UK Carp & Coarse Fishing

10 Winter Carp Fishing Tips

Posted on November 1, 2020 by richardhandel

10 Winter Carp Fishing Tips

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Winter fishing can be hard work for the everyday angler. However, I’m a firm believer that the more you are at the lake; either fishing or just walking round in the Summer or Winter, this surely must help you catch more fish. This is made harder in the Winter as the days are shorter. The average angler has a full-time office job with no chance to get out around the lake. I would normally start going out more at the start of Spring. In the Summer months, I try and get out some afternoons and if not (due to work commitments) I will try a do a quick night (12 hour session) in the week. There is not normally a lot of time to spot any signs of fish and by using the below tips, I have found it a great help over the Winter months.

Winter Tips

Walk around the lake as much as possible.
Sharp hooks – all year-round rule.
Location, Location, Location – all year-round tip.
Not too much bait – to keep the fish keen.
Keep a diary of previous year’s results and locations.
Fish over dead pads.
Fish by snags.
Fish near reeds beds.
Keep away from those cold Easterly winds!
Get friendly with fellow members who fish during the day (pool your information).
Keep your ears on the lake even in the dark – you never know, you may hear a fish.
Keep your eyes on the water – on clear calm nights – you may just spot a fish.
Less boilies, more stick mix type of baiting up.
Plenty of attraction, not too much food.
Tiny amounts of pre-baiting (small handfuls of bait, scattered around the lake).

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The above tips will hopefully help you to keep one step ahead of the rest. The real hard part I find with Winter fishing is having to set up in the dark & pack up in the dark. This takes a lot of dedication and effort, it can be made a lot easier by setting up the same way every time, keeping your bivvy tidy and in the Winter minimise the amount of kit you take – it’s surprising how little you really need for a 12 hour over night session. .

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If I’m lucky, I may get there just in time to see last light and sometimes I’m able to stay till first light, even if this means I’m pushing the barrow around the lake, I will always keep my eyes and ears open (alert to any fishy signs). This could be the key to a great Winter. There is nothing wrong with walking round the lake listening out for fish in the dark; not really much difference than daytime spotting, in fact as noise travels better at night. I find that you can locate the rough area where they are quicker in the dark than in daylight! This is due to the noise levels about. I find walking round a lake at night very informative and wished I lived a lot closer.

If you’re lucky enough to have a friend who also fishes, but preferably not at the same time as you, you can pool your information. This will increase the knowledge you can both gain about any signs of carp. So, for instance, if you both fish 2 or 3 separate nights a week, you have more or less covered every night of the week! This will lead you to fully understand the movement of your chosen fish over the Winter months. This also can be applied to Summer, Spring etc. This is something which is clearly not possible when fishing alone.

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If I’m really stuck for options and just don’t know where the fish are held up, I will set up a swim which gives me the best view of the lake. As I have written before, observation is the key to success. I will try and stay up as late as possible so I can listen out for carp and if I wake up in the night, I will put the kettle on, have a brew and watch the lake of an hour or so. I know it sounds like hard work but if you spot that fish, it could make a bad Winter into the best Winter you have ever had.

Till next time

Richard

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Winter Club Lake Fishing

Posted on November 1, 2020 by richardhandel

I’m sure you will all agree that fishing club lakes can be hard going in the Summer months. This is due to the volume of anglers on the bank, which is why those who can join syndicate waters as they have fewer members. However, there is a hidden secret out there, club waters are becoming increasingly quiet over the Winter months. If you can find the right one, they can be completely void of anglers in those cold bleak Winter days. If you’re after some action and not particularly bothered about the size of the Carp and you are just after some action, to boost your confidence, over what can be a very bleak time on some syndicate lakes, then these are a perfect opportunity which could be overlooked and they could be just on your doorstep.

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Which is what I have decided to do this Winter. I will document my exploits over the coming months.

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My first month was more of an exploration trip, in the hope of gaining plenty of knowledge before Winter properly sets in. This would have to involve fishing as many swims as possible over the first few weeks and doing a considerable amount of watching the water to gain an understanding of where the fish prefer to hang about. In the dead pads was my first area, which is approximately a third of the lake and clearly, they were down here. I also needed to know if they were by the island, which is at the far end of the lake. Unfortunately, you couldn’t really see both at the same time. This meant I needed to fish up there at some point before December. I couldn’t assume it would fish the same has it had done 15 years ago when I last fished here. As I would only be doing Winter days for just over 5 hours, I need to do my homework work.

