Optimising Your Weekend Carp Fishing For Big Fish Success!
by: Tim Richardson
Most of us can only go carp fishing at weekends so we have to maximise our valuble time to get the best catches possible! But if your goal is to catch big carp very consistently for outstanding outstanding big carp results there are vital things you can do to ensure you truly have far better chances of success; so why not read on and exploit these for yourself!
Doing your homework in advance of visits on waters is of vital importance; verify that the fish you want really are present in a water and not claims from fishery owners or just fanciful myths! (Some of the funniest disasters in fishing result from not doing vital homework!) I remember fishing one river in Yorkshire years ago where it was claimed to contain salmon. Under a bridge I found what I thought appeared to be part of a big tail moving in the current occasionally. Upon wading out to investigate further I got cut by metal on the bottom and discovered that what I could see what just a flapping length of old plastic and that the river was one rated as among the worst polluted rivers in Europe!
You may notice from your research that the bigger fish in a lake come from certain areas or spots in particular swims in certain months or weeks of the year; so why not gear up your fishing and baiting approaches to exploit this!
When fishing commercial waters for example, pre-book your swim if at all possible; this totally removes the inevitable stress of trying to battle through traffic to get to a fishery in time to get a more productive swim!
Why not get into the habit of fishing lakes in your mind while you are not there! Using creative imagination is extremely valuable and will help you to read waters better - and to fish them more appropriately! (This is one of my own hidden secrets of success.) Examples of this are noticing every day which direction the wind is in and what the temperatures and pressure are doing, (rising or falling,) and how all this may determine where fish might be in a swim if no angler and lines are present.
This procedure can be done for multiple lakes and multiple swims simultaneously for any weather at and time of year. Visualisation will really give you a big edge - putting you ahead of fish behaviours to come and ahead of competing anglers in many ways! An intriquing example is considering what happens if an angler is present in any particular swim and how fish might behave in more artificial ways in response to his lines, baiting and actual detected presence, in contrast to if the swim was vacant (or appeared to be vacant!)
Mid-week visits to waters are extremely useful to see where fish are, where they are getting caught, how they behave (with possibly less angling pressure and less bait,) and where angling baits are going in etc. All this helps you in your weekend fishing if you can exploit all these and more; superior intelligence wins wars!
Visiting lakes mid-week to see how fish are responding in the swim you fished at the weekend is very valuable in building up a bigger picture of how your lines baits and presence affect the fish say compared to other anglers fishing the same swim mid-week. Although very many carp lakes are getting much busier during the mid-week period, there may well be differences between how fish behave and feed and where they feed at weekends compared to the mid-week.
On many very highly pressured waters it is often the case that fish will clear up beds of bait left un-eaten from weekend anglers. It is very likely you will see this in action on your mid-week visits, so one thing you can do is actually do a short mid-week trip to exploit this behaviour and even pre-bait your swim while fishing at the weekend deliberately to exploit the swim mid-week.
You can often exploit the baiting of other weekend anglers mid-week; just fishing using a single bait approach can produce big fish feeding more confidently on old washed-out baits.
Fishing weekends using washed-out baits is a great trick for wary fish if you have the confidence to try it.
Fishing un-favoured swims at weekends can produce some of the biggest fish as they try to avoid the pressure put on them by anglers in popular swims!
Fishing for line bites and just one fish at a time in a match fishing style of fishing can really pay off in contrast to putting in kilograms of pellets and boilies and just sitting on it; do not copy the use of baits the crowd is using; you can always keep ahead by doing this, or alternatively (with more bait knowledge,) why not top the dominant bait on a water!
Float fishing and fishing mid-water and very close to snags (responsibly of course) is often very productive compared to the lazy 3 rod static approach! Actually determining to work exceptionally hard for your fish can really work and such a level of intense focus is rare among typical weekend carp anglers!
Thinking like a fish instead of an angler is a huge advantage; so do your homework on carp in as much detail as possible so you truly can do this. For instance, I now know what bait substances at what levels impact fish in very varied ways instantly and over a period of time so I can exploit all kinds of baits to maximum effect (and many of mine can be made instantly on the bank.)
You can fish lightening sessions of just a few hours in the evening purely to get back in touch with a water, see where fish are, what they are up to and to keep bait going in preparation for your weekend fishing. Ironically enough sometimes these sessions produce more big fish than fishing an entire weekend probably because you are far more focused than when settling into a swim for many hours were laziness can set in.
Your fish observations and thinking in advance of fishing including keeping an eye on future weather patterns and forecasts including historical patterns of weather and moon stages related to catches on a water are very valuable to future potential catches in terms of fishing timing, winds in terms of swim choices etc.
Look out for changes of weather as the week end progresses. You only need the fish passing through your swim even for a few minutes to intercept your target fish and this might mean choosing an unpopular swim and knowing something about this swim, the weather and fish movements that other anglers do not realise!
It might seem obvious but using as many rods as you are allowed often multiplies your chances of takes even if directly, but by the feedback you get from fishing that extra rod in another spot using a different bait, rig, etc. It can also give you fish information in terms of liners and other impacts such as the presence of a bait fished with a rod fished using a different line angle through the water and so on.
Fish as quietly and unobtrusively as possible; very many typical weekend carp anglers treat the experience like a trip down the pub and all this involves much reduces their chances compared to anglers who really focus on catching carp! All their re-casting, spodding of bait, plumbing of swims and general disruption of swims in so many ways including simply moving about in a swim or using bright head torches certainly alert fish to their presence and in many waters this is enough to turn fish off for the weekend in that area!
Why not try different baiting patterns to ones most people use. I find broadcasting baits widely is a good method where bait boats or tight bundles of bait in PVA net stockings appear to be the standard approach.
Getting to know your water better than normal weekend anglers will really put you permanently ahead; doing all your feature-finding, plumbing and even baiting-up during the week as opposed to when you are actually fishing really makes such a difference to the reactions of fish in your swim. Where very wary fish are concerned, being able to simply arrive and cast out with pre-clipped-up lines to spots you know intimately from your previous mid-week work is invaluble and your results can leave less aware weekend carp anglers puzzled and amazed!
Bait is one of the most important keys to weekend fishing and how you use it is a vital aspect you really need to think about in advance. I aim to be as different as possible and use my own homemade baits and ground baits. Bigger fish often fall for completely new baits simply because they are different and have less reason to be feared than established popular readymade baits.
My own cheap often complex homemade baits have caught me loads of thirties and forties including a 46 and a 48 pound fish (in the UK.) In fact these were fished against the best much more expensive readymade baits that Baitcraft, Mainline, Essential Baits, Nutrabaits and Nashbaits for instance can offer. (To do this yourself see my unique bait secrets website Baitbigfish or biography for more information right now!)
By Tim Richardson.
About The Author
Now why not seize this moment to improve your catches for life with these unique fishing bibles: “BIG CARP FLAVOURS FEEDING TRIGGERS AND CARP SENSES EXPLOITATION SECRETS!” “BIG CARP AND CATFISH BAIT SECRETS!” And “BIG CARP BAIT SECRETS!” For these and much more now visit: http://www.baitbigfish.com the home of the world-wide proven homemade bait making and readymade bait success secrets bibles!
The author invites you to visit:
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Article Source:
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