Carp Fishing – Stalking with Dave Lane

Dave Lane

As the summer storms ahead you could be forgiven for thinking it was still spring as the weather of late has been everything but good.

Stalking is probably one of my most favoured ways of tackling carp, the idea of picking your way through a bush and positioning yourself in that perfect area with just a carp fishing rod, spooled reel and a handful of bait to fool your intended quarry.

There is nothing quite like the thrill of watching a fish as it takes your bait at close quarters. During one recent spell of sunshine I stumbled across a small group of carp feeding just feet from the bank, in an area that I had hardly paid any attention to in the past.

A dozen of so shoots of grass weed on the bottom was enough to get them grubbing, and with the scattered ‘clean’ pebbles where the fish suck them in and blow them out was a sure sign of feeding fish.
Getting my position and picking the ideal time to drop the bait in was harder than it looked, fish which ghost into the swim caused me to abort the drop two or three times, it had to be perfect, the bait had to be in that specific lye. That’s the beauty of stalking; you can almost choose which fish you’re going to catch.

After dropping the bait, I didn’t have to wait long until the rod tip buckled and a fish made the mistake of thinking a bright yellow baited hook looked most appetising. Bolting off into the middle of the lake the other fish where totally unaware of the danger, I had to take to the rescue boat to free the line from mounds of weed but it was all worth it in the end with this perfect mid twenty mirror.

Check out my monthly carp fishing diary on the Fishtec blog