Upon doing extensive specific statistical analysis (p=50) of our carp
catches this year it appears that when we caught BFCs (~25+pds) this year
they were either within the first wave of fish caught, at the tail end of
the feeding frenzy or even sometimes just a few carp were caught but most
were BFCs. This happened mostly when we were able to apply one or more
buckets of chum to the swim prior to our fishing it. Some of them came
from the margins of the chum and others right in the middle of it. They
were caught on anything from sweetcorn and maize to boilies. I thought
isn’t this nice, it fits rather neatly with the theory that the BFCs are
smart, that they lurk around the feeding masses of smaller carp going
bananas over the chum.
One of the prevailing theories is that if a 30 pounder wants in on the
freebies it just wallows in and pushes the teens out of the way and they
flee from his bulk lest they suffer the wrath of the BFC. That might be
true if only the BFC and a teen were feeding on the freebies.
But, what if the BFC really wants in on the chum but is pushed out of the
way by twenty 15 pounders, that’s 300 pounds of teens Vs one 30 pound BFC.
Maybe it is the BFC that yields ground to the mass of teens. Maybe the BFC
is holding on the edges of the chum involuntarily waiting his turn at the
table and is looking for any crumbs it can find and that is why so many
BFCs are caught at the edge of the chum. Its not because they are smart
and observing the teens and waiting to see where the hooks are, its because
the teens will crowd it out and it cant compete on their level.
Other carpers have noticed that mirrors come in the tail end of the feeding
frenzy, it may be that they shoal together in much smaller (in NA) shoals
than the commons and the commons just push them out of the way so the
mirrors hold back until most of the teens are stuffed, this is the mirrors
chance to do some feeding. They just cant compete with a shoal of common
teens.
We also scored big several times with almost half of the carp caught in a
day being BFCs, though not many carp were caught that day. Is it
reasonable to assume that the teens were filled with the chum and the BFCs
were moving in to mop up the remainders of the feed when we started fishing?
Some of our BFCs this year were well away from the chum (50 Yards+?). I
don’t think they were sitting back that far off of the feed observing the
teens eating. They could smell the chum, hear the other carp eating and
knew where the food was. I think they just cant compete with the teens who
hover up as much as they can as fast as they can and so they hang back
waiting for their turn. That is why a boilie launched well past the chum
can sometimes bring in a BFC, its in the mood to feed and just wants to
pick up a little snack before it gets its turn at the chum.
Of course to confuse matters sometimes the BFCs were mixed randomly in with
the teens during the entire feeding spree, usually I think when we had
chummed for several days and so possibly there was not such an intense
competition because everyone had had a chance to feed. Also, at fishins
where everyone and his brother chums with a 5 gallon bucket of chum, it
seems the BFCs are mixed right in there with the teens, but with the
biggest being caught at night or at the end of the fishin. Is this due to
the biggest of the BFCs being the least able to compete for food so they
have to wait until all the others are done eating?
So maybe a strategy for catching BFCs would be to feed the teens, stuff
them and get them out of the way so they don’t disturb the swim all day,
giving the less competitive BFCs a chance at the dinner table.
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