Help for newbie to coarse and carp fishing

[returntrip]

Hi everyone. I've been fishing for around 6 months on and off, sometimes coarse but othertimes for carp but would like some tips, especially for the carp. I have been fishing 5 times for carp but have only actually caught a carp once, that was in the summer by fishing on the top of the water with bread, all the other times have been in the winter and I haven't caught a thing. Is the reason for this because I have been using bread still? Or because I have been using an open ended feeder? I am going to try again but with boilies and a weight but no feeder, although I am quite pessimistic because I heard that it is 10x harder in the winter to catch Carp. Therefore I would like to try fishing some more coarse, I have done this a few times with maggots and a feeder and have had much more success, although I only caught smaller fish I did catch a lot of them. Is a feeder with maggots and maggots on the hook still the best method for coarse fishing in the winter and is winter coarse fishing any easier or harder than in summer? Also will my carp rod be ok for coarse fishing? The rod is a Shakespeare Omni x 12ft.

Thanks in advance for any answers. I have a lot of questions as I am getting frustrated by my lack of success.

[northern eye]

Hello Returntrip...there are so many different methods I couldn't put em all down here but here are a few tips and methods I use this time of year. To start with, winter fishing is generally harder than say in spring or summer, especially if you are targeting carp. The carp feed like mad in the warmer months and then go on shut down in the winter. Small, single baits and very little extra feed could tempt one to bite but lighten your rigs and lines for extra senisitivity as the bites can be shy. I use a Drennan series 7 Feeder rod with a very light tip for bite indication. Use corn on a hair rig (the ready made ones are fine to start with) with a size 14 hook, 6 - 8 pound lines and only a very small bomb. If you go too heavy with your weights the carp could sense there is something wrong and leave your bait alone. Allow the bomb to slide up and down the line freely to make for less resistance. Adding a bit a fake floating corn to the hair will make the bait move naturally in the water if a carp were to investigate. You could try a very small pva bag nicked onto the hook instead of a feeder and in this put some corn and a bit of hemp and loose groundbait to create an attractive cloud in the clear winter water. An open ended feeder will be fine though but just use a small one. This method is tried and tested for me in winter. If using boilies, use the same method but with a white or bright coloured mini 10mm boilie and a few free offerings in the pva bag/feeder. Do not be tempted to throw loads of loose feed in or groundbait as the fish wont be on a feeding frenzy just yet. Using maggots in winter is the best bet for all species but it can mean allot of small stuff. Try using an open ended feeder stuffed with groundbait (Sensas Red or Lake), maggots and hemp then place maybe 3 maggots on the hook, size 16 with 4 pound hooklength about 18 inches long and recast at 10 minute intervals to keep a trickle of feed going in. This can get you a better stamp of fish although small stuff will still bite. If the bites arent coming at all, move swims and try elsewhere. The carp will go for the maggots aswel so cast around and look for different signs of fish, they will be slight but if you look carefully you can normally see movements or bubbles perhaps near an old reed bed or up against an island, poloroid glasses are useful when spotting sign of fish. The carp wont be very mobile this time of year so you need to find them and tempt em to feed. Use bread if you are only getting small stuff on maggots. Try pinching a piece about 7mm around a size sixteen hook and in a small open feeder put liquidised bread or white crumb (put a few maggots in there too). This should sort out the bigger roach from the pack. All waters are different and some will respond to pellets but I have not had much luck in winter using them. The key thing is to use light rigs and lines, not over feed and move around to find where the fish are hiding.
Your rod sounds sufficient for light carping but if the tip is not very sensitive I would advise buying a proper feeder rod with various tips which will give you more chance of detecting the shy bites. Sometimes the slightest movement on the tip deserves a strike in winter. Take a look at the new Drennan Red range of rods and reels. Cheaper than the Series 7 range but apparantly every bit as good at half the price. They generally retail for £50/rod and around £20/reel. I found that reading Anglers Mail really helped me when I started out as they had all the latest seasonal tricks and tips and by just trying these out I found the methods that worked for me. Don't despair if you aint getting that big carp just yet, you can have just as much pleasure catching roach, perch skimmers etc and when the warmer months come that carp or a lovely tench mite just take your bait. Hope this helps you out & good luck.

[BoldBear]

Good advice from Northern Eye.

Fish in general do not need to eat so much when the temperatures drop right down during the winter.
For this reason we need to cut down on the amount of feed and hookbait sizes that we use in the winter; however there are a few exceptions to this rule such as the greedy ‘Chub’ or 'Grayling' who seem to feed even on the coldest days, however most fish go into a less active mode to conserve their energy.

However once the temperature starts to rise a couple of degrees they start to feed a little more, even during the coldest months.

Once the temperatures drop a good rule is to drop down the line strength, hook sizes and don’t use baits that solidify such as fatty baits or oily baits and try using baits such as maggots, worms, bread or small boilees or small pellets etc..

When using lighter lines you need to change to a rod that is made for such fine lines, ie. A stiff Carp rod is not much good at handling 3lb or 4lb lines but a light float rod or quivertip rod can handle the lighter lines much better and absorb the twists and lunges of the slightly smaller fish like Roach, Chub, etc.

