What makes a water hard

[Sportsman]

I have fished a couple of very different waters recently, one which is as close to a wild coarse fishery as we have up here (carp, tench, roach etc don't occur naturally this far north so they have all been stocked at some point) and the other a fairly classic commercial.

The wild fishery is very lightly stocked and lightly fished, I have only once ever seen another angler on it. The commercial is heavily stocked with the usual suspects and very heavily fished with matches every week.

A good days fishing on the wild fishery could be half a dozen decent roach (or several thousand 2oz perch if you use maggot ) , on the commercial it could be 70lb of carp, so which one is the hard water?

 

The fact is that catches are low on the wild water because stocking is low. The fish are not particularly difficult because due to low fishing pressure they are not particularly hook or bait shy. There are just not many of them.

The commercial on the other hand is very pressured, the fish have all been caught repeatedly and are very aware.

The anglers who do well here do so because they fish very well. This is no venue for the chuck it and chance it brigade, to be consistent you need the right tackle and bait, and your presentation needs to be first class. It is no coincidence that 90% of catches are made by about 10% of the anglers.

So, is the wild water hard because you don't catch much, or is the commercial hard because the fish are difficult to catch?

[Ken L]

I would suggest that they'll both be hard come January.

[Dick Dastardly]

I think that there are three reasons a water can be hard (possibly four but only very rarely and I will discuss this later).

 

A low stocking level.

 

Angling pressure.

 

Very rich in natural food.

 

The first two have been covered by Dave and the third is self explanatory.The case for the possible fourth reason is the actual nature of the venue can make it "technically" hard to fish.Examples such as very snaggy,lots of shallow bars,even that the fish are at extreme range. Or even maybe that the baillif has a very big dog!

[Peter Sharpe]

It's the amount of dissolved calcium.

[Neil G]

I fish for stupid fish (pike) so TBH what makes a hard water is usually the size. Bloody easy to leapfrog round a 2 acre pit, bit harder doing that on somewhere like Chew (1200 acres)!

[Rusty]

All I have to do is turn up at a venue and I know it'll be tough day, my season is not going well