazine would cease to exist

Hope you all enjoy this edition and as always, if anyone would like to contribute; please send any communications or materials to naca@carpanglersgroup.com

Dean Brookes

There finally seems to be an air of optimism for the coming year!

Vaccines are beginning to roll out and it seems that normal life will begin to return over the coming months. It might take a while for travel restrictions to ease or ramp up again but at least the signs are promising.

Here at CAG we have been busy behind the scenes and getting ready for a new carp fishing season. We’ve added two new Regional Directors, new State Chairs, updated our web presence and much more. Keep following the CAG Forum and our Facebook pages to find out what’s happening in your area.

CAG began in 1993 so it is incredible to think that we are now entering our 28th year! There have been many highlights & changes over the past nearly three decades but perhaps the single most consistent factor is CAG’s approach to welcoming newcomers to the sport. You really don’t need to have hundreds or even thousands of dollars in expensive tackle to enjoy carp fishing –especially here in the USA & Canada. All we ask is that you treat fellow anglers & your fish with respect and practice Catch & Release, especially for trophy sized fish.

Above all enjoy your fishing!

Iain Sorrell CAG President

A 1/4 page advert starts from as little as $45 and includes a live link to your webpage or become a Business Supporter and get a Full Page advert in each NACA plus a web banner link on the CAG Website and Forums for only $300 / year.

For more information email us to naca@carpanglersgroup.com

CAG members are invited to submit photographs that capture what is unique and exciting about carp fishing in North America.

Each month the winner will receive a special prize plus recognition for two runners up.

The photos do not have to be of someone holding a fish (this is NOT a Trophy fish competition) but they should be recognizable as being related to carp or buffalo fishing in North America and should reflect the capture of a special moment.

The ‘essence’ of carp fishing in North America might memorialize a remarkable scale pattern, someone’s first carp, a group of friends fishing together, a spectacular sunset, time of year or perhaps a dramatic background or landscape.

The judges will be fellow members who should pay particular attention to the subject matter and composition and not just the photographic or editing skills. In the event of a tie or any disputes the CAG BOD will be the final arbitrator.

Each month we’ll announce a winner and Award a prize or voucher (worth $100) with the winning photo appearing in a forthcoming NACA magazine as well as the CAG Forum Site and Facebook page. The top 3 will also receive CAG Medals.

The Rules:

The entrant must be a Full CAG Member & the owner of any copyright to the photograph.

An entrant may submit a maximum of TWO photos only in each month.

The photograph must have been taken in the submission month (final date for submissions is 24 hours after the end of each month)

All fish photos must demonstrate appropriate carp care and catch & release

Each submission must include the following details:

1.The type of device (e.g. camera or phone) used.

2. The date the photo was taken.

3. Location (nearest Town and State).

4. Your Name

5. Photo Title (e.g. Mirror Magic, Waiting for the Bite etc)

Entries should be submitted to the “CAG Essence of Carping Competition” under the appropriate “Month” below.

Entrants agree that CAG may use or display a submitted photo on the CAG website and Social Media resources.

NOVEMBER 2020 WINNERS

Joint 2nd Place – MOCarper

DECEMBER 2020 WinnerS

Our thanks to Tamas & Carp Maxx for the August and September Essence of Carping competition prizes!

1st Place – MOCarper

Champion of the Queen

Champion of the Queen 2020 awarded to Iain Sorrell

While the President of CAG usually announces the Champion of the Queen Award winner, we will break with tradition this year. Behind the scenes, the BOD has unanimously voted our President, Iain Sorrell, as the 2020 Champion of the Queen award winner. Since the CAG inception, the Carp Anglers Group “Champion of the Queen” award (sometimes referred as “Protector of the Queen” award) has been used to acknowledge exceptional

achievements in promoting CAG and carp angling in North America.

Iain has been a tireless volunteer in the CAG organization for almost two decades. He joined CAG in 1995 and has been a supporter ever since. Over the years he has held positions of State Chairman for CT, Vice President for several years, Treasurer and President since December 2017. In addition, he has been Interim Events Director, running many events in the absence of a Director in recent years.

Iain has been a national figure in trophy carp conservation. He was instrumental in getting landmark creel limit regulations passed for the protection of trophy carp throughout CT as well as designations for the CT River and other waters in CT as “Trophy Carp Waters” It is a model for other states to follow. Iain also helped in getting a 3 rod rule for CT along with scale certifications to allow potential record carp to be weighed and released without harm.

He also organized and ran a very popular event called the NECC (New England Carp Conference). This event, a pure “carp fishing show”, brought together carp fishermen and vendors from all over the US. It was held in Middletown, CT.

During his years as President, Iain brought fiscal integrity to CAG through his business expertise. He also used his business management skills to fill many state chair positions as well as BOD positions. During his tenure as President membership saw a steady growth.

The BOD and CAG offer a big thank you for all that Iain has done for this organization as well as carp fishing in the US. Please join me in congratulating our President Iain Sorrell as the 2020 Champion of the Queen award winner.

Protecting Trophy Carp Waters

Iain Sorrell

In the Fall of last year, we received yet another report of carp being caught, retained and then transported across state borders. This incident occurred on Dale Hollow Reservoir which it appears has become a target for operations supplying fish to paylakes in recent years.

This practice, while often legal or unchallenged in some states, creates a number of issues. In the first instance removing trophy carp by netting, fishing or bowfishing is detrimental to the overall quality and numbers of big fish in most waters. A trophy carp can take many years to reach 20lb and a 30lb plus wild fish could easily be more than 20 years old (MN state fisheries research reports finding trophy sized fish that could be well over 45 years old).

Research also suggests that it can take many years, perhaps even decades for trophy carp waters to replace these big fish. See the article in this NACA on The Sustainability of Trophy Carp Waters.

The transporting of fish, especially across state borders greatly increases the risk of transferring diseases or invasive plants (hydrilla, water chestnut etc) or non-native animal (various snails, zebra mussels etc) species from one water to another.

The Carp Anglers Group does not condone the movement of fish (of any species) except as specifically required under the direct supervision and authorization of state fishery organizations.

As most states require a commercial license and have strict rules that must be followed it is our recommendation that any such movements of fish be immediately reported to local authorities. Ideally you should provide as much corroborating evidence (vehicle license plate details, photos etc) as may be presented without risking any confrontation.

We would also recommend that all tournament organizers include a rule that prohibits any participating angler or related persons from removing fish during or immediately following the event from any of the pegged swims. This would certainly deter anyone from entering the tournament for the purpose of staying on immediately after the event to remove fish with the intent to stock other waters.

CAG recognizes those anglers who have worked, often quietly behind the scenes, to provide mats and nets at paylake venues as well as helping to demonstrate better fish handling techniques. We also encourage those lakes who are focused on creating improved water conditions and protection for their fish stocks. Such efforts will help to minimize fish losses and hence the need for frequent restocking.

