Pressured Venues and Big Carp

The bum steer!
I will freely admit this is both juvenile and goes against pretty much everything else I have described where the goal was not to draw attention to yourself! But in my defence this was a very long time ago! In fact, we will have to go back over two decades to the period myself and my good friend Dave Levy were fishing the Walthamstow reservoirs. 

Back then, and I doubt much has changed, the day-only fishing bred an extremely keen and mobile type of angler, but as well as moving at a drop of a hat to a fish sighting, some would have no qualms to moving as close to someone who was catching as they could, and or casting into their swim! 

One winter’s day, Dave and I had failed to locate any carp, and were set-up in a fairly central area of Number 3. Just before dark, two regulars decided to set-up directly opposite us. Again, this is a long time ago, and to be fair, they may well have done so totally innocently, but we felt otherwise! Let’s just say they had some previous form! 

We blanked, but that was not what they would have thought! In the darkness we simulated a couple of bites on the alarms, as well as the corresponding camera flashes going off 10 minutes or so later! Naughty for sure, but if you only base fish location off what others anglers are doing, then sometimes you might get bitten!

Opinions are like bottoms!
Angling etiquette (maybe that should read ‘morals’!) is clearly a subjective topic and what I think is not cricket, another angler might feel is perfectly fine behaviour. As a trader at a big US hedge fund once said to me, opinions are like bottoms, everyone has one! (although he said it in a slightly more crass way!). Angling should always be fun, otherwise why do it, and if you do choose to respect others, and put in your own effort, then without doubt you will have your day too!

Watercraft is, without doubt, the single most important aspect of being successful in carp fishing. By that I mean the ability to find the carp, and once found apply the most suitable rig and bait combination in order to generate a take. So easy to say, but something that cannot be taught overnight and is normally the culmination of years of experience, often learning from mistakes, as well as success.

Focus On Yourself
Why start with that statement when discussing the reality of fishing for big carp in busy waters? Quite simply because while I am firmly of the belief that generally in life—in the long run—effort equals reward. The harder you work, the ‘luckier’ you get! But the reality is there are anglers out there whose idea of watercraft is: what’s been caught? What swim? How many wraps? What bait and rig? You get the picture! Now I am not going to lie, I really struggle with that mindset, and believe if they spent less time worrying about what everyone else is doing, and instead focus solely on their own watercraft, then they would be a whole lot more successful, and also likely more fulfilled in their angling.

Like everyone else I imagine, in an ideal world I would be fishing for lovely carp on quiet venues, but that just isn’t the reality of the modern carp scene in our relatively small country. As I have already touched on, no matter where I am fishing, my focus is finding the carp and applying rigs and bait I have total confidence in, not worrying about what the other anglers fishing the venue are doing. And whilst I have fished alongside some old school type anglers with stellar etiquette, who wouldn’t dream of jumping on someone else’s success, there are unfortunately others who are at the polar opposite end of that scale. And with that in mind, and having fished for carp for over 30 years now, I have learnt there are times that you have to be a bit tactical, and keep your cards close to your chest.

Purchase an intervalometer
The ability to be able to take quality self-takes is not just good for keeping catches quiet, but it also means you don’t face the situation of having to wake up fellow anglers in the dead of the night to take a photo! Though if you do intend to not shout about some catches, then to my mind it would be very poor form to grill other anglers on the lake about what’s been happening. Respect works both ways. I spent last winter fishing a very busy club water for a now well-known and highly desirable big common. There were periods when it was tricky, and obviously I had some blanks, but in the end I did get on a lovely run of commons, three of which were over forty-pounds. For sure others on the lake knew I was catching (and I certainly wasn’t the only one), but not how many, or what. Had I instead been shouting my head off every time I caught, then I have zero doubt the angling pressure would have increased further still (and it was already crazy busy), and my results would have suffered.

Be careful who you hand over hard earned information to
I recall fishing the notoriously tricky Sutton-at-Hone venue some 15 years ago. I was on ‘gardening leave’ when switching between firms in the City, which sounds good (being paid not to work), but it is anything but. While you are forced not to work, the old firm is doing their utmost to break your client relationships (your livelihood), but on the flipside as well as travelling, I did get up to some midweek angling. I had re-joined Sutton, having fished elsewhere for a few years, and on my return had hit the ground running, and was enjoying some nice success fishing just the mornings primarily in the Point swim. On one of those short sessions I caught a lovely 31lb common from a productive margin spot. A full time angler was directly opposite me, and it had obviously not escaped his attention that I had caught one. When it came to recasting, and now with an audience, I made sure to make several casts out in the deep silty water in front of the swim, each time feeling for a non-existent drop, before leaving the rig in position nowhere near where I just caught from. Had I just naively placed the rig back on the spot I caught from, I have absolutely no doubt the guy would have been all over the swim, and the spot, to my detriment.

Try not to fish obvious spots
Moving on now to a more recent period of angling on Horton. It was late autumn and captures had really slowed up on the lake but a carp show led me to move to the Captors swim. Now this swim has a very blatant and well-known gravel feature off to the right, but thankfully the carp had instead shown in a silty area, that importantly could be reached from both Captors, and the opposite Ski Slope swim. That single sighting led to me landing several nice carp over the next couple of trips.

Unfortunately Horton has a rule where all carp caught have to be recorded in a book kept in the lodge, this literally throws petrol on the fire of ‘sheep’ type angling behaviour, and very quickly I couldn’t get back in the area. Captors didn’t do another bite during this period, with the gravel feature getting a lot of attention. I am pleased to say I instead turned my attention to the Ski Slope, and was fortunate enough to keep my run of nice carp going.

No school boy errors! 
Going back to the Club Lake, and last winter. On my first trip over there I did two nights, and was staring a blank in the face before some bubbling and a show in the swim to my left, triggered a move for the last couple of hours of my trip. Just five minutes after the move I was attached to my first carp from the lake, which turned out to be a relatively small common. I quickly repositioned the rod and figured I might get another chance before I had to leave.

With most of my gear already on the barrow (post the move) I hung the unhooking mat and sling in the tree behind the swim to dry before my departure. Earlier that morning a day-only angler to my right had been fly fishing (non-stop casting) with a 3oz lead, obviously far from ideal at 6 a.m. in the morning! Well, he had decided to move, and having gone past my swim and clocked the obvious signs of a capture, moved directly opposite, and proceeded to spod the hell out of the area (it’s a relatively small lake). Unsurprising, all signs of carp ceased, and no more action came my way. I don’t normally make school boy errors like that, but because I was going so soon I didn’t see the risk. I’ve never made that same mistake again!

Hit and run
This is also going back over a decade ago to a period during the summer months when I was fishing an estate lake. The carp were behaving like clockwork, as they visited a particular margin spot each morning. This being a days-only lake, lots of regulars were fishing just the evenings, arriving after they finished work, which left the lake particularly quiet in the mornings. So this was an opportunity that arose, which I capitalised on, rather than something I planned. 

I started fishing short morning trips. Quickly, and quietly getting the rods into position just after 6 a.m. (when you were allowed to arrive), and I was heading off by 10 a.m. but not before introducing a handful of bait—any more than that brought unwanted birdlife attention to the spot. A number of the lake’s special old mirrors came my way during this period, and none of the action was observed by the other regulars (i.e. either where I was fishing or what I was catching), which really allowed me to maximise the window of opportunity.