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Stalking
Carp In The Margins - By
Mathew Woods. Carp
are quite gregarious, social creatures, and often shoal up together, but
I have noticed on many waters that the larger fish tend to be loners.
For this reason it is always worth exploring the deepest, seediest, most
overgrown areas of a lake, where a big carp might just think it's hidden
away safely. Many
of my angling friends, and many of the anglers I read about speak of the
same thing, and it is often the case that the largest fish pop up in the
most ignored areas of a lake. These areas are usually extremely cramped,
take various whippings from branches across the polaroids to get to, and
you can barely fit a chair in let alone a bivvy. However,
these swims can be very profitable, as they are so often overlooked. I
remember reading an article by Ian Poole, about his time on Manor, and
how the largest fish were rarely seen with any pals around them. Could
this be a case of juvenile carp teasing the larger fish, in the same way
as most of us ridicule a sumo wrestler or an obese celebrity? Or is it
simply a case that the big carp know that if they get excited into a
feeding frenzy by competitive doubles that they will probably end up
with a few minutes on an unhooking mat. I
may be that these carp, probably being the older of the carp, just like
a bit of peace and quiet, away from noisy youngsters and even noisier
anglers. Either way, this brings me to my point about using the margins
to stalk your quarry. Chances
are, the first few times you went fishing, you walked along the bank and
scared the living daylights out of numbers of margin carp on seperate
occasions. I still do it from time to time, missing opportunities as I
do so, and it really gets to me. The
margins are the biggest feature on any lake, you can fish gravel bars
and islands all day, but chances are, nearly every fish in the lake will
visit some area near the bank at some point, every single day.
But
how should you approach it? Well there are many ways you can go about
it, from the elaborate ways written about by Sheringham (Which I wont go
into) or the straightforward 'hunter' approach. We
have all heard the quote by Isaak Newton, "Study to be quiet",
and Isaak couldn't have put it any better. The slightest movement can
spook a carp, but sound is of the most importance, as even the slightest
twig break can send a carp bolting off into the depths never to return. You
must really envisage yourself as a 'stalker', like a hidden hitman, an
assassin, but one who catches carp. You need to be invisible. That
brings me onto the 'invisibility factor', which is mainly a rig and bait
matter. Right,
you've been perfectly silent, and you've found a 30lb common sitting
around 6 foot away from you, you've found it, but how are you going to
catch it?
This Carp certainly loved these maggots. ......................................................................................... Arguably
the best approach however is to simply put a single hook bait in front
of a carp, but not on the nose of a carp, as chances are at that
distance the carp wont be able to see them, and would probably be alarm
by the sudden appearance of them if they did see them. So
dangle your wrigglers carefully, I'd suggest around 4-6 feet in front of
a carp. You may use other baits though, sweetcorn is always a good bet,
a nice big worm is also a cracking bait when stalking, as are pellets
and paste. If
the carp seem to be out of freelining range, then there are a whole host
of rig ideas you can try. Leadcore
is the best friend of a carp angler fishing the margins, as the main
area of interest is not obscured by any line, that can easily spook a
carp. This
is extremely important, as carp aren't very fond of seeing or feeling
line, also, the leadcore adds casting weight, so you don't need the
added splash of a lead.
I
recall a time when I had just begun fishing, and I was fishing a crystal
clear lake that was mainly used for match fishing, but because of the
prolific mussel beds, there were quite a few 20lb carp swimming around. I
was fishing for carp, but I was also flicking in a fingerful of casters
about 3 feet from the bank just incase a big perch or roach came along.
The roach came first, then a few nice perch, but then, completely
unexpectedly, the lake record mirror stumbled into view, all 26lb's of
it. An awesome sight for me at the time, and one that had me very quiet,
speechless infant. I
watched this magnificent creature suck in a single caster, then turn and
swim off as though it couldn't really be bothered to feed, either that
or it could feel my heart beating at 3 million miles an hour. It
returned though, from the same angle, took one of two mouthfuls, and
then disappeared slowly again. It came back a third time, this time with
a friend, a common of around 20lb's, and they both took a few mouthfuls,
the mirror swam off slowly again, but the common hung around for a
little longer, and then swam off to the left of my peg, up a reedy
margin.