The CAG mission is clear and states: To treat the carp with respect, promote the release of trophysize carp and encourage others to do the same.

CAG members are expected to uphold all aspects of the CAG Mission and in particular the one listed above. Any failure to respect the CAG mission will be considered grounds for revocation of membership.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us here at North American Carp Angler once again.

Before we get into questions regarding the Carp Cast I’d like to get a bit of background on yourself and Jamie for our readers who may not have heard the show before.

I believe you and Jamie met and fished together at the famous Elstow Pits, in Bedfordshire, England.

You have a great rapport on the show; was this developed over time or did you hit it off immediately?

Thanks for inviting us to talk with you again.

The first time I met Jamie was indeed on pit 2 at Elstow and I left his swim thinking he was a bit nuts. He’d spilled petrol on his hands while filling up his Coleman stove and had decided the best way to get rid of it was by burning it off with a lighter!

We were both regular midweek anglers so over the year became friends and worked together towards catching the carp.

Did you fish any other waters together?

We did, there was St Ives lagoon and then the Woolpack and we both managed to catch big fish from both waters. St Ives was the home of the Fat Lady which we may have mentioned on the podcast once or twice and The Woolpack had some lovely old scaley mirrors and commons. I started on there Before Jamie and my first bite was one of the most sought after in there, a common known as The Carving at just over 40lb. Jamie wasn’t too far behind and helped himself to the lakes biggest mirror, a chunk of a fish known as Cluster.

It was back in early 2015 that yourself (Mark) and Jamie started the Carp Cast. Over the next few years you had many and varied guests on the show and saw a great amount of interest.

Were you surprised by the growth and interest in the show?

Yes and no. To be honest we didn’t really know what to expect but we had high hopes for it. The UK seems to be a few years behind the US in the popularity of podcasts but we have seen steady growth overall.

Even when we weren’t putting out regular episodes our numbers kept growing as more people found us for the first time and listened to our back catalogue.

There are now quite a few other carp fishing podcasts appeared over the last couple of years and the only thing that has really surprised me is that it took so long for others to start their own.

I know after the first 3 or 4 years yourself and Jamie found it an ever increasing challenge to put out regular podcasts, with work and life taking up more time. Since you were away we have seen several podcasts and Youtube style interview shows come onto the scene. Are you surprised by the interest in this format?

Not at all. There are some great personalities in carp fishing and the visual podcast type interview is now my preferred way of consuming them unless i’m driving. Other interests I have are all doing the same thing too as things like Zoom and other apps make it so much easier to do. I believe we may have predicted this sort of thing and live streaming in some of the early shows.

I believe by the time you got to 100 episodes you’d had over 1 million downloads across all of the platforms?

Did you have an initial targets when you started the show or was it an organic growth?

In my opinion there’s been a great desire for the Carp Cast to return. I believe it’s due to the nature of the show and the honesty and humor yourself and Jamie bring to the subjects. What has been the feedback to the first two new shows (Episodes 101 and 102)?

We didn’t set out with any targets as we were entering a completely new space for carp fishing. We are proud to say the growth was all organic with a bit of help on the way from the likes of yourselves, Carp Talk and many of the guests helping publicize the show.

The feedback has been great with a lot of people glad we are putting shows out again. With there being such a gap between shows and others starting up it was a minor concern that we’d been forgotten about but thankfully not. We put out a couple of posts on social media teasing a return and got an instant response and what’s more is people wanted us to come back the same without any changes so we have.

Mark brings humor not only to the Carpcast, but also to his own fishing!

You seem to have great support from the carping community with lots of interesting guests.

Over the first 100 Episodes you’ve had many on the big names on the show. Are there any ‘bucket list’ anglers you’re still targeting?

You’re right, we’ve had some great people on the show and hope to continue. We are lucky in that we have both been involved in the industry in one way or another for a long time giving us access to these people.

There are a few on the wish list but we’ll have to wait and see if they’d want to do it.

There’ll also be some favourites coming back to entertain us once more.

How many countries listen to the show? Any surprises?

Quite a lot, first is the UK with the US being second and a whole selection for the rest. Surprisingly Sweden has quite a few listeners, so did Iraq which I’m sure were our armed forces out there. A lot of holiday destinations pop up too as people on vacation chill out with a beer or two on the beach listening to us.

You have a good following in the USA, and have featured the fishing on a few occasions. I know Jamie mentioned making a trip in the future. Once we can travel again (without the Coronavirus interfering), does fishing in the USA interest you?

Once this pandemic has passed and we can travel safely again then a trip over there to try and catch some of your carp is definitely appealing. After seeing those lovely mirrors you put on social media Dean, It’d be impossible not to want to catch a few. I think that would make a great podcast.

As much as I love hearing the guests on the show I also like to hear about yourself and Jamie’s fishing as this adds to the shows personal feeling. Can you give us some details of your own fishing this past season or future plans?

My own fishing has been cut back a little over the last year to give me time for my new found passion for open water swimming. Not too much though and I still caught some nice fish to over 30lb including a big fully scaled that i’d wanted for a while. I’ll be fishing my usual big pit again but I have heard a few rumours about a non fishing lake near my village that need checking out.

Jamie has plans, as soon as we can to travel into Spain and spend some time fishing in the Extremedura region of Spain, in particular lake Orellana. Then it will be a road trip over to Slovenia and lake Bled and the other lakes where VIP Carp Holidays operates.

A lovely fully

I’d also like to give our readers some information on Jamie’s overseas fishing business. I believe it’s VIP Carp Holiday’s?

I typically go on one or two European trips per year and I know lots of anglers in the USA are looking into this. Any details on the company and the waters they offer?

That’s right it’s VIP Carp Holidays and they offer carp fishing adventures in the Balkans to several waters. The best known of these is the famous Lake Bled set with its iconic church on the island which is the trophy shot everyone wants.

With the help of Jamie and Gasper theres some very big carp to catch, over 75lb from this crystal clear glacial lake The bear lake is another gem with carp to over 70lb with many over 60lb. 5 to 10 carp a day is normal here for some of the best conditioned carp you’ll ever see.

All the information for these venues and more can be found on the website address below and now VIP Carp Holidays is part of Carp Circle the service is set to get even better.

The shot everyone wants…a large carp with the Bled church in the background

Jamie with one of Lake Bled’s large mirror carp

How can our readers find you?

Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/CarpCast

Facebook Fan Group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/48325...

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/the_carp_cast/

Website

https://www.thecarpcast.com

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsHxKkemK1fAJZaRsoW2aRQ

VIP Carp Holidays

www.vipcarpholidays.com

www.carpcircle.com

Finally, any news of future plans for the show? I know you mentioned Carp Cast Fish-ins and socials?

The show will remain similar to what it is now with tweeks along the way. The main difference is the platforms it is now available on, especially YouTube. Along with the show we plan on doing more visual content and are both learning lots about the whole process from filming through to editing and production. As far as socials go we do plan on doing more as long as we are OK to do so with covid.

