ASK THE EXPERTS
Dear Panel
Do you have any tips on how to bait up without the dreaded tufties and other birds getting at it? Is there any truth about carp scaring them off when they are in the area?
Mr A. Evans,
Devon
Ahh, the old ‘chicken problem’ as we call it here in sunny Norfolk! Basically, there are a couple of ways that you can bait up to avoid the tufties and other like-minded ‘chickens’. Firstly, you can spod out the boilies to the spot you are fishing. I would advise that when you do this you use a spod, as shown in the picture, where the holes are covered, or the sleeve is inserted, so that you can put some water into the spod as this allows the baits to fall out easier after you have cast out. The other advantage of this is that as the spod hits the water it tends to sink down further into the lake and is well and truly upright well before the buoyant part of the spod hits the surface, hence releasing the baits more quickly.
Put some water in your spod
Moulding boilies into large groundbait balls can also work, although as the ball tends to hit the water there is more time for the birds to get at the baits – that is, of course, if the birds haven’t spooked off because of the large balls bombarding them! Although I would say this is only really a short-range tactic, the final method is quite simply to bait up in the last hour of light; you will often find that as dusk settles in, so do the birds, and quite often they just leave it alone.
Better for short-range work
With regards to the birds being spooked off by the carp, I have seen this happen on a fairly regular basis, but as in all carp fishing ‘rules’ there is always one to break it, and on Conningbrook I have also seen coots (usually when they are on the nest) having a go at the carp cruising just below the surface – unbelievable! So generally yes, the carp can move in on the birds but I would concentrate on getting in the bait in the first place.
Spodded boilies led to the downfall of this 57.08 mirror
Hope this helps, and be lucky.
Spug
