You make your own luck

Hello all, I hope that everyone reading this has managed to get out and land a few fish during the warmer weather that we have been experiencing lately. As for me, I have been lucky enough to get out on the bank and have a few grace my net. But my target species (Tench), at my chosen venue have been proving very hard for me to locate and to get a decent hook hold. My last couple of sessions have been very frustrating due to the hook pulling on what could only be Tench, putting a decent bend in my rod. I have landed lots of Rudd and Roach but can’t get these cheeky Tincas in my net.

Taking a break from my local canal has been a good choice in my mind, as a couple of my friends and I have had fish on the bank from other waters.

On one of the days in question we headed out to try to tempt a big Perch out of the murky depths of a commercial lake. Perch are in most waters, all around the country, getting fat on the small silvers that over run a lot of lakes. Most people wouldn’t think of targeting Perch when there are big Carp to be easily had, but if you put the time and effort in, the rewards can be much greater.

Based on previous visits we knew the water held some good fish. We also knew it wasn’t known by many, so the fish should still be alive, and the chance of landing one looked likely. So the rods went out to what looked to be holding areas, and the day began. The chosen bait was glugged prawns with a sprinkling of maggots over the top, to keep the smaller fish busy and hook baits ready for a big cavernous mouth. Throughout the day we had many bites and the fish we were waiting for eventually screamed off with my mates hook.

What a cracking fish to see in the flesh, and I had the pleasure of taking the photo to preserve its glory for many years to come!

The next session saw Moxey and me heading out on an afternoon for a spot of surface fishing, in search of some lovely Carp. My approach was to use bait whereas Moxey was on the fly, so we had a big variation of tactics. We were both very confident of catching, but whose methods would come out on top?

After an hour or so it was clear that the Carp definitely preferred my scattering of glugged pellets over the natural appearance of the fly, but I still managed to loose a few. My next thought was to see if the Carp in the lake would be confident enough to come up for a big chunk of bread. On many waters this technique is just too blatant and you’ll waste your time, but I find if you can get them on it, it’s a winner.

In the end we successfully managed to gain the confidence of the Carp and we had a fantastic afternoon’s fishing, seeing lots of pristine little carp in the net.

All in all, both methods proved to be very good at catching, but the Carp in this water just couldn’t resist the bait approach. The main thing is we had a fun day out on the bank catching lots of fish.

Until next time.