Difficult lakes

[fishingjack]

Now that it's bright after work I usually go fishing a few hrs after work. 7 til 9 or 8 til 10. The lake I fish is so bl**dy difficult. I caught a carp may 2012 and a bream 2 weeks ago. Other than that nothing.

I've fished 8 hour sessions on weekends without so much as a line bite. Are some places just so hard you can never expect to catch much?

Tonight I heard 2 chaps packing up. One guy said to the other I had a great time but it would have been nice to have had some bites. mg:

I'm not one for thinking carp are smart. I believe they are just cautious. You can see them swimming about and even jumping now that it has warmed up and when that thing called sunshine appears.

God it's frustrating. I fish other places where a bite comes in 20 minutes or so. I keep going with new ideas thinking this time it'll work. I've tried all baits and all setups. This place really irritates me because I'm told it used to be good and it's on my door step.

Has anyone had a similar experience and then tried something that seemed to crack the code and lead to lots of banked fish?

Help me please! :w

 

[sam vimes]

I fish a water that sounds quite similar in some respects. Is yours a big, deep gravel pit?

The biggest "trick" I can suggest is to find the fish, preferably ones that are feeding and not just cruising about. If that means walking around the place, at least once, without any gear, so be it. People have laughed at me walking the full mile round my lake, two or three times, just looking. I have the last laugh when I nick a carp or two in a couple of hours when they sit for days catching nothing in the wrong place.

To assist with finding the fish, use polarized glasses. You are looking for discoloured water, flat spots and tail patterns. Follow the wind, the fish are very likely to, particularly in the warmer months. If all else fails, watch where the predatory birds want to fish.

That comfortable spot out of the wind and near the car park might be very popular, but it doesn't mean that the fish are there all the time.

 

[barbelboi]

Very much agree with Sam, time, effort and watercraft generally bring results.
Jerry

 

[terry m]

Ha, but when you catch them from such tough waters, the reward is normally huge.

Agree with Sam's approach too.

I well remember walking along the bank of a windswept 60+acre pit early one morning in late February a couple of years ago. I happened upon a carp angler just emerging from his bivvy, bleary eyed.

"Any luck mate?"

"Nah, nobody has had a run on this place since last August!"

At first I though he was kidding, but he was not.

That is tough going!

 

[fishingjack]

Thanks guys,

this place is actually a tiny 1 or 2 acre pond so walking around it isn't a problem. I usually have a good gander before choosing a spot.

The water is very coloured all the time so fish can only be seen in the brightest sunlight and right below the surface, even with polarized glasses.
The depth is just 2.2m at it's deepest. I get the impression the cruising carp don't then drop down to the deck, swimming over my baits. I've tried zigs and pop ups.

I don't really float fish as I'm no expert in float fishing for UK species. Shotting patterns? Watched videos but can't say I like the idea. I believe there are simpler methods not requiring shotting patterns. One float, one or two leads is enough for me. Something simple. Maybe I can do that with a stick float or a waggler?

Last night I tried nothing but some freelined bread (rolled into a ball) cast out in the margins and allowed to sink. I usually fish some corn on a hair.

I have had my best luck on hair rigged corn on a bolt rig. Nice and simple and self hooking.

 

[mcrackoff]

By the water colouration, I take it that the water is silty?
try light leads, with your hook in a pva bag so it sits ontop of the silt, failing that, a light choddy.

 

[fishingjack]

The bottom is covered in dead leaves which have turned black. I'm not sure if that's what carpers refer to a silt or if silt means clay/soil etc?

I moved away from inline leads to try and avoid any chance of line becoming buried and fished a lot of pop ups or method feeders to try and make sure the hook is visible to the fish. Sometimes I use PVA bags as well.

 

[sam vimes]

The bottom is covered in dead leaves which have turned black. I'm not sure if that's what carpers refer to a silt or if silt means clay/soil etc?

Dead leaves, twigs, rotting vegetation is often called chod these days. When this decomposes fully, it can become silt. Silt is silt, fine soft particles that slowly sink creating patches, sometimes quite deep, on the bottom of a lake. The more pressure it's under, the thicker it gets. The upper layers of a patch of silt is usually indistinct being fine particles in suspension in the water. The tiniest disturbance in the water above a bed of silt will generally cause great billows of particulates to cloud the water.
Too much weight on a thick and extensive patch of silt can see a lead and bait vanish without trace. Badly silted waters can appear to be very shallow to the eye. Wade in and you can find that water that appears to be a couple of feet deep is actually two feet of water and several feet of thick, gloupy silt. This silt overlies the true lake bed.

