Reader’s Query: New Water
Steve Vaughan wrote:
I have just started fishing a new water with a large head of carp to 28lb. It has seen little carp pressure and hardly any boilies, however it does get fished for the large bream that live in the lake. The depth varies from 5ft to 18ft, could you give some advice as to how the bloggers would go about fishing for the carp.
Shaun Harrison replies:
Good question this one and one which could be answered in many different ways.
My approach to any new water if the water clarity allows is to put small traps of bait in likely looking areas then keep walking around the venue until either I am lucky enough to stumble upon a few fish feeding or until it becomes clear that the carp don’t particularly visit the margins during daylight hours.
If I’m lucky enough to find fish I can then experiment to find what sort of baits the fish prefer rather than going in with the bait I want to use.
Generally speaking if the carp haven’t come across many baits before then boilies can be a bit slow going although the fish meal types are generally the quickest to start working, particularly if you combine them with pellets.
I have yet to find a venue where the carp won’t respond to particle baits. My favourite blend is the Quest Baits Garlic Feast followed closely by a simple hemp and sweet corn blend. Either of these will almost certainly get a feeding response. If you struggle to get action on boilies start breaking some up and introduce bits of boilies in with the hemp and corn.
As far as the depths are concerned this will very much depend upon times of the year but bear in mind that the shallower the water is more natural food will be present. If there are weedy and clear areas of the lake concentrate in the weedy parts during the daylight hours and clearer areas in the hours of darkness. Weed gives off oxygen during the day but the reverse happens at night.
The bream could be a bit of a problem if there are lots there but one thing I have found on many of the waters I have fished the carp are often more willing to get in close than the bream. So, try close range tactics to start with and give the carp a chance to beat the bream to the bait.
Hope this helps
Best fishes - Shaun
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Tags: advice, angling, approach, artificial, bait, bear, boilies, bream, carp, clarity, corn, daylight, distance, favourite, Feast, feeding, fish, fishing, france, Garlic, hair, haven, hemp, hookbait, night, oxygen, Particle, particles, pressure, problem, queries, Quest, question, response, reverse, size, struggle, tackle, technique, techniques, water, winter
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
Hi folks, I started my carp fishing out in Germany. The water i was fishing was not what we all know as a carp water but it did contain a few. To tell the truth catching anything back then was a bonus. The reason for this trip down memory lane is that we used to turn up throw a load of bait in one spot and then fish it. With my second rod i would cast out anywhere in the area, sit back and hope. The rod with the bait round it would catch bream all day long but what i did find was that the second rod with not much bait sometimes singles would start to catch carp. It wasnt untill i started carp fishing seriously i thought about what we did back then. I have tried it a couple of times and it has worked very well, dont get me wrong i still had a few of our unwelcome guests but i did seem to get more carp. It does tend to lend its self to longer sessions but it is worth a go. Bait a spot with particles then 20 to 30 yards use a small amount of boillies.
Sorry to ramble was just reading the end of Elie Gs article and thought this may intrest
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.
Cheers carl, Nice one on your horseshoe 30 by the way. Was a cracking looking fish. What set up did you get it on, i always like to hear the hows and whys.
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.