1..Be confident in what you’re doing.

Over the years I’ve found that a lot of people pay too much attention to what the next man is up to. The trouble is if you’re worrying about what the carp angler a couple of swims down is up to because he’s catching carp and you’re not then you’re not giving it 100%. Obviously if the bloke next door is absolutely hauling and you’ve got fish in front of you and you’re not then it might pay to ask him what he’s up to but in essence what I mean is always have a positive mental attitude towards you’re carp fishing. During my time as a Sandhurst lake bailiff one question that I’ve been asked a fair bit is “What works on here mate?” My answer has always been the same which is “What do you use on your local waters”? My point is that if you’ve had good success on one particular water using a bottom bait rig fished in conjunction with a 3 bait stringer then that’ll work on Sandhurst lake or any other pond for that matter because it’s a good method.

The fact of the matter is that most methods work over there at different times of the year in fact you’ve probably better off using something a little bit different to the rest because the fish maybe getting wary of certain successful methods because they’ve already been hammered on it.

Always have confidence in what you’ve caught fish on in the past because carp are carp wherever they live and they all like pretty much the same thing. It’s bizarre really, I think that some people think that there’s some great big secret that they’re not being let in on, some secret bait or wonder rig that if you cast it out there will catch you a carp every time you chuck it out. There isn’t.

 2..Always be prepared to move to where the carp are

I’ve come across people who are sat there having suffered a couple of blank nights fishing on a particular water. Looking across to the other side I’ve noticed that a fair few swims have become free, the anglers in them having caught a few fish. Being a kind soul I’ve offered the blokes the best advice I could which was to get round there quick smart to which the reply was “ Na mate, I put a load of bait out here a couple of nights ago and I’m going to stay here”!! Now I can understand that a lot of people have work and family commitments so to them fishing is a break from all that humdrum but the way I look at it wouldn’t it be nice to catch a few carp as well? The way I describe it is that you go through the rigmarole of packing all you’re kit up (which can be a bit of a bind especially in the rain!) wheel it round to the other side of the lake. You get the rods out nicely, set the house up, get the kettle on and within 3 hours you hook and land a whacker. By now in all the excitement the grief of the  move has been forgotten and you’re buzzing! That’s the scene I always picture whenever I’m debating having a move and it’s a real motivator. I don’t take too much gear with me, basically I take what I need and a few luxuries so a move is never too much agro but my point is if you’ve got a mountain of gear, half of which you don’t actually need then its going to be a lot more hassle moving when you have to.

 3..It's the early bird that catches the worm

I’m very fortunate in the fact that I love to get up early. To me the morning is the best time of the day, it’s nice and quiet and I can have a few hours to myself without having to deal with anyone! (unsociable git!)  Over the years I’ve noticed on a lot of waters I’ve fished that from an hour before first light to a few hours after is a prime time for showing and feeding fish. Most of the carp shows come at this time sometimes exhibited by crashing and rolling but also more discreet signs such as bubbling or momentarily poking their heads or fins out of the water. I’ve found that if I wasn’t looking at the exact spot I’d have probably missed it. On many occasions I’ve had to do my rota early due to work commitments and found that I’ve had to wake half of the anglers up! Once again I’m not being judgemental, each to their own I say but I my mind these fellas are missing out on vital information which could result in a good catch. A lot of the most successful anglers I know always get up at first light and it sets them in good stead, once the morning feeding spell is over you can just go back to bed! Sweet!

 4..Think about your third rod

There were a couple of instances the other year over on the big pit where instead of  putting out three rods straight away I’ve just put out two. I think sometimes we just chuck out the third rod ‘Willy-Nilly’ which can be to the detriment of the fishing due to the extra line being out in the water. Sometimes I’ve wanted to almost work out where the best place would be to put the third rod and when I did that was the one that went!

In years gone by the third rod was always the one doing something a little bit different i.e fishing a piece of Pepperami in conjunction with pellets and little pieces of rami, whereas the other two would be fishing boilies (incidentally if you do this don’t pre prepare your bags because the pellets will suck the moisture out of the rami and it’ll become buoyant!) Alternatively if you’re fishing two rods out in the pond then perhaps think about plopping the third rod just down the margin under that little bush you’ve always liked the look of! You might be pleasantly surprised!

5..Angle of your line

 I never really got the concept of line angles until I was fishing one particular swim out to a deep silt area a fair few years ago. I was fishing all three rods on chods about 100 yards out to where I’d seen fish boshing the previous night. I was lucky enough to catch two carp on one night and two the following night the best being a shade under 30lb. I’d noticed that if I cast too far right I’d knock down harder and shallower onto what I’d describe as a dog leg shaped bar which came off the point of an island. The thing was the fish started showing closer to another swim further to my right so the following session I decided to fish that one instead.

