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Whether you love them or hate them commercial carp fisheries are here to stay. I am personally not a fan but as they figure so prominently in the match-fishing calendar there is no alternative other than to spend some time developing tactics that work on these type of venues and hopefully have a great time in the process.
For this article I have chosen Bobs Lake on the Hordle complex near Lymington – a venue I have practiced at a lot over the years due to it’s big head of carp in the 6lb to 15lb size.
Catching carp of this size on the pole can be very exciting - fast and furious with the right approach.
Today I am fishing on the dam wall near the overflow where there is a good depth of water in front of me – about 10ft at 13 meters, though I expect to catch in the top 18 inches or less, with no real snags and some limited margin cover down the edge of the peg. I will be targeting both these areas for my main approach, with a backup line at about 7 meters. The reason for targeting these lines is because the larger fish feed here. It is warm already and there is very little wind so it should be ideal conditions to draw the fish up in the water and increase the catch rate.
I have chosen solid Kamasan number 16 elastic through the power top 2 of my pole – Colmic Overkill. The reason for using solid elastic in this venue is that I feel that I can get the fish under control and netted safely, quicker than with hollow elastics which are now so popular. My rigs for this are simple, a small dibber style float for both my margin line and the 13 meter line, connected to Diawa Super Shinobi 0.185 diam (6lb) and 0.165 diam ( 5lb ) for the hook length tied to a size 18 Kamasan 911 hook. These hooks are perfect for fishing banded pellet, which will be my main bait for the day. The rigs have just 2 small style leads down the line. I prefer these to shot because they are less likely to come off the line in my experience.
As I am setting up I can see that there are already carp feeding in the margin down to my left. The temptation is to fish this straight away but I believe that you can maximise your catch by trickling bait in to that area and letting the fish really settle on the feed, stepping up the feed as the session goes on and the carp feed more confidently.
I begin the session by cupping in a large pot of 4mm pellets onto the 13-metre line and flicking a few pellets down each margin. I will start fishing on the bottom on the far line to gauge how the fish are feeding and more importantly, where in the water.
After 10 minutes of the float moving slightly it slides away and I gentle lift into my first fish a common about 4lb, which is in the net in under 2 minutes. I re-bait and cup in another smaller pot of pellets after the float has settled. I can see that the line is being hit by some fish as they intercept the bait on it’s away to the bottom. A short wait and I am into another fish of about the same size. After another few minutes the float slides away again and I’m into another fish, which feels foul hooked, and sure enough it is. This is often an indication that the fish are feeding up in the water and as I feel that there are plenty of fish in the swim already, the time feels right to reach for the catapult and start feeding a small amount of pellets every minute to try to draw the fish up in the water.
Whilst I do this I try the right hand margin swim and it’s only a few seconds before elastic is flying out of the pole as the feeding carp has hooked itself against the elastic. The pegs at Hordle are quite close together which is not ideal as it means that I will have to be prepared to add sections quickly as the hooked margin fish take off. I always like to fish a very short line of 6in or less to the end of the pole for this reason – it’s like the bolt rig of pole fishing. This is a much bigger fish but I soon have it under control and within a few minutes it is in the net, a decent double of around 12lb.
While I have been playing the fish I have still been firing a few pellets out to the long line. It goes something like this; stop the first run, feed, ship back half way, feed, land the fish feed. By feeding in this way, a little and often I know that there will be a constant trickle of free offerings falling through the surface layers attracting the competing fish up in the water.
I have another 3 fish down the right hand margin, each around the double figure mark, before it slows as the fish move from this area. I will keep flicking a few pellets down the edge, as I feel confident that the carp may return later in the session.
It’s just over an hour into the session I am now ready to try the far line fishing shallow, as I can see fish moving as soon as the bait hits the water. I start fishing at 2ft deep with 1 ft of line to the top of the pole. I stretch the bait band over a 6mm pellet, feed and ship out. Once I have shipped out I feed again, just a pinch of pellets 6 – 8 and I just lift the pole and lay the line out again so that it makes a splash on the water. Almost immediately the top 3 sections of the pole slam under the surface as a hooked carp tears off across to my left. You do find with this method, that the takes are brutal but you can just let the pole and elastic do it’s job, follow the fish and apply steady pressure to stop the first run then ship back steadily keeping the tip of the pole close to the water, breakdown the pole to a suitable length then net the fish. As I mentioned previously, it is essential to keep feeding regularly even while playing the fish to keep the feeding frenzy going. After a spirited fight a carp of around 7lb is netted within a couple of minutes and I am shipped out ready for the next one.
I continue to bring a steady stream of fish to the net but the bites start to slow down a bit. I am sure that they are still there and feeding but I feel that they may have moved deeper so I cut back on the feed and fire just 4 pellets for a while and sure enough the fish start to come regularly again.
The last 2 fish have been foul hooked in the pectoral fin. This has a the effect of slowing the catch rate as they can be a pain to get in the net, so I shallow up to just under a foot deep and ship out again. Immediately I am back into the carp again this time hooked firmly in the mouth. So you can see that by adjusting the depth and varying the feed rate you can stay in contact with the fish.
I am now 3.5 hrs into the session and have 18 carp. The fish feeding on the 13-metre line are a good size but not quite as big as the ones in the margin so it’s time to see how the left margin is doing. I have been feeding it steadily throughout the session and I can see the tails and cloudy water where the fish are rooting around for food so I am sure that I can pick up a few fish to finish the session. I continue to feed the long line in case I need to return to it.
As always I have set up a number of similar rigs in case of a breakage or a change of hook bait. The rig I have selected fish the margin now is similar to before except it has a size14 Kamasan 911, which is perfect for punched meat and soft hooker pellets.
There is always the risk when there are a lot of fish feeding in a fairly tight area, that more fish will be foul hooked, so by burying the hook into the bait you can minimise this risk. An exposed hook fished with a banded pellet will almost certainly result in more foul hooked fish.
As I have been feeding pellet here, I start with a soft hooker pellet on the hook and straight away I am into what proves to be the biggest fish of the day. Once again there has been no need to strike as the carp hooks itself against the elastic and a gentle lift is all that’s required. A few minutes later and the net is under a common of just over 14lb.
I continue to catch fish in a regular stream, until after about an hour the bites start to get finicky. A change to punched meat brings another fish but still things are slow. I change rigs over to my banded pellet rig and with 20 minutes remaining I manage to net another 3 fish before the 5 hours are up.
I have had a great day and banked 27 fish for a total of over 160lbs. There was no need to resort to the back up, 7 metre line, as both the margins and the long lines produced well throughout the session.
With a little practice, fishing shallow can produce a huge bag of carp. It is important not to rush things, ship the pole steadily, particularly when fishing a long pole and short line, as this will avoid tangles. Whilst I started at 13 metres today, I have managed to bring the fish closer by progressively feeding shorter and drawing the fish in. It is also important to be able to hold the pole and feed at the same time, this is a valuable skill to learn and it will definitely put more fish on the bank.
Have fun and give it a go.
Fergus Cowhig.
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