Korda Summer Day Ticket Carp Fishing Masterclass - Darrell Peck

With the St.Johns Lake at Linear being heavily fished especially in the summer, Darrell has elected to pick a peg based on recent form in the shape of a classic end peg with a no fishing bank to the right, so there will be plenty of fish traffic in the swim.

However, rather than whip the surface of the water to cappacino casting spods and markers, he thinks it better to cast all three rods on solid bags, as these have enough attraction to generate a bite. These have been dotted across the width of the bay, where he has seen fish move or fishy looking areas. 

To save even more time, the PVA bags have been made at home and only need to be tied to the mainline. These solid bags comprise mainly of the Mainline PVA & Spod Pellets with some crushed down pellet which is used to not only add a bit more attraction but also helps to protect the hookpoint. The chosen hookbait is a single piece of slow sinking pink maize. 

The decision to hold off spombing is well justified as after a few more fish showing, the right hand rod rips off quickly with a lovely mirror carp soon in the net. By doing this, you can get your rods in the water with minimal distrubance and gives you the opportunity of catching fish while continuing setting up, such as the case here.

Not only that, during this time you can also survey the water for any fish activity giving you an idea where to plumb and target later on in the session and now with a fish in the net, Darrell decides its a good time to have a flick about with a lead to try and find some fish holding spots for later in the session. After casting around, he finds a gravelly clean spot at 14 wraps, which he has earmarked for later in the session. 

For his summer day ticket carp fishing, Darrell chooses to use the Korda Kaizen Greens in a 12ft 3.5lb test curve, as he needs a rod that will allow him to cast solid bags in distances in excess of 20+ wraps, so the rods needs plenty of back bone. However, the action of the Korda Kaizen Greens ensures that hook pulls and lost fish are kept to a minimum. These are matched to the Daiwa Basia QDX Big Pit Reels.

Line choice is also incredibly important as you need a strong line thats capable of casting something that weighs more than 4oz so Darrell likes to use the Korda Longchuck Monofilament fishing line in 20lb. This carp line is incredibly strong, so gives you full confidence when casting large solid bags, but will not compromise your casting as despite being a mono fishing line, this line has low stretch so allows you to transmit the full power of your cast to the rod, compressing the blank and giving you them extra few metres needed. 

After an unproductive first night with the only interruption being a large catfish, Darrell now elects its time to start baiting up on the clean gravelly spot at 14 wraps. The choice of bait for this is the Mainline Cell Shelflife in 10mms coated in smart liquid, but rather than Spomb, Darrell has doned a boilie caddy and gone to the far margin to bait up. 

By catapulting these baits in rather than spombing gives you a larger chance of triggering a bigger feeding reponse from the carp, as a catapult spreads the bait, compared to a Spomb, which dumps it in a close area. This keeps the fish moving when they feed, making them easier to hook. After baiting up, Darrell likes to change his hookbait to a match the hatch bait, so it mimics the bait that the fish are feeding on and in this instance his choice is a Mainline 12mm Cell Wafter. 

An important part of Darrell's summer day ticket carp fishing is being able to accurately fish along far bank margins, especially those with over hanging trees. To do this, Darrell uses a leading rod set up of a Korda Kaizen Green 12ft Spod Rod, with the reel loaded with Korda Marker Braid finishing with a short length of 30lb Korda Arma Kord and a 4oz Korda Tournament Lead. 

The heavy lead is incredibly important, as it will fully extend the braid so you know that the lead will land at the maximum possible distance. To get as close as possible to the far margin without casting in the trees, Darrell will cast around 4/5 of the way across before clipping up and edging closer at around 3ft every cast until he is happy, that he is fishing as close as possible to the far bank margins. 

When transferring the clip to your fishing rods, Darrell points out the importance of giving yourself a bit of leeway as even low stretch mono has a bit of stretch. Rig wise, for this style of fishing, he will change to the combi multi rig as it allows him to cast low and hard, without the risk of tangling the carp rig. 

The carp have responded well to the baiting up, with the rods starting to rip off on a regular basis, including a few multiple takes which have caused a few interesting moments! Summer fishing has the potential to be hectic, so Darrell likes to carry multiple nets as this can really help. Also by choosing a net with a spike at the end of the handle, allows you to quickly retain any fish and get your rods back out without having to worry about your prized catching imitating a salmon and jumping out. 

Another issue with multiple takes especially in the summer is the increased likelihood of getting weeded up with fish. Darrell has a great trick to help him land more fish that have weeded him up and this involves increasing the bend in the rod and keeping the rod low to the water. If the fish does not move out at this point, then after a minute he will take a lot of the tension out of the rod, but still leaving enough tension to keep the hook in place. This slacking off in the rod causes the weed to expand and gives the fish a chance to swim out of the weed allowing you to continue playing the fish as normal. 

An important element of Darrell's summer day ticket carp fishing involves fishing match the match hookbaits, because although bright hookbaits such as the deadly pink hookbait and almond goo combo are devastating in spring. In summer, the fish are wary of these baits, as they have been hammered on these bright hookbaits, so are more likely to feed confidently on what is being fed. 

Moving on to the Holdens Lake at Norton Disney, a very deep lake with a shallow point. As there is a big difference in depth, a leading rod is required, and Darrell soon finds a lovely flat area towards the bottom of the marginal slope, that is perfect for baiting up as the bait will not roll down the shelf. This has been baited with the new Mainline Isofish with a mix comprising 2 parts 10mm, 1 part 15mm and 1 part crumb with some of the matching Mainline Smart Liquid added to soften the mix. Again, Darrell has chosen to use his favourite combi multi rig but with a matching Mainline Isofish Wafter this time. 

After a slow first night, the weather has now changed with some proper big carp weather in the form of heavy rain and this has spurred some fish into feeding on the baited area. Although the first take results in the hook pulling during the fight, another take soon after leads to a bigger fish hitting the landing net. 

By fishing 3 rods tight over the baited spot, the hectic action soon resumes with the fish feeding incredibly confidently on the Mainline Isofish, highlighting the importance of fishing hookbaits that match your feed, as they pick it up with far less suspicion then bright hookbaits at this time of year. Furthermore, by fishing the combi multi rig with its anti tangle properties and a sharpened Korda Kamakura Wide Gape B Hook, you can full confidence that any fish that picks your hookbait will be nailed in the bottom lip! 

By fishing in 24 hour cycles and resting the baited spot during the night, the action has continued throughout the session, with another double take to finish off with. One being a lovely super rare common and the other an epic 27lb linear which is the biggest of the session. Perfectly rounding off the two sessions and highlighting the effectiveness of Darrell's tactics on two very different waters. 

If you are to take anything from this Korda Masterclass with Darrell, is that carp are heavily spawned out at this time of year and very much up for some feed. So if you can get your rigs in the right depth of water with a good quality food source boilie and keep it going in, topping up little and often, you can have some mega sessions, even on heavily pressured Day Ticket waters.