why am i blanking/????

[mcdunners]

just lately i've been unable to catch anything but small carp on sweetcorn so i started useing antbait hooker pellets -the halibut oil 15mm ones with a small pva bag of halibut pellets. i've been recasting my baits about every hour.

Could someone tell me why i am constantly blanking just lately????

i can't understand why?

if your after small to medium sized fish(5Ib+) how oftern should you recast your bait?????

[Guest grint]

a few questions

 

where and to what features are you casting or fishing to ?

 

are the fish on your water spawning?

 

is everyone using simular tactics to you and have the fish wised up to it?

 

maybe an hour is a little to short a time to leave your baits out ?

 

are you looking for evidence of feeding fish (bubbles cloud vortex fron tails/finns) and moving on to them when it happens

 

the awnser maybe in the above questions or a case of real bad luck!

[mcdunners]

i've just been cating anywherei couldn't be bothered with featue finding butis it better if i cast to an island? or lilly pads even if the lilly pads are only 5-7ft out?

how do you know if the fish are sporning or not ?

what should i do if they are???????

How long do u leave your baits in if your fishing a small PVA bag and hookbait?

[Guest grint]

if their spawning there's loads of activity in the margins and shallows (leapping slapping about chasing each other need I say more)

and theres no way their gonna feed (minds on sex)

but as soon as they finish they'll soon be back on the munch!!

 

edges of bars, margins, islands, weed beds, lilly beds take some time to look for these areas its well worth it don't cast out blindly

 

some of my best catches have almost been under my feet look in the margins close into the bank especially those lilly beds!

 

don't be so keen to keep pulling your rods in every hour

 

find the fish, its no use fishing where theres no flippin fish

 

before you start fishing have half an hour/hour , walk around see if you can see any fish activity then fish in that area be prepaired to move if you can't see any movement look in the areas that you think they might be.

 

try other baits methords and aproaches soon some thing will happen and you'll hit on the right formular for that water;)

[ripslider]

There are three things that you have to do to catch any fish. Carp or trout, it's exactly the same. They are, in priority order:

 

1) Find some fish. As Grint says, if there are no fish around, you can't catch them

 

2) present them with a bait that they want to eat, or, will cause them to attack the bait ( carp, as they get bigger, or when they shoal, become quite predatory, like chub )

 

3) Use a rig that will allow ctach the fish AND land it.

 

I'm guessing your fishing a commercial? I went fishing with 'er indoors last weekend to a "heavy commercial" i.e one that is no totally rammed with 8 oz fish, but has a fair few decent fish in, from about 5 - 15lb. This was our method ( as ever she caught more fish than me )

 

Get a bucket. chuck into the bucket a small tin of corn, some ( not pounds of..) small pellets, some medium sized pellets, some hemp and tares if you can, yesterdays maggots and maybe a few catsers. Maybe also a tin of tuna flakes.

 

 

That's your groundbait.

 

Kit:

rod: something practical. I use a short avon rod for pleasure fishing.

 

reel: Again something practical, I use a 035 sized reel as I have short fingers, it holds more than enough line.

 

Line: 5 or 6 pound Maxima

 

rig: 1.0 gram pole float with an ollivette near the hook and a couple of droppers, or a loaded waggler float. If using a waggler, have less than 1cm of float showing.

 

Rig is: Float, shot, hook. That's it.

 

Extra's: Mat to sit on ( I don't use a chair, although missus does ) forceps, net. spare hooks shot, floats.

 

What not to take: ANYTHING ELSE!!!! You don't need it for fishing close and having some fun, I swear.

 

Most important: Time. try and arrive at the lake after 3pm on a normal summers day. on a hot day, don't even start until 4.

 

Bait: Mussels ( Asda or farm foods ), worms, pellets, boilies, anything else.

 

Walk around the lake. Find a spot with lillies or rushes near your feet or a few years away. take time to choose your position. Wear trainers, walk slowly. Look for trembling stalks, pads etc. look for "different" especially somewhere where there is some shade and shelter.

