How to use boilies for carp – fishing with bottom baits

A lot of the modern day rigs that have become very popular with carp anglers tend to focus on the use of pop-ups or wafters, but standard bottom bait boilies straight out of the bag can be very effective and are often over-looked.

Whilst it is true that these buoyant, and often more visible baits, can be very good and some anglers swear by them all year round, there are times of the year when a standard bottom bait can really work well, and especially so if it matches not only the appearance of your free offerings, but also the buoyancy as well.

This has most certainly been the case during some of the Korda Underwater filming, and has shown just how wary the carp can be on busy venues where they are constantly targeted, and often with very similar approaches.

What is a carp boilie bottom bait

Normally this refers to a standard boilie bottom bait, which is often used straight out of the packet, whether a freezer bait or ready-made, or it can be one of those types of baits which you have added to some sort of liquid or powdered attractor to make it stand out more to the fish, whilst still looking identical to your freebies.

Although it would also include any boilie that actually sits on the lakebed – unlike a pop-up or wafter which sits up off of the bottom and has its buoyancy counterbalanced by either rig putty or the weight of the hook, in the case of wafters – and you can have balanced bottom baits.

These balanced bottom baits will appear to be exactly the same as your freebies – unless you’re deliberately trying to add an extra fleck of colour to them – and will sit on the lakebed, but can be made to be more buoyant by drilling them out and adding some cork, or similar.

But they will still sink of their own accord even when not attached to a rig, albeit more slowly than your freebies will – unlike a wafter which will float. The idea being that when a carp sucks in the bait it is lighter than it expects, when compared to other boilies around it, and therefore goes into the mouth more easily and can even cause the carp to bolt in shock, resulting in it hooking itself.

Whilst balanced bottom baits are a popular choice when fishing boilies hard on the deck, plenty of fish also get caught on a standard, un-doctored boilie as well. 

Why use carp baits on the bottom

At this point you might be wondering what the advantages are with bottom baits, as opposed to hook baits with more buoyancy.

One of the big advantages is that at certain times of the year these ‘match the hatch’ boilies, as Korda boss Danny Fairbrass regularly refers to them as, can be viewed by the carp as being less dangerous.

This is especially the case on busier waters where the fish have seen and been caught on brightly coloured pop-ups and wafters all through the spring and early summer. That isn’t to say that these won’t work throughout the year, and anglers such as Tom Dove swear by yellow pop-ups for most of their fishing, but there are definitely situations where the fish won’t take them as readily, and especially so when fishing over beds of less visual baits, where they really stand out as being different – sometimes that is a good thing, in other situations, less so and the carp can actively avoid them.

That doesn’t even mean that your boilies have to be dark and dull coloured, just that you are fishing something as a hook bait which visually looks exactly the same as your free offerings – you’ll have seen in some of the Korda videos that Darrell Peck has done very well using Mainline Essential Cell, which is a fairly bright yellow colour. It is just that your hook bait isn’t standing out as being different or dangerous.

The other major factor when it comes to using bottom bait is that it will behave in the same way as your freebies – allowing of course for the fact that it is attached to a rig – and that when a carp tries to suck it in, or even wafts its fins around near it, the bait will move in the same way as all the other boilies.

As we saw on the Underwater films at Norton Disney, carp can definitely be spooked by a hookbait that has too much movement and buoyancy, and wobbles around as they approach it – something which Danny Fairbrass played around with before settling on the final version of his Norton Nailer rig, which although had a little buoyancy added to the hookbait to negate the weight of the rig to some extent, still sat hard on the bottom and didn’t easily move unless a carp actually tried to take it into its mouth.  

Some anglers such as Korda Koach Rob Burgess go even further, and during the summer months will fish straight bottom baits, with no added buoyancy to them at all, and are very successful with them.

Type of lakebed for boilie fishing

Obviously you do have to consider the type of lakebed that you are fishing over and whether it is suitable to present a bait hard on the bottom.

