Carp Fishing Questions: What time did you catch that fish?
By Roy Van Goor
What time did you catch that fish?
This is one of the things I seem to be most interested in when I talk about catches that other anglers have had. I would say 70% of the anglers on the waters I fish are doing overnighters.. This means arriving at 18.00 in the evening and fishing until 09.00 in the morning.
What I hear a lot is that they are not confident in fishing the days, because the fish feed at night, and not during daytime. Well, in my view some of this is true, they tend to catch fish during the evening, night and morning. But I would never overlook the hours of daylight. I hardly fish overnighters anymore because I catch my fish with no problem during daytime. But a lot of anglers cant get there heads around fishing daytime only. Is it a confidence thing?In my view there are some explanations for this:
On the canals…
During the night hours there is no boat activity, fish have the entire canal to hold up in and don’t need to move around. In the daytime boats push the fish into the margins and keeps them moving, meaning they use energy and need to eat. The boats also disturb the bottom and get fish attracted to these areas. The oxygen level is higher during daytime because of the boat traffic and wind.
On lakes
When there are a lot of water plants in the lake, they tend to use oxygen to in the night, like any plant, meaning the oxygen level will be lower during the hours of darkness. And when the sun comes up they start to produce oxygen, resulting in more activity. Again, windy conditions are often during the hours in the afternoon, activating fish to feed on the windy areas. Fish see more, and can detect baits easier. And off course less anglers are on the banks..
If I look at my own statistics over the last few years from myself and other anglers then I would say that 90 % are daytime catches. In my case even in France where the carp are fished for almost every day, most of the fish are caught during daytime.. Of course I know there are many more variables that make the difference between catching and blanking..but I find it an interesting subject..
I am looking forward to your opinion on this subject..
Greetz
Roy van Goor
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Tags: activity, angling, bait, boat, canal, carp, day, daylight, evening, feed, fishing, morning, night, techniques, time, tips, traffic, windy
Hi Roy,
From a personal point of view i much prefer fishing in the daylight hours as i believe that you can learn so much more about the fishes behaviour and movements.
You are generally much more alert in the daytime and can take in your surroundings better and as i have mentioned in a previous blog, as long a you keep your amount of tackle down to sensible level it is easy to move swims to any fish you can see elsewhere.
I’m sure we have all been told ‘they don’t feed here in the daytime mate’. On a number of waters where i have been told this i or people i know have proved this theory wrong usually by taking a different approach to the guys bivvying up for the long haul. This different approach can be as simple as ‘floater fishing’ or travelling light and following the fish instead of sitting in one spot over a baited area. I also believe that on a lot of waters the theory is never disproved as a lot of anglers will only fish at night once they are told that the fish only feed at night.
Obviously some waters for their own reasons are far better at night, but don’t take it has granted just because other angler’s have told you this.
By daytime fishing and keeping your eyes ‘peeled’ on everything that is going on around you, you can learn a lot of information about a lake in a short period of time. Also taking advantage of the time to plumb the depths and find features etc.
You can find that the carp like to visit certain area’s at certain times of day for example and place your baits accordingly. In fact i can think of one lake where i found a little spot that you could almost gauarantee a take between 5.30pm and 6.30pm even though there were only a dozen fish in the lake.
So i would say that by the very fact of human nature that we are generally more alert in the daylight, you will learn far more about your lake (and quicker) than you would tucked up in your sleeping bag at night.
Cheers,
Pat
A very belated comment from me but one thing which is very important and hasn’t been mentioned is the carp’s complete change in habit. Some so called night feeders can suddenly become daytime feeders only. I could relate numerous instances of this.
I used to fish a lake in Leicestershire called Murphy’s. This water for the first couple of years I fished it produced very few takes during the hours of darkness then suddenly one year we had a complete reversal and all the takes would come during the dark hours.
I spent quite a few years on the Mangrove and it was so rare to get a summer afternoon take. So much so that I only received one in the first four years I fished the place!
It didn’t take a genious to work out that afternoon fishing was pretty much a waste of time. I do like to try and rest my swim of lines for a certain period each day - this definately gets fish feeling more confident particularly if they can have a feed without the lines being present. I used to make this easy for myself by winding in and going and finding a place to eat myself - away from the water, be it at a restaurant, a pub or even back at the syndicate caravan. A lot of members started to do this also and guess what. The carp started to feed in the afternoons!
I would put the Mangrove scenario down to the carp suddenly feeling much safer as they rarely encountered a rig for a short period during the afternoons. I can’t explain the Murphy’s scenario though.
Just be aware though that the carps instincts and habits can completely change.
Pick the times when less people fish and I can assure you that a few carp will be found feeding somewhere and quite often these will be the craftiest fish in the lake which hardly get caught.
Go give it a go!