Hot Spots

What makes a hot spot for fishing and how long will it remain so?
Maybe this will answer Des Taylors question in last weeks A.T.
Remember when it became advisable not to fish under pylons? And everybody was up in arms because this is where some of the best fishing to be had came from. The pylon swims were a typical example of hotspots, simply because they were a landmark and nothing else.
I can remember reading in the Angling Times that some people suggested it was because of the electricity in the pylons that attracted the fish.
The simple reason was that everybody?s bait was going in ? in this area. So it stands to reason this would attract a lot of fish.

So why not create your own hot spot, on an out of the way stretch of your local canal? Or if you have a lake of good size, then do it there.
The less people that know about it the better, as it is less likely to get over fished.
Once you have found a nice little quite spot that you fancy baiting up on a regular basis, you then have to decide what you are going to bait it with.
One of the best and cheapest foods to pre-bait with are particles.
Type in ?Particle baits? in the search box, and read the excellent articles by Monk, Stu Denis and Big Rik. They not only suggest what to use but how to prepare them as well.
I done a bit of particle fishing myself some years back, and I now think it is about time I got back to it.
I will even be giving it a go on the rivers, there?s nothing to lose.

Has anybody ever pre-baited a river,and how long could I expect the feed to stay in the area?

Baz,

Bread, it dont get no cheaper! Stale loaves, liquidised. Look out for local duck feeding areas, so your not the only one baiting the swim!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure you're right there Baz, in all cases of electricity cables anyway. I know a few swims with overhanging electricity cables (Not low enough to be dangerous) which are exceptionally good swims compared to other swims in the same area.

A notable one was on a Swedish river I fished with Mick Brown which the locals referred to as 'space' due to the rod vibrating in your hand when you sat under them. The power from the cables could be felt, but just maybe the fish can pick up on less powerful cables that we can't actually feel. That swim in Sweden was outstanding and yet the bottom contours of the river there, or anything else, were no different to the rest of the river for a mile or more up or downstream. That swim produced more pike over 30lb (and not a few over 40lb) than anywhere else. And this was definitely not due to that area being fished more than anywhere else, for the pike only came up the river for a few weeks, and during that time there was someone fishing all up the river every 30 yards or so, both above and below 'space'.

I'll see if I can find a picture and post it in the Gallery.

That will teach me to generalise (o

The main point I was making though is for any new comers to fishing. A couple of pylon swims near where I live are good swims, but they both have something else going for them as well as the pylons.
There are literally miles of unfished canal. And the carp are virtually untouched.
I don't mind putting people on to them, but it is so easy to create your own little spot, instead of going to the known places.

Baz, I can understand your reasoning but in my experience hot pegs are not created by anglers they are a phenomenon that anglers never seem to be able to answer.

I can take you to pegs on the Severn and Avon where I can almost predict what you are going to catch, and those pegs have been producing, some for 20 or so years. Almost no discernable difference between it and pegs upstream or downstream but the fish obviously think so.

Yes you can feed a peg for a length of time and draw fish into it but once you stop feeding the fish will move somewhere else.

Location, location, location......then introduce feed on a regular basis to make your bait acceptable. You will rarely create a new hotspot through feeding areas that aren't part of the regular patrol routes.

I have to disagree chaps.
There was a regular hotspot on my stretch of canal, unless you drew a peg in this area you had no chance of winning or geting a place.
I noticed one year that catch rates were dropping, but peoples till made for this same area.
I set up stall about 100 yds away in what was a featureless area, and I was catching more than anybody. Maybe the fish were being pressured away from the usual spot. But I could allways go here and catch some cracking breem of around 3-4 lb while everyone else was catching them a t about two pound. I used to bait it two or three times a week on the quite.

another cheap bait to use for prebaitng is sweetcorn its only 20p in sainsurys for a decent size tin!

"You will rarely create a new hotspot through feeding areas that aren't part of the regular patrol routes."

on rod hutchinsons lake he put a tree on the corner of an island. no difference to the bottom make up, and it was just a spindly little thing. but people cast to it, introduced bait to it, and created a hot spot.

but then you did say "rarely"!!

You create new hot spots for fish the same way as you create a new hotspot for humans, open a new kebab house and regularly come up with the goods and a new hotspot will be created, of course I`m not suggesting you build a Kebab House on your local lake of course!, mind you that might not be a bad thing in retrospect. I was having a walk round a park lake the other week in an Asian area, a number of the Asians were feeding the ducks with their children, not on bread but on depattis, the ducks loved them and had obviously been eating these things for a while.

you even get a punch in the face at the kebab shop every now and then, but keep going back for more.....

we`ve got one like that, must be part of the same company?

I have created many a new hot spot on my local cut where nobody else fishes.
(under the pylons)
Yes it can be done.

NOT under the pylons though.

Fish face.
For pre-baiting, buy frozen sweetcorn,it's cheaper still. And try to find a farm foods shop (animal feed) you will save a fortune.