How do you asses a new fishing area?

As the title suggests really.....

As a begginer it would be interesting to hear your views on how you plan to fish.

I know fishing is allot to do with trial and error and the best way to learn is on the bank but still, i suppose most of you have some sort of "to do list before i fish"?

Whats the first thing you do when you get there?

What methods do you use to plan your setups/rigs or to present your bait the best possible way?

Im keen to get into carp fishing, iv done allot of course fishing over the years with the basics and would like to take it a bit more serious /forum/smilies/smile_smiley.gif

Mat

1st thing have a walk round the lake to watch for fish showing and any features that scream fish eg islands, lillies, reeds and whats the margins like. if its quiet then take a marker rod and search the bottom see what you are fishing over gravel ,silt or weed check the depth of the lake and look for underwater features gravel bars ,clear spots and snags.

look for areas that have signs of having been well fished ,ask other anglers .

secondly don't be afraid to ask questions from anglers and bailiffs . Check the web or angling press for information about the lake and any catch reports.

with regards to rigs and baits .keep the rigs simple and use quality baits.

Thanks for the suggestions, as for the baits. Whatever happened to traditional methods like bread maggs and sweatcorn?

All you hear now is boillies, "special" ground bait and even fake bait? I mean is can cost a small fortune loading up on all the stuff available but is it really nesacrery? I went to my local tackle shop today for some odds and ends and i saw some plastic sweetcorn amoungst other stuff. There were about 5 or six in the pack with a price of £2.50 and yet he was selling tins of the real stuff for 40P!! whats all that about?

Mat

bread use on the surface on some lakes it a killer during the warm months and sweetcorn is a great all year round bait use with groundbait pva bag or a method feeder and over a bed of particles. Boillies and pellets will last a while so do work out over a long run. What size lake are you going to fish.

<blockquote class=quoteheader>speci-hunter wrote (see)</blockquote><blockquote class=quote>bread use on the surface on some lakes it a killer during the warm months and sweetcorn is a great all year round bait use with groundbait pva bag or a method feeder and over a bed of particles. Boillies and pellets will last a while so do work out over a long run. What size lake are you going to fish.</blockquote>
<blockquote class=quoteheader>The lake is not that big, its more of a big pond at its widest i would say about 40-50 yrds and about 500 yrds long.</blockquote><blockquote class=quoteheader>There are allot of big fish in there because i have seen them and the guy at the tackle shop also confirmed.
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