Winter Commercial Tactics - Part 1

Andy Neal shares a few tricks that have improved his winter catches on commercial fisheries

In the first article in the series, Andy Neal explains why you shouldn't ignore the margins, even when the mercury is dropping.

In this mini-series I have returned to Viaduct Fishery, in Somerset, to talk about and hopefully uncover some ‘new’ methods that will catch you more carp this winter.

Commercials in winter are very different animals compared with summertime, when the fish are feeding freely and can be relatively easy to catch at times. In winter the fish are lethargic, they only feed on their terms and the colder they get the more they shoal up, so locating them becomes harder. In this article I want to talk about trying to stack the odds in your favour to maximise your chances of catching, and winning.

In my opinion winter doesn’t have to be a chuck-it-and-chance-it time of the year, as a bit of thought and perseverance can lead to some great sport, and big catches too. Tackle and tactics do have to change if you’re going to maximise your chances but before we talk about that I’d like to mention the thought processes that should be going through your mind at this time of year. The weather plays a massive part in how fish behave and where they are in the venue, more so in fact than any of us may realise. With this in mind I always pay attention to the weather in the days leading up to a match because as well as wind strength and direction, temperature and rain, there is one other important factor to consider – air pressure!

Air pressure plays a massive role as it tells me where in the water column the fish want to be. In times of high pressure the fish prefer shallower water or the upper layers of water; low pressure and the fish will be happier nearer the bottom. There is obviously a lot of science behind it but the best explanation I’ve heard came from Keith Arthur some time ago. Basically, with high pressure there is a greater downward force on the water and everything in it. This in turn pushes everything down, and as the depth increases so does the downward force. This is why when you go to your lake after a night of high pressure and cold frost with clear skies you’ll hear the comment “the colour has dropped out overnight.” Basically, the silt particles have been forced down to the bottom by the increased pressure, resulting in a clearer lake. The fish then prefer the upper layers of water as there is less downward force on them than there would be nearer the lake bed. Low pressure is exactly as it says; lower pressure results in less downward force on the water, thus letting the silt particles suspend more naturally as there is less force pushing down, hence more colour in the water. This also affects the fish as they are happy to feed on or near the bottom because they feel comfortable being there. As you can see I’m no scientist (!) but countless days of fishing while monitoring this have confirmed this to be true; think about your own fishing situations and you see how affected the fish are by this.

Reading the weather and studying the lake before the match is very important in winter. I came here a couple of weeks ago on a typical early winter’s day and won a match with a staggering 213lb. In total I ‘only’ had 16 fish, of which three were 7lb and 20lb 6oz was my biggest! I think part of the reason I caught what I did was down to observing the situation I was in (that and drawing on a boatload).

Before the match I walked around the lake to see what the fish were doing, and with it being such a mild winter’s day with high pressure I fully expected to see some fish shallow. Now, while there were a few fish showing the one thing that struck me was there were no fish blowing. Not a single bubble to be seen, which was very strange for the venue. As I watched, a fish moved in the margins to my right, then looking down the lake another fish showed close in. Walking around the complex the only fish I saw moving were all in the margins, with just the very odd one in open water.

At the draw I picked out Peg 88 on Cary Lake, and to say I had mixed emotions was an understatement – let’s just say I’ve been to the Des Shipp school of moaning! I didn’t really fancy it as a) it fishes much better with a big wind on, and b) I really wanted to fish for silvers as the skimmer sport at Viaduct is unreal. Anyway, I went to my peg knowing I had to fish for carp because there were a few in the area. Sitting at my peg I looked down a rather inviting margin, and I set up a waggler and a longpole line to use while I primed my edge swim. Everything I had seen was telling me the best way of catching a bag of fish would be down the edge in the shallower water. The air pressure was high, it was warm (for winter anyway) there were no fish moving or feeding in the open water and every fish I had seen had been in the edge. As per usual rigs and tackle were kept as simple as possible – two 13ft waggler rods, 4lb main line down to a hooklength of 0.16mm prototype line and a size 16 Fox Series 2 finished with a hair-rigged band for pulling into the meat. The pole rigs on my Frenzee P1 666 pole had 0.2g and 0.5g Frenzee FP100 floats, again on the new line, this time in 0.18mm to a 0.16mm hook length and finished with a size 2 Tubertini 175 hook.

Shotting patterns were kept super simple with a spread bulk 12 inches from the hook on the long-pole line and a straight bulk 15 inches from the hook for the edge rig. I like to have a bit of a drop from my bulk when fishing meat in the edge as it falls slowly through the water and acts more naturally, rather than having shot pulling it down. Elastics were Fox orange hollow 10-12 for open water and the heavier 14-16 yellow for the edge. Although I don’t use a lot of hollow elastics I do find them perfect when targeting really big fish in shallow lakes like Cary. I plumbed up to the pallet to my left at 13 metres and set my rig to fish into the slight dip about two metres away from it. I’m sure this dip is created by the keepnets and the bottom is very hard, indicating the silt has been dragged away. I made sure there was a decent depth because with the water clear the fish would feel much more confident if they couldn’t see a pole waving above their heads.

