robtherake
Well-known member
I,m not offended mate,some of the venue,s i fish are solid,but on certain days,you could be fooled into thinking theres not a fish in there!!!,commercials are not as easy as everyone thinks...ok there not as hard as a 100 acre res with 20 carp in,but they still hold challenges of their own,Gaz
I've come back to this one, Gaz, (and I hope the OP doesn't mind me straying off-topic,) to say a few things that bear a mention.
On a lake I fish on a fairly regular basis, I was doing rather badly, sitting next to a young lad who fishes match-style tactics to very good effect. On the opposite side was another guy, fishing full-on carp style, and also doing rather well (it made me chuckle at the time to see him hauling out carp no bigger than a few pounds with the full Delks/Solar stainless/gigantic big pit reels/3lb rods, plus a carp cradle that would have swallowed a whale, but that's straying from the point.)
Both these guys were successful in their own ways, and it made me wonder about how I could adapt my own semi-specimen tactics to suit.
To cut a long story short, I went away and had a good, long think about how to adapt my own approach, and came up with several ideas that incorporated aspects of what both anglers were doing well.
Suffice to say, armed with a few new tricks my catch rate and consistency has soared. I've since become quite friendly with the young lad, who fishes matches regularly and clearly knows his onions. He's chatty and open, so there's no need to pick his brains, and by observing his feeding regimes closely (which is where this post ties in with the rest of the thread) have learnt an awful lot about how the right approach to feeding the swim can maximise your chances.
Whatever one's views on match fishing there is much to be learnt from capable exponents of this art, who really understand what's going on under the water (particularly with respect to feeding) and are consummate masters of getting the very best out of the peg they draw.
In the little charity shop in town, I'd noticed a small stack of recent match fishing magazines - offered for peanuts - which I'd previously passed over.
I returned and bought the lot: what an eye-opener! Used to the usual coarse mags (you know, the ones you read in the supermarket while the wife gets her shopping fix,) which appear to trot out the same old tactics time after time in between blatant advertorial articles, these had the thinking part of angling condensed into a science. I'd rather buy these every month than any of the other offerings, and it's sure raised my estimation of those fellas perched on oil rigs - I may even start going to a few matches to watch and learn, something I never thought I would say.