Margin Mayhem

Fishing in the margins probably accounts for more match wins on commercials than any other method, and generally the fish that you catch in the margins are big, making it a fun and exciting way to approach a pleasure session too. For today’s masterclass, I’ve brought you to the prolific Hallcroft Fishery near Retford to run through some gems of advice about this superb tactic!

Generally, fish don’t feed in the margins all day long, especially big, wary carp. Often the later half of the day is when they will move into the edges of lakes confidently, and sometimes when there is angling pressure on a lake in a match situation the last few hours can be the best time to target the edges. Getting this timing aspect right is vital, and my best advice for big carp would be to not even consider feeding your margins until halfway through a session. In a typical match for example that is been fished 10.30am to 4.30pm, I’d look to attack the margins from 1pm onwards. The reason that feeding the edges later is effective, is because fish are naturally much more tuned-in to bait entering the margins later in the day, as anglers are packing up and throw leftover bait in the edges. I have also learned that there is an ‘impact’ factor you can use in your favour, and by waiting and waiting before you attack the margins with feed, you will get a better response when you do hit it.

Generally there are two approaches that I take when margin fishing for big carp, and which one I choose depends on the depth of water that I’m fishing in. In shallow water, I love using groundbait and micro pellets. In water of three and a half feet or less, this is the route I will go down. Big carp love groundbait and micros, and it’s almost like they can’t help but come in and feed on them when you introduce them at the right time. In shallow water, fish are generally easy to catch over groundbait and micros, because the fish stay on the bottom when feeding. However, if you feed these baits in deeper water, because the baits are light and cloudy, they get wafted up off the bottom and fish can drift up and spread them around quickly. This makes them difficult to catch, and can lead to loads of foul hooked fish. I always use Mainline Match Margin Mix, and add plenty of water to this so it’s nice and wet, making it heavy and inert to pin it to the bottom as much as possible. This mix is full of crushed pellets, fishmeal and seeds that carp can’t resist! My micros are 2mm Activated Pellets where allowed, and I soak these so they are soft throughout, again making sure they all sink and are soft but heavy.

In deeper margin situations, heavier particle baits come into play for me. Because they are heavier they sink faster, and stay put on the deck even when fish come in and start wafting them around when feeding. For me, baits like 4mm and 6mm hard pellets or hemp and corn are great for pinning fish down better – it’s just a case of working out what they want to feed over on a given venue.

This is the unanswerable million-dollar question, because it varies constantly. Generally, a decent hit of feed is good for the first feed of the session. You generally find that you can be more aggressive with groundbait and micros than with particles. Three 300ml Pole Cups full of groundbait and micros mixed 50/50 is a great start. If it was particles, I’d make this less, maybe just one large 300ml pot to start with. The reason is because particles are more filling than groundbait and micros, and too many of them means there are far too many ‘options’ for fish to take aside from the hookbait.

Topping-up and re-feeding is where you can really make the most of margin fishing, and generally there are two ways of doing it. The first is more controlled and is typically better when there are lots of fish about. It’s basically feeding every drop-in with a pole mounted pot. You can play around with the size, anything from a Medium all the way up to an XL Guru pot can work. The idea is to keep re-setting the trap, feeding the pole pot of bait and placing the rig right over the top.

The other way of feeding is when you need to really pull-in fish again, and it involved ‘dump potting’ using the large 300ml Pole Cup. A bigger amount going in is sometimes needed to make them come back to the spot. This can be done after every fish, or in-between using smaller pole mounted pots like above. The key is to have everything we’ve spoke about here in your armoury, and tweak/adapt your feeding between these tactics to keep fish coming.

Margin fishing for carp can be brutal on tackle, and you need kit that is robust to cope with the prolonged periods of strain you put your kit under. Pole wise, you need to be confident, and I’m happy using an Aventus Zero 900 or 700 for any big carp margin work. The only time I’d favour the 700 over the 900 is if I was fishing right into severe snags, where extra strength would give me even more confidence to pull hard! Rigs need to be equally as strong and are always tied on 0.22mm N-Gauge mainline. Hooklengths can vary between 0.15mm and 0.22mm depending on size and confidence of the fish, but 0.19mm is my go-to most of the time, to a size 12 or 14 Super XS Spade Barbless. Ready Rigs with these hook and line combinations make prep very easy! These hooks are razor sharp, and incredibly strong, with the wide gape supporting all kinds of baits from a bunch of maggots, to a big expander pellet, single or double corn and even two or three full worms.

Double corn or worms make great margin hook baits!

Margin rigs for big carp must be stable too, because big fish can waft a rig around and anything too light may lead to foul-hooked fish if it wafts away from the baited area or into the upper layers of the water. For this reason, I like a float of 0.4g for anything up to 3.5ft, opting for a Margin Diamond. This is shotted with a bulk right above the 6-inch hook link. In deeper water, anything over 3.5ft, I use a JL float in 0.5g or 0.6g, shotted with a small spread bulk above the 6-inch hooklength. Both these floats feature a thick fibreglass stem which is really stable, and have a thick visible hollow-plastic tip that you can see and read easily. Elastic wise, either Black or Red Hybro are my go-to elastics. Black for smaller fish up to 6lb in weight, and Red for anything bigger, which is still soft but very powerful to land fish quickly.

General terminal margin gear...

Where you actually fish is a vital variable to think about. For carp the dream is a swim two to two and a half feet deep, on a very gently sloping bottom or one that has a small flat area. If you can get this terrain anywhere from 5m to 11m away from you, you’re onto a winner. The more wary fish are, and the tougher I expect the fishing to be, the further away from myself I will fish, so that carp aren’t put-off by the bankside disturbance. If there are loads of very confident fish, I’ll fish closer to myself for efficiency purposes.

Obviously, you don’t always have this, and certain margins are deeper, with steeper sloping shelves, and you need to find the best areas. Flatter bottoms are better, and too deeper water can be a detriment, so my advice would be to plumb as carefully as possible always, and spend time finding the best area of your given swim to fish.

The final piece of advice I would give, is to make sure you don’t try and fish the margins when the fish are not there. Often, you’ll see fish moving close in, or recognise that other anglers are catching in the edge around the lake – all signs giving away that’s where the fish are and that it’s the right time and they are feeding! The key is not to waste time fishing there when the fish are not there. Keep your eyes open and make the most of fishing in other places of your swim until the fish are ready for some margin munching!