We dive super in depth into what makes Scott Lloyd so successful, including some, until now, closely guarded secrets!
We dive super in depth into what makes Scott Lloyd so successful, including some, until now, closely guarded secrets!
How much play is there in your rigs? Do you tweak things very often?
“In honesty, not really! Once I’ve found something that works, I tend to stick to it and then maybe refine it. I’d like to think I’ve made it pretty clear to the guys who follow my angling that everything I do out in the pond and put faith in, is through seeing how my chosen rigs work in a situation with my own eyes, such as fishing in the edge. If I can see how a carp reacts to certain rigs, then when it comes to angling out in the pond where I haven’t got that benefit of seeing the carp with my own eyes, my confidence is still sky-high.
“I guess this would be a good point to mention the underwater filming we did last year for Sticky. After the filming was finished, I had the chance to watch back the uncut footage and see exactly how the carp responded to an out in the open situation. The cameras give you an even more precise and detailed look at how the fish react to your chosen rig, and it’s not just carp it relates to either. I knew the elongated mechanics of the Noodle rig make it easier for a tench to deal with, after seeing them eject it in the edge, but to then see it from the underwater perspective cemented this even more. The rig rarely picks nuisance species up, whilst nailing the carp every time, almost. The videos don’t lie! The only carp which did manage to get away with it was a fish called Trio, which unfortunately has a damaged mouth with it being such an old fish.
“If I had to really break the rig down and say somethings which could potentially be tweaked, it’d be the rig length dependant on the areas I’m fishing over, or the hair length to match which hookbait I use at the time i.e. Krill wafter or tigernut.”
How much play is there in your rigs? Do you tweak things very often?
“In honesty, not really! Once I’ve found something that works, I tend to stick to it and then maybe refine it. I’d like to think I’ve made it pretty clear to the guys who follow my angling that everything I do out in the pond and put faith in, is through seeing how my chosen rigs work in a situation with my own eyes, such as fishing in the edge. If I can see how a carp reacts to certain rigs, then when it comes to angling out in the pond where I haven’t got that benefit of seeing the carp with my own eyes, my confidence is still sky-high.
“I guess this would be a good point to mention the underwater filming we did last year for Sticky. After the filming was finished, I had the chance to watch back the uncut footage and see exactly how the carp responded to an out in the open situation. The cameras give you an even more precise and detailed look at how the fish react to your chosen rig, and it’s not just carp it relates to either. I knew the elongated mechanics of the Noodle rig make it easier for a tench to deal with, after seeing them eject it in the edge, but to then see it from the underwater perspective cemented this even more. The rig rarely picks nuisance species up, whilst nailing the carp every time, almost. The videos don’t lie! The only carp which did manage to get away with it was a fish called Trio, which unfortunately has a damaged mouth with it being such an old fish.
“If I had to really break the rig down and say somethings which could potentially be tweaked, it’d be the rig length dependant on the areas I’m fishing over, or the hair length to match which hookbait I use at the time i.e. Krill wafter or tigernut.”
What is it about the Noodle Rig that you love so much? On the surface it looks like quite a simple presentation to tie, but are there any elements that need to be 100% bang-on for it to work as effectively as you know it can? (I.e. what parts do you see other anglers getting wrong?)
“It varies from different anglers asking, but if I had to nail it down, it would be the angle of the shrink tube (fortunately for those who do struggle to steam it perfectly, there is a Noodle Kicker coming out soon from the boys at Thinking Anglers). Going back to the shrink tube though, the tip of the shrink tube where the hooklink exits needs to sit below the hook point when holding the hook horizontally. I’m sure they’ll be a rig shot in here to demonstrate what I mean if it sounds too confusing!
“The second one would be people using silicone on the shank of the hook instead of using a small rig ring. Using silicone takes away from what we’re trying to achieve. As the hook comes out of the fish’s mouth, the hook point is heavy which is then amplified by the hookbait moving freely to transfer that weight in the same direction. If that hookbait is fixed or restricted by shrink tube or silicone on the shank, it’s going to work against the hook point, thus giving the fish a better chance of ditching the rig. The more weight you can transfer to help the hook to penetrate, the better! If you’re thinking why does Terry Hearn use rigs like that? Well, he traps the hair at the very top of the hook, making the hook point heavy. It’s so hard to explain in words, but hopefully I’ve done my best and the pictures can back it up also.
