Can you honestly say.

That your fishing has improved over the last few seasons, if so why? If not to what do you attribute the deterioration, weather, fisheries on the slide or more sinister reasons, which you may feel have played a role?

Yes I can Derek and beyond all recognition! Mind you I started off the year as utterly useless and now I am just mildly incompetent. I have a long way to go however but the journey is very enjoyable- most of the time

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=q...=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#imgrc=LBulT3S2z5kzeM:

Now I'm retired, and fish at least twice a week on the fishery I joined last year, my fishing has improved a lot.

I'm getting to know the place a lot better, definitely catching more carp as me and my mate have concentrated on these this year, but have had good catches of crucians, roach, Rudd and lots of bream.

THe really big ones have alluded me so far,but that's ok, I like to have some targets to fish for. Got myself a dropshotting kit to try for some of the big perch in here this winter should be more mobile and warmer hopefully.

On reflection I would say that my fishing (or the results of it) have improved. this however is due more to the fact that I very much more pick and chose my dates and conditions these days.

It follows that by being more deliberate on which days I do fish then my chances of success increase, depending on the definition of "success" of course . . . .

My picking and choosing has the completely opposite affect. 0n Friday I picked a peg which was in the sun, which was dry and which I just liked the look of: I caught several commons around 6lb! Buoyed with this example of tactical brilliance I went again yesterday and resisted the temptation to have the same peg and decided on another on the other side of the lake where carp were rising and were there was shade and lily pads. The result , I blanked barely a nibble!

Did I mention a long journey?

Yes. I joined a club with better waters than the park streams and puddles I'm used to.
If they're not in the water you're sat by, you have to cast a very long way to catch them.

No it hasnt improved. I have moved around over the decades and waters have come and gone. I miss the easy tench bagging from a wide choice of waters in the 1980s and 90s, whereas tench now seem harder to find but much larger when you do. The monster chub and perch of the last decade or more are also compensation - i barely saw a perch over 12oz in my first ten years of fishing due to the disease back then in the 1970s that affected them.

Now I am local to the Wensum after a break of 25 years the roach fishing is much the same as it was then (ie still not a sniff of anything approaching 2Ib yet) but the go-to chub are thinner on the ground and the barbel now virtually non-existent.

Yes, I like to think so....However, I'm quite sure this is down to the fact that I've concentrated on a set number of waters rather than spread myself around (what a horrible though!). In other words I have totally familiarised with the vagaries of said waters and learnt, to some extent, how to deal with them. This line of approach may seem boring to some but at least I can pretty much guarantee catching some fish every time I go out, and some good stuff as well. I see others struggle on these waters, so I must be doing something right!
Some of the waters are biggish so moving swims helps to hgive that 'new venue' feel, and then, of course, we have the times when we have a blank and any form of familiarity goes out the window!!
To answer the OP question; I believe familiarity of venue plays a big part in improving catches, but that by no means suggests one can sit on ones hands and use the same old tactics and baits. When I think back ten years I know now that I was probably fishing too heavy, as well as being stuck in a rut around tactics.
To a great extent I owe the improvement in catch rate to what I have learned from fellow FM'ers, not least to those of the match fishing fraternity, and others who have contacted me with ground bait suggestions etc that have worked a treat....

Although it doesn't pay to ignore sound advice when you see it writ large in front of you, it also doesn't pay to take things as read, and to try to think outside the box, to come up with a new approach or bait - something............
As Skippy said recently, if he is not fishing, he is reading or thinking about it and that I suggest is part the correct approach to improve ones self...IMHO

Lets' hope I don't blank tomorrow.........................................

On the rivers waters I fish I would say the fishing as got worse the river have little or no flow apart from when they are in flood. The survival rate of fry appears to be very low.
On a netting survey done two years ago the returns on small fish were low and doesn’t appear to have changed. Matches are being won with a couple of pounds of fish. The head of small pike as increased this I put down to the removal of the bigger pike for the pot.

