River carp

I saw some big carp in the summer when I was zander fishing and am half-tempted to have a go next summer.

This was in the Gt Ouse - anyone ever carp fished it..?

Both fish were very shy and shot off as soon as they saw me. But they were both feeding on discarded bread in the margins, so I reckon they'd be catchable.

Someone had a 22 nearby in a match a few weeks back and there were two 30s caught around the junction of one of the feeder rivers last season.

There are waterbirds everywhere on this bit of the river so floating crust's a no-no.

Is it necessary to bait up with all these boilie things or are there other baits that can pull 'em, like worms etc..?

Would you try to attract 'em to a particular place, or just lurk around until you saw one and try to get a bait to it..?

Carp can travel some huge distances in Large river systems so you need to try & work out if these fish are 'residents' in the area comming back day after day to feed on bread given to the ducks by the public or are nomadic & feeding where they find food on travels up & down the river,
so the more time you can spend watching the river the better.

Do they often hold matches on the part of the river where the 22lb fish was caught? Carp will often move in and clear up the free offerings left over from a days match fishing when its gone quiet & everyones gone home, not every peg produces large numbers of feeding fish over its baits so often there are lots of freebies on the riverbed so it may be worth asking your local club where & when the matches are as some places get matches every few days in the summer & each weekend so the carp get used to the free food.
Also Ask the match fishermen or any other fisher folk you can find when you are out looking if they have seen or caught any carp, local knowledge often helps.

Chris, I had a 23.3 common from the Great Ouse last summer while barbel fishing.

It was a little further upstream from where you fish, I think.

But if you are interested, mail me and I'll give you the details.

Several miles upstream Stew.

Yes, Chris it was. In fact it was that well known and well used phrase 'the Ouse above Bedford' where I caught the carp from....

Neil Wayte is the man for river carp information. I'm sure he'll post when he sees the thread title.

One of the papers said the Ouse upstream of King's Lynn a few weeks back. That made me laugh.

Chris, as Sedge says, Neil Wayte is your man. If you go to the RMC web site you can send him a message direct, he is very very helpful. He even offered to spend a day with me on the Relief Channel to help me out. He goes under the name of Rivercarper on RMC (he has also written some articles on river carping, as has Colin Davidson).

stuart what does RMC mean ??

Hi wendy,RMC- stands for ready mix concrete,
the parent company that own RMC angling they
used to go by the name of leisure sport angling,and were part of the leisure sport,
group,also owned by RMC ltd,when the group was broken up, the angling section run by a chap called ian welch retuned to the control
of the parent co.They're worth checking out,
but i think your up nawf arn't you their
closest waters to you would be in
bedfordshire or hertfordshire,so it might be
to far to be of interest to you.
you can visit their website at;
WWW.RMCANGLING.CO.UK
E-MAIL rmcangling@btconnect.com

Yes i'm up the posh end of the country North West hehehehehe so i agree yes it's too far for me, is this what Malc is involved with ?

I think Malc visits their website, but I think he's too far north for their waters.

I've tickets for some of their waters and I am also a member of their Specimen Hunters Group, aswell as regular visitor to their forums.

Back to the question, have a look at my River Carping article from last year to see if this is of any use.

Some one must have mention my name cos my ears started twitching.
Seriously Chris if you have seen the carp in your area then get some bait in the area where you saw them.It doesn't have to be those boilie things either.Hemp and corn will do because I doubt they are too fussy about what the eat.Chris Curry might disagree with this and I won't argue because he has caught some very impressive river/canal fish this year.
If you can get to the river two or three times the week before you fish and bait up it does help.Most river carp are very nomadic but you can and will hold them in the area with regular baiting.Include some boilies when you bait up if you intend to fish with boilies as bait.I would recomend you do use boilies because it can deter other species from picking up your hook baits but I for one don't mind the Chub,Bream and Barbel.Trout pellets are also worth including because carp do love them.
If possible fish the swim for 24 hours so you can find out when the best feeding spells occur and don't give up if you don't catch first time.River carp fishing can be very frustrating and hard work but the rewards are there.
Read Riks article because it's full of good sound advice and I have done a couple of pieces on the RMC site(rmcangling.co.uk)
Please bear in mind that river carp fight alot harder than any of their still water cousins so tackle up accordingly.
You said you were thinking of fishing for them next summer,why wait.The winter time will give you plenty of chances to catch from the rivers and rivercarp are far more catchable than their still water cousins in winter.You also have the added bonus that the banks are far quieter in winter.
I think ther is an article on Fishingmagic about a trip I had last winter to the Royalty on the Hampshire Avon.It was flooded and we had had some cold weather but on the first ady I had 3 takes landing 2 fish and on the second I had just one chance but landed a 20lb plus common.Super fishing in adverse conditions.
If you ahve any further question plese feel free to email me and I'll try to help.
As for the young lady,Wendy I believe who lives up north,if you live any where near the rivers Weaver or Soar or the Manchester canals then you do not need to travel south to find some good river/canal carping because thes evenues all hod large numbers of carp.
Get out there and catch a few of them.

Please excuse the odd typing error above because it was early in the morning and late into a bottle of brandy.

Hi Neil..... yes i do live up North and i am gonna try out a few different places over the coming weeks i am gonna try the Manchester canal first so i will let you know how i get on thanks )

and keep of that Brandy )

Don't you think Carp do a lot of damage to river Eco systems? Surely a 20lb river Carp must be equivalent to quite a few Bream and Roach. I think they really belong in pools and lakes, the very places they came from. There are some stretches of the Trent which hold some amazing fish 20 -30lb+. They have even made a strong hold of some of the tidal stretches of the Trent. But at what cost to the silver fish? No in some areas they are definitely a pest. I wonder what the EA have to say on the subject.

(Hope we get more woman anglers Wendy)

Exactly where have they made there strong holds ?

*grin*

Edmund i think if more women tried it they would also love it too, i wish i would have tried it 20 yrs ago i love fishing and will sit there in all kinds of weather it's one of the best things in the world for relaxing (well most of the time )

Thanks for that Neil/Rik and all.

The reason I'll leave 'em to summer is too busy chasing pike and zander on the rivers this time of year.

If anyone the Norfolk/Cambs Fens area's interested I can point them at several bits of river/drains where I've seen them over the last couple of years but never bothered to go after them.

Chris take advantage of them now mate because they may not be there in the summer.Being so nomadic they could and probably will be miles away.
Just to keep you interested there have been a couple of confirmed 40,s from the Great Ouse this year.Escapies but they are now in the river.