River carp

[Rob Ward]

Funnily enough I'm planning on a Canal Carp campaign this winter, I'll be watching with interest for everyones progress.

[Anderoo]

Well I'll keep a note of any progress as I go. I'm hoping it's quite a quick little campaign, I don't really want it stretching over months and months! Baiting will commence once I get the car back from the menders and ideally I'll have a carp on the bank within a week - but I bet it won't be that simple

 

PS thanks for your post Lozza, very interesting.

[JV44]

Well I'll keep a note of any progress as I go. I'm hoping it's quite a quick little campaign, I don't really want it stretching over months and months! Baiting will commence once I get the car back from the menders and ideally I'll have a carp on the bank within a week - but I bet it won't be that simple

 

PS thanks for your post Lozza, very interesting.

Anderoo i have caught a few but nothing over 17 and a bit but mine have all come to impromptu sessions off the back of the boat wherever we moor up so no prebait just luck of the draw ,Once above Clifton Hampden this time i used armamesh double wrapping the biolies/pellets with it and that did seem to stand up well to the crays attention and some of the biolies used were air dried so again that helped .

Biggest problem on most bits of the Thames is avoiding Bream ,bit ironic that what?? .

Pre bait and stick to your battle plan and you will track some down ,Most the guys i know that carp the Thames tend to walk /cycle miles of it looking for fish and then bait that area as a starting point but sounds like you already have the first bit sorted .

We saw a few carp sunning themselves on our way back down and most were around islands or on the inside of bends in the shallows soaking up some rays .

Good luck looking forward to hearing your exploits Steve.

[Anderoo]

Anderoo i have caught a few but nothing over 17 and a bit but mine have all come to impromptu sessions off the back of the boat wherever we moor up so no prebait just luck of the draw ,Once above Clifton Hampden this time i used armamesh double wrapping the biolies/pellets with it and that did seem to stand up well to the crays attention and some of the biolies used were air dried so again that helped .

Biggest problem on most bits of the Thames is avoiding Bream ,bit ironic that what?? .

Pre bait and stick to your battle plan and you will track some down ,Most the guys i know that carp the Thames tend to walk /cycle miles of it looking for fish and then bait that area as a starting point but sounds like you already have the first bit sorted .

We saw a few carp sunning themselves on our way back down and most were around islands or on the inside of bends in the shallows soaking up some rays .

Good luck looking forward to hearing your exploits Steve.

 

Cheers Steve. True about the bream! On some stretches of Thames they are a real nightmare when you're fishing for something else, as I found out last winter while chubbing...

 

I expected to pick up an accidental carp last winter while chubbing but it didn't happen, I don't think there are as many in the river as some would have us believe. Even the escapees from lakes don't seem to hang around, I think they move down to the lower river and stay down there. Apparently some of the Linear fish washed out in the 2007 floods have been caught right down at Twickenham!

 

I'm hoping I don't have to use armamesh but I think I'll get some as a precaution. My brief attempts at this a few seasons ago were scuppered by the crays, as soon as the baits hit the bottom the bobbins were lifting and dropping as they nibbled away at them, it drove me spare! I didn't pre-bait then though, so this time I'm hoping there will be fish on the bait keeping the crays at bay (some hope!).

[Anderoo]

A quick update on progress so far - on Saturday and Sunday I journeyed down to the 'carp swim' (not sure I should call it that as I've only ever once seen a carp there, and only for 20 seconds ) in the early evening and baited up with a double handful of boilies and a double handful of tigers. Lozza's suggestion made a lot of sense, so on Sat I spread the bait all over the area from bank to bank, and on Sun tightened the area to about half that, towards the feature the carp was next to when I saw it. Subsequent baitings will tighten it down to two concentrated spots about 15 yards apart, and I'll put a rod on each.

 

The river is really busy with other anglers, boaters, hikers, dog walkers, families, you name it, so trying to be subtle and sneaky is impossible. Loads of people have seen me so I will have to rely on a certain amount of good luck and good behaviour by the other anglers that the spot is left alone. We shall see, if someone else does fish it it's just an occupational hazard and one of those things.

 

I plan to keep feeding the spot for another 2 evenings, and then start fishing and baiting from Wed-Fri. That'll give me 3 good evenings, which will hopefully be enough to get one. If not, I'll have to decide wheter to keep it going, or write it off.

