Most of you reading this must think I'm half baked dreaming of winter in July, in fact just dreaming of winter full stop! I expect many of you have spent all winter dreaming of summer and I really can't blame you for that. Winter can be a long dismal depressing time and motivating yourself to get out on the bank can be near impossible especially if its cold and wet. Having said that I've just seen a post from another Angler on social media saying that they can't wait for winter too...maybe I'm not alone after all..
A nice double figure Common from September last year, not winter but cooling off for Autumn, an early start for me.
Summer offers many benefits over winter for the Carp angler and I'm not saying I won't fish for them while it's warm but prolonged periods of hot weather like we're currently experiencing really doesn't float my boat. Carp are definitely easier to locate in the summer but I wouldn't say they are always easier to catch... Granted at certain times like after spawning they can be ridiculously easy as they get their heads down to try and regain some condition but to me catching them when they are hungry and out of condition has never sat comfortably... Sitting around in the heat trying to find a bit of cool shade whilst the Carp simply bask in the Sunshine and refuse to feed... Sure I could chase them around on the surface with floaters, and once upon a time this is exactly what I would do but having been there and done that and been quite proficient at it, these days I prefer not to exhaust myself. As I've got older I prefer to have more relaxed fishing sessions, but also most Carp lakes are so busy these days, actually fishing effectively on the surface is near impossible. Most of the time your efforts are scuppered by other discourteous anglers or there just simply isn't the room. I remember having been lucky enough to get a day session on the famous Stoneacres in Oxfordshire many years ago and through a lot of effort had got several fish going on the top until another angler decided to pitch up next to me, go out in his boat to bait and plumb the area and spook every single fish I that had spent the last few hours finding and gaining in confidence! I'm pretty sure that was probably the last time I floater fished in earnest...
For many years now I have avoided fishing for Carp between the months of May and August, normally only tentatively treading the banks in mid to late September depending on the temperatures. This self imposed close season allows me to recharge my Carp batteries as it were, and pursue other forms of Angling that I enjoy, revolving around Salt water which I pursue at night when it's cooler!
October and everything is turning yellow and Brown, with much more favourable temps for catching Carp.
Winter Carp fishing isn't easy, the fish are harder to locate, their nutritional requirements are less, they can spend long periods in no man's land in the water column nowhere near the bottom and more often than not the weather can make things very uncomfortable, be it cold or wet or both! Drops in temperature are the kiss of doom in winter, even a drop of half a degree in the water temperature is enough to switch them off most of the time. Cold North or Easterly winds also are a negative.
So why bother then? As I mentioned Carp are in their best condition of the year at this time, and this is the main reason for my preference of fishing for them at this time of year. Quieter banks are a bonus, especially when it comes to trying to locate them. If it's cold I can put on extra layers, if it's wet I can use a shelter or put on waterproofs, if it's cold and wet I can do both! It's harder to keep cool in the summer than to get warm in the winter.. Rain doesn't bother me as long as I have a good shelter and waterproofs. Rain in the winter often marks a milder spell which means the Carp will be more catchable and therefore I need to be out on the bank when this happens if I'm going to stand any chance of catching some.
Winter fishing can be more 'Technical' than Summer fishing, using bits and pieces in your bait mix, finding the right flavours and additives that will work in cold water, refining your rigs and scaling down to get bites are all part of the fun and something that I really enjoy. I've become something of a light line specialist in the last few years and being forced to use heavy gear such as at weedy water like the Yateley lakes is something I am not comfortable with. Skull dragging fish through weed isn't really very sporting but I understand it is a necessity on many waters these days. Having said that, in winter the weed is often less which means you are able to fish lighter and more refined and if the water is weed and snag free I am not afraid to scale right down to 8lb mainlines and Rods of 2lb test or less. My favourite rods I own are my 10ft Free Spirit Bank Creepers. If I could use these 100% of the time I would. It's very rewarding using balanced light tackle and you actually get to fight the fish rather than 'walk' them in. Most of my local waters offer the chance to fish pretty light but If I need to step up for bigger waters on trips away then I will.
End of December and water and Air temps of less than 5 degrees.
