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There can be few more spell binding and 'heart in your mouth' exciting methods of catching carp than surface fishing for them. Intently watching our bait out on the surface, seeing a large dark shadow approaching it, suddenly followed by a mouth breaking the surface tension just in front of the hook and slurping in the bait - the line twitches immediately followed by a massive swirl of water and....Well, we'll leave the rest of the story for you to finish off.
Here at home in the States, although carp can be spotted and sight fished for in some of the smaller lakes and ponds located around our suburban areas, upon first visiting many of our larger lakes, there seems to be few opportunities to see carp cruising the surface, never mind observing the larger, more mature, and experienced carp confidently feeding off of the surface.
Of course, we see plenty crashing during our everyday sessions and although no-one is absolutely certain why, we feel that these fish are feeding below the surface of the water (although not always on the bottom of the lake!) and are just briefly crashing out of the water to clear their gill rakes of food particles or silt, or to adjust the amount of air in their swim bladders to effect ballast before swimming to deeper water or even to dislodge parasites etc. before returning to depths to continue feeding.
The clearer the water is, the warier the carp are and consequently, much harder to locate during the hours of daylight. Their general avoidance of the surface layers in most cases here in the US is probably due to the prevalence of birds of prey in and around our lakes.
However, the Carp on the Fly specialists among us often sight fish and catch tailing and Mudding carp in the shallows of even the largest of our lakes, so the opportunities are there. It's a fact, especially during the hot summer months that fishing with a bait on the bottom of the lake is often futile process. This can be for a multitude of reasons and these are often the times where surface fishing with one the following surface three rigs (shown in the diagrams below) even during the night time hours can save many a blank session.
We have found that if enough time is spent just walking and watching our local lakes, looking hard enough, particularly during the early mornings and evenings, they can be seen especially in the warmer summer months. Like many aspects of successful Carp angling, it takes a little dedication and investment of time by the angler. In the right circumstances, there are fish to been seen in the upper layers. These fish, with a little effort and training can be taught to feed confidently up on the surface.
A great way to find surface feeding carp, especially in Suburban areas is to watch where ever the public feed bread to the ducks on our park lakes. Here, the carp are never far behind, often swimming directly under the legs of the ducks and 'stealing' their food. Of course, this scenario has its own trials and tribulations when fishing for the carp due to the birds (ducks & Seagulls) also picking our bait up but it does go to show that the carp will learn quickly to go to where ever the food is and follow it. Another cool tip is to watch where the birds roost, particularly if in trees, overhanging the lake; this is particularly so if the birds are Cormorants, Herons or Egrets. This is because the poop that drops into the water while the birds are roosting is partially digested fish and invertebrates; although not a very appetizing thought for us, there is no denying the fact that the fish do love it, so let’s take advantage of the situation...
The slide show below shows many of the baits we can use to surface fish. Baits such as bread crusts, floating Koi or catfish pellets glued together to form a larger bait, some dry Dog and Cat food mixers that float will work well and of course, pop-up boilies, simple Rig Foam and floating Zig Bugs and the larger, buoyant dry Flies are excellent too.
