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The carp in this video averaged 5-6lb each, Callum was catching 6 fish every 5 minutes at Todber Manor whilst practising for a Fish O qualifier.

If you want to catch weights like this, then here are 7 top tips to help you.

1  Elastic Choice

This is very important, if the elastic is too light it will take too long to land the fish. In the video Callum used 2.8mm diameter, through a short top kit. The length of the elastic has a bearing on the softness of the elastic eg a long length of no 12 elastic is softer than a shorter length of no 12 elastic. The elastic needs to match the average size of fish you are catching. When you are after weights like this you need to keep the use of a side puller to an absolute minimum.

2  Hook size

This needs to be balanced to the elastic. If you use a small hook with a strong elastic you will keep pulling out of fish. In the video Callum used a strong size 12 to match up with his 2.8mm elastic.

3  Feeding

This is the most important part of your day, get this wrong and nothing else matters. In the video, Callum was feeding maggots constantly, especially when playing fish.Dont go mad or you will just foul hook the fish and waste a lot of time. Its also very expensive to feed lots of maggots. At the start of the session he fed quite heavy as there were plenty of small roach eating his bait, but when the carp showed up they bullied the small fish out of the way.

4  Keep it Simple

This is great advice for catching big weight. You dont want lots of different baits on your side tray. You dont want complicated rigs and shotting patterns, the simpler the better.

5  Strong Tackle

Rigs need to be strong and robust so that they dont let you down during your session, carp rarely break you on a straight run. Carp usually break your line after the line has got damaged in your landing net whilst unhooking a fish. To avoid this happening Callum used 0.25mm rig line and 0.22 hook length. Even with such strong tackle its rare not to have to replace the hook length every now and then. Floats need to be strong and reliable. Its no good if the float explodes every time you loose a fish and the float comes flying back and hits the pole.

6  Playing the Fish

Despite what you might hear, catching big weights is not a question of speed. Use the right gear, play the fish with the tip low and only lift the tip when the fish is ready to be netted. If you play the fish with the tip in the air the fish will fight harder, thrash about on the surface and you will loose too many.

7  Preparation

As with all types of match fishing, preparation is very important. Make sure you have plenty of rigs and hooklengths tied up. Set up duplicate rigs on your top kits. If you dont have lots of spare top kits for the duplicate rigs then plumb up a rig, make sure its shotted correctly and cut down the line to the correct length, then put the rig back on a winder and keep on you side tray. If you have a disaster you can be back fishing in seconds. Fail to prepare and your preparing to fail.

Keep Baggin

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3 weeks on - Callum broke the 5 hour match record at Todber with a weight of 869lb!