THE CARP ARE AWAKE, BUT COLOUR CHOICE IS THE KEY
As winter turns to spring, ROB HUGHES is continuing his recovery from ill health and looking forward to new challenges on the bank and beyond…
LIKE most of you guys I love this time of year. One minute it can be freezing cold and the next it can be warm(ish) and sunny. And, oh my word, don’t we feel the warmth of the sun at the moment when it does eventually show itself.
The fish are now on the move and I always look at the flowers for a clue. When the snowdrops are out the carp are waking up. When the crocuses are out they’re getting up, and when the daffodils are out they’re having breakfast…. and the daffs are out early this year.
Nature always has the answer so get out there now and make the most of it. It’s a real time of change and I think exciting things will happen earlier than usual this year.
No night fishing
On that note it’s been a big time of change for me as well over the last couple of months, but more of that later on. As most of you will know I was pretty poorly at the back end of last year and my recovery is ongoing. I had some good news yesterday (mid-Feb) and I’ve just been signed off by the doctor for one of the ‘bits’ and am wading through the other as a work in progress.
As a result of being ill my fishing has been days only for a long time now and I am looking forward to getting out for my first night in a long time very soon. What I have noticed, though, is that I haven’t missed a lot not fishing at night. Of course, a few fish have been coming out in the dark but a lot more have been daytime carp, and 11am to 4pm has been really good for a bite. Interesting how they swing with their bite times. Light is so important at this time of year, and that brings me on to one of my real hobby horses…colour.
With the amount of rain that we have had, a lot of lakes have been really coloured and that means the carp get put off their stride and find it harder to locate their food. I’ve had a couple of sessions recently after a bit of rain that have really made me work for the fish. One session at a fairly prolific runs water was rock hard. I normally set myself a target of at least half a dozen bites in a day on this venue, but this time I just couldn’t find the fish.
I find them by fishing for liners, using ultraslack lines and regularly recasting, but I was getting nothing at all on this trip.
They weren’t where they usually are and I wasted an hour or two doing what usually works – but to no avail. To be fair, it had snowed a little the day before and the melt water had run into the lake, dropping the temperature a few degrees. Even so, I expected a chance or two.
When I thought about it, rather than going through the motions and hoping for bite time to save me, I realised that the melt water was cold and it had moved them out of their deeper hole. They’d shifted to the shallows or up in the water.
I was a bit slow spotting the signs and eventually, when I did, I’d got about an hour of fishing time left and the liners came pretty quickly. Fortunately, I winkled one bite out, but they weren’t where they should have been.
Interestingly, I’ve been on the rivers a bit this last month too, fishing for grayling. All the spots that you think would be brilliant are crap, and a lot of the poorer spots are really good. One of the river regulars said the floods have turned the river on its head and the fish are all in places you wouldn’t expect them to be. It could well be the same on some carp lakes.
Colour is key
The other carp session was again after rain but this time warmer stuff that really colours the lake up. This was a different venue, with a trickle in-flow running like a muddy stream. Loads of places looked good, but they were playing hard to get. I’d baited up with corn the day before and was sure the fish were in the area but after an hour or two feeling like I should have caught, I hadn’t. It was now well into bite time, middle of the day, and nothing had happened. I was matching the hatch for the corn and decided to change over from my usually productive yellow Hit ‘n’ Run hookbaits to red on one and a pink on the other. I stuck the red one out first with exactly the same mesh-bag combo in the same place and reeled the other one in for a pink option. Genuinely, before I could cast the pink out, the red was off and a cracking mid20 was the result.
The pink also produced and I had another on the red, landing two 20s and an 18 in a couple of hours from the same spot I’d fished yellows on all morning. Bite time or bait change? I’m certain it was the bait colour, as I swung the third rod into the same area but kept it on yellow and didn’t have a sniff on it. Conclusive enough for me.
A fresh start
I’ve been involved in the angling industry for 27 years and have been lucky enough to be part of some amazing teams including Nash, Hutchy and, more recently, Fox.
I’ve been a part of the fantastic Fox team for nearly 10 years, but at the end of last year I decided it was time to move on. We’re all still good mates and there are no dramas at all. This diary isn’t about promoting products but you will see me using Carp Spirit products from now on. They are a very large continental brand and want to increase their presence in the UK and further afield. They have some impressive products which you will see at some stage in the future.
If you’re heading to The Big One shows then pop over to the stand and have a look.