Carp Fishing Tips | Go carping on a budget! - Chris Haydon
CARP fishing can be a seriously expensive business at times.
Buying a decent amount of boilies, a ticket for your local bag-up water and all the components to tie the latest rig – it all soon adds up. Fear not, though, as there are numerous things you can do to save a few bob, without compromising your catch rate.
Here’s how to do it...
Going carp fishing doesn’t always have to mean spending lots of money
Get on a club water (£30-£150 per year)
Day-ticket venues may hold some giant carp but they’re often busy, and if you fish them regularly you’ll end up spending a small fortune on tickets. So, why not check out the quieter club waters?
Many annual club books will only set you back the price of a long session on a day-ticket water, and they often hold carp of equal quality. The banks will be a lot quieter too!
Club books are great value for money
Use the ‘golden grains’... (As little as £1 per kilo frozen)
When used correctly, sweetcorn can out-fish all other baits. It’s widely used in spod mixes, but not on the hook for some reason, making it a bit of an ‘edge’. You can feed a lot of it too and it won’t fill the carp up. In fact, the more the better – they love it!
Sweetcorn is a deadly bait for carp. It’s cheap, highly visible and easily digestible
Ready, set, GO! (£1.99 per rig - cheaper options available too)
We all have shedloads of end tackle in our bag which, if we are honest, we hardly use.
If you are going to try a new rig, buy a ready-tied version first to test it out. All the major brands make ready-rigs now and it not only saves time, but also money on components you may never use again.
Ready-rigs are a quick and easy solution to test the latest wonder rig, without forking out on expensive components
Make a little go a long way (1kg of boilies = £9.99 - £12.99)
There is no denying that some of the boilies on the market are phenomenal fish-catchers, but that doesn’t mean you need to pile in kilos of them. Make your boilies go further by using halved baits. Simple!
Chop those boilies to put more baits out in the swim and let their attraction leach off quicker
Cook your own particles (£30 for £25kg from most pet food suppliers)
Bulk-buying raw particles such as hemp, pigeon conditioner or maize is an excellent way to save money. The baits must be soaked for at least 24 hours and then cooked until they split, so they are safe for the carp to eat. You can also add all kinds of ingredients to spice them up. A real no-brainer in the cost-cutting stakes.
When done correctly, cooking your own particles is a real money saver
Lavish TLC on your hooks (Hook file from £4.99)
Just because a hook on a rig has gone blunt, that doesn’t mean it deserves the bin. A little TLC with a hook sharpener should bring it back to life, saving you cash in the process.
Hooks can be brought back to life with a little touch up
Try bread bags (£1 a loaf, will last you a session)
Breadcrumbs in a mesh bag make a great alternative to pellets or boilie crumb. Combine them with a bright pop-up for a real cost-effective winner in the colder months.
Bread crumb in PVA bags is a deadly winter tactic, when minimal feed is required to get a bite (Photo - Mark Parker)
Use fantastic foam! (From £3.99)
When the air pressure is high and carp are up off the bottom, zig rigs can be deadly.
Other than a hook and hooklink, the only thing you need to get a bite is coloured foam. You can flavour it if you wish, but unflavoured foam has taken some of the biggest and best carp in the country, crazy as it may sound.
Foam has caught some on the country’s biggest carp (Photo - Matt Woods)
Recycle your old rigs (FREE)
At the end of a session, don’t just cut off your rig and dump it in the box. Snip off the hooks, swivels and rig sleeves and use them again.
Reverse your mainline (FREE)
Instead of respooling each season just reverse the line on your reels by loading it onto a spare spool, and then pop the spare spool back onto your reel. The used line will then be on the bottom, and fresh stuff on top.
No need to throw away fresh line, just reverse it onto your spare spools
Fish dawn to dusk (FREE)
Night fishing means buying a bivvy, bedchair and sleeping bag. Instead, get up early and to the lake before first light. The fish generally will be showing, and you can jump right on them while everyone else is snoring!
Night fishing can often be unproductive on some waters, just get up early and stay late
Buy cheap, buy twice! (PRICELESS)
Make savings elsewhere, but it’s vital your rods and reels are up to the job. See if your local tackle shop will do you a deal. You only need two rods. You will then only need two alarms, two sets of sticks and a two-rod licence too. Big savings!
Having good quality rods and reels will ensure you land more fish. You only need TWO!
Carp Fishing Tips | How long should you glug baits for? - Steve Cliff
There’s no single answer to this – it all depends on what it is that you are glugging. You can over-glug pop-ups with certain liquids.
Glugs such as Sticky L-Zero-30T are naturally quite heavy, so with pop-ups I would either give them a little coating of the thicker liquids, or a healthy amount of bait spray.
Sprays are ideal for pumping extra attraction into your hookbait as the thin liquid penetrates right through to the centre.
If you are planning on glugging freebies, there really isn’t any limit! I stick to natural liquids such as Pure Krill Liquid, the more the merrier, as fish love it.
The only other liquid I use is oil, predominantly Hemp Oil, adding only a light glaze to baits. This tends to be enough for it to do its job.
Hemp oil is great for adding a light glaze to your baits
Carp Fishing Tips - Catch more off the top!
SURFACE fishing is one of the most exciting methods of catching carp in the summer months.
Watching a fish rise slowly through the upper layers before engulfing your hookbait never fails to get your heart pounding.