Thank you for your time!

BIG FOUR 20 20 CAG

Winner Region 1:

Region 3 Winner: Allen Palmer

Region 5 Winner: Tyler Andrews

Region 4

CAG Regional Directors – New Appointees

I’m delighted to announce that Sam Williams and Ryan Munn have recently joined the CAG Board as Regional Directors.

Our Regional Directors work in support of local State Chairs to help organize fishing and social events. They also act as key liaisons with State Fishery groups to help promote catch & release carp angling and work with them on protecting trophy carp.

Sam will oversee Region One North which covers ME, VT, NH, RI, MA, NY & CT while Ryan will oversee Region One South which includes PA, NJ, DE, MD, DC, WV & VA.

Sam is one of our State Chairs in NY covering the Hudson Valley and has been busy organizing several fish-ins and local events. He’s a seasoned carp ambassador and has introduced several newcomers to catch & release carp angling.

Ryan is our youngest director and very much represents the rapid growth & excitement in carp angling across North America. He has also taken on responsibility as the NJ State Chair. Ryan has been exploring several areas of the Delaware River and his endeavors have been rewarded with some exceptional fish.

All CAG Directors serve as unpaid volunteers and are a vital part of supporting the CAG mission to promote catch and release carp angling and the protection of trophy carp. If you would like to help support CAG please reach out to us: cagstaff@carpanglersgroup.com

Ontario ‘Online’ Fall Fish-In

2020 was a tough year with Covid restrictions limiting the usual Fish-Ins and bank side gatherings. This was especially the case in Canada so it was great to hear about a novel idea by Ontario Provincial Chair Jesse Gallant. He came up with an online Fall Fishing tournament. Anglers simply reported their biggest fish online over the duration of the event.

The top three places went as follows:

1st Place

Peter Weldon

26.09 lb

The Top 3 received CAG Event Medals as well as a selection of donated bait and tackle items. Well done everyone who took part and thanks to Jesse for running the event.

Ontario Introduce New Rod Regulations

Ontario has announced new regulations that will allow anglers to use more than one rod when fishing for common carp.

The new rules are shown below:

(5) A person who is angling for common carp may use up to three lines in the waters of fisheries management zones 12 to 20, if all of the following conditions are met:

(a) the person is using plant-based bait or synthetic corn;

(b) if the person is angling from a fishing vessel, all of the lines used by the person are on that vessel with the person; and

(c) if the person is not angling from a fishing vessel, each line used by the person is within two metres of another line used by the person.

For more information visit:

https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca.

Congratulations to everyone involved in bringing these new rules to fruition.

Connecticut had a 2 rod limit we (CAG) approached CT DEEP with a proposal. Overall it took a couple of years of negotiations and discussion but the regulations were updated to allow anglers to use 3 rods. If anyone would like help in starting discussions in their local state please contact us.

Long Term Sustainability of Trophy Carp in North America

Iain Sorrell

In some states, such as Minnesota & Missouri, significant funding for research has been aimed at shedding light on why some lakes and rivers have high densities of common carp while others have well balanced fish populations. This research it should be noted is primarily focused on reducing the numbers of common carp with the focus on improving water clarity, weed growth and protecting native fish species.

In addition to our own anecdotal angling evidence some of this research has also provided significant insights into the potential age of common carp and the key factors that can contribute to creating trophy carp waters.

Why are some lakes over populated?

Research conducted by Dr Peter Sorensen at the University of Minnesota showed that carp (often a significant percentage of the total population) will migrate to spawn in wetland and marsh areas.

If these wetland ‘nursery’ areas have low levels of dissolved oxygen and are prone to ‘winter-kill’ it will limit the presence of native fish species, such as perch and blue gills, that would otherwise feed extensively on carp eggs and fry.

So without any natural predation of the eggs and fry it usually results in very large numbers of small carp surviving before returning to the main lake or river. Once a common carp reaches 5-6” in length it has very few natural predators.

“Carp are smart and they understand the topography between the lakes. One of the things we’re learning is they will overwinter in the deepwell oxygenated lakes. They aggregate in these places and then migrate in the spring to spawn in upstream small wetland “nurseries” where native fish have a hard time surviving because of lowered levels of dissolved oxygen in the water.”

– Dr. Peter Sorensen, University of Minnesota

Sorensen’s studies on a shallow Midwestern lake suggested that a carp biomass in excess of 270 lb / acre had a damaging impact on aquatic vegetation but that little damage occurred with a density below 90lb / acre.

The studies showed that removal or reductions in carp biomass improved the growth in aquatic vegetation and increased water clarity. It is worth noting that managing carp populations in watershed systems that have high densities of small fish may help, in the long term, to create trophy carp waters.

When I mentioned these ‘biomass’ numbers to renowned carp angler and lake owner Mark Pitchers this was his response… “Mate, I’ve got 110 carp averaging 20lb in my 2 acre lake and the weed is ******* horrendous. It’s like a field, top to bottom!”

This is a photo of Mark’s celebrated Wainstones Pool in the North of England. At a density of about 1,000 lb / acre you can see abundant weed growth and this was before the weed really took hold Mark says!

There may be a number of factors involved in the impacts of a large carp biomass on different waters and it would certainly be interesting to learn more from other fishery owners.

How long do carp live?

In well maintained fisheries carp can live, even with repeated captures, for several decades. There are plenty of well documented examples of fish stocked in UK waters during the 1930’s & 1950’s living for at least 40-50 years with one or two being thought to be considerably older.

It has also been reported that the stockings of the famed Galician strain fish in Redmire reached their maximum ‘frame’ size in about 15 years before ‘filling out’ in the following years to reach their maximum weight.

Renowned Angler, Writer and Carp Fishing

Historian Chris Ball kindly provided this clear documentary evidence of at least two carp that lived in Redmire Pool to a great age.

Raspberry

Raspberry in the hands of L-R: John Nixon (1961), Jack Hilton (1970) and Paul Adams (1999)

This carp is thought to be one of the originals supplied to Bernithan Court in 1934 and 1935. In either case this batch of carp were likely either born in 1932 or 1933.

The sparely-scaled mirror carp that became known as Raspberry was first recorded in 1961 at 23lb when caught by John Nixon (who is still alive).

Consequently, this carp was caught by the good and great over the years including, Jack Hilton, Bill Quinlan, Rod Hutchinson and others.

Raspberry was alive, though clearly not too well, when Martin Locke and Len Gurd recorded the ‘Redmire Forever’ DVD film in 2003. It was found dead later making it around 70-years old.

Dick Weale (left) with the stunning linear in 1980 & later in 1998 in the hands of Ian Rothwell

This famous old Redmire linear (almost certainly an original too) was first recorded in 1975 when Kevin Clifford landed it at 26lb 12oz. It eventually made 30lb in October 1980 when Dick Weale landed the fish at 30lb 2oz. It then appeared to ‘freewheel’ around the 26lb- 28lb for many years.

