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To my mind there are two main types of stalking. The first and probably most exciting is when you can see the carp you are trying to catch. Whether they are led up in reeds or on the edge of some lily-pads there is nothing better than seeing a carp take your bait.
If you want to start stalking carp then the first thing you need to look at is finding a suitable water. Ideally it shouldn’t be too big, with large open venues like Hatchet Pond near Beauliue for instance not really worth trying. The lake should have plenty of cover in the form of reeds, lilies, over-hanging bushes and trees. It should be clear enough to see the fish with margins deeper than two foot. One of the best examples of this sort of water locally is Mopley Pond in Langley where I’ve had sight caught fish up to just under 20lbs.
The gear you need couldn’t be simpler; a through action rod of 2 ½ or 2 ¾ lb test curve coupled with a reliable reel loaded with 12lb line straight through to a size 4 or 6 strong, forged hook is all you need. It is worth buying the best line and hooks you can afford as these are the only things that can let you down when fishing at such close range. Some of the Teflon coated hooks available are good as they don’t glint in the sunlight spooking wary fish. A decent pair of polaroids are essential to take the glare off of the waters surface and help fish spotting. Also it is definitely worth wearing realtree clothing if you have it or at the very least drab coloured clothes that won’t spook carp.
You may think you look the nuts in your Hawaiian shirt, but you don’t (and the carp definitely don’t think so!!)
Bait wise you need something which is instantly attractive to the carp and that they recognise as food. The ideal bait for this is a big Lobworm which few carp can resist. Also lobbies aren’t used too much so shouldn’t spook the fish. Just lower the lobworm in front of the carp and with any luck it will suck it in.
Strike as soon as the carp sucks in the bait and hold on!!
The second type of stalking can be used on a wider variety of waters as you don’t need to be able to see the fish. It involves baiting several likely looking spots around the margins of the lake and then visiting each one in turn to see if there are any signs of feeding fish.
These signs could be patches of bubbles, boils or tail patterns on the surface, cloudy ‘muddied’ water, or if the water is very clear you could be able to see the fish themselves. The end rig is not as simple as the one above but the rod/ reel combo is the same. I use a float set-up as this allows minimum disturbance of the swim when putting a bait in. A short crystal waggler held on the line with a single float rubber is ideal. This lets the float come off if the fish goes through structure when hooked hopefully preventing it getting snagged. It also allows easy adjustment of depth which is handy when fishing the ‘lift method’. This is where the float is over-shotted with a single large split shot so that when the carp picks up the bait the float lifts out of the water. I tie the hair rig on as you normally would and put the split-shot just above the swivel, making the bait 6-12’’ over depth. The rig you normally use is fine although it doesn’t need to be over complicated, just one you’re confident with.
For bait your usual pellet/boillie combination will be fine and a good particle mix can work well in the later summer period. Again this sort of fishing is really exciting as when there’s fish in the area you should be getting loads of line bites with the float getting knocked about all over the place. The key here is to wait until you know it’s a bite not when you think it is, then strike. My personal-best for a time was the leather out of mopley on a float-fished bells sas boillie on a pre-baited patch under an over-hanging tree.
The key to stalking carp is to keep moving around the lake and to keep quiet. When you catch one it’s really rewarding and worth five on a ledgered bait. It’s an excellent way to spend a summer’s morning and with the weather starting to warm up can be really effective to.
 Mid twenty leather from Mopley
Thanks for your interest
Phil Rudd.
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