5 Carp Fishing Tips For Beginners
Choosing a water to carp fish on is heavily dependent on what you want to achieve from the sport. Whether you are looking for some peace and quiet in the countryside, a tough challenge or just to catch as many fish as possible there is a water for you.
Club waters – These are waters available to fish upon joining an angling club or society. These are usually one of the cheapest ways of getting carp fishing with angling clubs all over the UK from as little as £40 a year to fish. Clubs are very variable though and your enjoyment of the sport will often depend on the other members and types of fishing they prefer. e.g. If you join a popular club for match fishing you can often expect your fishing to be curtailed on a Sunday morning by a match fixture. The best approach is often to contact a club and ask if it is possible to walk round a venue to get a feel for the place and chat to a few anglers.
Day ticket waters – These are now the most common waters for carp angling and typically offer the easiest way to catch that first big carp. The downside of day ticket waters are many though, they can be expensive to fish regularly, very busy so strategic carp fishing is difficult and are often not the most pleasant surroundings as high angler turnover lends itself to more bank erosion and littering. Overly easy angling also limits skill development if you are hoping to go on to better things so a few forays onto day ticket waters before joining a club is often a good way of
Syndicate Waters – Although not usually the first port of call of the beginner carp angler, syndicates do hold most of the countries biggest and most prestigious carp. Syndicates are operated on a limited ticket basis depending on the size of the water and many of the best have waiting lists many years on. Whilst probably not the best choice of first waters to start on due to expense and catching difficulty it is often worth getting your name on the waiting list for when your abilities have devleoped a few years down the line. Famous syndicate venues include the Yateley Car Park Lake, Wraysbury 1 and Conningbrook.
Rivers – There are free and paid stretches of river to angle throughout the country holding some great carp but due to the nomadic nature of river carp, currents, and other challenges, not the easiest waters on which to begin a carp angling career.
Tip 2. You don’t need to spend a fortune on tackle but you need to spend a bit!
Carp are big and demanding fish to catch. Additionally they are easily damaged so appropriate care must be taken when fishing for them. Cheap tackle is usually false economy as it will often struggle to last a season and make angling less pleasureable. Some great tackle is available on the cheap though. On the flipside you don’t need to spend a fortune though, despite the best efforts of the marketing men. Mid range tackle spending about £50-£70 on each rod and reel usually offers a good performance range which will serve you well for a number of years.
Advice on creating a basic: carp fishing set up
Tip 3. Get a head start on a water by spending time there and asking the right questions
When fishing a new water it can be daunting at first. If you go about it the right way though you can pick up all sorts of useful pieces of information on how to approach the water without even wetting a line. If you have a free evening rather than sit in front of something bad on the TV go for a walk a round the lake. One of the fundamental principles of becoming a successful carp angler is understanding the behaviour of the fish in the water you are fishing. Carp are creatures of habit and in different weather conditions, or at different times of the year or in a combination of both can 9/10 be found in certain areas of the lake. By spending time at the lake watching the water, look for feeding signs like bubbles and mud clouds, leaping fish, or fish cruising on the surface, you can get a good headstart on where to fish under different conditions.
Other anglers are also a good indicator on this. Whilst deluging other anglers will questions will usually earn you a reputation as a pest if you approach it slowly and considerately you can learn a lot over time. Effectively making friends and aquaintances at the lake in a relaxed manner over time. Never sit quizzing someone though as they will eventually end up wanting to get rid of you or feeding you duff information.
Tip 4. Choosing the right bait approach
There are two main successful ways to approach fishing from a baiting perspective. Either creating specific areas of feeding confidence for the fish or fishing where they alreay fed confidently. As previously discussed muddy clouds, bubbles and fish movement are a good indicator of the latter.
It’s all too common as a beginner to plot up and chuck a rod randomly out into the lake. Whilst this “pub chucking” approach will pick up the odd fish and even a fair few in easy heavily stocked waters with hungry fish, a considered approach is far more effective.
Try combining your evening visits with some baiting up, always with consideration to other anglers and lake rules. Building an area of feeding confidence where the carp learn they can find food again and again is probably the fundamentally most successful long term tactic.
Whilst boilies can be very expensive for long term baiting up cheaper particle baits such as properly prepared hemp seed and tiger nuts can be very effective.
Tip 5. Learn to use a marker rod
As already mentioned a pub chuck approach is not a method that will bring long term angling success. As you will learn on any water fish prefer to eat in certain areas and this varies. Therefore it is important to understand what type of lake bottom you are fishing from. Fishing tangled in a big ball of weel of in rotten leaf litter is not usually successful on most waters but sweet silt or the edges of gravel beds often are. There are a range of guides available on the web on correctly using a marker rod around but needless to say mastery of this tactic will enable you to catch more carp.
