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River Carp

S

Steven Ballard

Senior Member
Hi all, I have seen a few river during the summer but have not targeted them, if I was to start now, would I be wasting my time throughout the winter?
Cheers
 
The key is finding them, Steve. Once you've done that, it's just getting the bait in. While it's mild, vitalin/hemp as bulk feed and boilies over the top. They're pretty mobile, so be prepared to keep in touch by moving regularly. Keep your eyes open for the feeding bubbles.
 
Sorry to hijack thread but only seen one pic of trent carp and it was a ake escapee according to those in the know on here but can anyone tell me if this is a genuine trent carp or another escapee ?


river carp 13lb 8oz.jpg
 

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Did my fair share a few years back with a brother of mine ,once we found feeding carp they wer,nt too hard too catch ,we used quite crude rigs really nothing special .As Simon mentioned they can be very nomadic so be mobile in your approach only take what you need,and we only fished our area,s if we were confident they were over our pre baied area,s,and believe me river fish can travel.Good luck.
 
Going to give the river carp ago this week after a mate offered me a trip to a prebaited spot. Any ideas on decent rigs helicopter/chod ect shouldn't be to much flow but there will be a bit. I was thinking chods but as I've never really carp fished some advice would be handy.
 
Clive Shipman said:
Going to give the river carp ago this week after a mate offered me a trip to a prebaited spot. Any ideas on decent rigs helicopter/chod ect shouldn't be to much flow but there will be a bit. I was thinking chods but as I've never really carp fished some advice would be handy.
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For short range fishing, and an underarm lobbed cast, I don't thing you can go wrong with a non tangling heli rig. I add a coated braid hooklink, not too short, and small gripper lead.

I wouldn't recommend this for fishing an upstream style though. The bolt effect may be lost with the fish dislodging the top safety bead on the initial downstream run, resulting in a poor hook hold.

When the water temperature drop to 4/5 deg, and the nuisence species have gone, consider using maggots - River Carp love 'em ;)
 
I've done a bit of river carping and have yet to stray from a simple running rig with a shortish 10" hooklink - this is on a shallow river where i can get the line decked simply by keeping the rod tip low and letting out a little slack. Bait wise - over 90% of my river carp have been caught on lumps of luncheon meat. I haven't got the time to bait areas up so try to locate the fish then stick an easy to spot morsel infront of them - meat stands out like a sore thumb and once they've spotted it they usually take it. I've had a few on bright pastes - Nash amber strawberry ( white ) and pineapple ( yellow ) worked ok but meat seems to be the winner. Back in the days when i used to fish the Trent i only picked up 4 Carp in 7 years barbel fishing - all came to meat baits. Come to think of it - i've yet to catch a carp while barbel fishing on my current river using pellets or boilies - yet i've had dozens while deliberately targetting them with meat!
 
Cheers guys simple it is.
 
Indeed keep it simple. Respectfully, if you haven't had much experience tying rigs like the chod, don't try and use it first time out, as they need to made right. That said, on running water it would be pointless anyway :)
The WBC lads do lots of river carping on the Thames. Winter is clearly harder but they still do feed, to a lesser extent, but that makes them still catchable ;)

Good luck

Ian
 
Maize flavoured with vanilla has worked best for me over here. Slacks at the edge of the main current seems to be the hot spots. I don't bother with much groundbait, just enough to carry some hookbait samples and drift a cloud of scent downstream.

I agree that simple rigs are best. Sometimes laying on with a stick float is all that is needed. I'd never use a bolt rig.
 
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