They’re very often the biggest feature on any lake and Mark Pitchers shares his 7 best edges to help you catch from them…

That’s right, whether or not there are any islands, gravel bars, silt beds or anything else in your lake, it definitely has one stand–out feature: the margins. Particularly on quiet venues or at quieter times on busy lakes, carp will very often patrol the margins and can be ambushed by the smart and stealthy angler. Follow these tips and you can virtually below your feet on your next trip.

Below: Making the effort to find the fish is a massive edge!

Edge One – Make The Effort

The best tips are usually the most obvious and this one is certainly that! You can’t catch in the edge if you don’t try and making the effort to have a few tours of the lake searching out the margins for carp, or signs of carp, is essential. This is made a lot easier with polarising glasses. If the venue is clear and you remain stealthy then you may spot fish either cruising or feeding in the margins. It may well be that the water has a particularly coloured hue to it, a sure sign that something has been down there and might still be. You could just find nice looking margin spots even in the absence of the fish themselves, in which case make a bit of an effort to bait these up. Keep the baiting light, however, as too much bait in one marginal spot can often spook the carp, which tend to be edgy when in the margins. They’re often also solitary and, as such, just a few broken boilies, some pellets or a handful of corn or maize is more than enough to get their attention.

Below: Throw single pellets at the fish to gently coax them off a spot before lowering a rig in.

Edge Two – Move Feeding Carp Out

If you’ve been lucky enough to find some carp or, even better, if you return to a baited spot to find carp feeding, the last thing you want to do is lower a rig on top of their heads. Do so and they will hot-foot it out of the area, never to be seen again. They’ll need some gentle coaxing to move away from the spot for long enough to allow you to lower your rig in, but without spooking them. A great way of doing this is to throw single pellets over them, one at a time. This is often enough to cause them just to move off, but not so much they feel edgy enough not to return. Once they move away, waste no time in gently lowering your rig into position in time for their return.