Kris Garrett took advantage of the recent muggy condtions to do a bit of floater fishing and was well rewarded with a thirty pounder. It pays to make sure you have the floater gear at the ready for any warmer periods of weather, especially if the carp in your lake haven’t been hammered on floaters.
On a recent evening I had the opportunity to go down to my syndicate and do a couple of hours stalking. The day had been hot and muggy and I was sure that they would be up for a floater or two. Armed with a single rod, unhooking matt and a bucket of essentials I made my down the track. There was a few fish about so I put out a couple of pouches of mixers on the back of the wind, watching as the wind drifted them over the fish.
It didn’t take long before the odd one started to disappear. I put out another pouch and immediately two or three fish started competing. When I got the rod out of the sleeve I forgot that it was already set up on light tackle from where I had used it last fishing for singles to low double in the Essex Carp Championship finals. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity so instead of tying up a beefier rig, I attached a trimmed down DT Bait Developments R8 pop up to a size 10 Drennan super specialist hook and an 8lb Drennan Double Strength hook link.
Flicking the controller 20yards out, following it with a pouch of mixers it didn’t take long for them to move on the bait. The eruption of the take was mental and the fish ripped 70yards of line on its first run; it seemed to lose its energy after this and was slowly guided back through the weed beds to the waiting net. One that I longed to catch since seeing a good friend catch it in its winter colours a few months ago. It opened my eyes up to how strong these little hooks really are! She went 32lb 4oz.
Floater fishing is one of the most exciting methods of catching them – not for the faint hearted though! Watch these videos to see Terry Hearn’s floater fishing tips and tactics: