River Carping

[tinca1137]

Hi all. I have just come back to the joys of Carp fishing after several years of chasing other shadows. I now have a real bee in my bonnet concerning river carp. I have acees to a large river which holds some very big fish. i would be most obliged if anyone could give me any tips concerning rigs for such fish, do you recommend straightforward knotless knot type sets ups or would anything else be more appropriate. I do know that these carp get a little bit of pressure but as far as I know they don't get to see a lot of bait (too many bream) or carpers targetting them. i have just purchased Neil Waytes River Carp book but that doesn't seem to include rigs etc.......

Many thanks in advance.

Rob...

[jules007]

Hi tinca and welcome to carp.com

 

most anglers tend to use fairly standard no knot rigs for river carp, same as for lakes, think the key to river carp is prebaiting, getting them used to feeding in one area, i plan to have a go at the river nene this new year, hope to get a couple out!

[zammmo]

Didnt you say that last year Jules ...The 30lb+ Carp that came out of the Nene recently was caught on a hinged stiff rig...But I reckon providing you take into consideration the type of bottom,then any simple rig will catch..The secret to success is definitely prebaiting,you are lucky you live nearby...

[salokcinnodrog]

The most important part of river fishing is exactly the same as lakes, location, and I use exactly the same rigs on the river, although lead set-up may vary from my favoured running lead.

 

One of the most beautiful carp I have caught, at 28lbs, came from a river and was caught with 2x 15mm glugged baits on a line aligned rig of about 20cms made with Merlin braid on a semi-fixed lead over a few handfuls of pellets.

[jules007]

Didnt you say that last year Jules ...The 30lb+ Carp that came out of the Nene recently was caught on a hinged stiff rig...But I reckon providing you take into consideration the type of bottom,then any simple rig will catch..The secret to success is definitely prebaiting,you are lucky you live nearby...

 

Me i dont live nearby, thats the problem why i did not fish it last year, i had membership but ended up at willow pool instead in nene valley after that huge common its about a hundred mile trip for me

[zammmo]

I meant the guy that posted lived nearby his river...I remember you saying when I PM'd you you live a fair way away...It's soo annoying if I lived within 10mile or so,I'd be on it everyday.I'm about the same distance as you from it...

[moorsey]

Come on fellas. When I lived in the UK it used to take me 45 mins to get to the stretch of the Thames that I fished and it was worth the 2 hour plus round trip twice a week to bait up. If you want to catch river carp it all adds up to how much you want to catch them.

[zammmo]

True...But I recently had to give up work due to Ill health so money is tight..Most sickening is where I was working I was over halfway to the river where I now want to fish...

[tinca1137]

Hi all, thanks very much for the information regarding rigs etc. I am fortunate enough to live very close to the river and have fished it extensively for pike from my boat so I know the area very well. There are carp in numbers in most of the areas where I intend to bivvy up from but the biggest problem is the bream, there's thousands of the things! I guess I will just have to try bigger baits and try to fish through them..........

 

Thanks again

Rob...

[jules007]

which river are you thinking of rob?

[beanz]

depends on the river........but iv never prebaited the nene and done well,i planed to bait on my 1st ever sess,but took a rod,caught and since have only ever turned up and fed a handfull of bait on the day.

 

 

finding them is so much more important then pre baiting,fair enough youl get them to feed there at some point, but why feed when a single can do the job

[moorsey]

depends on the river........but iv never prebaited the nene and done well,i planed to bait on my 1st ever sess,but took a rod,caught and since have only ever turned up and fed a handfull of bait on the day.

 

 

finding them is so much more important then pre baiting,fair enough youl get them to feed there at some point, but why feed when a single can do the job

 

It depends on how long you intend to stay for. If you plan to do a few days then prebaiting certainly pays off and the more you can put in the better.

[ouchthathurt]

from experience, most river carp can fall to really simple tactics, they are as a rule not any near as pressured as their lake cousins. even the "pressured" ones, however there are cases of lake fish "holidaying" in flooded river systems when rivers burst their banks in winter floods, and the carp move into river systems, whilst i have no doubt that this is sometimes the case, i am not convinced this happens as often as we'd like to believe, most fish heading to their established shelters and "safe areas" during times of hardship - i would like to think that a big ole carp would rather hunker down in his favourite snag during the floods, rather than face the raging torrents of a flooded bank,to head into an area that is fast flowing, shallow with no possibility of knowing whats at the end.

 

however smaller carp must have done this journey, willing or otherwise, in order to have ended up in the river system, indeed, it is documented that a Colne valley lake lost approx 1/3rd of its stock during floods into the river, but i hope this is a rare example!

 

there are documented sightings/catches of carp in my local river Stour, in Dorset, we are talking the upper reaches around (and above) Blandford Forum, now we are talking low deep, wide meandering reaches up until you hit the weir in Blandford which is shallow, fast, clear grayling/trout/chub territory. its a very strange set up, above the weir, Crown meadows area is bream/perch/carp/tench territory, water goes over the weir to fast shallow grayling/barbel ground, i've seen carp anglers and fly anglers mere metres apart, one fshing below the weir, one above it!

 

as for the bream, they love fishmeals/pellets, so prebaiting with those will attract them, they seem to ignore tiger nuts, so these can be fairly selective. however, the point is this, why do you want to avoid attracting them? a large shoal of feeding fish will surely get the carp moving in to investigate, if you think to the "baiting pyramid" theory where the larger fish are attracted by the feeding signals of smaller fish and move in over the feed, pushing out the smaller fish in the process.

 

you say you know the area well and can see the carp in residence? then yu can spend some time watching them, work out their resting areas, where they feed, where they go if they feel threatened, etc. learn their habits and things (should!) get easier. once you have established feeding areas, then you can begin to target them using precision baiting and tactics, negating the need to prebait - reconnicaince is never wasted.

 

as for rigs, well they need to be strong and simple, a good decent braid and strong hook is a good start, river carp spend their lives working n and against the flow, so they are often more tuned and lean than their (more flabby(!?)) lake counterparts. so they can fight like tigers, especially if they can use the flow to their advantage. good strong tackle is a must to help you counter this.

 

many rivers have snaggy/rocky/gravelly/zebra mussel infested bottoms, so good strong abraision resistent lines and leaders are important.

 

river carp are a good challenge, i'm currently hunting a particular mirror that haunts the crown meadows...

 

ouchthathurt.