“The final key point which people need to get right is that small stripped back section of supple braid before the shrink tube/ kicker. That little break of the coating working with the moulded putty gives it another element of movement and play to help it flip and catch hold.”
Having done extensive boat work on places like Stoneacres, what are your thoughts on the whole ‘spots within spots’?
“1000%, spots within spots are a thing! It’s not very often you’ll see a fish come onto a spot and just dive straight into the middle of it. The little giveaway and take home I’ll give you reading is the edge of the spot. If it was all about the centre of the spot and the carp only paid attention to the middle, the spots wouldn’t get bigger, would they?
“They work from the edges and almost see it as a safer bet when feeding. If you keep your eyes on spots using boats or in the edge, you’ll notice spots getting larger in certain directions, whether that’s to the left or right, it’s never as a whole. If you’re noticing the weed being ripped and stripped back in a certain direction, tie this in with where you want your rig to land as they’re clearly favouring that spot within the area for whatever reason.
“Moving slightly away from boats as not everyone has access to them, how do you put this into practice using a lead and rod? You have to be precise with your distances and take note of where you’re hitting the clip. When wrapping up, don’t just take it as 21 wraps as its pretty close to it, note it down to the inch as it’s the difference between landing on the spot and the spot within the spot!
“If you fish an area and note it down accurately, using the same foot markers as before, you might notice that the spot has gained in size and now you need to adjust your clip by a few inches or a foot, depending on how it’s developed. You can also map which way the spot is increasing in size and which direction the fish are favouring. Accuracy is everything!
“You must’ve had it in your angling at some stage where you’re fishing multiple rods on a spot and the same bloody rod keeps doing the bite… Read back the previous paragraph and it soon makes sense! Game over!”
Having done extensive boat work on places like Stoneacres, what are your thoughts on the whole ‘spots within spots’?
“1000%, spots within spots are a thing! It’s not very often you’ll see a fish come onto a spot and just dive straight into the middle of it. The little giveaway and take home I’ll give you reading is the edge of the spot. If it was all about the centre of the spot and the carp only paid attention to the middle, the spots wouldn’t get bigger, would they?
“They work from the edges and almost see it as a safer bet when feeding. If you keep your eyes on spots using boats or in the edge, you’ll notice spots getting larger in certain directions, whether that’s to the left or right, it’s never as a whole. If you’re noticing the weed being ripped and stripped back in a certain direction, tie this in with where you want your rig to land as they’re clearly favouring that spot within the area for whatever reason.
“Moving slightly away from boats as not everyone has access to them, how do you put this into practice using a lead and rod? You have to be precise with your distances and take note of where you’re hitting the clip. When wrapping up, don’t just take it as 21 wraps as its pretty close to it, note it down to the inch as it’s the difference between landing on the spot and the spot within the spot!
“If you fish an area and note it down accurately, using the same foot markers as before, you might notice that the spot has gained in size and now you need to adjust your clip by a few inches or a foot, depending on how it’s developed. You can also map which way the spot is increasing in size and which direction the fish are favouring. Accuracy is everything!
“You must’ve had it in your angling at some stage where you’re fishing multiple rods on a spot and the same bloody rod keeps doing the bite… Read back the previous paragraph and it soon makes sense! Game over!”
You’ve fished all manner of venues, from the mighty Burghfield to the uber-pressured Christchurch. With the latter type of venue, what were you doing over the other guys on the lake that won you the bite and not them?
“It’s hard to nail it down in honesty, but I’ll do my best! To a degree, it’s all about getting it wrong to then get it right. Working the lake out quicker than others helps massively, not putting rigs out at the wrong time as well as baiting up. Your time on the lake is never wasted as observing everything that’s going on helps you develop what’s usually a blank canvas. My efforts are always geared towards this, and I rarely have to think about my end tackle as that’s where my confidence is. I know if I can put the variables in my favour, my approach will catch them.