However, it can also be incredibly frustrating when you witness the fish spooking off your end tackle or rejecting your bait at the last moment. There’s certainly a fine line between success and failure!
It’s a common misconception that all surface fishing is done with a controller float. While a controller float does give a casting advantage, it can actually be a hindrance in terms of causing excess disturbance and limiting manoeuvrability of the hookbait.
The old-fashioned method of free-lining with surface baits is still as deadly today as it ever was. Whether you side hook a pop-up, bury the hook in a piece of bread or band on a couple of mixers, free-lining is a precise and spook-free method to present a floater to a carp feeding off the top.
Try to get the fish feeding on your floating offerings as close to the bank as possible. This should limit the need for a controller float, which can sometimes spook fish, especially on small venues.
The great thing about using a simple free-lined set-up is that if you see a fish moving or feeding in a different area of the swim, even tight to features, you can quickly cast on its head with little chance of it spooking. This will also help you pick out the larger fish.
Surface fishing is one of the most exciting methods to catch carp
Be patient...
Feeding with surface baits can be a long process. Sometimes it takes hours before the fish are confident, but waiting until multiple fish are taking confidently is a more effective than casting in straight away.
With all this feeding going on, birds can be infuriating when they’re eating your freebies, but they can be avoided.
Try piling some bait in from the start to feed off the birds. This won’t hurt them, as they will only eat what they want. On some waters, the commotion of the birds feeding will even draw in the carp to investigate. If the birds have left anything, the carp will clear up and you can begin the surface fishing process.
If this doesn’t work, it’s worth considering feeding the birds in another area of the lake to keep your intended spot quiet.
Wait for as long as you can before casting out to get multiple fish confidently taking.
Vary your feed
Many top carpers talk about the importance of providing a banquet for the carp on the bottom with varied food items. The same applies to feeding carp on the surface. If you put out a selection of surface baits the carp have less chance of picking out your hookbait.
Great floating baits are Chum mixer dog biscuits, floating pellets and breadcrust. Having a selection of these can really make a difference to catching consistently off the surface.
Fish can be more readily lured into surface feeding through smaller food items, such as Nash Riser pellets. Start by introducing these smaller feeds and gradually wean them on to the bigger baits.
Carp can be exceptionally wary of feeding off the surface on some venues. The best advice is to spend time feeding the fish little and often. By only putting a handful of offerings in at a time, they have no choice but to compete for every last one. If you pile in loads from the off and litter the surface with baits, the fish can be more selective.
Feed a mix of bait sizes, colours and flavours
Concealment is key
One of the biggest factors that will lead to more takes off the surface is effective concealment of your end tackle. As carp are approaching your hookbait from underneath, it’s vital to ensure your line is floating and everything looks natural.
Use a good floating hooklink, preferably one designed for surface fishing. Dropping the strength and diameter of this hooklink will lead to more takes. If your hooklink begins to sink during the session, grease it up with Vaseline.
Using a specialist floater style hook is also important. A hook pattern that is too heavy will cause your hookbait to sit unnaturally in the water. Dropping the hook size will help avoid this, but don’t go too light because when a carp is hooked the action is explosive!
Use a floating hooklink and as small a hook you can get away with.
Carp Fishing Tips | Slack line or backlead for carp? - Rob Hughes
Backleads affect sensitivity and bite indication and I avoid them unless absolutely necessary. As soon as the lead is on the deck you have a hinge point, and that means a decrease in indication. Slack lines are much better for indication at shorter ranges (up to 30 yards) but at longer ranges they, too, are not that great.
Think about bite indication when deciding how to hide your line.
For almost all of my fishing I go semi-tight. As long as you use heavy lines or even drop a bit of putty on the last 12ft or so, they should sink well enough to fish effectively but not too slack.
Have a think about why you need a backlead at all. In the edge slack is better, at medium range fish semi-slack with putty, and at longer range you don’t really need them as the line is near the deck anyway.
Putty isn’t just useful for hooklinks, blob some above the lead too
If it’s purely to avoid boats, get your backlead as far out as you safely can, fish a tight line between the leads, use a heavy old bolt rig and hit any single bleeps you get.
Backleads are a must to avoid boats but use a heavy bolt rig and hit any indications!
Carp Fishing Tips - Is there an optimum depth carp are most comfortable feeding at? - Simon Scott
From my experience at the VS Fisheries carp farm and over a fair few years of specifically targeting carp, I have found that they will vary their feeding depth according to water temperature and quality and the location of food.
Carp love spending time off the bottom
I have caught carp in large gravel pits at depths of between 25ft and 30ft, particularly in autumn as the water cools.
That said, on a typical gravel pit I would probably start by targeting the shallower areas of 10ft and also regularly try at least one rod a bit further down the slope.
If the water is cold, then try fishing in the deeper areas. Additionally, don’t be afraid to try fishing with zig rigs using an adjustable zig float, which makes it possible to fish a few feet beneath the surface even if the water is really deep.
Zig rigs may be a bit daunting to start with, particularly in really deep water, but take my word for it, they can be hugely effective!
The adjustable zig rig is perfect for fishing really deep water
Carp Fishing Tips | Do fish see colour like we do? - Simon Scott
Yes, but it’s a completely different spectrum.
Pink is the last colour that they see fade out in deep water so, in very clear water, a brightly-coloured bait will easily be seen.
However, in murky water fish rely very little on sight and that’s when scent takes over.
