River Carping

Now lads, the rivers in sections hold hidden giants, some are escapees from the big pits and some will be their progeny or true wild fish naturally stocked. The Trent, Great Ouse and the Nene and Cam, have large heads of this hidden gold, the Severn also contains big fish in its tidal reaches according to some well informed sources. How do we go about extracting these gems from the a said venues, nomadic giants, seasonally visiting certain areas with stocks changing periodically due to floods and open lock gates. This is my method for the Nene. Seasonally, it definitely changes, so lets start with winter, anywhere where fish have been sighted or match reports of carp snapping anglers up during the warmer months, then pick areas of low flow, backstreams, warm water outfalls like sewer run offs and you wont be far off, snags and structures, motorway bridges, marinas and the like.
Spring yeah, the fish waking from torpidity and putting on weight to spawn, plenty of rock salt in your prebait, in my case always sweetcorn, the best place to look is in areas of high oxygen, the fish tend to head for the highest point upstream that they can access, lock gates, inlet streams, warm water outlets, similar to the spawning habits of Salmon.
Summer, forget it, the natural food existing in the weed makes it not wort the effort, if you do fancy it, drag out the weed every two days and prebait for all you are worth, fortunately location is easy if you fancy strolling the banks at first light, so its not all bad.
Autumn, its playtime folks, the fish migrate back to the furthest point away from the flow, the second lock gate on an enclosed stretch over several miles, probably the increased flow and slightly warmer water or the delivery of suspended food particles, bear in mind the insect life is diminishing and the fish are putting on weight to survive the winter, fill your boots.

River Trent--- carp fished it seriously for ten years on and off. Good results anytime, summer or winter.
locks, weirs, inside deep water bends, in the often shallow quite water in the lee of a bend, bridge supports, deep water boat channels, underwater feutures like deep holes, rises the run transverse to the currant , openings into other waterways like river mouths, canals, lakes, boatyards and even the most uninteresting straight bit of river and not forgetting the now rare power station warm water outlet---- fished em all and caught from them all.
I particularly enjoyed fishing in a big tidal section flood, I once took a low twenty with almost two foot of snowmelt in the river that had risen almost fifteen feet on account of it, my pik of it shows me kneeling in snow--- I was near frozen but had a big cheesy grin on my face.
best winter catch number wise was some fourteen fish if memory serves me right. I later (mid nineties) started on a very deserted river after barbel and one week had twenty one barbel and (by then) thirteen nuisance commons to just under nineteen pounds on an avon rod---- great fun but these days there are not so many around.

Magic , mate, good on yer, any reason why they are not still there.

flightliner said:

River Trent--- carp fished it seriously for ten years on and off. Good results anytime, summer or winter.
locks, weirs, inside deep water bends, in the often shallow quite water in the lee of a bend, bridge supports, deep water boat channels, underwater feutures like deep holes, rises the run transverse to the currant , openings into other waterways like river mouths, canals, lakes, boatyards and even the most uninteresting straight bit of river and not forgetting the now rare power station warm water outlet---- fished em all and caught from them all.
I particularly enjoyed fishing in a big tidal section flood, I once took a low twenty with almost two foot of snowmelt in the river that had risen almost fifteen feet on account of it, my pik of it shows me kneeling in snow--- I was near frozen but had a big cheesy grin on my face.
best winter catch number wise was some fourteen fish if memory serves me right. I later (mid nineties) started on a very deserted river after barbel and one week had twenty one barbel and (by then) thirteen nuisance commons to just under nineteen pounds on an avon rod---- great fun but these days there are not so many around.

Click to expand...

Remember that piece of the tidal you told me about in a pm flight? next stretch to that is Carp fished by 2 lads that have been doing very well if the photographs I was shown are anything to go by. Perhaps the Carp have moved with changes in the river?

River carping is the only branch of carp fishing that gives me a buzz when I think about it, I don't know why it just does.

I did do some preliminaries after accidentally stumbling across a few the season before last where I observed a couple of small shoals but never got around to targeting 'em.

Maybe next year...

Wanderer, not sure why the decline in numbers, maybe just one of those cyclical things that occur from time to time.
There are still plenty around but certainly not anywhere near the numbers that were about in the eighties/early nineties.
I do know an area tho that can turn a few up anytime-- often within seconds of dropping a bait in the water.
Its just become very very private but I,ve found a way to access it quite legitimately.

Crow- thats interesting hearing that, not too surprised tho,


Binka, your right, towards the end of my carp fishing days the river was the only water that I really enjoyed with the exception of one of your waters where I was guested. ------ Crow-----Crooooowwwww--- heel, down boy!! Lol.