“You’ll note patterns occurring from the carp, through factors such as weather, location, bite times and you need to soak this all in to fine-tune your decisions when it comes to angling for them. Carp are creatures of habit and if you can locate them, study their movements and traits during certain winds/pressures then you can formulate a plan to coincide with it. I have seen them move on a north-easterly on Christchurch for example and then back off it after a while, I’ve seen that time and time again when fishing it and found they’d then settle in the mid-section of the wind, neither on or off it. I don’t move onto where they’re going, I target the area in which I know they’re going to settle and subsequently hold.”
How do you balance your work and family life with carp fishing in practice, week to week? And how and where would you be fishing if you had only 12 to 24hrs a fortnight or month at your disposal?
“I wouldn’t go bloody fishing… are you mad!? 12 hours every two weeks… forget that! Only joking, it’s hard to balance, a lot of people think I’m a full timer but I’m not, six nights a week isn’t full time… (sorry, joking again!) Basically, I’m addicted, and I do what I can, when I can, and sometimes that means making sacrifices. I don’t do what every else does, that people may take for granted like holidays or working overtime. I’m selfish in a sense that I’ll usually sacrifice plenty to make way for fishing. I don’t like it when people say ‘oh, it’s alright for him, he doesn’t have to do xyz’ as we all choose to prioritise certain things over others. People who discredit others because they have to work five days a week, I can’t stand that. If it bothers you that much then go find a job where you don’t have to! No one forced you to work that job or choose it. If you want to do something enough, you’ll change your life and lifestyle to suit it.”
How do you balance your work and family life with carp fishing in practice, week to week? And how and where would you be fishing if you had only 12 to 24hrs a fortnight or month at your disposal?
“I wouldn’t go bloody fishing… are you mad!? 12 hours every two weeks… forget that! Only joking, it’s hard to balance, a lot of people think I’m a full timer but I’m not, six nights a week isn’t full time… (sorry, joking again!) Basically, I’m addicted, and I do what I can, when I can, and sometimes that means making sacrifices. I don’t do what every else does, that people may take for granted like holidays or working overtime. I’m selfish in a sense that I’ll usually sacrifice plenty to make way for fishing. I don’t like it when people say ‘oh, it’s alright for him, he doesn’t have to do xyz’ as we all choose to prioritise certain things over others. People who discredit others because they have to work five days a week, I can’t stand that. If it bothers you that much then go find a job where you don’t have to! No one forced you to work that job or choose it. If you want to do something enough, you’ll change your life and lifestyle to suit it.”
Chatting to a mate last year — a successful big-fish angler with a serious job, and family — he reckoned maybe one in ten of his missions and little baiting campaigns, were failed. I’ve got plenty, but have you had any fantastically failed campaigns to recount?
“It’s hard to nail it down in honesty, but I’ll do my best! To a degree, it’s all about getting it wrong to then get it right. Working the lake out quicker than others helps massively, not putting rigs out at the wrong time as well as baiting up. Your time on the lake is never wasted as observing everything that’s going on helps you develop what’s usually a blank canvas. My efforts are always geared towards this, and I rarely have to think about my end tackle as that’s where my confidence is. I know if I can put the variables in my favour, my approach will catch them.
“You’ll note patterns occurring from the carp, through factors such as weather, location, bite times and you need to soak this all in to fine-tune your decisions when it comes to angling for them. Carp are creatures of habit and if you can locate them, study their movements and traits during certain winds/pressures then you can formulate a plan to coincide with it. I have seen them move on a north-easterly on Christchurch for example and then back off it after a while, I’ve seen that time and time again when fishing it and found they’d then settle in the mid-section of the wind, neither on or off it. I don’t move onto where they’re going, I target the area in which I know they’re going to settle and subsequently hold.”
How do you feel about the ethics of baiting and claiming authority on spots on busy waters?
“Bull**** to some extent. I will always give etiquette, but only when I see it being earned and deserved. So, if I see someone turn up, every day, every session and he’s making an effort in a certain quiet swim or an area he’s opened up and prepared, baited, fished and pretty much repeated the cycle, he 100% gets etiquette from me. Whether he gets it from others is a different question that only they could answer but from my point of view, he gets it.