The only variant on this is when fish are swimming well off the bottom of a river or lake. In this instance, they can see the difference between a light and a dark-coloured bait as a silhouette.
Specimen Fishing Tips | Winter essentials with Dai Gribble
A friend of mine refers to anglers who only fish in the warmer months as ‘solar-powered.’ Such anglers are missing out on some great sport, so here are six tips that will definitely encourage them to make the most of some great opportunities throughout the winter.
Layers of clothing
Layers enable you to remove clothes easily when walking to your swim or between swims. Getting too hot will mean you sweat, and as soon as you sit down you’ll quickly start to feel cold. I find the most important layer is a long-sleeved Merino wool under layer. I’m not sure why, but these tops are much better than anything else I’ve tried. Add a fleece or two and a windproof top.
Thermal boots
Nothing is more likely to see you heading for home than frozen feet. There are lots of good waterproof boots available and, combined with thick wool socks, they will keep you comfortable. Avoid polyester socks – they may look similar to wool but they won’t keep you anywhere near as warm.
Hot drinks
A flask or small stove to supply hot drinks will help keep you warm. If I’m fishing on a river I always use a flask, but on stillwaters, where I am likely to move swims less, I prefer a small stove – you can’t beat a freshly brewed mug of Yorkshire tea! I keep things simple by boiling my water in an enamel mug, which saves carrying a separate kettle.
Hat and gloves
The old saying that on a cold day you lose 70 per cent of heat from your head is exaggerated but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t wear a warm hat. I also always take a pair of insulated gloves. I don’t wear them while actually fishing, but they make a huge difference when carrying tackle to my swim and are also great for warming my hands up after handling a cold fish.
The right chair
If I’m fishing close to the car and unlikely to be moving a lot, I take a big padded chair with a high back which keeps my head and neck out of the wind. Thick padding is comfy and really does help keep you warm. If I am roving on a river I take a Korum lightweight chair made from a mesh-type material that doesn’t absorb water. This ensures that if it does rain it will dry quickly, rather than becoming waterlogged, which inevitably results in a damp backside.
Towel
Wet hands will soon become cold hands, so a good-sized towel is essential. Put one in your bag, as it is very easy to take a dirty towel out at the end of a session and forget to put it back – this is an error I have made on more than one occasion!
Carp Fishing tips | Surface fishing tactics for carp
Surface fishing is a tactic that every carp angler should master if they’re to make the most of the summer months, especially is the sun is high in the sky and the chances of a bite using traditional legering tactics are minimal.
However, there’s far more to it than just hooking on a dog biscuit and launching it out into the pond, more in hope than expectation. So, this week I’m going to run you through some little ‘edges’ that I’ve picked up over the past three decades or so that have made a big difference to my floater fishing success.
1) Feed off the fowl…
Too many anglers avoid surface fishing for carp altogether because of the presence of ducks, gulls, swans and various other feed-robbing birds.
The trick is to feed them off first, using cheap bread and budget dog biscuits. Once you arrive at the lake, pick a corner from which both the fish and other anglers are absent, then put in the cheap offerings. These will normally fill them up, which leaves you free to surface fish.
Gulls, in particular, can be a nightmare, and it can take an age for them to have their fill... but feeding them off really will be time well spent.
2) Get them competing...
By far the most important part of successful surface fishing is to get the carp competing for the loosefeed before you cast out. Patience is key in this respect. You must keep feeding until there are a decent number of carp in the swim, feeding confidently.
If you’re patient enough, then the fish will gradually become more aggressive as they jostle for pole position for the next free morsel.
In this state they are far easier to catch and, more importantly, you can catch a number of fish, as opposed to just the odd one.
3) Slick ’em up!
The dedicated floating hookbaits that I favour are already crammed with oils and powders that ooze attraction, but I l give them a further ‘oiling’ to create a ‘flat spot’ around the hookbait.
This helps you to see it far more easily, especially with a ripple on. You can use just about any oil but my first choice is CAP Oil, a combination of various high-grade fish oils and a pungent chilli extract.
As well as increasing the visibility of your hookbait, it also gives your offering a fiery kick, which the carp seem to love.
4) Start small…
It was way back in the 1990s that I discovered the power of small floating pellets as loosefeed. Everyone else was using bog standard Chum mixers, and everywhere me and my mates went we caught an incredible number of fish because of those small pellets.
Everyone still uses large baits in the main, yet they really are missing a trick.
I use a mixture of 3mm, 6mm and 11mm Krill Floaters, with 80 per cent of the mix being made up of the smaller two sizes. These can work the fish into a frenzy, and the bigger ones are only there to replicate the size of my hookbait, once I’m ready to introduce it.
5) Fine-tune your end tackle
Thin hooklinks and small hooks will definitely get you more bites than crude terminal tackle, but you still need to use kit that’s strong enough to land the fish you’re targeting.
If you catch a couple of fish on a size 10 hook with 0.30mm diameter hooklink and they then start wising up, it’s time to drop to a size 12 and 0.25mm line, provided the weed isn’t bad.
Also, I can’t stress enough the difference a sticky-sharp hook makes when surface fishing.
Hone your hook points and far fewer fish will be able to spit out the hook once they’ve mouthed the bait.
6) Try a bright hookbait
While there’s nothing wrong with using a hookbait that matches the colour and size profile of your freebies, sometimes that leads to problems identifying it among feeding fish, especially at range.
