Reading a new venue: finding fish before you cast

Arriving at water you have never fished is the hardest part of carp fishing, and the reason most anglers get it wrong is that they start fishing before they have looked. The fish are usually visible or indicated somewhere, and the features that hold them can be found from the bank in an hour.

What you can see

• Rolling and tailing fish tell you they are in an area, not necessarily that they are feeding. Use it as a starting point, not an answer.
• Rising bubbles over a weedy or silty area often mean carp are rooting there.
• A discoloured patch or silt plume in clear water is a fish on the move.
• Overhanging trees, bridge pillars, inlet streams, weed beds, gravel bars and steep-to banks are the features that hold fish, and they are visible from the bank.

What you can feel

Marks are found with the lead. Cast to a suspected area, let the lead settle, then wind it back along the bottom and read what comes up. A lead that returns clean and light has crossed gravel, clay or a hard margin; one that comes up coated and earthy has crossed silt. Those changes are where fish sit.

• A marker float or a leadcore leader makes the reading simple and quick.
• Map the distance to each change of lakebed and mark your clip at those distances.
• A spod or a throwing stick lets you confirm a mark and then feed it accurately.

How weather and season shift the fish

Carp move for the same reasons every year. Warm, stable weather and a south-westerly wind usually make fish more mobile and willing to feed in shallow water. A cold north-easterly and dropping pressure usually pushes them deep and slow. Bright, still days in clear water push carp into weed and cover; windy days push them towards the bank the wind is blowing into, because that is where the food collects.

• Spring: shallow, sunny, weed-starting areas warm first and hold fish.
• Summer: weed beds, clear patches and margins, mostly at dawn, dusk and through the night.
• Autumn: fish move as the water cools — follow the food and the temperature drop.
• Winter: deep, slow, undisturbed water, fished slowly with small bait quantities.

Give yourself time

The single biggest improvement most anglers can make is to arrive early and spend the first hour looking rather than fishing. On a venue you know well that hour is wasted. On water you have never fished, it is the difference between fishing a swim and fishing fish.

Check the venue's rules before you mark and bait: many fisheries restrict spodding, bait quantities or the use of marker floats, and those rules shape how you fish the water.