Top surface fishing tips for carp in the summer
Surface fishing when the sun's beaming down on your local lake is one of the most exciting ways to fish. So to help you land a monster from the surface, we've asked Paul Garner to give us some of his best Surface fishing tips for carp.
I hope that, like me, you’ve been making the most of the long summer evenings – these conditions scream carp to me, with the topwater sport being more consistent than I can ever remember.
That said, on some venues, the best tactic has revolved around baits fished just under the surface, rather than on it.
Several tactics can be employed to put you in the zone and make catching carp easy.
MAKE A HAZE
Beyond the distance that I can comfortably catapult pellets, a baggin’ waggler or rocket feeder takes over. I particularly like the rocket feeder, as it can be used with a wider range of feeds compares to the baggin’ wag. For instance, I will often pack the feeder with dampened 6mm pellets and a pinch of groundbait to create a hazy cloud in the water column.
By twitching the feeder back I can release more bait and lift the hookbait, allowing it to flutter down two or three times each cast.
The haze effect is something I find myself using more and more whenever I am fishing up in the water or on the surface. The release of fine particles that hang in the water helps to disguise the hook and line.
SPODDING OVER ZIGS
Not every day is ideal for fishing the float, especially on a big, open reservoir. Even a relatively light wind can see rigs quickly dragged out of position, and the carp definitely avoid hookbaits being dragged sideways by the tow.
Fortunately, there’s an answer and the catches can be amazing if you are prepared to work at the fishing.
Spodding over zigs is often talked about but rarely done on most of the waters I visit. It’s a busy tactic, as you need to keep a haze around the hookbait to maximise the number of bites, but get it right and it can be a bite a chuck.
Once again, a slow-sinking mix is essential, but because it is packed into a spod the bait can be more like a soup, clouding up in impact and forming a dense cloud of attraction. This is very easy to achieve using any groundbait mix that you like – I tend to use a fishmeal-based mix, adding roughly three times the normal amount of water to the groundbait. Aim for the consistency of soup.
Adding pellets or other baits can be counter-productive, as they will quickly sink out of the upper layers, perhaps taking the carp with them.
WAFTERS
There’s no doubt that a bait falling through the water is more attractive to carp than one that has come to rest and is simply hanging in midwater.
Slow-sinking baits are ideal, as they maximise the ‘hang-time’, keeping you fishing effectively for longer.
Wafters have revolutionised my up in the water fishing, with a dark-coloured 10mm wafter becoming my standard hookbait. Check the hookbait in the margins, as some wafters are more buoyant than others.
Sometimes you have to slightly trim the bait to get the required sink rate - I like to trim the sides to make the bait flutter through the water.
PING THOSE PELLETS
At distances up to around 30m the pellet waggler rules supreme. The constant pitter-patter of pellets hitting the surface soon drives the carp into a frenzy. Sound waves travel much further underwater than they do in air, so it’s not uncommon to see carp travelling from several pegs away to make a beeline for the gentle splash-down of a pouch of 8mm fishery pellets.
Consistent baiting is the key, but it can take some time to get the fish feeding hard enough to get caught.
If you think about it, a bait falling through the water, or suspended under a float, is not a natural way for a carp to find its grub, so the fish have to be excited enough to eat anything put in front of them to get caught. Take your time before casting out. It can be tempting to try and get that first fish under your belt quickly, but allowing the carp to feed for anything up to an hour before catching one will, in the long run, catch you a lot more fish.
