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Floater Fishing

Floater fishing is an incredibly exciting way of catching carp through the warmer summer months. Carp can be taken during the winter on floater gear but generally speaking summer and the warm weather associated with it is by far the best and most productive time to fish for carp on the surface.

Top ten bullet points.

If there is a good choice of swim available I will always trickle a few floaters in several swims from behind the wind and sit in a convenient spot and watch them drift across the water on the wind. I am never in a hurry to get set up in a particular spot. I would rather the carp show me where they want to feed.
Once the carp start to feed, refrain from casting for as long as possible. The more bait they eat the more chance of them slipping up on a hook bait when you do eventually cast. The secret is to get them feeding well and feeding confidently before you start to fish.
Free-line wherever possible with just a hook on the end of the line and the bait
If the distance the carp are feeding necessitates the use of a controller for added weight then keep this controller as small and streamlines as possible to make minimum surface noise on the cast.
Keep the hook length as long as you can comfortably manage to cast with remembering you need to be able to net the fish when the rod is bent also. Around about a 6ft hook length is about right. This helps to keep the bait well away from the controller.
If the distance the fish are feeding is too far for a delicate casting approach I favour the bulky in-line surface type controllers and will either drift these into position on the wind or using a rod suitable cast as close as I can to the fish and hope I don’t spook them. One reason for using the bulky type controllers at range is that they help the initial pricking of the fish.
An alternate method to the bulky in-line floaters and a method I see employed so rarely to-day is the anchored floater or in modern terms a ‘Zig Rig’ on the surface.
If you struggle to get the carp to come up and feed on the surface try different types of floater. I like to start with small floating pellets and start introducing hook bait sized ones once I have them feeding well. Don’t just stick with the same floaters all the time. There are some brilliant cat biscuits available that if you read the ingredient list read as though they were made for carp!
Try at different times of the day. Just because the carp don’t show interest in the morning doesn’t mean they won’t at another time of the day.
I used to catch a lot of floater feeders in the dark – particularly in the autumn months. I would struggle to get them feeding confidently during the day time but sneak around the margins in the dark and the carp would often be eating the bait I threw in earlier. This really is exciting fishing. Right under the rod top.