MISTAKE NO.1

OVERFEEDING

Everyone believes that the carp are on the munch because the weather is warming up, but that isn’t always the case. In the annual cycle, spring is a bit like breakfast. They’re waking up and tucking in slowly, not pigging out. The natural food supply is only just starting to increase too, so the fish are not yet used to an abundance of this.

Yes, they can be conditioned by artificial baiting through the winter, but on the whole they’re still picking rather than packing. For the next month or so, heavy baiting could be the kiss of death. Let the carp tell you what they want rather than piling it in and hoping that they will get on it. Singles and stinky PVA sticks are a great method. If you do fancy putting a bed of bait in, have a look at soluble boilies, as it’s simply not possible to over-bait with them.

Within a few hours they’ve broken down to almost nothing, and any small fish in the area will help to clean up these small food items. The action of small fish feeding is often enough to trigger an inquisitive carp to have a look, so sticks work on a number of levels.

They release a huge amount of attraction into the water too. Any carp swimming past, whether up in the water or down on the deck, will know the food is there. A nice scattering of solubles with a strategically placed hookbait in the middle of them is a fantastic way of catching spring carp.

TOP TIP

Fire a couple of pouchfuls of solubles out directly over your hookbait, then keep topping up with a few more every hour. Make the swim active and the bait work for you rather than sitting and waiting. The noise, the smell and small-fish activity is a real feeding trigger to a carp.