Tommy Pickering

Hit more bites

I NEVER seem to catch much fishing the margins and end up sort of half-heartedly feeding here. What am I doing wrong? Is it down to my rig, feeding, or where in the margins I fish? Roger Sutton, Banbury, Oxon A NUMBER of things could be stopping you from catching in the margins, but the two most common problems tend to be the time of day when anglers fish the edge and the distance at which they fish.

It is too easy on a well-stocked lake to think that you’ll catch carp immediately in the margins, but these fish have a routine that they follow each day.

That involves moving into the margins in the afternoon to hunt out more food as the light levels begin to fall. Therefore, fishing the margins in the morning in pointless.

Distance is another area that it’s possible to fall down on. Too often, people will fish just a rodlength or a pole top kit down the edge but this is too close to encourage carp to feed confidently at close quarters. Instead you need to put a good few metres between you and the fish.

There are several other smaller things to master, including what you use on the hook and how you feed. Check out the diagram here for some pointers to the type of rig you should be fishing.