I really enjoy the Technical aspect of the winter fishing and it plays to my strengths as an Angler. PVA bags have always served me well wherever I have been and when I look back over the years I have probably had more success on solid bags than any other method, especially on unknown or new to me waters, Sometimes catching me fish quite quickly without knowing very much at all about the venues. I love tinkering with the mix for bags, bit's of this and that, different liquids and powders, it gives me great confidence, especially when the odds are stacked against me. I take great pleasure in refining the rigs and hook baits for the job too. Years ago, ( here I go again! ) I used to visit Broadlands lake in Romsey as it is just over the water from me ( really must have a go there again.. ), at the time it was known as a PVA bag water and that was pretty much exclusively what the fish were caught on. If you weren't on bags it seemed you struggled. I think the fish were just conditioned to finding little patches of food or even single hookbaits once the Roach and Bream had eaten the pellets. The point is my friends and I learn't how to make up and tie PVA bags well and this stood us in good stead for taking the method to other waters and of course we adopted it as our favoured winter method. PVA bags seem to have fallen out of vogue now , especially solid one's and everyone wants to Spod or Spomb out big beds of bait or use stocking bags which are much easier but don't achieve the same level of presentation.
My friend and I used to fish some of the CEMEX waters before they were sold off, including Kingsmead 1 and Papercourt, both of which were weedy and both of which we fished on the winter ticket available at the time. I found success from both these waters and others using bags and little parcels of food of a technical nature. Finding the thinner patches of weed and dropping a well packed solid bag full of goodies worked well.
It was Snowing with a bitter North Easterly wind when I caught this one in the first week of January this year!
So there are my reasons for my preference of fishing for Carp more in the winter than summer and hence why I start dreaming of the winter in July! I think the pictures speak for themselves.
We're now in early July and I haven't Carp fished or indeed done any Freshwater fishing since April when we had our final sessions on our little water. Once the weather began to warm and Sea temperatures rose to an ideal level the Carp gear was put away and we moved on to some Saltwater fishing. This is a normal pattern for myself and my fishing friends which might sound strange to many Carp anglers, especially those that hang up their gear for the winter. There is no doubt that Carp are easier to catch during the summer months but I have always found it less of a challenge. That probably sounds like an arrogant statement, and it is in a way, but I have always said I have a short attention span when it comes to fishing and once I have achieved a target I get bored and feel the need to move on. Now living where I do on an Island, the challenges are limited as far as freshwater and Carp fishing goes and I hate going over old ground again and again. It isn't an easy thing for me to travel to new destinations both logistically and financially so I have to look elsewhere for those challenges and the Saltwater that I am surrounded by holds plenty of those hence why I hang up the Carp rods for the summer. Having said all that, all this fishing takes a lot of planning and usually I am thinking months ahead, so through the late winter and early spring I am preparing for the summer and usually about this time of year I start to think about my Autumn and winter fishing whilst still pursuing my summer targets. I won't write about my current summer exploits here as I want to keep this blog about the Coarse side
of things but if you are interested you can catch up with them here : https://saltwaterflyfishingdiary.blogspot.com/
So what are my plans for later in the year?
Last Autumn saw me visit the famous Yateley complex with a particular interest in the Match lake, an extremely challenging water for many reasons and made all the harder by not being able to spend much time there. I only managed a couple of trips for various reasons which was less than I was planning on, but the two trips that I did do were very interesting and I did learn a few things. I have outlined them in the previous posts and I hope to return for some more sessions this Autumn and winter. I will however be making my first trip earlier than last year whilst it is still relatively warm to give myself at least a fairly decent chance of learning more about the lakes residents and their movements and feeding habits. I will be taking what I learned on the two previous trips and implementing that knowledge in my baiting situations and presentation. I don't like to move too far out of my comfort zone when it comes to how I fish wherever I go, and I have a few tried and tested presentations that I am confident in but will be making small adjustments for this particular water...
