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Join Jan as he visits a typical commercial fishery armed with pole tackle to show how easy it is to put a bag of carp together.
There are thousands of commercial fisheries countrywide. Some, like Drayton Reservoir and BWB Makin Fisheries, are very famous waters that are heavily match-fished by some of the country’s finest anglers, while other commercials are simply single lakes tucked away in the countryside.
For this session I visited Manor Farm Leisure, in Harvington, just north of Evesham. Here, like most commercial waters, carp are the main quarry. I came armed with pole tackle - a long pole and a shorter margin pole - and some very cheap bait that everyone can master… bread.
What is a commercial water?
Basically commercial waters are lakes that have either been created by humans or have been altered by humans, then they are available to fish via a day-ticket. The fish stocked in commercials tend to consist mainly of carp, plus other species in most cases. They offer easy access, comfortable swims and the chance of some extraordinary catches. Commercial waters are now by far the nation's favourite venues for one main reason and that is they offer a high chance of catching quality fish, plus they make superb match waters where most swims are similar and therefore fair.
This commercial water, Manor Farm Leisure, is fairly representative of most around the country. The depth is pretty consistent in the middle, plus there are shallower shelves in the margins in every swim. Both these areas give the angler plenty of options to catch fish depending upon the air and water temperature. In constant cold weather the fish will tuck themselves away in the deeper water, while during hot spells there's a very chance of catching decent-sized carp from the perimeter ledges where the water may only be inches deep.
The right pole tackle
If you, like me, are targeting carp then you simply must come armed with the appropriate tackle to not only hook them, but to land them too. After all, that's why you've taken the day off to go fishing.
I brought two poles with me today: a 12.5m Shimano Technium XT Competition and an 8.5m Shimano Beast Master Margin. Both these poles are super strong and ideal for battling with quality carp.
The Technium XT features a special short number five section. This replaces the normal-length fifth section and when in use you'll find that the pole becomes noticeably stiffer, stronger, lighter and therefore more responsive. I used the pole with this section in place even though I lost half-a-metre off the pole's length.
Your elastic needs to be strong too. I threaded my Technium pole with No12 elastic as I fished this pole in open water where there are no snags to deal with, while the Beast Master has the new breed of hollow elastic threaded through it. This amazing elastic offers the strength to land big carp, but it's also flexible enough to stretch under the weight of a small fish, giving you the chance to land everything that you hook.
Pole rigs also need to be robust too. There really is no point in fishing fine, as you would when tackling roach or skimmer bream, as the carp will snap your rig every time. You need to use sturdy mainlines and hooklengths, minimum of around 0.14mm (around 4lb).
Hooks also need to be strong. Normal match hooks will straighten under the pressure of a carp fight, so opt to use a reliable, thick gauge pattern that won't let you down. I use Mustad Stillwater Power Carp or Stillwater Power Barbless or Kamasan's B611 or Animal Barbless hooks nowadays. They are all ultra sharp and very strong.
My swim
I chose to fish from a point here at Manor Farm Leisure. In doing so I could fish to my left, directly in front of me and to my right. And fishing a point swim gives me confidence as fish are bound to work their way around the point, allowing me the time to ambush them as they swim past.
Other great swims worth trying are those with weed or lilies in the margins as carp will use them as cover. Swims having steep ledges are also worth trying as food gathers at the base of the steep drop-off, and swims having far bank features that are within easy reach of your pole are also well worth a look.
Plumbing the depth
Vitally important! You must spend time finding the depth, looking for any ledges, shallows, drop-offs and deep areas. Fish blind and you'll only reduce your chances of catching, so attach your rig, clip on a plummet, guess the depth and slide the pole float up to it and then ship out your pole. Gently lower the plummet in the water to find the depth all around your swim - and that includes the margins too.
I found two ledges running around the margins. One was very shallow at between 18 inches and 2ft, while the second was a little deeper. I had a steady depth from the base of the second ledge in open water.
So, I set up my margin rig to tackle the second ledge, and rigged up my Technium pole to fish at full depth in open water, around 6ft deep. My rigs were really very straightforward. The margin rig featured a short, dumpy in-line dibber float. This style of float, as it's so short, won't spook the fish in shallow water, plus as the mainline runs through the float body there's no chance that the balsa body will be cut open by the tightened mainline. The mainline for this rig was 6lb Exage, while the hooklength was made up of 4lb Silk Shock.
