Well, we’ve finally made it round to what is probably one of my most favourite times of the year. The water temperatures are up, the sun is out and those wily old carp are cruising about all over the pond. For the next few months, I get to indulge in my two most favourite forms of fishing, Stalking and Surface fishing. I’ve spoken about stalking already, so now, it’s all about the floaters!
For anyone that hasn’t fished for carp on the surface, you’ve been missing out. It is without doubt the one way of catching carp that at times can take you on an emotional rollercoaster! For me it’s the single most exciting way to catch fish, and although at times it can be incredibly frustrating, when you get it right, it can make even the trickiest of lakes appear very average. Over the years I’ve been fortunate enough to have had some brilliant days’ floater fishing, catching some lovely fish along the way; in fact even my biggest carp has come off the surface, on a bit of bread flake not 5 feet from the bank. So before any of you brush it aside as a small carp tactic, trust me, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
It still amazes me that this method is still so underused, when in reality, it can be so devastating. I’m not saying that if you go to your local lake and surface fish, you’ll be top rod by the end of the year, far from it. The way I see it, carp fishing is becoming incredibly popular, with more and more people taking it up every year. Nowadays, trying to catch a carp is the easy part, and competing against the other anglers is the tricky bit. If you all go down the lake, find a spot and spod a load of bait out there then wait, what makes you different from the next person? Surely when you do eventually get away from work, the Mrs, the kids, the bills, and after spending a small fortune on tackle, bait, food and tickets, you want to catch a fish? What I’m trying to say, is that if you’re adaptable, and are able to fish a variety of different methods, your giving yourself the best possible chance of catching a fish, and Floater fishing is just another ‘weapon in your armoury’ so to speak.
So let’s start off with, for me, the single most important thing – a pair of polarised sunglasses. If you don’t own a pair, then you’re on the back foot before you’ve even got down the lake. Without doubt, I would be a terrible angler without a pair of these. Not only essential for surface fishing, but for fishing full stop. Being able to cut through the surface glare and see what’s going on below the surface will make a massive difference to your catch rate.
As with all my fishing, my general floater set-up is very simple. For many years I used 10lb GR60 as my mainline, but more
recently I’ve been playing around with 20lb whiplash. It’s incredibly thin and floats naturally; making a massive difference I think when the line is lying across the surface above the fishes head. With there being no stretch, I can mend the line with even the smallest of flicks, and it certainly seems to help me hook a lot more fish as again, even the smallest flick sets the hook. It still surprises me how far I can put even the tiniest of controllers with a 2 1/2lb test curve rod, and that’s bearing in mind that I’m really not the greatest of casters. The one down side I have found is that because there is no stretch, I have to use a softer rod to help prevent hook pulls, especially with the lighter hook links. In open water, it’s not a problem, but on a couple of the venues I’ve fished lately, they’re very weedy and once the bigger fish bury themselves in amongst the weed, I just haven’t got the back bone in the rod to pull them out. So it’s worth bearing in mind if you go down the braid and soft rod route.
Onto the mainline I slide a rubber float-stop, then a small 3mm Nashy diffusion camo bead. In front of that goes the controller, followed by a 5mm diffusion camo bead then a micro rig ring swivel. They’ve got a nice matt finish, so there’s no glistening in the water when the sun hits them. I tend to use a long hook link of about 8ft, again because of the braided mainline, the hook link takes a bit more of a battering, and with the extra couple of feet there’s a little more stretch to cope with any sudden lunges.
For many years I used good old Double strength, but someone put me onto the Reflo Powerline a few years ago for the tench, and ever since I’ve used it as my floater hook link in 8lb 15oz, although more recently Preston have released an 11lb and a 12.5lb I think. It’s incredibly tough for the breaking strain and still very thin, plus it knots down nicely. In my mind it’s far more effective as a hooklink than double strength. Make sure you grease up the hooklink before casting out, something like Mucilin. This just ensures that it lays on the surface and not looping down in the water, so making everything a bit more blatant and
possibly ruing your chances.
Generally I’ll fish a single mixer or trimmed down pop-up, knotless knotted to a small size 10 or 11 Super specialist Barbel hook. I then slide a tiny bit of silicone tubing over the eye of the hook and the first mm or two of the hook link. This stops the hook link kicking out at an aggressive angle from the eye of the hook. I’ve also had some brilliant results on the fake mixers just nicked through the opposite end to the split shot. What happens is that the hook and the last inch or so of the hook link sits out of the water, as obviously the weight of the split shot pulls that side of the mixer down every time. Be a little bit open minded, as sometimes a double mixer will out fish a single one, just like a fake mixer will out fish a real one, and vice versa. I think once the fish are taking confidently on the surface, although really you want to match everything to the freebies, sometimes a big blatant hookbait will be the first to go. I guess it’s similar to a bright white pop-up on the bottom; it shouldn’t work in theory, but my is it effective!