To solve this, try using a bright pop-up. White or yellow ones are perfect, and an added bonus is that they will stay buoyant far longer than a sodden Chum mixer. Trim it right down (don’t worry, you’ll still be able to see it at range) and hair-rig it tight to the back of the hook. Alternatively, you can side-hook it.
7) Go long, if needs be...
Sometimes the best floater sport can be at medium to long range. This is often because the further out the carp are, the more confident they become and the quicker they lose their inhibitions (as they don’t know they’re being fished for).
In this situation, spodding your freebies out alongside a big, heavy controller float can be the way to go.
I carry a few different spods with me, so that I’m covered for any situation I find myself faced with. Being able to fish effectively in areas that many other anglers wouldn’t even try to get a bait to can be a real edge.
8) Switch to braid
Braided mainline isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s unbeatable for setting the hook on the strike because of its lack of stretch. If a breeze picks up you can ‘mend’ the line far more easily than you could with mono, remaining in direct contact with the float.
One final tip, which is obvious but still something I see a lot of people doing wrong, is to always cast your float well past where you’ve got the fish feeding, before tweaking it back into the ‘hot zone’. If you cast directly on top of their heads it will ruin all your hard work and send the fish into the next county!
20 Carp fishing tips to try right now!
With carp fishing being as popular as it is, it can sometimes be a struggle to head to a water full of confidence that you may actually catch a carp, especially on heavily fished waters. However to help you in your quest for a big carp while fishing, we have decided to come up with 20 carp fishing tips to help give you an added edge over the angler in the next swim. Check out our list of carp tips below and let us know what carp fishing tip best suits you!
Freezer or shelf-life?
Both types of boilie work well when carp fishing but ultimately it comes down to personal preference. Freezer baits contain few preservatives and so are ‘fresher’ but won’t keep once defrosted making these best for one or two sessions at best. Shelf-lifes can be kept in the resealable bag for ages but aren’t as fresh. However, they remain effective for longer than freezer baits and so are a better choice for the occasional carper.
Carp fishing line
Old-fashioned mono reel line is supple and forgiving, but there are two other options that have somewhat niche uses.
Braid is no good for fishing for carp at distance but at close range and in snags it is brutal stuff that won’t break, while fluorocarbon is almost invisible underwater and sinks well, ending up pinned to the lakebed. This makes it very useful in gin-clear water or on hard-fished venues.
Choose the right hook for carp
Carp hooks do various jobs. For surface fishing or when using pop-ups, go for a wide gape hook. For fishing a bottom bait, little can beat a long shank pattern.
Curved shank hooks are brilliant for wary carp that may otherwise eject another pattern as they pick it up. So think about the fishing you are going to do before choosing your hooks.
Carry different boilies
Of all the sizes available, 14mm and 16mm boilies are the most popular – but carp see a lot of them and can associate them with danger.
The way round this is to scale down to a 10mm bait, either as a single or double offering. At the opposite end of the scale, a bigger 18mm or 20mm hookbait will give them something different, and a real mouthful.
See more carp fishing bait here:
First locate your carp
Where will the carp be when you arrive at the lake? Several factors have to be taken into consideration.
A good starting point is the north-east corner of a lake. This will get the sun and also avoid the worst of any colder winds. Reeds and weeds are fish-holding spots, and a noticeable drop-off in depth offers an area where carp can move up and down in the water.
Check out 20 of the best carp fishing runs waters
Check the lakebed
Every lake is different when it comes to what’s on the bottom. It could be gravel, sand, silt or mud and all substrates have their pros and cons. Cast a lead around the peg with braided mainline and slowly wind it back, feeling for different sensations as it comes back.
Tremors and taps on the rod-tip will indicate gravel, whereas silt will feel like pulling the lead through cotton wool as it sticks in the muck. A smooth retrieve spells a sandy bottom.
Perfect your rods
Carp fishing rods are sold with varying actions and it can be hard to know which one to pick. A rod with a fast action makes a great casting tool but can lead to hook-pulls at the net... a through-actioned rod struggles to send leads a long way. The happy medium is a middle-to-tip-actioned rod that will let you throw a long way but be soft enough to ensure that fish don’t come off.
Switch to fakes
Carp of all sizes love maggots, but so do small fish. If your water responds to a maggot attack, don’t use live ones on the hook as these will be smashed by roach and bream. Instead, carry a pack of fake rubber maggots and thread four or five of these on to a hair rig. They look just like the real thing and won’t be shredded by nuisance fish.
Change boilie shape
Sometimes a round boilie won’t catch, but something as simple as altering its shape will get a take. Take a boilie and carve the edges off to create a square or irregularly-shaped bait. Better still, invest in a tub of barrel-shaped dumbell boilies.
Cast to the horizon
You need to choose a rod with the correct action in the first place. Balance and rhythm are the human element to casting further, and that means having a strong footing to cast off. When casting, have one hand (the one holding the rod and reel) pushing forwards while the second hand lower down the handle pulls back. This creates the whipping motion and the leverage needed to power the lead out.
Tip a pop-up
Adding a few maggots to the hook turns a standard pop-up boilie into something a little bit different that may just grab the attention of a carp or two on hard days. To do this, thread the pop-up on to the hair and then nick on the maggots before sliding the boilie down.
Wash out your baits
Changing how your bait looks on the lakebed can go a long way to producing a fish. A common trick is to ‘wash out’ a boilie.