My rig for fishing in open water featured a slender cane-tipped pole float securely attached to the 0.16mm Silk Shock mainline using three tiny strips of silicone tubing. Down the line I gently squeezed four No12 styls equally spaced and attached a short 0.14mm diameter Silk Shock hooklength. I was now ready for action.
Use these baits effectively and you could batch a bumper weight...
Sweetcorn
This is a great year-round bait; by far the best carp bait in winter. They can be side hooked or hair-rigged and are loved by carp of all sizes. Sweetcorn takes on boars colour and flavour very easily, particularly if it is frozen overnight.
Pellets
These make great loosefeed and hook bait. Available in a vast array of sizes, pellets can be sprayed via a catapult or cupped in. Hard pellets can be hair-rigged by drilling them, or soft expander pellets can be placed directly on to the hook.
Paste
This can be a deadly bait in warm water. The softer the paste the better, but this leads to a problem in that it's difficult to ship out or cast, so take care! Paste is best presented overdepth under a completely static rig. Most pastes are made from powder and water.
Maggots
On fisheries where there are no other species apart from carp, maggots can be brilliant. They need feeding heavily and regularly to entice the carp to feed competitively in mid-water. Red maggots are the best for carp.
Meat
Again, another great loosefeed and hook bait. Thin slices of meat can be pushed through a riddle to create fine chunks for feeding, while cubes or torn pieces are perfect for the hook. Meat can be coloured and flavoured easily.
Casters
Like maggots, if there are no other smaller species present in your chosen lake, casters can prove deadly. Carp of all sizes love crunching on these small, crispy shells. They do not overfeed the fish, so therefore casters make a great cold water bait.
Feeding the swim
The next important step to commercial carp success is to feed the swim. Putting your feed in the right place is vitally important, and to feed a tight area is important too as this helps concentrate the fish. To do this successfully use a pole cup. I use a Seymo swinging pole cup. This attaches to a spare top section and hangs down neatly. As it swings under the pole tip there's very little chance of it up-ending and spilling the contents in the wrong place.
My main line of attack today revolved around bread. This is a great carp bait and a very versatile one too. I had already prepared some bread feed the night before by cutting off the crust, liquidising the inner white of the loaf and running the crumbs through a pinkie riddle. This was to be my initial feed for attracting the carp as the tiny particles will cloud the water, draw the fish in but won't feed them.
I also liquidised more bread with the crusts left on and didn't riddle it. This higher food content feed was to be used for topping up the swims when the carp arrived.
My hook bait
As I was feeding bread, I chose bread to use on the hook. Rather than tear off a piece and fold it around the hook shank I used a large bread punch to create cylindrical pellets of bread that can simply be slipped on to the hook. When immersed, these pellets swell up to twice their size, helping to hide most of the hook.
I also brought an additive that I regularly use that really helps spice-up my bread hook bait - Bovril. This strong-smelling yeast extract is superb in that it can be smeared on almost any bait, making it a lot more attractive to the carp. As the day went on I experimented with the Bovril by smearing some bread pellets with it and folding the pellet over. After squeezing it and moulding it I created a soft bread/Bovril paste that could be wrapped around the hook easily. This, like the standard bread pellets proved the downfall of some nice, plump match-sized carp.
Playing carp on pole tackle
My best advice here is no take your time; don't bully the fish or you'll face a line breakage. Once you hit a bite, play the fish steadily, ensuring there is ample elastic coming out of the pole, but don't rush things. Let the carp plod around in open water and simply 'walk it back' to the bank by gently shipping back the pole, keeping the elastic tight. Gauge the weight of the fish and break the pole down at the relevant section baring in mind that your elastic may have stretched three metres or more once you lift the pole tip high to slip the fish over the landing net.
Carp will swim off in the opposite direction to the way you pull the pole, so when fishing tight to the margins strike either upwards or towards the bank then the fish will immediately shoot off towards open water leaving you free to play it in a snag-free environment.
This article appeared in the September issue of Improve Your Coarse Fishing and reproduced with their permission
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