Watercraft is something you can’t buy; you can only learn it with each visit to a water, taking notice of what’s around you and gaining fishing experience. If you concentrate and focus, it shouldn’t take long for your experience to build up and soon you’ll be able to get a feel as to where the carp before you even cast out a rod. Regardless of whether you’ve caught or not in a particular swim, any experienced big carp angler will tell you to look around the water for activity before choosing a place to set up.
What is Carp Watercraft?
Watercraft is the collective term for the tell-tale signs carp anglers are given when fish are active in an area. Look for the dorsal fins of cruising carp; they’re often trailing bow waves, like the hulls of boats. They could be sat motionless, with just their backs breaking the surface, or just under the surface feeding off the pond life in lily pads. If you take the time to search for carp activity, you’ll go a long way to landing a fish in a surprisingly short amount of time. There’s no point pre-choosing a swim, just to find that all the carp are crashing at the bottom of the lake, at furthest point away from you.
Look out for bubble, boils and swirls on the surface of the water caused by the sudden movement of a carp, and don’t ignore the margins, in particular look for large bubbles moving along the bank side. Look for clouded or muddy areas where carp are tearing up the bottom of the water, feeding on the natural matter or the bait left by other anglers which can be found there. Invest in a good pair of polarised glasses; even in the murkiest water you can still see at least six to eight inches under the surface, which is more than enough to spot your target in most cases.
Fishing for Jumping Carp
Look for carp jumping from the water. There’s no known reason why carp jump from the water; some say it’s because they’re marking their territory, others say that, like sea fish, it’s a natural way to say ‘I like it here’ when they’ve found somewhere to feed, and yet others say that it’s simply a playful thing. To be honest, I don’t know what to believe, but I do know that when there is absolutely no movement on the water and a carp comes crashing out, that’s a good spot to cast a rod to. Feel the line down until the lead hits the bottom, as this will give you a good indication of what you are fishing onto without causing too much disturbance.
If this spot produces no fish then, just before packing up, get your marker rod out and plumb the depths, search for what – if any – features are down there. Make a mental note, or better yet write it down, for reference on another occasion. Maybe it was a silted area and your hook bait was deep in the smelly black stuff? Next time, you’ll know to fish a popup or a critically balanced bait, and you can fish with confidence in the knowledge that your bait is sitting above the bottom for a carp to take.
On lakes in Belgium and France I’ve seen carp after carp crashing out over the same spot all day and night, and this has given me great confidence in choosing my swim. From the first rod I cast out to the water I caught carp after carp. On other occasions in England carp have been doing the same, even over heavily baited areas, yet not one fish has come out. It’s not always easy to figure out why this happens. But in most cases, when you spot carp, or signs of watercraft, that’s where you should think about setting up base, unless you can actually see the carp moving up or down the lake, in which case you should try to get ahead of them so you can lay some traps to cut them off.
Stealthy, Crafty Carp Angling
You’d probably be surprised at how close you can get to carp if you opt for the stealthy, silent, camouflaged approach. In instances where I’m watching one or two fish feed close to the margin and I can see they’re slowly moving down the lake, I’ll introduce some pellets and boilies a little further up to get them to stop in that area to feed. Meanwhile I go back and softly get my rods to set up base even further up, and I’ll lay more feed, only this time with my hook bait already in place.