JAMES KING INTERVIEW FOR AMERICAN CARP SOCIETY
James King is a US Carp Angler and American Carp Society member living in the great State of Texas….over the past few months we noticed that he had been consistently posting a number of high quality fish, when other Anglers in the State were struggling due to the high barometric pressure that we had been experiencing throughout the Winter season….we also noticed that he was using the Barnaby’s Revenge bait range and thought we might reach out to him to get some insights into his approach.
We thought it might be nice to get some thoughts from the man himself to share with other American Carp Society members and so to follow are some questions that he kindly took the time to answer for us in an effort to get some unbiased ‘Anglers feedback’ on his use and results with the Barnaby’s Revenge bait range….A true gentleman and great guy, we know we will be seeing more from him over the 2020 Season.
First off James many thanks for taking the time to do this for us… It’s hard with a product that is commercially available to get an unbiased opinion from those that are close to it, as we are, having born the product over thousands of hours of research and development….we are obviously very close to it and so we thought that some insights from your personal experience would be beneficial to other Angler’s here in the USA that are looking to put those special fish on the bank!
I think we first saw a picture of your 32lb common that was caught on one of the Barnaby’s Revenge bottom baits…and yet I don’t believe at the time they were even commercially available?! Where did you first get the bait from James?
JAMES:
I was first introduced to the Barnaby’s revenge boilie in January 2019, when on a session with my friend Brid Caveney, who’d recently returned from the ACS, Mill Creek Social and he had some left over.
I’d caught some really nice fish in the months prior to that, on tigers, homemade boilie’s and some big name euro baits, but hadn’t cracked the 30lb mark for a common carp that season, so stuck the BR on and gave it a shot.
Low and behold, within a couple of hours my first 30lber (32lb’s even and biggest of 2019) rattled off!
What was it about the bait that interested you in the first place?
JAMES:
There were a handful of reasons really. Even though Brid had them stored for a couple months, you could tell they were very fresh, great consistency and a killer flavor profile. The biggest factors for me in my baits is freshness and HNV ingredients. For years I made my own boilies and caught some amazing fish on them, but eventually you have to decide if you want to spend your time in the kitchen, or on the bank - I prefer the latter.
I’ve always found that the fresher / higher quality baits have caught me better quality fish over time. I was also aware that Erick Maybury had an involvement in the bait and as I follow him on social media and have seen many of the special fish he’s caught, thought it must be a quality product.
When you are approaching a venue to fish do you plan out a baiting campaign?
Can you give us some insights as to your approach on a water and how you have best utilized the bait to get the most favorable results?
JAMES:
I definitely plan out a baiting campaign (I actually think of nothing else during the summer, gearing up for the fall through spring).
My fishing style allows me to find and create some newer swims, that are off the beat and path. I don’t need much room as I don’t use a pod and travel light. Because I live so close to three great lakes in the Austin area, it makes things much easier for me to get bait out consistently.
Generally fishing away from the more popular swims, it can definitely take a bit of time to get the fish interested in a new bait (or any bait at all), so I like to get to the lake at least every other day and introduce a handful of boilies, along with whatever else I think might work; particle, range cubes or pack-bait, for example.
For this fall into winter, once the Barnaby had been released commercially, I brought myself a few kg and started to trickle them into a couple of swims i’d been planning on fishing. The thought process was just simply to get the fish used to them and feeding confidently over a few weeks.
If you can share your approach with using the bait…any pre-bating into a swim or do you just use it as a hook bait?
JAMES:
I am predominately a pack-bait angler and I do all my pre-baiting from the bank. If i’m on a campaign with another angler, like my good friend Martin Rich for example, we might use a boat to get bait out, if fishing at distance or wanting to use a bunch of bait at a specific time, but when i’m by myself I pre bait from the bank.
I’m basically trying to create an environment for the fish to start feeding confidently once they come across the area, so when I show up to fish, I can hopefully get a couple of runs.
Brid and I started to introduce the BR boilie’s into a swim around late October 2019 or early November and I was fishing the swim a couple of days a week. The bite’s been much slower than previous years as you mentioned and to make it even harder, we’d picked a spot that isn’t known to hold many fish - but big ones have come out over the years.
I was only having one to two runs a day, but the results we’re higher quality, bigger fish. We caught a fair number of 22-26lb commons and I had a 37 grasser and a really healthy 43lb specimen, which I was really happy about (I do have a soft spot for the big White Amurs).
At the same time, Martin was baiting and fishing a different part of the lake too. He had a couple of really nice commons on the BR there and I had one fish, a bruiser of a smallmouth buffalo.
After a few weeks in the main swim and not being able to break the 30 mark for a common (i’m an unapologetic big fish fan) I decided to go back to a completely different spot i’d had success with the previous year. Similar approach, little and often and introducing handfuls of boilie’s over several days.
I had my first 30lb common of the fall season in early December from there. I was relatively confident at the time, given quite a few 20’s from different swims and the takes had been aggressive, so I was using a size 4 hook with a 16mm bottom and the BR pop-up to balance it out.
Here in Texas, and throughout the USA the fish can be fussy feeders in high pressure conditions, which we have experienced as of late coming into the Winter…We know of a number of Anglers that use the crumb or crushed boilies in a stick or method mix and use a tiger-nut with some spray when the bites are shy…have you experienced similar?