Travelling for my fishing is nothing new to me and is something I have always done and I have managed to be fairly successful on some quite challenging waters up and down the country, so I am not daunted by the prospect of this particular water. Carp are Carp and they have to feed at some point, if you're there when they do then you stand a chance of catching them, if you're not there then you won't. That's the way I look at it anyway, if you've got a bait in the water you stand as much chance as anyone else, more so if you look, listen, and learn. Cagey they may be and as I discovered on my first trip, they are clever enough to get away with it on a regular basis but eventually they will make a mistake.
The biggest issue for me is the amount of kit needed for these long sessions, 48 - 72 hours is quite a long time and logistically a total pain. I am a far better short session angler and always have been. I like to be mobile, and focused but with 3 tons of gear that is impossible! So this is something I am going to be looking at. I moved a couple of times on the last Yateley trip and I was completely exhausted by the time I'd finished! I aim to be more mobile, even if it means leaving food and drink etc. in the car and not carrying it with me, at least I can fish off the barrow then and be much more mobile if I need to be.
I'm still a few weeks away from any of that at the moment and will be continuing my Saltwater fishing both in the meantime and in between any Carp sessions that I manage to do.
On another note:
As part of my tackle business I have introduced a small range of low cost Terminal tackle bits for Carp fishing, all of which I use myself and have done for some time and have been very successful whilst using it. The range includes Semi translucent rig bits such as Tube, Lead Clips, Beads etc. I am a huge fan of this type of end tackle as I believe it is much harder for the Carp to detect it and it blends in far better with most lake bottoms than some of the solid coloured stuff on the market The range is based on over 30 years of Carp fishing experience. Along with this I am stocking the superb new VMC range of Carp hooks. Again I have extensively trialled this range and I am of the opinion they are amongst the best hooks I have ever used. If you are interested please visit the Ebay shop and have a look at the range, if you make a purchase and aren't happy for any reason I will give you your money back, no questions asked!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/saltwaterandpredatorflies/Carp-fishing/_i.html?_storecat=11809259015
Until next time tight lines and Thanks for reading!
Our campaign on our chosen venue continues and so far we have only missed one weekend since September last year due to me having the Flu.
Sometimes it's been good and others not so. But we tallied up yesterday that between my friend and I we have had 70-80 fish out of this water including 7 Twenties.
We have built up a very good picture of the habits of the lakes inhabitants and their daily habits, the puzzle is by no means complete but we can usually put our baits in front of some fish on any given day, whether they will feed is of course down to them but I would say 8 out of 10 sessions result in fish on the bank. Bait placement here is crucial and they seem reluctant to pick a hookbait up that isn't within a few inches of the target zone, which considering they aren't pressured fish is interesting.
Yesterday was one of the strangest days we have fished this winter, the day started off looking promising but took a turn for the worse as the day progressed and conditions became almost intolerable, however we still managed to put some fish on the bank. The previous week has been mild with temperatures reaching scraper double figures on most days. We knew this would raise the water temperature at least a couple of degrees meaning it was almost a guarantee that the fish would be feeding despite the air temperature being just on freezing. On arrival we were able to confirm this with a reading of 5.2 degrees, the highest we had noted since winter proper set in, well up on the previous weeks reading of 2.7degrees and prior to that the week before when we had the beast from the East a reading of 0.8 degrees!
Any rise will stir fish into action, it doesn't have to be significant as long as it's trending upwards, and so we set out our stalls feeling fairly confident. With Snow forecast and air temperatures plummeting over the weekend we weren't too worried as it would take at least a day for the water temp to drop again. And so it proved to be, as I swiftly banked two nice doubles within the first couple of hours.
Apologies for the Mat shots, it was just too cold to hold the fish for the camera!
Just after the second fish it started snowing, and with the driving Easterly wind it was blowing it in horizontally with the snow increasing until it was practically blizzard conditions. Fortunately the ground was still too warm and damp for it to lay other wise we would have probably abandoned ship as the lake is in the middle of no where and getting out would have been tricky!
Around two thirty in the afternoon I had another take resulting in a lovely mid double Common. During the fight however I was in agony with my hands ( forgot to take any gloves! ), with the biting Easterly wind showing a wind chill factor of -7 degrees! My friend had to keep clearing the ice that was instantly forming in the tip ring of the rod as I wound in and the droplets of water on the line froze in the tip ring!
