Download PDF - Angling Publications

Approaching Pressured Venues /// Alex Bransby
APPROACHING
PRESSURED
VENUES
Follow Alex Bransby as
he reveals a number of
top edges for overcoming
angling pressure on day
ticket venues, to have you
hauling in no time at all!
There is no doubt that day ticket waters offer
some of the best quality sport around, and
many are home to some of the most stunning carp
in the land; Linear is home to the Big Plated and
Bluebell houses the mighty Creature and Benson.
However, day ticket venues are also some of the
most heavily pressured around, and as a result the
carp residing in them can be very hard to tempt at
times. Whether you would like to catch your first
double-figure carp, or you are a seasoned carper
looking to track down 30 and 40lb+ creatures,
there will be a day ticket water near you to suit
your needs and experience. But how do you go
about approaching these venues to ensure you
get the best out of them? In this feature I aim
to highlight a few of the aspects you should be
taking into consideration before embarking on
your next session.
Angling Pressure
When fishing busy day ticket waters it is important
to take into account how many anglers are fishing
and the effects their presence has on the lake’s
inhabitants. These carp can be under enormous
amounts of pressure for most of the year, and as
Day tickets offer some awesome fishing as
long as you approach the venues correctly.
122 Crafty Carper

Angler
Profile
Alex Bransby
Age: 30
Hometown: Northampton
Occupation: Technician
UK PB: 38lb+
An all-too-common sight on day
ticket venues, but how do you
overcome the pressure and succeed?
a result they will often feed in a very cagey manner
and be hard to catch. However, with a bit of
thought and understanding you can use the effects
of angling pressure to your advantage in certain
situations. Let me explain further. Taking your time
to assess the distribution of pressure on a venue
on your arrival, and spending an hour or so looking
for signs of carp activity, can pay dividends. All too
often anglers turn up in a rush to get the rods out
in order to maximise their chances of catching,
which at times can help, but I believe that on most
venues this rushed approach will do more harm
than good. On many occasions, on busy day ticket
waters, you hear comments such as: “It’s no good
mate, too many lines in the water, they’ve all shut
up shop”. Granted, carp do react to heavy amounts
of pressure in any lake, but to believe every resident
refuses to feed at all due to the number of anglers
present is wrong. I am quite sure that on any water,
at any time, there are catchable carp to be found.
It’s just up to you to go out there, find them and
offer them a rig and bait they are willing to accept.
As a starting point, I first investigate the areas of
water receiving the least amount of pressure; very
often this is where the carp will congregate to seek
refuge from the inevitable barrage of leads, spods,
floats and lines. Carp can spend long periods of
time in these quieter parts of the lake without ever
giving away their presence, and looking from the
Approaching Pressured Venues /// Alex Bransby
“These carp can be under enormous amounts of
pressure for most of the year, and as a result they will
often feed in a very cagey manner and be hard to catch”
Look in areas where there
are no anglers because the
carp will often be here.
ground you would never know they were there.
Simply getting up a tree or two and looking down
into the water with a pair of polarised sunglasses
will reveal the presence of the carp, and once you
have located them you are much, much closer to
catching them! Once you have found one of these
comfort zones, the carp present will often have their
guard down and will therefore be easier to trick.
Before wetting a line in their safe haven, I personally
would proceed with caution and scale down to
a light lead and use the minimal amount of bait
required. A simple stringer will more than suffice to
try to nick a bite. If you start bombarding them with
boilies then you’re sure to spook them off and ruin
your chances of success. I would also suggest that
you only use the one rod (two at the most) to keep
the pressure to a minimum.
Line Angles
On many of these busy day ticket venues you will
find that the majority of anglers seem to fish the
most obvious spots in any given swim, and whether
that’s to obvious features such as islands,
>>
plateaus or overhanging trees, they all tend
The vantage point of a tree
will often help you find carp
that are keeping a low profile.
Crafty Carper 123

