Carp fishing methods advice please

[Wandering Mark]

I am a novice when I comes to Carp fishing. I caught my first two on floating biscuit in rather coloured water. The local pool I have started to fish is an old reservoir. The water is crystal clear and one half is very weedy, the other half is about 10 or 11 feet deep. I have tried the floating biscuit but think the fish can see everything as they eat all the freebies and Leave the one with the hook in it. I have had several fish suck in the bait blow it out just as quick. I hooked one only for it to disappear into weed and dislodge the hook.

I have read the topic about float fishing for carp but wondered if 10 foot was too deep to float fish the bottom or if ledgering would be a better option. Any advice would be welcom.

Cheers WM

[Davyr]

I'd give popped-up lobworm a try, using just a single swan shot 6-9" from the hook to anchor the bait. The worm "dances" enticingly just off the bottom and there's no line above it to arouse the carp's suspicions.

I use the narrowest bore needle that comes with the Fox Predator Deadbait Oil & Air Kit to inject air into the worm's head (being very careful with the needle, of course).

http://www.poingdestres.co.uk/2044/Fox- ... urce=googl

[Santiago]

I use to always float fish for carp, often up to 10' without useing a sliding float, after that depth casting can be troublesome depending on foilage above and behind. Try the above setup with sweetcorn on a size 12, or an inch square of luncheon meat with a no.10/8 slotted through the middle with a sliver of grass stem to keep the hook in place. Only attach the float by the bottom. After casting when the float has settled, reel in with the rod tip a few inches under the water to sink the line. Hold the rod on a rest, and wait for a bite, but always keep the rod tip a few inches under the water until you strike!!!

[JerryC]

Hi Mark
In this clear water setting, although I prefer to fish with a float, I would go with a ledger set up. The major cause of detection is generally through the line. I am a believer in the use of flying backleads, or fluorocarbon line (the flouro of today has moved on considerably from the early stuff), not only does this become virtually invisible in water fished on a slack line, it also sinks like a brick.
Jerry

[Santiago]

Do not forget bread flake!! It is a terrific carp bait, legered or float fished on the bottom!!

[Gary Bills]

Fishing for carp "off the top" can, as you've found, be maddening as well as effective! At Clay Farm Pond, during one afternoon in the autumn of 2009, I caught 21 carp off the top! - well, well over 100lbs in fish. No, I'm not boasting, because I freely confess that it was so easy! Now, you would be lucky to get six on a very good day: partly because of a winter fish kill in 2010/2011, but mainly because the carp now know all about bread! Yes, they still love it, but big hooks, little hooks, flake, crust, fluorocarbon, lighter mono all fails to fool them, - at least as often as they used to be fooled...
They nudge the bread to get it off the hook, they shake it, they ram it..and when the bread finally goes down with a cloop, and you strike, you discover that your hook was already lying on the bottom all along! In particular, this is likely to happen if you fish at any distance and the surface is choppy.
The blighters only have an all-consuming hunger for free offerings!
But isn't this what carp fishing is all about? - those maddening days, the little solutions found - the ones that work for a while, but never last...
I love it! I really do....
:D

[Wandering Mark]

Thanks for the replies. I have a few ideas I might try next time I go out, I will post how I get on. When I fished at Evesham, a chap turned up late on and used a clump of bread and cast it into the margin about six feet out near some Lilly's and had a bite almost every cast.

At fighting cocks, a chap caught a ghost carp 2oz shy of 18lbs. He was fishing directly over the weed with a floating biscuit. He was using 15lb line because of the weed and told me where the weed thinned and the fish could be extracted if they headed into the weed.

The bailiff told me there were a few mid 20 carp in the pool and the size of the heads I've seen popping up I don't disbelieve him. I have also seen a large carp launch itself clean out of the water. It's a nice quietish place and even if I don't catch, just watching the carp patrol around the weed is mesmerising.

[Snape]

Thanks for the replies. I have a few ideas I might try next time I go out, I will post how I get on. When I fished at Evesham, a chap turned up late on and used a clump of bread and cast it into the margin about six feet out near some Lilly's and had a bite almost every cast.

At fighting cocks, a chap caught a ghost carp 2oz shy of 18lbs. He was fishing directly over the weed with a floating biscuit. He was using 15lb line because of the weed and told me where the weed thinned and the fish could be extracted if they headed into the weed.

The bailiff told me there were a few mid 20 carp in the pool and the size of the heads I've seen popping up I don't disbelieve him. I have also seen a large carp launch itself clean out of the water. It's a nice quietish place and even if I don't catch, just watching the carp patrol around the weed is mesmerising.

For fishing in lilies I sometimes use a technique called dobbing.
A small quill is set at exact depth with a worm on the hook. The weight of the hook and worm should be enough to sink the float if it is overdepth so at depth it is cocked. You then lower it into a gap in the lilies and hold on tight!

[The Hapless Angler]

You could also use a Polaris float to float ledger.

These are great and are automatically adaptable to varying depths, I have often used them with great success.

http://www.mullarkeys.co.uk/fishing/ter ... mbat/6934/

Tight Lines

[Wandering Mark]

Those look good Doc. I have been experimenting with a few float aids. The first was a piece of dowel about three inches long, stained brown or painted matt olive green. I drilled the ends out and glued in some cocktail stick so it can be attached to the line with small float rubbers. The second was floating putty and the third was soft wax ear plugs. Both of the latter can be moulded around the line.