On top for carp.

I would never claim to be an expert floater angler, in fact, pretty much the opposite. I enjoy the challenge, the visual excitement and the immediacy of surface fishing for carp, but have always found my effort's to be pretty "hit and miss", with slightly more "miss" than "hit". I'm pretty "textbook", I don't cast out until they're feeding confidently and such like, but catching carp on the top seems to be more an intuitive than a "textbook" art, and I'm just not that good at it. However, that doesn't stop me trying!

 

On the occasions that I have caught surface feeding carp I suspect luck has often played its part. That was certainly true of this small carp, taken over a decade ago. I was using an old fashioned bubble float with mixers as bait, and accidently overcast, resulting in the line lying neatly off the surface of the water over the top of some weeds. Within seconds a confident take resulted in this little common, which took with far more bravado with no line on the water's film than his brothers had been doing previously.

 

 

Last season I only carp fished once, and gave my floater rod to a friend who'd come to pay a bankside visit, and he promptly caught two carp in half an hour off the surface. (after I'd spent an hour feeding the swim and getting them going!) I'd put on a Korda bolt rig style controller, which despite looking like the prototype of some weapon of mass destruction seemed to be extremely efficient on the self-hooking front. It'll certainly be my first choice for any floater fishing that I do this summer, and first impressions were that it's well designed and easy to use.

 

I suspect that- like every past season- my attempts at floater fishing this season will be a mixture of frustration, unsolved puzzles and just enough success to merit further attempts at fooling cautious carp in hot weather, but I'm looking forward to once again testing myself against my elusive quarry.

 

Time to get my carp tackle out to prepare for the fray ....