Whilst standard bottom baits will work well over a clean lakebed, such as gravel, clay, sand or silt, they will be less effective where there is any amount of debris such as weed, and where you can’t be certain that you are getting a fairly clean drop.

If your rig and hook bait end up buried in weed then the chances of a carp actually being able to suck it in, and the rig working effectively, even if it can still find the bait, will be dramatically reduced in some situations – although less so where there is only a light covering of silkweed, or the odd piece of weed.

So you will need to consider if a bottom bait is appropriate for the spot that you are intending to fish, based on how it feels when you pull a lead across it – a hard drop doesn’t mean it is clear as your lead can easily fall between stems of Canadian pondweed or similar, and give you a false impression. If it doesn’t feel clear enough, then that is the time to consider using a pop-up or wafer bait and presentation instead of a bottom bait.

Best rigs for carp fishing boilies on the bottom

When it comes to rigs for fishing bottom baits, a lot comes down to personal choice and what you have confidence in, as there are quite a few different options.

Some anglers will still swear by a long hair and long hook link for this type of fishing, and attached in a fairly simple way, often with just a knotless knot – as was standard practiced for carp fishing years ago, but is still effective for some.

Many though prefer to have a shorter hair, although still with a decent amount of separation between the hook bend and the bait, although the position that hair exits from the hook is another area where opinions vary greatly.

Popular presentations include what has become known as a flipper rig, although has been around for many years before acquiring that name, and involves the use of a piece of silicone tubing on the hook to cause the hair to exit the bend in your desired position – often more towards the hook point side of it to create an aggressive set up, that as the name suggests, makes the hook quickly flip over in the mouth of the carp once the hook link tightens.

You also have rigs where the hair is attached to the hook opposite the barb, such as the DF rig – which is available in the Korda ready tied rigs range – and features a sliding ring, blowback style, and is tied on N-Trap coated braid.

Rob Burgess is also a fan of this type of set-up, although he uses a braided hair that is whipped on and exits opposite the barb, in conjunction with an IQ2 fluorocarbon hook link and a Longshank X hook, to give a very aggressive rig which flips over very quickly and with minimal tightening of the hook link.

You also have rigs such as the German rig – again, once that has been around for decades before it acquired this name – and involves a micro swivel, bait screw, or similar, that is free to slide around the hook from the eye to wherever you position a hook bead. Some favour having this hook bead right round the bend towards the point. Opinion is also divided over whether to fish this rig with a bait that is tight to the micro swivel/bait screw, or is attached to those via a longer hair.

There are of course other set-ups as well that can be used with bottom baits, and most anglers will tend to stick with whatever they find works best for them and what they end up having confidence in through catching carp on it.

Pimping up your bottom baits and making them more durable for big carp fishing

Standard bottom baits straight out of the same bag as your freebies, whether they be freezer or shelf-life baits, can be very effective and will exactly much your loose feed.

There may be times though where you want to fish a hook bait that looks exactly the same and has the same buoyancy as your freebies, but has been given an extra boost by adding attraction to it in the form of some sort of bait soak.

Pretty much any liquid can be used for this, including oils, appetite stimulators and the like, or flavoured ones such as the Korda Goo range, all of which your hook baits can be soaked in – just bear in mind that they might not keep for long out of the freezer, and you may need to freeze them after every session, which isn’t a bad thing as repeated freezing and thawing actually helps them to suck in more of whatever liquid they are in.

It also may well be the case that you need to make your hook baits a bit more durable than those that come out of the bag, especially if using a softer boilie and intending to leave your rigs out for 24 hours, or where there are small fish to contend with.

Air drying a couple of handfuls of your boilies can achieve that, as it makes them harder and a lot more durable and longer lasting – it also means that freezer baits won’t go off anywhere near as quickly.

Or if there is a real issue with nuisance species, including things such as crayfish, you can surround your hookbait with some of the Korda Superwrap, to help prevent it from being whittled down or removed from your rig altogether.