By this time everything was freezing solid due to the wind chill, the Cradle, the Sling and the Net were all freezing solid almost straight away! A little while later I glanced away from the rods and a second or two later looked back to see the bobbin on the left hand rod up tight and the tip of the rod bent round, I had got a take and the alarm hadn't sounded which I later discovered was due to the roller being frozen up! Anyway this turned out to be a small single figure fully scaled Mirror which is a bit anomalous for the lake but it still took the tally of fish for me for the day to four which is a good result given the conditions. My friend also managed a very nice looking double figure Mirror from further up the lake. So a tally of five fish between us for the day. By the time we decided to call it a day the water temperature had dropped 1.2 degrees and looked like continuing to do so with the biting wind chill. There is no doubt our timing was spot on with the deteriorating conditions, all the fish were taken in no more than a couple of feet of water, but as the temperature dropped no doubt they would go off the feed. Perhaps if we'd fished today the result would have been different with the overnight drop sending them into a more torpid state in deeper water.
Today the ground is covered in a good layer of snow which to be honest was a bit of a shock! Obviously the ground temperature had dropped enough over night to allow it to lay so most likely the lakes water has dropped by another degree or two which I have no doubt will have switched them off. Hopefully this mini beast from the East will have passed by next weekend and things will be back on an upward trend!
Time flies doesn't it? It's three weeks or so since I last updated the blog. There hasn't been much to blog about with the weather and temperatures taking a nose dive. As I sit writing this we have a yellow warning for snow in the next couple of days. Whether we will see any of the white stuff is debatable but there's no doubt that the freezing temperatures forecast are going to knock any fishing the coming weekend on the head. If we don't fish it will be the first time this winter that we have missed a weekend. I'm not too worried though as personally I could do with a reset with the struggle we've faced the last few weeks, with just a few small examples visiting the bank and a couple of blanks.... I've just looked out the window and seen a few light snowflakes drifting down!
So lets talk about where we will go once things start to look better and what plans we have for the coming year.
We aim to finish off our winter Carping on the water we're fishing at present, carrying on into March and possibly early April ( spring ), until the temperatures improve and we are putting fish on the bank regularly again. Once we determine that the time is right the beach will beckon us and for a few weeks we shall be fishing hard for Rays. Along side this when the sea temps and conditions are right the focus will switch to Lure and fly fishing for Bass, Pollock, Mackerel and Gars. Hopefully this will take us back through to October and maybe even November when we will revert back to Carp fishing on our present water. In between all of that I hope to get a couple more trips in to the Yateley complex.
A pretty full itinerary isn't it? That's the plan, to keep busy and keep the momentum up, more fishing means more chances of catching fish. No one ever caught fish by sitting indoors thinking about it, you have to be there, come hell or high water to present yourself with the most opportunities! Working to a timetable as we are means we have something to plan ahead for. It's all about making the most of what the changing seasons have to offer and taking advantage of natures natural order.
I've always said I have a short attention span and that is why I have always been more of an all rounder. I'm not big on summer Carping and never have been and being surrounded by salt water has always been a distraction to me. I love being stood waist deep in the sea, waves lapping around me retrieving a lure or fly in anticipation of a vicious attack from a marauding Bass or standing on the beach as the sun dips behind the horizon waiting for the tell tale nod and pull on the rod tip as Ray picks up the Sandeel bait and glides off....
Preparation is the key to being able to do all this. Having the gear packed and ready to go at a moment's notice. I have several lots of kit in this state of readiness, as well as bait in the freezer and fully stocked lure and fly boxes and bags, depending on what the weather is doing I can grab some kit and go and do some fishing of some sort. I have tide tables and weather forecasts at my finger tips so I can assess the situation. The windows on the coast are often small and so the fishing can last just a couple of hours, but being in the right place at the right moment is all it takes. Preparation for all this begins now, sorting gear, servicing reels, checking rods and end tackle, replacing anything that needs it and making sure I have enough of the right tackle for the job. That way I needn't worry about rushing around sorting it all out at last minute and can focus on picking the right time to start.
