A Blank but what was learnt 😱

[commonly]

Blank for me at the resi, this weekend. 

Saw the owner on Sunday morning, he said nothings been out since last year. Water temperature is still below 12o, he seems to think they will switch on when it does. 

3 weeks away until I can get back, I bet they start spawning, knowing my luck😏

[salokcinnodrog]

18 hours ago, salokcinnodrog said:

Totally agree this warm then cold weather has definitely made catching much harder.

After my common I haven't seen another fish in the area, they just seem to be picking up the occasional bait, not feeding properly.

 

A few fish have been out though, one of the 2019 20lb stock fish has made 30lb, and some of the 2021 December stock fish have come out at least 2lb heavier than stocked.

 

I'm positive I had fish feeding over my bait this week, in fact this morning, but I felt because it was over birdfood and Vitalin they weren't picking up boilies, so with previous sessions in mind I had ordered some treats for them for hookbaits.

The massive flat patch is where one of my baits was, but a snowman hookbait, 15mm pop-up over an 18mm bottom bait, not a bleep. I'm pretty positive it was carp clearing the smaller food items.

 

[salokcinnodrog]

I've been thinking this over since my last post, and obviously the carp are feeding on the smaller feed items. If I bait up with them when I arrive; Vitalin, crushed boilies, maybe maggots, breadcrumb they will be feeding on them, so fish the Naturalz Wafter over it, and when I leave bait up with a bit more Vitalin and whole boilies to get them onto bigger baits on the spot.

[Dervill]

I don't rate ''bits'' fishing and can think of nothing worse than a bucket of spod mix full of particle, or using a great big carpet of bait of any kind

 

I like groundbait with hemp etc. in it but I use it very minimally and throw in a few tiny balls per day over the bigger bits - I know the small fish will muller it but there will always be scent around the swim from regular little tiny top ups - but God forbid have too much food everywhere that even the roach can't manage it, what is the point of that? You are not going to create a feeding spot with bait - the carp will just have a little look, maybe sample a tiny bit, then disappear off again as they have seen it so many times and will sense obvious danger

I do fish a few different sizes and flavours but its all very softly softly - If you have a light scattering of very desirable, carefully chosen high quality pellet and boilie you can thus fish with more confidence, in my opinion, that if a feeding carp or two comes along they do not have too much choice to get through before they hit the one with a wire in it

I have bailiffed before and been about a bit - I am 100% convinced that most angler's biggest problem is throwing far too much bait in

Edited May 2, 2022 by salokcinnodrog
Remove censored

[salokcinnodrog]

19 hours ago, Dervill said:

I don't rate ''bits'' fishing and can think of nothing worse than a bucket of spod mix full of particle, or using a great big carpet of bait of any kind

 

I like groundbait with hemp etc. in it but I use it very minimally and throw in a few tiny balls per day over the bigger bits - I know the small fish will muller it but there will always be scent around the swim from regular little tiny top ups - but God forbid have too much food everywhere that even the roach can't manage it, what is the point of that? You are not going to create a feeding spot with bait - the carp will just have a little look, maybe sample a tiny bit, then disappeared off again as they have seen it so many times and will sense obvious danger

I do fish a few different sizes and flavours but its all very softly softly - If you have a light scattering of very desirable, carefully chosen high quality pellet and boilie you can thus fish with more confidence, in my opinion, that if a feeding carp or two comes along they do not have too much choice to get through before they hit the one with a wire in it

I have bailiffed before and been about a bit - I am 100% convinced that most angler's biggest problem is throwing far too much bait in

You haven't fished a water full of natural food where you have to wean them off it and onto your bait then. 

Sometimes the only way to do this is pile in the small stuff with boilies mixed in, and hope they will take the boilies.

[B B]

A blank from oxlease but my mate had a 19lb Common a long fish what yonny would call a cricket bat fish, he also had a 25lb Mirror so made up for him…. I learnt the need to cover all bases and eventualities. I knew the swim I was going to fish a little bay to my left only I access to it and it was a 151/2 wrap cast to under the trees, feed them by hand and cast close to them. Well I fed them by hand cast to them and that was that lol. I should have realised after a day that they were there just to chill and hang out, should have had a plan B taken a marker rod find a spot in open water bit of spod and fish that…. But what a sight I had up close to carp in gin clear water over a clean sand gravel bottom, hours of just looking at them lol

Apologies for the quality of the pics 

 

 

[newmarket]

On 01/05/2022 at 15:50, salokcinnodrog said:

I've been thinking this over since my last post, and obviously the carp are feeding on the smaller feed items. If I bait up with them when I arrive; Vitalin, crushed boilies, maybe maggots, breadcrumb they will be feeding on them, so fish the Naturalz Wafter over it, and when I leave bait up with a bit more Vitalin and whole boilies to get them onto bigger baits on the spot.

