surface fishing

One of the most popular/rewarding methods of fishing for carp in the summer is with surface baits. There are a few choices when it comes to bait, the big two are bread and dog biscuits (the sort that float).



These are fairly instant baits so I would suggest trying them first. There are many terminal rigs for surface fishing But as a rule of thumb the less you have on the line the better off you are.



But there are times when some weight is needed to help you get your bait to the fish.

The best and first method is simple free line hook bait can’t get any simpler than that But if you need to cast a little further 90% of the time you do you need to add a controller float or bubble float to this.


You can then go a stage further.
At long range when it’s difficult to see the bait its best to have the controller set at least five foot (1.5 meters) from the hook to avoid spooking the fish. Sometimes the fish might even be out of the controllers casting range so you can add a lead to the line and fish a sliding controller this works as a running rig and can be great on the alarms at range I have also used this as an adjustable zig rig.

The best way to approach floater fishing is to build the fishes confidence by not casting in too soon. You must keep introducing free offerings till you get the fish feeding. Once a bunch of carp are feeding well, they lower their guard and this makes it easier to catch them out.

I often grease the hook link a little bit so that it always stays on the surface, you can get some flash stuff from the tackle shop or just use good old Vaseline and I just dab a finger in it, then rub down the line. You only really need to do this once a session at the beginning of the session.

Hooking the dog biscuit
The problem with these types of baits is they are rock hard so how do you put them on the hook. What you need is a knife or old hack saw blade and some superglue. You cut a groove in the dog biscuit just deep enough so the shank of the hook will lie in it then superglue the hook to the biscuit.
Or a pellet band is also good and can hold the bait in position it just sometimes not up to heavy casting.

Other surface baits I have had great success with

Flavored cork balls
Cut down pop-ups
Sugar puffs

Although floater bait fishing for carp is not exactly easy. It takes some good fishing tactics to get hookable bites from the feeding carp and as I have said in the past one of the top is worth 3 off the alarms.

Top information there Stotty
Not had one off the surface yet,you boys can show me that next time I'm down

Very well presented mate, this is something i don't really do a lot of so any information on this for me is extremely important for my carp catching armoury.

i've caught carp on the top once or twice before only problem i found with gluing the biscuits to the hook is once wet it get's soft (obviously) and when you catch a fish it often sucks the bait off and when you come to adding another biscuit you have a big rock hard lump of biscuit and glue which makes adding another biscuit harder

DanDanUK wrote:Very well presented mate, this is something i don't really do a lot of so any information on this for me is extremely important for my carp catching armoury.

i've caught carp on the top once or twice before only problem i found with gluing the biscuits to the hook is once wet it get's soft (obviously) and when you catch a fish it often sucks the bait off and when you come to adding another biscuit you have a big rock hard lump of biscuit and glue which makes adding another biscuit harder

Glue 5 or 6 up then just cut the hook off and pop on another

Stotty wrote:

DanDanUK wrote:Very well presented mate, this is something i don't really do a lot of so any information on this for me is extremely important for my carp catching armoury.

i've caught carp on the top once or twice before only problem i found with gluing the biscuits to the hook is once wet it get's soft (obviously) and when you catch a fish it often sucks the bait off and when you come to adding another biscuit you have a big rock hard lump of biscuit and glue which makes adding another biscuit harder

Glue 5 or 6 up then just cut the hook off and pop on another

People have a lot of problems fishing with bread off the top I have used this method for the last 2 years now I don’t know any one ells that dose it this way but it works for me and it’s great on commercials.


The trick I use is
1 a soft rod
2 light line 8lb at the max but I like 6lb for 90% of it
3 small hook size 14 strong match hook
4 a bating needle
5 some thick cut bread some of that toaster stuff is spot on.

Pull the hook through the bread this way (must go through the crust first)


Then turn 90 degrees and pull back through this locks it in place and can take one hell of a cast the trick then is to leave it the water. The water get into the bread making it very soft so when a fish sucks it in they get it all hook as well as you can see this fish has a very deformed mouth and its fare and squarely hooked.



Give it a go

top stuff Paul will deffo give it a try !

Have some more Pos rep !

I kinda used this technique yesterday,but without the baiting needle,I used small stamp size cubes of bread (off the crust) simply carefully pushed the hook in through the brown crust side,and just out of the white side,then turned the hook as you described and gently pushed it back into the white side,I did it this way as I thought the as the line was coming off the crust side of the bread,the white of the bread was the bit the fish would see from underneath, It worked for me,and was bloody good fun.
Great post Stotty

nixon wrote:I kinda used this technique yesterday,but without the baiting needle,I used small stamp size cubes of bread (off the crust) simply carefully pushed the hook in through the brown crust side,and just out of the white side,then turned the hook as you described and gently pushed it back into the white side,I did it this way as I thought the as the line was coming off the crust side of the bread,the white of the bread was the bit the fish would see from underneath, It worked for me,and was bloody good fun.
Great post Stotty

as i say one off the top is worth a few on the pod bit like fly fishing but you catch

i use enterprise dog biscuits & a fox bolt bubble,with braided main line & a drennan double strength 8lb 6' hooklink...i mainly surface fish for carp,even when my statics are in i'll have a wander wi the floater rod,i use a 9' drennan spinflex rod & find it brilliant.I flavour my biscuits with scopex & pour half a cup of boiling water in then leave em overnigt to go nice & rubbery.I also use floating trout pellets on some venues where biscuits have been hammered.I find surface carping the most exciting form of carping i've tried.

I've spent many days fishing the surface in the warmer days of the year,I always have success with artificial dog biscuits with real biscuits as freebies.

role on summer

i agree i cant bloody wait now!!