This means fading its natural colour by leaving it soaking in water for a few days. The result is a pale bait that looks as though it has been on the bottom a long while and is safe.
Know your leads
A standard pear-shaped lead will work for most carp fishing situations but not all.
Pears are fine for all-round work when casting up to 80 yards but to go longer, an elongated distance lead will help you hit the mark. A flattened pear leads comes into play in silt or on lakebeds covered in debris. It will sit on top of the muck rather than sink into it.
Try Zig bugs
Surface fishing provides exciting carp sport in summer, and Chum mixers or floating pellets are normally the go-to baits for many carpers.
However, Nash Zig Bugs have really made an impression over recent years. These represent insects that carp will see on the surface throughout the year.
Deposit your feed
PVA bags for depositing feed around the rig come in mesh or solid versions. Solid bags will cast a long way with the lead buried inside and the feed packed tightly to produce a streamlined missile. Mesh comes into play for fishing as a stick of feed that breaks down quickly and forces the particles out through the holes almost immediately. It can’t be cast that far, and so is better for shorter chucks.
Tighten the clutch
Don’t fish with the clutch set too light. This will let a carp power off rather than come off the hook, but you won’t be able to exert any pressure.
Instead, fish with a tighter clutch. This will immediately give you the upper hand and stop that first run – from then on you can slacken the clutch or even use the reel’s backwind facility if preferred to a degree that suits you and the swim you are fishing in.
Feed crushed pellets
When floater fishing, instead of firing in 8mm floating pellets from the bag, grind some up and break others into halves or quarters.
When fed, this range of bait sizes will see some float and some sink while releasing smaller particles into the water. This can work well when the fish have shied away from whole pellets.
Strip some braid
Braid hooklinks lack stretch but will sink and stay on the bottom. If you want the best of both worlds, try coated braid with the outer coating stripped off – these are supple but still sink.
Make use of the power of particles
Too many anglers think that boilies and pellets are all they need on the bait front. That’s true to an extent, but it can get expensive when baiting up in bulk. Particles are perfect for prebaiting or for piling in as a large hit at the start of a session and because they are relatively small, they keep fish grubbing around in the swim for longer. Parti-Blend is a super mix of seeds and pulses that covers all bases, while hemp, maize, sweetcorn and maple peas mixed together make another knockout feed.
Get zig depth right
How far do you set the hookbait to be off bottom when fishing a zig rig? Start with the bait at around three-quarters depth and then move it up or down by a foot at a time every hour or so until you get an indication.
Chuck a single out
In the winter months carp fishing can be quite hard going with the species starting to switch off from feeding on large amounts of food. This is why it’s a good time to change tactics and cast out a single boilie on a rig of your choice towards showing fish or spots that you believe will deliver. This is one of the best ways to get a quick bite in cold conditions.
HOW TO PRESENT YOUR BAIT OVER WEED
One of the biggest questions that gets sent into the Angling Times office is how do I present a bait over weed when carp fishing? Well we have the answer for you and that is PVA bags they are a life saver in situations when you can’t guarantee that your bait will be well presented on the bottom. A PVA bag will protect your hookbait all the way to the bottom and ensure that it is well presented for when the carp come sniffing over it. Another positive to this method is that you know that you’ve got a nice pile of bait surrounding your boilie to help entice the carp over.
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.
match the hatch on your zigs for carp fishing success
Spring and summer are the perfect times to be carp fishing with zigs, when the carp are in the upper layers it makes perfect sense to try and present a bait infront of them as they won't be on the bottom so the usual tactics will be a waste of your time. Which is why we have asked Korum back Mat Woods to explain the advantages of zig rig fishing in summer.
For me, spring carp fishing become much more like fly fishing. In fact I can’t remember the last productive spring I had targeting fish on the lakebed.
Despite this, I still meet lots of anglers who are seemingly afraid of fishing in the surface layers.
I can understand this – it involves using much lighter line than most carp anglers are used to and a hookbait that is usually just an inanimate piece of foam.
But trust me, one look around your swim the next time you’re fishing will bring all the confidence you’ll ever need.
Do this, and you’ll notice all the aquatic bugs and wildlife that wake up at this time of year. Look in the margins and you’ll see what the carp have readily available to them out in the lake. The key is to try and replicate what you see.
Head to the wind-facing back of your carp lake, scoop out a bucket of water and see what’s lurking.
Right now, the margins of all my local lakes are filled with tiny tadpoles, frogs, snails and beetles. All these make nice easy meals for a carp – which is why you will often find them creeping around in very shallow water.
As the carp drift out into the lake, however, I’ve found they tend to stay at the same level. So if they are happy to creep into 3ft of water and feed on the deck, chances are they will remain 3ft below the surface out in the lake, and this is a good starting point for your zig and margin fishing.
When it’s cool in spring, shorter zigs work and I’ll start at the lakebed and work my way up. However, once the sun comes out and the temperature creeps above 15ºC, I’ll start at the surface and work my way down.
If there’s fresh weed, you may find the carp are picking off the hatches at their source. I caught some really big fish the last couple of years fishing 1ft zigs over fresh weed growth. This seems to be linked to when caddis are hatching – probably the most welcome insect in the universe for a carp angler. Caddis tend to start climbing out from their larval state when the sun is out, or the light levels are fairly bright, and they will appear from weedbeds, or climb up pad stems and reedbeds.
