Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
RIVER CARPING
Brothers Carl & Alex, two of the biggest angling stars on YouTube, successfully test a variety of tactics with trips to the River Trent, Rutland Water and trotting on the River Allen
Carl and Alex head up north this month and try their hand at targeting the carp in the mighty River Trent.
River Trent carping
Alex – On January 7 we were due to be up in Doncaster for a business meeting. Being based down south this was quite a drive just for a day so we obviously needed to incorporate some fishing into the trip to make the four-hour drive worth it. I spent hours studying Google maps and reading online forums for any waters in the area where we might have a chance of catching a fish or two. After not much joy I remembered our friend Chris Smith had said if we were ever up in Nottingham we were welcome to try his local river spot on the Trent for carp. Perfect! We met up with Chris and he walked us to the river when we realised that this was one of the biggest rivers we had fished in the UK. If we managed a carp it would be a mega achievement. It was a really cool spot, with a lovely grassy bank and a huge power station on the other side. We barrowed the gear to the swim and prepared the rods. In terms of how we were going to approach the river we decided to go with large baits, big hooks and strong tackle. Hardened hookbaits of 20mm were threaded on to the hairs of each rig and we did what we always do when fishing a new water – spread out the rods in order to cover as much water as possible. There were often boats charging through the swim so backleads were essential to keep the line pinned down well out of harm’s way. With the rods all out and the traps set, we scattered several handfuls of broken boilies around the rigs to give the carp something to move in for. And that was pretty much all we could do. It was getting late by this point, so we got our heads down and hoped to be woken by a screaming alarm. Surprisingly, that’s exactly what happened at 4am. Carl leapt out of his bed and was straight
“The fight told us a very strong fish was on the end, definitely a carp”
on the rod. The fight that followed told us that a very strong fish was on the end, definitely a carp and it didn’t give up easily. Up and down the swim it went, holding near the bottom but it slowly tired and eventually the net was slipped under what looked like a handsome carp. The fish was safely popped into the retainer until first light where we hoped to get some catch photos in front of the power station, which we thought would look pretty cool! Our hopes dropped, though, as we woke to some really thick mist, which meant we could hardly see the far bank, let alone the towers of the power station! Oh well, at least we caught carp and that certainly made the trip worthwhile. I took some photos of the scaly creature, quickly packed up and hit the road home. Job done!
River Allen trotting
Alex – With all the lakes in our local area frozen solid for the last couple of weeks, we knew that come the weekend we would struggle to catch anything. So we decided that travelling west to the chalk streams of Hampshire and Dorset would give us the best chance of a successful session. On Sunday morning we left the house before the sun rose and arrived on the crystal clear River Allen at first light. It was a dull day, extremely overcast and it felt good for a day of trotting. Once we sorted the kit out in the back of the van and each set-up a float rod we strolled down to the river. As we crossed the bridge I took one glance into the water and right beneath me was a grayling and a brown trout minding their own business. On we walked up the river to try and find a slightly deeper area where there might be a few more overhanging trees, somewhere the fish would feel safe from predators. Luckily for us, the River Allen is full of deep holes so it wasn’t difficult to find a spot to fish. The first thing I did after sitting down in my chosen swim was to throw a handful of maggots a few metres upstream. I watched intensely as the maggots sunk deeper and, as if by magic, one by one the maggots disappeared. Game on! I had obviously stumbled upon a spot full of fish. First cast, a dace, second cast, another dace, third cast, a bigger dace. It pretty much carried on like that for the next 10 minutes. Where were all these fish coming from? It was non-stop action until I hooked something that was definitely bigger. It turned and twisted, jumped out a couple of times and then finally gave up, and I slipped the net under a quality brown trout. But from that moment on, the swim died. Not a single bite came after the crazy brownie went mad in the swim. Time to move on. While I was bagging up, so was Carl in the next swim down. He also mentioned that he caught a couple of trout that seemed to shut
down the fishing so we both walked upriver in search of another deep hole. The way Carl and I approach small chalk stream fishing is simple. Firstly, we pack as light as physically possible. Keeping on the move is necessary. A waist pouch is really handy as you can keep your maggots in there as well as spare hooks, floats and line. The floats we use are smallish alloy stem sticks. These normally don’t take a huge amount of shot and with a shirt button shotting pattern the bait drifts naturally down river. We use a size 16-18 hook and mount this with a couple of maggots. Simple fishing and so much fun when you find a shoal of dace or chub. In the next swim there was just enough room for both of us to fish so we alternated casts and kept the loosefeed constantly dripping in. Just like the first swim, it was non-stop action but this time we caught more grayling than dace. But so long as we kept on feeding, the bites carried on. We caught 30-40 dace and grayling in that one swim and I have never had a day's fishing more fish filled! The rest of the day pretty much carried on like that. Find a new spot, catch till we got bored and then move on. I would recommend a day trotting maggots on a stream like the Allen as it could really surprise you.
Rutland… again!
Alex – You might be able to tell that Carl and I have become recently addicted to lure fishing on Rutland. The first time we were guided by Steve Collett who showed us the basics of vertical jigging for zander and, although it wasn’t a very successful session, we still managed our first of the species. We wanted another go! Carl and I wanted to learn more and ultimately catch more so contacted predator Rikki Cooper and organised another day on Rutland. This time the conditions were better and the fishing in general was a lot more productive. I think we had 30 fish to the boat, which wasn’t bad at all. After arriving home from that session we decided that we would go solo on our next trip. We bought ourselves a couple of stiffer lure rods, invested in a fish finder and stocked up on heavy jig heads and rubber lures at The Friendly Fisherman tackle shop. We were ready. Rutland Water is a good three-hour drive for us so it was an early start, but we didn’t care one bit because we were going after zander. On arrival we once again felt daunted at the size of the place, especially as this time we were on our own. But we took everything that we had learned along the way and went for it. First stop on the boat was the pipe running along the lakebed in between the two towers. This was a popular starting point. And rightfully so as we saw
plenty of bait fish hanging around the pipe. It was flat calm that day so rather than lowering the lures straight down, we cast them 30-40 yards then retrieved them by turning the reel a few times and then letting the lure drop back down to the bottom. The day started well and Carl hooked up on his first cast and a beautiful zander came up from the depths. I soon got in on the action too and we were catching regularly for the first couple of hours. The fishing died off towards midday so we left the pipe and looked for other features on the fish finder. Any hump or indentation on the lakebed seemed to be glowing with fish on the finder and by this point the wind picked up which meant we could drift over these spots and cover lots of water. And the bites picked up again. To summarise, we both caught personal best zander up to 7lb along with perch to 2lb. It was a great way to end the zander fishing season on Rutland and I honestly can’t wait until September to return. A visit to Grafham Water to target the perch is something we’d also love to do. For now though, the next month for us will hopefully be full of pike fishing, perch fishing and possibly some carping if the weather warms up.
“We once again felt daunted by the size of the place, especially as we were on our own”