Planning a campaign

[Uroy]

When starting a campaign on a new target water what do you take into consideration to maximise your chances. How do you go about it? Obviously there’s the recon trips and watching the water but I’m just interested in everyone’s thoughts on how you go about starting on a new water? What do you do or how do you go about it? 

[yonny]

15 hours ago, Uroy said:

Obviously there’s the recon trips and watching the water

Apart from this, not much mate.

Obviously if there's a specific fish I'm after I'll find out when/where it tends to come out but aside from that I'll always go in with a very basic approach (boilies/pellets) based on what I see during my walks round the venue. By keeping it simple you have a good base to work from in terms of tactics.

[greekskii]

18 hours ago, Uroy said:

Obviously there’s the recon trips and watching the water

This is key, watch the birdlife carefully, they will show you all sorts of things, spooking from carp, natural food larders, where the new weed is growing, where the hatches are, etc. 

Never getting wedded to swims because you are prebaiting is my other biggest tip. It can ruin your fishing big time, I've done it before and I see it a lot too. 

I will try and find out any info I can from people that know the venue, spring/summer/autumn areas to have a look at. 

I try to really explore a few swims on the end of a SW, it's hard to ignore them on larger waters so it's worth being able to drop in when the conditions suit. 

 

[elmoputney]

5 hours ago, greekskii said:

 

Never getting wedded to swims because you are prebaiting is my other biggest tip. It can ruin your fishing big time, I've done it before and I see it a lot too. 

 

 

That's good advice and something I've been known to fall foul of, Infact I've been guilty of it recently, 😁

You get blinded by where you want the fish to be and not where they are, and it's easy to not look about when you get like this, not only that you start to get quite precious about it, that was something I noticed last year, and didn't particularly like, also I got bored fishing the same peg after a while, it becomes like you are going through the motions, I had been baiting a swim for a few weeks recently and one time a guy came up wanting to fish it whilst I was baiting as he had been doing some time in there, he seemed a bit put out I had been doing it tbh, I just blew off 3 weeks work off and tried elsewhere 😔

I started off last year in a different peg each time and built up a picture that way I can now jump in a lot of swims and fish which helps, I tend to just do my own thing nowadays,don't race to get in the going swins, I will clear spots and swims that are overlooked by others and have a go, if nothing else I may learn something 😂

The main thing I think is to just enjoy it though, if you keep trying you will have your good days as well 👍

[Carpbell_ll]

3 hours ago, elmoputney said:

That's good advice and something I've been known to fall foul of, Infact I've been guilty of it recently, 😁

You get blinded by where you want the fish to be and not where they are, and it's easy to not look about when you get like this, not only that you start to get quite precious about it, that was something I noticed last year, and didn't particularly like, also I got bored fishing the same peg after a while, it becomes like you are going through the motions, I had been baiting a swim for a few weeks recently and one time a guy came up wanting to fish it whilst I was baiting as he had been doing some time in there, he seemed a bit put out I had been doing it tbh, I just blew off 3 weeks work off and tried elsewhere 😔

I started off last year in a different peg each time and built up a picture that way I can now jump in a lot of swims and fish which helps, I tend to just do my own thing nowadays,don't race to get in the going swins, I will clear spots and swims that are overlooked by others and have a go, if nothing else I may learn something 😂

The main thing I think is to just enjoy it though, if you keep trying you will have your good days as well 👍

i approached my water with a total lack of respect this year, thought i would start at the first swim and fish it till i had one, then move to the next peg, three sessions in and I'm still to have one,  change of plan. 

[framey]

2 minutes ago, Carpbell_ll said:

i approached my water with a total lack of respect this year, thought i would start at the first swim and fish it till i had one, then move to the next peg, three sessions in and I'm still to have one,  change of plan. 

But have you learnt the swim

[Carpbell_ll]

18 minutes ago, framey said:

But have you learnt the swim

just a bit, time before last i had the fish tails up on one rod happily munching away, still can't get my head round how that never turned into a run know the lake fairly well just too much second guessing where the fish will move next.

[elmoputney]

18 minutes ago, Carpbell_ll said:

just a bit, time before last i had the fish tails up on one rod happily munching away, still can't get my head round how that never turned into a run know the lake fairly well just too much second guessing where the fish will move next.

I had that Sunday more bubbles than a sodastream but they stopped and nothing happened turns out my rig was covered in dirty chod poo 💩

[elmoputney]

I watched the Darrell peck wazing vid last night, one thing i took from it was how he used his gut to tell him to move, I know I've sat there thinking this isn't right before and not moved 😢 

[B B]

I start on a syndicate water, ( my first time ) on the glorious 16th of June. I found out there’s a 47lb er I don’t know if it’s a common or mirror and I don’t want to know, which could go 50 this year so that’s my PB sorted , checked the rules, had a spy on the good old google earth and that’s about it. It’s 10mins bike ride away iv had a good look and will be just taking my marker rod for a while. There’s lots of vids on the YouTube how to fish it and pics of the fish but I don’t want to bother with any of that.

My goals ...are to enjoy myself and do my own thing ... 

[NeilH2320]

Do some feature finding, check depths, what the substrate of the lake bed is like, species of weed etc and then, record what you’ve found in a notebook.

If it’s possible and allowed, it’s worth having a climb up trees and recording what you see. Carp tend to be like sheep, in that they’ll follow the same trail regularly. Also, don’t forget the margins. 

Observe and take note of how the carp are affected by the the elements, the presence of other anglers. That sort of thing.

My starting point when I do actually go fishing is: target areas of the lakebed that feels as clean as possible and bait those areas, and if possible, keep on baiting them.

But, if the venue you’ve chosen is always busy, just get in where you can and hope for the best! 

 

[salokcinnodrog]

On 23/05/2021 at 15:30, Uroy said:

When starting a campaign on a new target water what do you take into consideration to maximise your chances. How do you go about it? Obviously there’s the recon trips and watching the water but I’m just interested in everyone’s thoughts on how you go about starting on a new water? What do you do or how do you go about it? 

Learn as much as you can before fishing it!

In my case it is find the features, not forgetting the margins. Some margin spots may be obvious, slopes, rushes, snags, others not so like undercut banks. 

I get the marker rod out, and map the lake as best as I can, and Google Earth can show up some real treats, as does an Internet search. 

I had some lovely hand drawn maps of Virginia Lake at Earith, some Google maps of Nazeing, with gravel bars and distances to the bars, weed beds etc. 

As has been said, other angler's can be useful. Don't 'pump' for information, but generally swapping info can get you a head start. Other angler's may have favourite swims and spots, might be all fishing the same, so doing what they do might catch you fish, but being different can catch you more. 

 

Going back to Brackens pool, most angler's used very little bait, there was a rule of no baiting by hand, catapult or stick, so I went in heavy with massive PVA bags and stringers, often casting in as many as 30 bags or 30 bait stringers as I could in 30minutes or so, all ready tied.