My brother and I just came back from our fishing s

[Barbelman]

My brother and I just came back from our fishing spot.
He does specimen angling for a few months now, me, not so long. But I gave it a try. Now because I am a bit impatient maybe, I kept fishing one rod the normal papgooi way. My bothers biggest fish was only 4.8 kg. Now that is not small but I expected bigger. But the smallest fish he caught, with full specimen gear, using two large FX Tigers was under 2kg. Two of these small fish were caught on the double Tigernuts. I thought Specimen angling keeps the small ones away....

I on the other hand did not catch even one fish, nor even one bite, despite using popular flavors boilies and Tigernuts. That is fishing and you cannot get them all everytime.

But, what did my single papgooi rod do? I caught a lot of carp, with 4 carps weighing more than 4 kg each. My biggest was 8.34 kg about 15H00 yesterday afternoon. I fished with only one hook, size 8, and used a mieliebomb. Just one mieliepit per hook was all that it took.

I am not bashing specimen angling, not at all, as perhaps I did something wrong, or used the wrong bait and or presentation, but to be honest, I expected more. I do want to get it right, but where do I start?


    

 

[Dr halibut hoffman]

Haha..ja I have gotten all my best carp on Koo?! I think when I tried boilies in the 90's our carp were too fat and doff.

 

[IWyk]

Combination of the two. Single in line trace with a mushroom sinker, put your bom on that and then Tiger nuts on the hair rig. In the river add molasses to the bom. Simple but it works.

 

[Barbelman]

I wonder what is the biggest carp ever that got caught using a mieliepip as bait directly on a hook, not on a hair.
Can carp bigger than say 15kg be fooled by a bait placed directly on the hook, or are bait on a hair your only option if you want to land a 15kg plus carp?

 

[IWyk]

Some earlier SA records for carp where caught in Harties long before specimen angling even started here. So these would have been caught with bait on the hook. These fish where 23kg+ if I remember correctly from Solomon's book, Fresh water Angling in SA.

Yes you can catch big carp with baits on the hook. One session with one rod is not representative of the potential of either method for any specific water fished. Too many variables, depth, structure etc.

Big baits on a hair rig eg. Big tiger nuts, kaboems, particles etc. will catch bigger fish more consistently than small baits eg. koo pip, floatie etc.

My experience anyway. I may add that I mainly fish the Vaal river so this may differ for other waters.

 

[Barbelman]

IWyk wrote:

Some earlier SA records for carp where caught in Harties long before specimen angling even started here. So these would have been caught with bait on the hook. These fish where 23kg+ if I remember correctly from Solomon's book, Fresh water Angling in SA.

Yes you can catch big carp with baits on the hook. One session with one rod is not representative of the potential of either method for any specific water fished. Too many variables, depth, structure etc.

Big baits on a hair rig eg. Big tiger nuts, kaboems, particles etc. will catch bigger fish more consistently than small baits eg. koo pip, floatie etc.

My experience anyway. I may add that I mainly fish the Vaal river so this may differ for other waters.

That is true. I did not say how many small fish was caught as well. It was a lot, the big fishes were just a bonus.
I must say I regularly catch at least one 4.0 kg carp per session between all the smaller ones. You never know what size fish is nibbling on your bait. That is what makes it so exiting for me


Who else here fishes with a 100% free running sinker rig? I started with it this weekend after I completely stopped using the Rietvlei strop. The Rietvlei does work good, but the second hook really sometimes hurt a bigger fish. And the fact that the fish will have to drag around a sinker after a line snaps made me to stop using it altogether.
I am glad I switched to a free running rig, I really did not loose one fish, except one small fish. I don't think I will be using a fixed sinker anytime soon.

 

[HennieB]

I think you're looking for a quick fix to catch better sized fish. I've been doing speci angling for about 7 years and I never got close to the size fish on conventional angling that I do now.

You can't simply hook a tigernut or boilie and expect to catch a monster, it doesn't work like that. Did you do any sort of watercraft, are you only casting, did you feed? A lot has to do with the venue you're targeting. To make an informed decision about if specimen angling works or not you'll have to fish for at least more than a year. It does work, that is why the rest of the world use it.

 

[DocPhil]

Same here.
Conventional never came close to the size fish I'm getting on Speci.
There's A LOT more to it than the bait you use.
And of course the added bonus is the safety of your quarry and looking after your sport.

 

[deisel]

sounds like your mate is not a very specimen angler.

 

[Barbelman]

deisel wrote:

sounds like your mate is not a very specimen angler.

That is true. But we are still new at it and do learn as we go. We went all out. We did bait the area with a row boat, I shot in 5-10 boilies/Tiger nuts every hour with my ketty. We used stringers and PVA bags etc etc.
What we did not do is scan the venue and read the water. We have a spot at a river so we cannot sit anywhere but on our jetty. So we can basically only vary the depth at which we fish.
What I have found though about our venue is that I got all my big fishes at just 40m deep, or even closer. If I go to 80 meters or even a bit further I get small ones. So I am on a constant learning curve.
I do not think we could have done much more in our situation.