Two rods were cast out as near as I could get them to where I’d caught the fish earlier in the week and the other to where I seen the most recent fish shows. The trouble was, I was now fishing the lines over the top of the aforementioned bar and down into the deep water rather than through the deep water to the spots from the other side. I did catch a 24 pounder which came in with a car sized ball of weed around it but I never fished that swim again due to the fact that when I went to reel in I found two zebra mussels clamped onto one of my lines. Added to this I simply didn’t feel all that confident fishing over the bar and having the line go over it and then down to the spots preferring to fish with the lines nicely sunk from the other side.

 6..Be happy with all the carp you catch on your fishing trip

 It seems to me that the carp game has become very numbers orientated. Ones merit is determined by how many thirties and forties you catch in a season which I suppose has all been driven by the press really.  I can honestly say I’m as happy catching a 17 pounder after a string of blank nights as I am a 25 pounder because to me a carps a carp and I’d rather catch a 17 pounder than suffer another blank! I remember asking one bloke if he’d had any joy to which he miserably replied “Yeah, just one small one mate” When I asked how big he said “22” now to me a 22 pounder is NOT a small fish and I felt that the bloke was missing the point a little bit. We are carp fishermen and they’re all special. Be happy and get the buzz from all the carp you catch no matter what their size. WORD

 7..Be prepared to change fishing methods

 A couple of years ago I was fishing a water in the late spring / early summer during a period of blinding weather.  Each morning as soon as the sun got nice and warm the fish would pop up to the surface en mass and there they would  stay until the evening. Time to zig it up. It was like a ritual really, off would come the lead core leaders and bottom bait rigs and on would go the one and a quarter ounce leads, 10lb double strength hooklinks and size 10 Big t’s with little chopped down pieces of yellow pineapple pop up. I found it to be a very successful method on that particular water. Initially it was a type of angling that was quite unfamiliar to me and to begin with I was getting it all wrong using leads that were too big and the wrong type of hooklink but after a few pointers from a friend who had hauled on the method I got it sorted and it became my favourite way of catching carp from the water in question. In retrospect I could have sat there stubbornly refusing to change from my bottom bait rigs to the zigs and I’d have hopefully still caught fish but the zigs were getting more bites and to be honest I prefer getting more bites if I can.

 8..Ring the changes

One way of fishing that I’ve got a lot of confidence in is to fish different previously successful methods on each rod until one goes and then change the others accordingly. For example I might fish one on a balanced wafter type presentation with a bagful of mixed pellet, another on a couple of grains of maize with a little pva bag with pellet, ground up boilies and a few grains of pva friendly maize and the other on the old faithful tutti frutti bottom bait. All are methods that I,ve got loads of confidence in and if I catch a fish on one then I’ll swap at least one if not all of them over to the going method and go from there. A friend of mine Martin Pick has a lot of faith in this way of fishing as he outlined in ‘The Sandhurst Sessions DVD’ especially when fishing over a spod mix with various components in it such as hemp, corn, maize and boilies. He’ll fish a different bait on each rod and then ring the changes once he starts getting takes.

 9..Feed in a swim

I’ve noticed that a lot of people turn up on day ticket waters with three big buckets of spod mix and proceed to put the lot out in one go. More often than not this results in a blank for the angler and another angler catching carp successfuly three to seven nights after the bait has been put in. This is due to the way a carp feeds over this kind of baiting situation. A carp will have to move very little whilst feeding on this type of food simply hoovering the bottom and hardly ever hooking themselves. Simply put, 3 days to a week later the baiting situation has been wound down sufficiently so that there is more space between mouthfuls and the carp start pulling the hooks into themselves as they go in search of another little patch of food. There are exceptions to this rule on very heavily stocked waters but in my experience if you put this level of bait in and you’ve only got a couple of nights to fish then it’s the kiss of death. My advice would be to fish for one fish at a time as Dave Benton does. Dave goes carp fishing with a great big bucket of corn and hemp and puts out just enough each time. He’s a master of this kind of fishing and eventually puts the whole bucket out over the course of a couple of nights but never all in one go.

 and finally..10..Always look after the fish you catch

I’ve seen blokes with the latest £400 bivvy and all the latest gear and when you look at their unhooking mat it’s disgracefully small and thin being inadequate for a big Tench let alone a good sized carp. I take along a mat which is 42” x 36” and 3” thick with a restraining flap, I’ve got a set of needle nosed pliers and some snippers which I can use to snip off the point and the barb of the hook if its accessible to minimise mouth damage to the fish and I always apply the Korda/ Thinking anglers carp care kit to the hook hold area and any body lesions or abrasions on the fish. I take along a sling which supports the fish and have plenty of water on hand to wet the fish down. I always make sure the fins are flat against the body before I lift the carp or put the carp down on the mat. This way I ensure that I NEVER damage any of the carp I catch and in fact this would be my top tip. The carp can’t look after itself on the bank so we have to do it for them. Carpaholixx has a wonderful article on how to care for your carp when fishing written by Ian Gemson, please click on the link to read his carp fishing advice.

I hope that these tips will be of help to some of you, tight lines and bulging nets!!

Jamie