Cricket Ground Carpin by Steve Baker

I've been fishing on the cricket ground pool now on and off since I started carp fishing and it there where I learnt most of the basic aspects of fishing for carp that a carp angler needs to know. Because of this I have got to know the in's and out's of what works and what doesn't on there so I've written this article to give you a few hints and tips about how to go about bagging yourself a nice fish from there.

First off, bait wise practically any type of bait from a decent boilie straight through to the humble maggot will catch carp from there. For the majority of the time, especially through the warmer months, I use a boilie for the hook bait in conjunction with a small pva bag of different sized fishmeal pellets and broken up boilies of the same type as the hookbait. I fish these tactics using a lead clip setup with a 2 ½ oz lead and a standard knotless knot hair rig with a size 8 hook. This has accounted for countless numbers of carp for me from there, catching sometimes over 10 fish in a few hours.

Float fishing corn and paste with pellets as freebies can also be a devastating method and it's this method which caught me a fair amount of fish when I first started. Just a simple float rig is needed for this with a decent strength mainline of say around 10lb straight through, a crystal waggler float, and a small shot a few inches from a size 10 hook.

Also not to be forgotten surface fishing is one of my favourite methods on there during red hot periods of weather when fishing on the bottom can be a little slow. All that is needed for this rig wise is a simple controller rig setup using a small controller so not to spook the carp and a long hooklink up to 6 foot in length with a small size 10 hook on the end. Most floating baits will work but the dog biscuit is my favoured bait for the hook and for freebies. One bit of advice for when trying to catch a carp off the surface is to be patient and get the fish feeding confidently first before casting in.

For the winter months I tend to change tactics slightly and go for a bright smelly single hookbait on its own without any freebies. Little yellow pineapple pop-ups are my favourite and can be brought from any tackle shop in the area for a reasonable price. Alternatively white baits can be fantastic in the winter as they are the brightest bait you can get from anywhere. Also a big bunch of maggots fished with a small pva bag of maggots can also work wonders when nothing else seems to be working. The rigs for winter are mostly exactly the same but I like to make everything a little bit smaller for example, hooks from a size 8 to a size 10, mainline from 12lb down to 10lb etc. This is because as the weather gets colder, the water becomes clearer and it is easier for the carp pick up on your rig and mainline which could end in the carp being spooked from the area all together.

Locating the carp in the cricket ground can be quite easy as most of the time they tend to nearly always follow the wind, especially a strong new wind. There are many ‘hotspots' in there to fish to that will give you a good chance of catching. Starting at the entrance to the lake, the obvious feature here if the tree that fell in a few years back. This produces a load of fish no matter what time of year it is. Fishing a few yards off it will always catch a few fish but you HAVE to be careful when fishing near it as once hooked the fish tend to head straight for the snaggy branches underneath it which means that strong tackle is needed. So you have to sitting by your rods at all times to save losing a fish or putting the carp in any unnecessary danger as the rig could easily get tangled up in such a way that the carp would not be able to free itself. Lily pads in most areas of the lake in the summer months always give up a few carp as well as most of the margins with a bit of bank side cover. Also up the far end of the lake when the wind is pushing up there, a bait cast into the middle is a good bet for a take.

If you use common sense in your fishing as well as some of these tactics explained here you can be sure that a carp will grace your net sometime or another. They may not be huge in comparison to other waters but you can't beat their appearance as some of them are stunning old fish. Hope this has helped in any way.

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Copyright Daniel Goddard