Small, busy waters can be challenging venues, which when approached correctly can offer some great rewards. Small, day ticket or club run venues will see a variety of angling pressure on a daily basis, ranging from long stay carp anglers, anglers just wetting a line for a few hours to specimen anglers seeking out other species such as tench, perch and crucians. When I’m fishing these types of venues there are certain things I do that may seem obvious, but help boost my catch rate. For me it’s all about being smart with your time and making the most of whatever water you have in front of you, as on many occasions you will not be in your favoured or preferred swim and the scope for moving swims may be limited. Following a few steps when I get to the lake certainly help me catch more consistently regardless of the swim I end up in.
Getting to know your swim before casting a line or ‘ruining’ it by piling the bait in can be the difference between catching and blanking. Approach the swim quietly, keep well back from the edge and make sure you arm yourself with a good set of polaroid sunglasses so that you can observe any fish in the swim easily without disturbing them. The temptation to get in the swim, get the marker rod out and find the spots is something we can all fall for, but often the fish in the swim will show you where to fish to. Spending a little time just watching can mean better catches, even with the rigs being in the water for less time.
On busy waters I have observed anglers disposing of bait down the edge when they pack up, the carp know this and I have had some really good quick hits by fishing a single rod, down the edge in the early evening even before setting up the brolly or baiting any spots, so never neglect the margins. I always make sure I have a floater/float rod made up and ready to go in my rod bag for situations just like these. A float fished, trimmed boilie or couple of grains of maize on a supple hook link fished tight to the margin, 6 inches over depth can account for the more cagey fish that may spook off of a normal lead presentation. My theory is that the mixture of different line angle and a hook bait that is free to move over greater distances can trip up even the weariest carp.
Remembering this approach on longer sessions can be really beneficial. Keeping back from the edge, making sure your rods are well back in the swim, landing net down low and out of sight and keeping a trickle of bait going in across the front of the swim can lead to some heart stopping takes and definitely puts more than a few fish on the bank for me.
Once you’ve settled on a swim and identified areas that are likely to hold fish it’s important to think about how you divide the swim up and how you feed it so that you can make the most of the water you’ve got. When I’m fishing busy waters I try to identify three or four areas that are worth feeding, thereby keeping one or two extra spots baited up so that I always have other options should the bites dry up in the areas I’m fishing
When it comes to baiting I like to keep it simple; chopped and crushed boilie, pellet, hemp and maize and a few whole boilies to keep the fish grubbing around. I bait for a single bite, meaning a handful or two put over each spot, topping up every time I see signs that fish have been on the spots, or I have a take. I bait each spot like this and sprinkle a little bait entering and leaving each spot, it probably makes no difference, but I feel that the carp will feed more confidently if presented with a spread of bait, rather than a pile dumped in one spot.
Baiting lightly gives me confidence that the carp will take less time to get onto my hook bait! This ultimately leads to more takes and more fish on the bank!
Confidence is really important, so keeping to simple rigs that you know work will help you get through those times when the bites dry up. Don’t be tempted to try ‘this weeks’ wonder rig simply because that’s what others are doing. Think about your own rigs, are the hooks sharp, does the hook turn, are the hook holds good when you land fish? If the answer is yes then stick with it.
I use only three rigs for nearly all of my fishing, my favourite being a KD Rig mounted with a 12mm pop-up and balanced using a No.1 splitshot. My other two rigs both use pre-formed aligners, one being a snowman type presentation using a trimmed down bottom bait and half a pop-up, this is a personal confidence thing for me, lots of people use a snowman presentation as you get a really well balanced bait. I want to benefit from this approach, but want my bait to look different. My other rig is straight bottom bait with a piece of silicon tubing on the shank to give me the reassurance that the hair has not tangled around the hook.
All my rigs use a fairly supple hook link that is either strippable or has a thin fluorocarbon core. I like using the pre-formed aligners simply because I don’t have to worry about having the means to steam my rigs if I’m travelling light or away from ‘base camp’ stalking.
Like rigs, hook baits can go a long way in giving us confidence when on the bank. I like to use a good quality boilie in a dark colour, which I often trim to make it look less carp ‘baitish’. I do like to fish using pop-ups either as dedicated hook bait or as part of balanced bait. Colour wise I like the less bright, so called washed out colours, pinks, whites etc.
If you have identified and baited spots at range make sure you can get bait onto them with as little disturbance as possible. This is doubly important when casting to a spot where you believe the fish are already feeding.
I want to ensure that I can drop a bait in in one cast and not have to thrash the spot up by casting two or three times to get it right. My preferred method is to use distance sticks and the line clip, keeping a note of each spot in my note book to help make future trips easier.
Remember though, that clipping up to the correct distance is only half the battle, casting too soft so that rig lands short, or casting too hard so that the line hits the clip with force meaning your rig comes flying back towards you will mean the time spent clipping up will have been wasted. If you’re going to be fishing into darkness look for a spot marker that isn’t on the water, I use the top of a tree or a telegraph pole so when it’s dark I can see where I need to be casting easily.
Once you’ve got a rig on your chosen spot it worth thinking a little bit about line concealment as on busy waters fish can become wary of lines in the water. To try and reduce the risk of fish spooking off of my hook baits and to boost my own confidence I like to use a mainline that sinks easily and is quite heavy so that I still maintain good bite indication at medium to longer distances. It’s important to remember that when using heavier main lines, especially fluorocarbon or fluorocarbon coated to pay out line gradually after settling the rig so that the line sinks closest to the rig where concealment is needed most.
Now you’ve worked out where the fish are, given them a little feed and got a rig and hook bait you are confident in onto your spots, the next step is to work out the bite times.
On busy waters where there is more angling pressure during the day, or where anglers arrive early evening to fish overnighters its worth thinking a little bit about your own approach. This may mean turning up for a few hours in the evening, or bivvying up for a couple of days and bringing the rods in and resting the swim whilst the lake is most busy. I call it ‘working nights’, sleeping during the day and being fresh during the evening and into the early hours when the fish are feeding more confidently.
Each water is different and working out how your water works and fishing accordingly will be rewarded with fish in the net.
I hope these simple yet effective tips give you the edge when it comes to fishing small busy waters, bear them in mind and try to adapt to suit your own angling situation. It’s these little things, that when used together add up to a big difference.
Tight Lines,
Phoebe
