Ringer shows you how to catch more carp in deep margin swims
How to tackle deep water close in
ONE of the questions I get asked the most is: “What do I do if I draw a peg and the margins are too deep?”
The most popular way to fish in the edge is with groundbait and dead maggots. However, if the water is more than 3ft deep, this can be a recipe for disaster because the groundbait gets wafted up in the water and the carp follow it, leading to foul-hooked fish and lots of line bites.
In these circumstances, you need a different approach. And here it is…
THE HARD-PELLET ATTACK
You have two options on the bait front – corn or hard pellets. I use pellets because these baits offer a lot more in terms of attraction. Better still, you don’t have to feed loads to bring fish into the swim.
The size of pellet I choose depends on the size of carp I’m targeting. Today I’m at Shearsby Valley, near Leicester, and I’m looking to catch carp from 3lb to
10lb so I have opted for Ringers R6s – a 6mm coarse pellet. If the carp were 8lb and bigger then I would increase the pellet size to 8mm. If small, nuisance, silvers are a problem then I will still increase the pellet size to 8mm.
You don’t need lots of bait either. Two pints of pellets is plenty for a match or pleasure session.
WHERE TO FISH
First of all, plumb carefully up and down the margins both sides. Even though the edges might be deeper than you’d like, you still want to find a nice flat spot to fish on as tight to the bank as you can get. There is nothing worse than fishing in the edge on a big slope.
The other thing to consider is that ideally you need to be able to feed by hand. For me that means six to seven joints away – either left or right – to still enable to me to feed effectively. I could fish shorter, but I always feel carp feed more confidently further away.
FEEDING THE MARGINS
The best way is little and often, meaning 4-6 pellets at a time. The beauty of hard pellets is that you can often nick an early fish on them close in. However, unless I’m on an edge flier or I’m having
“Hard pellets make a great fish-attracting noise which carp home in on before following them down to feed”
to ‘push’ the swim I won’t look to start feeding my edge until around two-and-a-half hours into a session. Then, rather than ‘big-potting’, I will start feeding 4-6 pellets every 90 seconds or so to try and pull a fish or two into the swim. When fed, hard pellets make a great fish-attracting noise which carp home in on before following them down to feed.
I like to try and get into a rhythm once I decide to have a look in the edge and that is to slowly lower the float in (so as not to lay the rig across feeding fish), before feeding over the top of the float, lifting it 6-8ins clear of the water and lowering it down again so that my hookbait is falling in among the loose offerings. Bites then tend to come as soon as the float settles.
If I get a sign that there is a carp present in the swim I will stop feeding and keep lifting and dropping the float every 15 seconds until I catch it. It’s a trick I use a lot because I think limiting the food choice helps me catch the fish that are in the swim faster.
What I like about hard pellets for edge fishing is that they are heavy and even when there are a lot of fish in the swim they don’t get wafted about easily. In deeper water they are a great way of keeping the carp on the deck – exactly where you want them.
HOOKBAIT OPTIONS
As far as hookbait options go there are realistically only two. First, a 6mm banded hard pellet - the same as I’m feeding. After all, if I’m feeding them and the carp are eating them then it makes sense to fish one on the hook.
The second option is an 8mm hard pellet. Even when feeding 6mm I always carry a handful of 8mm so I can change between the two. Sometimes an 8mm will produce a quicker bite, especially if there are a lot of carp present. I think the reason for this is that the 8mm acts as a stand-out hookbait and the carp home in on it quicker.