“What you can’t do is do it in swims which are the most popular areas of the lake, it’s got to be somewhere they’ve done it out of the way. If you choose to do it in a popular swim, and maybe get left alone then decide to give it a go in another swim as it’s not paying off, that’s the moment where it’s done as far as I’m concerned. You can’t bait here, there and everywhere and expect people to leave you alone. As long as you’re putting the effort in to a certain swim/area and stick to your guns regardless of the conditions, and he still chooses to campaign in that swim, it’s yours! I’ve done it quite a few times, but as soon as you start getting itchy feet and start chasing them around because the little plan isn’t working, its every man for himself.”
How do you feel about the ethics of baiting and claiming authority on spots on busy waters?
“Bull**** to some extent. I will always give etiquette, but only when I see it being earned and deserved. So, if I see someone turn up, every day, every session and he’s making an effort in a certain quiet swim or an area he’s opened up and prepared, baited, fished and pretty much repeated the cycle, he 100% gets etiquette from me. Whether he gets it from others is a different question that only they could answer but from my point of view, he gets it.
“What you can’t do is do it in swims which are the most popular areas of the lake, it’s got to be somewhere they’ve done it out of the way. If you choose to do it in a popular swim, and maybe get left alone then decide to give it a go in another swim as it’s not paying off, that’s the moment where it’s done as far as I’m concerned. You can’t bait here, there and everywhere and expect people to leave you alone. As long as you’re putting the effort in to a certain swim/area and stick to your guns regardless of the conditions, and he still chooses to campaign in that swim, it’s yours! I’ve done it quite a few times, but as soon as you start getting itchy feet and start chasing them around because the little plan isn’t working, its every man for himself.”
What are the major contributing factors in big-carp fishing?
“Location, observation, good bait and good tackle, all of which are pretty basic when you write it down! You’ve got to have all those things in your angling, and I mean ALL of them. There’s no point being able to find them with good observation and watercraft, then not have the correct setup to land it. Watercraft is the hardest to master as it’s something which is probably earned and not bought, and it’s also intriguing and exciting at the same time. The chase is just as enjoyable for me as it is to catch them. Guessing and gambling can pay off at times, but with things which are under my control, I like to sway the odds in my favour as much as possible.”
Do you feel natural baits are winter essentials, and if so, how do you fish them?
“They’re a great bait, the likes of maggots in solid bags etc are a deadly tactic all year round. Are they essential? Probably not, I’ve had bites using all sorts of stuff over the years I’ve been fishing but if I had to choose one natural bait then it would be a little wriggler. They can be a hinderance though, if your lake is full of smaller fish, you’ll soon shy away from them and turn to a more suitable approach.”
Do you feel natural baits are winter essentials, and if so, how do you fish them?
“They’re a great bait, the likes of maggots in solid bags etc are a deadly tactic all year round. Are they essential? Probably not, I’ve had bites using all sorts of stuff over the years I’ve been fishing but if I had to choose one natural bait then it would be a little wriggler. They can be a hinderance though, if your lake is full of smaller fish, you’ll soon shy away from them and turn to a more suitable approach.”
How reluctant, or keen are you to tweak your approach, be that with rigs, presentation or tactics? What are the indicators that show you it is time to change something… how do you know?)
It’s a pretty obvious one really isn’t it? If the fish are cruising with their backs out on a hot summer’s day, I’m grabbing the floater kit or tying Zigs to present just under the surface. The same goes if I see them in the edge, I’ll fish in the bloody edge! If they’re sheeting up in open water and tearing the lakebed a new one whilst showing and clearing the gills, guess what… I’ll fish for them on the deck. Let the carp tell you what you should be doing, don’t guess at it by going in blind. Observing them will narrow your tactics down to the correct method to use. If they’re showing and people are fishing on the deck yet they’re not getting bites, chances are there’s a hatch going on and they’re up in the water, so Zigs will be the method. It’s observations once again which help you decide what route to go down. There’s so many answers and scenarios to the question, for example a bird sitting on the water, drifting around, then all of a sudden spooking, that tells me not only is there a fish there, but it also says it was up in the water within a certain depth. Reversing that but using the same wildlife, if a bird dives down onto a spot, if it comes back up and sh*** itself and spooks off, there’s something down on the bottom! Observe then angle for them.”
