Do carp always spook off lines?

“Carp and lines are a bit like you walking into a room with the lights off and hitting your head on the door. If the fish can see it they can move round it but if they hit it they will spook more”

I’m sorry but I don’t believe that for one moment! I accept the principal, but the reality is often very different and yet again it’s an example of something someone once came up that sounded quite plausible, which has become accepted as reality without question.

Fact one: carp don’t like line, whether they can see it or not. Watch them swimming down the edge in front of your rods and if they see your line sometimes they speed up and whiz past it, or other times they will actually turn around and go back. I’ve seen it hundreds of times over the years of running the British Carp Championships as to how lines affect the way fish move. I’ve also seen them underwater avoiding lines and I genuinely feel that if the fish touch the line they are not aware of they are not really bothered by it. The majority of time though they will know it’s there as they can see it.

Slack lines, fluorocarbon and matching the colours of the bottom or the water around are all good ways of disguising the line and it does make a difference, but remember fluorocarbon is not invisible all the time. If you can get it down hard on a clean bottom then it will disappear almost completely. However, once up in the water it does carry light, which can make it stand out. If in doubt, use a leader of fluorocarbon when you are sure the line is on or very near to the bottom. If it’s above the eye line of the carp, use a standard line of a similar colour to the water (which will be green by the way!).

The other big issue that you need to be looking out for is debris on the line. Lakes are full of aquatic dust and it sticks to the line something chronic. It can be a matter of hours or a matter of minutes even, but it does pay to keep an eye on the state of your main lines and at least give them a wipe then you reel them in. It’s generally much worse towards the surface as lighter bits travel more and get picked up by the line more, but it still happens down below as you can see from the picture.