 

We fished swims where we were dropping the floats in at the end of the rods. Put in a good hand full of your mixture, next to and also into the feature. ( so fishing next to lillys, I was baiting my swim but also feeding onto the pads themselves ). Then tackle up, keeping away from the edge.

 

Plumb the swim ( IMPORTANT ) and fish a few inches over-depth. feed every five minutes. Start with pellets, worms, corn etc as bait. When you have feed for an hour or so, move onto mussel. If you fish mussels ALWAYS hold your rod, or you'll loose it.

 

We fished from 4 - 8 on a water that is definatly not "Easy". The match the day before had been won with 22lb.

 

We took 18 fish, all different, to a top weight of 22lb 3oz. We guessed the total at about 150lb. By the time we packed up, both swims were dark brown becuase the carp had turned the bottom up so much.

 

Why?

 

1) We fished where the fish were

2) We used baits that they wanted and/or make them aggressive. Best bait was half a worm for the smaller ( less than 8-9 pound ) fish, and mussles for the bigger fish.

3) Fish attaract fish. As soon as a few carp are feeding, others will investigate.

 

4) balanced tackle. The line weight may seem low, but everything in the rig was balanced. The twenty pound fish was landed more safely on my setup than using heavy line and a 3lbTc rod, as I was fishing at my feet, so needed eveything to bend and flex. Light line lets everything move better bait-wise as well.

 

5) There was a method behind it: We were fishing particles, which carp love, and lots of different ones. The lake is used for matches, so using some maggots and casters was giving them what they were used to, where they would expect it ( think what happens when someone packs up to go home...)

 

We fished lightly and simply, we fished in a way that the carp aren't used to, as most fish either the metod or in-line ledger rigs.

 

Try that method. It cost me less than £10 pound for a good session, and it was fun. I also caught a lot of fish, becuase I thought about what was happening and what the fish wanted.

 

 

Steve

[mcdunners]

cheers i'll definately give float fishing a go

[ripslider]

hmm... maybe I got too detailed.

 

Float fishing is way to catch good fish, and a way that I think is a good and practical way, but many others don't.

 

Legering, with the multiple rigs you read about here is another way. fly fishing another. So is floater fishing, using small lures/spinners and even, especilly in rivers, dead baiting with minnows or bull heads. Match tactics are also pretty deadly, even on the hardest of specimin waters.

 

ALL of the methods will catch carp, they are by no means the most difficult fish to catch ( although they have a magic which probably no other fish have ) and I've caught carp ( although not always intentionaly!!) with all of them. Some will catch better than others in general, but there is no "RIGHT" way of doing it. repeat, there is no RIGHT way to catch carp, or any other fish apart from maybe dace.

 

The key to catching the fish you want, be it a single specemin or a bag of doubles every single time is that when you walk out of the house to fish, you either have a strong enough plan in your head that you know will work, or you are adaptable enough to change.

 

E.g. I know i'll be fishing this weeked, so this is my prep:

 

1) weather forecast. www.metcheck.com is by far the best. It shows you the wind directions and a three hourly breakdown. So I know that I need to be up at 5am tommorrow for a 6am start, to catch the sunshine, and need a swim that faces east so I can fish into the wind.

 

Sunday it's raining, and the winds swinging everywhere and I don't own a brolly or a bivvy, so need a lake that I can rove around on, and which has trees around to have a smoke under if it gets really bad.

 

2) Venue

Tommorrow I want to catch a few really nice fish. I have maybe ten venues I know really well. Two of those will meet my requirements for the weather. I want to be able to have fun and relax as well, so that discounts one of my venues which is 25 foot deep and massive, and so will be slow. It can be speeded up, with pre-baiting and raking, but I haven't done anything like this. Therefore I'm left with one lake to fish.

 

3) Tactics

now I know where I'm going, and where I need to be when I get there, I know the lake well enough that I can narrow down the tactics to those specific tactics that are right for maybe a total of four swims. I can narrow them down even further because I know the time of day, and so predict things like light level and tempreture. Having read Walkers and Stones books, I know how the fish will be feeding in these conditions.

