I don’t want to harp on about the weather but I honestly can’t remember a year like it. The fishing conditions have been both poor and changing so rapidly that I’m first to admit I’ve struggled to get anything going on a couple of the venues I’ve been having a dabble on.
I was speaking to a friend the other day, who is targeting a specific big fish in a very pressured water; he told me that the lake has produced about four carp in the last month. Whereas this time last year it was doing four fish a week, which was then considered average. It is not all doom and gloom though; some lakes have been in good form and I’m lucky to include my fishery amongst those.
It tends to be the waters with the younger fish in that keep in good form throughout the year. By younger fish I don’t just mean small ones either, as there are plenty of 10-year-old forty pound plus carp around nowadays. Older fish, just seem to be far more moody when the weather is inclement and then slower to respond to good feeding conditions. It is no surprise to me that most of the really sought after carp in the UK get banked once in the spring and then again in late autumn.
The Right Water
So many anglers, including myself, harp on about how important it is to be on the right water in winter for some action, but I find summer equally the same. Some waters are just superb for stalking fish in the warmer months or for a spot of floater fishing. Other lakes I’ve fished on in the past are very frustrating in the middle of the year. Busy lakes in the winter tend to be best, but busy venues that are constantly under pressure in the summer can be a bad choice. There is a water near where I’m staying at the moment, which I really fancy having a bash on, but it is rammed out most days and I know it will be very frustrating to fish.
The good news for me is that it is fishing very hard and I can see the angler pressure dropping off each week, so I’m keeping a close eye on the lake and will hopefully get a decent opportunity on there soon.
Bait Choice
As we start to head into early autumn I have noticed on my own fishery just how good top quality boilies stand out. Last month it was the guys who were good with the spod taking the best hits on my water, but in the last two weeks most of the biggest hits and decent fish have fallen for a good scattering of decent boilies. I know from my own experiences just how quick a few big doubles and twenties will eat a kilo of boilies, but the other day I watched a good angler put out 2kg of 15mm boilies over both his rods and catch within ten minutes. He had another three Mustang Lake carp in the next couple of hours, two of which were 24lb plus.
When I try to tell other anglers just how good boilies are, they always moan about the cost of them and how it’s alright ‘for people like me’ who have sponsorship deals. I know that I’m in a very privileged position, but I’ve worked hard for it and I fished for at least 15 years before I had any sort of bait deal.
I learnt from a very early age just how important good bait was from an old angler who used to make bait. I remember his spicy liver boilies and he used to catch ten times as many fish as anyone else on the lake. His baits were all manner of shapes and sizes so that has always stuck with me as well and to this day I will nearly always bait up with at least two or three different sizes of boilie.
I spent many years making boilies, and vast amounts of my spare cash on bait ingredients and equipment, but it rewarded me with some captures I still look back on and smile about. I would rather not go fishing if I couldn’t use what I thought was the best bait. I sat behind a guy last week who easily had over £3000 worth of tackle but turned up for a session with half a bag of boilies and a small maggot box full of dusty old pellets. He may have looked good but on heavily stocked waters bait is a massive key to success and being under prepared is a mistake.
One kilo of Monster Squid, a couple of kilos of matching Monster Carp Pellet or Soluballs and maybe a few tins of corn is the minimum I would take to a well stocked day-ticket water at this time of the year. Nash Top Rod boilies are available in both frozen and shelf life formats which provides some flexibility, so if I don’t use all of the bait I can take it home and there’s no waste.
Good Angling
I was lucky to fish along some really good anglers as a kid, not just carp anglers as well, all-rounders who taught me how important location was, along with the basic skills of being quiet and patient at times. The carp fishing tactics and different level of abilities I see on my own day-ticket lake is incredibly diverse nowadays. It’s nice to get a real mixed bunch of anglers on a water as it keeps me interested in offering different advice, but sometimes I do wonder why so many overcomplicate things – and bring boilies which are as hard as marbles and smell like my mother’s perfume (sorry mum).
The anglers that do well on my lake and everywhere they go to be fair, are incredibly observant, constantly watching the water and trying to work out where the fish are in the swim. I have other anglers down who will tell me they’ve not seen a thing and as they’re saying it I’m watching carp activity straight in front of them. Sometimes the signs can be so subtle, just a few bubbles, or a nose poking out of the surface. But I know that if I stand in each swim for ten minutes it would be very unusual, in the summer at least, not to see signs of carp. At first light through to about 8am they are particularly active and it is no surprise that the best anglers are those who are up watching the water…and catching the fish.
What Works For You
Years ago I learnt to not worry about what others were catching or more importantly not catching. I had a guy last night on my lake who came down for a 24 hour stint and his only action was one lost fish in the night. He told me he wasn’t bothered as the guy next to him had not caught either, so he presumed the fish were not really having it. I could see them fizzing like mad, so I politely said maybe he was unlucky and better luck next time. One hour later a different angler dropped into the swim and banked four carp in 12 hours, using quality boilies, Nash Monster Squid to be exact, and a very tidy rig.
To presume you have been unlucky all of the time is a massive mistake, when I was younger I blanked so many times on waters that I was out of my depth on but I learnt so much, which eventually came together and helped me become a reasonable angler. I never now worry who is catching and who is not, I just do my own thing and see if it works wherever I go. If I start to listen to what others say is the going tactic and change my style it usually lets me down. I can remember going to places like Linear Fisheries for the first time and trying out different tactics because that’s what everyone told me worked. There is nothing wrong with listening to good advice, but finding out what works for you is better than trying to fish like someone else.
I know and completely respect that some guys just go carp fishing for a chill out and to have a rest from work or family commitments. But at that same time 90% of them still want to bag up on big carp. The truth is the more you put in, in terms of effort, the more you will get out of your carp fishing, so it has to be a balance of chilling out and trying.
I’ve always found it far more relaxing when I’m working at it, rather than sitting behind a pair of rods, wondering and praying for one to scream off. I don’t pretend to be the most active guy on the planet, as I love to put my feet up in front of the TV some evenings. But on the bank I try to keep busy most of the day, it’s what I go for and enjoy, plus I know it pays off, especially with limited time.
Lastly, I must mention just how big some of the hatches I’ve seen on my water have been this year. Incredible amounts of buzzers and other water bugs have swarmed over the lake some evenings and the carp have gone nuts on them. It’s really made me realize how much carp love feeding up in the water and just how good zig rigs are throughout the year.
I watched a guy catch two fish last week during a warm evening using Nash Zig-Bugs just one foot under the surface. Both fish were hooked over an inch back in the mouth, so they clearly took them confidently. It was a good piece of angling and then to cap it off he banked a 26lb common off the bottom on boilies the following morning. Just being versatile, keeping to simple rigs and good bait produced another good session.
