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Hopefully now the spawning period is coming to a close and the carp can seriously get on the feed giving us all what we want and that's action. With the summer on its way and the water temperature on its way up the carp can be found lazing around in the upper layers and from here they can be tempted to take a mixer or 2. Finding them is usually the hardest thing to come to terms with as patience is a virtue, Ive found the best thing to try is if your down at your chosen water to sample some floater fishing is to trickle some mixers in a few pegs if possible and just keep visiting them to check whats happening. Once one or two start to take confidently its surprising how their guard drops and they can be seen bullying each other to get to the floaters. Now is the time to put your own bait out, there are two main methods and that's using a controller or beachcaster method.  | My favourite has to be the beachcaster set up for its simplicity and the fact no line is touching the water against the controller which has all the line touching and has to be treated to stay afloat. |
With this method the controller is going to cause some disturbance with the cast whereas with the beachcaster the lead is cast well beyond the feeding area and the bait is slid down the line. The initial set up of the beachcaster can be done in various ways, the first is with a series of stop knots up the line with slightly longer tails on the knots so on the cast the rig will pass up the line eventually coming to rest on one of the knots. Then the rig can be lowered until the bait rests on the surface. A lead of about 4oz should be sufficient to hold the bottom to keep the line tight and with the rod positioned in high rest to give you a greater distance to fish at. | Another method is to drill a small hole in a film canister and have that threaded onto the line below the rig with the opening facing the lead. On the cast the wind will get into the canister and force it along with the rig back up the line. Ive seen it used to good effect, but yet to try it myself. |  |
The method I tend to use that helped us qualify for Carp R Us for the final in the BCAC at Penns Hall in 2003 as we took around 12 fish with 10 taken on the top. It took some time for other anglers to get on the case but by then we had enough lead and came second. I class my way as a bit of a cheat as I don't floater fish any further out than 40yds so I do away with the stop knots and just hook the rig onto the second ring in and then be careful on the cast. Once the lead has got a grip just unhook the rig and slide the rig down to the designated area. It is also possible to attach a small PVA bag to this set up and you have a small patch of floaters immediately around your hook bait. The rig I love using is just a 12” length of X-Line knotless knotted to a size 6 Nailer and the other end has a swivel with a s/s run ring to help it slide. With this style of floater fishing you don't have to use a floating bait, you can use a bunch of maggots which looks irresistible wriggling on the surface or even your favourite pellets. You can find once the fish are taking readily they can hook themselves which can make the waiting in anticipation a whole lot easier. So tackle up lightly and get down your local if the weathers in your favour and go in search for those cruising subs. Paul Zurek
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