Hi Fm, I wonder if anyone could give me a little advise.

For the last few weekends I have been fishing a lake with crystal clear water and a good dose of weed and am finding it hard to catch the Carp. Now, I can see the Carp and plenty of them. I can sit in my peg and feed the margins lightly with bread, corn etc and the fish will come right in close and literally watch me throw the bait in awaiting to eat it up as it falls through the water and off the bottom, but as soon as I chuck in a bit of bait with a line and hook the carp know it and their faces seem to me as if they are laughing at me.

 I have tried hiding behind bushes and all sorts but as of yet no luck.

What I am wondering now is, how can I improve the look of my hook length so fish can't see it or what should I be using in crystal clear water? I plan to go again the weekend rain or shine and try to camouflage my hook length with a stick or some weed or something, I don't know, I must try something else to fool the fish, I wont give up.

I can pull out Tench, Bream, Roach and nice Perch with little problem but the Carp, well they have me beat for now.

For the Carp, I am using 10lb mainline with 12 inch of 8lb braid and running ledger of about 1/2oz on the mainline and tried various hook size. I'm starting to wonder about using fixed ledger and backlead?? I have never used backlead before so am a bit unsure about this and their operation.

How would you tackle crystal clear water and smart carp?

Thanks for any words of wisdom

why on earth are you using leger tactics when you can see carp intercepting loose feed?  you need a light float set up beefy match rod and if they are so close in you can see them, feed away from you at an angle down wind or tow[current].

a small 2bbcrystal waggler 4lb line 2no 8 shot for a slow fall and constant drip feed should improve your chances.

Thanks for that Frothey, I will certainly give it a shot as a base to start from, I have never used lead above 3/4 oz so will grab a selection before Saturday.

slime monster, thanks for your time for reply. By heart I am a float fisherman, 90% of my fishing is float rather than ledger but the fish seem to be really smart here. The first time I went I used a tiny waggler about an inch and a half long 5lb line and a small handfull of no 8s, the fish showed allot of interest but as they got close, well I think they just kind of knew it was a trap so left it alone. I guess it could of just been the wrong day maybe I'm not sure. The reason I tried ledger tactic is because float wasn't working for me. I tried up the lake and let the tow pull the float down lake and also tried static down lake as if to say. I also switched to ledger with the intent of camouflaging hooklength with debris from bottom of lake so it looked kinda natural..

I'm getting closer to catching them, I just need to find a bit of perfection somewhere, the battle continues.

martin73 wrote (see)

Hi Fm, I wonder if anyone could give me a little advise.

For the last few weekends I have been fishing a lake with crystal clear water and a good dose of weed and am finding it hard to catch the Carp. Now, I can see the Carp and plenty of them. I can sit in my peg and feed the margins lightly with bread, corn etc and the fish will come right in close and literally watch me throw the bait in awaiting to eat it up as it falls through the water and off the bottom, but as soon as I chuck in a bit of bait with a line and hook the carp know it and their faces seem to me as if they are laughing at me.

 I have tried hiding behind bushes and all sorts but as of yet no luck.

What I am wondering now is, how can I improve the look of my hook length so fish can't see it or what should I be using in crystal clear water? I plan to go again the weekend rain or shine and try to camouflage my hook length with a stick or some weed or something, I don't know, I must try something else to fool the fish, I wont give up.

I can pull out Tench, Bream, Roach and nice Perch with little problem but the Carp, well they have me beat for now.

For the Carp, I am using 10lb mainline with 12 inch of 8lb braid and running ledger of about 1/2oz on the mainline and tried various hook size. I'm starting to wonder about using fixed ledger and backlead?? I have never used backlead before so am a bit unsure about this and their operation.

How would you tackle crystal clear water and smart carp?

Thanks for any words of wisdom

fish for something else

no seriously can you night fish the place

if its close in try freelining a big lobworm

how big are the carp martin? if they arent above low/mid doubles drop the lead size a bit.

the other alternative is to feed a sloppy groundbait mix in to cloud the water up = the carp are likely to be attracted to this too. if you can stir the bottom up by wading or with a pole, all the better.....

Is the margin bottom silt ? You could bury your line in that, and if using a lead, plug that into the bottom .The resistance would create a similar effect to using a heavy lead and aid self-hooking properties. Then as Frothey says, bait over it and await.

Hold onto your rod mind and set the clutch/baitrunner lightly.Try not to have the rod tip poking out over the edge,they're cautious buggers.