And later though uncaught, there were persistent sightings of this carp (or what is thought to be this carp) right up until around 2010.

So how old are common carp in the USA?

A 2015 study on the 1,810 acre Green Lake in the Chisago City area of MN captured adult carp of between 25 and 32 inches with weights ranging from 11 to 19lb. These fish were determined to be from 7 years old for the smallest fish to 12 years old for the largest.

I recently had a fascinating conversation with Quinton Phelps, Assistant Professor at the Dept of Biology at Missouri State University. He told me they had measured otoliths from carp of between 24 to 31 inches that included individual fish that were determined to be up to 35 years old!

These later reports indicate that it had grown into a whacker of well over 40lb. Les Bamford (keeper of the pool) whose word I trust, is insistent that it was easily a mid-40-pounder. Then there came a time when it disappeared never to be seen again.

If it was the same carp, then it was probably to last of the Donald Leney stocked Redmire carp from the early 1930s - and if so it was around 75-years old.

The common carp (Cyprinus carpio) is a nonnative invasive fish species to Minnesota. It is a long-lived fish (over 60 years) that is now prevalent in most metro area lakes. They are intelligent creatures with a voracious knack for survival.

Here in the USA, with the prevalence of fully scaled commons it is often only distinct patterns or markings and uniquely scaled mirror carp that give us any clear indications of a fishes age arising from repeat angling captures.

In my own experience a mirror carp originally caught in about 1998 continued to be caught until at least 2015 with weights that ranged from 27.12 to over 32lb. The obvious question is just how old was this individual fish when first caught back in 1998?

Steve Clow and Iain Sorrell with a distinctive mirror that was captured several times over the years.

There have been many other notable repeat captures over the years including this exceptional mirror that was caught by several anglers over a 5 year period before tragically being killed by a bow fisher.

The impact of climatic (Moran effect) & other environmental conditions on the success of carp ‘recruitment’ (the process of a fish maturing from an egg to an adult) in any one year can vary enormously from one lake or river to another.

A 1976 study of common carp in Lake Pathfinder, Wyoming determined that 90% of the population was made up of individuals from a total of only three year classes over the period of a decade1962, 1971 & 1972.

So just to be clear that means there were NO successful carp spawns in 7 of those 10 years! In other lake or river systems the spawning success might be more frequent producing 2 or 3 year classes every 5 years or even a decade or more of uninterrupted year classes.

Winter severity, precipitation, seasonal temperatures and strong winds seem to have the most significant impact on the success or failure of recruitment among year classes. For example higher spring rainfall can flood marshes and make more spawning areas available resulting in the potential for increased recruitment while strong winds can dislodge eggs and leave them exposed along the shoreline.

For us as anglers it probably explains the conundrum of why for many years we might catch only a very few small carp but then, suddenly one year, we might be able to catch significant numbers of small (1-2lb) fish. This was certainly the case in most of the New England waters I regularly fished. In one lake in particular 70% of the fish caught were over 20lb. Looking back at my records for this water, which go back almost 25 years, I caught only a handful of fish under 10lbs in that time period. In another example a New Eng-

land water that produced several commons and mirrors to over 48lb with only the occasional low double figure fish was suddenly overwhelmed with commons and mirrors in the 1-2 lb range! Perhaps even more remarkable was the fact that these smaller fish had all but disappeared by the following year.

The Significance?

There are some key elements we can learn from these Year Class and Carp Age research that is especially relevant to us as carp anglers.

The first factor is that in waters with only a few year classes we might expect to find fewer but bigger carp.

This correlation, while not necessarily surprising or scientifically proven, comes from the fact that over-populated waters invariably have few if any uninterrupted year classes.

These frequent and successful spawns result in large populations of smaller carp and competition for resources.

Where there are very few year classes, such as might be found in many waters, including those around New England, we typically find smaller carp populations but often with much larger fish including some true leviathans!

The second key factor is that we should not underestimate the potential age of trophy (20lb plus) carp. There is no doubt that carp can grow remarkably quickly.

The Challenge to Protect Trophy Carp

The evidence suggests that we need to better understand the age and longevity of the trophy carp we catch in North America. It is also critical to understand how carp recruitment impacts the chances of replacing the next generation of trophy fish. One our greatest challenges is to limit the impact from bow-fishers on trophy sized carp. Some publicly boast of “taking 200 shots on a good night and land* 50-80 carp during the spawn” (* for ‘land’ read kill). We can only imagine the toll it takes on trophy size fish and the long term damage to a fishery. Carp are especially vulnerable during the spawn with a large percentage of the carp population from a lake or river gathered in a few localized shallow areas.

Just one of many examples of the impact of

In Europe it is quite possible for carp, raised in optimum conditions, to reach 20lb in just 5 years! However based on some of our own repeat captures and research by groups, such as the University of Minnesota, it suggests that carp in the USA, even in the 21 – 30” range, might be significantly older than we might have imagined.

It is clearly imperative that we protect these trophy carp and we can all help by ensuring proper catch & release techniques to maximize their recovery and survival.

Your support for The Carp Anglers Group (CAG) makes a significant step forward to help protect trophy carp in North America. CAG will continue in its efforts to highlight the problems of wanton killing or movement of trophy carp and to bring these to the attention of State Fishery organizations. The success in the introduction of creel limits for carp in Connecticut and the creation of trophy carp waters is clearly a model for other states to follow.

References:

https://www.rwmwd.org/catching-up-with-carp-diving-into-the-next-phase/

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241026134_Influence_of_the_Moran_Effect_on_Spatiotemporal_Synchrony_in_Common_Carp_Recruitment

https://mn-chisagocounty.civicplus.com/DocumentCenter/View/7724/2015-Green-Lake-CarpReport-PDF

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ oik.01795

6 days and 5 nights on Lake Saint-Pierre

At the mercy of the St. Lawrence - Alone in the world

Introduction

Every year in June, the Fish’n’Canada Carp Cup is held on the St. Lawrence River. I take part in it with my partner from Quebec. This carp fishing tournament is the only official one in Canada and it qualifies the winner to represent Canada at the World Carp Classic but this year because of COVID-19, the event was cancelled.

My days off being already planned, I decided to allow myself an extra long solo session on the river. I have been carp fishing since I was 17 years old with my last several years in France, which I left in 2015. I started to do long sessions (3 days and more) and I really loved it. In a world and life where we run all the time, fishing is my universe where I can go at my rhythm and my rhythm is to take my time, so fast fishing is not for me.

This time I was getting ready for the first time since I arrived across the Atlantic to do a 6 days and 5 nights session alone and in autonomy on an island only accessible by boat on the majestic St. Lawrence River. To do so, I would be going to the territory of Roger Gladu, Outfitter.

