Why not make this year the year to begin your Specimen Carp Angling campaign, and instead of just going fishing and hoping to catch a few, actually plan your trips and begin angling for those big fish which have eluded you for these past years. Between the last few articles and those still to come, the basic’s will have been laid out and will stand you in good stead as you advance and become more involved in targeting those bigger fish.

Bill Shankly, Liverpool Football legend once said about football, that many feel apply to angling
“Some people believe it is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."

Specimen Angling?

All this talk of “ Specimen” Angling may be intimidating to a few anglers who may feel it is not for them, either due to perceived high expense or lack of technical know-how needed to catch such fish, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Specimen Angling merely refers to targeting a specific species and aim at catching the larger specimens. The specimen’s size will differ from angler to angler.
To those normally catching fish in the 2 – 3kg range, an 8kg fish will be a really big specimen, while for those who seem to peak at fish around 12kg mark, a 15 to 18kg fish may be classed as a specimen. For those fortunate enough to be constantly hitting the 20kg mark the magical 25kg will certainly be their target.

Generally, in my opinion when referring to Specimen Angling and Carp we are specifically targeting fish over 9 or 10kg’s or 20lb’s+ and it is these fish which, if the water you are fishing contains fish of this size, these early articles will help you to catch.

Priorities

Fish Care must rate as the number one factor concerning the angler and one, which cannot be over emphasised.
The un-hooking mat and good quality landing net are probably the first two items an angler should consider when setting out fishing, should you be lucky enough to get into quality fish from the start they will most certainly be injured if using current equipment, and even if released may die later, something which could of been easily avoided.
As mentioned before, a fish’s weight compounds the damaged caused and knot in a net quickly lifts scales and the flapping on a hard bank causes internal and external damage.

Approach

Targeting big fish is not easy and neither, as I have said before is it just the bait which brings in the big ones, but rather it is a combination of factors including the angler’s style and approach to fishing and those taking time to study and observe the water will certainly put more fish on the bank.
 

Getting started and what you need

For those wishing to take up targeting larger fish, a small change in tackle, rigs, bait and other bits and pieces will greatly assist, without breaking the bank.

On the tackle front, 90% of anglers will begin from the terminal tackle upwards, purely from an ease of change and from a cost point of view, but there are a number of items, which are very necessary and indispensable outside of the terminal gear. In all cases buy the best you can afford, a cheap saving today could cost you dearly tomorrow.

While the unhooking mat and a large (42”+) landing net are essential from a protection point of view, a marker float is vital on the fish location front. No other piece of tackle within an angler’s armoury will help locate and catch fish more than a Marker Float.
A marker float has a number of functions, from finding the depth of the water, reading the bottom conditions and to help during the baiting up process to create a feeding area.

Other items considered essential are bait-runner or free spooling reels, those available from Shimano, Diawa, Silstar or Mitchell, will all do the job, buy the best you can afford. For those fishing long distances, reels with a large spool capacity are important. Most of these reels have a rear drag system, which can be vital when playing big fish.

A good quality 12’ 13’ Carbon rod, with a test curve of about 2 ½ to 3lb will out perform a 16 foot glass fibre rod every time, it allows more control over the fish, can absorb surging runs better than glass fibre and is lighter. I will not go into the various merits of a parabolic action, fuji fittings etc. at this stage. While your current rod will probably be fine to begin with, later you will most certainly want to improve once you realise its limitations.

Concerning line, I am currently using Berkley Big Game 12lb line now but there are a number of other good lines on the market, all in the 12 – 15lb range.

Do not compromise on the quality of the hook, this is only part of your tackle, which is in constant contact with the fish during the playing of the fish, and you must be 100% confident in it. Only use chemically sharpened hooks. There are a number of different brands on the market and I recently saw some from VMC, which are similar to the Fox series range in the UK. Sizes from #5 to #2’s will stand you in good stead. If you crush the barb on the hooks with a pair of pliers, this will help when unhooking it.

Good quality scales, weighing to 60lb are important and if you get a good quality brand, it should last a lifetime. Try to stick with the dial type scales as opposed to the spring or electronic type, as they are not as accurate after a period time.

A weigh sling or an un-hooking mat which doubles as a weigh sling is important in order to protect the fish during the weighing process.
 

