DAY-TICKET DIARY WITH MAT WOODS
In his latest day-ticket diary, Mat tries a ‘one bite at a time’ tactic on a trip down memory lane…
WHAT a difference a month makes. One minute you’re shivering on the end of cold winds and the next you’re getting sunburnt!
Now that spring has fully sprung, the trees are getting greener by the day, the birds are in full voice and the carp are well and truly on the munch. It’s a truly joyful time to be out on the bank, watching the world come to life.
My own big-fish campaigns are now well underway, after a busy winter filled with work and family commitments.
It’s great sitting under the shelter knowing that it’s prime time for a chunk, catching a big ‘un at top weight and in superb condition. In fact, I managed a 30lb 7oz common from Weston Park the other day that was absolutely immaculate.
The rise in temperatures is making the carp a lot easier to find, either because they are showing, or because they’re creeping into parts of the lake they haven’t seen since the autumn. For me, now’s the time to let the carp tell you what to do .
Now you may have heard the old cliché ‘find ’em, feed ’em catch’ em’ but there’s one missing from that list, and it’s the most important one of all. Quite simply, finding them is not the answer. When you do find ’em, you must then watch ’em before you do anything else!
Last time I wrote about how brilliant zig rigs can be at this time of year, and that still stands. But if you don’t watch the fish, you may miss the opportunity to get a bite on a zig. Just because a carp has jumped clear of the water, it doesn’t mean it wants to feed. It certainly doesn’t mean it wants to feed on the bottom. Not every time, anyway.
For me, there are four types of ‘show’. The first is what I will call the Obvious Show. It’s when the carp looks like it’s doing a flying fish impression, and makes a lot of noise. In my experience, this is a carp cleaning itself off, either from overwintering or spawning. It’s a good location tool, but you should keep watching the area for clues.
The second is the Subtle Show. The carp literally just show a small part of themselves, barely breaking the surface. This is often a sign they are feeding up in the water on a fly hatch.
Sometimes it can look like they’re appearing through an invisible hoop on the water, such is the concentration of the hatch. In this instance, get a zig rig on!
Thirdly, you have the Head and Shoulders. It’s pretty self-explanatory – you see their head and shoulders and not much else. This can again be an indication of a fly hatch much higher in the water, but watch carefully, as it may be a gang of carp that has found a baited area and is enjoying the feed, or a mob of carp heading off down the lake to a new area.
Finally, there is the Giveaway. This show isn’t a show at all, it’s
“The change brought instant rewards... I watched a common inhale the whole bag”
the water moving, bubbles rising, or a big puff of silt that gives the game away. I’ve lost count of the number of ‘tail patterns’ that have resulted in big fish.
With this in mind, I decided to take a trip down memory lane to a venue where I learnt a lot of these things for the first time. I used to call the water in question The Study Lake, because it was so clear you could see everything happening. If a carp showed in any of the four ways mentioned earlier, you could see what happened next.
Stirchley Bottom Pool, otherwise known as Hinkshay, is part of Telford Angling Association’s venues. You can join as a club member or pay for a day ticket on the bank. There’s no night fishing allowed, but you don’t need to do a night to get a bite.
I caught some of my first-ever double-figure carp here and my firstever brace of 20lb commons. I have fond memories and love its intimate feel. You get to see the carp you’re about to catch and can be really selective, too.
Something that worked really well back in the day was little pellet traps in the margins. That was my starting point – finding clean areas in the edge that gave away small feeding spots. You may not be able to see these all the time, but tail patterns and fizzers can give them away in muddy water.
My set-up this time around was mega simple – a short mono hair rig sporting a 9mm Sonubaits Band’um Pellet, with a PVA bag of mixed pellets, oils and crushed Code Red boilies nicked on to it before casting out.
During the morning little interest was shown in my traps – the carp weren’t in a feeding mood. To give my bags more life, I added something called Lava Rocks. They dissolve to create a brightly-coloured haze and you can treat them as you would a pellet.
Amazingly, this small change brought instant rewards. I watched a nice common inhale the whole bag. Stalking in the margins is always awesome fun!
My only other bite was on a white Zig Lite fished 2ft under the surface after clocking fish cruising in the upper layers – exactly the tactics I wrote about in the last Carpfeed.
So my top tip for this month is to keep the feed quantities small, but really make them count. Make your hookbait part of a high-attract mouthful the carp absolutely cannot resist – find ‘em, watch ‘em, feed ‘em and catch ‘em!