Deep or Shallow? Winter Commercials

[smiffy]

I’m certainly not a commie expert but one thing I did learn during my short time on them was to be reactive. You may only get ten minutes at the death to snare one or two from the margins or they may be in and out all day. If they are sitting deep then it’s often because they’ve balled up and not feeding at all. Then it’s a case of chucking a bomb about, with bread, to try and find that ball.
I think the key is to be prepared, keep alert and react to gut feelings.

 

[Silverfisher]

When you treat yourself to some accurate weigh scales, a keepnet and accurately count your fish then you earn the right to be 'pedantic'....

Until then you're only kidding yourself.....

You’ve managed to put this thread of track again haven’t you

But I feel a need to defend myself a bit as wouldnt want people to assume any dishonesty! I’m quite a good estimater from my days of having scales and a keepnet as the keepnet only went walkabouts about 3-4 years ago. I did so for long enough to know that the average Thames hemp roach bag consists of fish averaging roughly around four to the pound and more often than not the fish I’ve caught since have been a similar enough size to assume that average is still usually about the same with it often smaller and rarely bigger. Plus I’ve caught enough roach and been enough of a student of them to have a rough idea of what they weigh anyway, some might say I’m obsessed with them! There’s also enough weight by length conversion charts about if you want to get a pretty good rough idea! Whilst I did it for years I don’t personally believe in keepneting and weighing bags of fish purely for the sake of it tbh these days. Nothing against those who do of course I just don’t feel itself necessary myself. I report stuff good and bad and feel no need to exaggerate, I’m as honest as I can be. Might get a counter though that would be handy. Last year I managed to keep count ok as would generally top out around 40-50 but this year I’ve generally caught more so I’ve lost track at various points of sessions. I manage to keep a rough count but start to lose count somewhere near the aforementioned mark so once I lose count generally around mid session I start to count by hourly catch rate. When I total up I err on the side of caution so to not accidentally exaggerate. I only do it for the benefit of reports to give people a rough idea of what I’ve caught, that I’ve caught enough to keep me busy is enough for me. I keep track well enough to say with relative certainty that if I say I’ve caught x amount of roach I won’t be out by more than say a handful either way.

That might be a bit of an overkill response and I’m sure you were speaking partly in jest but I’m certainly not kidding myself or more importantly anyone else as I try to report with as much integrity as I can and would never exaggerate so to deceive.

 

[Total]

You’ve managed to put this thread of track again haven’t you

But I feel a need to defend myself a bit as wouldnt want people to assume any dishonesty! I’m quite a good estimater from my days of having scales and a keepnet as the keepnet only went walkabouts about 3-4 years ago. I did so for long enough to know that the average Thames hemp roach bag consists of fish averaging roughly around four to the pound and more often than not the fish I’ve caught since have been a similar enough size to assume that average is still usually about the same with it often smaller and rarely bigger. Plus I’ve caught enough roach and been enough of a student of them to have a rough idea of what they weigh anyway, some might say I’m obsessed with them! There’s also enough weight by length conversion charts about if you want to get a pretty good rough idea! Whilst I did it for years I don’t personally believe in keepneting and weighing bags of fish purely for the sake of it tbh these days. Nothing against those who do of course I just don’t feel itself necessary myself. I report stuff good and bad and feel no need to exaggerate, I’m as honest as I can be. Might get a counter though that would be handy. Last year I managed to keep count ok as would generally top out around 40-50 but this year I’ve generally caught more so I’ve lost track at various points of sessions. I manage to keep a rough count but start to lose count somewhere near the aforementioned mark so once I lose count generally around mid session I start to count by hourly catch rate. When I total up I err on the side of caution so to not accidentally exaggerate. I only do it for the benefit of reports to give people a rough idea of what I’ve caught, that I’ve caught enough to keep me busy is enough for me. I keep track well enough to say with relative certainty that if I say I’ve caught x amount of roach I won’t be out by more than say a handful either way.

That might be a bit of an overkill response and I’m sure you were speaking partly in jest but I’m certainly not kidding myself or more importantly anyone else as I try to report with as much integrity as I can and would never exaggerate so to deceive.

You're like a glassine envelope....Completely transparent!......We'll agree to disagree.....

 

[Silverfisher]

You're like a glassine envelope....Completely transparent!......We'll agree to disagree.....

Well if you think I genuinely intentionally exaggerate then that is quite sad that you think anyone would do so as that’s a very cynical view. I like to think of most people as honest and would hope most think the same of me

 

[Markywhizz]

Well he certainly took that bait Mark

 

[Markywhizz]

In my experience carp on the bottom in deep water aren’t feeding and I often do better down the edges, even in winter. It’s certainly worth a go anyway. Bream feed in deep water though. Don’t know if anyone else has found this to be the case.

 

[Zerkalo]

Well today on the 20' deep lake the best depth was shallow, 2' in 8' of water. But that was the Roach and Perch. I find shallower lakes with only a slight gradient a lot more predictable than lakes with extreme depth as that is when the thermoclines come into play. Small Carp at least will prefer the depths I mention in the OP on the venues I fish, whereas the margins will only work at certain points of the day for me. So in winter I fish the bottom of the marginal and island shelfs more than the top.

 

[JLK]

Pretty sure I've read somewhere that thermoclines are only found in really deep waters which are over 30 ft deep Might be wrong though. There was once a post on here going into great detail about it all.

 

[Lee Richards]

Yes you do come across as a bit Roach obsessed Silverfisher but you do put pics up and reports to back up your catches and your advice seems to be based around how you are fishing.

The majority on here don't so respect to you for doing it.

 

[Zerkalo]

I'd agree on thermoclines only applying properly to deep water, said that myself but only through working it out by my own perceptions, not claiming it as fact.

On margin fishing in winter, I was fishing in January at a local commercial, chucking 5m from the island, so down the bottom of the slope. The owners dad came round and said you won't catch casting there. Ie. not close enough to the island. But it was deepest January and so I told him I wanted to fish at the bottom of the slope. Seemed to be working for me, so to cut a story short, we agreed to disagree... in that situation... if I fished it tomorrow I'd still be chucking tight to the island.

 

[Silverfisher]

Yes you do come across as a bit Roach obsessed Silverfisher but you do put pics up and reports to back up your catches and your advice seems to be based around how you are fishing.

The majority on here don't so respect to you for doing it.

Thank you I appreciate that

And yeah I’m definitely a bit obsessed with the humble roach I can’t deny that! I’m a product of my environment I guess living round here you either go down the specimen carp route or river route where the dominant species are roach and I just ended up going down the latter. I’d probably be a chub nut if I lived more in your neck of the woods for example