| Locating Tips, Part 2 |
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Fish-Finding Tools As you might expect, there are a number of useful tools available from tackle suppliers to assist in finding carp. The best tool in the world would be a carp-feeding locator but unfortunately these only come through experience and a lot of trial and error. You can, however, purchase such items of tackle as polarizing glasses, pocket-sized binoculars or even echo-sounders. Polarizing glasses are fairly expensive if you purchase them from tackle shops so we advise you to buy them on the high street. Basically, polarizing glasses allow you to look beneath water when glare from the sun would normally make this impossible. The lenses come in all manner of different colors, like orange, red or blue, all of which will suit different users or uses. We use amber lenses, as these really do tend to make dark shapes such as carp very visible even when they are a couple of feet below the water. A standard pair of sunglasses will not perform the job that a pair of polarizing glasses will, so make sure you spend wisely. As for binoculars, again these come in all manner of different shapes or forms, with the most expensive being the most powerful. You can even buy polarizing binoculars nowadays. We like the type you can drop into your pocket so they can be carried up trees and around a lake without too much bother. A good pair won't come cheap but will be well worth it. Locating Those Carp It's all well and good having the best fish-locating equipment in the world, but every now and again it won't work in your favor. You'll feel as though your best chance of locating the fish has been completely lost if your echo-sounder hasn't located any big fish or if your best-looking pair of polarizing glasses hasn't enabled you to see any signs of carp. The key success to finding carp and their feeding areas is to look and listen for them. There is no substitute. You will usually find experienced anglers carrying out a reconnaissance trip of a lake before commencing any fishing. This will involve talking to as many anglers as possible, looking in every swim, checking marginal snags, climbing trees to get a good view of the lake, looking carefully at overhanging bushes or anything that may attract carp. To us, and many other experienced anglers, carp fundamentally love features. Where there are snags or items in the water which will make the carp feel safe, there will usually be carp. The exception to this is waters where there are many features but not enough carp, such as Wraysbury, which is very understocked on the carp front compared to its size. Carp are relatively simple creatures in that they only have to eat, breathe, spawn and keep themselves safe to live. The only things that interrupt their patterns of behavior on a day-to-day basis are external factors such as anglers, weather conditions, predators, the nature of the lake, and water quality and flow. We will consider each of these below. |
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