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How to catch newly stocked F1s and carp on commercials

As lots of commercials carry out their winter fish stocking programmes, Andy May discusses how he goes about catching them...

by Tony Grigorjevs |

Updated on8th December 2025 at 1.30pm

Many commercial fisheries you visit will have started their winter stocking campaigns, with large numbers of small F1s and carp being introduced at venues across the country. Usually weighing anywhere between 8oz and 1lb each, these stockies come straight from the fish farm and have never been targeted by anglers before.

Unlike their more established brothers and sisters, they are quite naïve, showing little caution when feeding. Getting a few bites off them is rarely an issue if you are sat close to where they’ve balled up but keeping them coming all day is an altogether different proposition.

Over the years, former Fish O’Mania champion Andy May has fished plenty of venues that have received these influxes of new stock, and you can rely on tactics that are somewhat different to what you’d usually use for bigger examples of the same species.

Fish that have been in a commercial for a while have seen it all, and you must think outside the box at times to keep bites coming, but recently stocked carp and F1s behave differently. It is a simple way of fishing, but if you want to maximise your catches, you have got to adapt your tactics and feeding patterns to suit.

IN OUR WHERE TO FISH GUIDE YOU CAN FIND A VENUE TO CATCH A NETFUL OF F1'S.

Follow these tips to catch a netful of stockies!

Rely on groundbait

Small carp and F1s will swarm into any loosefeed that is introduced, and that can create chaos in the area. Line bites and foul hooking will occur if this happens, but both can be easily avoided by loosefeeding in the correct manner.

Don’t feed any pellets in the early stages, instead you choose just to cup a tiny nugget of Sonubaits Supercrush Expander groundbait in each time you ship out.

This is packed with scent, and releases a cloud that the fish race towards, but essentially, there is virtually no food content to it.

The fish arrive, and the only thing they find is the hookbait, leading to an almost instant bite a lot of the time. It is then a case of working out a pattern and deciding how often to feed. At times you’ll need to feed after every fish, but at others it may be after every two or three.

The only time you’ll tap a few micros in is if the fish aren’t staying put, as a little bit of actual food helps to hold them in the area for longer.

Mixing one pint of water to one pint of groundbait will create the perfect consistency of feed.

CHECK OUT THIS EXPERT GUIDE TO UNDERSTAND WHEN TO USE FISHMEAL GROUNDBAITS.

Sonubaits Supercrush Ground Expander

Heavier rigs will score

Fluttering the hookbait down to the bottom slowly is key to fooling big F1s in winter, and this natural presentation of the hookbait is an essential route to getting bites.

There’s no need for such finesse with smaller fish, though, and you can use slightly heavier floats that need more weight to shot them correctly.

A 4x12 Preston Innovations F1 Pellet is ideal, as the wire stem makes the float sit quickly, allowing you to see bites just as the hookbait settles.

This is shotted with five No9 shot over an 8ins spread bulk, with the last shot sat just above the hooklength loop.

The hookbait gets down to the bottom a few seconds quicker, boosting the total number of fish that you end up catching.

Elastic choice is is a grade nine Preston Innovations Dura Slip Hybrid, while the mainline is 0.16mm to a 0.11mm hooklength and a size 16 SFL-B hook.

IN THIS ARTICLE YOU WILL FIND THE 5 MUST HAVE CARP POLE RIGS YOU CAN TIE YOURSELF.

4 x 12 Preston F1 Pellet

Choose expanders over hard pellets

A hookbait that the fish can suck up with ease will drastically improve the number of bites you hit. A hard pellet may be mouthed by a small F1, but it won’t necessarily suck the hook in at the same time, leading to a missed bite when you strike at the indication.

An expander pellet, however, is mounted directly on the hook, meaning the fish must take the hook in too as they feed. Expanders are also lighter and softer, making it easier for stockies to hoover them up.

A 4mm version is best at this time of year but in a few weeks, when the fish have been caught a few times, a 2mm pellet may work even better.

FIND OUT HOW TO PREPARE PELLETS FOR FISHING IN THIS HANDY GUIDE.

Sonubaits Pro Expanders.

Find the right depth

3ft always seems to be the best depth once temperatures plummet to target these newly stocked fish.

Set your rig to that depth and then plumb around to find it. This is likely to be a metre or two off both the near and far banks.

One rig will cover every swim, and you like to fish an area out before looking to move.

Once the fish back away, it’s time to move to another spot with exactly the same depth. Spend a little time plumbing up at the start to find perhaps half a dozen areas with 3ft to save you having to do it in the middle of the day.

THE BEST FISHING POLES ARE A PLEASURE TO USE.

Find the right depth.

Work the rig

Lowering the rig in and keeping it still over a tight pile of bait can be the name of the game when fishing for big F1's with pellets, but smaller fish are a bit more instinctive.

If they catch something moving out of the corner of their eye, they won’t be able to resist seeing what’s going on. If they can eat it, they’ll snap it up almost immediately.

With that in mind, regularly lift and drop the rig. You count to 10 in your head and lift anywhere between half and the whole float out to keep the hookbait moving.

You’ll be amazed just how many bites you get just as the float bristle is settling back into its normal position.

HERE ARE THE BEST POLE FISHING TIPS TO CATCH MORE ON COMMERCIALS.

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