People often associate floater fishing with really hot, windless days, when the sun is high in a cloudless blue sky. These conditions can be productive, but carp will often just as likely be up in the water and on the mooch in rainy conditions as well.
First light can also be a great time for surface fishing. This is because the light levels are far less harsh, allied with the fact that the carp are often feeding at that time anyway.
Setting the alarm for just before dawn, grabbing your kit and heading off around the lake towards those early- morning swirls on the surface can certainly be a rewarding experience... not least because nobody else will be doing it!
Loosefeed sizes
Once you have done the groundwork and found a few in the upper layers that look up for it, the next step is coax them on to the feed.
‘Zing up’ some 6mm and 11mm Krill Floaters in a bucket. The fish love the smaller ones, but they can become preoccupied with them. The 11mm versions will be the same size as my hookbait, so these are what I want to feed more of.
Accordingly, once I have the fish feeding competitively, I will cut the 6mm floaters out and feed straight 11mm ones.
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Start in close
If possible, it’s always best to fish for carp as close-in as you can, simply because when you catch one, the fish will slowly start pushing further out into the lake. I tend to feed the swim with just a catapult to begin with, unless the fish are holding out at range from the start.
If that’s the case, or they have moved out because of the pressure, it’s a simple case of putting on a bigger controller float, and using a Spomb to introduce the loosefeed. I wouldn’t advise doing either of these things if you can get away with it, as the extra commotion will certainly hinder your chances of getting a bigger hit. Talking of ‘hits’ of fish, when they’re really having it and feeding competitively, takes can come thick and fast.
In such a scenario, the last thing you want to be doing is hurriedly tying up fresh hooklinks. I always have some tied up in advance – even just a couple – and stored on foam rig winders. It’s small details and prior preparation such as this which can turn a good session into a truly memorable one.
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Hookbait choice
If your offering in this department is sub-standard, it won’t take much for the fish to ignore or reject it.
I used to use a trimmed pop-up that had been soaked in some lake water, just to reduce its buoyancy and make it behave like one of my freebies, and this certainly worked well enough.
However, these days I use the dedicated Krill Floater hookers, which not only match the freebies in colour, taste and smell, but also emulate their buoyancy perfectly.
Once the hookbait is out there among the loosefeed and the fish are feeding, it’s essential that you focus intently on it, and ignore everything else that is going on around you. Polarising sunglasses can help massively and reduce the strain on your eyes.
The moment that the fish takes the bait in, strike immediately! If you don’t, the chance can pass in the blink of an eye, because the fish will readily reject the bait and hook as soon as they sense something is wrong. You can try using a bolt rig but I always prefer to strike.
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Beat the birds
On some lakes, the birdlife can be so bad it prevents people from even trying to tempt carp off the top.
There is only one way of getting round the issue, and that is to feed them off. To this end, I always make sure that I have a sack of cheap dog biscuits in the back of the van or, failing that, some reduced-price loaves of bread.
It might seem fruitless at first, but if you keep going, eventually they will fill up and leave you to it. The amount you need to use will depend on the venue and how many birds are present. The only situation in which this won’t work is if there are countless ducks and geese present, as well as the dreaded gulls (the biggest culprits of them all). It’s going to take a lot of time, effort and free bait to fill so many stomachs, so you may be best served looking elsewhere.
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Flatten the ripple
Another ‘enemy’ of the surface angler can be the wind. As well as sometimes causing the hookbait and freebies to drift away from the swim, the surface ripple it causes can also prevent you from seeing the hookbait properly.
This is easily resolved, however, by adding some Cap Oil to the floaters. This is a rich, spicy salmon oil and not only will it increase the attraction of the bait, but it will create a large flat spot over the area that will enable you to keep your eyes fixed on the hookbait.
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