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Carp Fishing Tips Q&A: Tips for fishing short midweek overnighters.
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Written by Julian Grattidge
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Wednesday, 13 October 2010 13:15
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Question: Dear Julian, I’ve read a lot of your stuff on short session angling and am after a few tips on fishing short midweek overnighters - after work and away to work again the next morning. Have done a few this last month since starting a new job but seem to be getting bogged down with tackle and a session anglers mentality! Any help you could offer? Many thanks, Chris C.
Answer: Hi Chris, short midweek overnighters can be a great way to take advantage of quiet banks, but if you’re switching from a session angling it can take a bit of work to streamline your approach and mindset – but it’s well worth the effort as the results can be very rewarding.
The key to successful quick overnighters is in being able to do as much as possible before you even get to the water; basically, the less messing about you have to do when you are setting up and breaking down, the more time you have actually fishing and thus the more chance you have of putting one on the bank.
Personally, I take this approach to the extremes in order to get the best out of my limited time available for carp fishing. It might seem a bit anal to some, but I’ll detail my own approach which even if a bit much, should hopefully get you thinking along the right lines.
Firstly, each session for me starts at home. Planning is key. My overnighters may come at very short notice depending on work, family, etc, so I need to be able to go at the drop of a hat. If I do decide to go, all I have to do is fill my water bottle, grab some bait out of the freezer and that’s it – literally. I never bother with food that needs cooking, too much extra gear and time required on the bank to cook it all. Much easier to have a good lunch/tea during the day and then just take a few bits with you that don’t need cooking; fruit, pasties, etc. I do take a little gas stove for brews but that’s it.
My tackle itself is also seriously lightweight. You need to start a methodical assessment of all your tackle to see what you are actually likely to use during the short time you are going to be there. If you’re not sure, take it, and if you haven’t used it in say three sessions, then leave it at home! This can be a bit brutal, but it will pay dividends. Obviously you need to make sure you have a few terminal accessories should you suffer and breakages, etc, but there’s no need to take fifteen different hooklengths and thirty packets of hooks you never use. If you start going through all your tackle like this you will be amazed at how much weight you save. It’s not just about weight either; it’s about focusing the mind. If you open up your tackle box on a session and are faced with a hundred set-up options, it will take time to decide on the set up – if you have a slimmed down approach to your fishing you won’t get bogged down and will have the rods out in a matter of minutes.
Everything I need for a Winter overnighter
Once you’ve got rid of everything you don’t actually need, it’s then time to start slimming down on the stuff you do need. Do you really have to have a big bivvy with double garage and front porch? If you are going to be doing lots of quick sessions, bag yourself a lightweight brolly, or shelter system. Same goes for the rest of your tackle – do you really need a three leg bedchair when a two leg would do? I take this right down to the small stuff too – replace the heavy Coleman stove with a lightweight gas stove, replace the 5 gallon water container with a three litre bottle… you get the idea. By doing this with all your gear you end up with a complete set up that’s really easy to move.
As I say, I’ve taken it to extremes but it’s all in order to cut out the excess baggage. I see friends fishing with bivvies full of crap they never use – and they cart it to and from the swim every time they fish without even questioning it - madness! I could literally walk a mile with all my kit for an overnighter without breaking sweat; a small shoulder bag, bedchair, rod quiver and bait tub – job done!
From arriving in the swim with my gear, I can usually be set up and have the rods in within fifteen minutes, sometimes less, and my breakdown time is twenty minutes. Everything has its place in my kit and must serve a purpose every session or else it’s removed.
This pre-session planning frees you up loads when you arrive at the water. Because I know exactly what I have, you tend to scan the opportunities and asses them much quicker on the bank. Unless I’m pre-baiting spots, I like to spend a bit of time watching the water before deciding on the swim, and the beauty of a really lightweight load is that you can take it with you rather than having to do a reccie before returning to the car to get your kit - again, saving valuable time.
I rarely decide which swim I’m likely to fish before I arrive at the water – a fatal mistake if ever there was one, but what I will do on the drive to the water is start running through the various possibilities I think I may be faced with when I get there, based on the weather conditions, likely angler pressure, which swims may or may not be taken, and various other factors. Again I find this pre-arrival think time gets me totally focused, so that as soon as I arrive, I’ve already gone through a good deal of the planning and can then hit the ground running to form a strategy quicker and more effectively.
The time of year will have a dramatic effect on my approach. I tend to arrive at the water at around 8pm, so in summer I may spend up to an hour watching the water before setting up, that may sound a bit at odds with everything else in my approach being about speed, but what I have learnt with quick overnighters is that the more time you can spend trying to work out where the fish are, the better it will pay when you do eventually get your rods in. You have to remember that may only get to cast each rod once – so a great deal relies on the decisions you make on arrival!
Most long stay anglers get multiple bites at the cherry, as the fish may visit their area during the morning, afternoon or night, whereas, with quick overnighters you need to try and work out where the fish are going to be for a more defined period. On the last water I was concentrating on, the bites were coming between 4am-8am, so quite often on arrival I was having to think not where the fish were at 8pm when I got there, but where they were most likely to be the following morning at 4am!
And this brings to the fore another vital aspect of short session fishing; constant observation. In the summer I’ll set my alarm for first light in order that I can be up and looking at what’s going on, to see if I can tweak anything to increase my chances, but I’ll be on the ball through the night too. If I get woken by fish crashing or activity that may be fish, I’ll get up and have a look. I often replace baits in the middle of the night if I think they’re on the mooch somewhere – remember you only have a few hours to make the most of a situation. Even if I don’t act on something I’ll log it to the memory as it may be something I may be able to utilise next time I’m on the water, especially in Winter, as I’m often arriving in the dark so you’re pretty limited as to what you can do before setting up.
I tend to break my sessions into three periods, 8pm arrival to midnight, midnight to 4am, 4am to pack up at 8/10am, and my strategy for the session will involve assessing things during each of these three phases. The bottom line is that you need to be much more proactive to get the best out of a quick overnighter and be prepared to take a chance. Again, if you’re there for a whole weekend you have the luxury of time to see if a plan might work out, if you only have a few hours you need to do all you can to make it work out!
Ultimately you need to think of it in terms of a hit and run approach, rather then trap setting. The more you can do to tip the odds in your favour the better. Prebaiting can be a fantastic way of getting more out of short sessions, and I always tend to do midweek sessions when on a campaign as the fish won’t be on ‘weekend alert’. If you can’t prebait, I would not go mad when baiting up, fish light. The more there is for them to get through the less chance they’ll pick yours before you have to pull off. I would however bait heavy when I go if it’s a spot I’m likely to fish again.
Whilst everything is about making the most of ‘now’ it also pays to have one eye on the next session, I’m always looking for anything that could help for the next time I’m on, as for me, it’s about a sustained approach and mindset, which I find can often help you get on a good run of fish.
Good luck!
Helpful links: Umbrellas & Shelters / Luggage
Julian Grattidge
October 2010
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