The one aspect I love about carp fishing is staying versatile and ringing the changes. Fishing to different situations and conditions, always staying ahead of the game and making sure the bites keep coming.

One session I will never forget is a 24 hour trip I experienced few weeks back, when I landed 11 fish on three different methods. Staying mobile and putting in the extra effort really paid off.

I set up on the end of a new Westerly wind, which was blowing straight into the swim. The weather was nice and overcast, but still really warm and it looked and felt really good for a bite. I soon had the rods in position on spots that had produced for me in the past. It looked really good, however I had yet to see any signs of fish nearby or anywhere around the lake.

It was a warm day, so I primed a few spots in the edge and also keep my eyes peeled for a floater opportunity. After trickling a bit of bait onto a margin spot for a few hours, I started to see signs of feeding fish. I quickly reeled in one rod and soon had it positioned on the spot. My rig was simple and consisted of a short six inch hook length, a size 6 Covert Wide Gape Talon Tip hook, 2 grains of the Incredible Edibles were threaded onto the hair and a small Micromesh pva bag of pellets completed the rig.

The rod was only out for about an hour before it pulled round and the alarm registered a one toner as the margin rod was away. The fight didn’t last long and as I tried to hardest to keep the fish out of the reeds and it soon rolled in front of me and was safely in the net. I was soon returning a lovely 22lb common, which made a great start to the session.

By late afternoon and into early evening I started to see a few fish show and my swim choice was bang on as they had turned up in numbers right in front of me, head and shouldering over the spots. I had hinged stiff rig out there and I just knew it was going to happen.

Most of the night went without a bleep, but at 2am it kicked off and started with a mid-double common which was quickly followed by a stunning common and an even better fully scaled mirror, both which weighed 28lb. They were two fish I had yet to catch from the venue, so I was understandably made up. Hinged stiff rigs over a spread of 18mm Poloni boilies and white pops as hookbaits did the business accounted for all three fish.

These fish had really made my session, but as I had seen so many fish showing on the other side of the lake following morning, I couldn’t pass up this opportunity. I quickly packed my gear down and moved onto the fish in the pouring rain. Even though there was a massive low pressure front, the fish seemed to be in the upper layers. Three zigs were soon cast out in zone towards where the fish had been showing.

It wasn’t long and the 10 foot zig dropped back and I was in, which resulted in a mid-double and was well worth the move. I soon had all three rods on 10 foot zigs and I couldn’t keep a rod in the water. I ended up banking 7 fish in 2 hours making the total 11 fish in 24 hours on three different methods. Stalked in the edge, over a spread of Poloni boilies and on zigs.

Ringing the changes, staying mobile, putting in the effort in and getting the tactics right can change a good session into a red letter day.