I’m a big bloke and after a few practice casts on the water with the right equipment I am able to cast to the horizon in order to reach my intended target (well most of the time!). But why are so many so intent on fishing at such distances? I appreciate that there are those times when the need for distance is required, but at what costs? I also appreciate that in certain circumstances no other method will do the trick, but do we ALWAYS need to punch our rigs that far all the time? I’ve been successful with my carp fishing and a lot of that is owed to support and advice given from many of the guys here on FM, but if truth be told I’d say 90% of my fish have come from within the 40 yard range. I don’t think there is anything more amusing than to walk around my local venue and ask the occasional angler who’s intent at fishing at range what he’s had and for him to reply with a negative response of ‘nowt mate’ and then watch a carp swim under his lines just past his rod tip! There are reasons for why we fish at range and there are reasons as to why we fish the margins. Just like there are reasons why we’d use a pop-up over a bottom bait on a particular day. These reasons are easily justified and are down to requiring different methods for different occasions for different days. But are we all being true to ourselves when we cast to the horizons when we don’t need too ALL of the time?
I’ve got three sets of carp rods, two marker rods, one spod rod, a couple of spares and a portable carp rod for shoving in my suitcase when the old woman’s turned her back when packing for holidays. Each set, when laid out on my buzzers, looks outstanding through my Tackle Tart goggles, but are they really working for me the way I want them to? When we fish with three rods do we punch them all out to the 100 yard mark or do we stick one in the margin, one about 50 yards out and the last one at distance hence covering more lake bed? If this is the case are we really making the most of our hard earned cash that we spent on our rods in the first place? I’ve lived through the tackle-tart era and must confess do still partake in the trend, but now I’m getting a bit older and bit wiser I try to edge my bets. On my buzzers today you’ll see a ‘mix and match’ of rods. I’ll normally have two 2.5 test curve 12 foot rods on the one fishing the margins and on the extreme other I’ll have one x 3.5 test curve 12.5 foot distance chucker, or the other way round based on the venue and of course where I wish my baits to land. Make sense? My gear might not look so good but I now use the right tools for the job in hand. The other thing that amazes me is the amount of new carp anglers that come and go. Those that have seen Matt Hayes and Mick Brown catch a 40 and feel there’s no reason why they can’t do the same. These are the anglers that get frustrated with blanking and throw in the towel far too early and then stick their gear up for sale in all the local papers (always a good place for smart deal by the way). This saddens me based on their approach. If they had researched harder or set their targets on small carp to begin with and sucked the brains of the match fisherman a little more than perhaps they could have moved through the ranks accordingly. The reason I mention this is we should all give credit where credit is due and in my opinion there is no better fisherman than the matchman when it comes to detailed baiting presentation and loose feeding to build up a productive swim. By taking a leaf out of the matchman’s book we could improve our fishing tenfold when it comes to making the most out of a margin spot or shelf, etc. If we’re casting to the horizon then we’ve got to take into consideration the way the hookbait is going to land on the bottom and in what state it will finally present itself once stood still. We’ve got to take into consideration that some rigs will not necessarily give us the best advantage of presentation after we’ve given them the gun through the air. Add this to the distance we’re fishing and the limitation via aerodynamics and the limitations of what loose bait we can get out there with the rig and you’re starting to cut down your options. I appreciate stringers are a great aid as I use them on a regular basis but compare this to a margin spot on your left or your right between one and 25ft from the bank. You can lower your bait beautifully into position and you can feed the swim up throughout your session, mirroring the skill-sets of presentation accomplished by the matchman. The further out you go the tougher it becomes (regarding loose bait presentation) unless you’ve got a boat of course like me(!) Now I’m fully aware how accurate spodding can be, but I don’t know one carp angler who can hit target 10 out of 10 times at long distance without being at least a good few feet out on the spangled cast. I also appreciate the merits of spreading your bait, but again it’s all about the option of variations available to you on a particular day. My experience has led me to believe that even the most cautious of carp are happy on occasion to peruse the margins at night in order to pick up on any left-overs from the coarse fisherman of the day. Sometime it’s worth taking advantage of this kind of situation and set your traps accordingly. There are hundreds of different ways of fishing the margins of which I’m not prepared to go into detail here. But put some further thought into the margins as an option the next time you go instead of just punching through the air with all of your rods. Take into consideration some of the advantages mentioned above regarding presentation – you never know, it may just put another fish or two on the bank for you! |
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