 

On 01/05/2022 at 15:50, salokcinnodrog said:

I've been thinking this over since my last post, and obviously the carp are feeding on the smaller feed items. If I bait up with them when I arrive; Vitalin, crushed boilies, maybe maggots, breadcrumb they will be feeding on them, so fish the Naturalz Wafter over it, and when I leave bait up with a bit more Vitalin and whole boilies to get them onto bigger baits on the spot.

A Naturalz Wafter , the Snail one , produced a mid double for me this afternoon Nick .

Over a small bed of Black Snail & B5 freebies . I think it’s something a bit different they haven’t seen before , especially here.

[Carpbell_ll]

tell ya what i learnt this week fred's flea and tick is not up to date, lol... brought a few sheep ticks back with him, she loves a bit of rough does my woman lol.

[salokcinnodrog]

2 hours ago, newmarket said:

 

A Naturalz Wafter , the Snail one , produced a mid double for me this afternoon Nick .

Over a small bed of Black Snail & B5 freebies . I think it’s something a bit different they haven’t seen before , especially here.

That's a good result 👍 

[Carpbell_ll]

just back, no joy nothing comming out as they are getting ready be a few weeks yet so still possible they are just not really feeding plenty of moving around in small groups, the particle i used was good quality from  https://www.carpparticles.co.uk/ i got the hemp and tiger shelf life and some of the pellet to mix in very immpressed with the hemp and tiger i would of thought it was fresh if i hadn't bought shelf life. 

the weed is getting chocca i found some clear spots in the middle but a lot of the lake is getting there, a deeper to find gaps would be brill, would need to be sure i could read it before buying, i still struggle with the 2D reading view, in term of area width in the scan, need to watch a few vids.

[salokcinnodrog]

Still learning mine.

For 2 sessions I have found fish in the margins, and lowered a bait onto them. I think though that the brightness of Vitalin etc in the bag is too bright. They don't necessarily spook, but do leave it alone. 

I did wake up to one patch cleared, but the coots were present and I had moved the bait out slightly when I saw them feeding on my bait to avoid hooking them.

[kevtaylor]

On 01/05/2022 at 21:11, Dervill said:

I don't rate ''bits'' fishing and can think of nothing worse than a bucket of spod mix full of particle, or using a great big carpet of bait of any kind

 

I like groundbait with hemp etc. in it but I use it very minimally and throw in a few tiny balls per day over the bigger bits - I know the small fish will muller it but there will always be scent around the swim from regular little tiny top ups - but God forbid have too much food everywhere that even the roach can't manage it, what is the point of that? You are not going to create a feeding spot with bait - the carp will just have a little look, maybe sample a tiny bit, then disappear off again as they have seen it so many times and will sense obvious danger

I do fish a few different sizes and flavours but its all very softly softly - If you have a light scattering of very desirable, carefully chosen high quality pellet and boilie you can thus fish with more confidence, in my opinion, that if a feeding carp or two comes along they do not have too much choice to get through before they hit the one with a wire in it

I have bailiffed before and been about a bit - I am 100% convinced that most angler's biggest problem is throwing far too much bait in

I agree with your sentiment and most often fish over small amounts of bait, fishing for a bite if you like, however I've also fished over big beds of mixed stuff: tigers, boilies, mixed pellets, maize, particle mix, hemp etc and had some good hits, the fishing improved day on day and they demolished the lot in a few morning hours.  They can demolish huge amounts of bait when they want to.

I'll be doing that again this summer if conditions seem right, depends on the time of year and many variables.

When I go on a busy venue it's common to see people putting far too much bait in seemingly without any reasoning, just because they see others doing it, all year round too - it's frustrating!

[kevtaylor]

On 08/06/2022 at 21:00, salokcinnodrog said:

Still learning mine.

For 2 sessions I have found fish in the margins, and lowered a bait onto them. I think though that the brightness of Vitalin etc in the bag is too bright. They don't necessarily spook, but do leave it alone. 

I did wake up to one patch cleared, but the coots were present and I had moved the bait out slightly when I saw them feeding on my bait to avoid hooking them.

