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In this case, I think it was down more to the cast itself, it required a low, hard punch to get it tight under the overhanging shrubbery and then stopping it dead so it didn’t drill into the clay bank that rose up immediately above the desired spot, if that makes any sense! The other rod fished to a more open spot where I could feather the cast went out sweet, the first spot was so tight it required maximum accuracy, a PVA bag wasn’t the one, as I couldn’t get the mark, with the long low trajectory needed, the PVA bag splashed down too soon, a PVA nugget would have been useful, but the bag was safely in my tackle cupboard at home... (perfectly useless!) as the water was gin clear, I opted to use a fluro combi firstly as it was nigh on invisible and whipping the existing braided hooklink to a fluro “boom” was far quicker that tying up new complete hooklinks. An important consideration when I had a carp show near the spot and I wanted a bait placed and waiting.

Anyone else notice that most of these writers use the worlds should and may a lot lol

Happy to use uncoated braid if the situation dictates. For me, has to be on a leadclip and you MUST feather the cast and hit the clip to avoid it tangling (I do with every rig I cast but essential with soft braid). Larger/heavier bait help. If in doubt, attach stringer or mesh bag👍

So i guess the moral of the story is if you tend to fish overnighters like myself, fish in silt or just off pads and weed, 😂

Rod Hutchinson often explained something similar about the carp using gravel bars as the routes across gravel pits, and the silt in between being the feeding areas. Day time may be the time to fish on gravel and night the time to fish off them. The day is an 'inquisitive' take, night is a feeding take. RH also mentioned that the carp may hide in lily beds and weed in the day, occasionally picking up a bait, and again coming out of the weed to feed properly at night.

We as anglers put our bait on clear spots primarily, for rig efficiency and in our minds thinking that's where the fish need it to be to feed on it. Carp are masters of their own environment though and can feed where they like, when they like. So from clean gravel, clay spots, silt in varying depths , in the weed and of course in the water column itself. By watercraft and observation of any food being excreted by a carp that you catch you can get an idea on where they are feeding predominantly. In my opinion there are definitely times when fish prefer to feed on gravel, on/in silt etc. If you can work this out on your lake then it makes the puzzle easier to fit together. I've fished a couple of lakes in the past that were full of gravel bars/plateaus, silt gulleys and weedy areas. Without doubt in my own fishing the gravel spots in these lakes or the weed were the places to fish in the warmer months. Though at night time better results were achieved by fishing where the gravel met the silt. Autumn time was definitely the silty areas/clay spots that done the majority of the fish for me.

Unlucky. Both lakes that I'm a member of have cancelled them due to covid.

Work party tomorrow 🤮

Will make no difference

I'm up, car loaded, 1st trip of the year, heard last night the lake has risen quite abit, but still fishable.

I’ve just spent a few (blank) hours on the local pond, I was using soft unvisited braid as hooklinks but after they came back tangled on two casts in a row, (I luckily reeled them straight back in as I wasn’t happy with the casts) I switched over to fluro hooklinks, fished combi rig style (using the soft braid hooklinks cut down and tied to the fluro) no bites, yet no tangles either. Checking them in the edge they looked good too, although it probably doesn’t really emulate what it was doing over in the actual spots!

Forgive me for saying this, but if you've had 7 takes and yet to land one then you're doing something wrong in my opinion. I hope you're not losing your gear in the fish and are just having hook pulls, which still isn't ideal.

I did split the topic, if you need the link

Does anyone remember a time when you just walked into a swim and thought “I’ll cast one over there, one to the far margin and one under that bush” (or similar) and “fish the swim” as opposed to finding “the spot” as such? on my local water, I can stand in a swim and the other anglers will say “9 wraps casting toward the left hand side of the dam” or “18 wraps toward the water tower” or “cast on the bank and place the rig 12” from the 3rd set of rushes from the dam wall” and everyone drops into the swim and casts to exactly those spots. A procession of anglers all placing their rigs in the same place. I’ve always thought that if you fish the same spots you can only catch the same as everyone else. when I stand in a given swim, i know that at “9 wraps (or whatever) cast at the dam is “the” spot, yet I can’t ignore the snaggy margins either side of me, plus there’s a lot of unfished water that’s being ignored by 90% of other anglers. on my second water, it’s a small intimate place with (admittedly very inviting) far margins that are an easy cast, nice overhanging trees and bushes. Everyone casts tight to the far bank, yet I get more takes fishing right under my rod tips. One night I had 13 carp under my rod tips, yet the one rod fished to the far margin (just in case) only produced one carp at dawn - which was a repeat capture - I had caught it 8hrs before... under the left hand rod tip! whilst fishing the known spots can and obviously do produce fish, I think that doing things differently suits me better.

Well after 2 winters talking about zander fishing on Rutland we finally did it with just a week to go before close season. It was a very calm day which was good as it was my first time in a boat over very deep water, but you soon forget any nerves once the rods are out. For the first few hours we tried the vertical jigs, but with almost no drift it seemed a dead loss and I started feeling the cold and a bit like captain noddy! Late morning we travelled round a corner to a slight bay and tried the pike lures and vertical jigs again, no joy. We ate lunch then had another go before heading back to the initial area for the final couple of hours. This next go over the central ground was different as we had a light breeze and slight tow and straight away you knew that you had better presentation. On our 2nd drift I got a bang on the vertical jig whilst looking the other way, I couldn't believe it, then another bang so I hit it and slowly pulled it up, felt like a pike or decent zander and I was made up when a 5-6lb Zed hit the surface - that's a first for me! On the next drift my mate had a bang on his sleeper rod, then another and he lifted into another Zed, this one went 7 1/2 and was a PB - so a great day overall, brilliant to catch on a method you've not done before - can't wait to go again next year.