JAMES:
Around mid December the bite just seemed to slow completely down. At the time I thought it was just that the fish had moved from this swim, so I switched to a spot i’d tried (and blanked) last year, that I could tell no-one had been fishing.
After a couple of blank sessions (and hearing similar stories from other local anglers) but still seeing fish roll and having some liners and beeps on the alarm during my blanks, I had a re-think on my approach.
I scaled everything right down, dropping to a size 8 hook (with a few 10’s and even 12’s just in case) with a single flavored tiger nut - the Orange & Mango i’d had a lot of success on previously, from my buddy Neville (at Wicked Carp company.)
I generally prefer bigger hooks, because i’m more confident landing a big fish on them, but as I could see the fish were there, just not feeding much, I figured dropping down rig size might nick a run.
I still wanted to have HNV bait in the swim and as I’d been trickling in the BR boilies for a few days, I stuffed my packbait with crumbs and chunks and introduced a few more boilies.
I returned for another session the Sunday before NYE. I didn’t introduce any free bait at all when I got to the swim an hour or so before first light, just my rig with pack-bait. After about an hour I started to get little knocks on the bobbin for several minutes and couldn’t tell if it was a finicky bite from a common or buff, or just a shad or smaller bait fish.
After about 10 minutes of this, it went quiet for a few moments and I was getting ready to recast when I had a full take. The result was this really nice 30b 4oz common, probably the best looking one of the year!
I had another smaller common a few hours later then it went dead for the rest of the day.
I decided (was given permission from my wife) to do a shorter morning session on NYE and had a very similar experience.
Same rig and bait, chocked full of boilie crumb and chunky pieces and bam, right around 8:30am another lovely common, slightly bigger at 31lbs.
Have you tried a combination approach yet with the paste and spray together with the bait and if so what have you found?
JAMES:
I haven’t tried the paste or spray yet, but certainly plan to in the future.
What have you noticed in regards to fishing with the BR bait and the results that you get in comparison with other methods…any discernible difference that you can pin point?
JAMES:
For me personally, that’s a tough one to pinpoint. I’m certainly convinced that adding a higher quantity of the BR to my pack-bait and trickling in the BR boilies has had a huge impact during these tough angling conditions and am excited to see what this does when the weather is also in our favor! I do sometimes “target” the commons, especially in the spring and fish just boilie’s and plan to do so again in the next couple of months, so hopefully will be able to report back with some successes.
What do you look for in a specialized carp bait? We all know that carp can be picked up on pieces of plastic and items that have no nutritional value to them as a ‘pick up’….have you noticed a difference in quality of fish at all when using the bait and what are your thoughts on the nutritional value of a bit and if it is important to you?
JAMES:
I do sometimes use a plastic bait, be it fake corn or tiger, but only when using pack-bait. Im not confident in getting a good fish on them by themselves (it’s a personal preference for me as I know many top anglers have caught monsters on single plastics before).
If i’m going to use boilies only, they need to be fresh, with HNV and i’ll pre bait for an extended period with them before fishing.
What do you think the key difference is that you have found in the results from using the baits?
JAMES:
It takes me a while to get confident on new baits to be honest, there’s nothing worse than putting a new bait out and not getting bites, as your mind will start wondering and you can second guess the approach. The only times I try something new is when i’m catching a ton of fish, so banging out a bonus rod with a single new boilie is fine, or if i’m struggling and so trying something new won’t hurt at all.
Having done both with the BR, landing my biggest common of the year in January 2019 on one, before they were released and the fishing was great, to book-ending my year with my final 30+ when the fishing was really tough, has made me supremely confident that they catch fish, in the best and worst of times.
A final note - Buffs like them too… Martin and I did a little buff session for a few hours (at different ends of the lake), our first of 2020 just to try and get a bend in the rod with a bigger fish or two.
Martin fished 4 rods with different baits, one of them being a snowman BR rig. He had one take during the day and his 42lb smallmouth buffalo fell to the BR.
I absolutely ruined 2020 for myself… First buff run of 2020 on the single tiger / BR pack combo and ended up being honored to share the bank for a few minutes with my 4th biggest ever fish! 57lbs of American Muscle.
What prompted you to become a member of the American Carp Society?
JAMES:
I’d been following the ACS online for a year or two and really liked the whole vibe of it. From the consistent, high quality content, to the style of writing. Lots of different fish from across the nation. As I started to be in contact with more and more of the anglers associated with it, i came to see it as a really well run organization. Then getting the Bow ban on Mill creek was obviously a fantastic achievement too.
Thanks so much for your support as a member and taking the time to do this James and many congrats on the results that you have been getting….Are there any final words that you’d like to share with others?
JAMES:
Keep it simple, listen to and ask questions of more experienced anglers when you have the opportunity, I certainly do all the time!
Be ready to educate passers by and other anglers, so over time the culture of “trash fish” can change. My personal go-to’s are “actually the common carp was federally introduced in the 1800’s” and “you know, there’s no small coincidence that where you find record breaking bass, there are also big carp and smallmouth buffalo”
It might be a good idea to refer to Grass carp as “white amur” as a collective, as Michael Miller in AZ likes to point out, so people can realize they are different fish.
Finally, you know you have a great product when anglers will happily pay full price and give unsolicited feedback!