Approaching Pressured Venues /// Alex Bransby
to receive a great deal of attention from anglers.
This is the right thing to do because these kinds
of areas can be very productive, but over time
carp become conditioned to it, and investigate
such features with growing caution; they get used
to coming across anglers’ lines approaching the
feature from a certain angle. A number of times I
have witnessed wary carp approach known hot
spots only to thoroughly investigate the area of
water between the angler and the spot for signs of
anything untoward. Very often they sense danger
and move off. This shows me just how important
it can be to make sure you conceal the lay of your
line as much as possible. There are a number of
ways to achieve this, including the use of leadcore
leaders, weighted tubing, backleads and flying
backleads, plus, of course, the use of fluorocarbon
main line fished nice and slack. All these products
will help your presentation hug the contours of the
lakebed and in turn help fool these wary carp into
making a mistake.
One great edge I have found while tackling these
pressured waters with known hot spots is to fish
them from a completely different angle. Changing
the angle of the line to these spots can often totally
confuse carp because they are just so used to
all the pressure coming from a certain direction. I
have had some great results by using this tactic
on pressured venues where the actions of other
anglers have been predictable. In fact, a number of
times I have tricked some rare visitors to the bank
by fishing spots from an unexpected angle.
Tactical Thinking
When tackling a venue for the first time it is always
best to keep an open mind and stay flexible,
as every water presents you with a fresh set of
circumstances to consider and overcome. I always
try to find out as much as possible beforehand
with regards to fish stocks, depths, topography
and make-up of the lakebed, as well as angler
pressure. Information gleaned from fellow anglers
with experience of the chosen venue can also be
invaluable, so make the effort to be sociable and you
may just pick up that all-important part of the puzzle
to guide you to success. In essence, carp fishing
should not be complicated, although you could
be forgiven for thinking otherwise at times with the
amount of tackle available to today’s angler.
I believe the majority of us are guilty of
overcomplicating our approach now and again,
sometimes unnecessarily. It really depends on
the water being fished and the angling pressure
the fish are under. For example, carp in a small,
heavily pressured water will usually be more
suspicious and riggy than those found in a larger
less pressured water. Therefore, a more refined
approach may be called for. This is a situation
where using fresh tactics that the fish haven’t
encountered before can often mean the difference
between catching and blanking. It’s amazing just
how many anglers turn up at these waters and
almost just go through the motions. They will use
virtually the same rigs, and fish the same spots
with the same general approach, then wonder why
results aren’t forthcoming. However, this in itself
can be a massive edge for you, as by ringing the
changes and being different from the crowd you
can stay one step ahead of the other anglers, and,
more importantly, the carp!
A good example of this happened while I was
fishing a small pressured water where it seemed
everyone was employing the same tactics. They
were all using 3oz semi-fixed lead setups on lead
clips in conjunction with coated hooklinks of 6-7ins.
“In essence, carp fishing should not be complicated,
although you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise at
times with the amount of tackle available to today’s angler”
Try using tactics that are
completely different to the
norm on your target venue.
124 Crafty Carper
Once you have found
the carp, keep your
bait to a minimum.
Often one rod will be more than
enough to get you success.
Leadcore and weighted tubing will
aid concealment…
…as will standard and flying
backleads.

Using boilies of the highest quality
will give you a definite edge.
Fluorocarbon main lines sink like a
brick and are near enough invisible
in water…
...and should be fished nice and
slack with lightweight bobbins.
EFFORT=
REWARD!
Make the effort to
prebait a few swims
before you fish and you
will be giving yourself
a massive edge.
A Big Thank You To…
Stanwick Lakes Fisheries for allowing us to
shoot the pictures for this feature on their
brilliant Mallard Lake.
Log on to:
www.stanwicklakesfisheries.co.uk for
details of this top class day ticket complex.
What’s more, everyone tended to cast out towards
the middle of the lake into the main body of water.
With this in mind I set about refining my approach
so it was completely different to the norm. I began
incorporating light 1oz in-line leads with long 12ins
fluorocarbon hooklinks – simple enough, but also
different enough to trick the carp. These rigs were
then placed no more than 2ft from the bank down
a marginal shelf, and within the space of six hours
of the first time I used it I had landed four 20lb+
carp up to nearly 30lb! It just goes to show how
quickly results can come when you offer the carp
something they are not conditioned to seeing and
dealing with.
The Baiting Game
Getting bait and its application right is a
fundamental part of successful carp fishing,
and never more so than when targeting busy
day ticket waters. I like to use a top
quality boilie as the mainstay in
my approach; the carp will see
so much bait in their pressured
environment that you need to
make sure yours is more
appealing than the
rest. In recent years
I have used a few
different baits from
the Mistral stable,
which stand
Washed-out baits will often be
treated with less caution by
wary carp in pressured venues.
This pressured day ticket
carp didn’t see Alex coming!
Approaching Pressured Venues /// Alex Bransby
head and shoulders above
many other boilies around
– and the carp know it! The
new LiveR No Name bait is
of outstanding quality; during
testing it significantly out-fished
other baits on a wide variety
of pressured venues, so keep
your eyes open for that one.
Prebaiting with a quality
boilie can be a massive edge on any water, but
especially so on busy day ticket waters. If you
intend to spend a bit of time on the same day
ticket venue for a few weeks, I would recommend
trickling in some bait on a regular basis before you
actually fish – you’ll find very few other anglers
will bother doing this. Instead of concentrating all
your bait in one area, though, I recommend you
try to spread it about a bit so the carp become
accustomed to finding it in different areas of
the lake. Let’s face it, if it’s a busy open-to-all
venue you are highly unlikely to be able to fish the
same spots time and time again, so don’t limit
your approach. A quick note of caution here – if
prebaiting is undertaken you must always show
consideration to other anglers present and bait
up the quieter areas with the least amount of
disturbance to others.
I am also of the opinion that pre-soaked washedout
baits are more readily accepted by the carp
than those fresh out of the bag. The carp may be
so used to associating fresh flavoursome bait with
the presence of angling pressure (and therefore
danger) that they become very cautious and avoid
feeding on the area for a certain period of time.
Therefore the principle is that a bait of neutral
flavour levels renders the bait safe in the eyes of
the carp and they will consume it without much
suspicion. These days, instead of washing out
my bait I now use a boilie made with no added
flavours, which relies on its quality base mix for
results. The bait in question is once again from
Mistral, and it is simply called The Bait With No
Name. It works on exactly the same principle
as washed-out baits because it isn’t heavily
flavoured, yet unlike washed-out baits it is not soft
and will stay on the Hair for a long period of time.
Conclusion
So there you have it. This is my
approach for tackling pressured
day ticket venues. Put effort and
thought into your location, rigs
and bait and there should be no
reason why you can’t experience
unbelievable success on waters
fished by large numbers of
anglers on a regular
basis. Start putting
it into practice now
and you won’t
look back! CC
Crafty Carper 125