When this is happening, I go for a long, thin zig. It’s not something I see many other anglers using, but it’s a massive part of my spring fishing. The thinner the better, and I’ll often just angle the top of the foam to resemble the outline of a caddis more closely.
Other days, more mosquitoes and mayflies will be hatching. This is where Zig Aligners work best, as the profile is fairly similar, though I prefer to use a separate aligner and hair, to give me the option to touch up the aligner with a pen, add some stripes or alter the colours. Quite often a red aligner will work very well when bloodworm are hatching.
Watch the birds
Birds are really important when it comes to zig fishing. You get swifts and swallows taking off the surface, but watch the mallard, swans and geese, as they will often join in on a big hatch.
Watching the birds and where they scoop up their meal can often pinpoint the centre of a big hatch.
The spanner in the works, for all this hatch-matching, is the carp’s periodic preference for brighter zigs. I’ve caught on yellow in the same session as catching on black. I think this is mainly to do with dropping the rig at the right layer on their patrol route, where the carp aren’t necessarily feeding on a hatch, but are quite happy to enjoy an opportunist meal.
I caught a fish recently popping a bright zig on a patrol route I noticed while surface fishing. While continuing to feed surface baits I clocked a few fish that had no interest in the floaters, but were still cruising the same path as their hungrier mates. A zig plopped on this route produced a stunning fish, much bigger than anything I caught off the top.
How to catch bigger fish
Are you struggling catch or even land bigger fish while out on the bank? Then you may want to check out these very simple steps that will increase your chance of catching a much bigger carp, bream or tench next time you are out fishing
One of the best places to start when looking to target bigger fish is the canals as every canal in the land is now home to a good head of quality bream, carp and tench.
Preston Innovations-backed Graham West has spent a lot of time this summer searching for big fish on his local stretches, and has found they can be put in the net on a baiting approach very similar to what would be used on a commercial fishery…
Peg selection
“Most pegs on commercials will hold a head of big fish, but that isn’t the case on canals and you’ll need to be sitting in the right area to succeed.
“But it isn’t hard to find these lumps. At this time of year, when boat traffic is heavy, they will hide up in cover and any peg with lots of overhanging trees or bushes is sure to hold these big fish.
“Try to find a fairly large snag that will hold good numbers of fish as opposed to a little bush that might look appealing but doesn’t actually offer much underwater shelter for the fish.”
Bait choice
“Anglers thinking of big canal fish are put off going after them as they think they need to use an expensive worm and caster attack to catch them.
“These baits will work but I have found that pellets, corn and a little groundbait is just as effective.
“A lot of canals are now regularly fished by specimen carp anglers who feed pellets and boilies. As a result the fish are used to feeding on more commercial-orientated products.
“As you will have already located the fish by picking the right peg, you won’t have to feed much. It’s really just about stimulating a response and bringing fish to the edge of any snags to the point where you can get them out.
“Fish a line to the left and right of the feature and feed a couple of balls of Sonubaits Worm Fishmeal groundbait and a handful of pellet and corn to get things underway.
“The best three hookbaits are banded hard pellets, expander pellets and corn.”
Strong tackle
“As you are fishing tight up to snags you are going to have your tackle tested the moment you hook into a fish.
“It’ll be no surprise to you that big carp will charge straight for the branches and tree roots, but it will surprise you to know that canal bream very often do the very same!
“I have no hesitation in using 0.21mm Preston Innovations Powerline mainline to an 0.19mm hooklength of the same material and a strong size 14 hook. Elastic is a tightly set 17H or 19H, but make sure you have a pole that can handle such heavy hauling.
“After all, there’s no point getting a bite on light tackle and knowing for a fact you are going to lose it.
“You also need to fight your instincts to strike normally when you get a bite. Missed bites will often end up with your rig going straight into a snag and you’ll give the fish a vital split second more to win the battle.
“As soon as the float goes, ship back as quickly as you can. This motion will set the hook and the fish won’t know what has happened for a few seconds, giving you vital time to get it away from the danger zone and give you the upper hand.”
20 fishing tips that will help you think more like a fish
Martin bowler walks us through his top 20 summer fishing tips to help you get to know your quarry and think more like a fish to help you catch more when on the bank. Some of the tips I offer here are quite basic, while others require you to think outside the box and put yourself in the place of the fish...
Polarised sunglasses
Buy yourself a good quality pair of polarised glasses to assist you with fish location. In bright conditions grey is best, if it’s dull go for yellow, while the top all-round colour is brown. Finding your quarry is the most important aspect of angling, in fact more so than any tip, bait or rig.
If you want to grab yourself a pair of polarised sunglasses then check out our buyers guide here
Get up early
Either arrive just before daybreak or sit outside your bivvy at the best time to see any fish showing. Finding the location of your quarry is much easier at dawn when fish rolling or jumping, or bubbles breaking the surface, are likely to give their presence away.
Assess the water
You can only catch what’s in front of you. Specimen fish don’t live in every venue, so be clinical with your assessments. In my experience angling myths very rarely become reality. They are just that – myths!
Pick the battles you can win!
Assess the venue’s potential against angling pressure. If time is limited, one with fewer big fish but receiving less angling pressure can be the better option.
Know your species
Try to understand your quarry, because every species of fish behaves differently. For example, carp don’t like disturbance and so I leave my baits in place at daybreak. Tench, however, are much more likely to investigate a recast or a fresh bout of spombing, so I always carry out these tasks at dawn.