 

Tonight and Tues after baiting the spot I'm planning to fish blind for the carp in a different area where I suspect there may be a chance of one - just a handful of tigers as freebies, and tigers as bait. The last time I tried that I caught a beautiful Thames tench, so it could be interesting even if I'm miles from the nearest carp

[Anderoo]

Day (or rather evening) 3 of the baiting has been done, less bait than before and in a smaller area. I'll do the same tonight and then start fishing tomorrow evening.

 

After the baiting was done, I had a nice evening quivertipping bread at a nearby stretch where I've seen what are either big roach or small bream, I can't be sure. I saw them again yesterday at dusk, if they are roach they are good fish. I didn't catch any big roach or any bream at all, but I did get a few small chub and a couple of small roach - so I am hopeful that the mystery fish are roach after all, as if bream were in the swim I'd expect to catch one. I'll have another go this evening. Best of all, the crays weren't too bad. Bread seems to be fairly crayproof (in that they don't particularly like it) in summer as well as winter, so that's excellent news.

 

I thought I'd hooked a big roach yesterday, and the old knees started to wobble as I got it close to the net...a decent bend in the rod, a donk donk donk as I brought it in, a deep, bright silver flank...and it turned into a chub of about a pound and a half once it was in the net Always happens!

 

It has fired me up to have a proper go at the Thames roach though, there are a couple of areas where the flow is a bit stronger and there are some nice gravel glides, so after this week's carp attempt, I think I'll give it a go.

Edited July 12, 2011 by Anderoo

[medwaygreen]

River Carp, Yes just great to go after, I must say now that I have never had any success, but I think the best piece of advice I did get was,

 

"You can prebait as many swims as you like and if you catch it was luck, first you must find where the Carp are by studying the river which takes time and commitment, then having decided on the best area,s of River to fish, because you have seen Carp activity then prebait and the success rate will increase".

 

Not sure this will help, but it does sound sensible and for River carp more so.

 

Good luck Andrew, I will watch with interest.

[lozza]

Ive never fished a river with crays in it, Do they eat everything? iam i right in thinking they are signal crays? could you use them as bait? do they only eat static baits or will they take a trotted bait or a bait suspended in mind flow. the only issue i have about leaveing a bait on the bottom of the river is the longer you leave it the more likely an eel is to eat it. Could you eat the crays?

[Anderoo]

Crays (yes, invasive signal crays) do eat everything, mainly on the bottom but when they're really being a pain I've had them on trotted baits too. The Thames here and all her tributaries are crawling with them. That's why I'm baiting up with the hardest baits I can find, even so I do wonder how much bait is left when/if any carp wander past.

 

They much prefer meaty, fishy or animal baits. They do eat the bread but they aren't too bad on it. However, I remember chub fishing at the Cherwell a few years ago and accidentally dropped a ball of bread mash in the margin, and a big cray appeared out of nowhere and hoovered the whole lot up in about 5 minutes! So you do really need to take them into account when you fish these rivers.

 

It is illegal to catch them for food unless you have a licence (although most boats I see now have a crayfish trap on them) and also illegal to return them if you accidentally catch one. It is also illegal to use them as bait. I think all these rules are to try to prevent them being accidentally transferred to new waters, which is fair enough - once you have them, they're there to stay.

 

They erode the banks with their tunnels, kill the native crays with a parasite, and eat a lot of fish eggs, affecting fish stocks. On the other hand, some fish, particularly perch and chub, eat them, and grow very big.

[Steve Walker]

Sounds a bit more organised than that I've been up to - I had a short session on the upper Thames last night, seeing what I could nobble with the fly rod. A couple of bleak on klinks and a little chublet on a beadhead nymph, it would seem. Missed loads of rises, though, those trout-only anglers ought to try catching some proper fish

 

Bumped into a bloke who was planning a bit of floating bread chubbing - apparently, there is a pair of otters on the stretch now. He wasn't happy about it, I think I'll fish there more in the hope of catching a glimpse of them.

 

On the laws about crayfish - I could be wrong, but I think the two activities which need to be licensed are the use of a trap and the keeping of live crays to purge them prior to eating. There is a general licence for the latter in those areas so badly infested that the EA has basically abandoned all hope, but the trap licensing is about protecting other wildlife and applies everywhere. Realistically, I don't think you would get in trouble for catching crays on a handline and transporting them within the generally licensed area, but probably best to speak to the EA. The licence is free.