Leaderboard

I’ve found I’ve struggled with motivation since the start of the 3rd lockdown. I’ve got some time off from the ambulance and thought I’d be raring to go, I think the fact I can’t night fish is probably having a negative impact on my motivation. My water does not fish brilliantly during the day, but there again, I’ll catch naff all sat on the sofa at home! I only made bait yesterday because the darling wife insisted I made some as my bait draw in the freezer is totally empty. I’ve been walking my waters most days and was finding carp most days, especially in the smaller water all shoaled up and looking catchable, but the last few days they’ve drifted away from there, although they wouldn’t have gone far I reckon. If the rain holds off tomorrow, I will get the rods dusted off for a few hours, after all I’ll regret it if I don’t!

Yeah, when knowledge is a dangerous thing and ignorance is bliss!

@Pete Springate's Guns I can totally relate to that. I fished a lake down south and was getting bites from an area that once I'd seen it from the boat i wouldn't dream of casting there. Drops felt ok but the Canadian was 2 ft deep. I was using 8 inch hook links. God knows how that works. Sometimes you're better off not knowing lol.

I think this is a great starting point for discussion (if a little off topic!). We read so much about finding the hardest/cleanest/smoothest ‘spots within spots’ but I tend to agree with Yonny. Certainly this last year on St Ives’ Shallow Pit, the very cleanest areas never produced one bite for me. All my bites came from firm/hard spots that I could still feel the odd bit of weed or silt on. It got to the point that I would avoid really clear spots and actively seek out what I imagined to be ‘new’ spots being created.

And these lil bad boys are going to be scopex cream pineapple and wonder Berry flavour I'm going to try and make them a mellow yellow 😉 I am loving the goo, about now it's fun if nothing else 😂

I did split the topic, if you need the link

I know that feeling. When I fished Taverham in one swim I always used to stick a bait on the corner of the island, and the other in a bay just on the side of the island, for years it produced loads of fish to me and most others. Nowhere else in that swim produced. Bruce and I had a week there, stalking and surface fishing during the day, rods on alarms at night, which being as I 'knew the swim' was to the aforementioned spots. After 5 blank nights, I was fed up, being rained on and just chucked 2 rigs to the lily pads to the left where the swim shallowed up. I had 3 fish within minutes from a spot that had not previously produced.

I've struggled with motivation recently. Furlough from work is doing my head in, putting me off doing anything. Saying that I have put fresh braid on my marker rod, and my pike rods after weeds and mussels fragged it, and respooled my carp and spod rods. I don't fancy spending silly money for a day ticket taking the 10minute drive to Suffolk Water park or Hintlesham, and the syndicate is 23miles away. I could get the pike rods out on the park lake now its thawed, might do that once the car is MOT'd tomorrow. I can always walk there.

Was going to say when i over do the hook bait pimping i empty the pot into a old sarnie box give them a roll around and pop into a clean pot, usually leaves enough liquid in the sarnie box to coat a few other tubs.

That's what I am planning to do lol But apparently I put too much in and they just haven't absorbed it all yet 😁😳 I will let them dry out a bit today in some fresh tubs 😁

Best of luck bash 🤞🤞🤞

The real eye opener of course is using a boat to look at spots and features. I had a session a few years back which proved to be very interesting. I’d arrived late one Friday evening in early Summer after a particularly gruelling motorway journey. My chosen swim certainly contained fish but also lots of weed. Boats were allowed for dropping markers and baiting up but rigs had to be cast. Out in the boat with the H blocks I set about finding some spots near where the fish had been showing, around 110 yds. It was a jungle with only the tiniest (dinner plate sized) true clear spots. I dropped the blocks in those areas where the weed was shortest and scattered bait widely around each one. I’d been intending to fish my preferred lead clip set-up with a simple coated braid pop up but had to quickly re-tackle and use long running chods to sit over the weed. In truth I was not particularly happy doing so but it was by now nearly dark and it had taken the best part of 2 hours to get sorted. After casting each rod to their respective block, I quickly paddled out to check the presentation. Despite my best efforts I couldn’t find the right hand or middle rod for love nor money. But, purely by chance the left hand chod was sitting pretty on a hand sized sandy patch-you couldn’t have placed it better by hand! I paddled back secure in the knowledge that at least 1 rod was fishing for the night and in with a chance. In the next 24hrs I had 3 low 20’s from the right hand and middle rods. The ‘banker’ left hand rod didn’t produce a bite and when I paddled out at the end of the session to check, it was still in ‘perfect’ position and all the surrounding bait (pellets, chops, corn) had gone! Had I been able to present a bottom bait or wafter on that spot it just might have stood a chance, the chod was too blatant but the chances of hitting the spot again at that range was minimal.

This👆 The way I see it rock hard clean spots have already been harvested, there's no grub there other than what you put out. In the softer areas around the clean stuff, or spots that are just beginning to be harvested, there's natural food so they'll be more inclined to feed there. Supplement that with bait and whallop, party time. Of course, thousand and thousands of carp have been caught off clean gravel and some of the best anglers I know of still target rock hard clean stuff, but for me I find dirtier areas are more productive.