4 years no Specimen

[me]

I've been fishing for 4 years now and i've never caught a specimen. I mostly go carp fishing and keep trying to catch a specimen fish. The biggest I've caught is only 7.5 lb. What should I do?

[Steve Burke]

Richard Walker answered a similar question in the introduction to "Still-Water Angling", which I'd suggest every budding specimen hunter should read. To paraphrase what he wrote on catching specimens you should:

 

1) Fish in the right place

2) At the right time

3) With the right bait

4) With the right tackle

5) And avoid scaring the fish

 

If I fail to catch a big fish (not uncommon!), by answering the above questions I can often work out why, and do something about it.

 

Looking at the 5 principles in more detail, the first is vital. It starts with finding the right water. If your waters don't contain fish that have reached specimen size you'll either have to take pleasure in catching fish that are good for the water. Alternatively, you'll have to search out new waters.

 

Having found the water, it's often very important to fish the right swim. Very often the big fish will bully smaller ones away from the prime spots. This may mean a lot of observation without wetting a line - except for plumbing the depths to find features. Then even when you've found the right swim you may find that one tiny area is best.

 

Specimen fish often feed at times that are inconvenient to anglers. For instance you'll often find them come on to the feed just as many anglers are packing up. This is especially so in the evening, when dusk can often be a prime feeding time - right throughout the year.

 

If you fish a bait that appeals to all fish, such as maggots, it's much more likely that any fish you catch will be small, just because on the vast majority of waters there are many more small fish than big ones. So you may need to use a bigger or harder bait that only big fish can manage. You also need to get your feeding right. Here matchmen are usually streets ahead of specimen hunters.

 

Fishing too light may mean more bites, but of course you may get smashed by a big fish. Obviously a compromise is needed here. Although perhaps not as important as some other factors, the right rig can also make a difference, especially with pressured fish or with those like perch that hate resistance.

 

Finally, many anglers, especially long stay anglers in my experience, scare far too many fish. Big fish in particular are easily scared - one reason that they've got big in the first place! These anglers don't know they've scared the specimens simply because they don't see them disappear. They then wonder why they don't catch many!

 

Once you've learnt how, catching specimen fish isn't that difficult. Certainly it's not nearly as hard as becoming a top match angler!

[Nugg]

Nathan:

I've been fishing for 4 years now and i've never caught a specimen. I mostly go carp fishing and keep trying to catch a specimen fish. The biggest I've caught is only 7.5 lb. What should I do?

I have fished for some 50 years, I may have caught what you could call a specimen fish at sometime or other. I just enjoy fishing what ever I catch, I even enjoy it when I've blanked, sometimes.

[Vagabond]

Steve Burke:

anglers, especially long stay anglers in my experience, scare far too many fish. Big fish in particular are easily scared - one reason that they've got big in the first place! These anglers don't know they've scared the specimens simply because they don't see them disappear.

Too right Steve - the best advice in Dick's book was "take GREAT care not to scare the fish - even with care, you will scare far more fish than you ever know about"

 

The best way to learn is to approach the water very very quietly - you then might spot the bow wave as the big fish you've scared in the shallows takes off for deep water.

 

At least that's a first step - you know where a big fish was before you spooked it, and you realise your "very carefully" was not careful enough - so next time, approach even MORE carefully - the same fish might be in the same place.

 

Of course, on many waters, that approach is a waste of time if someone else has already spooked the fish. That's one good reason why I prefer waters where other anglers are scarce.

 

Keep trying Nathan, if you do all that Steve recommends, you will catch a good fish sooner rather than later.

[Ed Matysiak]

hummmmmmm, I have 10 years of fishing experience and have had 5 specimen catches. I think the first thing to do is target a species and plan an attack. Planning is everything!! It also takes time. To catch my PB chub i fished from 7am to 8pm!