How to catch more carp in September and October

WELCOME to the Wednesday blog – each week filled by Angler’s Mail.

This week’s Angler’s Mail HQ blog is by news editor Thomas Petch.

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EARLY AUTUMN CARP FISHING TIPS

CARP fishing can by at its best in early autumn and now we’ve hit September I’d classify it that way as we’ve gone past summer.

The night are getting longer and while day temperatures can still be really nice, nights are beginning to get abit of chilly.

And that is great news on most prolific carp waters as I’ve found September and October brilliant months for catching carp and you can still get good hits of double-figure fish… and bigger.

August is traditionally a really tough month, carp are often shying away from all bottom baits and boilies can be almost pointless even trying at times.

But come the autumn, it is like a switch has happened and have a few coldish nights and carp want those little round balls again as they can almost sense

Great carp sport can be had in the weeks ahead, so don’t miss out!

Here’s ten top tips for catching carp on well stocked waters this autumn:

1. As stated, boilies can become deadly after a summer slumber so often a doubles attack can be based on them.
2. Both fishmeals and fruity boilies can work and I’ve found the former best at the start of autumn switching over to something like frozen Richworth Tutti Frutti offerings as it gets colder.

   

   Tuttis can be a good choice.

3. Leave single hookbaits to tough winter fishing and take plenty of freebies with you. It is an idea to start with just 30-40 15 mm freebies per take per rod to begin with, but don’t be afraid to put more in if catching well to really get them feeding.
4. Carp will still go into shallower swims to get the last strong sunshine, but deeper swims can also start fishing well, especially when its not sunny.
5.  Carp have been caught all spring and summer so do try a different hookbait to what they have been offered for past few months. I’ve often had good autumn success offering two 15 mm boilies baits on the hook, as standard or as a snowmen with one bottom bait and one pop-up.
6. If you are NOT fishing snaggy swims, refine your terminal tackle and go for 8-10 lb long nylon traces, and match your bait to the hook size, always keeping it as fine as practical. A size 8 wide gape hook is normally fine for double 15 mm hookbaits, but go down to size 10 and 12s for smaller offerings.
7. Discard big heavy semi-fixed bolt rigs and try 1-2 oz running leads depending on your distance fished.
8. Give your hookbait a boost by adding PVA bags of boilies. Don’t add pellets as you don’t want the carp starting to favour those.
9. Bottom debris can start to be a pain with dying weed and later on washed in leaves so pop-up boilies can start coming into their own too.
10. I’ve found carp on well stocked waters start to leave the margins as it gets colder but you can find the odd bigger fish later on in the day or at night close in.

AM LIKES OF THE WEEK

SUPER SPAWNING – it’s been a vintage year, as we reveal in the magazine this week.

GOLDEN GIRLS – England Ladies have done us proud, and we’ve been finding out all about what Dick Clegg – no less – rates as “one of the best-ever results.”

AM DISLIKES OF THE WEEK

INTERNET SNIPERS – would you believe that somebody lambasted Steve Collett, our Tuesday blogger, for showing exactly how he’s been making huge hauls of huge bream…on a water where hardly anyone actually bothers fishing! We also watched in amazement as someone slammed their keyboard slating a brilliant no-yet-released reel, that he had not even seen (sssh, you can see it in AM mag, just like Steve’s Action Replay feature!)

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Fox – sponsors of our Carp Cup – have caused a lot of excitement amongst carp anglers with their forthcoming FX11 reels. Full story in Angler’s Mail magazine. Here’s Fox’s own promo video…

Bream hauling on match gear, full report on what Dick Clegg called “one of the best results ever” and loads more can be enjoyed by getting the new AM magazine, in good shops from Tuesday, September 3.

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