I started on the Ocean Fresh RSG in mid October 2006 and was keen to see whether I could establish it as a food source for the carp.  Knowing that I had the whole winter to establish the bait would only help me come the busy closed season period.

When trying to establish bait you can be really up against it when there are other baiting teams on the water.  The advantage I would have is that I wouldn’t be up against any other baiting teams just the impending winter.  Would it hold out long enough for me to get the fish on the bait or would the cold snap start early and switch the fish off.  There were stories of years gone by where the anglers on this lake all joined together and got on the same bait, a fishmeal I think it was.  Starting one spring they managed to get their bait established and for a few seasons they all caught very well, on average about 30 fish a season.  Times have changed a bit in the 10 years since they did this and thanks to a stocking policy now in place there is an annual stocking of fish, but not in any large numbers.  The lake probably has a head of approximately 150 carp in 8 acres of water.  But when you’re on your own it can be a daunting challenge.  Unlike busy waters where you fit in around other anglers, I would turn up to the lake and be the only one there.

Most anglers are limited to the amount of time they can spend on the bank.  They are there to catch fish, not to sit behind motionless rods.  You’ll find that during the spring and summer months, anglers will go armed with an array of particle baits such as hemp, maize, maggots and pellets in the hope of creating a feeding frenzy so they can put a fish on the bank.  I’m not knocking you if you are this type of angler after all we all fish for one reason, to catch fish.  However you need to be aware that in the long term carp will not be gaining any nutritional value from the particle, maggot and pellet type of baits.  They’ll realise that they need a food that will help them nutritionally and will soon realise that they have to go looking elsewhere for it.  Before you know it the particle, maggot and pellet approach has blown and the number and size of the fish you catch on it will decrease.  Without a doubt it is going to take you longer to establish a boilie as a food source, but the long term results will always outweigh the time it takes getting the bait established, this is particularly important for any Americans reading this as the same rule applies.  

So with bait chosen the next step is application.  Living so close to the lake enables me to spend a lot of time there just observing fish.  This is invaluable when it comes to starting a baiting campaign on any water.  Hopefully you will have been able to spend time with a marker rod on the lake finding where the features are, as well as the different depths.  By spending time on the lake you’ll get a good idea of the fish, their habits, their patrol routes, their holding areas, their feeding spots.  You’ll also be able to work out the areas on the lake that don’t get fished.  You know those quiet tucked away areas where you can’t get a bivvy in, the over grown swim that people just walk past.  These are goldmines.

I decided to trickle bait in all over the lake, from the overgrown un-fished swims to the popular ones.  I know fish visited the popular swims, so putting a handful of bait out wasn’t going to spoil everyone else’s fishing, but it would at least mean the fish would be seeing the bait.  I would put a handful of bait out along the margins of the swims on the westerly bank.  The fish would always visit here because it’s the first place on the lake to warm up in the morning.  Then there were the un-fished swims where I was certain the fish would be visiting, and finally, the 1st and 2nd choice swims that I fancied for the months ahead.  Why two swims, well despite not seeing an angler on the bank last winter, I knew it would just be my luck to concentrate on one swim and turn up one day to find someone in it.  Hence I had a 2nd.

In order to give myself the best chance of fish seeking the bait out, I decided to go for a mixture of 15mm, 18mm and 22mm RS&G baits for my campaign.  Fortunately the silver fish in the lake I fish have a taste for sweet and fruity flavours so RS&G wouldn’t be on their menu.  By using different sized baits which react differently in the water, a feeding carp would have to grub around to find them all.  This would only work in my benefit to help me establish the bait.

I visited the lake every day throughout the second half of October, alternating between the swims that I was baiting up.  Each week I was baiting about 5kgs of RS&G.  I started to catch towards the middle of November, with the first fish being mid twenty stock fish.  As the nights drew longer and colder I continued with 5kgs a week.  Because there were no other anglers fishing, my 5kgs wouldn’t last too long once they we found.  By early December I was catching fish on a regular basis one or two a week.  In deepest darkest January in minus 7 temperatures I even managed to get 4 in one night, two twenties and two upper doubles.  I continued to bait up with 5kgs of bait throughout the winter months, a few handfuls here and there and concentrating my fishing on a swim on the northerly railway bank.  Now I’m not a tackle tart but I do like to be clean and dry when I’m fishing.  At the end of each session I would go home and wash the mud off the brolly, groundsheet and pretty much everything else.  As the winter got wetter and wetter this swim became un-fishable.