Heres a Question...

[fantasticfisherman]

Right here's the situation. There is a small gravel pit just down the road from me that is by no means an actual fishery. By this i mean people fish it but probably aren't supposed to (no-one seems to care anyway). its choked full of weed in the summer, and has ALOT of pike in there, as well as silverfish. Until a fishing session today, i never had proof of there being carp in there. But today i saw them...for myself. The thing is, i don't think they've ever been caught before, and not many people know they're in there. So....how can i catch them? or build it up to catching them if you know what i mean. What do you think?

Edited April 29, 2007 by fantasticfisherman

[RobStubbs]

If you can find them to fish to then stalk them. Sweetcorn has to be worth a shout. Perhaps try baiting up a few spots in the margins (if you don't spot them / or where you've seen them before) and see if the fish clear it up. If the weed is bad consider raking some clearer spots but remember you may end up doing the work for some other anger if you're not careful.

 

Rob.

[Newt]

Depending on how easily you can get to the place, you might want to consider letting the carp clear some weed for you and at the same time get them accustomed to feeding at a certain spot. They will clear any bottom growing weed over a week or so as they root around.

 

A thing to always bear in mind with the weed is that it will be thickest at the surface where there is plenty of sunlight but underneith, things will be quite a bit more open. Another thing is that carp do not mind swimming in among the weed and are physically equipped to find food in a weedy lake. If you can get a rig to the bottom, they can find it.

 

Do some plumbing to locate a spot with reasonably firm bottom (if there are any) and create yourself a 'carp hole' then catch yourself some fish.

[Si...]

If they`ve never been caught before, then I would be tempted to try natural baits such as water snails, mussels and even black slugs.

 

I`ve fished a previously un-fished gravel pit a few years back and the carp in there had never been caught, or even seen a rod and line before. I tried all the normal tactics such as sweetcorn, maize, boilies etc... I then tried the naturals and started catching.

Its fairly difficult to source water snails in large quantities, but if you do find somewhere then its worth a try.

 

You could also prebait marginal areas with hemp (which is like tiny water snails in texture) and let the carp clear the weed for you, that way you`ll be able to see if your prebaiting tactics are working.

After a few weeks of prebaiting you could start introducing small quantities of sweetcorn or other particle baits which you can use on the hook/hair, so that the carp become confident in eating the food items.

[poledark]

Why make it difficult for yourself....fire a few chum mixers out and see if they take them.......if they have not been fished for then they WILL take them confidently, and also your hookbaits

 

Uneducated carp are just about the easiest fish in the world to catch !

 

 

Den