Carp Hints and Tips
Spring is the time of the year I, like most carp anglers, look forward to the most. Not only are the longer days and lighter evenings so much more pleasant than the long winter ones, but also the rewards are there be had and when the fish are often at their easiest to catch.
Pressured carp can be very adept at ejecting rigs and swapping over to a stiff boom has made the difference when fish have been getting away with it. I’m sure the rigid boom makes for the most effective and difficult to deal with...
Location of carp in the colder months can be hard… There are multiple factors that put the odds into your favour and against your favour. Size of lake, stock, depth, climate, angling pressure, bait restrictions, club or syndicate rules and everyone’s love or hate “time”.
Question: Summer Spots/Zones? What are you looking for during the warmer months, and what adjustments do you make to your line and rig concealment when fishing these "different" spots? We ask Wes Coggeshall, Carl Udry and Dan Chart.
Ultimately, I always want to be sitting behind my rods knowing I have full confidence that I am on fish and fishing effectively for them! In my opinion, confidence catches you fish. My honest advice would be to never go to a new lake, fishing rigs or bait that you’ve never used before....
For me, listening and watching the water very closely during those first couple of hours of dawn breaking can be the most critical in the day. Maybe you didn’t catch last night, but are there any tale tell signs that something could still happen over in your area?
So following on from my last piece, in which I showed you how to produce your own custom cork-ball pop-ups, I thought this time around I should show you how I produce your own custom cork-dust wafters...
Following the wind is often given out as blanket advice for locating carp but there are times when it applies and others when it does not. Early summer is, most certainly, one of those periods when it does...
So why make your own pop ups and why use cork balls as opposed to a standard pop up mix? For me personally, there is nothing better than catching a fish on something you have lovingly hand rolled yourself. It also gives you the opportunity to take your hookbaits to the next level...
There is an assumption that carp approach a bait always come in a line, opposite the lead. It’s classic positioning in any rig diagram and it’s utter twaddle! If you have, for example, a six inch hooklink lying perfectly straight as the manuals say, a fish sucking from opposite the lead has almost no movement of the bait...
One September afternoon Andy and I were in our usual position, namely bellies to the ground and noses poking out the marginal greenery. On this occasion Andy’s small bottom bait was so close to us that, if he had held my feet, I could have picked his rig up by hand. Sitting over the top of the bait was a mirror carp, well over forty pounds and utterly exquisite...
From the carp's perspective there is just so much going for areas of the lake that are full of vegetation. Freshwater shrimps, several species of water snail, mussels and other natural food abound in the green stuff. In addition, the fish are afforded both safety and security and weed emits oxygen.
Finding good spots is definitely key. Whether you take a night off from fishing or if you can spare a couple of hours in the week after work, this extra effort can really pay off. I often spend hours on end in swims leading around for those all-important small hard spots, that fish visit on a regular basis...
When Nigel Sharp started off his Spring campaign on Engy, targeting this generation’s Black Mirror – Baby Black – he was baiting and fishing an area which hadn’t been cleaned off by birdlife and tench, so fishing Chods was a better option because Engy is a fairly soft-ish bottom lake. In time, as he [...]
This method can be very effective at picking off bites from fish that you wouldn’t catch if you kept you rods fishing conventionally down on the lake bed.
In this piece Lewis Read looks at the evolution of carp rigs, and how developments in terminal tackle, new ideas and angling situations have effected this.
Hooking Arrangements Cyclic fads and the constantly changing fashions in carp rigs sometimes undermine us angler's perception of some amazingly affective ‘tried and tested’ hooking arrangements. I guess that it’s just the way we’re programmed making it absolutely natural for us super keen carpers to assume that new rigs somehow supersede the [...]
Oh the delicious greasy spicy filth that is the Peperami is almost irresistible to carp and it seems to trigger some inherent ‘eat me now’ instinct in our carpy quarry. It must be akin to a dirty Donor Kebab for some of us. There’s just something in the ‘Rami that tantalises the carp’s metaphoric taste [...]
To my mind consistent and effective presentation is broadly reliant upon two basic requirements being fulfilled by the angler. The first is making the right choice of the correct lead arrangement – as this directly impacts upon the way the terminal tackle lies on (or in) the lake bed and how it avoids tangling. [...]
After enjoying a bit of success on the bank over the last few years I’m often asked, be it on the lakeside or through social media, “what rig did you have it on” or “what bait was it on”? I’ve considered the motives of that question numerous times, but one thing I’m very rarely [...]