St Lawrence River Seaway in all its enormity

Outfitters and Quebec Rules

As a preamble to this account of the session, I must remind you of a few things about fishing and outfitting here and explain a little about how I fish and my style of fishing.

Hunting and fishing territories in Quebec are partly managed by outfitters, which primarily are businesses that lease from the Ministry the right to give access to public lands to hunters, fishers and trappers to practice their activities.

This allows Quebecers to satisfy their subsistence culture (inherited from settler ancestors) and allows the Ministry to have eyes on the territory and see what is going on and follow it.

Roger Gladu Outfitter, named after its creator, is one of the three largest in Quebec (14 km of ice fishing trails in winter) and one of the most renowned duck hunting outfitters in Eastern Canada.

Indeed, its territory is located on the famous migratory stopover of Lake Saint-Pierre where hundreds of thousands of birds pass by.

Outside the archipelago, the lake’s shores are immense bays or linear, all marshy, several hundred hectares filled with grass beds and generally no more than 1.5m deep. These areas can only be explored by boat.

Truly wild water

These waters are inhabited by the wild commune of origin (present for nearly two centuries) which have never seen a hook. Returning to the archipelago, the arms or channels between the islands are between 100m and nearly 800m wide and the depths go down to nearly 13m. The average weight of the carp are between 6 and 9 kg, but it is not uncommon to see fish up to 14-15kg. However, getting to those weights and bigger is a challenge in itself.

The difficulties to touch these big fish are numerous; very little access to the water from the banks, areas where they are to be found in this immensity, extremely mobile fish, difficult to use rich baits because of pests, the quantity of fish requires baiting in VERY LARGE quantities and the archipelago and the lake offers enough food for the carp. Some areas are already known by some people but it remains their preserve and personally I don’t know any.

But I am exploring and actively searching. The chosen fishery

Fishing

The fishing area that I targeted for my stay is on the south shore of the island, in the part of the island managed by the outfitter and which represents no less than 14km of shoreline (and that’s less than half of the island). The area is only accessible by boat and is at the heart of the biosphere reserve.

The spot I had in mind is a huge shoal and has intrigued me for quite some time, especially because of the options it offers. There are herbariums, water lilies and part of a dead tree with branches, deposited on the shoal by the flood at 50m from the edge. This spot attracts me because I am an obstacle fisherman. At the risk of surprising you, fishing on the river here is rather monotonous from this point of view. The river and the rivers are relatively free of obstacles.

Day 1 - Wednesday 24 June, 2020

A boat is a necessity when tackling large bodies of water

It’s Wednesday 24th June, 3pm, the car is loaded and I leave for the outfitter. After a one hour drive I will be ready to load the boat. I arrive at the outfitter around 4pm and take a little 15 minutes to go get the anchor, the life jacket, the safety equipment and the boat number that the outfitter will lend me. It’s Nicole, Roger’s wife, who takes care of the outfitter’s reception and logistics.

Roger is the man in the field, on deck from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day in all weathers for nearly 50 years; he is a force of nature. At the age of 70 he still does most of the work on his territory. And even then, he has lifted his foot. After about fifteen minutes of talking with Nicole and checking up on her, I leave for the rowboat to load her up. Once all the stock is in the boat, I leave for the spot.

Loaded and ready to set sail

The spot is about 4km away. It will take me about ten minutes. The boats are 16 foot (4m) aluminum or fiberglass hulls with 25hp (hp) engines that can reach speeds of up to 45km/h so they move well. At 7:30pm and I arrive on the spot. My first observation worries me a bit; the water level. It’s fishable, but it mustn’t go down much more. After a brief hesitation, I decide to stay here for the night anyway.

The sun sets in 2 hours so I’ll let the night pass and I’ll see how the water level is tomorrow. The spot is so beautiful. It’s a huge shoal from 1m to 1m30 deep with water lilies on my left, patches of grass here and there and a break that goes down to 5-6m deep more than 100m in front of me. We’ll spend the night and we’ll take stock of the situation tomorrow.

The author, pondering a move

As usual I’m going to approach my fishing with 2 spots and alternate them. Here I’ll do one rod at the water lily pads and the other one rod on the shallow water. I’m going to start with a string of four pieces of corn on a D-Rig mount. A sure value... Yes, yes, a D-Rig montage with a rosary of corn. I will fish more with a boilie when I have access to diameters of 24 mm and larger.

Fishing here requires reinventing your European fishing to adapt it to the reality here. My two best baits here are corn and a pop-up. But just that could be the subject of an article.

Simple and effective rigs are the order of the day

Day 2 - Thursday 25 June, 2020

After less than 24 hours of fishing, the results are good. The fish are present. No less than 7 runs for 4 fish (2 missed and 1 lost in the weed) that tasted my corn. But many were small ones under 7kg. In the morning I realized that because of a side key the alarm did not sound and the fish went into the grass and got tangled in the line.

A wild common carp

A Deeper Chirp sonar is invaluable to work out the depths and structure

During the day, I take a moment to probe the whole area with my Deeper sonar to better immerse myself in the spot and exploit it. It’s a huge plateau/shallows of 1m to 1.3m. However, my observation of the day before concerning the water level is getting more pronounced, it continues to drop.

On the first ten meters, it’s less than 50 cm deep to exhaust the fish with a very muddy bottom (you easily sink down to your ankle). So I was checked a spot further downstream at about 250m.

It presents disparate seagrass beds on the first 10 meters of shoreline with about 2 feet (60cm) of water, therefore slightly deeper. There are two drop. The first one is between my edge and the shoal, which forms a channel that goes down to 2m deep and about 15m wide. Then there is an ascent to the upper bottom, which culminates between 1m and 1.2m below the surface of the water. It is also partially covered with water lilies.

At a distance of 100m there is the second drop, which forms the beginning of the main bed of the arm and plunges to a depth of 5-6m. I would like to try this break 100m away, but between the current of the channel and the shallow water with weed it could be a challenge.

I’m going to try the spot for the next 24 hours in anticipation of Saturday’s rain, which will leave me on Friday to change depending on how the fishing goes. As for the water flow, I’m still learning about the river and how it works. Certainly you will tell me you don’t have to be Einstein to say heat wave equals a lack of water. Except that it’s not that simple in my opinion. Already, its watershed is immense (fed by Lake Ontario (about 18,000km2)).

Second, the river has several dams along its length to manage the water level of the seaway for the container ships that navigate on the river, so I find it complex to grasp. Indeed, I don’t have access to all the parameters.

The fact remains that we are coming out of a heat wave with maximums of 40 degrees over several days. There we have 25 degrees with sustained wind and on Saturday it is forecasting a lot of rain.

A common sight on the river, as it also doubles as a shipping route

The water level continues to drop. The spot is going to run out of water so I’m going to move and try the spot 300m downstream.

