Luck in angling

[gozzer]

I've got to agree with Dales, anyone discount luck entirely from angling, are just fooling themselves. You can plot out a swim, work out feeding patterns, locate the fish, and present a bait perfectly, but from then on it's luck that plays it's part. If your after big carp, it could be a smaller one, or a tench, or bream that takes your bait.

Even when you can see the fish luck can play a part. I well remember stalking some big chub. I knew the swim, waited for about an hour under a bush, for them to settle and take the freebies I was offering. I could see the fish below me, all looked 5lb+, no other fish visible. I gently lowered my bait into the swim, and just as one of the big chub moved towards it, a 2lber shot out of nowhere and snaffled it! That was the swim ruined for a while!

 

The luck part of it is what makes it more interesting as well as frustrating at times.

 

John.

[Anderoo]

I've got to agree with Dales, anyone discount luck entirely from angling, are just fooling themselves. You can plot out a swim, work out feeding patterns, locate the fish, and present a bait perfectly, but from then on it's luck that plays it's part. If your after big carp, it could be a smaller one, or a tench, or bream that takes your bait.

Even when you can see the fish luck can play a part. I well remember stalking some big chub. I knew the swim, waited for about an hour under a bush, for them to settle and take the freebies I was offering. I could see the fish below me, all looked 5lb+, no other fish visible. I gently lowered my bait into the swim, and just as one of the big chub moved towards it, a 2lber shot out of nowhere and snaffled it! That was the swim ruined for a while!

 

The luck part of it is what makes it more interesting as well as frustrating at times.

 

John.

 

I think I'll make this my last post (hooray!, everyone shouts) as I'm just repeating myself.

 

No-one is saying luck doesn't exist.

 

Over time luck evens out. Everyone has about the same amount of luck over time. The person who has the better results after that time is the better angler.

 

Gozzer's examples are very true, but as single events they don't mean anything. The results after a season or two of fishing for the chub, or the big carp, will tell their own story.

 

To be honest I'm quite amazed that so many people think that successful anglers are just lucky! If I ever bump into Tony Miles or Terry Hearn I'll try to nick their horseshoes and 4-leaf clovers

[Dales]

Again Dales, I would say that if it happened once or very occasionally, you may have been lucky. If it happens consistently, it isn't luck. No-one is lucky all the time. You are actually a very good example of this, with your fantastic tench catches this year. If you honestly believe they were all down to luck, I think you're being way too modest!

 

In your example, yes I agree that catching a big individual fish can be seen as lucky, but if you fish well regularly you are likely to pick one up sooner or later, as long as they're in the water.

 

I don't think anyone is saying that luck doesn't exist at all. I think it's a bit sad though that if you've earned a decent result you should dismiss it as luck. If I ever manage that big Thames chub I don't think it's fair to say I'd be arrogant or up my own arse to think it was the result of more than just 'my lucky day'.

 

It's a British trait I suppose, dismissing achievements as though they're nothing

 

A good angler does weigh the odds in there favour by doing everything right and some one who puts the time and effort in and works hard at their fishing will almost certainly out fish some one who does not and I guess this is where the idea of the more you practice the luckier you get. Obviously some one who consistantly fishes well can not be down to just luck and I do believe that you tend to get out of fishing what you put in.

 

So maybe luck is not the right word, but there is a randon element to fishing that you can not avoid. You can use all your knowledge, skill, watercraft to stack the odds in your favour and increase your chances but you can not totaly remove that element of chance. Alex mentioned at the Sept Fish-In that if be believed that a 20 mile detour to a venue to pick up fresh maggots would give him a 1% better chance of success then it would be worth it. A top successful angler will do all these little bits that give them a slight edge and all these little extras they do add up and is why they do better then the average angler.

 

As you point out the more it happens the less amount of luck is involved as the good angler has reduced the importance of chance but you still need that certain something to go in your favour that you can not control and that may be the difference between a very good result and a record fish.

 

It's like that old chestnut would you rather be a good angler of a lucky one?

 

The Tench were all down to good angling, with no luck involved at all changed my mind it's all about the skill.

 

But then did good luck or fortune bring to me that venue? What good fortune made me stumble on to AN.

[Sharkbyte]

Luck in angling....hmmmm. Depends on who's calling it.

 

Picking up on the mention of non targetted species, some would call hooking 20lb+ winter carp on livebaits as 'lucky'.

 

I prefer to consider it as an ef'ing curse.

[lutra]

I've got to agree with Dales, anyone discount luck entirely from angling, are just fooling themselves. You can plot out a swim, work out feeding patterns, locate the fish, and present a bait perfectly, but from then on it's luck that plays it's part. If your after big carp, it could be a smaller one, or a tench, or bream that takes your bait.

Even when you can see the fish luck can play a part. I well remember stalking some big chub. I knew the swim, waited for about an hour under a bush, for them to settle and take the freebies I was offering. I could see the fish below me, all looked 5lb+, no other fish visible. I gently lowered my bait into the swim, and just as one of the big chub moved towards it, a 2lber shot out of nowhere and snaffled it! That was the swim ruined for a while!

 

The luck part of it is what makes it more interesting as well as frustrating at times.

 

John.

