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As his first contribution of a series Northern Angler Shaun Mitchell offers some handy hints for fishing in the silt
I would first of all like to thank Erik for giving me this opportunity to write on such a well established carp website. I feel the best way to go about this series is to details different how tos when carp fishing, and then more easy reading carpy tales from sessions on Sandhurst and Astbury Mere, a bit of something for everyone that way.
The first in this informative series is about silt fishing, something coming from the north-west I have had to adapt to. I also feel from trips to Sandhurst it is something the southerners can benefit from too!
From various discussions with other anglers the main thing putting them off silt fishing is simply down to presentation of your rig and hookbait. However golden opportunities are being overlooked by letting your fear restrain you from angling in the silt. Remember good silt often contains natural food larders, which are obviously going to produce more bites than others.
There are a few things to consider when fishing in the silt, but if done correctly you’re in with a shout of a multiple capture on your sessions. I am now going to show you these techniques that will hopefully help you get more bites and more carp on the mat as well.
Silt is silt right? Wrong. Some silt is productive for takes, some other is simply is rotten. To identify what silt is what, I like to have a lead around with a bare hook attached to my lead. This will both tell you the water depth (from counting the lead down in your head until you feel a thump which should give you a ball park figure of the depth and also the bottom make up) and also the depth of the silt by how much the lead plugs in.
A good scattering of silt is usually good, without being too deep. On retrieving your set up smell it and if it smells rotten then usually the silt is bad, if it smells fairly fresh it is good – I am a big believer that this is due to the fact that it gets cleaned off by the fish more regularly due to the naturals present.
Ideal areas for good silt are on the back gully or front gully of a gravel bar, where silt deposits, under tree lines where fish patrol, margins and islands etc. These are all good but the best areas can be found at first light… the open water areas. Brilliant I hear you cry! You can find these by getting up first light and watching for bubblers, cast to these, but wait until they stop feeding to have a plumb around. If it is the silt your after, clip up and cast back to the area, this is one rod now angling!
A consideration to bear in mind on day ticket waters; are they feeding on naturals or others people baits, as this will throw you out. To suss this out you need to put in some rod hours and work out where they are up to, read today and tomorrow’s newspaper if you like, not yesterdays carp news. This way you can predict where they will feed tomorrow and set a trap. Knowing where the fish feed and bubble naturally is half the battle won, and will produce more fish per session than any other method if your application is correct, which we will now move onto.
I am going to give you some simple guidelines on how to fish in the silt, as I don’t feel it's necessary to alter what people want to use for their own rigs. Rigs for me are a very personal thing and what works for me, wont always work for someone else and like wise. I like to use a long hook length i.e. 12 inches or so, so that when the lead plugs in the silt, the rig lays on top and doesn't get buried in the silt and more importantly the natural food larder!
I also use stringers and pva bags to slow the rig up in the water and help it lay down better and not in a big pile, which also aids presentation. Add to this PVA foam on the hook and your rig is looking pretty and waiting to nail a feeding carp unaware! I do love this silt fishing!!!
Belachan pop-ups – I like to make my own pop-ups with some added shaved belachan and then glug my own bottom baits with liquid belachan, this in silt causes a major reaction to the carp as they rip the already attractive bottom up in search of MY baits!! Nothing new or ground breaking – very simple and very very deadly…
You will be putting your hook baits on a natural food larder, somewhere the carp look to feed naturally and are confident feeding. Add to this the fact they will cloud up the bottom concealing your rig further. This will stack the odds in your favour and increase your chances of a bite strongly.
Silt fishing is not the be all and end all, but a method that can be used to devastating effect on 99% of venues! (Editors note: especially when everyone else is fishing the bars!!)
Find the carp, find the silt, set the bobbins, get the kettle on and catch the carp… proper fishing…
Tight lines and thanks for reading
Shaun