For now though until the year moves on and some warmer weather arrives we shall plod on with our winter Carp campaign and dream of those wonderfully atmospheric mornings and evenings in pursuit of salty quarry!
We've been through some pretty tough weather this winter, recently it's been high winds and torrential rain and prior to that some very cold spells. Through it all we've not missed a beat and even though the blanks have been creeping in on the odd occasion, fish have still come to the bank with some regularity.
Continued bait application has been the key, not a huge amount and only a couple of times a week, but it has kept the fish feeding. Pinning down the areas where the fish feel comfortable and recognising where they want to be given the prevailing weather conditions and temperatures has been of great benefit.This involves a lot of trial and error hence the odd few blanks but some good bonus fish have been coming to my own net as a result of the hard work. The vast majority of the stock are double figure fish with a currently unknown head of Twenty pound plus specimens. So far I have been lucky enough to capture three of these anomalous fish with a fourth brought to the bank with the hook through it's pectoral fin which of course isn't counted as a proper capture, however the fish had a strangely formed mouth caused either by previously bad angling or more likely a genetic deformity and as such is unable to close it's mouth in the normal way which must cause it to feed in a weird way and we believe this led to it being hooked through the Pec whilst attempting to feed on the bait..... Shame because other than that it's a clean fish in good condition.
So my last fish of 2017 was a twenty pound specimen and my first fish of 2018 was also a twenty. I count myself very fortunate to have made such a good start to the New Year, I just hope it continues!
Yesterday was my first session of the year, arriving at the venue we found a strong northerly breeze blowing across the lake which didn't bode well for the days possibilities. A very unusual direction for here making swim choice difficult. We settled on having the wind on our backs, far from ideal from the point of view of accessing areas where the fish may be occupying but a comfort choice took priority on this occasion as the wind was bitterly cold.
A couple of early strange occurrences on my rods where the alarms signalled takes and yet I connected to nothing had my hopes for a good day climbing but it soon became apparent these were seemingly anomalous and the alarms remained silent for the rest of the morning.
Around 1pm whilst my fishing buddy and I were engaged deep in conversation the left hand bobbin suddenly slammed into the rod, dropped all the way down and then smacked violently into the rod again and the tip of the rod surged round signalling a fish had made a mistake! The violent nature of the take suggested a very angry fish and the fight also reflected this with the Carp charging all over the lake. Early into the fight I suspected a better fish but we have been fooled before by these fish as they really do fight above their weight.
Slowly I managed to bring it into shallower margins and a few glimpses in the clear water confirmed that it was indeed looking like a decent fish. And so it turned out to be as a lovely scaley low Twenty slid over the net cord.
The weird thing is the conversation my fishing buddy and I had been engaged in was about this very fish! The owner had previously described a fish just like this to me as it was likely the biggest of the batch of this strain that was in the lake, and we were discussing the likelihood of one of them being over Twenty pounds by now. I guess you could say we talked it onto the bank....
Anyway a good result on what turned out to be a bitter day and this fish turned out to be the only visitor to the bank for both of us. I think you'll agree it's a cracking looking fish though.
First fish of 2018 at 21.02lb
My last fish of 2017 at 23.11lb
The weather has been dismal this winter but my fishing buddy and I have still carried on regardless through high winds and rain, freezing cold days with biting winds, and the blanks have been trying to beat us into submission!
When we saw the forecast milder spell coming over the last few days we were in no doubt the fish would feed, and though the water temperature showed a rise of just a degree that was indeed enough to trigger a feeding spell on the lake.
We were however a little surprised at the number of fish we caught over the course of two day sessions with 13 plump, hard fighting fish sporting some glorious winter colours coming to our nets topped by a winter twenty for me. The condition of the fish served as a nice reminder of why we put so much effort into our winter fishing.
A true reward for persistence and patience as we knew it would come good again sooner or later.
The temperatures are set to drop again later next week but in the meantime the mild snap is continuing over Christmas hopefully bringing the water temperature up another couple of degrees. If we can time it right once the festivities are out of the way there may be another window of opportunity.
Until next time, thanks for following the Blog and I hope you have a great Christmas!
Not the best looking Carp I've ever caught but being one of just a handful of larger residents in the lake I wasn't complaining!