 

It's the start of June, and I'm fishing in the morning. I would be crazy not to take a fly rod ( As we're in the middle of duffers fortnight, when the mayflys are hatching.) but I also know that it's cold tonight, so tomorrows hatch may be late, after I've left. However, I also know that I'm fishing in mud, and it's been warm for the last few weeks, so the fish are in the shallows. Carp in Shallows + mud = carp feeding on swan mussels naturally, so I'll be fishing those as well. I'll also take a bucket of particles, like above, as I know that caro in warm weather have the energy to root around looking for food. I can either float fish them or free-line big baits, and I'll keep my options open by taking some peacock quill, swan shot and flaot rubbers. If the carp are taking the bottom to pieces then I like to use the lift method. If I can't see mud swirls, I'll free-line for more confident takes, but this means I have to hold my rod all the time, which is slightly less relaxing.

 

By working the above out before I leave the house, I'm 95% confident that I'll be in a place where the fish are, that I'll be able to present them with a bait that they want, and that I'll have the right kit to do it properly.

 

What I wrote the fish time is a good way of fishing a commercial, especially in the evenings, and will certianly, in the conditions listed, work.

 

But I knew they would before I left the house.

 

if you go though the above steps, which are pretty general and work most of the time, then while you can't be TOTALLY sure that they will work, you can be sure your fishing the best method, in the best part of the best lake for that moment in time.

 

Hope you get some monsters.

 

Steve

[rawfishing]

the margins are great spots as they are full of natural food which attracts the fish and u can accurately bait up the margins.

 

try different size hook bait. also try single baits (without pva bags or any bait around them) the carp see single bait as freebie and hoover them up.

 

i tend to cast every 2-3 hours, your bait will fade and loose its flavourings but the fish take them as they seem safe.

 

i find that natural bait such as maize and hemp are great for catching carp, sometimes the simplest bait work!

[cjd]

few tips o mine.

 

keep your rigs short- bout six inches.

 

when i put on a boilie i shave/cut a bit off(not much) & put a few nicks in it.

 

put out a pva bag withit wiv 5orso boiles(some chopped in half)- dont overbait in my opinion, i don't use hemp or any other stuff unless i go with my old man to bigger lakes.

 

leave rods for 2 hours at least really.

 

keep your rod tips low as you can, and i personally fish with a slightly slackened line for that bit extra to lay lower on the bed(less line bites & doesnt interupt there swimming patterns(as much-dont like backleads)).

 

i seem to catch every session, had an 11 & a 19 last saturday both very nice fights.

 

good luck mate.

 

(i use fusion boilies mostly(sometimes pepperami or luncheon meat)/running lead/2 rods).

[eon]

i've just been cating anywherei couldn't be bothered with featue finding butis it better if i cast to an island?

 

Perhaps you would up your catch rate if you could be bothered?!?

I think it's strange that after saying something like that you can get firstly frustrated by not catching then asking for advice.If you were eating round a friends house and you were stod outside and he said "your dinner's in there mate" where would you rather find it,on the table or in the loft?!?!?!

I know that sound's a bit silly but do you get the point? The most successful angler's are the ones that can be bothered especially when it comes to feature's and fish finding.All the best mate

[i_fish_hbs]

i've just been cating anywherei couldn't be bothered with featue finding butis it better if i cast to an island? or lilly pads even if the lilly pads are only 5-7ft out?

how do you know if the fish are sporning or not ?

what should i do if they are???????

How long do u leave your baits in if your fishing a small PVA bag and hookbait?

 

well if you couldn't be bothered to put effort into your fishing then i can't be bothered to help you!

 

if anyone has seen my thread in non-carp titled "beginners forum" then this is a perfect example, what mcdunners is asking are questions that he should know through common sense or they are only going to come through his own experience. and even if we can answer them, from past threads that he has posted it seems to me that he is taking none of it in. waste of time and wrist cramp........ rant over!

[contender]

Every lake/pond is different to amount of time u should leave ur rods out.

 

Ask around to see what the average time people leave their rods out are.

 

Some lakes I fish are up to 24 hours or longer. None I fish recast after an hour!