Fish Location

Fish will normally be scattered or will move with angling pressure, bait application or natural food sources. The important thing is finding a feature in your chosen area. This may be in the form of an undulation, weed bed, silt pocket or marginal snag, the fish normally get caught on one of these as opposed to casting into an open flat area. To find the features you can use the trusted marker rod or jump in the rowing boat with a feature finder. In any event it is essential you make detailed notes of distances and horizon markers to ensure you can get back on the spot.

Marking your spots

You can use a marker rod to find and mark your features or an 'H' block marker from the rowing boat using an echo sounder. In any event I recommend you take markers in once you are fishing, nothing worst than loosing a fish due to it getting tangled round a marker line.

Bait Application

For a standard week at the lake, I would recommend the following bait:

• 5kg boilies, bring a bait you have confidence in, of good quality, at least semi air dried. MARNE VALLEY MATRIX is a winner and could be a valuable key to success
• 5kg mixed pellets, the fish are fed these all year round every year
• 5kg particle mix, we sell a premixed bucket of hemp, maize, sunflower seeds, wheat, peanuts and tiger nuts, all elements of this mix have caught fish. Hemp is also available.

As the carp are pressured all edges will help you when at the lake, consider; big baits, small baits, fake bait, unusual baits from the human grade food chain. Please bear in mind there is a 15kg bait limit per person per week, so do not throw it all in at once. In my experience it is far more effective to start with no more than a small handfull of bait lightly scattered over a few square metres, rather than 5 kg in a tight area. Obviously all applications have there day, but bear in mind what has happened the week before your arrival and do not be tempted to think that a big bed of bait will draw them in, I assure you it will not, and may have the opposite effect. Over the last few years it has become apparent that "bird feeding" or very lightly scattering over a 9m2 area by rowing boat is one of the best ways of applying bait. A single grain of maize, tiger nut, part of a boilie, fake hemp, maggots fake and real, fake pellet are my favourite hookbaits when fishing over a light scattering.

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Vary the quantity of bait applied per rod. If you are going to introduce a large bed of bait then be prepared to sit on it for at least 4 days before thinking of moving it. It’s always worth dribbling in a few kgs of bait on a few other spots that you are not fishing. This will give the fish confidence to move into the area and feed. Then if you want to move a rod you will be a step ahead and could drop onto feeding fish, think ahead !!

Weed

Between May and September there is a chance you may encounter some degree of the green stuff in your chosen area. Whilst there is always a large choice of clear areas in the lake, at certain periods you will need to carefully consider your end tackle arrangement in order to stand the best chance possible of landing a hooked fish, they normally know exactly where to go in order to find a safe haven.

Points for your consideration:

• use in line leads that fall off on the strike, there are purpose made components on the market that are first class and will put more fish on the bank
• 25lb+ hooklink minumum breaking strain, coated braid or sink link braid. Do not use nylon it is nowhere near as abrasive resistant as braid and you could get cut offs due to small zebra mussels attached to weed stems
• use 10metres 40lb min. BS braided leaders
• upgrade line to 18 - 20lb BS
• use thick gauge wire hooks
• fish locked up solid so the rods are shacking in the stands before a fish can take line
• consider fishing high rod tips and on hooking a fish hold the rod as high as possible whislt moving onto the highest piece of ground in your vicinity
• when retrieving ensure you keep the rod high and reel as fast as possible so as to get the lead to the surface quickly
• do not back lead
• if a fish gets weeded consider putting the rod in the rest and slackening off the line, they sometimes come out!
• bring a spare landing net and leave it in the nearest boat, the most efficient way of landing fish in a weedy environment is to jump in the boat and get above them
• bring a proding stick to clearly identify variations in the density of the lake bed
• if your marker is not popping up, do not persist, try just using a dstance lead and clip it up once you have found a spot your are intersted in. You can then put a marker to it.

Fishing in the winter between November and into April

During this period fish will go into a semi hybernation once the water gets to around 5°c, so check with me what the water temperature is before setting out so that you are equipped with the best bait for the job. My top hookbait for cold water is maggots. I mix these 50 : 50 with bloodworm pellets, sweetcorn, rocksalt, Vitalin and high levels of liquid amino. This mix is used for pva bags and then a small amount, one handfull, for bait boat top up. If this does'nt get you a bite then nothing will!!!! Although you must put it on the right spot, in the winter carp do not stray too far away from where they are confortable. I would also recommend zig rig fishing, if you find fish are topping but you are not getting a bite, always worth ago. Also in the depths of winter the fish will sit in a thermocline they are most confortable with, this is not normally on the bottom of the lake and they can be very vulnerable once you discover where they are and at what depth! Always use proper zig components and work the rig every few hours from a metre of the bottom to two thirds the depth, 15cm at a time is normally good. Favourite bait is either black foam for bright conditions or yellow for dull conditions, 1cm cube on a 8 or 10 hook to 10lb BS floating zig line.