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Cray Fish in French Carp Lakes
About carp fishing France – Nuisance Species – cary fish – poisson chat
There are numerous lakes and rivers in the on mainland Europe/France that contain nuisance species of one description or another such as crayfish or poisson chat. When fishing for carp, I would place eels, chub, barbel, sturgeon, catfish and bream in the pest category, along with the more commonly known crayfish and poisson chat. They can and will create major presentation/baiting problems on waters to a point that they will almost drive you insane, wiping out a baited area in no time at all and stripping off the majority of hook baits with ease. We can put up with the odd take from bream or landing the occasional tench, but constantly winding in stripped hairs or snipped rigs will obviously minimise your chances of catching. The torment of this will over time have an effect on your morale as you constantly deliberate as to the condition of your baited rig.
Preventative measures should always be taken when fishing such venues to make it difficult for them to devour your free offerings or whittle away hook baits. I will detail a number of methods and presentations that have been successful in combating their menacing ways, although there have been a number of articles wrote I feel there is space for another detailing my findings.
The majority of anglers are limited in the amount of time they are able to spend on the bank and need to be secure in their own mind that once the bait is in position it will not be devoured by any irritating pests. As well as recommended methods to deal with them I will also give an insight into how to approach venues that contain bait robbers and explain exactly what they are and where they came from.
Crayfish in Franch lakes
Crayfish look like small lobsters, measure up to 15 cm long, and are green/brown in colour. They feed on animal and vegetable matter, usually at night, and make up a large part of the carp’s diet. At the moment there are at least four non-native species to be found in Europe. The most common of these is the American Signal Crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus), which arrived in our waterways by being deliberately or accidentally released from farms. This North American intruder is larger and more ravenous than our indigenous species and is normally the culprit behind apple cored hook baits!
They prefer environments that contain many tree stumps, snags or boulders but have adapted to many lakes in the UK. Some of the Colne valley lakes and the European lakes like Veilles Forges, Lac du Der and the Orient contain large numbers in certain areas at certain times of the year i.e. in the sub surface jungles, yet other areas are virtually devoid of them. They can give their presence away via minute rod top knocks or the odd single bleep from an indicator.
Although I have mentioned in the first paragraph that they are seen as vermin, crayfish can also be an aid to catching fish; carp love crayfish and crayfish adore fishmeal! An angler can take advantage of this by drawing them into the area using trout pellets and boilies, and, hopefully the carp will follow. When using such tactics we must take precautions to reduce the risk of them stealing our rigged offering.
Stiff rigs or one of the many coated braids reduce the chances of the rig being snipped or tangled, I tend to use the Armaled kick back however the Korda or any other version should suffice. Don’t use a soft braid or multi-strand type material!
Poisson chat – France
This species of bullhead type catfish is now common in many European lakes and rivers, I have not heard of them in many UK lakes, but I do envisage that within a few years we will encounter them! It is an omnivorous, nocturnal fish that eats just about anything it can swallow. The young fry stay in tight black, ball-like schools, in the upper layers until they reach nearly 2″ in length, at which time this hardy creature fends for itself and leaves the colony.
The smaller chat has difficulty engulfing an entire boilie, resulting in them constantly sucking at it until it is gone. It takes less time than you would think for poisson chat to demolish a bed of bait. They also give their presence away via rod top knocks and the odd bleep from the indicator. In my experience they prefer fishmeal type baits.
Beating the nuisance species
Netting boillies
The commercially available netting is a method that I have successfully used on many occasions and has been around for many years. Star baits version is amongst the best I have used and during a recent trip abroad I purchased several packs from Mondial peche (a large chain of angling shops in France.) Part of my pre-fishing preparation involves tying enough netted hook baits to last the session. I don’t want to be carrying out this time consuming operation whilst fishing, after each fish I want to get the rod back out as quickly as possible.
Method
- Cut an area of mesh or ladies tights large enough to comfortably encase the boilie.
- Twist the netting around a boilie until it is tight.
- Using a light mono of approximately 4 lb, make a couple of turns and tie of in a double knot.
- Cut the access netting to within a millimetre of the knot.
- Place a drop of super glue onto the knot and allow to dry.
- Once the glue has dried, hair rig them as you would a normal boilie but ensuring the needle is inserted through the top of the boilie and out near to the knot. This ensures the knot is nearest to the bend of the hook.
Imitation baits
Enterprise rubberised imitation baits are a very popular alternative these days and are now a valuable addition to my rig bag, and have found them extremely resistant to nuisance species. My fishing partner actually landed a crayfish whilst using a couple of the enterprise popped up golden grains as single hook baits, a couple of carp were landed and a crayfish was hooked on the underside! Although it made an attempt at devouring the plastic it did not succeed. The crayfish obviously recognised it as a food source decided to have a go but failed to remove the plastic sweet corn from the hair, it goes to show how attractive and life like these baits actually are.
Staying on the PVC theme, the enterprise night glow boilie’s come in a range of colours and flavours which include a night glow neon blue and neon green and must say that I am impressed with them, for their buoyancy, pest resistant properties and the amount of carp I have landed whilst using them. During trials I have found them as good if not better than other methods, they are extremely unlikely to be ripped of the hair. They have found their way into my armoury and I am sold on the idea, a large step forward ounce you overcome the apprehension of using a hook bait that is unlike a standard boilie.
During the last 12 months I have caught many carp with a line aligned sweet corn with a standard mainline or Enterprise luminous pop up. Alternately the line-aligned sweet corn can be fished on its own and is an extremely effective presentation and hooking arrangement. It works on a similar principle to Frank Waricks anchor rig i.e. due to the protruding sweet corn on the shank it tilts the hook not unlike a ships anchor. When the floating plastic sweet corn is used the hook tends to sit underneath the corn hiding it to a certain extent. If this rig has not been used on your water I suggest you give it a go!
Bait Armour
This is a recent addition to the nuisance species of war fighting tools; it is being marketed by angling concepts and has a multitude of uses in bait protection. It is fairly simple to use and does exactly what it states on the packet. It forms a protective coat of armour that encases the hook bait. It involves applying a tough shrink tube that wraps tightly onto the bait and protects via the shield of armour between the boilie and nuisance species. The tubing is available in 3 different sizes to suit all boilie diameters; it has been used to great success by some carp anglers in the Colne valley. It is another aid to our war against them and a material that has gained a worthy spot in my tackle box. As with netting I suggest that you prepare some armoured hook baits prior to your session:
Method
- Cut a length of the tubing slightly longer than the hard air-dried boilie that will be encased.
- Grip the tubing with forceps or pliers and slowly turn it over a naked flame until the armour has encased the boilie.
- Whilst it is still warm trim the excess tubing to give a neat finish.
- Drilling is required prior to mounting on the hair.
As the air dried hook bait absorbs water it expands slightly and makes the bait armour even tighter, giving a neat little boilie package. The same can be achieved by placing the bait armour hook baits into a dip. I have also been reliably informed that good results have been achieved via injecting liquid food sources or flavours under the PVC sheaf.
Particles
Crayfish, poison chat and eels are not keen on particles, this was demonstrated further on a recent trip to a cray infested venue; I placed a carpet of pellets, boilies, maize and tigers in a marginal spot where numbers of crayfish were observed. Within a few hours there were at least 30 crays over the bait however they were concentrating on eating the boilies and trout pellets rather than the particles. The same occurs in a fishing situation therefore the particle/boilie/pellet approach is a method that will attract crayfish but due to their preference for pellets/boilies avoid the particle to a certain extent, thus reducing their attentions to particle hook bait. Tigers are successful due to their tough texture, in addition I don’t think the pests like the taste as they are more difficult for the crayfish to contend with and too hard for the European poisson chat to suck at. Even when the boilie freebies have been taken there is a strong possibility that there will be particles still present. Sitting in a swim wondering if you have freebies out there or whether your hook baits are still intact is not conducive to an enjoyable session.
Baiting methods
Baiting methods should be well thought through and may change slightly in accordance with the pests you are attempting to avoid. I have experimented with a number of methods and recommend either the little and often approach or mass baiting.