I’ve played about with my mixers, and again, to be a little bit different I add some Salmon Oil, GLM, and some Scopex flavouring with the tiniest of sweetener added to it. The carp seem to like it and it’s certainly different to your average mixer. Since going to CCMoore, I’ve played about even more and have got a real nice creamy one as well, but that still in its early stages.
Once I’ve found a few fish, I tend to put out a couple of pouchfuls at first, then top up with another one as the fish start taking. Generally I’m going for groups of fish and so want to get them competing. Always remember that the more confident you can get a group of fish feeding, the more chance you have of getting a bite, and the easier it is to get away with something should you mess up. I’ve been blessed with the gift to do something silly at the last minute, whether it be to cast in the tree’s or somehow drop my controller right in amongst feeding fish. As I said though, get them competing aggressively and often you can get away with murder.
Be patient, as there are times when it’s taken me a good couple of hours to get them going properly, but its well worth it when those mouths are coming up all over and the carp are racing towards each mixer. If you can get them going properly, you won’t even need to strike, as they’ll end up hooking themselves and all you’ll see is the controller skating across the surface. Always try to cast well over the back of feeding fish, and then slowly bring the controller back into the feeding group, and try to use the smallest float possible for the distance needed. I’ve heard of people going under water and looking up at controllers. Apparently the little Drennan ones I use are the most blatant. It may be the case, but it doesn’t seem to bother the fish. In fact, I’ve lost count of the amount of times they’ve tried to take my controller before my hookbait. Maybe I should attach a hook just below the float ...now there’s a thought!
One lake I fished a couple of years ago now, held some lovely carp that rarely, if ever made it into the press. A good friend of mine, Martin, had been fishing it for a couple of seasons, and I knew it wouldn’t be easy to tempt some of these wily old carp. I have to admit that I did get very lucky with the place, and I just seemed to click with it. What quickly became apparent, was that nobody was floater fishing for them ...and boy were they suckers for a mixer! It was one lake where they certainly preferred a big blatant hookbait to a subtle, single mixer. The first few days it would take an age to get them confident enough to take even freebies, but once they knew what they were and recognised the sound of the mixers falling on the surface, I could literally walk round until I found a group of fish sat in the snags, load up a pouch of mixers and fire them as high as possible into the sky so that they made plenty of noise as they peppered down onto the surface. It was funny to watch, as the carp would just turn and bee-line for the mixers out in open water. Although I landed a few decent fish early on, my luck soon turned and everything I hooked began to fall off for one reason or another, and although the floater fishing was great fun, I told myself that if I was lucky enough to catch the biggun I’d move on. One afternoon, after doing countless...
..laps of the lake, I eventually found a group of fish held up in one corner. Spraying mixers up into the sky, I soon had a group of fish taking confidently. One in particular stood out as it came up to take each freebie. Having seen what fish were sat in the snags, I had a good idea which one it was, but stayed calm as I continued to fire out more mixers every few minutes. 
Eventually I cast out my hookbait. A big, blatant fake mixer carefully bobbed up and down in the gentle ripple. Slowly, slowly the controller was brought back until it was sat in amongst the freebies. The carp continued to engulf every mixer in sight. I watched nervously as a bite was definitely on the cards. It wasn’t long before a carps head came out the water and nailed my hookbait. Instantly realising it had made a mistake, it tore off before I even knew what was going on. The fight was heart stopping to say the least as it went from right to left, back and forth in a bid for freedom. At one point it made it to an overhanging bush on my left, and I was certain it was going to come off. Pushing the rod deep down in the water (reel as well!), it turned and before long it was ready for the net. I let out a sigh of relief and set about getting everything ready for the weighing and pictures. It was clearly one of the better one’s, but it wasn’t until I laid it down on the mat, that I realised it was indeed the lakes big mirror. It had obviously spawned out, as its bulging belly had now disappeared. The weight really was immaterial, but at over 36lb, I was over the moon to be holding up Baby Baz for the camera!
I could quite easily go on and on talking about Surface fishing, but for now we’ll leave it at that. Looking out the window, the sun is shining bright and I just know they’ll be up and about on my lake, so I’m off to try and bag a whacker.
Until next time, be lucky!
Dave Mag