Carp Fishing  

LOCATION OF CARP IN SUMMER

Having made your choice of water on which you hope to catch your first or maybe your next carp, your first move on arrival should be to leave the tackle in your car and take a slow walk around the whole water to get to know its make-up. This will be of more benefit than just dropping your tackle into the nearest swim and casting out your baits. Admittedly you can probably observe the water from your chosen swim but you will not learn any of its intimate secrets by looking at it from a distance, with or without binoculars.

The activity of feeding is generally related to the most productive location of food. This may vary at different times of the season but it is vital to remember that the deepest channel or section of water on a given lake or pit is most likely to hold the lowest concentrations of natural food items as the development of all aquatic life is dependent on light and temperature. Shallow lakes and pits produce more usable food than deep gravel pits, clay pits and quarries. (The margins and bars on these last three types of fishery are the most likely food producing and holding areas.) The shallowest, weediest areas of any water usually hold the highest concentration of natural foods in the form of snails, shrimps, beetles and various larvae.

The many successful carp anglers who catch carp regularly around the country have undoubtedly come to terms with fish location and within a short time discover the optimum swim. Many of these successful anglers actually locate carp with what could now be called a sixth sense, but really it is a finely cultivated form of water craft. It is acquired by combining natural instinct with methodical research into fish activities over many seasons, allied with regular fish catches to prove that all this was worthwhile!

This aptitude will come hard to some as it is not a natural part of their approach to angling as a whole. To any inquisitive or inspired angler who seeks to understand more, a walk round the lake is essential, be it two acres or two hundred acres, as this is the only way to observe the visible features. On the bigger waters it might be advisable to break these into smaller sections, as illustrated in Fig 8, which you can observe and fish more the way you would a small fishery.