English Carp Fishing in Weedy Waters
This has been a very hot summer in England, with the temperatures up to 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit). As a result, the carp lakes which are normally full of weed have become even more choked with the stuff, and weed has appeared even in waters which don�t normally have very much.
The commonest types of weed in English waters are filamentous algae (blanket weed), Canadian pondweed and different types of lilies. I find that many carp anglers are afraid of fishing in weed, but I leaned certain techniques for weedy water when I fished the famous Ashlea Pool many years ago. Here there was no open water so the fish had to find their food - and your bait - in the very thick lilies of all kinds, which grew all over the lake and from top to the bottom.
Obviously, surface fishing methods, using dog biscuits such as Pedigree Chum were very successful if you could get the fish feeding on the surface. We eventually did this by covering the whole surface of the small lake with a carpet of floaters!
Once the large Ashlea fish had been caught on the surface they soon learned to avoid floaters, so I had to try to get the baits as near the bottom as possible. I will describe now how I broke the Ashlea Pool record by fishing through the heavy lilies.
It was September when I arrived at Ashlea Pool for a three day session, a session I was never to forget. The tiny, half hectare pool was looking its best, the water was gin clear and the lilies were just beginning to weaken, for in a month�s time they would all be dead. A breeze was blowing towards the deeper end of the pool, making it impossible to see the fish properly, so I climbed a tall sycamore tree overlooking the spot where I thought the fish might be and soon spotted several large carp, two of them clearly over thirty pounds (15kg). One of them was the very big fish that I had been after for a long time. They seemed to be swimming in a clear patch amongst a mass of dense weeds, and every so often they would sink out of sight below the mid-water lily leaves and bubble profusely. I put some floating baits in the swim, up wind of them, but as the baits drifted over their heads they showed no interest. So, by about noon, I set up two rods in the swim nearest to where I had seen the fish. My plan was to fish one into the clear hole and the other right in the thickest part of the dense patch of lily cabbages.
The bait was a special concoction which I had used with remarkable success on several waters since the previous winter. It consisted of three ounces of Casilan (a powdered milk drink), three ounces of Complan, one ounce of Lactalbumin, two ounces of baby milk, one ounce of wheat germ and one ounce of castor sugar. To this was added three eggs plus 15 ml of Cream RM30 flavoring. Each bait was rolled into quarter of an inch balls and dropped into boiling water for one minute and then left to harden for a full 24 hours.
I cast a bait into the small clear area without problems but the other bait needed to be presented on the bottom under the cabbage leaves if I was to stand any real chances of success, for this is where the carp were obviously feeding. I had put a lot of thought into this problem and was already prepared for such a situation. Firstly I fixes a two ounce Arlesey bomb to the line via a link swivel stopped by a small Berkely swivel tied in the line. The baited hook and six inch hooklink was tied to the bomb using PVA strips. The hook point, which I always leave bare, was masked and completely covered by a PVA pad formed by continual folding of the PVA. This was to stop the hook catching up on the weed as it went through. This bolt rig then had the effect of blasting its way through the thick leaves and coming to rest on the clear bottom under the cabbages. Although I was initially worried about the line rising vertically through the cabbages I decided that once a fish did pick up the bait the bolt rig would make it run and disregard any possible line resistance.
Once my rods were set-up I baited the area heavily and sat back and waited. Around 2pm that afternoon I had a line bite which I struck at and spooked the fish concerned. The rest of the carp immediately followed and from then right round until the following afternoon nothing happened.
By evening all the fish had returned to my original swim and were feeding like mad on the baits I carefully introduced. I had tied each free offering to a stone using PVA to give it a better chance of reaching the bottom. I settled down for the second night confident that something was going to happen. I rebaited the swim and set up a third rod to cast out to another spot where bubbles were continually rising.