The two weeks of November when I started my membership, turned out to be very fruitful and produced a few double figured Carp. In all honesty, I had absolutely no idea of the stock level. I was quite astounded that when I arrived at 9ish on every day trip, there where carp always showing and continued over the 5 hours I was there. I was straight on the fish each time and bagged a total of 13 carp including 3 doubles.

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With steady action, it’s going to be hard to move into a different area, but I need to explore other options before Winter really sets in. All my action has been from casting across to the far bank in between the dying pads, not a heavy padded area which did surprise me at first. It was probably due to the angler pressure the main padded area all Summer long. I also think the island will have the same influence.

I have also been exploring fishing off the pads, I’m sure the Carp will feel safer feeding there, I’ve not had much success with that so far. In December I will be exploring other areas and dropping baits in the margins, with the view of moving swim more – this is dependent on the weather, I never like moving in the rain, but sometimes you just have to make that extra effort to bag a fish.

December

This month has been pretty good to me despite the horrendous weather, I’ve managed 9 carp, with a good few doubles. The weather has certainly played its part when it was fine, I needed to be finishing off all the gardens I work on before Christmas. This only left me a few dry days, which I have found are clearly the most productive. It’s been so valuable this month from cat ice to flooded swims. With a little effort, still very productive and will me being only able to fish up until the 20th due to the school holidays, I was very happy with my results.

January

With the kids only started back on the 6th January, the wife’s and my birthday and some gardening work to catch up on, it was going to be a busy month to fit fishing in and I do like my Perch and Pike fishing, we shall see how things progress.

I have snuck out in between all the storms a couple of times, as I’ve been sent some new bait from Spotted Fin to test out before its release at the NAS show. I’ve had some amazing results (not quite cracking the 20lber mark but very close) with 3 x 19lbers and a handfull of doubles over 4 short 4 hrs sessions. I was a bit limited in the areas I could fish due to maintenance work taking place, but I’m never going to moan about that.

Now, I understand it’s not everyone cup of tea. The hardcore anglers out there would probably not dream of doing this, but the old I get the more I realized that it’s all about the joy of fishing (the take, fight, etc), it’s not all about size. As you pass 55 (as I did this year), it dawns on you that you probably have fewer years to fish than you have already done. So, I decided that it’s going to be about enjoyment and sometimes sitting in a bivvy on a hard water over the Winter months, has started to feel a bit crazy in the wrong weather conditions.

So why not give your local club a go over the Winter? You’ll find them void of anglers and the ability to catch plenty of Carp. You will realize that its great fun and brings you full circle back to why you enjoy fishing some much.

Until next time

Richard

Posted in Carp fishing, Classic Corn, Deeper Chirp, Delkim Buzzers, Finskin, lake fishing, photography, Pink Pepper Squid, Pop Ups, Ronnie Rig, Spotted Fin, Spotted Fin Coarse, The Catalyst, Touchdown Leads, winter, winter fishing | Leave a comment

Trip 56 Carp Fishing – 2020

Posted on November 1, 2020 by richardhandel

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Location – School Lake

Hours Fished – 6 Hours

After my failure the other day I was back out on the School Lake but I was armed with completely different tactics. The forecast was showing chances of showers during the day.

I arrived a bit later than planned; due to the forgetting my barrow wheel. As I’m a lot more mobile on here (because of the way I fish), I just had to go home and collect it. When I arrived back, there was no one on the lake, I was sure there would be as its Friday. The carp where definitely more awake than when I arrived the first time and it was hard to choose the right area, I could easily get it wrong. I picked an area which gave me a good view of the lake, this always helps with this type of mobile fishing. There was a lot more rain about than I expected, maybe that will help.

For the last few hours, my back up option is to head for the back of the island where I spotted a nice fish the other day. I need to be back home by 3pm or just after, which will give me a few hours.

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Just before 11am, I moved on to my second swim and I believe I spooked the carp out on my second rod cast. It clipped a bush and landed with a bigger plop than normal. Not long after that, a carp stuck its head out and then crashed out twice more as it headed down the lake. Don’t you just love it when this happens! I’ll give it an hour and hopefully another one will move in and feed.

