Early Season Tactics

Even in the depths of winter our mind turns to the first sunny days of Spring, when the temperature is going upwards and the lake shows more and more fish activity. The warmth of the sun is responsible for more carp movement and often you can catch them fairly easy on these mild days.

A few tips that can be effective considering the early time of the season;

1.    Fish often don’t respond to heavy baiting under these circumstances, try fishing PVA bags and single hook baits… remember bait that’s gone in, can’t be taken out! So be careful with free offerings.

2.    Always try to get your baits near the bank where the fist sunlight falls on. This side of the lake will warm up faster and on allot of occasions the majority of the fish will be hanging around in that part of the lake.

3.    Don’t ignore the margins. Most of my early season captures are hooked just a few feet of the bank, right in my own margin.

4.    Bait up with small quantity of bait or for example maximum action pellets and fish for 1 fish at a time.

5.    I prefer to use smaller hook baits, 10mm’s..and fish them snowman style. Quest Baits now sell 10mm’s and even provide pop-ups in the same diameter.

6.    Even when the temperature’s are looking good, the water is still cold, which means fish are not really digesting the baits and often they are not really on the search for food.

7.    Another good tactic is using bright pop-ups, again placed just a few feet of the bank. The water is in most cases very clear early season and the visual aspect can provide you the big advantage.

8.    Keep away from the bank, always try to get as far away from the rods as possible. The clearness of the water makes it easy for carp to see shadows of approaching people and detect possible danger.

9.    Another thing that’s very important, maybe the biggest key to success, are in my view is slack lines, It’s unbelievable how easy fish can detect them. Often I have been watching fish approaching anglers territory and you could see them spooking off before they even came close to the baited areas.

Many of these tips have bought more fish to the bank for me…give them a go & see if they work for you!

Roy van Goor

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