What does it mean? - Are they preparing for spawning or something? - I had a morning down at Harescombe today. I picked a couple of small carp out of the margins in the first hour. But then it just stopped. I could see carp cruising around just below the surface, and in places congregating in groups of 20 or more. But they weren't 'avin it. You could have dropped a bait on their noses and they'd avoid it.
Along with more than a couple of others I decided I could only flog a dead horse for so long before it was time to pack it in and go home. Floating baits are banned at this venue, and before anyone shouts zig rig, I'm pretty sure the fish were simply not feeding, regardless of bait and presentation.

Some places seem to be full of stunted fish, loads of little silvers for instance that will probably never grow, others seem to be full of big fish... like the place I've been fishing recently. I've said it's the the only place I personally know of where you can have a near 1lb Roach come off the hook and only let out a small sigh, anywhere else and you'd be cursing.

Is it down to amount of food? Depth of water? Age of fish? Genetics? Different for different species?

Cheers

With the working week already over for me I'm looking forward to making the most of this weekend.

I'm going to go to the park lake near me again tomorrow. I blanked there last time and don't expect anything to change this time round as it's not going to be warm, even colder than last time I went, but it's a nice challenging lake and I'll be happy with one fish. I'm going to practise using a worm kebab rig so if I do catch a fish there's the probability it will be a decent one.

I have 3 pints of maggots, hemp and worms from my wormery. No chance I'll use 3 pints tomorrow so I was just saying to my dad that I'll keep the leftover bait and give it a few hours on the weir on Sunday. I don't expect to catch anything from the weir either given the time of year but you never know.

That's all part of the excitement for me, not knowing. I could go to easier places but for me fishing is not all about catching, it's about spending time at nice places, that being said there's always the chance of some decent fish... a big Crucian, Tench or Bream from the park wouldn't go amiss, nor would a Barbel from the weir but I'd be happy with anything.

How about you? What are your plans?

The close season is looming hasn't really bothered me before with only fishing stillwaters, but must admit the thought of

3 Months & 1 Day
93 Days
2232 Hours
133,920 Minutes
8,035,200 Seconds
25.4% of 2022

Not being able to get on the river is getting me down already

Could be worse I guess could be no fishing anywhere like it was when I was a kid.

I prefer to be hooked by a barbed hook.....

I think most of use have either found something in a swim, or left something behind. A couple of years ago I found this homemade rod rest, and it is now the front rest I use most of the time, if I'm not using a feeder arm. It is the perfect size, pushes in easily, and is easy to move for those fine adjustments. Lose wise, there is a swim somewhere with a tube full of floats.