Top big carp specialist Sean Leverett has sent us a few observations and tips that will help buy a few extra bites this spring. Its all good advice and well worth taking into account as you plan your early spring approach.
With spring fast approaching and the fish waking from their winter slumber, here are a few quick tips that could help put a couple of early fish on the bank.
Tip 1
When the carp start to go on the search for some much needed food to replenish their energy they won’t be ready for a mass feed. With this in mind then something I often do is fish a small baited rig over crumbed boilie.
The rig I chose to use is a KD rig for this. I still want a strong set up so the 25lb StripTeaze will be my chosen hooklink but I’ll try to use a slightly smaller hook than I would later in the year. For the KD rig a size 7 or even an 8 Curve Shank is perfect for this. I would then present either a single or double standard 12mm bottom bait so it blends in amongst the crumbed/ broken up offerings. I will also attach a small 25mm diameter pva bag of either crumbed or broken boilie so as to assist in concealing the hookbait. With the water still being on the cold side the ESP pva mesh still dissolves well and leaves no residue which is perfect for this time of year.
Tip 2
There’s often a lot written when it comes to “chod” rigs and they do seem to get used a lot these days all throughout the year. Personally, for me my best time to use them is in spring when the weed is low line or only just starting to come though. Silk weed can make bait presentation difficult and this to me is when a “chod” rig is best. The way the “chod” rig works allows you to present a bait over the top of the silk weed without it being masked by the weed. A scattering of your chosen boilie around the area then also sits on top of the weed and it in turn makes the carp move around more for their food resulting in the hook bait being picked up easier.
I use the 20lb Bristle Filament when fishing with a small hook such as the size 6 Stiff rigger and a small bait such as a couple of pieces of the buoyant corn but prefer to use the 25lb when using a size 5 or 4 hook and a larger bait. The stiffer the bristle Filament then the harder it is for the fish to eject the hook. The ready tied versions of the “chod rig” are also perfect for those that struggle to tie the chod rig perfectly and these are available in both short and standard length. The short ready tied “chod rigs” are also perfect to using to construct the hinge stiff rig, another rig that has accounted for a huge amount of big carp over the years.
Tip 3
It’s well worth taking note that the fish will almost always move on the first warm winds of spring, normally the south-westerly ones. Therefore fishing on the ends on these winds is something I always look to do. Just recently I have chosen to do this over on my current water and this has produced a couple of fish to me in the last 2 trips.
Although it’s still only early in the year the fish are clearly favouring these conditions as in the night I have both seen and heard a good few fish showing in front of my area, quite close in. I have also found quite an abundance of natural life starting to crawl from the windward end of the lake.