Speaking on Sight Feeding in Carp

From Carp.net Mar 22-2001 PM

Hello list,

I'm going to come forward with my opinion and risk stirring up a large number of anglers that believe that sight feeding in carp is so important. You hear them talk about carp seeing the bait, or spotting the line. They are fussy about the color of the bait. They believe the carp SAW the pop and determined that it was more worthy than the rest of the bait sitting on the bottom. They cannot believe the carp would suck in those hooks them other guys use, after all cant the carp see them in plain sight.

The sight factor has led to the general development of the bolt rig, smaller presentations and rigging which is nearly invisible.Even the leads are painted like stones and anglers select green or brown to match the local waters. (I do it too.) Even on the clearest of waters it doesn't much matter.

The fish brain is just not a thinking brain. Fish vision is primitive, is laterally oriented in the carp, and probably not capable of fine focusing accommodation. Because the fish cannot constrict the pupil as other animals do, carp spend their existence in low light conditions, especially big carp.

In most waters the clarity to distinguish fine detail is not possible (even if the fish was capable of focusing fine detail) even in sunlight and shallow water. MOST waters are too turbid or algae stained. An ideal depth to catch big carp are in 12-20 feet and deeper. At that depth, forget about light penetration anyway. Ask the night fisherman if he feels handicapped because the fish cant see the bait. Also river fisherman almost never have clear water. And where most carp are feeding aggressively, the bottom will be stirred up as a result of their rooting. Carp feed primarily by ROOTING in the substrate.

The fact is the carp discovers and accepts the bait using the other sensory systems that we have talked about before. Then it uses its vacuum feeding to obtain the forage to the back of it's throat and gullet. It will scrape and erode a bait it determines to be food if the item is too large to fit in the mouth, such as pack baits, mielie bom, or the carcasses of dead fish softened by decomposition. It will not sample a small piece that falls off of it like a well mannered woman, but will force the largest amount of bait into it's mouth, with the intention of consuming all the bait before competitors which may be larger, can move in. Call it the 'all or none' rule.

If it saw hooks at any point it is moot, whatever is among the bait will be taken in to the mouth if possible including twigs, mud and whatever lies among the bait. A bare hook is likely to work as any other but hooks with a buoyant item providing surface area for the powerful vacuum the fish will generate will easily end up in the mouth early. A piece of hair rigged maize with a piece of buoyant foam , beads on the hook, or perhaps the best known the 'pop'. The pop adding a near weightlessness to the hook ensures the hook will repeatedly end up in the mouth even if blown out repeatedly.

Pack bait and mielie bom are ideal bait presentations as the bait falls into the bottom, even when deep silt is present. Its massively large bait signal is easy to detect, compared to a boilie or a few kernels of maize which they are capable of finding. The carp then finds all baits in the process of rooting about an area that presents with the right signal.

What about HNV. A boiled in bait puts out a signal as big as a piss ant, compared to the massive food signal of mielie or pack baits. Hungry fish want the volume and find it faster. Do they use sight, yes if conditions are clear and well lit, but too many are building images in their minds that carp are examining and rejecting baits by sight and are surprised when they develop all their tackle and presentation around this idea, and find that these notions have been wrong all along. Or letting them down easy, not as important as previously thought.

Perhaps the paylake method is the high tech method. It is sound science to abandon sight feeding presentations when the carp cant see, or don't know what they are looking at. And the paylake rig or feeder rig is a good one to use on pressured fish as the rig is hidden in the bait. And the advise on hooks, make sure they are sharp.

Al Kowaleski