29.03.17

Exploring a new water results in plenty of action for Stefan!

Anglers from all over the world put the Guru and Korda product ranges to good use on their local waters, and South Africa is certainly no exception!

Young Stefan Hennop is a big fan of the brands - he was lucky enough to get a chance to meet his angling hero, Ali Hamidi, during a recent Monster Carp shoot in the country – and has been enjoying some great sport, stalking carp at a small lake close to his home in Pretoria.

He explained: “The water is very small and is mainly fished by visitors to the nearby pub, and I wasn’t really sure what was in there. The owner told me that the lake is about 15 years old and holds carp to around 22lb.

“So I decided to see for myself what other species were in there and what sort of average size the carp were. I was a bit disappointed to find that tilapia were very dominant, along with the odd barbel (this is the local name for a species of catfish that often takes a liking to baits intended for carp!), but I did also spot some carp feeding in the margins and this would be my starting point.

“I made use of a particle mix consisting of tiger nuts, maple peas, maize and hemp, and fed a spot in the margin where I thought I had the best chance of catching.

“Because I was fishing so close in, my tackle consisted of a 5ft 6in. rod with a Delkim alarm and Stow indicator for bite indication. I decided to use a simple blow-back rig which I tied using a size 10 hook to 20lb N-Trap Soft and I opted for a piece of Fake Food slow sinking I.B. maize topped with a piece of pop-up corn.

“I carefully placed the rig on my baited spot, as close to the reeds as possible, and not long afterwards my alarm sounded and then it turned into a full-blown take. A few minutes later I landed a decent sized koi, which was a good start.

“My plan was to keep feeding the spots which I’d identified as potentially holding the larger carp, and doing so over a number of days, as I think that the fish weren’t used to seeing the particle mix. I would then target those areas more aggressively with two rods, and it worked as I’ve returned and caught some more carp.”

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