Look to the sea
Take a carp rod with you on your coastal holiday. Bream, bass, pollack and wrasse are all catchable on lures or bait for minimal additional outlay.
Hire a skipper
Book a charter boat to go sea fishing this summer but realise, as with any other form of fishing, that there are good, bad and indifferent anglers or, in this case, skippers. Use social media to investigate a boat’s potential, find a good one and it will be a great day out.
Use fishmeal
In summer, when the fish are still recovering from spawning, most species adore fishmeal and its high oil content. Be it pellet, boilie or groundbait you won’t go too far wrong with this food source.
Lure them out on the feeder
Give the Method feeder a go for barbel. It’s a great way of baiting the swim without the need for PVA. Combine this with a short hooklength when they’re feeding aggressively, or go longer if bites prove hard to come by.
Think about the weather
If it rains the the rivers start to rise or colour up in summer, go barbel fishing. such conditions are sure to trigger them into feeding
Take your time
In margins over 12ft deep try a slider float and you will catch more than on the lead. The most crucial aspect of this type of fishing is plumbing up, so take your time to guarantee the hookbait is just kissing the bottom.
Give your groundbait a boost
When preparing groundbait, add any liquids to water used to dampen it, not directly on to the dry mix. This will guarantee even distribution.
Overcome suspicious fish
Wary barbel will look out for your hook when feeding and ignore the attached bait if they spot it. To overcome this in clear water I fish half a boilie on a short hair. The flat side falls over the metalwork like a cup, concealing it from view.
Don't leave it to luck
For a big bag of tench, rake the swim the night before fishing, and prebait. Luck alone is never to be trusted, but effort will pay off.
Visit your local tackle shop
Slightly better deals might be available on the Internet, but who will supply your fresh bait? Nobody knows the local waters better than your local tackle dealer, so give him your custom.
Move around
For summer chub, roaming the river with a gallon of maggots and a trotting set-up takes some beating. Find a shoal and then feed on a ‘little and often’ basis until you see their white mouths working in overdrive. The catching part is very simple by comparison.
Don't forget the roach
River roach populations are on their way back to healthy levels, and weir pools are the place to look for them in summer, when there is extra oxygen in the water. This is especially true at the start of the season.
Go mini
Bread, corn and caster all have their place in roach fishing, but don’t ignore mini boilies and pellets too, even on the rivers. They’re small fish-proof, and roach adore them.
Don't sit still
Don’t just sit there when things are quiet, as you can almost always win a bite. For example, sometimes carp aren’t interested in feeding on the bottom, so why not try a zig rig (above)or a floater? It always pays to have a back-up plan, be it a tactical change or baiting up another spot.
Try something new this summer
From a trout in a reservoir to a mullet in an estuary, most options are open to everyone and relatively cheap to put into action. We are very fortunate to live in a country packed full of angling opportunities, so do make the most of them.
Five point plan for success when fishing a day-ticket water!
It can be quite difficult at this time of the year to succeed on a day-ticket water especially when the low temperatures have hit and the sun isn't quite giving off as much heat as you'd like. Gardner’s Jack Funnell however has a few tricks up his sleeve to ensure your alarms keep screaming so make sure you follow this five point plan for day-ticket waters.
1) Actively find the fish
You can’t catch what’s not there - it’s that simple! Carp won’t move very far in cold water, so you need to go to them, rather than vice versa, otherwise you’ll just end up camping, rather than fishing.
It is rare to always get the swim you hoped for but, equally, having a rigid plan can often work against you. “All lakes have a ‘go to’ area where the fish tend to congregate in winter,” Jack explained.
“They do go up into the shallows on very rare occasions, but if the fish aren’t actively showing, don’t bother.”
Another way Jack tries to find the shoals is to lead around in any empty swims. It sounds barmy, but he reckons that if the fish shoal up tightly, you can actually feel the lead bouncing through them - provided you get the cast right.
“I’ve done this and had some big hits of fish, while the lad in the next swim has blanked,” said Jack.
2) Swap mono for fluorocarbon
It sounds banal, but one tip that Jack was keen to share was the simple act of changing your mainline from mono to fluorocarbon - it can make a huge difference to your results. Mono sinks, but not as well as a good quality fluorocarbon. Jack’s favourite is Gardner Mirage.
“Using fluoro as the mainline ensures that the last few yards of line and end tackle are pinned to the deck. This guarantees that the fish will not spook off the mainline and it’s also almost invisible in water,” Jack told us.
“It is not always the latest rig or bait that makes the difference. But something much more simple! “I mean, it’s not magic, but it might just get you that couple of bonus fish on a tough day.”
3) Flavour-filled solid bags
In cold water, the carp won’t necessarily want to move to bait. Putting out 5kg of boilies at this time of year will most probably just see you prebaiting for next spring! As the fish’s metabolism is very much reduced, you need to fish for one bite at a time, not a hit of fish.
By using solid PVA bags you can slowly build a swim, as well as packing the bags with a variety of loosefeed items to create a compact trap on the lakebed. “One edge that has worked well for me is filling the bag with pellets, a few crushed Sticky Baits Manilla boilies, corn and maggots,” said Jack.
“I always have a few pre-tied, so can I cast at showing fish. Prior to casting, I inject the bag with some liquid flavour to flood the swim with attraction but little in the way of extra food content.”
4) Adjust your zigs
Although he always fishes one of his three rods on the deck, the other two will often be on zig rigs. “The biggest problem with zigs is trying to discover the exact depth at which the fish are sitting,” advised Jack.