My point, as in post #1 was just, don't think if you go for specimen angling that you are not going to catch small fish at all. It can still happen. You can still catch a 1.8kg carp using Tigernuts as bait. Only difference is you will be waiting 3 hours for that small fish...

 

[deisel]

Aahhh reading the water. One of the most important factors in specimen and any other facet. It's always successful if you learn something

 

[Basspro]

((r(e(ling

Gotta luv carp anglers - gotta luv carp fishing ....... The 2 hook Rietvlei Strop and the hope of a monster on 4lb line ... ?? Serias manne these oke's ....

Nevertheless - The humble boilie - my effort over 20yrs in Speci Fishing and a string of big fish ...
I don't see any other method coming close. I FISH THEREFORE I AM CONVINCED

Enjoy Gents !!

 

[Lance R]

One important aspect not mentioned, sure you can pick up a big carp on conventional Rigs but usually inflicting injury to the fish.

A Rietvlei strop has two hooks which will get snagged in structure causing you to snap off and a fish swimming around with a rig in its mouth. The second hook also poses a risk as it often ends up hooking into the big carps body.

The mechanics of a conventional rig usually does not set the hook correctly in the carps mouth. Trying to fight a heavy fish with a dodgy hookhold will tear the fishes mouth.

Big carp are prone to infection caused by injuries and could die.

For me it is not only about catching the biggest fish but also respect towards your quarry. We achieve this by using the correct gear and putting the Carps safety first .

Once you apply these principles , you can call yourself a specimen angler.

 

[HennieB]

Lance R wrote:

One important aspect not mentioned, sure you can pick up a big carp on conventional Rigs but usually inflicting injury to the fish.

A Rietvlei strop has two hooks which will get snagged in structure causing you to snap off and a fish swimming around with a rig in its mouth. The second hook also poses a risk as it often ends up hooking into the big carps body.

The mechanics of a conventional rig usually does not set the hook correctly in the carps mouth. Trying to fight a heavy fish with a dodgy hookhold will tear the fishes mouth.

Big carp are prone to infection caused by injuries and could die.

For me it is not only about catching the biggest fish but also respect towards your quarry. We achieve this by using the correct gear and putting the Carps safety first .

Once you apply these principles , you can call yourself a specimen angler.

 

[Barbelman]

Lance R wrote:

One important aspect not mentioned, sure you can pick up a big carp on conventional Rigs but usually inflicting injury to the fish.

A Rietvlei strop has two hooks which will get snagged in structure causing you to snap off and a fish swimming around with a rig in its mouth. The second hook also poses a risk as it often ends up hooking into the big carps body.

The mechanics of a conventional rig usually does not set the hook correctly in the carps mouth. Trying to fight a heavy fish with a dodgy hookhold will tear the fishes mouth.

Big carp are prone to infection caused by injuries and could die.

For me it is not only about catching the biggest fish but also respect towards your quarry. We achieve this by using the correct gear and putting the Carps safety first .

Once you apply these principles , you can call yourself a specimen angler.

I get the impression that everyone thinks I still fish with a rietvlei rig. Not at all.
I only fish with one hook, even on my ''non-specimen'' rod.
I used to buy the over the counter rietvlei rigs, but not anymore. I make my own rigs now. One small hook, 10cm hooklink length, sometimes up to 18cm long, and a free running mieliebomb holder.
On my specimen setup I make use of PVA bags and PVA strings to put feed in the water. Still only with one hook.

 

[Basspro]

We messing with you - seriously leave the old school unless you play among the small fish now and then which is 100's

 

[Barbelman]

Basspro wrote:

We messing with you - seriously leave the old school unless you play among the small fish now and then which is 100's

Thats good to know. Don't play with me, help me
What over the counter Specimen bait will get me results?
Where I fish the flavours that work with conventional angling is mostly sweetcorn, Perdeby, Banjo, Fx and Hasbeen. Many other flavours are also working, but none as good as these. Perhaps the big carp prefer something else.

 

[Fishpaste]

Barbelman wrote:

Basspro wrote:

We messing with you - seriously leave the old school unless you play among the small fish now and then which is 100's

Thats good to know. Don't play with me, help me
What over the counter Specimen bait will get me results?
Where I fish the flavours that work with conventional angling is mostly sweetcorn, Perdeby, Banjo, Fx and Hasbeen. Many other flavours are also working, but none as good as these. Perhaps the big carp prefer something else.

Location and presentation is far more important than flavours.

 

[Lance R]

I have switched to high nutrition value boilies and only use particles at certain venues.

Placing high quality baits in the right spot has increased my average size. With particles you may get more takes but through personal experience smaller fish.

Fishmeal and fruity flavours have delivered good results for me.

Enjoy your sessions on the banks and hope you land some quality fish this holiday season !

P.S remember to practice catch and release and Carp safety

 

[VinceM]

Lance R wrote:

I have switched to high nutrition value boilies and only use particles at certain venues.

Placing high quality baits in the right spot has increased my average size. With particles you may get more takes but through personal experience smaller fish.

Fishmeal and fruity flavours have delivered good results for me.

Enjoy your sessions on the banks and hope you land some quality fish this holiday season !

P.S remember to practice catch and release and Carp safety