Watercraft
The most important part
of consistently catching big carp is watercraft.
What is it you might ask ? Well you cant buy it!
You have to learn it. Getting to know the waters
you fish is part of watercraft , you might see some
person who always catches the lions share of fish.
Don't look at him and think lucky person (or whatever
?!!?) . For if he is lucky he will have to wait
a long time for more luck. Chances are this person
has experience of the water. You might ask yourself
what advantage this person has over you ? After
all you are both casting a line into the water so
you "must" have an equal chance??????
The thing to remember in any given lake or river
the fish are NOT evenly spread throughout . If you
have ever looked in a fish aquarium you will see
that if there is any kind of feature , the fish
will stay close because they will feel safe . Some
features like fallen trees are obvious places to
fish and well worth a look but these places often
become "fished-out" due to fishing pressure
. Out in a lake there are hundreds of "features
" where the fish feel safe . There are not
many lakes or rivers that have a perfectly uniform
bottom or bank side. So without using diving apparatus
how do we look for these features?
Plumbing
Before fishing anywhere,
always plumb the depth. What does this mean? If
you have a spare rod, set it up with a 2-3 oz lead(sinker)
attached to the line by a free running barrelswivel.
Then put a bead on the line . At the end of the
line tie a large buoyant float (bobber) The lead
is free running on the line until it comes to the
end where the bead and float is, therefore when
you cast this out you wind in until you feel the
float hit the lead on the bottom.
So keeping a fairly tight line , you let out the
line a foot at a time, counting until the float
comes up. For every foot of line you let off the
reel , the float will rise a foot , so its just
a simple case of keeping count of the feet . Set
up your plumbing rod with a piece of tape near the
first eye which measures exactly one foot. So its
just a simple case of loosening the clutch and pulling
off the line to the tape . If you have this set
up correctly it is accurate to at least three inches
(if not more)
Features
and Depth
