UK Carp & Coarse Fishing

There have been a few great addiction added to the Lakebook page that are in the below.

The Deeper sonar is so much more than a fish finder or feature locator.  You can combine all your recordings on the Lakebook online page, you can review the whole lake and get a greater understanding of your quarry.

With the Lakebook you get to understand the topography of the lake, the hiding spots, interception routes, and the underwater highways, at a quick glare.

The members of my syndicate will often kindly let me know which areas are being fished before I arrive.  So, armed with the weather forecast and the watercraft knowledge I have, I will study the Lakebook before I even leave home.  This gives me the ability to head straight for my perfect location and saves me a lot of time.  This day and age of a fast-paced lifestyle, you can get the upper hand over other anglers and formulate a plan of action.

I use the Lakebook on my mobile phone and home computer.  Due to the smaller screen on the phone, I use it in a slightly different way to get the best of all the features.  It’s simply because of the size of the screen that I have adopted a couple of tricks to simplify the process.  In reality, it’s the same process no matter what the size of the screen is.

Step – 1

Open up your Internet browsers and open the Deeper Lakebook page from my favorite and log in.

Step – 2

Then click on the Venue you wish to view (in this case the top one)

This will have made the map drill down on the area you wish to view.  This helps if you’re traveling long distances for your fishing and/or the venues are spread about the countryside.

Step – 3

Click on the X next to the Lakebook, this will minimize the screen and make better viewing on the mobile.

Step – 4

Now by using the + or – situated on the right-hand side near the top of the page.  You will be able to zoom in or out just by opening & closing your fingers as you would do on your mobile.

Step – 5

You have a couple of choices now to view the area you fancy fishing.

A – Click on the rod & reel by your selected spot, this will give you a blue outlined area.  This would have been mapped at the time you recorded the swim using the onshore mode (instructions below on how to set up).

This brings up the area you have selected and the sonar view of the lakebed and any fishing found.  You can speed this sonar view by pressing the play button until it gets to 10x speed.

Step – 6

Now, this is where a little trick helps when using your mobile if you turn the phone to landscape view, it will only show the sonar part of the screen.

If you scroll along until you find a feature or fish that you wish to cast to and then flick the screen round to Portrait view.

Step – 7

Tap the screen where you see the fish/feature, a line will appear and the deeper will have moved to the location that you are interested in.

Step – 8

I find that if you need to know the distance from the bank to this spot, it’s best to flick over to map view, instead of satellite, as it easier to find you standing point (swim).

This is done by clicking on the satellite button and then selecting map view.

and you now have the ability to measure the distance from the shore to where the Deeper icon is located in the water.

Step – 9

Measuring the distance – firstly, minimize the viewing style, which will let you use the rule, this is located below the map/satellite tap.

click on the rule, it will turn into an x.  You then press on the screen your location and then on the Deeper, this will draw a line from point A to B.

This gives you the distance in meters & feet.  If you need to, you can turn the screen back to satellite view.  This will enable you to cross-reference with horizon markers on the far bank.

you can zoom if you need to on larger venues.

Part -B

The other way is to view the whole lake and click on the map to obtain the depth.  You will need to follow step 1 to 4.  Then you can tap on the page, review the topography and choose the best area, like the drop offs on the side of a small island.

And simply follow step 9 onwards

The beauty of being able to do this on the bank, it is extremely handy and can benefit your fishing a hundredfold.  Basically, if you have your phone with you, you can tinker with the Lakebook, on the bank, at home, on your lunch break, if the weather is pretty rubbish and you just want to get on with your fishing, the Lakebook is certainly the way forward. This is why I love the Deeper Lakebook online page so much.  Below are a few perfect spots I have found whilst sitting at home looking over my recordings later, these can easier be missed when you are in a rush and want to get fishing.

This image picked up a lovely slope, with a couple of nice edges where fish would patrol along. A perfect spot for bait.

This screenshot has picked out a couple of depressions in the lake.  Another perfect spot and unless you were extremely lucky, you would never find them with a marker float set up.

This final screenshot depicts a steady incline from 11 ft up to 9.4 ft.  Again is another likely area that fish would patrol along.

Once you have completed mapped the lake and even understand what is out there.  I would still get the Deeper out and flick it out into your chosen area and double check your spot.  This is a very good idea in the summer months when there is plenty of weed growth.  It’s also very handy in the winter to find any new areas where the fish have been cleaning or even new silty spots if the carp have been digging up the bottom and making any new feature.

