Carp Fishing Guide

We now stand in 2008 where carping tactics have moved on quite a bit from the early 80s. No longer do you see anglers with monkey climbers and washing up caps as bobbins, they are a thing of the past.
 
Now its all bait-boats with sonars on them to tell people what the bottom is like and where the fish are. They can be quite useful in some situations but you don't tend to get as much satisfaction out of your catch when its caught with a bait-boat.

When to start Carp Fishing 

If you are fairly new to fishing i would say not to go straight into carp fishing as you probably wont catch a lot and get fed up very quickly. Instead i think its better to serve a Fishing apprenticeship. What do i mean by this you ask? Well what i mean is don't run before you can walk. Buy yourself a cheap float rod and enjoy learning and catching the different species the UK has to offer. Also by doing this you will learn about watercraft, handling and unhooking fish.

To the right are some photos of me back in the late 80s early 90s serving my fishing apprenticeship. I always used to go with my best mate Lee when i was at school. And we used to spend our Friday nights sorting our tackle out so that it was all ready for the next days fishing which would normally be at Chasewater or the Wyrley and Essington Canal. When the 6 weeks holiday came it was like a dream come true.

What are the main items of Carp Fishing Tackle needed?

Once you feel ready you will know you want to start catching bigger fish like i did. I probably coarse fished for about 15 years before i decided to carp fish. I had always fished for and caught carp but i never called myself a proper carp fisherman until i had brought a bivvy and all the bite alarms.
 
To start with you will need rods and reels. There is plenty on the market these days to choose from, ranging from as little as £15 into the hundreds. All i would say is buy the best you can afford and what feels most comfortable. For reel line i would choose nothing lighter than 12lb because after all your hard work you don't want to be losing fish. You don't really need alarms if you are just starting out because i wouldn't go night fishing until you felt that you can cope with landing and unhooking a 20lb carp in the dark. I would recommend buying some indicators(hangers, swingers) just so that you can see if you get any drop back bites.
Typical indicator (below)


For those wanting to night fish i can recommend Fox or Delkim bite alarms which can be picked up fairly cheap second hand.


The one major item you need is a unhooking mat. There's no doubt about it. If you haven't got one the simple point is don't fish. You don't have to pay the earth for one, they are roughly £10 ($20) upwards. Make sure you get one with lots of padding to protect the fishes scales.

If you plan on fishing at night or when the weather could be bad you will need a brolly or bivvy. I have used a tent in the past but it's time consuming to put up and take down. If you spend about £100 ($200) you will get a cheap but good bivvy that will last. Also you are best to go for a pram-hood type bivvy as they are a lot quicker to put up and you don't have to mess about threading poles.
Below is the bivvy i have got which i brought for £100 ($200)


If you are planning on night fishing, winter fishing or just for maximum comfort you will require a sleeping bag. I used to think a normal camping one was satisfactory until the winter came and I used to freeze to death. So make sure you buy a fairly warm one for those cold winter nights.
 
Where to Fish

So next you need to deiced where you are going to start fishing for carp. Is it your local commercial water, canal, river or gravel pit. Basically i will fish for carp wherever i can spot and find them.
 I started out somewhere i thought was fairly easy called Fisherwick specimen lake in Whittington, Lichfield. It had quite a few fish in there which was mainly made up of doubles with the odd 20 chucked in for good measure. I choose this place so that i could sort of go further up the apprenticeship ladder. I didn't want to go somewhere with loads of 30s and then get one snagged up or drop one as that would just be silly. So i decided to get my learning curve by catching these double figure fish.

Choosing a Peg (a place at the venue)

After buying my season ticket i was itching to get fishing but 1st its better to have a look at the water as much as you can. Go for walks around it and try and spot fish feeding and try and find where they frequent most. Speak to the other anglers too. You will find that most people wont want to tell you what they have been catching on or where they are catching but some people will. As long as your are polite and quiet I'm sure they will give you some advice. Take your marker rod and a notepad with you and try and find underwater features like gravel bars and plateaus. Also don't ignore parts of the lake that don't get fished much as this is probably where the fish come to get away from all the commotion. Once you have started to get an idea for the lake its a good idea to fish it.
To the right is a photo of the lake i started fishing on.


Baits to use

Boiles have always worked very for me wherever I have fished. When I first started Carp fishing, I used shelf life boilies, which did catch me plenty of Carp but i think i would of caught a lot more by using freezer baits. There is plenty of different brands with hundreds of flavours to choose from but make sure you try and stick to one bait you feel confident in. Its no good fishing lots of different types because the fish wont know whether they are coming or going. Also by using the same type of boilie all the time the fish will get used to smell and flavour. If you are fishing with friends get them to use the same boilies too and you can get a baiting campaign going. Even when you are packing up and going home throw a few boilies in so the fish get used to getting some free offerings and then next time they will feel more confident taking them.

