Dear Rob Hughes,
I am currently fishing a well known three-acre pit, which receives an awful amount of pressure. Because of other commitments, I can only spend 24 hours there at a time. Can you give me any advice as to how I can increase my chances of catching some of the larger carp that reside there?
Many thanks,        
Gary Brown.

Cheers for this question, Gary. It’s funny how many people face the same issues in their carp fishing. I’ve just had one query by email that is very similar to yours, where the guy was fishing at Sutton at Hone. I myself have just started fishing a small gravel pit which, although not well known and pressurised, has a reasonable stock with one or two target fish to try to get through to. It’s getting through to these big fellas that we all want to do, and there are a number of ways of going about it. 

Low-flavoured, Robin Red-enhanced boilies are cracking big-fish baits.

There are two major factors to your approach and these are: 1) fish stocks, and 2) angler pressure. I’m going to assume you are allowed to night fish the water that you are targeting, as my advice may be different with a day-only water, but with any water there are ways of getting the big girls out. Some people seem to catch just the bigger fish, and other anglers catch a lot of fish and eventually get through to the bigger ones, so you can clearly use specific tactics to get the results that you want. If your lake is fairly well stocked with a bigger than average size of fish and you have a good chance of catching something worthwhile when you do get a bite, the best tactics would be to wade through as many carp as you can, because the law of averages says that eventually you’ll get a biggie out. However, if it is heavily stocked and has more small fish than big fish then the wading game is likely to be a waste of time, and I would just try to catch the bigger ones by singling out their movements and characteristics. Big fish tend to be creatures of habit and will often be caught from the same sort of areas at the same times of year, so do your research on where they live, what conditions they feed in, the baits they have previously been caught on, and whether they come out at night or in the day. When you have got this info you are a long way on the road to reaching your goal and you can write off a lot of the areas in the lake where you could be wasting your time.

Proof that the big fish do come along.

The next step is to look at the pressure on the lake. There can be absolutely no doubt at all that big carp are affected by angling pressure. Because they are big they have to feed more, and therefore have to be even cannier when it comes to lines and rigs. Your kit has to be absolutely spot-on, and I would be quite happy to find areas of the lake that people ignore to get away from the pressure. Trickle some bait in and see what happens. A lot of the time the big ’uns will stay away from the other fish and the main amount of pressure around a lake, so keeping away from the crowds is always worth a shot. Regarding bait, the bigger fish also tend to be older, and as a result are a little more choosy about their food, so make sure you use a very good quality bait and make it subtle. Robin Red-enhanced low-flavoured fishmeals are a cracking big-fish bait, and in my eyes gives you much more of a chance of a lump than a fluoro, if only for the reason they are less noticeable than a bright bait, which might be taken a lot quicker by sight-feeding younger fish. Remember that, as with people, big, old, wise fish have to be comfortable with their surroundings and even more comfortable with a bait before they will pick it up. You just need to make sure they get that comfort factor from your presentation and approach.

It’s meant to be a challenge, and if we didn’t challenge ourselves there would never be any betterment in our lives. Good luck with your quest.

Thanks,
Rob Hughes