5 spots to catch carp on every water

Even without visiting a water you know as an experience carp angler that there going to be guaranteed areas of the water where you will find fish. These areas are always my first port of call when investigating or fishing a water for the first time.

1. Weed beds

A lot of anglers try to avoid weedy areas, given the technical challenges of presenting a bait correctly and landing carp in weedy areas. One thing you can guarantee though is that the fish will not be far from large weedy areas. If you are able to find clear patches surrounded by weed they are great for presenting your bait trap on. If you can not find the edge or clear patch in the weed then adjusting your rig and presenting your bait in or on top of the weed, can be a god option.

2. Unpopular swims

An unpopular swim can be for lots of reasons on many swims it may be nothing to do with the catch rate from that position. I have lost count of how many anglers I see and talk to who base there swim choice on easy accessibility e.g. nearest to the car park or shy away from swims because they are over grown or too small. Often these forgotten swims are seen as safety areas by the fish as they rarely receive any angler pressure from them.

3. Predominant windward banks

On some waters a predominant favourable wind (South-Westerly usually) is a good indicator of where the fish may be. Particularly I have found if the wind direction is a new changing wind. Picking a swim into or on the back of the wind can be a good bet to find the fish.

4. Snags and Safe areas

Fish will always find the safe areas on waters, often deep into snags on a water or in out of bounds areas of a water. The fish know that these areas represent little or no danger to them of been caught. Therefore fishing as close to these holding areas or setting traps for fish moving in and out of them is another good tactic for getting a run.

5. Inaccessible areas

Fishing areas of a water that are inaccessible is a similar tactic to fishing the unpopular swims. To fish these areas you may have to go out of your way in order to place your bait but if it means you bag a fish then I think it is worth it, particularly on hard waters where runs are infrequent. These areas in some cases may be obvious like a far margin that is out of bounds but is at extreme range. In other cases it may be fishing a margin that you may not be able to cast a bait to. In this case wading in and hand placing a bait can be a great technique.