Gilbert Foxcroft's rod pod setup

Bite Indicators are also important in order to register your bites. In nearly all cases we fish with tight lines and any slack allows for missed bites. When fishing with a “policemen” at the front of your rod, the line cannot be tight, and a lot of movement can take place without registering. When fishing with tight lines, the line runs through the rod eye’s across the roller or pads of the alarm, through a swinger or other bite indicator and finally to the reel. The swinger keeps the tension on the line, so should a fish either run towards the bank or away, the alarm will sound. With conventional centre-pin reels, even those fitted with an alarm, any fish running towards the bank will cause slack line, a dropped policeman and no reel run. Result – Possible missed fish. How many times have you looked up and seen your policeman in the water?

These are items, which will enable you to begin your big fish campaign without breaking the bank or mortgaging the kids. There are many other items considered essential by other people but these will stand you in good stead to begin a serious campaign.

Two Popular Rigs to begin with

In a previous article we covered the hair rig, how it was developed and full instructions on how to tie it.
Two popular rigs with which the rig can be used are The Helicopter Rig and the Inline Safety Rig.

Due to the many requests, we received, I will go into these rigs in a little depth and then move onto Enhancers, Attractants and Stimulators as promised.

The following rigs are very popular, and good rigs to begin with. I have seen the components in most shops so it should not be too difficult to make. If you purchase some of the ready-made rigs I have seen, always test the knots and materials yourself; the last thing you want is your Personal Best fish to lost due to someone else’s poor knots.

The Helicopter Rig

The Helicopter rig got its name from the way the hook bait revolves around the rig tubing, between the two soft rubber beads. This was one of the early rigs used by specimen anglers, and is a good rig to use in silt or weed covered swims.

The rig is made using approx 12” of anti-tangle tubing, with one soft rubber bead pushed on, followed by the rolling swivel attached to the hair rig, followed by the second soft bead. The inside diameter of the beads must be small enough to grip the anti-tangle tubing, but not so tight as to prevent movement. The swivel eyes must also be large enough not to restrict the swivels movement around the tubing.

The main line is threaded through the tubing, through the small piece of silicon rubber and tied directly onto the weight.

Once the line is attached to the weight, the silicon rubber is pushed over the knot and weight swivel, to prevent tangles; the rig tubing is then pushed into the silicon rubber, completing the rig.
 

The Helicopter Rig

There are a number of variations of this rig, with no hard and fast rules, but if fishing within deep silt or weeded area’s the beads can be threaded up the tubing in order to keep the hook bait out of the weed or silt. This will keep the hook bait on the top where the fish is most likely to pick it up.

One concern however regarding the rig is that should a break off occur the fish may become tethered by the lead and end up dragging the whole rig around with it and possibly dieing if it becomes caught on an underwater obstruction. This is also true when playing the fish since the weight hangs down and will pickup any snags in the area as well as being caught in the weed. So, if fishing heavily weeded or snaggy swims, rather use an in-line rig, or a safety rig like the next one.

Inline Safety Rig

This initial set-up is one of my favourites and one of the safest; many different hook baits can be presented in a variety of ways using this method.

The main line passes through the tubing, safety clip sleeve, and safety clip and tied onto the rolling swivel attached to the hair-rig.
To complete the rig, the swivel is pushed into the safety clip, making it semi fixed. The weight is added onto the bottom portion of the safety clip and the sleeve is pushed over the end of the clip.

The safety aspect of the rig has two functions, firstly should the weight become snagged during the playing of the fish, the lead will pull free from the clip and leave the rig intact, ensuring the angler does not loose the fish. And secondly, should the line break as mentioned before, the lead will either pull free releasing the fish or the swivel will pull from the safety clip housing, again releasing the fish.
 

Pass tubing through the sleeve of the safety clip. Then pass the mainlaine through the tubing

Attach the safety clip head, sliding it over the tubing

Attach hooklink swivel to mainline

Slide the safety clip over the hooklink swivel as indicated

Locate the safety clip sleeve (tail rubber) to complete the rig

Both the Helicopter and the Inline Safety Rig can be referred to as being bolt-rigs, meaning that once the fish has been pricked by the hair-rig, it turns to run and the weight of the lead further imbeds the hook causing the fish to bolt, resulting in screaming alarms on the bank.

Between these two rigs you should be in a position to fish in almost any conditions and adapt to most fishing situations.