how patient are you?

[Joe C]

My Last 2 sessions I’ve blanked, one on the river, which was only ever gonna be a 4 hour trip and conditions weren’t right.

Today was the 2nd session, club water I’ve been told has some good roach fishing, spend 45 mins setting and plumbing up, had maggots and caster with me.
After 2 hours of no indications, no fish topping and no sign of any fish whatsoever I’m left with 2 choices. Move swims or go home, my mind goes to all the things I have left to do before opening my salon back up Wednesday and I go home.

So frustrated with myself, although admittedly it didn’t feel right and I felt like I wasn’t going to catch I wish I had the patience to sit it out.
I’ve picked up a nasty habit recently of packing up when sport is tough.

Anyone else go through these stages?

 

[Total]

@Joe C ......Was your club water the first time you fished it?

Could be a whole range of things....Wrong method, wrong bait, wrong area, etc, etc etc......

Times are strange at the moment....Of course you are worried about your salon....Family always comes first, but naturally you should worry about your business/income....

Fishing is for enjoyment, resetting yourself and loads of different reasons.....Of course you need patience....Swim choice is even more important given the cooler weather. Give yourself time. You'll sort it out....

 

[OldTaff]

If you aren’t in the right head space then fishing can be really tough even when conditions aren’t hard such as at this time of year.

As you say you have a lot on your mind and that isn’t going to help with patience which in the winter is a key element of catching as is confidence. If you hit the water feeling you weren’t going to catch then half the battle was already lost.

It‘s natural to have highs and lows but the important thing is not to dwell on a coupe of blanks or overthink what you are doing/not doing right.

For winter roach then there’s nothing wrong with maggot & caster but why not try a little bread punch or flake as an alternative too?

Good luck with the salon reopening and hope the fish respond soon.

 

[satinet]

I've blanked 3 times in a row now. I started getting really need off. As with you my head wasn't really in the right place for blanking what with everything. Not even had an indication.

I snapped the top on one of my rods, got annoyed and chucked it on the ground and snapped the reel as well.

Tough times these days.

 

[adriang]

Personally I rarely move, and will consider packing up after a few hours if there is no sign of any fish for me or anybody else around me (I rarely fish on my own and my fishing mate is a very good tip fisherman, so a good reference point).

There is a fine balance between staying with the general plan and ringing the changes, but one of my last trips on the Thames was very slow for the first few hours, but regular feeding and I started to catch after about 3 hours into the session (Just as my fishing mate was packing up!)

I kept trying the main area I was feeding every 10-15 mins or so while trying other lines, and generally ringing the changes in regards to bait and so forth. Doesn't always work, last season I had 3 blanks on the bounce.

 

[warrington63]

Personally I rarely move, and will consider packing up after a few hours if there is no sign of any fish for me or anybody else around me (I rarely fish on my own and my fishing mate is a very good tip fisherman, so a good reference point).

There is a fine balance between staying with the general plan and ringing the changes, but one of my last trips on the Thames was very slow for the first few hours, but regular feeding and I started to catch after about 3 hours into the session (Just as my fishing mate was packing up!)

I kept trying the main area I was feeding every 10-15 mins or so while trying other lines, and generally ringing the changes in regards to bait and so forth. Doesn't always work, last season I had 3 blanks on the bounce.

Oy...!!! ? your fishing mate was very patient, I only had one roach in all that time, And I only packed up because I said I would pick my partner up from work.

 

[adriang]

Oy...!!! ? your fishing mate was very patient, I only had one roach in all that time, And I only packed up because I said I would pick my partner up from work.

I was referring to the previous trip to the upper Thames at Kelmscott.. You're more patient at fishing than my mate Jas!

 

[gingert76]

i think think time of year it pays to be mobile on rivers especially, one of the reasons i used to enjoy fishing the stick float, easy to set up and easy to move and as for chub fishing i will always drop into different swims and/or have a quick cast and then but some bait in and move on before coming back later.

saying that i have suffered many many blanks lol!

and carp fishing i have gone 2 days without recasting before which is the ultimate patience

 

[Silverfisher]

I generally fish 5 to 8 hour sessions regardless of what’s going on then my patience in terms of how the fishings going is all dependant on the time of year and conditions and venue. First half of the season on the rivers I know I should be catching well and generally I will be but on the odd occasion it’s a bit slow at such times I do get impatient so try to make things happen. Second half of the season though I know it can be slow so I just take it as it goes and dont worry too much about how a session pans out. I’m most impatient on Stillwaters in the closed season though as I always want to make the most of the day ticket and because they are stocked I feel I should do well. Generally they are fairly easy but if I get a hard day on them I do get very impatient lol

 

[Neil ofthe nene]

I tend to be quite impatient. Not to the point of packing up on a slow day but in changing things to induce a bite.

