Watercraft who cares

[dibbly88]

Chesters 1 and myself have been chatting in a different thread about the unwillingness of people to ask for help and the unwillingness to use good watercraft to locate fish. if you read the thread ph levels( http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/ubb/ultimatebb...ic;f=1;t=015049 )you'll see what i mean!

some people despite being taught to plumb up and observe the water and the bottom of the lake, pool, pond or river start complaining that they are unable to catch while you are sat ten feet away bagging on everything that swims. its never thier fault its always the bait , the method , the float, weather etc, etc. im sure we have all met them in our time.

I know that you can not knock inexperiance but sometimes you have to laugh at so called experianced anglers being too stubborn to adapt to change.

I'd like to hear your respected views on this case.

[Common 40]

I agree, Watercraft being the best weapon in your armument. Too many anglers content with their comfort, specially this time of year to even move to the next swim which could make all the difference

[Leon Roskilly]

Fish are where the food is to be found.

 

Understand where the food is, what it is, and why it's there and you have found the fish.

 

The car park swims are where anglers chuck in massive amounts of feed, and empty their bait containers at the end of each session, so fish there!

 

Watercraft - it's easy when you know how

 

Tight Lines - leon

[Common 40]

I tend to think that the car park swims are too pressured, in the sense that most anglers fish them due to ease, ie. too much tackle to carry to a more productive spot? I have found that a walk round to the furthest end of the lake within reason, is quieter and depending on conditions much more productive

[Jim Gibbinson]

Feeding areas/food availability - as Leon said - also security/safety, comfort (turbidity, current, temperature, dissolved oxygen levels etc.), light levels, nature of the bottom, habit (patrol routes et al) water pressure etc. etc. etc.

 

I find it gets easier as I get older (i.e. more experienced) but unlike Leon, I still find it difficult! Indeed, as I acquire experience I'm increasingly over-awed by how little I know and how much there is to learn.

[Vagabond]

As Jim implies, a lifetime is too short a period to learn "all there is to know" about the factors he mentions.

 

The main weapon the angler has in locating fish is OBSERVATION, and its amazing how many don't use it. It can often act as a short cut by putting you onto fish you KNOW are there, because you've just seen either the fish themselves or signs of them.

 

For example, if you see the marginal rush stems quivering, its because fish are grubbing around their bases. Thats a big step forward from considering temperature, wind direction etc, although such considerations might well have brought you to that particular margin in the first place.

 

One peculiar law of observation seems to be "the further a novice angler can cast, the less observant he becomes"

 

Put a ledger lead and a fixed spool reel in the hand of a novice and he will hurl it as far as he can - beyond where he can usefully observe what is going on.

 

Put a centrepin in his hands and get him to fish the margins by his feet, and he learns three things

 

1. To keep quiet and still - his bait and any fish that might take it are not very far away.

 

2. He is now watching water close to him, and is more likely to spot signs of fish.

 

3. To control exactly where his bait and loose feed are going. Easy close in - much more difficult to achieve at long range.

 

Some of the things he might see in addition to the trembling reeds are:

 

Bubbles - needle bubbles (tench); soapy persistent bubbles that don't burst quickly (bream); strings of bubbles (carp) small groups of two or three bubbles repeated at intervals in the same place (rotting vegetation).

 

Eddying clouds of muddy water - big fish on the bottom.

 

A "boil" as a fish turns in mid water - if you put in a continuous loose feed of maggots - soon a shoal of roach will come "up in the water" - even a half pounder makes a sizeable boil.

 

Not just roach - crucians and tench will also come up in the water - carp too

 

A "rocking" of the surface - carp VERY close in to the bank - many carp soon learn the safest place to feed is right in under a bank, especially if the prevailing wind has taken floating food there

 

When its windy a sudden "flat" area in the ripple pattern - a fish has turned just beneath the surface.

 

and not forgetting obvious swirls and even a sight of a fish!

 

That's SOME of the things to look for - much easier to spot close in than fifty yards away where you have just bunged a ledger lead.

 

AS experience grows, so does your mental "database" of watercraft and conditions - but you do need to get some positive results behind you - its easier to build on success than a string of blanks.

[Common 40]

excellent

[Peter Waller]

Go on, lob it out, anywhere in the next county will do. Go to sleep, watch the TV, rely on bite alarms and bolt rigs. Or better still, take onboard every last word that Vagabond has written, spot on.

[RUDD]

I fish against some club anglers in club matches / knockouts etc who insist on fishing their pole at its full length every time!

They plumb up at 15-16m and have to fish in that area without even plumbing any other areas.

Then there are the chuck it and chance it brigade with every type of feeder going!!!!!!!!!

[Guest sslatter]

Yep, totally agree. I'm not too bothered that many anglers don't have much watercraft, though.. gives those that have it the edge.

 

Following on from Dibbly88's observation that some anglers complain about their lack of success, while steadfastly ignoring/refusing any advice, I am reminded of a good friend of mine who is a dyed-in-the-wool fluff chucker, with a chip on his shoulder to boot. Well.. a few years ago he was moaning to me about his lack of success at flyfishing. He couldn't understand it.. he said he was doing everything right, his casting action and presentation was the envy of his club, but try as he might, he hardly ever caught a fish. I kept schtum.

Came the time when we went out together flyfishing for the first time, on the Bourne Rivulet, which is a very small narrow Test tributary, that needs to be approached with some stealth, preferably on one's knees.. well, it soon became glaringly obvious why he didn't catch much: his watercraft was non-existent, and he clumped along the bank like an elephant, spooking hordes of stocky rainbows as he lurched along, totally oblivious of the fish that shot away from the nearside bank at every footfall..and then he started to wade..and all the fish disappeared upstream.

 

..and later, when I gently tried to broach the subject, he took offence..

 

There's just no telling some people.