Should you cast to showing fish?
On my lake the carp like to show themselves, but I’m never sure whether it’s worth reeling in and having a cast at it. When is it worth having a cast?
Says Robbie Fielding: “If you have just turned up or you are already set-up on your water, try to quickly establish the area in which the carp are mainly showing and move as near to it as possible. This allows you to make the shortest cast possible, which will not only allow you to control the cast better, hopefully meaning fewer casts to get your hookbaits in position, but also means less line in the water – hopefully less likely to spook the fish out of the area.
“Try to use the landscape sight markers such as trees or pylons to line up where the fish have shown and make a mental note. If you know the water then you will already have the right rigs ready-to-go and know what features you’re casting to.
“I would recommend keeping the rig simple, so if you are using a bottom bait, attach a small Fishnet PVA bag of broken boilies or a stringer of halved baits on the ever reliable G-string PVA. By breaking the baits you allow the attractors to flood out the freebies next to the hook helping the carp home in on the hookbait.
“If you are not sure of the lake’s make-up it’s worth having three Choddies tied up ready to cast. As soon as you see a carp show try to cast your baited rig first time into or as near to the rings as possible, feeling the lead down and hopefully getting a slight ‘DONK’. By repeating this with two/three rods you are making sure you have your traps set in the zone and this will often result in a bite.”
