Here we are again, spring is in the air, what a blessing after that long, cold & dreary winter. To put the fleece hat back in the drawer, & get the sun back on my head, ahhhh, bliss.

I heard the first Cuckoo on April 9th this year in the Lee Valley, (don’t normally hear them until the last few days in April), where most of my fishing time is spent now, in pursuit of some nice big home grown carp.

As soon as the carp begin to appreciate the warmth of the sun, they will leave their winter quarters in search of food, shake off the winter blues & all those nasty leeches that they have been host to.

On occasions the carp can be fairly easy to catch at this time of the year as long as you can get the baits in front of them, you have a good chance of one or two fish.
 
The problems I encounter on these gravel pits, as the spring moves on a couple of weeks, is the resident bird life. They seem to be multiplying year on year, Canadian Geese, Greylag Geese, Tufted Ducks, Swans, Moorhens & my favourite of all, THE COOT.

Now put all these birds in the same mix (& I am not talking cooking here, but THERE’S a thought!) on the same water, & you get the most horrendous irritating noises possible, day & night. Sleep becomes impossible, & when I return home after a couple of nights, I am to put it mildly, shattered.
 
Now, back to the Coot, you have to sit back & admire this bird, I do not know of another water bird that has so much energy. Never have I seen one sitting back doing nothing, they are on the go 24/7. If they are not continually diving for food (anglers carp baits included, this will be the main thread of the article, when I get to it!) they are fighting over territory, fighting for the best looking future Mrs Coot, eating, diving, swimming through your fishing lines, & at night, when you think there might be the chance of a few hours sleep, they make these blood curdling shrieking noises, that can make the hairs on your neck stand straight up. And when they do that, they wake up all the other bird life, sleep, no chance!!

There does come a time, a short quieter period, when Mrs Coot is on the nest, & 50% of the coot problems cease. But, you know, as soon as those eggs hatch, those little chicks will get hands on tuition, from mum & dad, in eating boilies.
 
Well that’s great for the chicks, but not so great for the carp angler, that has spent untold casts & time to get that perfectly presented bait into the right spot, only for Mr & Mrs Coot to come along & screw it all up by picking up those baits!!

Now, this leads me on to how I get over this little problem. With the pits being so clear at this time of year, these birds can dive down 12 feet quite comfortably & find your lovely coloured boilie hook baits. When fishing shallow clear water, you can imagine its easy pickings for them & just leads to a frustrated stressed carp angler.

Now is the time to use those seed baits, the carp love them but more importantly the coots have much more trouble finding them. I always have a couple of tins of Sonu Hemp & Maples in the car, just for these occasions.   In fact, when I use the seed baits, I will still put boilies in the swim, knowing that the coots will single out these more visible baits. Just a couple of maples on the hook straight out of the tin, a little scattering of the Hemp & Maple, problem solved.

Don’t worry about the coots diving over your bait & scaring the carp, it didn’t scare these two fish that I had the other week. This was while the family of coots were right above the baited area in 4 feet of water!!  Happy days ahead!
 
On another wildlife note the other week I actually witnessed a gull take a coot chick off the water & swallow it mid air! A friend suggested it would be great if something would swoop down & swallow the gull but thinking about it I wouldn’t fancy being around on the lake if there was a bird big enough to swallow a gull!!