What’s the right depth for catching on snake lakes during the winter?
Mark Wallace, Salford
ONCE winter begins to set in, depth really can become critical in terms of finding the right level that the fish want to be in and feed at. It’s so important that often it’s all the difference between catching and blanking.
This is the case for most fish in snake lakes, but especially F1s. In the cold, carp tend to spook from bankside noise or feed going in and will push away from anglers, so it’s rare to catch them in numbers from anywhere but the far bank.
This is also the reason why on most venues, if you’re the only one fishing a lake, the carp will back away well out of reach and you’d swear there’s not a single common or mirror in the lake! Even if you move pegs to where they are, they won’t stay for long.
Spooky carp
Carp behave differently to F1s and will simply try to get away from angling pressure. This is most noticeable when the water is cold and clear, and the carp do not really want to feed. However, locating them when this happens is relatively simple – basically by fishing tight across.
How tight to go is dependent on having enough depth of water for the carp to sit in happily. Ideally, I’d want 18ins of water to go at, and if this was against cover that would be even better.
When fishing in this manner you’ll normally look to start off fishing in front of you and then chase the fish left and right as they move away.
Later in the day you might find the carp will move down the far shelf closer towards you and you can start to catch a few in the deeper central ‘track’ and even from the margins as the light fades and they start to feel more confident.
F1s are totally different
F1s are very different and they’re definitely a species that favours a depth of water as opposed to naturally pushing away from anglers. I can only think where they sit is influenced by water temperature, i.e. thermoclines.
When I used to fish Tunnel Barn Farm a lot, if we had a lot of rain in the winter the F1s would always move out of the deep water. I think that cold rainwater sinks and pushes the F1s into the warmer shallows.
It used to make for interesting fishing, as sometimes on even the coldest of days, if there had been a lot of rain the fish would be in the really shallow water.
The two depth rule
The secret to catching F1s in numbers in the cold is working out where they want to be – and that means the depth. On some days you’ll find that the fish are everywhere. On others, though, depth is the key to success.
The problem here is that the depth they want to be at will change, often from day to day. The key at the start of a session is discovering what that depth happens to be. Unless you see obvious signs of where the fish are – like fish topping and bubbles – then the only way to work it out is by fishing at different depths and gauging the response.
As a rule, there are two main depths in look for – 4ft or 5ft, which is normally down the track in the deepest water, and then 3ft, which is normally three-quarters of the way across a typical snake lake.
If the weather is mild, I will normally kick off fishing at 3ft because that is where I feel the F1s are most likely to be. If, after 10 minutes, I haven’t had a bite I will have a quick look in the deeper track line just to see if the fish are there.
“The key to catching F1s is finding out the depth they want to be at”
A typical example!
Today’s session at Packington Somers on the Siblings A Pool has been a brilliant example of this. With it not being too cold I’ve kicked off in 3ft, but other than the odd tiny silverfish, I have had no signs of an F1.
With it being flat calm I’ve noticed the odd bubble coming up in the track to my left and have started a new line there and caught a few big F1s straight away. This tells me that the F1s want to be in deep water, so from this point it’s simply been a case of opening new lines up in the same depth of water to take advantage.
One of the things I love about F1s is that they tell you quickly when you have it wrong. If you are fishing at the wrong depth you simply won’t catch and equally, if you are at the right depth, both indications and bites normally quickly follow. I guess the moral of the story here is that if you aren’t catching, don’t sit there in hope fishing at one depth. You might have a swim full of F1s – but you’ve just not been fishing where they want to be!