“If they are obviously not on or near the surface I’d look to start around three-quarters depth with one rod, and slightly shallower with the second.”
He will then shorten the hooklink every couple of hours in increments of one foot at a time, so that he eventually covers all depths. “If I still haven’t had a run, then it is time to change the colour of the hookbait, cast to another area or even move swims,” he added.
5) Use maggots sparingly
Becoming more and more popular on many day-ticket waters, maggots can be devastating in the colder months. Jack, however, uses them very differently to other anglers.
“I have found that if I’m struggling for bites using boilies or corn for example, putting out a couple of Spombs of maggots can trigger the carp into feeding,” he explained.
Experience has shown the Croydon-based rod that once you get them eating, you can go back to your original hookbaits. The movement of the maggots just seems to trigger a feeding response in the fish that other baits don’t.
“I see anglers with truckloads of maggots in buckets, literally gallons and gallons,” he said.
“The problem with this is that they are both expensive and difficult to keep. I only bring three or four pints – most of which I might take home – just to use to try to provoke a couple of bites and get the swim going.”
9 tips to give you the edge over the carp!
These 9 early spring tips from Jack Funnel will give you the edge over the carp in the coming weeks ahead.
Step 1. Be mobile
Getting on the fish is so important no matter what time of year it is. It seems even more essential in the spring, though, as the fish tend to move round in groups. Where there is one there are normally more.
I like to travel as light as I can, which enables me to move easily. I will move two or three times a day if I need to. I simply keep most of my gear on the barrow and will put up the bivvy once I am settled and on the fish.
Step 2. Pop-ups
I like to fish my baits popped up early in the year. There is often bottom debris and, in some lakes, fresh weed growth. I like to have my bait suspended off this kind of bottom. The fish are not yet feeding hard and have not created feeding spots. They are grazing areas and harvesting the naturals, so something well-presented on top of this is perfect.
I carry a selection of different pop-ups and some work better on different lakes. For example, on some of the lakes I fish, the fishy baits such as Krill pop-ups work best. On other waters, Signatures, which are a lot fruitier, are more productive. I know that a lot of this is to do with the acidity/alkalinity (pH) of the water, with some lakes being more acidic than others, so it is worth playing around with different ones.
Step 3. Bright hookbaits
I know it is a common belief and everyone seems to say it, but bright hookbaits are super-effective in the spring. The carp have most likely not been caught in a while and they often let their guard down. A bright, in-their-face pop-up can be enough to get a bite, and a quick one at that.
I am a big fan of the Signatures and they travel wherever I go. You get three different colours in a tub and they smell fantastic. Whatever it is, fish love them and they are my go-to hookbait in the spring.
Step 4. Check water clarity
This may sound strange but I keep an eye on the clarity of the water for a number of reasons, depending on where I am fishing. If the water is really clear, then I would be tempted to fish with zigs. This would only be the case if there was high air pressure and no fish were being caught off the bottom.
It also makes me more aware of whether or not I need to pay more attention to camouflaging my end tackle to the lake conditions. If the water is coloured, I try to focus more on smell rather than colour.
Step 5. Less can be more
Even if the fish are getting caught, I still try to go in softly with the bait. I don’t like putting in too much as it can ruin your chances. I like to try to build up the swim and, providing what you feed them is right, you can get through a lot of bait.
I like to mix sweetcorn, maggots and Manilla, and the fish love it. I would only ever bait with about half a kilo at most and if I needed to top up, I would. That age-old saying of ‘you can’t take out what you have put it in’ certainly rings true for me.
Step 6. Boost your hookbaits
I like to have my baits really pumping out attraction. As I have mentioned, I don’t always fish over a baited area to put loads of attraction in the swim, so I have to do it with my hookbaits. The sprays are great for this as they add lots more smell to the bait. They are also very thin and light and will easily penetrate the pop-up, which in turn adds more attraction without having to soak it for months at a time.
Step 7. Check the snags
Carp will use any snaggy areas or trees at all times of the year, so it is worth checking them out. If the sun is hitting these spots and is sheltered from the wind, they can be a great place to offer a bait. These kinds of areas can be carp magnets and you can often find them there at all times of the day.
These areas are usually safe from angling pressure too, so my advice would be to fish safely as closely as you can and try to lure them out with a bit of boilie crumb.
Step 8. Try out zig rigs
It has been proven time and time again just how effective zigs can be, especially in the spring. There are often thousands of hatches going on at this time of year and the fish will be gorging on insects.
What’s more, the spring sunshine is like a magnet for the carp, drawing them to the warmer upper layers of the lake. Quite often they will spend most of their time there, day and night, and offering a bait there is the only way of catching them. Again, it is important to look at the weather and see if it there is high air pressure. It is also good to see if anything has been caught off the bottom and, if not, this is the time to get the zigs out.
I carry a selection of coloured foams and play around with various colour combinations and depths. Once you have worked it out, you can be on for a really good session.
Step 9. Get up early
The fish will be showing themselves a lot, especially during the night and early morning. I make a point of being awake at around 2am, even if it is just for 20 minutes or so, and ensure I’m up for first light. It gives me a better chance of tracking down the fish and finding out where they are.
If the fish are not near me, I will move to them no matter what time it is. Time is of the essence when you’re fishing and one man’s complacency can give another angler a session of a lifetime.
