SURFACE FISHING MISCONCEPTIONS
Mark Pitchers reveals how we might be getting it wrong off the top... and how to put it right!
LARGE majority of my summer A days are spent floater fishing for carp big and small. On a typical session at this time of year I will be surface fishing from first light till last, before slinging a couple of bags out at night and going again the next day.
I see many anglers who try fishing on the top but soon get frustrated and give up. Often, they have just made a few minor errors that can be limiting their chances of success. Thankfully, these are easy to rectify...
Conditions
Most anglers you meet will quite rightly think that bright sunny weather with carp visible on the surface are prime floater conditions.
I have found from experience, however, that these days can actually be the hardest. In bright conditions everything is more visible, tackle seems to glimmer and shadows on the water cause the fish to spook easier.
The best surface conditions are warm, muggy and overcast days - almost prethunderstorm weather. Dull days with a drizzle of rain can also be very good, and light winds are pretty much essential to ensuring a good presentation.
Something I never see anglers doing is surface fishing at night. On some venues this method can be absolutely devastating. It’s such a buzz when you get your senses tuned in and can hear them taking floaters before the sudden explosion as you hook one in the dark.
Feed
Dog biscuits have caught thousands of carp across the country, and if the fish are really having it, they will take almost anything – even Sugar Puffs! When the fish are a little cagier, though, nothing gets them going better than floating trout pellets. These are designed for feeding fish and they become really tuned into eating them. I feed a mix of sizes, starting with a good number of 6mm and larger samples. With my hookbait, I match the hatch with either an identical pellet, or a trimmed-down Live System pop-up that closely resembles the feed.
Birds
Birdlife can be a real issue when surface fishing on most lakes. I’ve found that the often suggested technique of feeding them off can be difficult and sometimes counter-productive.
On some waters the carp just aren’t willing to compete with them, and dive-bombing seagulls will kill your chances of getting the fish feeding. Conversely, on other waters I have seen carp actually attracted by birds feeding.
To be on the safe side, I always attempt to spook the birds from feeding by having a spod rod set up with a heavy lead. I cast this as far as I can and keep the rod high, leaving the bright braid running like a washing line over the water – the birds hate it!
Don’t strike!
Nothing spooks surface-feeding carp more than a missed strike. For this reason, I remove it from the equation and fish a surface bolt rig. I always use the XL Fox Bolt-Bubble if the fish are further than 10yds from the bank. With this I fish an 18ins floating hooklink and, unlike what many suggest, I will make this even shorter if the fish are being cagey.
I believe it is the line that spooks the fish more than the float. How many times have you seen carp attack the controller? It just looks like surface debris to them. If your line is sinking, however, they can really be turned off.
I always keep hook sizes as small as possible too, a different mindset to how I fish on the bottom, where it’s the bigger the better. On the surface you need the silhouette of the hookbait to mask the hook. For this, I fish my bait KD-style on the hair so it is super tight to the hook, similar to the presentation
you would get with a bait band.