Outside The Box – Jan Porter

This Could Be You!

JAN PORTER shows you how to get a bend in your rod this July at your local commercial venue with a stealthy approach to fishing the margins.

With commercial waters being man-made, other than islands and the marginal shelf, there tends to be little in the way of sub-surface features. Coupled with the small size of many of these lakes, this makes margins the most prominent feature and the best area for them to find food until the weed and plants appear. On established, well-managed commercials the planting of reeds, lily pads and bankside shrubs or bushes will provide both shelter and food sources, so are areas that you should look to target.

As a match angler I fished many matches on commercial venues and every time I’d pray to draw a peg opposite an island, or with a bit of weed, or an overhanging branch or two. Luckily, these days the vast majority of carp puddles, as they were once called, have turned into beautiful fisheries with a variety of flora and fauna. Many of these fisheries now hold carp in excess of 20lb and make perfect waters for carp anglers looking for a bend in the rod. You don’t have to look too far to find such places and today’s venue, Bishops Bowl complex near my Warwickshire, home falls into this category. I’ve only fished it a couple of times and have had plenty of carp, all from 10lb to 16lb, but it’s home to much bigger carp and they generally get caught in the margins.

Read the rest of this article in the July 2009 issue of Total Carp magazine.

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