Here’s a quick Carp Fishing Tip

When casting the Deeper out and you find the perfect spot, I flick the marker out and retrieve the Deeper.  I then cast a lead to the spot and clip up.  I clearly don’t want to hit the Deeper with a lead!  This is also a good way to get accurate baiting up with the Catapult or spomb.

How to set up onshore GPS mode.  This is very important, as is a key part of getting your recording on to the lake book.

Step – 1

Open up the Deeper on your mobile or tablet and click settings

Step – 2

select Sonar mode: On Shore Gps

Step – 3

Then make sure that OnshireGPS Mode (pro+only) is ticked

How to download to Lakebook

Step – 1

Open up the Deeper on your mobile or tablet and click history

Step – 2

This will bring up a long list of recordings

The ones that have names against them, I have already uploaded and I have renamed on the Lakebook.  The one which reads Onshore GPS, needs uploading, which will auto-download depending on your setting (which I will cover below).  As you can see there is a circle in the top right-hand corner, this indicates that you recoding is uploading and once it has done, the cloud icon will have a tick, as you can see.

You will also notice that the bottom recording (New point & Vincents) is not high lighted, this denotes that the recording has been deleted from your device.  This will save storage if needed, they can be simply downloaded again as and when you need.

Just tap on the screen and you then hit yes, if you need to save storage space, press on the recording you do need and it will be highlighted in grey.  A trash icon will be in the top right corner.

Then you have a choice of deleting from the App or both.

Helpful Hint

When doing mapping, I always just put the deeper in the margin to make sure its connected properly.  You don’t want to cast it out on the perfect spot and find the atmospheric conditions will delay connection.  You don’t want to disturb the fish too much.

Download Setting

Step – 1

Open up the Deeper app and select settings

Step – 2

Then tap Sync settings

Step – 3

Choose which option suits you.

I hope that I have covered everything you need to know about the Lakebook.  I can safely say that I wouldn’t be without this feature, as it certainly helps me put fish on the bank.  My best advice is to study it as much as possible, it will reveal some hidden treasure.  The more you map and download the better it gets.  I have uncovered some hidden spots and overturned some areas that were supposed to have one type of feature like a gravel bar, but it tuned out to be more a hump/dip.

My best example of how the Deeper helped.

I had struggled to catch anything from the left-hand the side of this particle swim and I spent a long time getting this right.  I came across it one day when I was looking over my Deeper recorded and I noticed a perfect spot.  At the next opportunity, I was in that swim and it produced this lovely mirror and a couple of other fish.

I have found the deeper very useful with my perch & pike fishing, even on the river & small lakes.  You are able to locate the baitfish, this certainly saves a lot of time.

This spot just off the old dead pads, the Deeper picked up a shole of bait fish and produced this lovely Perch.

One of three Perch that day, I was very happy with that.

I have also found that on the river the Deeper is very helpful, it can save you a lot of time.  If there is no bait fish in the perfect looking spot, there is no point in flicking a bait out. Below is a spot on the river which has produced some lovely Pike.

You can see from the Deeper view, there is a lovely bowl which holds the bait fish and the Pike do favor spots like this.

Not a bad pike of my efforts.

Hope this helps

Regards Richard

Looking Back Over The Years

I’ve put together a few of my memorable trips over the past few years.

Trip No 78 Carp Fishing (2015)

After packing up early from my social trip with Rob, as the fish were clearly not playing ball and as  my family were still away.  I would be able to fish another night on my local lakes.

Here I am at first light and with only 3 other people on the lake, I had the pick of the swims, more or less.

After a walk around and a check of the weather forecast.  The only fish I saw were along the snaggy margin bank and as there is one night swim in the middle of this bank.  This was the spot for me.  I set up as quietly as possible, on the gravely swim and dropped both rod’s in the margin for the day.  I would move them out a bit for the night.

The wind was picking up nicely and there is a good chance of some sunshine.  So I am feeling very confident. Time for crumpet and jam on the ridgemonkey.

Hot food is a must for Autumn and especially in the colder Winter months.

This swim was getting a bit of a squeeze, my bivvy was pushed back up against the bamboo as much as possible and the water was still only a foot away from the bivvy door as the rest of the swim was well under water.

Hopefully, I will be able to fish this swim over the winter still.

At 1600, the right hand rod bust into life, I picked the rod up and stuck the tip under water.  The fish would be under the overhanging tree and I did not need it breaking the surface.

