I have fished for carp since 1987 and I've been lucky enough to fish with some exceptionally gifted carp anglers who are also my friends. I have learnt that they don't do anything different from the rest of us. Their success in carp fishing boils down to a few simple things: hard work, doing their homework and watercraft.

Some people think that anglers of this calibre are using some kind of wonder bait or super duper fandango rig. They are not. These kinds of things simply do not exist; if they did I would be the first one on ’em, believe me! As I have said before these ideas are generated by companies and the media to shift product and magazines, so try to look past all of the hype.

Successful carp fishing is determined by how much effort you are prepared to put into it. Work hard at it and surely the rewards will in turn come your way.

The more time you spend on a water, the more in tune you are with it. This doesn't necessarily mean time spent fishing; if you can only pop in for a quick walk round the lake before work in the morning, or after work in the evening you'll soon begin to build up a picture of what’s occurring. If you can work out where the fish are, either by them showing themselves, bubbling or learning about recent captures, then you will be better placed to catch them.

When I'm really into my fishing, I feel an intense need to be on the water to keep in touch with what is going on. When fishing with my good mate Martin Pick on Sandhurst lake at the end of the winter/early spring this year while filming the first part of “The Sessions” for Carpflixx TV, I felt that I was fishing at my best. We were keeping on top of where the fish were, always moving if we needed to. It was just a case of changing methods according to the fishing conditions, be it zigging when the weather was good, and then bags and singles when it was not.

On day-ticket waters like Sandhurst, the fishing dynamic is different to other waters. It's a case of you against the other anglers and the fish, instead of simply you against the fish. I'll expand.

On such waters, you are trying to determine where the bulk of the fish population is lurking. The carp move up and down the lake, feeding on carp anglers baits in the main silty areas that are most fished/baited. There are only a few swims that fish out to each area, so if you cannot get in them, then you have to make do with somewhere close. You can hope that you are in with a shout while you wait for those swims, and once they are free, you can move into them.

Alternatively, on some waters you can really get something going. By walking around and careful observation, you may find the fish in a general area and some suitable spots for a bit of a bait up. Then you can put in quite a large initial baiting consisting of mixed sized boilies of your own choice, hemp and chopped tigers, pellet or anything else for that matter. Because you know that fish are frequenting that area, you can be confident that the fish will feed on your bait within a couple of days. If carp are in the area, they will find it thanks to their exceptional sense of smell (olfactory response) quickly followed by tasting/eating of the available food source (gustatory response).

This heavy initial baiting will ensure two things: the fish will start feeding in the area of your choice, and you will be able to present bait more effectively because the carp have cleared the area through feeding on the hemp and chopped tigers. They literally tear up the lakebed when feeding on these mass baits. You can then check your baited area a few days later and you will usually see if the fish have fed due to the clear patches that stand out from the rest of the bottom. Alternatively, if your baited area is out in the pond, a quick cast out will reveal any feeding activity due to the pull back being smoother. If the fish have not found your bait, your line will catch on the choddy bottom. In addition, you'll find that you get a harder drop when the lead touches down whereas before it may have been a more cushioned touchdown. A 3oz lead and braid are great for this because the feel is transmitted back to you more effectively than if you use a light lead with mono.

After the initial heavy baiting and subsequent checks to see whether the fish have fed on your offerings, it's really up to you the angler as to how you continue.

THREE DAYS LATER

Some of the best anglers I know will only use particle baits in the first baiting for the reasons I have mentioned. After that, they will continue the baiting with boilies of various sizes for the simple reason that they will be using boilies on the hook. This avoids the “three days later” scenario of confusing the fish with more particle bait before they start accepting your chosen hookbait.

If you can imagine a carpet of mass bait covering the bottom, then also think how the carp are feeding on it. They don't have to move far between each mouthful, the fish simply vacuum the bottom, taking in mouthfuls of particle and bottom debris as many of us have seen in some of the underwater videos. With anything but an extremely short hooklink, the carp will take the hookbait into their mouth and spit it out again without ever tightening against the lead. This isn’t because they’re clever; it is simply because they have been conditioned to feed like this from feeding on the mass bait.

In the three days later scenario, the fish feed in the way I've just described. Most of the food on the bottom has been eaten, with the odd patch of bait here and there, and the fish must move between mouthfuls. With well-presented bait, a carp will take the angler’s hookbait into its mouth and move off, looking for more food items and in turn tightening into the lead and setting the hook.

It's quite simple really; initial baiting, top up baitings, keep checking your areas and then drop in whenever the time is right.

The benefit of baiting like this is that you can adjust the behaviour of the fish. They may have been quite cautious creatures, but after a few baitings, you'll see them enter the area with confidence and begin feeding with gusto, almost throwing caution to the wind. The more fish you can get feeding, the more competition there will be for the food and the carp will feed more voraciously. In this situation, you only have to wait for the fish to leave the area of their own accord or you can carefully flick a few pellets at them to make them uncomfortable enough to move a short distance. You can drop in your baited rig and wait for the fish to return and start feeding again.

This obviously only applies to close in spots where you can actually see the fish. When you have broken down the carp like this, you will not need any fancy rigs. Most of the time I will use my rotary set up and bottom bait rig as I've described in previous articles. If you get it right and are left alone by other anglers, then you can keep an area going and going and catch many fish; it's just a case of baiting and fishing at the right times.

