MITCH HAMMONDS HAS A VERY DIFFERENT WAY OF AVOIDING NUISANCE SPECIES AND CATCHING CARP
MITCH HAMMONDS HAS A VERY DIFFERENT WAY OF AVOIDING NUISANCE SPECIES AND CATCHING CARP
The lake I have been fishing is absolutely full of tench, bream and millions of crayfish. I found myself being up all night catching them on 20mm baits and it was beginning to wear me down. I had to come up with a plan to eliminate the problem, but still fish boilies and have a chance of catching a carp or two.
I had a good think about it and eventually came up with the idea of using supersized baits. This meant rolling them myself and making them huge, between 40 and 50mm in size. At first they looked massive, but when I visualised the carp I am targeting and the size of its mouth, it wasn’t that big at all.
After switching to them I caught on my first session, then my second and my third. I had caught carp from 18-35lb and not a single tench or bream. I knew from a previous capture that it had been caught on a big bait too, which made me confident that these bad boys were going to be the edge.
FOLLOW MITCH’S 13 STEP GUIDE
TO CREATING YOUR OWN SUPERSIZE HOOKBAITS
STEP 1
Start by cracking three eggs into a bowl
STEP 2
Add 10ml of both Manilla and Krill liquid
STEP 3
Then add 30ml of Cap Oil
STEP 4
Whisk it all into the egg
STEP 5
Then add 6 scoops of cork dust
STEP 6
Mix the liquids in and leave for an hour
STEP 7
Add a couple of sachets of Egg Albumen
STEP 8
Mix together 200g of Manilla and Krill base mix
I knew from a previous capture that it had been caught on a big bait, which made me confident that these bad boys were going to be the edge!
STEP 9
Add the base mix little and often and once it is too stiff to do with a fork, need with yours hands and keep adding the mix until you get to a dough consistency
STEP 10
If the ball goes straight down, I add some more cork. I keep doing this until the bait goes down slowly and then rises back up just as quick.
This makes them slightly balanced and once they are boiled they will be slightly heavier. I don’t want them sitting off the bottom, I want them to be able to lift up without the carp exerting too much effort.
STEP 11
Roll them up into the appropriate size, which at the minute is anything from 35mm to 50mm
STEP 12
Boil them for 4 minutes. Mitch uses a kettle as it keeps the heat in better than a pan
STEP 13
Leave them to dry for a couple of days and they are ready to go!
EXTRA HINTS & TIPS
Once they are ready, I soak them up in some Cap-Oil and roll them in Krill Powder. This gives them a real kick and I’m not fussed if the tench and bream come in as they can’t get hooked.
When you leave them to dry on the plate, they will have a flat edge, which will help how the bait sits.
I have been baiting with a mixture of maize, broken boilies and 24mm Krill baits. The maize, chopped and crumbed boilies do attract the smaller fish, but I am sure this helps pull the carp in too. Maize is really cheap, so I can bait really heavily with it when I know that there are lots of nuisance fish on me.
The Crayfish can be a nightmare, so use a shot instead of putty.
By using a good length of hair, size 4 hook and a monstrous bait. I haven’t hooked a single Bream or Tench since using them and as I have mentioned before, landed six-carp, which for the lake I am fishing is good going.
FOLLOW THE JOURNEY
Many years ago, Mitch Hammonds spotted a fish he dearly wanted to catch known as The Croc. Thankfully his occupation as a crayfish trapper helped him on his journey, culminating in the capture of this truly incredible creature.
