DUNCAN CHARMAN
DAY – TICKET TACTICS
Specimen angler,
Duncan Charman, visits a different day-ticket venue each month and
explains how he gets the best out of his session. This month he
strips back the Helicopter Rig and shows you how to take your local
club or day ticket water apart.
March has to be
one of my favourite months for angling. Everything is springing into
life and as the days grow longer and the water temperature starts to
slowly rise, most fish begin to feed. Don’t think it’s going to
be easy though as this is the month when the phrase ‘little and
often’ really does apply. Give them too much food and nine times
out of ten all you will do is sit behind motionless rods, yet if you
are prepared to work at your swim, keep active and follow a few basic
pointers then I can almost guarantee you fish, yes this rig is that
good!
Everyone that I
have introduced to this method has progressed to take their local
lakes apart, especially in the spring, yet it still amazes me just
how few anglers are using it, especially match anglers and the
majority of day ticket carp anglers.
The reason that
most match anglers aren’t using this method is because they are on
the flat-bed feeder, a method that has become so popular over the
past few years that if your not using it then, well your not keeping
up with the times, yet if you perfect the helicopter rig believe me
you will on many an occasion be miles ahead of the field. I’ve
always said, if you use what everyone else is using then your results
will be similar to their’s, yet do something different and you
might just find that winning edge.
For the day
ticket/club angler intent on catching carp, and carp only what I’m
going to describe isn’t going to be a winner, yet it should be as
by using and understanding the basics to this rig a carp angler can
then alter the components to almost eradicate unwanted species yet
still enjoy the benefits it brings, loads of carp!
Before
discussing the rig itself lets look at the bait I would take to my
local lake for a days fishing in March. This would consist of the
following, two pints of maggots plus a couple of kilos of Old Ghost
Krill groundbait plus a few red worms. Yep, that’s it no boilies or
pellets in sight as it’s just a bit too early for these, yet come
April small pellets, boilies and especially sweetcorn would start to
appear within my bait selection.
Basic tackle for a days fishing would
be two 1.5lb T/C rods with reels loaded with either 6lb or 8lb
Gardner HydroFlo mainline fished on alarms carp style. I have also on
occasions used two quivertip style rods fished at an angle and
watched for bites so this will appeal to the match angler more.
Terminal tackle is
as follows - A small selection of blackcap feeder and cage feeders in
the 1oz – 2oz region. Hooks are always Drennan size 16 Super
Specialist micro barbed, hooklink Reflo 5.15lb along with some small
size 20 swivels, Nash micro rig sleeves and Nash medium sized
Clingers. Believe me this is everything you need to take. If you’re
not getting bites on the above, don’t think scaling down will help,
it won’t, in fact when you do get a bite it will probably result in
the hooklink breaking or the hook pulling.
Other essential
items include a way of marking your mainline as to get the best from
this method so early in the year you will need to fish accurately and
constantly cast to the same position. A small spomb is also useful
and can come in useful to top the swim up throughout the day. Using
small micro barbed hooks mean that it’s important to have a
disgorger with you; however this method rarely sees a fish deep
hooked and nearly always places the hook firmly in a fish’s bottom
lip.
The two most important points about
getting the best from this method is firstly swim selection. No rig,
however good will catch you fish in a swim devoid of fish and in
March there are going to be vast areas of water with few if any fish
within, so choose your swim carefully. Ideally try to locate fish
with your eyes, otherwise follow the wind to some degree, especially
if it’s a mild south westerly and fish at distance as most species
will still be well out from the bank.
The second point is to keep casting.
Set yourself a time frame between recasting each rod, say fifteen
minutes and make sure you drop the feeder in the same spot every time
by using the line clip. Marking your mainline to the distance you are
fishing is easy. I use to tie a stop-knot made from thin pole elastic
next to the reels line clip after casting out but now use Nash Spot
On. All you have to remember is to unclip after casting out as a
violent bite from a carp will see the hooklink breaking or worse
still the rod ending up in the lake. When you decide to recast simply
locate the marker next to the reels line clip, clip up the mainline
and wind in, or after catching a fish make a practice cast to the
side of the swim and wind in until this mark is once again next to
the reel before clipping up. It does take some getting use to but
after a while it will become second nature and you will be going
through the motions without even thinking about it.
I always say to
anglers when choosing the distance they want to fish by saying, fish
within your means! By this I mean its far better fishing accurately
at fifty yards than inaccurately at eighty. Once the desired distance
has been found simply pick out a far bank marker, this maybe a far
bank swim, tree even a buoy in the lake to which you can cast to. One
mistake many anglers make initially is to cast out and allow the
feeder to spring back when the line clip is hit. Watching from the
side its amazing how far back the feeder will travel, but ideally
after casting out the elastic stop knot or Spot On line mark should
be close to the reel or alarm. If it’s on the reel some turns then
it’s sprung back. Casting clipped up does take time to perfect but
after casting and once the feeder is in the air try holding the rod
so its vertical and be ready to drop your arm the instance the line
clip is hit. Ideally when the feeder hits the surface your mainline
should be in a straight line to it.
What you are
trying to do is initially get a fish to feed on a small area of bait
that’s regularly topped up. Once one fish starts feeding it will
spur others to do likewise and by using maggot on the hook bites are
usually quick in coming as there are few species that will refuse to
eat them. Don’t worry too much about small fish, as in March these
aren’t usually a problem and you will find it’s the bigger fish
that will be feeding. Getting the first bite is the difficult thing
but once you have had one then expect more and if you find one rod
producing and the other not then change that hooklink, it might look
alright but its not!
Images –
Image 1 – If you want to keep
catching then be prepared to keep casting.
Image 2 – Bream are one of the first
species to wake up and are suckers for a worm and maggot cocktail
fished helicopter style.
Image 3 and 4 – I would always start
with one rod on the maggot feeder and the other on a groundbait
feeder then swap over to which ever is working best.
Image 5 – Spend time looking for fish
then fish to them.
Image 6 – Stuart with an amazing
mixed catch taken really early in the year on the helicopter rig.
Image 7 – Carp love maggots and as
long as your tackle is balanced then there is no reason why the
helicopter rig shouldn’t fool a few early season.
Image 8 – Small Spombs such as the
Gardner Pocket Rocket are great for kick starting a swim. All I do is
remove the feeder and hooklink, tie on the spomb, and fill before
casting to the desired distance. Brilliant as theirs no need for a
third rod and I know when I tie on the hooklink/feeder and cast back
out that I am right on top of the spombed bait.
Image 9 – This is the one area that
most anglers fail to realise and that is when a hooklink becomes
kinked then its needs to changed. Often one rod will produce and the
other wont and this is more often than not that the hooklink isn’t
working right. Don’t be lazy, keep swapping until both rods are
producing and as soon as a hooklink stops working or isn’t
straight, change it!
Image 10 – These are all the
components that you will need!
Image 11 – The two best ways to mark
your mainline are either by tying a stop knot made from pole elastic,
if so I place one of the ends within the reels line clip as this
stops damage to the line or easier still, paint some Nash Spot On
onto the mainline.
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