Have you ever noticed something or spotted a little sign that has changed your fishing on a lake?
“Following on from the previous answer, the birds! Noticing how they react, those that have watched my Vlogs will know what I mean. Those crafty buggers give the game away so many times when you’re scratching for information. Sometimes more on some venues than others, but they all react in the same way when you watch their behaviour. A great example is somewhere I didn’t do a great deal of time on, but most will know it as the Shallow Pit. Even though I’d only done a handful of sessions, I managed to catch some decent carp and that was all down to the birdlife. With the lake being so shallow (obvs), every time those coots were near the carp or a carp decided to break the surface with a show, they would crap their pants and squark like their life depended on it. Especially during the hours of darkness, they helped me locate the carp fairly easily and eventually lead to captures. I’ve said it openly that it’s my biggest edge, yet I see very few taking it into their own angling. I guess the less they take note of it, the more it plays into my hands when I’m trying to catch the same carp as them? Who knows!”
Have you ever noticed something or spotted a little sign that has changed your fishing on a lake?
“Following on from the previous answer, the birds! Noticing how they react, those that have watched my Vlogs will know what I mean. Those crafty buggers give the game away so many times when you’re scratching for information. Sometimes more on some venues than others, but they all react in the same way when you watch their behaviour. A great example is somewhere I didn’t do a great deal of time on, but most will know it as the Shallow Pit. Even though I’d only done a handful of sessions, I managed to catch some decent carp and that was all down to the birdlife. With the lake being so shallow (obvs), every time those coots were near the carp or a carp decided to break the surface with a show, they would crap their pants and squark like their life depended on it. Especially during the hours of darkness, they helped me locate the carp fairly easily and eventually lead to captures. I’ve said it openly that it’s my biggest edge, yet I see very few taking it into their own angling. I guess the less they take note of it, the more it plays into my hands when I’m trying to catch the same carp as them? Who knows!”
With more big, no, huge carp around than ever before, how do you choose which tickets to pursue?
“In honesty, I just see a fish and think yeah, that’d be nice to have a go for and get access to fish for it, and if it’s possible, then go for it! Doesn’t really matter to me how busy, big or pressured it may be, I’d like to think I can put up with pretty much anything, so I’ll have a go for it. If you want to catch it, just go for it, they don’t last forever.”
Has a catching particular fish helped you in life in some way, shape or form?
“Not a specific fish for me, but most definitely fishing has saved me to a degree. If I didn’t have angling, I’d probably be either dead or in prison, 100%! I think anglers have that addictive personality and fishing soaks so much of that up, so to think of a life without it isn’t worth thinking about for me.”
Has a catching particular fish helped you in life in some way, shape or form?
“Not a specific fish for me, but most definitely fishing has saved me to a degree. If I didn’t have angling, I’d probably be either dead or in prison, 100%! I think anglers have that addictive personality and fishing soaks so much of that up, so to think of a life without it isn’t worth thinking about for me.”
If the big ’un in the lake you’re fishing gets caught, do you stay on and try and catch the others, or do you go elsewhere? If you do leave, how long would you give it until you return?
“I’m very much in the leave camp, as soon as that one’s come out which I’m targeting, I will go. Not so much in a paddy kind of way, but more looking at the tactics I was using, swims I was fishing etc; they all gear towards targeting that specific fish. I did it last year, when the lake I was fishing did the big one whilst I was there. I did the pictures, shared the moment and celebrated with the guy so we all could congratulate him, and I was just as buzzing to see the carp and his emotion as I was to probably catch it myself. There’s no bad blood between anglers I meet who catch carp which I want also. After that, I packed up and headed straight to White Swan as Son of Triple Row was due, so every silver lining and all that! You can’t begrudge others when they catch your target, it makes you a very bitter and jealous angler.”
