Articles

The Ultimate F1 Fishing Guide.

Martin Stokes runs through his favourite Marukyu Products to help catch one of the most popular species of fish our commercial fisheries the F1 carp.

F1s are one of my favourite species of fish to catch throughout the year, they have now become one of the leading stockings in commercial fisheries all over the country. Due to their size and fast growth rates they have become a real winner with both the commercial fisheries owners and modern day match anglers such as myself.

In the summer, the F1 venues I fish, you need to catch 100, 200 and sometimes 300lb of them to win matches. But even in the winter they still continue to feed in the colder water when other fish slow down.

Personally my best weight of them is over 217lb, I have fished some matches and caught over 170lb of them, and come nowhere in the match.

My rig choice and bait choice changes throughout the year when targeting F1s. So here's a bit of a season to season guide, to my approach when catching them ...

Scopex, Coconutty and The One are my three personal favourites when fishing for F1's.

 

Winter .......

The hardest time of year to catch them, light rigs are a must. The way you feed your peg, is the key, with too much feed and you can completely destroy your peg. The fastest you can find the depth the F1s want to be in, the better day you will have. Once I have found this depth, fish to different areas of my peg with the same depth. This gives me the best chance of catching a good weight throughout the day. Catch one or two f1s from one area then change to another area, don't expect the fish to feed in the same area all day.

My bait choice is simple, I have a lot of success this winter on double white maggots that have been sprayed with Marukyu's Amino+ Scopex feeding Amino Maggots, when fishing deep venues I like using small balls of Groundbait to help get the bait on the bottom, Marukyu's Luxus Black Fishmeal is perfect for this, as it contains a small amount of food source but a lot of attractors which helps encourage f1s to feed.

The Favourite Winter F1 Pole Rig.

Drennan AS3 0.3g

0.11 Preston Power Line

0.10 Preston Power Line

Drennan Silverfish Pellet size 18

Spring ........

The time of year, F1s start to wake up a bit more, but feeding is still important. Up the feed a little bit, but don't chuck to much in. Fish tidy with medium sized cat pots rather than the smaller ones.

A great way of catching F1s in spring is the method feeder, dead maggots or a band 4mm/6mm Amino Pellet is a perfect hookbait. I go to White Acres at the start of April and the amount of F1s you can catch on Jenny's lake using the method feeder is unreal. The new 2mm Marukyu Sticky Pellets are great, I always tend to go for the Sweet Fishmeal flavour when catching F1s. One of the great things about the new sticky pellets is that you can soak small amounts quickly, rather than soak too much at the start of the match, and end up chucking the away after the match.

My Favourite Spring Setup.

9ft light feeder rod ( I use the 9ft CarbonActive by Preston Innovations)

6lb Guru Drag Line.

15g Small Preston method feeder (inline)

Preston Quick change bead.

PR36 (18) (micro bait band) 0.15 hooklength

Summer........

Baggin Time!!!  Big weights are on the cards this time of year. There are only two ways I like to fish in summer, margins and shallow. It's almost becomes a fishing race at this time of year. Big weights can be achieved by just fishing a top kit down the margins. Loose feeding and big pots can really work, loose feed to draw fish into your peg and cup in big pots to keep the F1s feeding on the bottom.

My favourite summer method has to be fishing shallow on the pole, I like to fish as far out as I can throw my bait. Hard pellets are my go to bait, 4mm/6mm Amino Pellets are perfect for loose feeding, I like the noise of hard pellets, I really think sound plays a massive part in shallow fishing. A bag of Marukyu's Skrill pellets are always in my bag bait this time of year, they can be a great edge for shallow fishing, because there dark colour seems to always get an extra bite or two. Feeding sloppy groundbait can also be great when shallow fishing,  Luxus Active Sweet fishmeal with a splash of liquid krill is my go to mix. You can get away with heavier rigs when the F1s really start having it, stronger lines also reduce the amount of tangles when fishing the pole.

My Favourite Summer Pole Rig

Drennan Crystal Dipper 0.2g

0.15 Preston Power Line

Size 18 Matrix Riggers

Autumn .......

Autumn is a lot like spring,  there are a couple of the things that I like to change. Pole rigs have to be a little lighter than summer, margin fishing still plays a massive part in my fishing in the early months of autumn, 4mm expander pellets flavoured with your favourite Amino+ Spray are great, but if I only had one hookbait at this time of year it would be a Red 6mm JPZ pellet. Feeding soaked 2mm Amino pellets or 4mm Jpelletz, they both seem work great along side the JPZ's.

The method feeder can be a great option, sometimes using ground bait can work better than pellets, As the weather turns cooler, F1s can sometimes shy away from  pellets, maybe because they have seen a lot of pellets over the summer months.

My Favourite Autumn Pole Rig.

JH series 3 4x12

0.13 Preston Power Line (main line)

0.11 Preston Power Line (hooklength)

Drennan Silverfish Pellet (size 18)

The F1 carp craze is going from strength to strength, so get out on the banks and catch some of these great fish! (Well, I would say that, because they are my favourite).

See you on the bank soon and tight lines

Martin Stokes