For my margin stalking I mostly use halibut pellets, tiny one's for the fizz and fast breakdown attraction and a few bigger ones and samples of the hookbait.  Lots of attraction - very little visible food with it mostly being dark, works for me 👍

[elmoputney]

Let's do a recap of my v quick overnighter, what was learnt 

Arriving at 10 30pm and setting up in the dark wasnt too bad, fished a swim I know like the back of my hand so all 3 rods were clipped up and sent out in the boat fine, got donks on all of them, so was confident they were fishing. 

I thought about using the best rigs for for the situation for boat work , also some pretty good potential uses of pva mesh to be a little different, but keeping it all simple and quick change is key, lots to think about now 🤔

Set up by midnight, asleep by 1ish awake at 5 30, couple of cuppas watching the lake started pack up at 8, Mcdonalds by 9 and home, 

next week I'll be on earlies so can do more investigative work in the daylight, before having to pack up in the dark at 4am 😬

But I've proved I can do the work overnighter yay, something to build on now, 

And modular stuff is brilliant when you need to be quick and organised highly recommend the Wychwood comforter rucksack and cool bag, 

Loads of positives, I was well aware I completely bypassed the main key factor though location, but that will come as I start rebuilding the bigger picture 

I'm pleased today anyway 😂

[salokcinnodrog]

On 01/05/2022 at 21:11, Dervill said:

I don't rate ''bits'' fishing and can think of nothing worse than a bucket of spod mix full of particle, or using a great big carpet of bait of any kind

 

I like groundbait with hemp etc. in it but I use it very minimally and throw in a few tiny balls per day over the bigger bits - I know the small fish will muller it but there will always be scent around the swim from regular little tiny top ups - but God forbid have too much food everywhere that even the roach can't manage it, what is the point of that? You are not going to create a feeding spot with bait - the carp will just have a little look, maybe sample a tiny bit, then disappear off again as they have seen it so many times and will sense obvious danger

I do fish a few different sizes and flavours but its all very softly softly - If you have a light scattering of very desirable, carefully chosen high quality pellet and boilie you can thus fish with more confidence, in my opinion, that if a feeding carp or two comes along they do not have too much choice to get through before they hit the one with a wire in it

I have bailiffed before and been about a bit - I am 100% convinced that most angler's biggest problem is throwing far too much bait in

 

On 16/06/2022 at 14:08, kevtaylor said:

I agree with your sentiment and most often fish over small amounts of bait, fishing for a bite if you like, however I've also fished over big beds of mixed stuff: tigers, boilies, mixed pellets, maize, particle mix, hemp etc and had some good hits, the fishing improved day on day and they demolished the lot in a few morning hours.  They can demolish huge amounts of bait when they want to.

I'll be doing that again this summer if conditions seem right, depends on the time of year and many variables.

When I go on a busy venue it's common to see people putting far too much bait in seemingly without any reasoning, just because they see others doing it, all year round too - it's frustrating!

Back onto this, and I'm still convinced that at times the carp won't take bigger baits, unless it is over loads of bits.

I've been spending (far too much) time on the lake, and sometimes as per my picture earlier in the thread, a flat spot appears. I was talking to another member and he was telling me that he had baited that spot 2 days previously.

My baiting loads of bits has started to produce on day two or three of my Tuesday to Saturday sessions.

The difference is that I'm putting bait in every night, so when I arrive mid morning its cast out, wait until evening, put in a bucket of hemp and birdfood, Vitalin and boilies.

Every day I reel in, walk Sky, recast, wait until evening and Spomb another bucket of bait on the spot, although that bucket is Vitalin, bloodworm, snails and marginal silt.

It's produced a few fish, although the syndicate lake is hard work, because it has so much natural food.

Stocked carp are growing bigger on natural food, not on bait. In fact some haven't been caught since being stocked!

As @kevtaylor says, carp can demolish loads of bits very quickly. Im convinced that 3kilos of crushed bits, flaked maize etc are munched within an hour when 3 or 4 fish are present.

I'm lucky in that there are few other anglers present, I'm frequently the only angler on the lake for my whole trip. 

 

Most of my fish have come over that baiting, although there are a couple that didn't, one of which took a bright pink pop-up and the other an Infusion Naturalz wafter. Both of them, although caught from different swims came from the same area.

 

 

 

 

[B B]

I learned a valuable lesson on my latest trip… when you put a handful of boilies in your pocket to feed a margin swim first check that you empty your loose change from said pocket, I was literary throwing money away 😏