It’s by far the best time to find fish going crazy on your bait.
In South Africa – the home of The Carp Angler mag, this month is the start of Spring and then Summer, but for our readers in the Northern Hemisphere here is an insightful account of how to manage the change of seasons by a carper who certainly knows his way around! – Editor.
WORDS & IMAGES: Ed Skills
It’s a foggy autumn morning as I drive my boat out of the harbour. Lucky for me I know these waterways very well. I sense the presence of a bridge when I pass her, but can’t see her. It’s that time of the year that the lake I’m heading for is at her best.
Autumn makes the lake mysterious and silent. To get to it I have to drive the boat through a system of canals for about 45 minutes. I’m praying that nobody has come up with the same plan and has taken my spot. The only thing breaking the silence this morning is the engine of the boat and the ducks that wake up as I pass them. Not amused at all they throw me their best Donald Duck imitation before disappearing in the mist. I smile and realize how happy the simple things in life can make a man.
As I finally reach the open water I take a deep breath and set focus for the upcoming adventure. Three weeks of pre-baiting the chosen spot will hopefully pay off. Ain’t there a saying: reap what you sow? Or doesn’t that count for carp fishing? I drive the boat into the reeds and fix the stern with two long poles deep in the muddy bottom, just to make sure that I won’t be waking up somewhere else in the coming days. Let the games begin.
The luxury of boat fishing is the fact that you are fishing from your own little private island and you can place that island wherever you think it’s best.
In autumn I like to target the deeper spots of the lake from 7 up to 15 meters deep. These produce the most bites between October and January – but only after I have done some heavy pre-baiting. If I hadn’t pre-baited the swim in a row of three weeks, the chance of a take would have been minimized down to zero.
As I bring out the first line with my dinghy the mist is being broken by the upcoming sun. Small fish are breaking the surface probably due to being hunted by big zander sharing the lake with the carp. I’m checking the depth on my sounder to make sure I drop the rig spot on. Maybe it sounds a bit autistic but I can’t rest on the boat having the feeling that I might have dropped it not in the square meter where it should be. Little things like this can make the difference between a take or having a lovely stay without any action at all. But I’m in it for the catch! I’m in it for maximum gain. It’s harvest time. To make them happy I throw in some extra freebies. A mix of boilies, hemp and tigernuts damped down with some bloodworm liquid have to do the magic.
But like many times in angling the theory sounded better than reality itself. After getting the rods out my high expectations are a bit tempered when after 8 hours of staring over the water and watching the water birds dive on my spot, there is still no sign of carp activity. Bream rolling on the surface might indicate that targeting the deeper spots could have been a bit optimistic, but I stick to the plan and give it a little more time.
