Robs View on Clover

Lets start with a few words about me and my style of angling. I live very locally to the fishery (its an 8 mile round trip on foot as i don't drive) because of this most of my angling is spent either stalking or surface fishing, unless I can blag a lift off mates with my mountain of night kit. Being so mobile and not bogged down with kit means I can spend lots of time walking the banks, doing many laps of the lake and watching the inhabitants close up, normally from up trees (IL come back to that.. ).

Clover is a strange lake and very moody, you can arrive one day and could easily assume not a single fish inhabits its waters and on other days you will see so many fish you wonder how its possible they can all hide so well.

TREE CLIMBING- Now I know some fisheries don't allow this due to safety reasons, but I believe if your doing it responsibly and safely there shouldn't be a problem. Always check it can take your weight and don't climb trees that hang over the water for obvious reasons (trees break and under water obstacles cant always be seen). always check your not disturbing other anglers, and when I say tree climbing I don't mean spidermaning it up 80 foot oak trees and risking your lives i mean standing on stumps, perhaps a big tree with a low branch to step up to, nothing too high, just high enough to get a good look. On clover there are 4 perfect trees, one in each bay that give you perfect views of down below THE MARGINS..

Margins margins margins, if you are a competent margin angler then this is the water for you. Ive spent hours on clover from my high vantage points watching doubles, twenties and thirty pound carp literally at my feet happily cruising and searching out the margins, I even managed to catch a 31 pounder no more than 2 feet from the bank and in 2 feet of water. From your vantage point your able to study these carp and work out there movements. On a nice clear day with a good set of polarised glasses staying quiet and out of site your able to watch them going about there daily routine. Which, after watching them for a while you will start to see for yourself. What i noticed was groups of fish (3 or 4) would have there own routes and would stick to them. From a tree close to the picnic swim i watched these fish move into the bay, swim a lap of the margins and exit only to return 30 minutes later and do exactly the same again. I noticed the same group of fish from a tree near the reeds swim and they did exactly the same in this bay so i concluded that there route was round the two bays. That was just one group of fish, i watched other groups in other bays and they behaved in similar ways.

I know that fish get caught out in the middle of the lake on big beds of bait but that's not my style on such a small venue. I like to know i am fishing an area of the lake that the carp are visiting and that puts the odds in my favour. I think a lot of the reasons its easy to struggle on clover is down to bait. Due to the weed and silt levels and lack of bait going in i think the carp are just happy to eat the naturals. Bloodworm, muscles and all sorts of water-life amongst the weed means the carp don't rely on anglers bait and wont risk feeding in an unnatural situation surrounded by boilies. I found a way around this with the margins, there nice and gravely making it easier to present a good rig away from the weed and silt. If you have a good look slightly further out (8 to 10 feet) you will notice nice clear areas amongst the chod, a well presented rig and scattering of bait is far better than a blind chuck into the middle of the lake? The carp in Clover will come in and feed incredibly close, closer than you may have seen on other waters, literally in a foot of water, staying well back, quiet and not seen is the key.

Surface fishing- Ive had some fantastic sessions on Clover "on the top". The Clover carp are totally different to other carp I have surfaced fish for. Normally I would feed a swim constantly introducing baits until i had the carp competing for baits, and then I would cast my hook bait, this doesn't work on clover.. They only have to hear the twang of a catapult before they disappear forever. They also don't respond to lots of floaters, if you have lots over a big area they just take a couple and move off. Real banging your head against a tree stuff! The way I finally got amongst them was to go back to my earlier point of patrol routes. If you know the fish are going to be in a certain place at a certain time you can be waiting for them to turn up and be ready. Get up on your vantage point so you can spot them, wait for them to pass the spot you want to target, let them move out, next ( you will know when they will return because you know there patrol routes) get a couple of loose offerings and your hook-bait in position and wait, its so idiot proof even i managed it!

Clover is not the easiest lake in the world BUT the fish are there for sure, it just takes effort, good use of time and working out. (for me these are the reasons I fish for carp, surely its the same for everyone?) I totally enjoyed my year on clover once I worked it out. I spent nights and days on there blanking until, I looked down at the margins instead of out into the relatively featureless middle. To enjoy something worthwhile there must be some difficulty in obtaining it.
 
 
phew.. hope that wasn't too long winded Alan. I am a typical fisherman, I like to talk, write and read about it as much as possible.
Rob Buckner.