By the time I pack up the equipment, load it and go to the spot it is 7.30pm. I set up the camp, the rod, I bait a bit and I’m fishing. The darkness is almost total.

A new spot and a change of scenery

When I come to put it back in the water, I see in the sack that it has eaten corn (so it was on my feed) but also mussel shells. So the fish are feeding. I wish I could use richer bait like meat boilies, but the catfish are too aggressiveness and far too strong.

Day 3 - Friday 26 June, 2020

At 2am my bite alarm goes off, first fish. I take a second carp in the morning hours and I put it in the sack for a few hours to see what the fish are feeding on at the moment.

Retaining the fish for a few hours gives invaluable information as to their natural diet

For the past year, I have been looking for solutions and I have been doing tests to find an “anticatfish” bait, if it exists. But this subject alone could be the subject of an article. So let’s get back to the matter at hand.

Time passes, another beautiful day with pleasant temperatures, but the water level continues to drop. It is much lower than I thought it would be. I am still learning. This situation leads me to question myself. Indeed, if I get a bite I would have to use the boat to exhaust the fish.

Until now I used it as an “extension” of the bank to gain a few centimetres of depth so that I could deplete the fish without leaving with the boat. But now the water level is so low that I would have to take the boat out to catch the fish further from the shore.

Every time I take the boat out I have to deal with its weight and the amount of mud I have to cross to get it out. Not a small matter for a muscular guy like a mosquito who thinks a bedchair is heavy!

Since this is also a holiday for me, I want to rest too. So I take the boat and my Deeper smart sonar Chirp+. I spend a good part of the afternoon going up the arm and probing it for several hundred meters in search of a spot that would suit me better. I finally find my happiness about 500m upstream.

A spot with 6m of water from 30m from the edge where the break is a few meters from the bank (the shoal starts 500m downstream). I don’t know the spot at all, but since I’ve touched a lot of fish on the shoal, I’m curious to see what’s hiding in the depths of the arm.

Long and wild common

Moreover, initially I intended to do a big baiting over 6 days on a fixed spot. It was clearly a mistake in strategy on my part given the conditions and the spots.

Here the area being clean (no obstacles or weed) and having no structures, it will be more conducive to a massive baiting over several days to be able to attract/intercept passing fish hoping for a higher average than the previous days.

Plenty of bait to keep the fish interested

Day 4 - Saturday 27 June, 2020

I touch a carp in the second part of the night and another one at the end of the morning. It is not the miracle fishing but I make about ten fish in 3 days. What’s more I only fish half of the time to be able to sleep and because of my moves.

At the same time these are my holidays so I also want to rest.

I go back to the camp, it is 4pm, I pack up and leave towards my new and last spot. I arrive on the spot at 6pm. I have about 3 hours before nightfall.

Those who know me know that it’s not too much for me, I like to take the time to make sure that everything is in place properly.

Preparing and boiling maize on the banks is the most efficient way to tackle the baiting approach

It doesn’t sound like it, but one of the things that impresses me most about river fishing is how gruelling it is. You have to be constantly on your toes, because there are so many parameters to keep track of all the time.

A cracking river common

Concerning my fishing on this new spot, I set up my heavier feeding which I wanted to do. I brought my “corn burner” as they say here (a 35,000 BTU gas burner with two big pots) to cook my corn on the spot.

I brought almost 50kg of dry maize with me. I have 4 x 5 gallon (17 litre) buckets that I spin. Two are for soaking the maize, while the other two are for cooking. This way I can put two buckets of cooked maize in the morning and evening.

Plenty of buckets to rotate soaked and cooked maize were needed

To start, I go up about 100m upstream to compensate for the current and I “pitche” (throw in Quebecois) with a kitchen ladle sieve over a wide area and let the boat drift. After an inspiring discussion with a French Facebook contact who seems to be a master of fishing in the presence of pests, I decided when I arrived on this spot to fish without the homemade “packbait” (bait flour), made of quick oatmeal and creamed corn, to avoid the catfish. For the moment it works. I have fewer hits, but it works. Concerning the carp, I touch as much to the boilie as to the corn.

I approach the spot by fishing two zones, the slope and the full water. I caught my two fish on the slope this night and this morning, nothing full water in the day.

Another beautiful Canadian common carp

For the penultimate night, I will continue on the open water spot where I did nothing today and if it doesn’t work out I will go back to the first spot for the last 24 hours. I love doing tests. The weather forecast was predicting a rainy Saturday, it won’t be anything but a few showers that are all around us.

Day 5 - Sunday 28 June, 2020

I caught two small fish in the night and two fish in the day including my biggest of the session a magnificent 11.3 kg common. As I catch carp, there are no catfish and this in spite of the quantity of food that I put in.

I decide to make the test to reuse packbait to see if it makes a difference. The result is immediate, I catch two catfish in a few hours.

Day 5 - Sunday 28 June, 2020

I caught two small fish in the night and two fish in the day including my biggest of the session a magnificent 11.3 kg common. As I catch carp, there are no catfish and this in spite of the quantity of food that I put in.

I decide to make the test to reuse packbait to see if it makes a difference. The result is immediate, I catch two catfish in a few hours.

They destroy the feed. Especially since we haven’t yet found any bait that they don’t eat... So I change again and stop the packbait. At the same time I run out of gas to make the corn. As a result, the last 24 hours will be without feed.

The

business end of a wild common

Day 6 - Monday 29 June ,2020

That’s it, the last day of fishing has arrived. This fishing will end with one last fish caught early in the morning. The end of the session is ringing. Overall, I will have learned a lot about the cycle of the river and about the possibility of fishing these areas depending on the water level. These “misadventures” allowed me to discover a new spot which is very interesting for the summer and the hot weather. It is also very wild.

I was also able to test an approach to limit the catfish which seems promising, and I will try this again.

In the end I caught about fifteen carps from 2 to 11.3 kg in 6 days and 5 nights. I caught with boilies (pineapple juice 18mm and monster crab 24mm), homemade tiger nuts scented with star anise, homemade star anise corn, scopex corn and pineapple banana corn from a Canadian brand. All the baits worked, but in different proportions.

Finally, regarding my homemade helicopter tackle, I was able to test it and I have information to improve it. So I leave the spot and return to the outfitter physically tired but satisfied and relaxed.

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RIG TALK WITH FRANK WARWICK

Introduction by Iain Sorrell

When it ceased publication in March 2020 CarpWorld had, without doubt, been the UK’s most successful and longest running specialist carp angling magazine. One of its most enduring and popular features was Rig World written by Mike Kavanagh.

For those on this side of the pond who might not be familiar with Mike he is the brilliant mind behind the versatile and highly effective Multi-Rig that originated some 20 years ago.

He is also rightly credited with the development of the Stiff Rig some years earlier.

