We all know the big prize at Nagambie is for the biggest cod… but its not the only prize! There is cash to be won for carp and prizes (yet to be announced) that you could win and best of all you can win them with a Carp.

In this edition of GoFishing with Rhys I’m going to share my tips that will help you to catch that winning Carp.

CARP TACTICS FOR NAGAMBIE

Like all freshwater waterways, Nagambie is loaded with the invasive species. This competition is a great opportunity to remove a few from the water, but even better, a great chance to win some prizes. Carp are a relatively easy species to catch, as they love searching for any food to suck up off the bottom. They are primarily a bottom feeder and will suck around in the mud and silt looking for food.

Best Baits for Carp

Using bait is the only way to go. You can catch them on lures, but it is rare and if you want to give yourself the best chance… use bait. The best baits to use are bread, corn and worms. The reason these three all work well is because they have a strong smell which attract the Carp from a long way, the scent the carp can smell in the bread and corn is sugar, they love anything sweet.

Tip: when using bread, make sure you only use white bread. Firstly, because it is the easiest to mould onto the hook and it stays on for longer, but more importantly is has the highest concentration of sugar. Whereas wholemeal or grain has little sugar and you’ll reduce your catch rate significantly.

Baiting up your Hook

Once you have your chosen bait (I’d go with bread and worms) you need to bait it correctly. With the bread just take a piece off and mould it into a flat ball shape or like a flat long disc. Then pin the hook through the bread and make sure your hook point is exposed (never hide your hook point or you’ll miss fish). If you’re using worms make sure you load up the hook with as many as you can.

Best Rig to Use

I like to run a running sinker rig with a paternoster setup. It’s simple; first cut a 40cm length of line off your mainline (if you’re using monofilament, if your using braid you’ll need some leader material) get a light ball sinker (size 2) and run it up your line, and then tie on a swivel. Then tie on the length of line you cut off to the other end of the swivel (or your leader material). Tie a hook onto the end of the line, this is your first hook. Then you want to make a paternoster loop halfway between your swivel and hook and once this is done, loop on another hook. This way you have two hooks and can use two different baits.

Areas to Fish

Now the most important part is to pick where to fish. The areas you want to find are shallow muddy sections, close to weed. I would avoid chasing Carp in the main river channel. Look for the backwaters and shallow sections in the lake. The key part is to find reedy area, this are places they will feed and search for food.

Final Tip

This could almost be the winning ingredient which will make a massive difference come comp day. Carp are a schooling fish and your goal is to catch as many Carp as you can. You can make this a whole lot easier if you can draw in entire schools of Carp to the area.

You can do this by using burly! Want you want to do is get a bucket and packet of breadcrumbs, find some sand or dirt and even buy a can of creamed corn. Get the sand and mix it with the breadcrumbs, you’ll also want to grab a few slices of bread and try to break them up into tiny pieces. What I like to do is break a piece of and rub it in my hand with the sand to mix it together. Then add your creamed corn to the bucket, this acts as like a glue (don’t make it too wet).

You should now have this fine mixture and what you want to do is grab a handful and throw it in a circular motion out where you are fishing, so it fans out in the area. You don’t need much, its basically something for them to smell and be attracted to, but you don’t want them to spend all their time eating your burly and not your bait.

Do this every 20 mins or so to keep the Carp in the area.