I fished the waggler or long pole in open water for the first two hours while leaving my margin line to prime. I had three carp in this time – not loads, but enough to put me in front on a fish count around the lake! Having pinged 8mm cubes of meat down the edge with a catapult from the start it was time for a look. I hadn’t cupped in anything down the edge as I wanted the fish to become confident on hearing the meat plopping in, as well as not giving them too much to eat so they could fill up and move off – basically trying to build the confidence in their feeding. Although only two hours had gone I felt confident enough to go down the edge as I had earmarked this to be my main catching area and was prepared to stay on it and try and make it work if needed. I hooked on a 10mm cube of meat, shipped down to 13 metres and laid the rig in. There are a lot of big silvers in Viaduct and they love the meat, so it was no surprise to see the float dancing around as the silvers pecked away at it – it’s not just carp that are governed by the weather and air pressure.

Minutes later the float buried, a sharp lift saw substantial resistance and a heavy weight moved slowly out into open water after an almighty swoosh of a huge paddle. A long ponderous battle resulted in a massive fish lying in the net – all 18lb of it. That’ll do!

I rebaited with another 10mm cube and fixed my Frenzee Precision pot to the i-Bush on my pole. I placed six 8mm cubes of meat in the cup and went back in to see if the first fish was just a fluke. In the edge in clearer water I tend to refrain from lifting and dropping the bait, especially when it’s as visible as a big piece of meat, as I want it to look as natural as possible and just like the feed samples. The last thing I want to do is risk spooking fish of this size – every one must count and go in the net! The next few hours saw me regularly putting fish in the net at unbelievable average sizes, real edge-dwelling munters. Interestingly Alex Murray, who was opposite, also struggled in open water but caught well fishing the wag down the edge to a pallet a few pegs away from him.

While the kit I was using was slightly scaled down compared with normal edge tackle, I had to be mindful of the fact the fish could be big so I didn’t want to jeopardise this by fishing ‘silly’ light. On 0.16mm I lost one fish that was my own fault for striking at a liner and foul hooking it. The P666 pole I used didn’t flinch and seemed perfectly at home in this environment; the confidence this gave me was unbelievable. When this pole was designed the brief was to make a flagship for the UK market. Believe me, this is an awesome tool and the more I use it the more I want to.

The match finished with me well ahead on the lake on fish count, and total weight. I had 213lb for one of the biggest winter catches ever at Viaduct!

I’ve brought the Match Fishing cameras back to the same peg today to see if we can tease a few of these Viaduct monsters out of their wintery lair. The conditions today couldn’t be more different, though, with a big low pressure over the country, which in the days leading up to today had dropped frightening amounts of rain. So this would really test the theory and see if the weather had in fact played a big role. There were clearly a lot of fish moving and crashing in the middle of the lake, something that wasn’t evident the last time I came and instantly put doubts in my mind as to whether I would catch in the edge. I set my kit up with the same rigs as before, but the wind was powerful and blowing straight at me so I selected a slightly heavier float with a softer elastic and lighter hooklengths as I feared it could be hard. Bait was to be the same – meat, meat and more meat with 8mm for feeding and 10mm cubed for the hook. Meat in winter is something I have huge faith in, even though it’s not the ‘normal’ thing to use. Fish love it and over the last few winters I have caught a lot of fish on it. The more the venues see meat the better it works, and I won’t go carp fishing in winter without some. I’m sure it has something to do with the salt content, but that subject is for another time. I started the session by pinging six cubes down to the pallet where I was fishing. This wasn’t going to be a bagging session and I was fully aware that I may have to wait a long time for the fish to move in, so I kept the feeding gentle at four to six cubes at a time. Bites will obviously govern the amount you need to feed and when feeding like this for big fish, at this time of year, I usually think my hook bait is the last to be eaten. Therefore having no indications told me there was food in the swim. I topped up sparingly just to create a noise rather than add food to the swim.

A couple of hours passed without worrying me – I never really expected to catch there for a while as the swim needed priming and building, just think about edge fishing in matches. I did get a liner soon afterwards, which gave me hope, but nothing materialised and it wasn’t until the beginning of the fourth hour when I finally had my one and only bite of the day. A big, heavy edge-dweller moved out into open water and a slow ponderous fight resulted in a big lad lying in the net, all 16lb of it. I continued to fish until late afternoon and thought that I might catch at carp o’clock (the last hour) but alas no more bites followed. I was slightly frustrated at not catching but happier that I knew why, confirming my theories, especially as the fish continued to crash out in open water all day. I was itching to chuck a wag for them, but a test is a test. We all want to learn more and understand our quarry more, so look at the weather before you next go and compare the results; read the conditions right and you will catch. Fish for the fish where they want to be and surely you stand a better chance of catching? I think so.

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