The Carp Don't Know the Rules

Carp don’t know the rules

April 14, 2009 Ron 5 comments

I relearned and old lesson last weekend, you may think you have the lake sorted out but no one tells the carp the rules.

When I joined Shaun on our syndicate water Grenville Lake he had already fished for 24 hours. He was fishing a swim in a bay that he knows well and has fished successfully over the last year.

I chose a swim at the other side of the point on his right.

Conditions for us both looked good. Within an hour I was getting liners over the Surf n’Turf and after three hours I had a run that I did not connect with.

I sat confidently for another 24 hours; while the new wind that should have pushed the fish towards swung slowly around 360 degrees and the temperature cooled considerably.

Was I worried… was I hell?

The fish in this lake always fish off the back of a cold wind. Don’t they? The wind picked up and I sat it out.

Shaun was nearing the end of his session, and decided to pack his gear and cast the rods out in another swim for the last couple of hours.

He set up on the far bank with the wind hammering in towards him where I should have gone if I hadn’t known the rules and perhaps hadn’t been so lazy.

That afternoon he had three chances and landed a fabulous scaly mirror of nearly 19lbs on a glugged Surf n’Turf boilie.

The lessons to be learnt?

Don’t assume the fish know your rules, don’t stereotype your fishing, be observant, always pay attention to changing weather conditions, and don’t let that mountain of oh so essential gear stop you moving. You may miss that fish of a lifetime.

As Shaun said, “two hours in the right swim is better than forty eight in the wrong un!“

Cheers Ron Key

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Written by Paul Cooper about 1 year ago.

Ron,

I was on Grenville last week and the fish were on the wind midway in the lake. I started off on 24, moved tp 18 then settled for 7.
I saw a fish touch the surface at 120yards and cast a double 10mil Rahja Spice hook bait with no free offerings. Within 10 minutes I had a screemer and after a long fight in deep water, landed a 20lb+ linear.

I have used this approach throughout the season and reguarley pick fish up with either single hookbaits or with PVA bags, travelling light in the day and collecting my sleeping bag and chair from my car for the evening to set camp for the night.

By keeping my tackle to a minimum I am able to move onto fish within minutes and the results speak for themselves. I know there are the 2 different approaches on Grenville, that is the heavy baiting and sit it out, and secondly, the roaming approach. They both work, but I do prefere the latter. Shaun has had some excellent results by sitting it out, but I know that even Shaun will move if the needs be.

Regards
Paul Cooper
Written by Shaun about 1 year ago.

Hi Paul,

Interesting one this one. I would love to adopt the mobile approach more on Grenville but being a week-end angler at present there are very limited chances to move without it becoming a race.

Last season I am sure I caught a lot of my fish (week-ends) due to my swim generally being the least disturbed. I calculated the times most were re-casting and avoided doing so then. The fish do move when a lot of lines are out and anglers are casting on there and I honestly believe other anglers were spooking the fish into my swim which would have a healthy hatch of boilies waiting
Written by Brian Sherwood about 6 months ago.

Lessons learned… around here the common knowledge is to fish with your face into the wind; the carp tend to be more active on the windy shore.
Many of our lakes are larger than those in the UK, making the ‘pick up an go’ a bit more difficult.
Great blog, great tips!

Thanks
Brian in Houston, Texas, USA
Written by Ron about 6 months ago.

Hi Brian, great to hear from Texas.

I think that fishing into the wind is a good general rule especially when its a new wind. As you say the lakes in Texas tend to be bigger than over here, as Shaun and myself found out on the massive Lake Fork last year. 27690 acres of water and 315 miles of bank is something that anglers in the UK can only dream of.

The size of the lake and the increased angling pressure that the carp get on our smaller lakes can modify the rules. Angling pressure can be enough to keep fish out of an area. If the wind is a cold northerly the fish sometimes sit off the back of it in the warmer water, and the depth of the water and heavy weed can deter the movement of fish.

The movement of the fish on Lake Fork seemed to be almost seasonal with fish visiting certain parts of the lake at different times of the year. If carp fishing ever becomes popular enough in the States I think you will see angling pressure, baiting campaigns etc modify the behaviour of your carp and they will start to act differently.

Its the anomalies that keep us guessing and keep us interested. Like the man said that’s why they call it fishing and not catching.

Cheers Ron
Written by shaun about 6 months ago.

Hi Brian,

The wind situation is a strange one as following the wind is always the best ploy on waters which have seen little pressure from anglers. Unfortunately here in the U.K. though many of the carp have learned to be extremely cautious when feeding on the end of a wind and so many waters I fish these days the back of the wind produces a lot of fish.

From what Ron and I saw whilst fishing in Texas last year your waters really are ‘huge’ compared to those here in the U.K.

Grenville has 1 3/4 mile of bank and is generally considered quite large here in the U.K. Some of those waters we saw in Texas we couldn’t see the far side!

I envy the fact you have so much un-tapped water to go at with many surprises still lurking around un-caught and would look at getting on the wind every time in this instance.

Thanks for the kind comments regarding the Blog.

Best fishes
Shaun

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