The Method - by Wayne Boon

How to “Fish The Method”

Basically, what you’re trying to do when “fishing the Method” is to create a very competitive feeding situation for the Carp in your swim. You’ll often hear the term “pre-occupation” this is just one in the same thing really. The Carp are so busy competing with each other for the morsels of food you’re presenting that they tend to make mistakes and get themselves hooked… if that is, your end rig is doing its job.

So that begs the question, how the heck do we get them into this frenzied state and force them to make an error?

Obviously first you have to be fishing in a swim/peg that is likely to contain underwater features that Carp favor frequenting and feeding on. There is no use in fishing even the best techniques in an area where the Carp don’t feed. But that is a whole other can of worms.

Next we need a food item that will keep them busy for a while, this is where the method mix comes in…
“Fishing The Method” involves molding a paste or pack bait around a purpose built cage on your hook length.

Tip: A fairly sturdy rod is needed to cast a fully loaded Method Cage out, it could weigh around 5 or 6 oz! A 2.75lb test curve rod is recommended as a minimum.

Lets talk about the basic mix that I use:
To start with soak a wild birdseed food in Salty water for at least 24 hours, 36 hours is preferred so plan ahead. You can find the birdseed in most large grocery stores in the pet-food section.

Tip: Try not to use water from your Kitchen faucet, as it’s more than likely going to be chlorinated and/or have fluoride in it. Use rain or lake water… As it doesn’t often rain here in Southern California between April and late October I often cart a few buckets of lake water home to top off my water collection bins if I know a session is on the cards soon.

Birdseed Food Dry.

Tip: Use two tablespoons of salt per 5 gallon bucket of water, some folks I know use even more but I encourage you to experiment yourself to find a level you’re comfortable with.

Note: Please don’t skimp on the time here because you need the seed to be thoroughly soaked and expanded before presenting it to the fish, otherwise you are feeding the fish with seeds that may seriously harm them!!! When dry seeds of any kind are soaked (re-hydrated) they expand in size by somewhere around 20+% of their original dry size. You don’t want any fish with a gut full of semi soaked seeds for obvious reasons. If you also use hemp or any of the larger particles in your mix such as Maize, Garbanzo or any other kind of Beans, please make sure they have also been boiled at a vigorous boil for at least 30 minutes in addition to the 24-36 hour soak. If in any doubt do both the soak and boil to make sure of the fish’s safety.

Birdseed Food after a 36 hour soak.

I like to add flavor to the water that I soak the seeds in, two of my favorites are Molasses and Vanilla extract but use whatever you’re already comfortable with…
Here are some examples of flavor and attractants that are presently in my bait fridge.

Some of the Flavors & Attractants in the fridge at the moment.

To bind the mix and hold it onto the cage I use bread crumbs, again obtainable from the grocery store or make your own by drying out sliced bread in the sun or in the oven on a low heat and then crunching into crumbs.

Place the amount of soaked seed you need into a bowl with a little of the water they were soaking in and then start adding the bread crumb.

Add the Bread Crumbs and mix.

At this stage you can add any other ingredients you want to try such as sweetcorn, fishmeal, csl/pakka/hemp pellets, betaine, cold pressed hemp oil etc. and it’s a big “etc…”
But I advise to keep it simple at first.
Keep adding the bread crumb slowly while you’re mixing, if you need more water add very carefully a few drops at a time while mixing. You want to end up with a consistency that will mold well around the cage and stay together during your cast but not take any more than about 15/20 minutes to totally breakdown and fall off your cage once its hit the bottom of the lake.

Tip: Keep some of the soaked seed back for use later in the session…

Finished Method Mix.

Now we’ve got the mix together lets look at the business end of the rig and how to present your hook bait.

Method Rig Components.

Tip: Method cages come in various designs and sizes from 1oz up to 3oz are common, the one shown above is the ACS version and is fairly typical in design. Personally, I like the heaviest version available because I like the feeder cage to act as a bolt rig lead where the Weight of the feeder actually sets the hook as the Carp it “bolts off” after picking up the bait.

Choose your hook (size 6’s & 4’s work for me) and tie the hook length material you’ve chosen using the knotless knot with a hair. Alternatively, if you’re not a “hair fan,” no problem, just tie the hook with your usual knot and side hook the bait making sure the point of the hook is showing.
Tie the other end of the hook length to a size 8 swivel.

Tied Hook length.

Tip: As shown below, thread an 18 to 24” length of Rig Tubing onto the end of your mainline to stop the line getting behind the Carp’s scales and pulling them off during the fight. This also gives the line a lot of added abrasion resistance when fishing rocky or snaggy areas.

Next, take the method cage and thread it onto your mainline as shown pushing the rig tubing into the rubber tail at the top of the Method cage, dab with a spot of super glue to secure and then attach the mainline to your hook length via the swivel.

Tubing & Cage on Mainline.

Now gently push the swivel home into the soft rubber grommet at the base of the cage. All Fox, Korda and ACS method cages have the soft rubber grommets in their base for this purpose.
Tip: Regardless of how you rig up the method cage make sure that it is semi-fixed to your mainline, that is, if you break off and the fish is swimming around with the hook in it’s mouth and method cage trailing behind it make sure that the cage can pull free of the broken line when it gets snagged. This will ensure that the fish doesn’t get tethered to the snag and dies a slow hungry death.

Pack the mix quite tightly around your Method cage as shown below and bait the hair with the bait of your choice and cast out to your chosen feature.

Method Ball.

Tip: Load one side of the cage up heavier than the other and pin the hook in the mix on the lighter side, this ensures two things. Firstly that your rig doesn’t tangle during the cast and secondly that the hookbait always ends up on top of the cage facing the surface of the water and the fish when it lands on the bottom of the lake.

I’ll typically catapult or spoon up to 10 balls of the method mix out to my feature to get things started and recast my hook bait with a reloaded method cage every 10/20 minutes for the first hour or until I have the fish in front of me.

Mix-Balls & Catapult.

After I start getting bites and fish in the net and feel the Carp are feeding and “elbowing” each other out of the way to get at my bait I reduce the method mix going in and occasionally spod/spoon/catapult some of the birdseed only I kept back earlier out into the swim to keep the Carp busy routing around in my swim for the small particles and seed. The trick at this stage is to just put enough food in to keep them competitively looking for food and in front of you but not to fill them up.
Until you get used to fishing this way I suggest literally sitting on your hands while waiting for a “screaming run” because you tend to get a lot of knock, nudges and beeps when the fish are bumping the method mix off the cage. Wait for the scream of the alarm before you are tempted to lift your rod in to the fish, although technically the weight of the method cage acts as a bolt rig and hooks the fish for you as the fish “bolts” in a panick.