From my experience nuts can be highly effective baits for carp but they can also harm the fish if used incorrectly!
Unlike other carp baits, nuts seem to keep their appeal even after lots of fish have been caught on them. The reason why remains a bit of a mystery. I suppose they find them rather moreish, just like we do! From my experience i have found that i have more productive days in the warmer months using nuts, apposed to fishing in the winter and cold weather. Some people, however, may have caught fish on nuts and particles in the winter, but i just find it more effective when the suns out :)
Nut safety rules!
Misused, nuts can cause fish to lose condition and even die! Too many anglers offering to many lose offerings (baiting up) of nuts can cause carp to become preoccupied with them to the exclusion of other food sources, resulting in the fish suffering vitamin deficiency. Uncooked (raw) or only partially cooked nuts, meanwhile, can swell inside a fishes gut, this can be fatal. These problems have led to nuts being banned on some fisheries. Where nuts are still allowed, no harm at all can come to the fish provided you don't use them by the bucket load and ONLY use fully cooked ones.
Buying and cooking nuts.
The most common and widely used nuts in fishing are tiger nuts. These have become a widely available bait with an impressive history of success, especially with specimen carp anglers! They can be brought ready prepared (cooked) now which saves you a lot of time and effort. Next- and, i believe are very over looked and as good as tiger nuts- are peanuts, especially the jumbo ones! These can be brought online, in pet stores and supermarkets. It should go without saying that it's the unroasted, unsalted ones you want. Less commonly used are hazelnuts, almonds and brazils. These can also be brought online or at your local supermarket but are a bit pricey for the amount you get. Anglers tend to use these mainly to overcome peanut and tiger nut bans, but if the venue has a ban on these you can bet your ass that they don't allow any nuts! You should ask the bailiff about nut bans before using them on the venue.
If preparing raw nuts yourself you should soak the nuts in a large saucepan for no less than 24 hours, then bring them to the boil and simmer for 20 mins when preparing peanuts and hazelnuts, 30 mins when preparing tiger nuts, almonds and brazils. Incidentally, don't expect tiger nuts to soften as much as the others- they remain quite hard however long you cook them.
Fishing with nuts.
The best way to present a nut hook bait is by a hair rig (see image), they must be drilled with a bait drill so the hair can be pulled through. Most cooked hazelnuts have almost neutral density, which makes them ideal for fishing over silt or weed. Some cooked hazelnuts actually float ; with the addition of a small piece of rig foam these can be fished pop-up style or even as a surface bait! Some anglers think carp have to be weaned on to nuts by regular or in some cases excessive prebaiting. In fact, carp take nuts enthusiastically from the outset. I usually catapult two or three pouches around each hook bait at the start of a session, then top up with a further couple of pouches after each run. I forgot to mention almonds make it impossible to catapult out, so you can either fish the margins with them or add them to a ground bait or spod mix to get them out there! I hope this information was helpful and truly hope you get on the nuts and reap the rewards! Happy catching!!
Please feel free to leave comments, as i like hearing feed back on my posts to see if they are helping people :)
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