After what was quite a battle, I had managed to get the fish under control and plodding around in front of the swim.  It did have the odd attempt to get back under the overhanging tree,  no way you are mind I thought, as I drew the carp into the waiting net.

Another hard fighting carp, at 20 lb 8 oz, I was very happy and after re-baiting both rod’s for the night.  It was time for a 4 pm brew and a sausage sandwich (with cheese – thanks Rob for the idea), they taste fantastic.

The sun was saying good night and I was very hopefully of another carp.

As the temperature dropped through the night and it was also very still, this amplified the sound of the odd fish crashing.  Unfortunately, they where not very close and the night was filled with that and broken sleep.

Hopefully the sun will be out before I am off at 1400 hrs, not sure as there is no wind and no sign of any sunshine.  This will be interesting to see how the fishes behaviour is affected along the snaggy bank.

It’s around noon time, a light wind has picked up and the sun had burnt off the misty morning.  I am going to give it until 1400, has I need to be home and sorted out in time to collect the family from the airport at 1730.

I am hoping I should be in with a shout by then, as most of my daytime takes happen before 1400 hrs.

Unfortunately, this was the only fish of the trip.  I did think I would get another one, but hey, that’s fishing for you.

Trip No 73 Carp Fishing (2015)

Down on the Meadows lake for my Sunday night session. After a look round in the swims that are on the back of the wind,  as the last few days there has been a chill in the air.

I quit fancy this one that gives me access to a bay area with overhanging trees and a gap throw to the santry area and also with the sun and no wind on that bank,  I felt that would be a perfect area. With the night temperature not dropping that much I am hoping the fish will feed,  as the lake has been fishing not that we’ll over the past few days.

The righthand rod was cast into the gap that’s in the middle of this photo,  with a Godman Pva Versacast filled with Bait-tech krill and Tuna oil and 5 spombs of a mix of groundbait and poloni boilies.

The other rod the same,  just fished into the bay more

By the reed’s some 70yards away.

It was  then time to soaked up the afternoon sun.

At around 10 pm the left hand rod was off and attached to a good old lump,  that was kiting to the left and if I was not careful would be round the back of the small island to the right of me, I started pump the rod hard and the fish moved more into open water and a bit more under control and I new there was a good chance this would be much second thirty of the week,  once under the rod tip is was just a matter of time before he fish was betten and slopped over the cord.

And sure enough in the net was another 33lb 1oz mirror,  what a week this was turning out to be.

I recast the rod after reshaping the hook and with a fresh 14mm poloni pop up on , the rod was back on the spot again.

With the normal interrupted by the bream. That was it and the clock sprung into life at 0545 signaling it was time to be on my home.

Trip No 71 Carp Fishing (2015)

After my night out and what can only be described as bream fishing.  I have done my school run bit and have headed straight back down the lake (after the Mrs came home) to have a play along the snag bank.

My first port of call was my favourite spot along this bank.  I scattered a good couple of handfuls of ground up poloni boilies.

I put them over my favourite spots, sat back and waited.  The right hand rod was away within half an hour of being there and this fish was very powerful.  It stayed well and truly under the tree for what felt like a life time.  I literally had to hang on with both hands and keep my tip well under the water.  Even when I finally managed to get the fish out for a few seconds, it powered of again straight back under.  I knew right from the start I was attached to a lump, I just needed to hang on and get that fish out into the small bit of open water in front of me and into that net.

When it finally slipped over the cord, I let out a sigh of releave as close quarter playing a big fish, in a tiny snaggy swim, is a real adrenaline rush.

34 lb 2 oz of power was finally mine.

After that and with still another 2 hours left, I moved on to another swim that I had not fished before but really fancied.

Unfortunately, the swim move didn’t result in another fish.  But I don’t care, I am so over the moon with my result today, I am going home with a great big smile on my face.

Trip No 66 Carp Fishing (2015)

As I joined a new lake the other year, I thought I would write about how I go about tackling a new venue.

Firstly, get yourself down the lake as much as possible; walk around it as much as possible, observe the lake looking out for potential areas where the fish my frequent, and try to spend as much time as possible just watching these areas in the beginning.  I can’t stress how important observation is.

Next, get the Deeper out or if you don’t have one, marker rod and lead about (even if you have a Deeper, you can do this as well).  It will let you understand the makeup of the lake bottom; silt, gravel, etc.  Also, it will let you know the depth of the water and the topography of the lake.  You will have an idea of where to start looking for where the carp are likely to be.  Put it all together and you’ll soon find the best areas to start fishing.

