Winter Carp Location Tips

The hardest part of winter carp fishing is location, if you can find them all you need to do is put a single hook bait on its nose and wait until the time of day comes around when the fish is ready to feed, sounds easy doesnt it. Its not unusual for the whole population of a lake to be in one or two shoals.

One of the main factors I always take into consideration when trying to locate their 'homes' is the undertow, caused by the wind. At this time of the year carp have only short feeding spells, the rest of the day they are shoaled up in a very tight area doing very little, these small areas of carp will be where they feel 'safe' from predators and need to use up as little enegy as possible. If you can work out the routes that these undertows take its not hard to find the still water, or 'eddies' if it was a river. Most shallow lakes 'circulate' with a wind on them and the stillest water is right in the middle of this circulation.

To find which way the undercurrents are going just cast out, leave a yard of slack line and see which direction the bow forms, by doing this at various points around a lake it is possible to map out these undercurrents, then look the quiet water, this can be a very reliable area to fish when it is cold, I once spent a whole winter on a lake trying to catch fish in the same spots as I would have done in the summer, ie the margins on a small lake, when I discovered the 'quiet' my results rocketed.