This
baffled me, was the mirror going to look for it's favorite friends to
tell them there was a free meal right near the bank? Or was it simply
swimming from baited patch to baited patch picking and choosing what it
wanted to eat? What also confused me was how it was only taking a single
mouthful, and then casually strolling away. I
saw my opportunity, and I reeled in my one rod, left my set up on [a
simple mono hooklink with a 1oz lead] put on some casters, and plopped
it into the spot the mirror was visiting. The
carp came back, and didn't seem to look puzzled at the fact that the
casters it had once eaten had been replaced, and started to feed more
confidently until my own angling inexperience came into play. I
had left my rod with the line tied tight to the lead, and the fish
brushed against it. Within a split second all my hopes and dreams of
breaking my personal best, by what would have been 16lb at the time,
were broken. It
was then I learned the importance of pinning down the line and keeping
it well away from your baited area. Slack lines also have this effect,
but you may need some SSG shot to aid the cast. These large shot act in the same way that any lead would, causing alarm in the fish and a given opportunity that the fish may decide to up sticks and leg it! Which may result in a caught fish. However, the end tackle you would use for general carp angling may also be used to stalk the margins. Sometimes
stalking can be a case of baiting and waiting. It is often advisable to
bait up a few likely looking spots and cruise between them looking for
signs of interested carp, although you can leave your rig in amongst one
of these 'traps' and wait patiently for a carps imminent arrival.
A
simple, cheap, yet amazingly effective way of catching big carp. Chopped
or crushed tiger nuts are also amazingly effective, as are 'soups' of
sloppy groundbait and seed mixes. Partiblend has accounted for more than
its fair share of margin caught carp, and the size of the variables in
the mix are probably the reason why. Small baits are often looked at by
carp with much enthusiasm, as they resemble the size of natural food
they come across. For
some reason each of these baits is taken readily be carp, as if they
grew up eating them as treats in their natural environment. I often
think that bread takes the form and yeasty smell from some form of
shrimpy or mussel flesh, and that some sort of chemical reaction with
the water is what makes it so deadly. Although
the new artificial bread looks really good, I am a little skeptical at
the moment, although I am sure I will have those worries taken away.
Hopefully by my own experiments. Dog
biscuits are also good, but floater fishing is a different ball game to
stalking, as the carp make themselves utterly obvious when fishing the
surface, but when stalking, it's a different ball game down on the lake
bed. In
these situations rigs can be very important, as you want to be subtle in
your presentation, but not so subtle that any fish hooked will snap off. I
favor a long length of leadcore, about 6-12 feet, attached to a long
length of snakebite, which is combi rigged by peeling back a little of
the coating to tie the hook with. Small hooks and long hairs are also
tactics I employ, as I want the fish to feel as confident as possible
when feeding. I
will go as small as a size 10 hook, and opt for owner gorilla's or ESP
raptors, as these hooks are extremely strong in small sizes. As
for leads, well this is up to you. I have recently been playing around
with drilled stones, to make inline leads, but I believe the Pallatrax
boys have brought out an entirely more refined product with the same
principle. I do like in-lines for margin carping, although most leads
are up to the job. I've varied from big 6oz ball leads to 1oz flatties,
I think that your knowledge of the particular fish you're fishing for
should indicate what sort of lead arrangement to use. I apologize for
being that brief, but there is no universal truth in that situation. A great rig, for those wishing to fish single pop-up boilies, is the hinge rig. We all know it well but I think many people fish it the wrong way. It's a difficult rig to tie, and my teeth are slowly being pulled forwards by wrenching at the line to bed down blood knots. Here is the set-up I prefer, which involves a really small pop-up section, something that I believe acts as a bristle that the carp find difficult to eject. Here
is a rig that will take any pop-up.
Another
fantastic way to stalk carp is to use a humble float set-up. I prefer to
use the Goose Quill Floats made by angler Mark Price, they are superbly
hand crafted and look perfect in the water. You can see reviewed here:
http://www.carp-uk.net/reviews/mark-price-floats.htm Float
fishing is a very silent task, it is very subtle, and hooklengths of
8-10lb are better than thicker lines, although I do like to use my usual
rigs tied onto the end underneath the float. http://www.carp-uk.net/floatfishing.htm
is a great little guide that shows how best to use a float. From the
swivel I like to use snakebite, or kryston multistrand, a great
hooklength when float fishing. Now
you've got your rigs and bait sorted out, you need to equip yourself
with the correct gear. It is no use using your distance rods to fish the
margins, as you will be far too overgunned and may suffer hook pulls,
resulting in damage to the carp. You
can buy specialist rods for the task, but anything from 2.5lb downwards
is suitable. I like to use a strong barbel rod of around 2lb, these are
strong and have the perfect amount of give for fishing in close. 10-15lb
line is your best bet, I like Diawa Sensor, although I am impressed with
Sufix's Magic Touch which I have recently spooled up with. Bear in mind
that many of the areas you're fishing will be full of snags, so choose a
good strong line. That's
all from me at the moment, I know it might seem like hard work to begin
with but once you start getting your rewards you'll never sit still
again. If you're struggling to locate carp, get your arse up the nearest
climbing tree [Be careful] and start looking. My
eyes are buggered from trying to stare through the water so
often. Keep your eyes out for muddy waters, dark patches, the shapes of
carp, bubbles from a carps mouth, or the most obvious things, like a
carp jumping clear of the water. Keep
it simple and keep it quiet and I'm sure those margin carp will come
your way. All the best and tight lines. ......................................................................................... |
