Is it too early to be fishing the margins?

Catching in the edge is hit and miss in April although the longer the month goes on, the better the chances. Don’t ignore the margins, but don’t expect too much! 

Carp will move into the edge last knockings but whether they feed will be down to the colour in the water and the depth. It’s unlikely that you’ll get many bites in 18ins of clear water but if there is 2ft to 3ft with a decent tinge, you could be in business.

As the daylight hours get longer, the fish will come into the margins more confidently in the final few hours but you can forget about catching up against the mud of the bankside. Look for around 3ft of water and a great way to do this is to set the float at this depth and plumb around until you find that depth. If this is close to cover, great, but if you’re fishing into open water with no cover, this will be as good.

Around six sections of pole away from your seatbox is the minimum distance to fish down the side but don’t fish too far away as you won’t be able to feed by accurately hand. You can feed a small handful of maggots every 15 minutes, spreading them around the margin area. This is done for a very good reason. Throwing in maggots will draw fish into the peg from a wider area and once you begin to fish here then change to using a small pot on the pole and drip maggots in.  

As to when to fish the edge, keep an eye on anglers around you. If they catch in the edge, then so should you but you can also get a good idea if the margins are going to fish if you have been fishing the feeder to an island or far bank with a similar depth to the edge. If you catch fish on the feeder in that depth, there’s no reason why it won’t happen down the side.