At this time of year the fish should start to feed as the temperatures start rising; It is nearly Spring now and very soon the fish will start to feed with a lot more gusto.

good luck and tight lines

Keith (BoldBear)

[NICK R]

Not a lot to be added to these two posts ,
so i gave the 2 of you a square

[returntrip]

Originally Posted by northern eye

Hello Returntrip...there are so many different methods I couldn't put em all down here but here are a few tips and methods I use this time of year. To start with, winter fishing is generally harder than say in spring or summer, especially if you are targeting carp. The carp feed like mad in the warmer months and then go on shut down in the winter. Small, single baits and very little extra feed could tempt one to bite but lighten your rigs and lines for extra senisitivity as the bites can be shy. I use a Drennan series 7 Feeder rod with a very light tip for bite indication. Use corn on a hair rig (the ready made ones are fine to start with) with a size 14 hook, 6 - 8 pound lines and only a very small bomb. If you go too heavy with your weights the carp could sense there is something wrong and leave your bait alone. Allow the bomb to slide up and down the line freely to make for less resistance. Adding a bit a fake floating corn to the hair will make the bait move naturally in the water if a carp were to investigate. You could try a very small pva bag nicked onto the hook instead of a feeder and in this put some corn and a bit of hemp and loose groundbait to create an attractive cloud in the clear winter water. An open ended feeder will be fine though but just use a small one. This method is tried and tested for me in winter. If using boilies, use the same method but with a white or bright coloured mini 10mm boilie and a few free offerings in the pva bag/feeder. Do not be tempted to throw loads of loose feed in or groundbait as the fish wont be on a feeding frenzy just yet. Using maggots in winter is the best bet for all species but it can mean allot of small stuff. Try using an open ended feeder stuffed with groundbait (Sensas Red or Lake), maggots and hemp then place maybe 3 maggots on the hook, size 16 with 4 pound hooklength about 18 inches long and recast at 10 minute intervals to keep a trickle of feed going in. This can get you a better stamp of fish although small stuff will still bite. If the bites arent coming at all, move swims and try elsewhere. The carp will go for the maggots aswel so cast around and look for different signs of fish, they will be slight but if you look carefully you can normally see movements or bubbles perhaps near an old reed bed or up against an island, poloroid glasses are useful when spotting sign of fish. The carp wont be very mobile this time of year so you need to find them and tempt em to feed. Use bread if you are only getting small stuff on maggots. Try pinching a piece about 7mm around a size sixteen hook and in a small open feeder put liquidised bread or white crumb (put a few maggots in there too). This should sort out the bigger roach from the pack. All waters are different and some will respond to pellets but I have not had much luck in winter using them. The key thing is to use light rigs and lines, not over feed and move around to find where the fish are hiding.
Your rod sounds sufficient for light carping but if the tip is not very sensitive I would advise buying a proper feeder rod with various tips which will give you more chance of detecting the shy bites. Sometimes the slightest movement on the tip deserves a strike in winter. Take a look at the new Drennan Red range of rods and reels. Cheaper than the Series 7 range but apparantly every bit as good at half the price. They generally retail for £50/rod and around £20/reel. I found that reading Anglers Mail really helped me when I started out as they had all the latest seasonal tricks and tips and by just trying these out I found the methods that worked for me. Don't despair if you aint getting that big carp just yet, you can have just as much pleasure catching roach, perch skimmers etc and when the warmer months come that carp or a lovely tench mite just take your bait. Hope this helps you out & good luck.

Thanks very much for the advice Northern Eye. I don't understand all of the lingo yet but I will try to research more so I can really understand your post .

It would be nice to just catch some other fish as well as long as I'm catching something. The problem is the lake that I've been fishing in is only carp, however I think I'm going to try a river so I have more variety and more of a chance of catching something else. I'm also thinking of starting to use boilies as I've heard they are good, along with your advice and other's that I'm reading hopefully I'll have more success.

[returntrip]

Originally Posted by BoldBear

Good advice from Northern Eye.

Fish in general do not need to eat so much when the temperatures drop right down during the winter.
For this reason we need to cut down on the amount of feed and hookbait sizes that we use in the winter; however there are a few exceptions to this rule such as the greedy ‘Chub’ or 'Grayling' who seem to feed even on the coldest days, however most fish go into a less active mode to conserve their energy.

However once the temperature starts to rise a couple of degrees they start to feed a little more, even during the coldest months.

Once the temperatures drop a good rule is to drop down the line strength, hook sizes and don’t use baits that solidify such as fatty baits or oily baits and try using baits such as maggots, worms, bread or small boilees or small pellets etc..

When using lighter lines you need to change to a rod that is made for such fine lines, ie. A stiff Carp rod is not much good at handling 3lb or 4lb lines but a light float rod or quivertip rod can handle the lighter lines much better and absorb the twists and lunges of the slightly smaller fish like Roach, Chub, etc.

At this time of year the fish should start to feed as the temperatures start rising; It is nearly Spring now and very soon the fish will start to feed with a lot more gusto.

good luck and tight lines

Keith (BoldBear)

Thanks very much Keith I'll bear this in mind, I'm going to try a river next I think so that even if I don't catch a carp I'll be able to catch something else.

[Cool_Duck]

Just to add to the helpful advice already given:

If you go onto itunes you can download a video podcast of Tight Lines, which is fishing programme broadcast weekly on sky sports which details many different methods for catching different species of fish. I have found it excellent as the techniques and rigs are easily explained by the resident expert that has been invited onto the show. The back editions of the show have also been uploaded from the past two years, so there is something for everyone. If you don't have access to itunes then they can be downloaded from the tight lines website:

http://www.skysports.com/tv_guide/sh...,12976,00.html

Best of luck.

[northern eye]

Sorry about my use of fishing lingo there. I tend to just talk about it like everyone knows what I'm on about. It really is useful to watch some of the factual shows like Tight Lines and Total Fishing as these programmes often go into detail about the rigs and tactics used and they use the lingo so you can see what it is they are talking about. Check them out online for little clips from the shows. Buying Angling Times is very useful. They feature very detailed articles about all methods of course fishing and I have found it very useful plus, it is cheaper than all of the other mags out there. Could be useful for you to try a river or even a mixed commercial where you can try out different tactics and find what methods you prefer and what gets the results.

[fishydave]

hey ive just learnt a few more things too ,well done ,great forum