Twelve months of carp fishing: Keeping at it in November

I've made it easy for myself with this column for November. Due to a lack of time, I only wrote it afterwards, at the beginning of December, and can therefore incorporate the experiences of the last few weeks fresh and straight from the water.

November is not an easy month for carp fishing and is also the reason why some carp anglers pack their tackle away too early for the winter. This is due to the rapidly dropping water temperatures, which return to single figures in Germany in mid-November. This can happen very quickly in cold phases and when it is cold and windy, a body of water loses several degrees of water temperature per week in November. This is immediately reflected in reduced activity, a drop in metabolism and, of course, food intake. Well done to those who have a well-maintained feeding area and have ‘dosed down’ the amount of food correctly. Now you can also feed slightly smaller boilies and crush the boilies. The time of pellets and tinned corn begins. And yet: Suddenly nothing works. This is usually the middle of November. It's also uncomfortably damp and cold and many of the less hard-boiled boys mothball their gear.

 

 

But wait! The last week of November is a bigfish time slot! Because with a certain regularity, a mild stormy low then arrives once again and the biggest carp in the lake really get into it. As a reward for those who persevere, the biggies usually present themselves with top weight and top looks. 

 

 

This year, however, this was unfortunately not the case in many waters. For whatever reason: even in November, the carp still lacked the wintery plump belly. For example, I was able to hoist a large Rogner Spiegler, which I had already caught at the end of September, back onto my mat two months later. It had only gained 500 grams during this time. Even though I wasn't really keen on catching her again, I was secretly hoping that I would be able to greet her with plumper curves when I saw her again and that I might even be able to certify her 30kg. Fiddlesticks! So it was just a few quick snapshots alone at night in the rain with the feeling afterwards that I should have let her swim again straight away. The attempt with the 100 mm lens and the tripod standing in the water, without the motivation to look at the photos after taking them, went pretty badly and the 56 looked like a frit somewhere on the edge of the picture and its true beauty was not expressed at all. At least that's what I thought for a few days afterwards. But enough of this anecdote for now.

 

 

In terms of fishing, not much has changed in November compared to October. The fishing depth remains in the lower third of the water, the area can still be exposed to the wind, only the bottom substrate - or so it seemed to me this year - should no longer necessarily be black and smelly mud. It ran better with only slightly less water depth on loamy, muddy ground.

A hot tip for dredging and reservoirs are herb fields, which are now slowly dying off or lying on the bottom of the water towards winter (as in the case of the hornwort, for example). They are full of food - especially snails, crayfish and mussels - and the carp can now fill their bellies in the increasingly sparse and loose weed. Find the densest patch of weed in the lake, place the rod with a PVA bag directly in it and you'll soon have a bite to look forward to. Or something like that.

 

 

Not to forget: In France and Spain, we have perfect water temperatures of around 14 degrees in November and you can extend October in Germany by a few more weeks with a trip. The only drawback is that you need someone in Germany to keep your feeding spot going or you run the risk of not being able to fully enjoy the hot last week of November.

Good luck,
Your Alex