Priorities – Carp Angler tells us his are changing

In previous seasons I have mostly targeted carp, with the occasional soiree for other species, usually as social meetings with friends from around the country, and then usually hunting barbel, cats or roach.

But this year has seen me go through various emotional states with regards to my fishing. After the initial euphoria of getting right back into the groove of the sport that I hold most precious, those moments have been dampened, and after a lot of thought, I have decided not to fish for carp anymore, except for one or two weekends with very close friends.

This has been bought about for various reasons and was a difficult decision to reach. I absolutely love my carp fishing and all the preparation, tactics and thinking behind it. The negative side of carp fishing has lead me to question whether I want to be involved in this arena at all. The world seems to be full of ‘know alls’ who have caught a couple of doubles from their local match water or have fluked one big fish from their local stockie lake and think they can profess some form of expertise to all and sundry.

I’m not the sort of person who will sit back and listen (or read) when I see or hear complete rubbish being spouted, but equally I’m not involved in the sport to not enjoy it, so I’d rather let the self-proclaimed experts, (who don’t listen anyway) carry on with their diatribes, whilst I seek my pleasures elsewhere. So, I have decided to reverse my priorities and concentrate on other species and just fish very occasionally for carp.

This summer and autumn I will be concentrating on tench and bream, with the autumn also being split with barbel. The winter will be spent on the rivers after barbel when it’s warm and chub and roach when it’s colder.

I’ll still be targeting bigger fish when I can and coupled with my experience in carp fishing which I hope I can adapt to help me catch other species, then it’s starting to seem like a pretty good adventure already.

Some people have recently called in to question the adaptation of carp tactics for other species, but the efficiency of goods rigs and set ups, the application of quality baits, the ability to dedicate oneself to the pursuit means that any quarry can be targeted and hopefully with a modicum of success.

I have carp fished for many years and for most of them I have been trying to forge my own way with either rigs for specific situations, or a bait or application to suit a certain venue and it’s this thinking that I’m hoping will aid me in my pursuit of other species. I have had success with tench, bream and barbel and it’s these species which I’ll be pursuing with gusto, fully utilising the techniques, baits and skills which bought me success whilst carping.

I’ve started after the tench, but only short sessions (three or four hours at a stretch) on a water that’s a little bit difficult, but I’m absorbing info on this pit all the time that will hopefully aid my pursuit in the coming months when my free fishing time is a little more available and I’m able to put together a couple of days.

The barbel have already seen a bit of my bait and now that they’ve moved back out of the shallower, post spawning areas, they’ll be seeing plenty more of the same.A concerted attack of Dynamite halibut pellets and 10mm Source boilies between now and March, should hopefully see a few of our bearded friends gracing the bottom of my landing net. This is one facet of carping that I rarely see people targeting other species employ, pre-baiting. Pre-baiting works, of that there is no doubt, but the correct swims need to be selected and a decent bait with the appropriate quantities need to be decided upon.There’s little point in blowing your seasons bait budget in the first month by throwing bait at £ 10 a kilo into a glide inhabited by 2lb bream.

If you have knowledge of your chosen stretch (or stretches) and believe you know where the barbel are likely to feed, then give them a free taster. Some people are happy to dropper in a pint of hemp before they fish and hope that the barbel are playing ball. Me? I’d rather spend 10 minutes twice a week, pre-baiting, to stack the odds a bit more in my favour. With actual fishing time limited, then I’d prefer to do as much as I can when I haven’t got a line in the water to increase the likelihood of success when I do get the chance.

Having had some pretty good success fishing with PVA bags of pellets and boilies, then I thought I’d pre-bait with the same. So all my frozen Source boilies have been air dried and I’ve made up some mesh bags of boilies (about 30 baits in a bag), some of pellet and some of both to be able to drop them in my chosen swims as and when I can. (see pic)As the season progresses, then my choice of swims will narrow down and the baiting will become more regimented, which will hopefully increase my rate of success. If a swim slows down, or becomes overfished by other anglers, then I’ll continue with my other swims whilst finding some new ones to start baiting.

Whilst baiting and fishing for the barbel, I may be lucky enough to spot some of the larger chub which inhabit my neck of the woods, these too will see some free food and will hopefully repay me by posing for a nice photograph under the caption of “a new PB”.I only occasionally set weight targets for the coming season, and this year I’ve set my stall for a 7lb+ chub.

If I can achieve that target, then I’ll be happy, if I can reach it whilst really enjoying my fishing, then I’ll be over the moon.

Wish me luck.