There are always times when you can be sitting behind your carp rods with very little fish activity going on in front of you. It is times like these when it can really pay-off to do what you can to be 100% sure you are fishing in the right place, says Mike Hamer. Carp have a serious habit of moving, whether this is dictated by angling pressure, or simply the weather conditions. During times when activity is at an all-time low in your swim, there are a few little tricks you can employ to get the best out of your session.
Starting in your swim, if very few fish are actually showing or bubbling, then one of the best ways of locating them is to fish extra sensitive alarms where fish brushing the line will soon alert you to their presence.
Teamed with slack lines and light bobbins, line bites can be hugely exaggerated, helping you to read your swim like a book. If the line bites are coming and you are positive fish are in the area, then you can always turn the sensitivity down on the alarms. The ACE i3 Alarms have a roller wheel and a vibration sensor, both of which give the angler multiple sensitivity options.
Some swims can be extremely enclosed, making it almost impossible to see if fish could be topping in other areas of the lake. By using a good reliable remote, it can be a massive advantage to walk to the next swim to get a better vantage point. The ACE i3 Remote fits the bill perfectly, and with a guaranteed 100 metre range, it will give the angler full confidence when their rods are out of site.
Obviously if the next swim is too far away, then leaving your rods is not advised. In this situation, it would be well worth winding your rods in and taking a walk around to see if anything is holding up elsewhere. A good pair of polarising sunglasses will give you a massive advantage when it comes to tracking down fish that may be within plane sight. It can sometimes take a couple of circuits of the venue until you see signs of the fish you are after, but as they say, 10 minutes in the right place is a lot better than a few hours in the wrong place!
Occasionally you will happen across fish that are simply holding up near the surface or feeding right in the margins. In this situation, as long as stalking is allowed it is worth grabbing a rod and targeting these fish in the appropriate manner.
Even though packing up all of your kit only to set it all up again can sometimes feel like a mammoth task, the extra effort can certainly be well worth it.