World Record common holder Mario Winnikes from Germany has been getting into some early spring action and sent us this report. As Mario proved its always worth checking out snaggy areas at this time of the year as the carp visit them to rub up against the submerged woodwork to clean of leaches that have attached themselves during the inactive winter period.
‘Last weekend I could take a more than needed break from my “long-time-ice-and-snow-and-renovating-the-house-no-fishing” period. One of the lakes was ice-free at last and spring did a brief visit, before winter strongly came back on Monday.
One rod I fished with a combination of two 12mm bottom baits and one 10mm X-Treme baits Pineapple Ice cream Mini Fluoro Pop Up, on the other rod I used a chod rig with a 16mm Banana Pop Up.
Around each rig I baited just 100 – 150 gram of 12mm Tigernut Cracker boilies. With the use of the ESP Mega Pult I could fire out that amount with just one full pouch! It delivers up to 110 of those little baits at a range of about 40m with little spread – ideal for accurate baiting in cold water conditions. A small PVA Mesh filled with some 12mm hooked to an ESP Raptor Long-Shanx size 4 completed my setup.
The margins of the peninsula opposite my swim were covered with fallen trees. I was sure the carp loved that natural shelter. As I wanted to fish as close as possible against these snags I marked the ideal casting distance with a small knot of ESP Marker Gum on my mainline and clipped the line to the spool. So I was able to cast out without hitting the branches of the trees, even in the dark.
And it worked… I caught the mirrors. With weights from 18lbs to 27lbs no giants, but very welcome heralds of spring!’
For more information on the ESP Raptor Long-Shanx hooks, click here.
Got something you want to share with us? Send us your catch report!
This year we would like to invite you to share with us your catch reports and photos of carp caught with the help of ESP tackle. We’ll aim to feature as many as possible on the Facebook page and ESP website news page. Get the recognition you deserve!
All we need is a good quality photo (maximum size of 1mb), a brief catch report (what, where, and how) and we’ll do the rest. Send it to catchreports@esp-carpgear.com.