| Down by the Riverside | |
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UK Carp have managed to catch up with up coming carp arngler 17 year old Max Stenning for his thoughts and tips about fishing some of the uk's top river section, here's what he had to say... I have been river carpin for a few years and it’s taught me a lot. I fish a stretch of the Avon in Warwick, which runs through a park so it can be busy during the day; the river is about 30 and 50 yards wide, between 3-12 foot deep and is mainly a silty bottom, with a few gravel bars and weed beds. The carp average around 10lb, and have been caught up to 36lb, when it comes to how many I don’t have a clue, but between me and a few mates that fish the stretch we have caught over 30 different carp, so I think there are more than 50 carp in that stretch. When it comes to tactics, night fishing is a must when river carpin, due to a lot of river carp are wild so tend to feed at night. Bait preparation is the key to river carpin, if you find out what baits are working and start pre baiting a swim it will give you a much better chance of catching. I tend to go start going down the river near the end of February, and find two places I want to bait up, then over the few weeks and months I will keep dropping in bait over these spots. My school is only down the road so I tend to put a few bags of pellets and particles in my bag and put them straight in after school. The only annoyance is when the river season ends, then I keep trickling the bait in over this time. With baits I keep chopping and changing, but I have found that smelly oily baits work well; this is due to the oils giving of a large sent trail, because of the current in river it is very effective. I like to use bigger boilies on the river to stop nuisance fish, I also use tiger nuts and peperami, and I think peperami is massively under estimated bait. When it comes to rigs most the time I stay simple, the only adjustments I would make to a river fishing rig is use a longer hair rig, usually up to 30cm. I have always caught more carp on the river using longer hair rigs, I think this is down to carp being wary around the lead, also because of strong currents I would use heavier leads that I would on lakes, on average I am using a 3.5 ounce lead.
Some of my best river sessions have happened soon after it reopens in June, this is because it the first bait the carp have seen in months. Last July me and a two of my fishing mates did two nights down the river, to celebrate finishing our exams, it was more of a social that a serious fishing session. As we baited our rods up, we weren’t brimming with confidence as we had put no bait into the swim prior, and there was a camp fire we made next to the swim. We then positioned the rods as the sun was just setting, and we started to relax. Then as night fell the river came alive, and the three of us had a great nights fishing. My morning of day two, it tallied up at 10 carp, 5 chub and 8 bream between us. The biggest of which was a 17lb common caught by my mate Sam. The essentials you need for river fishing compared to lake fishing, first lots of hooks, they can getting damaged very easily with all the debris in the water, second is heavy leads, which is important if u down want you rig going down stream. Be prepared to do nights if you want a good catch, with that bring a sack. Sometime it can be worth stepping up your line to something a bit stronger, I use 12lb of most lakes and 15lb line on the rivers. The most important for me is back leads, with boats going up and down every five minutes, there are a must. If u have any questions for me, or just want to check out more of my catches, take a look at, www.carpcrew.com |
Over the next five or ten Years, Rivers around the UK are only going to get better, and with increasing ticket prices at lakes, I can only see rivers becoming more popular to the average carp angler.