 

[nicepix]

On a silty bottom on a small water float fishing is the way to go. The line will lay over the silt and prevent the bait from being buried too far. There is a one acre farm pond at the back of our house that has a silty bottom and this is the way I fish it;

No need for anything but simple tactics. Take a suitable float, attached bottom only, and shot it about 2/3 capacity placing the shot directly under the float. Put an AAA shot on the bend of the hook or hair to act as a plummet and plumb the bottom. Once you have the depth, add about 6" to 12" by moving the shot and the float then put a couple of No 4 or No 1 shot spaced 6" apart and starting 6" from the hook. Add whatever extra shot is required under the float. If you move swims you'll have to re-plumb the depth.

Fish with a single grain of sweetcorn or maize and a floating artificial grain of maize stacked on the hair. That will ensure visibility and that the bait does not sink. Use chopped maize or sweetcorn sparingly as groundbait along with a few micro pellets. If the fish don't respond to the sweetcorn bait try a change of bait in a banded micro pellet on a smaller hook. I use pre-tied 16's on 2lb 14oz bottoms for micro pellets. I'm OK with carp up to around 6lb on this as there are few snags. I also have good success using a single grain of stewed wheat on the same hook size.

Most importantly on a small water is to keep out of sight and be quiet and also to avoid casting in too often.

 

[Graham Elliott 1]

Fishingjack. I fished a very similar lake at osterley.

I would suggest a very strong smelling bait. Silly as it sounds a paste made from kit e kat or similar fish catfood. Use a size 6 hook and totally cover it.

This can simply be dropped under the rod tip and a foot of line pulled from the reel.

Use a walnut sized bait and scent the water around with a sloppy mix of same bait.
About 4 or 5 small handfuls max.

Rod in a rest and wait for the line to tighten up.

All too simple to try by you I guess.....but it will work.
Graham

 

[fishingjack]

Thanks Graham, I think your tip would be my prefered option to try.

---------- Post added at 14:27 ---------- Previous post was at 14:25 ----------

On a silty bottom on a small water float fishing is the way to go. The line will lay over the silt and prevent the bait from being buried too far. There is a one acre farm pond at the back of our house that has a silty bottom and this is the way I fish it;

No need for anything but simple tactics. Take a suitable float, attached bottom only, and shot it about 2/3 capacity placing the shot directly under the float. Put an AAA shot on the bend of the hook or hair to act as a plummet and plumb the bottom. Once you have the depth, add about 6" to 12" by moving the shot and the float then put a couple of No 4 or No 1 shot spaced 6" apart and starting 6" from the hook. Add whatever extra shot is required under the float. If you move swims you'll have to re-plumb the depth.

Fish with a single grain of sweetcorn or maize and a floating artificial grain of maize stacked on the hair. That will ensure visibility and that the bait does not sink. Use chopped maize or sweetcorn sparingly as groundbait along with a few micro pellets. If the fish don't respond to the sweetcorn bait try a change of bait in a banded micro pellet on a smaller hook. I use pre-tied 16's on 2lb 14oz bottoms for micro pellets. I'm OK with carp up to around 6lb on this as there are few snags. I also have good success using a single grain of stewed wheat on the same hook size.

Most importantly on a small water is to keep out of sight and be quiet and also to avoid casting in too often.

Thanks nicepix, at some point I will have to get myself some floats to try a technique like this. At the moment I only have pike floats and a bubble float.

 

[nicepix]

Thanks Graham, I think your tip would be my prefered option to try.

---------- Post added at 14:27 ---------- Previous post was at 14:25 ----------



Thanks nicepix, at some point I will have to get myself some floats to try a technique like this. At the moment I only have pike floats and a bubble float.

Floats are one of the cheapest and most useful items of tackle. Virtually every angler used to start with floats when I was a kid. Now its all ledgering.

Today I've been carp fishing on a 200 hectare lake Not with a bolt-rig ledger set up as you might have thought, but with a crow quill float, a couple of blobs of Blu-Tac for weights and a hook with maize on it. Dead simple and very weed resistant.