In my blog about fishing commercials in Winter I talk about fishing three spots with possibly four baits (eg. maggot, corn skin , 2 & 4 mil expander). Five minutes in each spot with each bait will see the first hour pass. If I haven't had a bite by then I just repeat. Eventually, when I do get a bite I will stick with that bait for a while to see if that is the preferred bait on the day. And that can change week to week. If I'm still struggling then I start altering things like depth, presentation (hold the bait still in a tow, induce movement if calm). I may start a new line with more or less feed fed more or less frequently. It can be surprising when cold just how much, or how little you need to feed to get bites.

The last thing I would do is move. I can recall doing that once on my club lake and a couple of times on the canal in recent years. But each time I have had a reason to suspect that I was in the wrong swim in the first place. Otherwise I always assume there are fish in front of me and I have to work out how to catch them.

There are other times when it pays to be patient. On a practice for a club match on a venue I didn't know that well I discovered that the fish seemed to switch on at around 1pm. Come the match I luckily drew the adjacent swim to the one I practiced on and knew I had to pick up odd fish until the main swim came alive around 1 as expected. I came second in that match.

 

[Zerkalo]

I can remember a time recently when I packed up after a couple of hours. I fished a new 'club' water on day ticket. It was the first time I'd fished it the day after I'd caught loads of Tench at another new venue to me and there was meant to be Tench in there too, so I was hopeful. I'd taken a walk round there a few days before so I'd seen it before but did not notice how shallow and clear it was there until I was fishing. Maybe 2.5' deep and could see the bottom a few metres out. It ended up that every time I fed anything on my waggler line, the resident ducks would enter the peg and start diving down to eat my bait. Never seen anything like it before but the final straw for me was when someone else fishing there caught a duck, it was time to go home. The guy who I saw catch a duck came round to speak to me as I was packing up and said he hadn't had a bite!

When i'm Barbel fishing on the Severn I have carried on for a few hours even in adverse conditions, ie heavy rain when the banks where treacherous, or when it is low and clear and I can see the bottom, as Barbel fishing is a waiting game anyway, but I tend not to wait it out for quite as long in those conditions.

 

[Dave]

Lately I go to fish not to catch and if I do catch it's a bonus

 

[gingert76]

lol on one of my syndicates i did a 3 dayer, had some lovely fish and fish were on the bait big time when i had to pack up to attend my mums birthday, bloke opposite me came round and couldnt believe i was packing up but i had no choice, he jumped in my swim and you could see the fish feeding! 4hrs after i got home i got a text from him (we got on great) and he had the biggest fish in the lake at just over 40lb! (my UK PB is 29lb 14oz lol)

 

[alsur]

I packed up early yesterday, the river I fish is not the most prolific and was not in the best of condition although it wasn't particularly high it was running quite fast with lots of boils and with that combined with recent temperature drop l knew it was going to be hard. I was fishing a small Avon float and maggots after trying a few swims without a bite when it started to rain I decided to pack up. Rivers can fish very hard this time of year and it can be quite easy to blank in normally pays to be mobile as fish tend to shoal and sometimes you can't find them.

 

[The Landlord]

I moved the other week. I was being plagued by a side wind & leaves, getting really fed up. Luckily several of our club waters back on to each other. I was able to carry my gear over 3 trips, a distance of about 20 yards. Neighbouring pond was much more sheltered & I had a decent couple of hours in the end.

 

[Zerkalo]

The club lake that looked promising when I went for a walk round.

View attachment IMG_9031.m4v

What happened when I fished it.

View attachment IMG_9080.m4v

 

[OldTaff]

The club lake that looked promising when I went for a walk round.

View attachment IMG_9031.m4v

What happened when I fished it.

View attachment IMG_9080.m4v

Getting loads of little moorhen moving over the feeder the last two weeks and hoovering up the surface bits but thankfully no ducks

 

[mickthechippy]

I would say your exhibiting early signs of Stress related illness

 

[Jimpanzee]

I can to be too patient sometimes..I went out a couple of weeks ago, water was gin clear ..starting at 8.30 by 12 I only had 1x small roach, 4 other anglers had packed up and called it a day and my gut was telling me to do the same. I still stayed for another 2 hours, not a sniff minus the roach.

 

[smiffy]

I normally quit stillwaters as the leaves start dropping and move onto rivers. Too temperamental for me. Rivers are much more reliable and fish like Chub will have a go on the coldest of days. Dace will feed all through the winter aswell.
Even in my matchfishing days commercials could be very iffy when it gets proper cold. Always seemed to be case of the have and have nots. Having said that it was normally a case of needing Carp to win so other species were neglected.
River fish have to expend energy so have to replenish it at some point. That’s a good thing ??. Although it’s often after I’ve called it a day and I’m at home tucking into my pie and chips?