The change over from summer to winter Carping can be a daunting time for many Carp anglers. The fish become harder to catch due to falling water temperatures slowing their metabolism down causing them to feed less, location becomes more difficult, and the weather becomes less conducive to being out on the bank making it harder to motivate yourself to get out there. Those are the negative points, the positive side is that once the temperatures have settled things can get a bit easier, the fish are in their best condition of the year and there are less anglers about meaning that actually there is more chance of catching them once you have located them.
I consider myself a bit of a winter specialist, preferring to do most of my Carp fishing at this time of year. Mainly because the banks are quieter but also as mentioned above because the fish look superb in their winter colours.
So how do I go about catching Carp in winter? Well the first thing I do is to look at the lake I am fishing, which way does the lake lie, i.e East / West, North / South ? where does the Sun rise and which bank will get the most sunshine and warmth? which direction does the prevailing wind blow in and which bank will be the most sheltered? Depth is also a major consideration in winter, deep lakes generally are much harder winter prospects than shallower lakes. If a deep lake has some shallow shelves or reedy areas that get the sun then these are the places I will target. Shallow waters warm up much faster than deep ones and will respond faster to the rise triggering the fish to feed in response.
The lake I am currently fishing I would say falls under the deep category and has been proving a tricky prospect since the temperatures started to drop and winter proper has set in. It is a very steep sided reservoir with virtually no shallow areas apart from the very top of the slopes right up against the bank where the water is only a foot or two deep but is not what you would call a shelf, just simply the top of the steep sloped sides. This has made it a tricky venue even when it was warmer and we found that baits placed as tight to the bank on top of the slope got us the most bites with only one fish so far coming from the bottom of the slope in 12ft of water. You would probably expect this behaviour during the warmer months but what of the winter? Where would you expect the fish to be? Well on days that are cloudy and over cast I would expect the fish to be sitting mid water in a layer of slightly warmer water they feel comfortable in, but on bright cold sunny winter days I would expect them to seek out the little warmth the Sun has to offer by being right up on the tops of the slopes, especially if there is over hanging tree cover or reeds for them to sit in.
For many winters now this has proven to be a winning formula, searching out areas of whichever lake I am fishing that offer one or more of the factors that would offer the fish a comfortable position. My most recent session on my current lake proved once again that Carp are creatures of habit and will react the same on any water and that there is always somewhere that offers you a chance of catching them.
The lake I am fishing lies in a roughly North West / South East position according to the compass, meaning that at this time of year the sun rises at the Eastern end of the South bank and swings along on a low trajectory until it sets at the Western end, so naturally the North bank gets all of this light on clear days.
Yesterday after sitting for the vast majority of the day biteless, despite the fish being evident in and around the areas we were fishing at the top of the slopes the Sun finally broke through as forecast at about 2.30pm. It was as if the fish were anticipating this happening already being resident but they were just waiting for the sun to warm these slight margins enough for them to have a feed. And this, it seems is exactly what they were waiting for as in the last couple of hours of light my friend and I had several pick ups and I managed to land a couple of fish. Considering the water surface temperature was reading 5.3 degrees by this time the fish fought like absolute animals, which was surprising considering how cold the water was and indeed when holding them for pictures it was like holding blocks of Ice, I was losing feeling in my fingers while holding them they were that cold!
It's a great feeling to land a winter Carp and this was no exception even though the fish aren't that big, the winter colours are lovely, the reward was in sitting it out in very cold conditions and keeping the faith that they would behave exactly as expected once the conditions became conducive to them feeding, The tiny rise in temperature of the marginal water once the sun came out being just enough for them to want to feed.
The challenge now is to try and catch them when they aren't visiting these areas on overcast and dull days. A little bait application should help in this respect in persuading them to pick the bait up from the deeper water at the bottom of the slopes, we may have to adapt out rigs and baits to fish on the sides of the slopes which really are quite steep, or use Zig rigs.
As I said deep waters are much more of a challenge in the winter and a virtually featureless reservoir presents its own challenges in locating where the fish want to be on any given day depending on conditions, but the rewards are worth the effort.