After dark it rained heavily and I immediately lost confidence but then it finally stopped around midnight, the wind dropped and it got very cold. The signs started to look right and I knew I as going to get some action. Around 2am I had a six-inch lift on my left hand rod, but nothing else happened. An hour later I had a couple of four inch twitches on my "extra" rod. This didn�t develop into anything immediately but 30 minutes later I had a jerky lift on the bobbin. I struck straight away and met with solid resistance. It was pitch dark and I had no idea what was happening. I couldn�t feel any movement or see the rod tip so I thought I was weeded. I kept the pressure on, feeling fairly confident that the fish would move, and a few seconds later the bobbin on my left hand rod started to rise. It then dawned on my that the fish had kited across in front of me, maintaining an uncannily even pressure. The swim was very confined and I knew that the fish was near the sunken branches of the sycamore tree to my left so I lowered the rod rip into the water and pumped the fish back. Within 30 seconds it was on top and ready to net. The gap in front of the swim was only three feet so it was necessary to net the fish over the top of the other lines. I lowered the other rods off their rests and picked up my landing net.
When I was sure the carp was over the net I lifted the heavy fish out and put it on the ground at the back of the swim. I kept looking at the fish trying to decide how big it was and I just simply had no idea as it was so dark. I got my small pocket torch from my kit bag and switched it on - only to have it fail immediately. The battery must have gotten wet from the rain.
I lowered the fish onto the ground in front of the car, switched the headlight on and pulled the weighing sling back. It was the famous big leather. The scales registered just under 39 pounds and after deducting the weight of the sling the true weight was 38.25 pounds (17.4kg), at the time my biggest carp ever. I then sacked the fish until first light when it was witnessed and photographed before being returned to its weedy home. This fish is still the record for this very famous water, said to be one of the hardest carp lakes in England. I would tackle any new waters of this kind, with an excessive amount of lilies, in the same way.
However, it is more common to find English waters full of weed as filamentous algae (usually called blanket weed in England). Blanket weed is usually a thick weed which is up to 6 inches from the bottom, but sometimes is as high as a metre from the bottom. The top of this weed is normally flat and you need the bait to be on top of the weed. If the carp in this type of water are not hard to catch I would use the following method.
The set-up I am suggesting sinks very slowly to rest on the top of the weed, and to achieve this I squeeze a piece of Kesmark�s Ballast (tungsten putty) onto the line around a Berkely swivel usually only enough to cast far enough to the spot you intend to fish. The hook would be a Z15 Partridge Boilie hook (size 6 for 15mm boilies, size 4 for 20mm boilies), with a pop-up boilie attached. Obviously, I use my own KM pop-up boilies in Wild Strawberry, Honey Nectar or Cream RM30.
To ensure that this set-up does sink slowly, special attention is paid to counter balancing the lead and the hookbait. The latest method for doing this is to use a new product from Carp "R" Us called Iceberg. This pliable floating putty is moulded around the Ballast to insure that it sinks slowly (see diagram). To determine the exact amount use trial and error methods in the water margins.
The pop-up hook bait is fished as normal using the tungsten putty called Ballast. (Kesmarks�s Ballast is far superior to other types as it never slips on the line). A small amount is squeezed on the line 2 inches (5cm) from the hook just enough to make it sink slowly (see diagram) This set-up casts well and sinks slowly, and can be confidently fishin in any depth of heavy weed. As this is not a self-hooking set-up it is best to fish with a normal sensitive indicator system.
On a difficult water, where the fish are caught a lot and are very wary, I would use a different set-up. This is a self-hooking rig, using a heavy fixed lead of at least 3 ounces. To avoid the hook-bait being pulled into the weed, it is necessary as far as possible to find out the depth of the weed and to use a hook link half a metre or so longer than the depth of the wed. If you can�t find out the weed depth, use a hook link of at least a metre.
This rig will cast well, the lead will sink right into the weed, and the bait, which is a pop-up as described earlier, will sink slowly to rest on the top of the weed. No putty is used around the lead and the best hooklink material is Kesmark Octosplice, which is a sinking braided hooklink excellent for weedy conditions but not for snaggy waters. For snaggy conditions use Kryston Quicksilver (see diagram). As this is a fixed lead rig, a tight line with an indicator which shows dropback bites is essential.
Finally, before starting to fish in weed make sure that it is necessary. Obviously, you will need to use heavy lines for some waters where this sort of fishing is necessary. In some waters there are weedy areas which the carp actually avoid, and in these cases it is probably better to fish in clearer patches if they can be found. If you are sure that the carp are in the weed and are likely to feed there, then use the methods I have described in this article - methods with which I have had great success.
Kevin Maddocks
Presented by Eurotackle