margin tactics

I,m off to Cottington Lakes in Deal on Friday night.

I want to give margin fishing a bash.

Any advice /tactics please.

margin fishing is only worthwhile if you and those fishing around you are quiet.

Tactics aren't that different from normal fishing, although you can fish lighter, with slack lines, lighter indicators and bait up more acuurately.

Pick viable spots, that you think the fish will visit and keep the rod tops back from the edge.

good luck.

thanks for that, but what do you mean by slack lines? how does this affect the way i set up my swingers and stuff?

It's been many years since I have margin fished for carp, and I mean many years. But I've caught some of the biggest carp in my life this way. Not in this country either, but carp are carp and what I found out may benefit you.

Big Rik is dead right about solutude and quietness. If there are people walking around and making a noise, forget it. I used to margin fish a lake of about 3 acres with a dam wall at one end. I was the only person allowed to fish there and this arrangement lasted for 3 years until the owner sold the property.

First thing, fish into the wind. You want the wind lapping at your feet as it were.

Secondly, keep out of sight and keep low. In those days I didn't possess bite alarms. I just put the rod in two rests with a coil of silver paper from a cigarette packet around the line between but ring and reel.

All I used for bait was either sweetcorn or bread. Sometimes the bread was fished as crust, floating. Sometimes it was fished as flake - sunk. The owner used to feed the ducks with bread.

Now here is something you may not believe but the owner did not scare the carp at all. I reckon those carp would have taken bread out of her hand. I scared them though.

The remnants of the floating bread used to float down to the downwind shore of the lake, and thats where I fished for the big carp. There were about 6 carp in there over 30 lbs. I caught two of them twice in the 3 years I fished there.

Taking the crust off the surface was the most exciting part of this sort of fishing - right under your rod point with the crust on the hook being located right at the edge of the bank.

Another surprising thing that people will not beleieve is that the carp ALWAYS patrolled the margins in a anti-clockwise direction.

This was the Southern Hemisphere of course. Many people tell me that carp in England patrol in a clockwise direction.

I do seem to remember that this was the case in the 60s when I fished for carp here.

I would love to fish for carp like this again, but I fear on most waters these days, there are just too many other anglers around to make it possible.

Come to think of it I should have done a Chris Yates, but instead of dressing up like a scarecrow, I should have appeared on the side of the water in drag!!

Margin fishing is the original method for catching carp of course, providing its your own margin you are fishing and not the guys opposite of course. However, dispite popular believe, you can catch margin carp from crowded day ticket margins, but generally peace and quiet margins are preferable

By the way mate, a friend of mine caught a huge carp, a fish of 45lbs from one of the Joburg park lakes on floating breadcrust ca 1971.

He was standing in the middle of a crowd of people feeding the ducks and dropped the crust on the water when the big carp appeared.

If anyone can get hold of a first edition of Confessions of a Carp Fisher by BB, there is a piece about a certain Flt. Lt. Burton who caught carp from a stillwater near Capetown called Florida Lake.

He used floating crust.

Wot Rik said. And keep an eye on the wind. Fish with it blowing into your swim as it will carry all sorts of food with it. Don't be afraid to fish pop-ups on the surface or fake corn and don't cast out too far -literally 1 inch out will do provided there is enough depth for them to be able to get at it. The carp expect to find bait that anglers chuck in but not to be fished for in those spots so they can often be more confident. I've watched them literally try to bank themselves to get at pieces of crust that have been carried by the wind & current almost on to dry land.

cottingtons a small lake, so even if you fish "at range" its still margin fishing!

Although I dont specialise in carp fishing nowadays, when I go to any water holding carp ,I plumb up, find the first drop off or bottom of the first shelf, and always feed a pint of hemp, corn, pellet and cubes of meat. Whilst fishing further out I continue to feed little and often the close in swim.
Whilst fishing on a far line I continue to feed the inside, little and often, keeping some bait going through the water all the time. Most species will cruise the margins and I find that you can hold them for some time.
I usually have a look on the inside for five minutes in every twenty If the fish are there they will soon let you know.

Cheers guys , most helpfull.

I have a southerly wing blowing at around 13 mph forcast, so I will try to select a swim that faces it.

I will stick to my guns and give it a bash.

I have the Matrix boilies made specially for me by Premier baits in Ramsgate, so will give them a bash,as well as a few particles, I want to try, sweet corn. lob worm and a few pellets and hemp.

I am determin to give this margin tenique a go.

Thanks a lot , I will keep you posted and let you know how I get on when I get home Saturday night.

Cheers.

lots of prems stuff gets used on there, check with camo to see whats what


how about stonar? or fordwich if you fancy more of a challenge....

I used to margin fish a water for the carp on a regular basis, it was a heavily fished pleasure lake. But as usual when the day lads go home they tip their maggots into the margins. The carp know this and come into the margins at about 8p.m. as regular as clockwork.
This was in about ten inches of water, I freelined a piece of meat which was cast about 2ft from the bank. It was the easiest and most enjoyable carp fishing I have ever done, but you do have to be still and quite.
They also swam in an anti clockwise direction. First off you would see the dorsal fins comeing in your direction, make all your movements slow and easy.

When I returned from SA in '94, I got into the habit of spending my evenings at a still water just north of Sheffield. It contained about 30 carp from about 11 lbs to just short of 30 lbs.

Like Baz says most of the other anglers used to chuck what was left of their maggots and other bait into tne margins when they left at about 7-30.

I caught a nice 18 pounder there one evening on a huge bunch of maggots on a 8 hook. Right in the edge.

It was the last carp I ever caught in the margins.

like most carp anglers they think that they must cast there bait as far as they can.if only they took the time to watch the water,over the years i can say that 90/percent of the carp i have had were cought close in.the feeling you get never goes away.asmall float thats it,this is the way i intend to fish this year ,hope you all do well,

I once fished a very small water close in.
There was a deep hole just under the branches of a tree.
Johnny knowall or the white wellie man as he was better known came along and said you won't get owt there lad.
No sooner had he said it than I hooked into a carp of about six pounds.
Whenever I went to this water after that, guess who was on the peg? And you couldn't get him off it.

do i know him baz haaaaaaaaa

No mate, but B....r and P.g L.g have been on there. (o
Black Duck Pit.
That was the original Lake Fiddlemore. I'm not joking either mate.
This is where I first started bailiffing but they got rid of me because I was catching too many of the committeee out.

my best days carp fishing ( and i'm not an out and out carper ) was a small lake just above Ringwood where i caught 4 double figure carp in 2 hours fishing just 3 foot out , freelining luncheon meat with just a twig for indication...stealth is the name of the game

PAUL C spot on mate beats sitting behind the rods all day,nice one,