Help and advise required.

[Guest Leigh R]

This is proberly going to sound silly to a lot of you, but I am somewhat confused. Having started carp fishing this year and having some success on a local pond, I am preparing myself for next year and some weekend long sessions.

 

I have been buying most of the monthly carp mags, and stocking up on tackle. I have chosen two new lakes to fish. One is a hours drive away at Catterwick on the A1 and will be fished when I have got the whole weekend. The other one is a local lake and will be fished when I have only got the chance of a short session.

 

The area I am confused in is that their seems to be a lot of advise by writers as to be very mobile in your fishing, only casting when you see a sign of a fish and on the other hand those who advise to set up, bait up and wait for the fish to come to you.

 

I suppose that sat in my armchair anticipating next year (cant fish at the moment as ive been working away most of the time) I am becoming brain logged with all the info. What I would appreciate is any advise from anglers that have gone through the same bewilderment as I am going through.

 

 

 

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Leigh

[Guest Gaffer]

Hi Leigh, good question.

 

Originally posted by Leigh R:

The area I am confused in is that their seems to be a lot of advise by writers as to be very mobile in your fishing, only casting when you see a sign of a fish and on the other hand those who advise to set up, bait up and wait for the fish to come to you.

 

Leigh, mags are a great source of ideas, whether new or old, but no two waters are the same. So what you might apply to one water may be the total opposite on another water.

The best thing to do is to read the articles and try to understand the reasons behind the advice given. Applying that understanding on the right water and at the right time comes with experience.

Of coarse you could make things easier for yourself by asking anglers on the particular water that you are fishing as to how the fish behave.

 

Back to the question, in the summer months I'll locate the fish, hopefully they will be showing themselves, and set my traps. However, in the winter the fish are going to be less mobile, less likely to show themselves and even less reluctant to feed.

To combat this you could employ the single hookbait (or small PVA bag) approach.

This can be done by casting to likely spots, leaving for a while and then recasting to other likely spots nearer or further, deeper or shallower in the hope of dropping your hookbait under their nose.

If a fish should show (by 'crashing', etc) then move onto it, pack up and move if you need to and cast to it. After all, you can only catch fish if your onto the fish, being the wrong end of the lake in winter will mean a blank.

 

If you use more than one rod then you could always bait up heavily on one rod, leave it there and then periodically recast the other rod(s).

 

Hope that helps Leigh, what do you others think?

 

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All the best, Gaffer

 

Anglers' Net Members Club

 

[This message has been edited by Gaffer (edited 23 December 2001).]

[Guest RobStubbs]

Leigh,

I'd pretty much agree with Gaffer. In ideal circumstances I will fish mobile and move around to where I can find fish. However in the vast majority of cases the water either conspires against you, the fish don't show, someone else is in the swim etc. And all waters behave differently. If you can find fish before fishing or move onto fish then in most cases your chances will improve.

 

Rob.

 

P.S. Just got home from a two night blank so my heads a little 'woolly'

[Guest chesters1]

badshot-lea where i usually go gets so packed of a weekend that it is a case of find a vacant peg and grab it ,especially early season its better come september onwards