There is a lot of rubbish talked about rigs. If you have fish feeding confidently, then all that silly riggy business goes out of the window. A good sharp hook and a hooklength of six to seven inches is all that is needed. I remember hearing of one mega successful angler who absolutely caned the ultra-pressured car park lake on nothing but the humble no knot rig. Why? Because he'd obviously got his preparation right.

A few years ago, a mate of mine demonstrated the art of great preparation in three different areas on the same lake. He would get the fish going mental and then drop in when the time was right to take a couple of fish. He would bait up when he left and then move on to fish one of the other areas with repeated success. It was incredible to watch him in action, in fact it was the best fishing I've ever witnessed; working a few areas up at the same time and then fishing each when the time was right. Anyone could do this if they could be bothered to spend time on good preparation.

GET A GAMEPLAN

If you don’t have access to lots of bait then you can scale it down a bit. Just use a couple of handfuls of pellet, chopped boilies and hemp so that the fish can find food items in your particular area, which will keep them interested and coming back for me. It doesn't need a lot of bait to work, just a bit of effort. This approach definitely increases your chances of catching on waters where you can get away with it. There is no point doing it in the most popular swims or on day ticket waters like Sandhurst, because the other anglers will see fish jumping or bubbling on your bait and so they will be the ones benefitting from your baiting. On these busier waters, choose areas that are a bit more out of the way so that you will be left alone to reap the rewards of your efforts.

There is one particular point that I’ve been thinking about a great deal lately, that’s when you stand in a swim to look out across the water and feel compelled to cast far out into the lake and forget that carp are naturally margin browsers. They work the margins and close in spots looking for caddis grubs and suchlike. So if you can key in to this natural feeding behaviour with your own baiting, then so much the better. It's amazing how few people I see actually fishing close in, preferring to wang ’em out to the same old spots. After all how much spod spill goes into the margins to be eaten by carp with absolute impunity every time. Food for thought indeed!

RESEARCH YOUR WATER

If you are going to fish a specific water then there's likely to be a wealth of knowledge on the Internet and in various carp magazines (check out their websites too) be it in the form of aerial photographs, comments in forums, articles about good catches from that lake, etc. Many anglers won't give the game away totally, but with a bit of digging you can get an idea of the area they were fishing and at what time of year or during particular weather conditions.  This could set you up for the following year or more or help you fish better when conditions are similar to what they experienced.

Talking to other anglers is always a great help too. Sometimes they'll have seen fish over an area or they or one of their mates may have had fish from a certain swim - all valuable information when you're trying to build up a picture of the water.

Aerial photos will give you a great head start in working out the topography of a lake. It will help with what you have to deal with in a particular swim, saving you time with the marker float, especially if it's weedy. If you know that there's a stonking great bar out in front of the swim, which ends roughly in line with one of the islands out in front of you,  then it's just a matter of sticking on a bare lead and casting out until you feel a shallow drop with a donk. That abrupt stop will be the bar, which should mean that by casting 10 yards behind it, you'll probably get a longer drop and a softer touchdown in deeper siltier water. Likewise, casting left or right you will be able to pick up where the bar ends. This creates a mental picture of what is out in front of you. One mate of mine is incredibly good at this, having learnt his trade on waters like the feature ridden Frimley Pit 3. When he applied this approach to Yateley, he did very well indeed, simply because he was able to picture exactly what he was fishing out to.

Nowadays when I'm on Sandhurst looking out at a particular area of water, I'm not seeing the water’s surface but what lies underneath. Whatever swim I'm fishing, I've made a mental note of where the areas are in relation to tree markers, swims and gaps in the treeline, so I know exactly what lies where. This has come with experience by fishing the water. I find it helps me greatly when I'm fishing because it limits disturbance to the swim.

Climbing trees where allowed helps with feature identification and fish location. Last year while fishing one lake, we noticed that the water had cleared at the end of March. There was one particular area that I didn't know all that well due to the huge amount of weed that had been present the year before. By climbing a tree, I was able to make out all the bars running up the lake. I was able to get an accurate picture of how fish would enter the area, there being only three main routes through the bars, which once again saved me a hell of a lot of time marking and leading around.

The next time I went to the lake, I took a note pad along and made a sketch of the bars, their shape, how far they ran, where certain points were in relation to swims and tree markers on the far bank and likely looking interception areas. This proved to be of great help later in the year when the weed came up. I should have done the same thing for other areas of the lake that produced fish, but I didn't because I’m a lazy toad!

For locating fish, good climbing trees are essential. Some trees are so well placed that they'll offer you an uninterrupted view of a whole area allowing you to determine whether the fish are there in numbers or not. Nevertheless, please be careful and be sure of the strength of the branches you're holding onto or standing on, as there have been incidents of people being seriously injured or killed following a fall, which has led to banning tree climbing on some waters.

Finally, it all comes down to your own motivation. Most of us are more than capable of the things I've written about - getting up early, climbing trees and consistent baiting - but we choose not to do it all the time, unlike some of the more successful anglers who just do it! That is why they're so successful. I think the key is preparation - the more time you can spend preparing for your fishing and priming areas, the easier the fish will be to catch.

Tight lines and bulging nets to you.

Jamie