I am now on my third swim of the day and its certainly turning out to be another hard trip out. After today I’m not sure when I will be back on here, but I hope things improve.

I’ve just under 3 hrs left and I took the decision to move again. I feel that the island will give me my best opportunity and if I get the baits out with not too much disturbance, I just need to sit back and be patient. Hopefully, the carp will move around the island and find my baits; I’ve got one very close to the bank and in the shallower water, the other is at the bottom of the margin shelf. This will give me two variations as to where the carp may feed.

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The rain has come back and I’m glad that I’m quite sheltered now.

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With a few liners over the next few hours I was feeling confident, right up to my rods being on the floor! The carp were clearly there, just not having any of my bait. Next time, I’ll bring a few colour options to try on them. Maybe they’ve moved on from pink & yellow – you can’t stand still even on club waters. The carp will adapt and you have to do the same.

Until next time

Richard

Posted in Asso Fishing Line, Carp fishing, Catalyst pellet, Classic Corn, Deeper Chirp, Delkim Buzzers, Finskin, Grizzyman Clothing, NSR 50, Pink Pepper Squid, Ronnie Rig, Scruffy Carp Leads, Spotted Fin, Spotted Fin Coarse, Spotted Fin Match Range, Submerge Clothing, Talking Carp Magazine, The Catalyst | Leave a comment

How To Enjoy A Winter’s Night

Posted on October 31, 2020 by richardhandel

After fishing some 35 winters, I have come to the conclusion (or realisation), that you are really only fishing 30 nights max over this period. This is based on two nights a week. In general (unless you are really unlucky), a good percentage of this nights will be not that extreme. And with modern-day carp fishing equipment, it can be very pleasant if you get your mindset right. You are still fishing the same amount of time as before, its just dark (obviously) and that’s the hard part. Setting up and packing up in the dark, you just need a routine, a very good knowledge of the swims and the lake. This comes with time. As carp on most waters, like feeding at night, you should stand more chance of a take. Admittedly it can be cold but with these mild winter’s, but you also have the prospects of catching carp at their biggest weights.

With modern bivvys, sleeping bags, bivvy lights and armed with a mobile phone or tablet, you can sit in the bivvy watching plenty of stuff when you want to hibernate! Some anglers find the thought of watch tv a big no-no. If I had not been doing this, I would have been asleep most of the night (which I did do when the children were younger) and not heard a thing, I would have moved my baits onto topping fish. I tend to use headphones with only one ear peace in, as it helps to listen out for the carp topping. With the long moon lit nights, this can be in fact the best period of the year to understand where the carp are. Even a walk around the lake at night with your ears wide open will give you more knowledge than you can dream of.

Hope this helps

Richard

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Trip 55 Carp Fishing – 2020

Posted on October 31, 2020 by richardhandel

Location – School Lake

Hours Fished – 6 Hours

Didn’t think I would get out this week, but with a cancellation and pukka weather a quick trip to the school lake was in order (and well over due).

I arrived just after 11am and there were just 2 other anglers on the lake; one on the car park swims and the other up by the island. The wind was blowing hard on to the other bank when I walked down the car park side. I picked a swim that I could easily flick a bait across into the gaps between the pads and catapult a few Classic Corn boilies out. I put a CC wafter on one rod and a CC bottom bait on to the other one. I wasn’t going to cast too close to the far bank, otherwise it would be likely the carp would kite behind the pads and they hadn’t died back that much yet.

It got to about 14.30 and I was starting to wonder if this was going to turn into my first blank session for sometime. I had adjusted the positions of my hook baits and would stick it out until 1700 – I’d promised the kids I would have this week off fishing, my next trip was going to be five night and the last trip on the Airfield lake.

15.00 arrived, the person fishing near the island had packed up and I took the opportunity to move up there for the last few hours. I should have a bite by then.

I flicked both rods out on to the drop off and catapulted some 6mm Catalyst pellets with some broken boilies, as a quick attraction.

Isn’t it ironic? I pop down the School Lake to test my new buzzers on an easier lake after all that success over the winter months, I think I may just blank for the first time in ages. It was well over due, but I certainly didn’t think it would be today. It goes to show you how sometimes luck comes into play.

On my way back to the car, I spotted (around the other side of the island) a carp stuck its head out. As I really didn’t wish to blank, it was worth 45 minutes on the off chance I could bag one.