If you work full time, then you will know just how hard it is to get enough bank hours in. But this doesn’t mean you can’t compete with those who have more time on their hands. Personally, despite a busy job, I make the effort to fish three nights a week, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. These sessions are only what would be termed ‘quick overnighters’, but merge them together and you have the equivalent of a decent session a week.
Make the effort
The first key to this overnight game is effort, you simply must be prepared to put in the graft and make it happen. I’m fortunate that I live in the Cotswolds, so have the Water Park on my doorstep and can head to my target lake and bait up in the mornings. Regardless of your location, it’s all about maximising the time you have if you are going to be successful.
Lake choice is an important consideration too, you need to pick a water with night form. There’s no point doing an overnighter to just sleep, you need to be up early and stay late. I’ve fished waters where all the action comes in the hours of darkness, but have also fished venues where bites are a daytime commodity, so pick wisely.
MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A SET OF THE BEST CARP RODS BY CHECKING OUT OUR BUYER'S GUIDE.
Stay mobile
Keeping your kit to a minimum is vital to overnight success. You need to be on your toes and make the most of every opportunity that may present itself. A good lightweight selection of kit and a reliable barrow to transport it on are essential. I’ve done four or five laps of a 60-acre lake looking for fish on overnighters in the past – you can’t do that with the kitchen sink!
THE BEST FISHING BOOTS WILL HELP YOUR FEET STAY SAFE AND COMFORTABLE DURING LONG LAPS.
Play to the conditions
You can be a lot more calculating with when you decide to fish when you are a short session angler. Don’t just go for the sake of it, if conditions aren’t right, these are times to just bait spots and leave the fish to it. Try to plan your fishing around the peak conditions for catching, so that’s new moons, big winds and low pressure.
THE BEST FISHING ROD PODS HELP YOU SETUP IN NO TIME AT ALL!
Preparation is key
Preparation is important in all angling but even more so when it comes to overnighters. Have everything ready in advance like rigs, bait and other essentials. Carry spares too, you really don’t want to be heading home again because you have forgot your headtorch or your net -we’ve all been there!
I use the same rigs all the time. For pop-ups, it’s the ever-reliable ‘Hinge Stiff’ rig, whilst for bottom baits Iuse an Amnesia D-rig. Plenty of these are tied-up and ready to go in the bag, so I don’t have to fiddle around on the bank.
ONE OF THE BEST FISHING BIVVIES WILL HELP YOU SET UP AND PACK DOWN IN NO TIME.
The biggest piece of preparation I do, however, is pre-baiting. I will have several spots going around the lake, which are baited throughout the week to put me ahead of the game when I come to fish. This doesn’t mean I have to fish them; it just gives me options and the spots will get better and better over time. It also doesn’t mean I won’t put in bait on the session either, despite only being there for a limited amount of time, I won’t hesitate to put in 3kg or more of boilie and other particle, if I think the fish are having it. This is done, straight away after the rigs are deployed to the spots, which is always the thing I do first.
NEW TO CARP FISHING? CHECK OUT OUR EXPERT ARTICLE FOR ALL THE TACKLE AND TIPS YOU NEED!
Log and learn
It might not happen on your first overnighter, but over time you will learn more and more about the water you are targeting. Try and keep a log of everything. Where fish are being caught and in what conditions. Areas they show at certain times, spots you have found, details others have told you, every bit of information you can get will help you make quick decisions on future sessions.
Doing nights only can also have an impact on your location on the lake itself. In some carp waters, the fish have a distinct movement pattern from day to night. I’ve fished venues where fish will sit in an out of bounds area all day, and then come out to explore once it gets dark, typical public lake behaviour.
NEED SOME NEW BITE ALARMS? OUR BUYER'S GUIDE HAS ALL THE BEST AVAILABLE TO CHOOSE FROM!
Good excuses
Unfortunately, the fish don’t always play to our schedule, and you might find that feeding period extends later into the morning than expected. Now we could just wind in and get to work, but I find a stock selection of traffic jam photos on my phone will usually buy that extra couple of hours.
