anyone fished 24mm baits targeting 30lb plus carp......im.fishing a low stocked water, getting hammered by bream and tench, last night I fished 24mm hookbait and had a decent nights sleep, no bream but no carp either which isnt unusual tbh....im wondering how long I can get away with fishing a 24mm hookbait into winter.
im feeding 18mm baits and fishing 24mm on the hook.
anyone singled out the bigger fish by fishing bigger baits.
im feeding 18mm baits and fishing 24mm on the hook.
anyone singled out the bigger fish by fishing bigger baits.
In reply to Post #1
Yes mate and I’d carry on using 24’s until the bream slow down. If you’re feeding 18’s, they’ll be getting hammered and leaving you fishing single 24’s. You have to keep faith that at some point the bream will huddle up and sulk in the middle for the winter. You’ll defo get more bites on the tiny 18 millers, so have to keep trying them (but keep 24mm hookbaits to hand just in case) until the bream slow right down. Then I’d drop down to ideally no smaller than 20mm for the winter. On my lake it will be late April/early May before the bream become a regular pain again. At that point I’d be on the 24’s again and feeding 24’s from May til about November sometime. You can always experiment and use smaller hookbaits over identical 24’s to gauge what’s going on, but always have 24mm hookbaits to hand. Those nights of 12 bream in a night are brutal!
Also, feeding 24’s, obviously only feed about half the number you’d put in if they were 18’s or 20’s. That will still be a similar weight of bait introduced, just far less food items. The food signals given off will be the same, just the bream will struggle a lot more to deal with the bigger baits and hopefully give up, meaning that when mr carp wanders into the swim at first light, there’s a lot better chance of him encountering some of your bait cos the bream haven’t cleared you out. I can’t help feeling that if you’re going to use 24’s on the hook, you really want 24’s in your loose feed.
Yes mate and I’d carry on using 24’s until the bream slow down. If you’re feeding 18’s, they’ll be getting hammered and leaving you fishing single 24’s. You have to keep faith that at some point the bream will huddle up and sulk in the middle for the winter. You’ll defo get more bites on the tiny 18 millers, so have to keep trying them (but keep 24mm hookbaits to hand just in case) until the bream slow right down. Then I’d drop down to ideally no smaller than 20mm for the winter. On my lake it will be late April/early May before the bream become a regular pain again. At that point I’d be on the 24’s again and feeding 24’s from May til about November sometime. You can always experiment and use smaller hookbaits over identical 24’s to gauge what’s going on, but always have 24mm hookbaits to hand. Those nights of 12 bream in a night are brutal!
Also, feeding 24’s, obviously only feed about half the number you’d put in if they were 18’s or 20’s. That will still be a similar weight of bait introduced, just far less food items. The food signals given off will be the same, just the bream will struggle a lot more to deal with the bigger baits and hopefully give up, meaning that when mr carp wanders into the swim at first light, there’s a lot better chance of him encountering some of your bait cos the bream haven’t cleared you out. I can’t help feeling that if you’re going to use 24’s on the hook, you really want 24’s in your loose feed.
thanks for the detailed reply, I do feel that more bites would come on smaller baits like you say. .guaranteed on last light you have a bream and your getting the rod back on a small spot against snags in the dark, I'm thinking possibly fish smaller baits during the day and 1 hr before last light switch to 24mm hookbait