Martyn White | Thursday, 24 October 2024
We've had fairly unstable conditions recently, but that has luckily worked in my favour. When temperatures have been up and the light has been good I've been out chasing carp. On the other days I've been trying to get organized for some offshore jigging, the main obstacle to which is making calendars match with the other guys.
The carp fishing has been great, the shorter days combined with the unseasonable heat is really getting the carp on the feed. Autumn always good with the fish packing on condition for the winter, it's just better this year probably because they're still running summer metabolism rather than slowing down, which will happen as soon as the weather does cool off. It hasn't been easy though, none of the fish I've had have rewarded a substandard approach or presentation. On the other hand it's felt like all of the good shots to unspooked fish have resulted in an eat. They haven't, but it's close.
It's been the same regardless of where I've fished. This has been interesting as I've fished some pretty different water, one being shallow and silty where the fish like small stuff like worms or little marabou puffs and don't chase. Lightly weighted chenille worms either drag & dropped or where possible left on a fish's line for it to discover has been the go. The drag and drop is probably more consistent as it isn't dependent on the fish continuing to move where I expect it to, but the static worm poking out of the silt is more exciting for me because of how the fish react when they spot it. Ideally I want a fish moving across me, working along picking things off the bottom, I'll cast a few meters in front of the fish and beyond the line it's moving on and strip back to drop the fly slightly on my side of the line. This means that if/when the fish sees the fly I'll see it change its line to eat. Most of the time it's pretty obvious anyway, you see the fish tipping ahead of where the fly is and its body language changes as it spots the worm, it's difficult to describe exactly but you'll know when you see it. A sort of excited agitation before the fish moves to eat the fly, I always find that much more exciting because of the build-up that's different from the immediate nature of the drag & drop presentation and much more like saltwater flats. Great stuff! Another being a fast, clear freestone where they will move to the fly and regularly eat bigger flies. These fish still won't tollerate a bad shot, but will chase a good size crayfish or baitfish pattern once they're on it. There's no setting of ambushes for these fish, just a stealthy approach and a drag and drop most of the time. They've been really keen on chasing flies down which has been great, especially when they're in small groups. It doesn't hurt that they're a large average size there either.
It's rare that they're so consistently on, so I'm making the most of things while I can.