surface fishing?

[the_big_carp]

with the wether being so warm and sunny would the carp be feeding on the surface or is it too early in the year?

[corydoras]

with the wether being so warm and sunny would the carp be feeding on the surface or is it too early in the year?

Why not stick on a controller float and put a bit of crust on your hook and find out for yourself? Edited March 26, 2012 by corydoras

[kirisute]

Carp will surface feed as soon as they start to feed normally.

Warmer weather will promote better feeding but I caught several last Friday with no problems off the surface.

Just be aware that your going to do better stalking the surface this type of year rather than feeding titbits and drawing the fish in.

Also drop down your tackle size...with colder weather they won't be feeding as large bits and pieces and a huge controller will also spook them.

I use a polystyrene fly fishing float, the kind you hold into the line with a cocktail stick piece, and smaller bits of flake. Only if their feeding well would I consider scaling up to heavier stuff.

[the_big_carp]

cheers guys, kirisute, what size was the lake you were fishing and what bait were you using?

[corydoras]

cheers guys, kirisute, what size was the lake you were fishing and what bait were you using?

Flake. I would just lob out a controller with a big lump of crust on it though.

[kirisute]

cheers guys, kirisute, what size was the lake you were fishing and what bait were you using?

Fished two recently one smaller and one larger..but both quite rural and not huge. I'm not good with size in acres so I really couldn't guess mate! Lol!

I surface fish with either bread or hook able floating pellet/dog biscuit.

With bread either use crust or if the fish are a bit tentative on the surface, use flake but pinch it round shaft of the hook and leave a large amount fluffy...you will find it will float to start and if twitched will sink slowly as well....giving you good surface work and also a tempting drop bait.

For me lobbing a bloody great controller out or one of tw@ Hayes' surface missiles is just stupid.....my pleasure from surface fishing comes from almost laying the bait on the surface with the minimal amount of disturbance and tackle presence. Feed surface first if the fish are there you can put bait amongst them. If they ain't there then in my experience lobbing a bloody great controller out doesn't promote them turning up! Lol!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?VIS...em=360445149933

I use similar to these; but like I say I tend to stalk or fish smaller lakes so I'm not casting more than maybe 2 or 3 rod lengths.

Obviously if your fishing further then you'd want a bit more weight, but to be fair a standard bubble float will give you that if needed and keep surface disturbance to a minimum.

I set it about two foot from the hook, the stick locks them tight in place. Like this you can surface fish, but if you fancy and have the chance you can also use pinched bread or even luncheon meat to sink the bait and fish margins etc. it's a killer technique! With luncheon meat you can underarm cast and the meat is heavy enough to pull the float with it, so you can literally use the weight of the bait to cast exactly into position without worry.

Check out my set up in this video

Head to about 9:38 to see it in action

Edited March 26, 2012 by kirisute

[Barry C]

Had two off the top on Saturday on a small peice of flake. No controler just flicked out when a fish showed interest in freebies.

A couple of years ago I set myself the target of carp off the top every month of the year.

I did it ok from 8 different waters. The last one in December came with one end of the lake frozen solid.

[the_big_carp]

would a little dumpy 2 1/2 inch pellet waggler do the same job?

[kirisute]

would a little dumpy 2 1/2 inch pellet waggler do the same job?

They are fairly heavy by comparison. Designed to splash to attract fish when landing. I wouldn't use it personally.

[the_big_carp]

ok, ill go and get a bubble float