My new venue is a small estate lake only 4 miles from my house.  It’s given me the opportunity to go there quite a lot.  I soon mapped the lake and found where the carp like to hang around.  It wasn’t until the water temperatures came up that I started to spot the carp, but I did know where to look.  This was done partly by walking around a lot, but also when I was fishing.  I set myself up in a position where I could watch the other parts of the lake at the same time.  I had still yet to lead about fully but knew a lot of spots by walking around the edge of the lake with a 9ft pole.  It’s a man-made lake with a stream flowing in at one end and a dam wall at the other, with fairly straight cut sides in most places. This made it easier for me, but I still prodded every inch all the way around and found some perfect spots and some not so.

Talking to other anglers is a great source of information but only if they are willing and are happy to open up – some will and some won’t.  I didn’t have that issue, I’ve yet to see another member. I do know from some anglers, that they find that doing the whole process by themselves is more satisfying, which is what I personally prefer as well.

My next step, in the journey, is to get leading about and seeing what sort of silt is where. As the lake is surrounded by trees, there’s going to be a lot of leafy matter about or to steal a word from Rob Maylin – CHOD.  Not all venues will follow the same process or pattern, this is just the path this particular lake took me down, as I progressed my understanding of the water.

I’ve managed to fit a night in and this did throw me somewhat!  I’d clearly tracked a group of fish down and was convinced they were feeding at night.  However, it turned out that I was wrong!  You mustn’t let this get you down, it’s all part of the learning process and developing your understanding of the water.

Another option you could look at is teaming up with another member and pooling your findings.  Fish different nights and gradually you will discover more about the lake and a lot faster.  I’ve started to do this here with the person who introduced me to this water and recommended me to the Syndicate Manager.  Neither of us plans on regularly fishing the lake, in my case a day trip every week to keep the travel costs down and I am sure I will do the odd summer night.

I’ve now been a member for probably six months and one fish to my name.  This will do me, as the amount of time I’ve been able to get down here has dropped right off.  After doing another evening a few weeks back where the mozzies really loved me, it’s a bit of a problem.

I’m very confident at the location every time I go now, it’s more about getting the carp on the feed and I may just have to wait until the Autumn.  I can then get a few nights in, and hopefully, start a baiting campaign, to get them to start picking up boilies.

These fish are very hard creatures to predict.  After having a few months away, I returned to find no change in their locations on the lake – pretty evenly spread about. One thing became very apparent and that was the lack of angling pressure.  I’ve become convinced that if you set up one end of the lake or even in the middle, they would simply drift out of that area.  I managed another take by dropping baits in the margins and sitting way back.  I still remain convinced that they totally know when you are on the bank.  I did a whole day and a night, I arrived quite early in the day (about 9 ish), used my baiting pole to place my baits, and set up as quietly as possible over the next 2 hours.  I was very conscious of any noises I made.  I then spent the next 24 hours tucked up in my bivvy with the mossy panels open, but the door down, so no movement could be detected and I hardly saw any carp close by.  They had drifted around the back of the island and up the main arm of the lake.  However, in the previous few days, they were showing themselves and topping, they just melt away.

Autumn has arrived and we are having an Indian Summer. There’s been a work party de-weeding part of the lake and giving the place an Autumn tidy up.  Work parties are a great opportunity to meet other members and have a laugh and a joke.  This will break the ice; as we all know too well, most anglers will never give up much information. However, on these occasions, you will be surprised how forthcoming they will be, so if you get the opportunity, go for it, as any knowledge gain is a bonus.

I’m holding back a little on the full-blown baiting up as the weather is still pretty hot in daylight hours and not really getting below 10 degrees at night. So, at the moment I’m only sticking in a kilo a week and will move on to more, once things change.

Unfortunately, it finally dawned on me, this lake clearly did not have the carp in there that it was supposed to have.  One of the members that had been more successful than me – after catching 10 carp, was getting repeat captures!  But I was happy with my 3 carp landed and 1 lost, I didn’t really put that much effort into the lake until late Autumn.

I have moved on to an old club lake where I fished over 18 years ago and been quite successful.  If you search under School Lake on my website you will find plenty of blogs.

The key to cracking any lake is observation and sometimes a bit of luck and next year I’m going to have to put this into good use again.

Until next time

Richard

I have converted or will be, all my old and current blogs to Spotify so you can listen to someone else reading to you my fishing adventures.  Either when you’re in the car or on the bank! Enjoy!  

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