Rigs to use (how to set up your rod)

Next you have to think about your line and rigs. Don't get doing what i did which was reading about all the rigs in the magazines and convincing myself that i needed a fancy rig. You don't need fancy rigs to catch carp. You could have the best rig in the world but if you don't cast it in the right place a fish wont pick it up. All i use these days is either esp striptease or normal mono with a simple knot-less knot.
For my leader i normally use lead-core which i splice myself. I like the heavy lead inside lead-core which makes it all pinned down. Also if its quite snag it can make the difference between a lost or caught fish. If you are making your own lead-core leaders please don't put a swivel each end  because the fish will never get rid of the lead. All you need is a small loop which you attach your mainline to. On the lead-core leader i normally fish with a safety clip and 2oz lead. I only feel the need for a bigger lead if i need to cast further, but i can cast that 80 yards quite easy.
This rig to the right will catch fish if its put in the correct place.
Just please ensure that the lead is able to come off if a breakage happens else it could kill the Carp.

OK my rods setup now what?

Now your ready to put your bait on. For this you will need a baiting needle which are about £2 from tackle shop and some bait stops which are also cheap. Simply push your needle through your boilie or chosen bait and then hook the barb on the loop of the hair and slide your bait along the needle onto the hair. Next put a bait stop in the loop and pull the boilie back so its holding it tight. The finished item should look like the picture to the right.

If I'm fishing a water for the 1st time i tend to watch what other people are doing, and see if they catch. Say if the chap opposite me is spodding (using a ground-bait mix) a load of bait but not catching, I would probably just use small pva bags or single baits and see what happens. Its doing things different to others that sometimes catches you fish when everyone else is blanking (not catching fish). On a new water I would probably attach a small mesh bag of pellets so its a nice mouthful for a single carp.
You can either attach a small mesh one on the hook or fish bigger solid bags and put everything inside as pictured below.

 
Once casting in they start to dissolve after 20 seconds or so depending on how warm the water is. The warm the water the quicker they dissolve and the colder it is the slower. I have caught lots of fish using this method. To the right is a photo of a 22lb Common Carp caught from Riddings fishery near Tammworth caught using a pva bag.


Another method is use is to just fish a single hook-bait with free offerings scattered around. I believe this gets the fish moving about more if you spread them out in an area which is better than having them just feed in one spot. Because with the fish moving about they have got a better chance of the hook catching as they move off and feel resistance. Below is a 25lb 2oz Common Carp caught from my old syndicate in Leicester using the above method.

To Spod or not to Spod?

I  use the Spod method, which is best used in conjunction with a marker float. Spods are bait rockets which make bait delivery more effective than ever before due to the fact that you fill the rocket with bait and cast it out exactly where you want it. (picture of a spod to the right)

You will need 2 spare rods to do this with, a spod rod and a marker rod. 1st of all find yourself an area in front where you think fish might be or where they visit such as a gravel bar or hard patch of silt. You should be able to feel these areas with braided mainline on your marker rod. Once you have chosen your spot leave your marker out but clip it up for future reference. Next cast your empty spod out right next to your marker float then clip it up using the line clip on the reel. You will now need to cast your baited rod out to the point and clip that up and mark the line with some braid, pole elastic or insulation tape so you know your distance to your baited spot. For your left and right target pick something on the far bank that you can see well at night too. Because as soon as you pull your marker float in you want to be able to get to the same spot. So now you can start spodding your bait in and then once you have done that cast your baited rod out. Make sure you don't leave the line clipped up as you will get your rod pulled in. Below is a nice fish i caught by spodding.

Final thoughts

After all this you will hopefully catch a carp. But when you do don't rush straight away to get your prized catch onto the mat. First of all you should have some water handy in a container to keep the fish wet. I always like to fill my sling up with water and pour it over the mat, this way i am killing two birds with one stone by wetting mat and sling. Next make sure your zero your scales with the sling on. And lastly make sure your mate knows how to use the camera properly .
 Now your ready to get the fish on the mat. Pull the net out of the spreader block and roll net up a bit. Then check that no fins are bent backwards and then lift the fish onto the mat in the net. Make sure you take your hook out first so its not in your way. I like to have photo taken first so that when i weigh it in the sling i can carry them back to the water in it. After you have taken your photo and weighed your fish make sure you carefully return it to the water. Slide the fish out of the sling or net and hold them upright in the water until they are strong enough to swim away.