WOW
and i thought nick was a thinking fisherman, steve (ripslider) you take the biscuit, no, not the biscuit the whole damn tin!!! superb reading:D
now for my 2 'peneth
now adamxx knows i've been using an old rod and reel to do a bit of float fishing recently, an old (its nearly 30years old) 10ft glass fibre barbel (avon) rod of about 1.25-1.5 tc with a mitchell 410 loaded with 20lb, yes 20lb:eek: mainline. i have been using lobworms for bait with a piece of 5mm dowel for a float and tied directly to the line a size 6 korda longshank x.
my local is not a particularly hard water but in the past 2 years or so it has become definetly more difficult to tempt them, that is if you are doing what everyone else is doing and sitting behind a pair of rods cast into the middle or tight to an island and using boilies for bait.
recently since the middle of may or so i have noticed a lot of fish tight in the margins in groups of 6 or 7 fish, realy tight, inches from the bank and thought i'd try a bit of the old stalking for them. so with my trusty kit listed above and leaving my buzzers, lc's, 12ft rods at home into battle i went!!
needless to say i've caught a few, more than a few in fact, i've had my best season in years and have had more fish than all the other guys on the lake. nearly all doubles as well, and this in a lake with a large head of small fish.
all i have been doing is baiting a few spots with a couple of handfulls of hemp and just walking around from spot to spot looking for feeding fish.
the point of all this typing is......
on many occasions i have cast beyond a group of carp all tails up on my hemp, pulled it back amongst them and watched (sat on my hands) as they have carried on feeding, pulling the float under whilst catching the line endlessly, its sometimes been quite difficult to distinguish what is a bite and what isnt. i have had to match the floats speed with a particular fish sometimes to be sure it is a bite.
very very exciting!!!
now until everyone cottoned on and the fish have now moved away from the margins i was expecting to catch a couple of fish at least, and this in sessions of no more than 3hrs morning or evening. my rig, if you can call it that, is 'heath robinson' to say the least yet i have caught many fish.
now IMHO if you can see a carp, you stand a very good chance of catching it, providing you can put something it likes to eat on its nose and more importantly, it doesnt see you. the rig is (again MHO) the 3rd thing on the list.
location, bait, rig.
one more thing, i have enjoyed this fishing much more than sitting static behind a couple of rods on buzzers. now if i can only find out where these fish are hanging out now:)
before that i'm off to get some paperclips:D
