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Locating carp in the Summer

In the summer the average water temperature is within a much higher range, so a carp’s priority changes. I think they maybe more focused on seeking out areas of the lake where oxygen is more abundant. In other words, oxygen may take president over temperature during the summertime. The warmer temperatures enable carp to move around more, thus they expend greater amounts of energy. They need sufficient levels of oxygen to help burn all the additional energy.
With additional energy requirements, carp will need extra food to provide this demand. For this reason, they will often visit places rich in food sources. These places may be areas of natural foods, or swims that receive plenty of anglers bait on a regular basis.

Because oxygen may become more important at this time of year, a carp may be inclined to follow strong winds. Locating carp on a windward bank is one of the most common places where they will hold up. An exception to this is if a huge number of carp anglers are fishing the windward bank. In this case, the angling pressure may cause the majority of carp to move to an area where they would not normally be located during the summertime. On pressured waters, their safety may take president over greater oxygen levels.

Weed is one of the easiest places to locate carp in the summer. It goes without saying that find the weed and you’ll find carp!!

Find the Hot Pegs
There are always pegs on every lake that are considered fishing hotspots. However, how do they become places where anglers always catch carp from in the first place?
One theory I have is that the hotspot is fished much more than other pegs. The peg may have become popular firstly because it may be in a practical place, such as close to the car park. If a peg is fished regularly, then the spot inevitably receives bait virtually every day. Eventually every carp in the lake will get to know that this area is always a place where food is available from. This means huge numbers of fish visit this peg on a regular basis in order to see if there’s any “free” food available. With numbers of fish competing over available bait, it is inevitable that you will catch during any session. It could purely be the case that this peg has fish in its swim every day and it could be this fact that makes it a hotspot. Thus, anyone fishing this peg has automatically achieved one of the most important points in carp fishing - He has inadvertently located the carp before starting fishing!

Another requirement for carp is a safe zone. Places where they can hold up in relative safety and away from the disturbances from carp anglers lines and rigs. There generally tends to be many more anglers fishing for carp during the summer, so a safe area becomes high priority for many carp. For this reason, you may well find that snags and over hanging trees are great places to locate carp in the summer months. Another great place to locate carp in the summer is lily pads. They are a place of safety for carp, as well as a place for potential food from natural sources, such as slugs, flies and other insects that may come to lie on the top of the pads.

The distant margins of no-fishing banks are also a great place to look for carp because the pressure of capture from fishing lines tends to push carp further away to the opposite bank. In fact, even the close margins of the bank that you are fishing may also be a good place to target the carp. The majority of anglers cast out their lines at some range and often neglect the close banks where the fish may visit during the quiet of night.

On a very hot day, it may be best to look around over hanging trees. Here the fish will lay dormant, with the shade offering them cooler water as well as the safety of cover. The fishing tactic here is to get them feeding rather than cast a line in front of them. Any tackle will only spook them off, but gently throwing out bait whilst remaining hidden can encourage the carp into feeding. Once you have them feeding confidently, you can try to discreetly place out a rig.