My Guide to fish for Spring Carp in Southern Sweden.
Spring carp fishing in southern Sweden can be a rewarding experience, but it requires patience, attention to detail, and a deep understanding of the changing conditions. As someone who has spent many years fishing in this region, I’ve learned that the key to success lies in adjusting to the local environment and making the most of every opportunity that arises when the weather begins to warm.
First of all, this is a A B C for me how to catch carp in spring here in southern Sweden.
We are a bit dependent on the weather because we often have a much longer winter weather here. Often we have a thick layer of ice in december-march, depending on where you live or target your carps. I'm living in the southern part of sweden, but still not south enough to be ''icefree'' all year around like the most southern parts of Sweden.
Anyway, since I live where I live, I'm focusing on different types of fish when it gets to cold, but what is to cold for me? When do I stop focusing on carp? And when do I start focusing on carp again? I'd say when you feel the sun hits your face and it feels warmer, for me personally I say it smells different outside, the days are a bit longer, a bit warmer in early march, but often I still have a layer of ice or we often suffer from backlashes in both march but also April.
To get the most of the day, you need to pick the right spots, shallow areas (Not always) but I target the most shallow areas, like 0,7m-1m depth, and close to common reeds, or maybe a dead fallen tree in the water. Because here 99% of the time its the first part in the lake thats wakes up, waterliving creatures are starting to hatch and swim around. Also it will just get the warm sunrays hit trough the watercollum easier.
Me and my mate had a rule, that when the bottom on the shallow area hits 5-6 celcius, it's showtime. We know for a fact that after many years of trying to fish super early spring, we often had our success in 5-6 celcius, and I also know, that it's not impossible to catch carp, I know lakes in sweden producing carp all year around, but I fish in a little pond which is small and quite shallow, aslong its icefree, its good to go.
Another important thing to remember when you are fishing for one bite in early spring, is to have your eyes on the water, go look for them in quiet areas where there's no wind, put on your polaroid glasses and start to climb the trees. But beware, they can be really slippery!
Im trying to climb high, and stay there for a while before I choose the spot for the night, sometimes you can't see them, sometimes you can. But another great tip is to watch the common reeds, because carp are moving inside or close to them, and you can see the reeds moving a little bit. Its not easy, but for me a smaller water is a good start.
Baits & Rigs
One of the harder parts of spring fishing is to keep minimal with everything, I like to bait very very small, in a solid bag, or a pva mesh bag, I'd like to use a bright fluro popup, or a match the hatch popup. Pink, white, orange, yellow, dosen't matter in my opinion, the critical bit is to balance it very well, in this time of year carps are not eating heavy, they like a small mouth, and thats why I think its important to balance a small popup very light, it's not gonna drop to the bottom, its gonna fall slowly, not like a feather, but slightly faster.
Hard to explain trough text and words, but you will find your way. I have some rigs I have been using in early spring, A KD-rig is solid and you can also choose a bottom bait rig/wafter rig, but I always choose a multi rig. Its not optimal to use with pva mesh, and not the best in a solidbag. But this has worked out good for me.
How can a carp resist this small pile of bait, with some small pellets? The boilies I use is MP1 freezers, I let them dry a few days before, and I crumb them up before its going down the solidbag, and heres where I choose some MP1 Liquid, But its not neccersary, I have catch with and without liquid.
Another good thing i've been using is White secret popups, but a twist is some sweet Goo supreme liquid, soak them so they suck everything up. And when you slice trough the popup, you will see how nicely they been drying up the liquid.
I also think that there's some guidlines to follow when it comes to springfishing, but often not neccesary to follow, because its a mindgame followed by some good timing and nice weather, Does it need to be sunny? Not at all, it makes things abit easier. Because if you find them, you'll catch them, and heres where next thing comes to your plan. A good presentation, and this is why I choose a solidbag, if theres debries on the bottom, most likely your popup will stand nicely in your 'pile' of bait.
This for an example, is a smaller lake next to a bigger lake, its really really shallow in here with loads of weeds on the bottom. Bottom is quite hard and soft at the same time, loads of natural food in here and its place the carps like to hold in early spring.
In here I've been sitting up in threes for hours in and out, watching carps swimming around, and just enjoying the warm sunrays. In here, is a top area to fish in spring, because carp starts to feed in here. But, the days can be very very slow, because on the days carps are just standing still or swimming around very slow.
2-3 carps following each other from the three I've been sitting in for hours. This is an perfect example in my opinion, where I would put my solidbag, you can bait next to the margin with a handful of halfs/crushed MP1 boilies, and put your rig there. I could almost guarantee that it would be a run. But, even if you think you can cast close to the common reeds, you should be aware that sometimes ice breaks off the reeds, and can still be abit further out than you think, and thats where our markerfloat, baitboat, deeper, or a single led, or the most important and cheapest part, your eyes, when you have knowledge of where to put your bait, you should be accurate, and here you can have your wrapsticks for measure and always be on the right area, or a baitboat, or a baitingpole.
But remember, even if you see 10 carps swimming around and close to your bait, its easy to think you can put bait in for 10 carps. But start slow, one fish at a time, if you catch two three fish on the spot, well. Increase your bait by 1½ solidbag? Its easier to put bait in, than take it out. Not to mention, but also have in mind that whitefish, like roach, bream, tench, likes ur bait aswell. You can re-cast your rods a few times a day, nothing wrong with that. Fresh MP1 smell is gold.
MP1 is a coldwater boilie, sbm really wanted a super-cold water boilie, its a mix of milkproteins, nuts, cream. It has some oils and liquids that works very well in winterconditions, makes the carp digest the bait much easier.
This fish is my personal best, I started to hunt it super early april with mega cold nights, but the weather was promissing, and I had to suffer a few nights, but after one or two really warm days, I spotted some carp swimming around in a area, I had to stay there, I fished solidbags with MP1 boilies on a snowman, and it took me over nine days! To catch my pb at 20,8kg.
For nine days it was a struggle, i was thinking, will it ever happen? YES. I can happen! Rigs in the water, eyes at the water, and fresh, good, bait. And you are sorted.Hope this helps you in the pursiut of big carps in tough swedish spring conditions.
/Simon Grindhage
