Time to start dusting off those carp fishing rods!
I hope you had a successful winter or a well-earned rest. Now the weather is getting warmer and the days are getting longer it is time to start thinking about spring. Spring is an amazing time to be fishing, day by day and week by week you can watch everything coming back to life, the first bumblebees, daffodils, and the first buds on the trees start to appear.
I have always found spring as good a time for catching big fish as any, I believe this to be because they are feeding up at the end of winter from there lay up and later in spring/early summer they are thinking about spawning. Late winter to early spring is also a good time for checking out new waters, as from my experience the fish show themselves a lot more at this time of year, maybe to get rid of any bugs that have attached themselves during the winter. The banks are also a lot less busy at this time of year so you have a good opportunity to find those all-important features.
Once you have selected the water or the fish you plan to target, whether you have fished it before or not, it is worth checking out your tackle to make sure it is suited to the water and the fish. Tackle really does take some heavy punishment over the winter, with mud and grit going into every nook and cranny, freezing temperatures making blanks contract and then expand, alarms getting full of water, and Brollys and Bivvys taking a battering from gale force winds. So it's worth making sure everything is still in working order, as there is nothing worst then turning up to a new water only to find you have to turn back when you get there. I normally check my rods over from the butt to the tips checking the rings are clean and don't have any chips out of the lining. I re-oil my reels and if there are any grating noises coming from them get them striped down and serviced. During winter a lot of anglers scale their tackle down as the water clears, and the fish fight less hard. With spring the fish get a new lease of life and it can be worth upping the strength of your tackle, so put the size 10 hooks an 8lb line away an get the big guns out, size 6 hooks an 12lb line being the norm for most anglers.
As I said earlier the fish start to get on the ‘munch' around this time so its worth getting a good quality bait, and really piling it in. Something like mainline fusion would be well worth a go as it has been used on most waters this year and the fish should have a liking for it. You can start adding the fishmeal back to your bait as the weather warms up, because the fish can digest them and will be using up more energy. However, for your first few trips it may well just be worth fishing single hi-visual baits to see what mood the fish are in. If they haven't switched on there is no point in putting a lot of bait out, as it is only going to rot which certainly isn't a good thing.
• Pile in a good quality food bait, ie high protein balanced fishmeal bait.
• Beef up the gear from winter, so back to 12lb line and size 6 hooks.
• Make sure you tackle is all in order and give it all a good old clean.
• And enjoy just being there watching the world waking up around you.
Those of you, who stick to the old close season or who fish waters where the old close season is still in force, don't fret. You can use these 3 months for baiting up, doing a bit of fish spotting and getting everything sorted for the coming season. I for one will be putting my feet up this spring, as my target water has a close season, but I will be back out in June banking a few whackers! Hopefully…
Spring is one if not the best time to get out and go fishing, with the fish on the munch it is the perfect time to bank a new Personal Best. With a lot of bait and a bit of leg work I am sure some of you are going to take apart waters this spring and I hope this short article helps you along the way. Unfortunately I, like plenty of you won't be getting out this spring but I shall not be wasting my time. I will be baiting for my target fish, and I have a couple of local lakes to check out, one being a old estate lake with a unknown stock and maybe some uncaught cyprinus carpio. Perfect!
