Many Doubles and a Few twenties

Guys,
Here is one to get your juices flowing, I am currently fishig a 2 actre pond with an average depth of 9 foot with 150 plus low doubles in it and 4 known 20+ fish and one of these may be 30 lb. I have had one of the big boys this year.

Really my plea is for some help with how to go about catching the biggies. With the amount of fish in the pond you would expect it to be classed as a runs water but blanks here are not uncommon either, my point is that the carp in this water are very very parnoid.

Also finding fish is made difficult by the colour of the water and they do not show themselves.

I had orginally thought that the approach i need to take is to fish until i have caught everything and eventually a big'un will come my way but im trying to hone an approach to even the odds a little.

My current strategy is to feed a few spots at least twice a week, one at the end of my session and the other mid week. I am feeding triple 12 mm bollies with a piece of dry spaghetti to bind them. This is to give the bigger fish a chance to find my bait. My bait is ultra-plex and seems to have a malt choco / fishy flavour to it and its smell isnt disimlar to EXPO groundbait, so guess what i will be using for a bag mix

Also for the size of the water there is usually at least 4 anglers on it at the weekend.

I know i should hit the water mid week but i have a mortagage to pay and a wife to keep happy.

Any comments would be helpful.

Cheers Chog

mlahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

The spaghetti will break down quickly and you will be surprised what a double can fit in its gob i wouldnt worry about triple baits they may also be wary as they will act differently to every other boilie they have seen.

How much are you pre-baiting?

Washed out baits may prove to be a winner

With that many fish i wouldnt prebait because i would feel there are too many fish that may eat the bait so unless you could prebait huge quantaties no particular fish are going to become conditioned to your bait and activly search it out.

The only advice i have to nab the larger specimens is to stalk them out.

"i wouldnt worry about triple baits they may also be wary as they will act differently to every other boilie they have seen"

thats exactly why you SHOULD use them!

i dont think it would really help in this situation though, if you cant stalk them you have to play the numbers game. one thought though, if the fish are that paranoid when they feed, you wouldnt normally expect the lake to be that coloured up....

I dont think the fish have seen triples regularly so this is the reason i have taken the triple baits approach, i have also been toying with the idea of using donkey chokers as well but i will need to get myself a new table for that and im sure its been done also the stack is a harder hookbait to eject. My thinking is that with the stocking so high i have to even the score a little with the numbers game.

The lake is a naturally coloured lake anyway so feeding fish are not as easy to find as the lake looks the same colour anyway, but you can tell when they are feeding over the slit and weed as they do occasionally give up their where abouts with the odd patch of bubbles.

Due to the clarity of the water stalking by sight is impossible, i have tried.

As for pre-baiting i am putting in a 1/2 a kilo of bait twice a week. Its getting a little colder and the fish's acticity seems to have slowed right down.

Pre-baiting has worked to a degree as i was out at the weekend and i had two runs = 2 = 2 fish but both came from the pre-baited spot.

donkey chockers dont really work, look at the size of the mouth on a low double....

Yeah,
Big enuff for a choker.

That sounds like a lot of fish in a small area of water. If it is a as hard as you say, I would suggest either the fish dont feed properly because they are overcrowded and stressed, or there are actually a lot fewer fish than you think.

If there are that many fish and that few anglers, the fishery might be supplimenting their food supply with trout pellets or something else. if so, do they feed it in a particular place, and what do they feed?

also, what soft of material is this lake dug into? Our lakes are highly coloured because they are in clay, and visibility is a problem. Having said, observation is still important - are they rolling or jumping in certain spots, are there suspicious movement of reeds etc.

I agree with Frothey, carp in the size range you talk about will all have big mouths, so bigger baits wont necessarily put off the low doubles.

Rob,
I quote "That sounds like a lot of fish in a small area of water. If it is a as hard as you say, I would suggest either the fish dont feed properly because they are overcrowded and stressed, or there are actually a lot fewer fish than you think."

I think that your right on both accounts, it does receive a good be of pressure as due to the size of it if two anglers are on the water the fish know about it.

Wild man ,Maybe a silly question but what is the "normal " type of bait being used :boilies ,particals ?,maybe for a small water under a lot of pressure they are getting shy of the norm and a change of bait may be the answer ,paste ,the method or just the old maggots ,worms ect.
Or scaleing down on your line b/s ,lighter leads ,longer hooklengts ect .
Or maybe with all that hair in your eyes you just can`t see the runs lol.

Its not the hair in the eyes thats the problem.... its the hair in the ears.

Les all the suggestion's you have made are valid but alas i have tried them all. The other boby danglers on the lake are compentant anglers and use naturals, bollies and particles. The fish do come to each method. I think the only edge i can get is throught bait and application. Alot of the guys are fishing ready made shelf lives and im trying to introduce frozen ultra-plex to get the fish onto it.