Quest Baits Blog

Hi Steve,

As Shaun has suggested, there are so many different ways to catch carp from this lake and there would probably be a different response from each of the bloggers. If the carp haven’t seen much pressure then I would definitely always fish at least one rod in the margins as Shaun has suggested. Set your camp up well back from the water and I’d be looking to fish in 3 to 5 foot of water as close in as possible and even better if it is next to some natural feature such as reeds or an overhanging tree. Fish really light bobbins and slack lines. I’d put in just enough bait to get a bite – one fish at a time in the edge – just two or three handfuls at most.

With such depth variations on your lake you will find the carp prefer to feed at certain depths much more than others. So experiment by having baited areas in different depths and see what works. This will vary according to weather and atmospheric conditions so be prepared to chop and change.

If you have nothing else to go on then I would start at the North East end of the lake – the prevailing winds in the UK are from the South West in the summer months so that’s often where the fish will be, looking for all the natural food that gets pushed to that end of the lake. Better still, spend time walking round and looking for signs of the carp, either in the edge or the leaping, ‘head and shouldering’ or porpoising that carp do to let you know where they are. After a while you may notice certain areas where they prefer to spend time. The best time on any water is often for an hour or two after first light so get up early and keep watching. If you are fishing and you see signs of fish at the other end of the lake be prepared to move onto them – if as you say, they are not heavily fished for, chances are if you can get a bait amongst them then they will take it. I would look to cast a very bright (fluorescent) bait (or sweetcorn) with a PVA bag of trout pellets right in amongst the showing fish.

If you are going to set your stall out – you’ve found an area you are happy the carp spend time in – then I would bait up heavily with particles and wait for them to move in. The most instant particles are hemp and sweetcorn so that’s where I’d start. I’d also suggest chopped and whole tiger nuts in your particle mix. Tigers are often an instant bait and though you may catch the odd bream on them, they don’t like them as much as carp do. I would fish plastic corn amongst the particles and also tiger nuts: experiment until you find something that works.

I’d always try boilies on one rod – Liver B8 would be a great starting point – and introduce boilies in amongst the particles. I would go for the 20mm size as that way you have an option of fishing two of these together to try and avoid all but the biggest bream. Don’t be put off if you start catching bream, though this can be a real pain the back side. Carp lakes that have bream in them are always a problem as they feed on pretty much the same food. But chances are the carp will be attracted to the feeding activity, move in and muscle the bream out of the way. I have lost count of the number of times I’ve caught bream after bream and just kept going, then it goes quiet and the carp have come along. I’ve had some big fish this way too.

Hope that’s given you some ideas to be getting on with. Tight lines and let us know how you get on.

Elie G

It’s a good point that Andy, a recent fish I caught during a match was actually caught using just a pva bag off the back of someone elses spod mix. I was fishing about 20 yds short of thier spod mix and I didn’t get any bother from the bird life either. This method also tends to pick off the bigger wiser fish.

It’s also a good point about thinking back to what you used to do, I find this helps when I’m struggling on a water. I think back to other similar venues and what used to work for me on those.

Hi Andy,

It was a critically balanced chopped down Rahja tipped with corn. Placed in a pva bag of mixed pellets, including the maximum action pellets. Kept the rig simple lead clip etc with short silkworm hooklink and size 10 Kamasan B775.