Carpfishing in Canada
Stalking carp
This is one of the most exciting & electrifying ways to fish for carp. Basically what you do is travel light with a shortish rod & an assortment of different rigs & bait. The carp you will see ,either on the surface or lying below it , or you could fish for carp feeding on the bottom. It is a good way to fish for spread out fish because you don't have to rely on carp finding your bed of groundbait , instead ,you will find the fish. You need a good pair of polarising lenses, maybe a pair of binoculars, & the secret is to travel light & adapt to the fish you see on your travels. What makes it so heart thumping is that often you will SEE the carp swim up to your bait. You will often see them ignore your hookbait too, & you will soon realise why the big fish are often not caught!
With this method, it helps if you have a good idea where to look! & this joins with something called watercraft. You will eventually be able to get a 'feel' of the whereabouts of carp. This is influenced by weather & especially temperature & available cover. In hot sunshine for example, in a shallow lake , you could expect to find carp sheltering beneath lily pads , June onwards, any time after midday. They wont be easy to temp but there are often some that are catchable in these conditions. If hot & steady conditions prevail for long periods, it will pay to look in areas where oxygen is higher,or where temperature is likely to be lower, often fish will feed during the night in these conditions or early morning. This is often the coolest time of the day & the carp will be inclined to feed at this time. Look in the 'Where to find carp' (below) section for some more information.
Once you have located them, from signs which may include bubbling fish, fish jumping or basking. Or on occasion you may see the feeding 'cloud' or 'smokescreen' in the water, then you will have to be REALLY stealthy in approaching them. Carp are one of the most aware of creatures in the water,& lots of times they will see you first! However with some practice it can be done, it helps to keep as low as you can , move slowly & keep behind cover if available, (or make your own) dont make any vibrations. Once you have got within casting distance, what then ? Well the best thing to do is try to get a feeding reaction from the fish. If you are lucky it might be possible to select one of the bigger fish. Put in a few free offerings, but not TOO close. If you do it's bound to scare off the fish. If things are going to plan, within a farly short while the fish will detect your baits. Of course your hookbait will have been cast amongst the free offerings & if you have rigged up correctly it will behave as near as possible to how the freebies do. It will look or float the same way & it should behave similarly when disturbed in the water. Most times you wont be using a bolt rig because you will be on the rod to strike the fish. Also you dont want the rig to unneccesarily scare the fish so try & keep it lightweight. This way even if you mis-cast there is a good chance the fish will not be scared off. Eventually a fish will find your bait, you may actually SEE it suck in your bait. DONT strike too quick, when surface fishing, wait untill the fish turns down, or untill the line moves along the surface. it is so easy to pull the hook right out of a taking (sampling) fishes mouth !
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