My lake fishing as improved but I put this down to being able to pick and choose when I go. Those that can’t pick and choose say it’s got worse.

I don't think mine has improved but my enjoyment of it has and that will do for me

There are a few reasons why it hasn't improved but mainly it my inability to get to those far away from the car park swims that I know hold fish that rarely see an angler.

My enjoyment has improved as I now fish on occasions with another member and because I have got back into float fishing for whatever comes along, I had forgotten how pleasurable it was rather than targeting one species or just fish of a bigger than average size that can lead to being disappointed to many times.

Mine has not improved due to limited time which I am not used to. I now grab a few hours at short notice instead of my minimum 3 days a week of only a year ago.
Others on here have mentioned familiarity helping. It certainly does help when time is short.
The problem with this is the fishing of my known hot spots and the reluctance to fish those spots I was intending to try out, not wanting to risk a blank.

Looking forward to more time next year. I am sure those barbel miss me...or not:wh

When I did not not what I was doing, I caught few fish. After reading many books, articles, taken on board tons of advice, fine tuned everything, fished far and wide in all manner of waters, tried every bait and method known to man.
I still catch few fish!
The only difference is my self delusion has improved a lot.

I do believe I catch a few more fish, and a few better fish on occasion than I used to. I have greater confidence now because I have a better idea of what tactical changes I can make. Some of this is directly attributable to this forum in that some very sound advice is freely given by many on here with valuable experience. Very much appreciated too thank you.
Not easily measured but I do think I enjoy my fishing more even when results aren't too spectacular. I have a lot going on that could get me down. Those worries no longer have my attention when I fish and often that's good enough reason for going in itself.

Double edged question this one. My fishing ability has not improved, but more to the point, it has not deteriorated, so I still fish with the same confidence that I always did.
My results remain fairly consistent, dependent upon the venues and conditions. I go fishing, most times I catch and sometimes I don't. But it was ever thus. The one factor that is totally unwavering is my love of angling. Pete.

Just being in the now is good for you! I am amazed at how quickly a day goes even when I am not catching many. Changing hooks, hook lengths, rods, feeders, floats and bait all takes time and by the time I have finished I am well chilled Fish are a bonus!

I can honestly say things for me are much of a constant, catch wise.
I have the odd excellent day and the odd poor day but on the whole I have average catches. That suits me fine, I don't try to kid I'm anything other than average.
Average for me tomorrow will be a nice net of punch caught roach.

My fishing has definately gone downhill and the reason is because of the Eastern europeans,you guessed it i am a pike fisherman,I worked my nuts off until my mortage was paid and my kids had grown up and left home,and then I retired and it was my turn to go fishing more or less when i wanted,and there is nothing left,i can live with cormarants and otters,to wound up now to say anymore

On the whole I've been catching better fish the last few seasons but this has little to do with any improvement in ability and a lot to do with access to better fishing.

Can I say I have enjoyed it more?

Occasionally yes and occasionally no, the latter of which worried me and prompted a return to a back to basics, free and easy style of fishing.

A fish has never ruined my day but when the lack of one does it's time to sit back, relax and start appreciating once again all those other things that fishing takes in, imo.

When I started back in 2010 (discounting the few years as a kid of 10/12) I knew very little, some on here will remember my first "fish-in" on the Itchenmg: I'm now almost competent with a float on rivers and still waters, this is despite the fact that my best river chub and roach have been on the feeder, a method that I'm no better than a novice at. At 58, I'm playing catch up with a lot of people on this forum and generally can only fish once a week, hopefully retirement will give me more time to improve and master other methods, S0ds Law probably says differently

I moved to Hampshire from Buckinghamshire in 2013 and since then have concentrated on my roach fishing. In that time I have come up with a really good leger rig which I am at last happy with. I have new venues and am enjoying my fishing more than ever.