What subtle signs should you be taking note of?
The biggest names in carp fishing pick Terry Hearn's brain - this time, Lewis Read asks the questions...
Lewis Read asks...
“What is the most subtle sign you take note of - i.e. sporadic single bubbles or slight tinge to the water in a section of an otherwise clear water venue?”
“I guess a lot of this depends on the type of water that I’m fishing, as well as the time of the year. For instance, I’ve been fishing a very difficult pool on and off for the past couple of years which really is about as hard as it gets. I’ve not had a take yet, which to be fair doesn’t mean a lot as it only contains two carp! It suffers from very poor water quality for much of the year due to duckweed which takes over and covers the entire surface, blocking out the light and killing off any proper subsurface growing weed such as Canadian etc. What I’m getting at is this, not a lot goes on at this water. I can do night after night and not see anything at all. No small fish dimpling the surface, no bubbling, nothing. It’s a very tricky water to fish and there is very little else in the pool apart from one or two small pike and the odd eel, but that’s about it.
“When the duckweed is covering the surface, if you do get a bit of a swirl or a boil from a carp then all you see is a hole open up in the duckweed before quickly closing again. If I see that happen, I know exactly what it is, a carp, and more often than not, it’s the big one. If that lake held a hundred carp then such a small sign wouldn’t mean a lot, but as it only contains two, that small sign means the world.
“The same applies on a heavily stocked lake, but how much notice you take of a sign will vary greatly from summer to winter. In the summer months you won’t take too much notice of a small area of coloured water or a little bit of bubbling, especially when they are crashing out all over the place elsewhere, but in the winter, when times are tough, you’d be more likely to take notice of the smallest of signs.”
