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Always put a rod on a showing fish. As yonny said you have to be on them to catch them!! I’d normally put 4/5 boilies on, singly on the area go gently spook the fish off before using the lightest lead possible to reach it. Minimum disturbance. Ive had fish within minutes after casting at showing fish. Other times I’ve been made to wait 3/4hrs. The chances are the fish was there for a reason, so it’ll likely come back. If it’s not gone within an hour then I put out a handful or 2 of boilies on top with the throwing stick.

From what I have read on the internet, 95% of UK anglers, who go fishing in France head for the many British owned carp fisheries within an easy drive of the channel ports. I wanted to show that there are plenty of opportunities elsewhere in the country especially if you head all the way down to the Pyrenees. I set out this morning to get some videos of the dozens of lakes within ½ an hour of my home which are never fished. They are usually fenced off, not because the owners want to prevent people from fishing but to avoid potentially very expensive litigation if someone were to have an accident. I took my drone so that I would not have to get permission to access each lake and I started with the smallest which is just on the edge of my village. I was aware of the lake's presence having glimpsed reflections from its surface through the trees in winter when the leaves had fallen. Unfortunately, I got so wrapped up this morniing with this first location, the rest is on hold for the moment. It took a lot of thrashing through brambles and nettles to get anywhere near the water but eventually my dog found a way through. The third of the lakes, about 4 acres in size, proved to be an absolute gem with patches of bubbles fizzing everywhere. We are suffering from a major heatwave at the moment so fishing is not practical. Meanwhile I will visit our mayor to try and find the owner of the lakes and also do a recce to work out how to fish such an overgrown location. Mostly using footage from my phone (so apologies for the quality), I made a short Youtube clip of this morning’s visit. I hope you find it interesting.

At the end of the day you have to get bait out there somehow mate. Normally I'll start with singles, if I don't get a take then I'll pepper a few baits out with the stick/catty, if there's still no take and the fish are still there I'll spod. Their reaction will be different from water to water - I've had them disappear not to return and I've had takes from under the spod. Even when they do spook they'll normally be back come first light.

In France the other week I was fishing my chosen swim (3) and after 3 days had had nothing. A few bleeps, but that was it. The swim directly opposite (12) was free, and I had noticed showing fish in there for some time, so I upped sticks and moved in. Rewarded with a 40lb Mirror and a 35lb Common, and lost two others.

There is only one way to guarantee your rig is where the fish are and that is to put a rig were you see the carp. The other option is put a rig where you don't see fish which makes no sense whatsoever imo. I wont cast a rod until I've seen fish, that should be a general rule for any serious carp angler imo. You can waste a hell of a lot of hours (or days and even weeks on tricky waters) waiting for the carp to come to you. Fish where the fish are, golden rule. I will not hesitate to cast at a showing fish.

It’s very important to our sport that EVERY rig you use is a safe rig. And I was wanna say well done for asking and wanting to fish safely,well done,mate. 😎🎣

They look awesome mate. Really awesome.

I recently found out about a venue fairly close to me that I didn't even know existed since then I've been for a walk round a couple of times , and naturally I now want to enquire about a ticket, now I've spoken to 4 anglers on my travels and none of them will give me any contact details, it's sort of run as a closed shop syndicate ,and I believe the owner tells them not to pass on any details on, Any ideas on getting past the wall of silence ? All I've got is first name a rough age and a club he fishes quite a lot 😀

Probably not a bad idea apparently Dave (not his real name ) only appears there every few weeks will keep trying

There is a water I'm on at the moment (although not closed-shop like yours). I walked it for months before taking the rods. Gave me the chance to get to know some of the lads before fishing it. Helped no end, the lads now know me and share info with me i.e. they don't see me as this outsider that's come to catch all their carp lol.

I think that's probably my best option to keep walking it tbh, all the guys seemed friendly enough and had a good chat so that's a good start

It's a tricky one elmo. Pushing for info can work against you. Imo you should continue to walk it, chatting with the anglers (not pushing for info), get to know them, have a giggle. You'll soon be in a position that something will come your way. Closed shop syndis (or any syndis for that matter) want safe, reliable, discreet and friendly anglers. If you can show that's what you are then you'll be in pole position.

Spot on. Find them, fish for them and catch them, Simple.

I really don’t think it matters to the fish as much as it does to us

Maybe the fish were entering the baited area from left to right so they picked up the left rod first. When that rod wasn't put back then the middle and right rods came into play. You'd think all have an equal chance but it depends on what I've said above. If they pick up bait from the left side they are chewing that whilst passing the middle and right rods, probably why people talk about a spot within a spot. What you could have done is move the right rod over to the far left possibly giving you more quick takes. Just a theory 👍