Fishing Hallcroft’s Croft Pool

Fishing for match sized carp can be, as most anglers know, a complicated business at times. With so many methods, baits and tactics to choose from, we can be left bewildered as to the most effective way to catch what is in front of us. One angler who understands match carping better than most is Daiwa Trentmen star Kevin Baxter, who agreed to talk us through some of his tricks on the Croft Pool at Retford’s Hallcroft fishery.

“I think a lot of time, the problem people have when coming on a match at venues such as this, is that they overcomplicate things. With that much information available to anglers these days from such a wider range of sources, it can be difficult to decide just what the best thing to do is in any given situation.” Kev said.

Simple

“Today, I am going to fish a couple of relatively simple methods, in the hope of proving that you don’t need to bring loads of different baits and methods to do well on the modern commercial circuit.”

All Kev had on his bait tray was Hallcroft’s own feed pellets, and a pint of mixed maggots. “I think its best, where possible to fish on the hook what you are feeding when pellet fishing, and fortunately Hallcroft’s feed pellets can also be made into rather nice hookers.” Kev told me.

“I always like to buy plenty of bags of venue pellets, so that I have some at home to soak before going on a session. All I have done with these, is put them in water overnight, and they have swelled up just right to use on the hook.” He said. A feel of the pellet revealed a firm, but slightly crumbly consistency. “I don’t mind a pellet that breaks down easily, as it is often easier to connect with fish on the strike when they are like this” he added.

Kev decided to begin his session on the waggler, while feeding a few pellets on his short pole line. He planned to throw his waggler 20 metres in front of him, and fish his pellets at six metres, at around 2 O’clock, to avoid having to play fish back over his pellet line.

Rigs

His rigs, like the rest of Kev’s approach, were very simple, but effective. On his pellet line he opted for 0.14 Daiwa Matchwinner line to a size 16 Kamasan B911 hook. His choice of float was a 4X16 Preston Chianti, but instead of relying on the floats fragile eye to take the pressure while playing fish, he placed a large float rubber around the body of the float, and used this instead. “I got fed up of floats breaking when I threaded the line through the eye, so I started doing it like this, and it works a lot better” he told me.

His shotting consited of a bulk of No9 shot around 18 inches from his float, and a single No11 dropper placed midway between bulk and hook. “This means that the pellet falls through the last foot of water slowly, which I believe often intices bites off more wary fish, who like to watch it fall.” Kev advised.

Kev’s waggler set up was similarly straight forward. A 3 AAA waggler allowed him to chuck the required distance with ease, his 3lb Matchwinner reel line, providing the perfect balance between lightness for ease of casting, and strength when playing fish. To this, he attached an 0.10 hook length: “I am going to fish maggot on my waggler line, with the aim of catching everything that swims. Although 0.10 line may seem a little light, I am confident I can land a carp on it with my soft tipped, Daiwa Tournament waggler rod. The light hooklength should also help me get bites off the more finicky silver fish, including the big skimmers, which sometimes weigh as much as the carp” Kev said.

Waggler

He kick started his session by feeding both his lines, he put a couple of pouchfulls of maggots on his waggler line, and a pot of pellets on his Two O’Clock line. He then proceeded to begin his session on the waggler. “Fishing a method that catches anything that swims is often a good way of starting the session, as you can in effect, feel your way in. In a match situation, you are putting something in the net, while gauging what is happening around you, and you can build your plan of attack from there” Kev suggested.

Unfortunately, There didn’t seem to be a lot happening for anyone on the lake, and the first hour or so on the waggler was slow, with Kev just picking up the odd small silver fish and a couple of stockie carp. There weren’t even any indications on the float to suggest that the fish were up in the water. The strong crosswind wasn’t helping with presentation either, so with an hour gone, Kev decided it was time to put the waggler up the bank and go on his pole line. “There is no point flogging a dead horse, sometimes the fish just won’t have certain methods, and I think today is a good example of that” he told me.

All the time that he had been fishing the waggler, Kev had been throwing bait on his pole line, in the hope of attracting new fish into the swim, and keeping the ones that were there interested. It was no surprise therefore, that first drop in with the pellet a common of around 3lb came to the net. And so began a steady stream of fish, with Kev keeping the bait trickling in, the fish kept coming. If things went quiet with pellet on the hook, he would simply switch to double maggot, and this would often bring a bite straight away.

Back Off!

After around an hour and a half of catching in this way, the line seemed to go quiet, and Kev felt he needed to do something different to keep catching. “When you have hammered a line for quite a while, you often find that the fish back off to surrounding areas, and I feel that this is what has happened here” Kev deduced.

To prove his theory, Kev decided to feed another line at 11 O’clock, and a section closer to the bank. A couple of missed bites later, and Kev latched on to his best fish of the day, and after a brief struggle slipped the net under a mirror of around 5lb’s. “It just goes to show how fish can back off, you should never be frightened of starting a new line up at any part of the day, as all fish, especially carp, have a tendancy to spook once a few have been caught.” With that final, big fish in the net, we decided it was time to wrap up. Kev pulled out a bulging net of around 60lb, taken in just under four hours fishing.

“It just goes to show how there really is nothing complicated about match carping. It’s more about reading your peg, and eliminating methods that aren’t working than anything. Obviously, there are times when the fish won’t want to feed, and generally when this happens, it is the angler who works hardest that wins, but again its not rocket science, its just a matter of plugging away” Kev concluded.