Mike has been carping since the 1970’s and has put his rigs to good use with some exceptional catches over the years. You can read everything you need to know about the Multi-Rig by following this link: https://therigfactor.wordpress.com/

If you don’t already know Frank he is an absolute carping legend! A great thinker, innovator and rig inventor Frank cut his teeth fishing on the silty Cheshire Meres in England. He soon began to broaden his horizons and in the 1980’s started travelling to Europe. His exploits fishing on some of the big waters in France, Belgium and Romania not only make great reading but understanding his approach is very much applicable to achieving success on North American lakes and rivers.

Our sincere thanks to Mike, Frank and Bev Clifford for allowing us to reproduce this Rig Talk interview in the North American Carp Angler Magazine.

Anyway who better than Mike Kavanagh (MK) to talk to Frank Warwick (FW) about rigs? I’m sure everyone will find this a fascinating and informative discussion!

Mike Kavanagh’s RIG TALK with Frank Warwick

Frank has been carp fishing since 1970 and is a mega successful angler who has always thought outside the box on bait, rigs and tactics, his influence on long range single bait fishing alone was a significant advance tactically in carp fishing and is now a standard part of every carp angler’s armoury. His almost 50 years of successfully catching carp both at home and abroad has not been wasted that’s for sure, because his logical mind has been able to chronologically unpick the intricacies of how to increase the chances of hooking a carp by design rather than luck, so for this my last Rig World I couldn’t have chosen a better guest!

Frank with another big carp from a weedy swim.

MK: First of all Frank thank you for agreeing to give us the benefit of your wisdom and for taking time out to talk to me.

FW: Hi Mike its an absolute pleasure mate. I’m very flattered you have chosen me as your last ever interview on your long standing Rig Talk feature.

MK: I naturally want to get onto your thoughts on self-hooking rigs and some of the mechanics you engineered over the years to optimise setting the hook, but before I do, can you take us back to when you first came up with the idea of fishing at long range with single hook baits. Which year was that and what sparked that idea, because at the time to fish with no free offerings close to or in the vicinity of the hook bait at any range was generally thought to be a non-starter wasn’t it?

FW: Well looking back mate it was 1982 and I was very open minded back then. I felt anything I had read about previously, that was considered fact in books and articles, needed questioning and for me to find out for myself before dismissing or accepting.

Everyone on the 40 odd acre Redesmere, a large silty Cheshire mere, I was fishing were more or less fishing the same way, up to 70 yards out catapulting bait in or using rudimentary home made spods to bait up with. Results were slow most of the time and you felt like it was more a matter of hoping you got lucky rather than arriving at the lake confident or expectant of action. It was slow and tricky most of the time, as obvious as it may seem now back

then, the thought of casting a single hook bait out at long range without free offerings was totally alien. But that’s what I decided to try, it seemed almost unthinkable that a carp would find a single hook bait without other bait around it to focus attention on it.

I had been mulling it over in my mind planning my new idea and I made a batch of highly flavoured bright orange pop-ups for my first attempt. Initially I arrived at the lake and ‘bottled it’ and fished the usual way, same as everyone else, over free offerings at normal range and like all of the others had nothing, I had half an hour to go before I had to pack up when in a moment of desperation I reached for my bright hook baits attached a shock leader and a 4 oz lead then waded out as far as I could and blasted the thing into the centre of the lake where I had seen fizzing occurring. The looks of astonishment and comments I got were not complimentary I can tell you. As I was paying line out wading my way back to the bank I felt the line sizzling off the spool at a faster rate than I was walking. The penny dropped I was into a carp after less than 30 seconds of the rig hitting the water! I had an upper double and the general consensus of all present was it had been a total fluke! But I knew otherwise and my suspicions were confirmed when I had two further bites before I had to pack up, both coming within minutes of casting out. The unorthodox tactic worked a dream and I couldn’t put a foot wrong with future trips providing constant action you could only have dreamed of.

People, not in the know, speculated on all kinds of theories; like I was swimming out at night and baiting up at those long ranges, one guy hilariously

suspected I was donning giant polystyrene floating aids on my feet at night and walking on the lakes surface to bait up. So I remained silent and just got on to experimenting with bait colours and attractor levels to sustain the action. It was the chance of a life time to test these things with so much action, plus I knew the others would gradually all follow suit. After a few years the speculation was that it must blow at some stage. But even 37 years later it still works but not anything like those heady times when it was still unique. It worked on every water and even on the Continent. If you take it further particles and dull baits used as singles also work very effectively, in the right place. Again it is a leap of faith to fish a single tiger on a vast water but that’s another story Mike.

MK: Given you were fishing at such long range, what was your rig set-up and what decided it?

FW: In the early 80s there were far less decent hooks to choose from and most patterns were blunt in the packet and pretty basic. To his credit Peter Drennan kind of pioneered chemically sharpened hooks and brought out a range including one called the Super Specialist so I got on those quite quickly in size 6 and occasionally 4s as they were quite a small hook for their size anyhow.

I used a 10lb Maxima hook link with a light 3lbs nylon hair, at that time I had my own little way of tying up my rigs. I also used very long hook links as I knew out in the Mere the silt was deep and could badly affect presentation. I often would put a split shot 1 or 2 inches under the pop-up, much as most do even now, to let curious onlookers think they

had seen my winning rig formula. Then I would wade out into the lake swiftly shift the shot between 6 and 9 inches from the pop-up and blast that out, it worked brilliantly. A bait fished close to the silt say 1 to 2 inches was slow to receive a take.

In those days anti tangle tube was horrible thick black or green tubing that stood out on the bottom. So I decided to utilise a 3 feet length of clear 40 lb mono ‘sea fishing’ line as my anti tangle system. That really made a big difference, I know that for a fact.

Click here if the Youtube video doesn’t show

Frank reveals his all-time top rig. Easy to tie and very effective here in North America!

YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/xN9Puscd9U0

MK: The bright single hook bait presentation proved to be a devastating method at the time, in fact at the right time of year, it still is. The favoured hook bait when employing that tactic now is predominantly a pop-up. Was a pop-up your first choice back then and would it still be your first choice now?

The reason I ask is because you mentioned recently you have since found a pop-up is not the ideal hook bait when relying on a rig to hook a carp at the first time of asking, which in a single bait / single chance situation like that is obviously crucial.....

FW: Back then a pop-up was the obvious choice Mike as we had only been on the hair rig a short while. The use of pop-ups on the hair rig, on the predominantly silty waters we have in the Northwest of England, was eminently a better presentation. If you did comparison tests identical hook baits, one bottom bait, one a pop-up on the identical rigs, the difference was astounding. But as I spread my wings and started fishing less silty waters with gravel and clay etc I soon found blatant pop-ups were not the superior option all of the time, and wafters or balanced bottom baits would often out score pop-ups by a long way.