I think it was Steve Walker in another topic a while back that posted about fishing a big bait after a river match had finished and catching bigger fish (chub) than had been caught in the match. I often use tactic's like this to catch better fish and it seems to work well for other species to like barbel, bream......, but it also involves giving the swim time to die down for me.

 

If some anglers knew what i had caught out of the peg they had fished and fed all day, they may well think i was just lucky.

[Tigger]

I think it was Steve Walker in another topic a while back that posted about fishing a big bait after a river match had finished and catching bigger fish (chub) than had been caught in the match. I often use tactic's like this to catch better fish and it seems to work well for other species to like barbel, bream......, but it also involves giving the swim time to die down for me.

 

If some anglers knew what i had caught out of the peg they had fished and fed all day, they may well think i was just lucky.

 

 

 

Surely that's just another form of pre baiting Brian, or someone else doing it for you which is the better cheaper option

[tony tinca]

Sorry but you will never get me to believe in luck good, bad or indifferent - I blame not getting the fish I am after on me and my poor angling skills, abilities, knowledge, techniques just me nothing else, just me for being plain stupid. Incidentally I do believe in an all powerful spiritual deity.

 

nice 1 watatoad youve hit the nail on the head there - instead of making excusses and wanting to blame something i should be looking at myself and asking whether i could have done things better or what could i have tried differently .

It still makes me laugh at the draw of a match with the so called top anglers making the wrong noise because of drawing a bad peg and ive even known 1 man go home in protest - its madness! whats more the knext week he might draw a so called fligher and spout aload of talk about why this peg wont produce today and that its gonna be tough to frame . Theres To many egos in the match circuit , people who talk a good fish but their results speak otherwise. I really believe that an attitude like that has a huge knock on effect on their catching success because of their lack of the right spirit .

That lack of spirit means their not seeing the bigger picture , the lovely surroundings , the friendly banter and respect for the fish, but when you are awake to it and gratefull for what youve got , things start happening for you in a positive way in reflection , its karma

Dont get me wrong here because up until 3 years ago i used to spit the dummy with the best of em and it was only after i had to change my life that i looked at everything differently.

My dad was a successfull angler of the 70s and 80s fishing with the top anglers and i grew up thinking that im the best angler and showing off to my mates just because my dad was good. I wish id actually stopped and listened and watched him more so i could have been learnt something , i spent 20 years of blamming bad luck and making all the usual excusses for not catching enough fish and i was starting to dread going because i was never gonna be satisfied with what i caught and i was gonna be unlucky anyway so what was the point .

The difference is finding a power greater than myself , because it was myself that was blocking me all along and not bad luck. I do well nowdays because i put the effort in and watch whats going on and take notice of the great advice on offer and theres alot of passion and advice and friendly banter on this forum so thankyou

the most important thing to learn is how to enjoy

[John Weddup]

nice 1 watatoad youve hit the nail on the head there - instead of making excusses and wanting to blame something i should be looking at myself and asking whether i could have done things better or what could i have tried differently .

It still makes me laugh at the draw of a match with the so called top anglers making the wrong noise because of drawing a bad peg and ive even known 1 man go home in protest - its madness! whats more the knext week he might draw a so called fligher and spout aload of talk about why this peg wont produce today and that its gonna be tough to frame . Theres To many egos in the match circuit , people who talk a good fish but their results speak otherwise. I really believe that an attitude like that has a huge knock on effect on their catching success because of their lack of the right spirit .

That lack of spirit means their not seeing the bigger picture , the lovely surroundings , the friendly banter and respect for the fish, but when you are awake to it and gratefull for what youve got , things start happening for you in a positive way in reflection , its karma

Dont get me wrong here because up until 3 years ago i used to spit the dummy with the best of em and it was only after i had to change my life that i looked at everything differently.

My dad was a successfull angler of the 70s and 80s fishing with the top anglers and i grew up thinking that im the best angler and showing off to my mates just because my dad was good. I wish id actually stopped and listened and watched him more so i could have been learnt something , i spent 20 years of blamming bad luck and making all the usual excusses for not catching enough fish and i was starting to dread going because i was never gonna be satisfied with what i caught and i was gonna be unlucky anyway so what was the point .

The difference is finding a power greater than myself , because it was myself that was blocking me all along and not bad luck. I do well nowdays because i put the effort in and watch whats going on and take notice of the great advice on offer and theres alot of passion and advice and friendly banter on this forum so thankyou

the most important thing to learn is how to enjoy

 

 

very well put

 

John

[lutra]

Surely that's just another form of pre baiting Brian, or someone else doing it for you which is the better cheaper option

Yes, but i think its also about good fish being attracted by a feeding frenzy, but standing off and not joining in.

[Steve Walker]

I had it done to me once, and once returned the favour to someone else. I think in both cases, though, the big bait approach would still have worked without the earlier feeding. I'm sure the lads who did me on the Dane knew damn well that big lumps of cheese on the tip would get chub out of that swim any day of the week, just as I knew on the little Bristol Avon tributary I fish that the tree roots at the bottom of his peg had chub in them and would usually produce a fish first cast to a big chunk of bread. He'd been fishing stick float and maggot all day and built up a decent net of bits - I reckon that if he'd spent the first half hour chucking a big bait under the tree, he'd have weighed in 4-6lb more fish!