Fishing a carp lake that you have never previously fished before can be daunting. Whether it’s a new club water, syndicate lake, commercial venue or a French carp lake, the same principles apply. This article sets out key actions you should take when approaching a new carp water to maximise your chances of success.
Visit the Venue before you start your Campaign
Spend as much time at the lake as you can before fishing it
Before fishing a new carp water don’t overlook gathering information the old fashioned way. If you have access to the lake then spend some time looking around it. Speak to other anglers and see if they are willing to give you any tips or information for when you start your campaign.
Climb trees, look for carp and make a note of where and when any sightings took place. Don’t forget your polaroid glasses too. These are essential for spotting fish and any decent carp angler knows not to leave their glasses at home. When fishing large lakes such as La Loubiere in France fish location is imperative to being successful. You may be able to get away with baiting up a few marginal areas as you walk around. Do a few laps of the lake if possible and see if there are any signs of fish visiting the baited areas. Working out areas where the fish feed or patrol before you start fishing will give you a head start.
There is a wealth of information available on social media platforms and forums
Social media platforms are a wealth of information
Today with the internet and in particular social media, it’s actually pretty easy to find some really useful information about most carp waters. Social media has changed the way information is shared and actually made it much harder to keep anything secret for long! Many venues have got Facebook pages where you’ll find details of catch reports and may find other helpful information. Forums are a really valuable resource too to find discussions on a particular water or to start a discussion yourself.
Google Maps and Google Earth can help identify features on the lake bed such as bars
Google earth is a great way to identify features
It’s invaluable when fishing a new venue that you keep a log of the information so that you can start to build up a picture of the lake and the lake bed. Google maps can be great for this. Print out a map of the lake and use it to mark out swims, features, showing fish and catches.
It’s also worth looking closely at the satellite maps and Google Earth images as sometimes you may identify features such as gravel bars and weed beds that you otherwise may not be able to see if you do not have an aerial view.
Use a marker rod for feature finding and to explore the lake bed topography
A marker rod is essential to feature finding
We talked in an earlier article about feature finding and the importance of visual features above the surface of the water as well as those you can identify using a lead or marker float set up. When you begin fishing the lake, start off by walking a few laps and trying locate where the carp are. Start with the obvious areas that are likely to hold fish such as fallen trees, marginal over hanging bushes and islands. If you can find fish be careful not to spook them from the swim by doing too much casting.
Ideally if there are fish present in the swim then try to either feel your lead down for the ‘donk’ to see if the spot is firm or just flick a light 3oz lead around the swim on braided mainline to get a picture of the lake bed and work out where is likely to be a good spot to present a bait. When the fish have left the swim then you can put the marker float out and perform a more detailed examination of what’s beneath the surface.
Experiment with Baiting Tactics
There’s no right or wrong baiting approaches when carp fishing and it can just be down to preference. You may also have found out what baits work well from research you have done. Whilst in many cases, going with ‘in form’ bait is the best tactic, bucking the trend can often yield very good results.
Generally, depending on what you are fishing over and the other stock of fish in the lake, will help you to work out what baiting approach to adopt. Of course the weather and time of year will also influence how much bait you use and the potentially the types of baits.
Particle Approach
If there is not a high population of nuisance fish in the lake then a combination of pellets, whole and chopped boilies, hemp and sweetcorn will draw carp into the swim due to the oils, flavours and colours. The small particles such as the hemp and the pellets, which break down at varying rates, will keep the carp in the swim routing around for bait.
Particle fishing can be great when there are not many nuisance fish
When fishing over particles, unless it is close ran