I think it’s important to differentiate between the effect a pop-up has in relation to being noticed in weed for example which is a very positive effect which in some ways in my opinion is offset by a

pop-up by its very nature being easier for a carp to blow out. I know loads of people will heavily disagree with my findings but I don’t mind its only my thinking. When pop-ups were new they were devastating and their effect was exaggerated. That effect wore off over a period but they still worked as they would because they put the bait on show better in amongst bottom debris. But I also think their buoyancy element ironically has made them easier for carp to deal with as they swirl around in a carps mouth, they lift the hook into a position where it has far less of a carps mouth surface area to come into contact with.

A lot of time with singles a carp is not browsing the same as when moving from one bait to another in a typical feeding way. They rarely see free offerings in bright pink or yellow or dayglow white so I think by sheer animal instinct and a life-time of

seeing fluoro pop-ups in splendid isolation, mostly attached to unpalatable unpleasant sharp stuff, it must surely resonate even with the simplest of creatures. That said they still fall for them amazingly.

From my direct comparison tests I fished identical flavoured & coloured baits on exactly the same rigs but where one rig had a pop-up and the other rig a balanced bottom bait made to mimic a free offering on a moderate lake bed (no weed present). The balanced ‘wafter’ type hook bait totally outfished the pop-up by a ratio of more than 5 to 1. To me this pointed to a pop-up being easier to get rid of because I am sure both were being picked up in a regular way.

The findings with the currently in vogue Spinner/ Ronnie type rig did fare better in comparison tests as I think by sheer mechanics it is far more aggressive when seeking a hook hold when compared to many other pop-up rigs.

MK: The palm test of dragging a baited rig over the palm of your hand isn’t as we know conclusive when testing how quickly the hook point will find a purchase before falling over the edge of your hand, but it does help to draw comparisons between hooking arrangements that are more efficient at finding a purchase than others.

Many years ago you came up with the Anchor Rig which didn’t appear to resonate with southern carp anglers or perhaps be as popular as it should have been in my opinion, because for bottom bait fishing its ability to turn the hook is unquestionable. What led up to you forming the anchor bar?

FW: To be totally honest with you Mike I don’t give a dam what other anglers think about my innovations with rigs, each to their own I say, I’m like you, I have a very inquisitive mind and I’m never prepared to believe things are working at maximum efficiency. I always want to swing the odds in my favour to make sure the point of a hook is be able to catch the skin inside a carps mouth in the often brief time it’s actually in there.

In my opinion the more we can do to maximise that effect the better. A hook that lays flat on the floor of a carps mouth can slip out without the hook point even being offered up to the flesh at all in the worst case scenario or at best only briefly. So I wanted to add something simple to the rig that would make the hook sit on the point.

This would substantially increase the chance of it taking hold. It’s basic physics really! I reasoned without a crossbar a ships anchor would just skid across the seabed and fail to grip and be rendered pretty useless. So I added this ‘crossbar’ element to my rigs and the Anchor rig was born.

When I do tutorials and meet other carp anglers on the bank and show them the difference and effect a tiny addition of a small piece of stiff mono and a bit of shrink tube makes they are amazed and even more so when they can be bothered to try it. I’ve had hundreds of fish on this rig and I had a nice hit this last week where I used this simple but highly effective rig.

MK: There are of course rigs that are made for pop-up presentation and the Short Rig you came up with that was later re-named the Chod Rig is without doubt one of them. We both know Rod Hutchinson, God rest his soul, and his friend had earlier designed a rig to deal with the problem of presenting a hook bait over weed and deep silt, which is illustrated in his brilliant book The Carp Strikes Back. Rod’s all mono set-up was based on an old sliding paternoster rig he’d used for sea fishing and adapted. But following the introduction of lead core leaders and the proven stiff hook link methodology you came at it from a different angle. Was it a particular fishing situation or venue or both that led you to develop your version of Rod’s original rig?

FW: Without you perhaps knowing it Mike your Stiff rig innovation had a hand in my urge to make a stiff pop-up hook link rig that would be hard to eject but which would suit my type of waters that were mostly festooned with deep silt or a layer of weed or bottom debris.

Of course I had seen nylon paternoster style rigs with shorter nylon hook links in use from the 70s where the specimen bream and tench anglers had been using this presentation for years, often with double hook links that were allowed would you believe and were sometimes used in matches. I saw it in my mate Rod’s book as you say in the early 80s but by then I was very familiar with the set up. As I say the problem was that it was a total tangle prone nightmare totally unsuitable for carp fishing and it most certainly did not incorporate the stiff anti-eject element with it.

Frank’s lateral thinking skills came to the fore with the Anchor Rig

So I kind of thought through what elements I needed: anti-tangle, stiff hook link for anti-eject, safe in use with beads that slip off in a problem situation and something with weight to base the rig on and sink the very buoyant hook bait so lead core became obvious. When it was tested it was incredible. I could fish it in the deepest silt or weed and it always presented, never tangled and re-set itself.

I tried it semi fixed & sliding, also with a straight hook link or with a curve and like the old bent hook all worked but semi fixed certainly got me more bites back then.

I showed it Terry Hearn a good 5 years before he tried it and re named it but we are friends and I think a lot of Tel therefore I didn’t mind too much.

Jim Shelley took to the Cemex forums when I first wrote about it in 98 and totally dismissed my “Short rig” as a joke and said I had made up the rig to get attention etc, strange that isn’t it? I bet he’s got it on all six rods as I write this lol.

MK: Are you still experimenting with rigs, or do you think without reinventing the wheel we have gone as far as we can with finding ways to improve hooking potential?

FW: Yes, I am still messing with rigs Mike. I still believe carp are dealing with all of our rigs a fair percentage of the time. I always think of it like this, if we had a remote kind of alarm that sounded each time a carp had our so called ‘effective rigs’ in their mouths we would shit ourselves and be left scratching our heads at how often they are getting away with it.

On those red letter days when we have a big hit they are literally going mad on the feed out there and our rigs will have been picked up many times for each run we have had.

I can’t even imagine how many times we have had carp successfully deal with our rigs and eat all of the free offerings and us not be aware its happened. That’s why a policy of a ‘little but often feeding’ is a good one in my humble opinion. So yes I’m still trying to find that next special thing that for a while might swing the odds more in my favour.

Another Frank original – the hugely successful Short or Chod rig.

How about you Mike? I cannot leave this without asking you if you are still trying to find the Holy Grail of rigs? If so what have you been up to my mate? I will show you my latest experimental rig that has worked instantly but to the casual observer will look crazy its more the effect than the look that I am after.

This recent winter common shows Frank remains very much at the top of his game!

MK: Thanks for your time Frank and for being my final Rig Talk guest, my hat is well and truly doffed!

Frank’s best selling book “Every Bit of Blue” documents his lifetime passion for carp fishing. It’s a cracking read with some incredible stories, thought provoking ideas and tactical approaches to carp fishing including large ‘wild’ waters. If you are looking to get a copy it is well worth spending the ‘extra’ to have Frank illustrate & sign a copy!