Long vs Short sessions

[Zerkalo]

How long do you tend to stay on the bank for? For me it depends but I'm pretty notorious for fishing all day.

It depends on where I'm fishing. A lot of places I fish require an early start to get the chosen pegs, then the evening is the best time to fish, so I don't want to pack away mid day and then miss the evening if I have bait left. I don't always stay as long, my commercial pleasure sessions are shorter, usually because they're in winter.

I've found an advantage of longer sessions is you stand more chance of catching your target! But I will always put the times I catch my fish so as not to deceive I've had a bagging day when I've fished for 12 hours or something.

That being said, on places I can still get a peg in the evening, local river, park in the week, Severn on some stretches, I do love a short evening session.

 

[Shadrack]

I used to fish all day when I first started but over the last few years I’ve moved to just doing shorter sessions of three to four hours. Five hours would be a long session for me lately.
I tend to favour mornings if I’m on a lake and on the rivers I usually go for the evening into dark.

The only time this really changes if I’ve travelled a longer distance than usual to make a trip somewhere in particular, then I’ll fish longer to make it worth the extra effort.

 

[Cobweb]

I used to be a dawn till dusk kinda guy with occasional dusk sessions only for specific species. Nowadays I do no more than 5 hours and start around 7 am ish (local club venue/day ticket fishery rules. I do not do night sessions any more. I have a limit of a 25 mile radius from home for daytime sessions

 

[Zerkalo]

I have a feeling from reading peoples posts on here that most will favour short sessions. My dad will only come out for 5 hours or so.

I had around 100lb of Tench in 10 hours but I have a feeling if they held matches on there (Tench waters and matches don't 100% go together in my opinion so better that they don't) then the 5 hour match record would do well to be much above 50lb. My mate does always go on about the day he caught 28 Tench on the float from there in 7 hours though that was a red letter day for him and he fishes there all the time.

One thing I don't like though is getting to venue that has favoured pegs or areas and ending up on a duff peg, so I often do early starts and don't want to go home.

 

[runningman]

Most of the time I tend to do short sessions and have often caught well, been away lately and done a couple of sessions where I was first on last off.But I never fished the following day. Not sure about the future because of fuel costs it is hard to justify a 60 mile round trip to do a couple of hours fishing. That’s the problem when you don’t have to much decent fishing near by

 

[squimp]

Shorter and shorter sessions as I get more experienced.

These days I rarely fish longer than 4 hours and often as short as 2.

Fish are pretty simple creatures and at times are entirely predictable.

For me if you have the chance to fish at the best times then it makes sense to do so.

Obviously my comments relate to non match fishing and have a specialist focus - so often I’m only expecting/hoping for one bite in a session

 

[Zerkalo]

My dad reckoned I should set up at the park at 8.30pm and fish for an hour based on a few sessions I had when that's when the lakes Carp came to life, but I reckon the best time for Crucians is shortly before that, before the Carp start patrolling. I enjoy long sessions though, so make the most of the time I have. A lot of other regulars come down at 6pm and fish till 9.

 

[OldTaff]

I’d like to fish for much longer than I do - currently max out at around 4hrs but if I had the chance of an all day session I’d jump at it

Such is life though, better some fishing than none

 

[Sam Vimes]

The days of me going overnight have pretty much gone. If I do include that time, my sessions range from two hours to five days.

I tend to favour shorter sessions as I get older. However, the further I travel, the longer the session is likely to be. I very rarely travel much further than twenty miles to fish these days.

Winter is also likely to induce short, sharp sessions, particularly when I'm wading. A couple of hours standing in a cold river is quite enough for me.

 

[Total]

@Zerkalo ....Are you still doing those long sessions on the rivers as well Steve?

 

[Zerkalo]

@Zerkalo ....Are you still doing those long sessions on the rivers as well Steve?

The weir I fish switches off completely during the day if the suns out, so often if I do an all day session there it will be because I want to fish both morning and evening, and just chill there for the afternoon as well. But with it being down the road, it's not much of a problem to do very short sessions in the morning or evening, usually before or after work, and the best time to fish it.

It's a similar story on the Severn, although I'm more likely to do all day sessions there, and those can be very long days if I want to fish from first light to witching hour, I have found a few spots like the Overhanging Tree peg at Quatford that I can fish of an evening.

 

[Pompous git]

Afternoon men, four hours does me after that I start to get backache, perhaps I need a better chair.

I would like to spend more time chub fishing but the small rivers are either an hour or so drive away or a pig to park. Would
drive to the Hants Avon from Ashford in Kent and think nothing of it but now my fishing friends are either past it or dead it`s
a long way on your own.

Would be on the water first thing when tench fishing but has anyone else noticed they seen to be biting later? If couldn`t get
on my local tench waters until after eight I wouldn`t worry too much.

 

[Keith Sparky]

Summer I fish early or late....live only 15mins from a commercial where the biggest carp are easiest to catch in the last hour or so in the margins and will often fish 7pm ish till dusk with just a margin pole. Winter I tend to avoid early starts as I don't find them as productive as the early part of the afternoon into dark so typically would be fishing 11 till 4...

 

[paul m]

Five hours is about my limit. To be honest,I don’t get a lot of time because of work.Mind,I am hoping to semi retire in the next year or two,so that will change things!

 

[tincatim]

The majority of my fishing trips are short sessions. I do have the opportunity to fish a full day once a fortnight as my wife works alternate weekends. I won’t ever fish when she’s off, but when she’s working I do like a longer day. Today was one of those days, but I’ve only fished for 6 hours. That’s enough for me really.

I’m looking forward to the short after work river sessions now, if I can be on the bank within 15 minutes of finishing work and fishing 5 mins later, I’m happy. I can be back home by 8pm with a decent fish or two if I’m lucky.

 

[paul m]

I’m like you too. When my wife is off,I don’t fish. It’s not fair.

 

[Silverfisher]

Fairly long from say start of May to end of October I generally do 6-8 hours with most being around 7 hours. Outside of that period though when it’s generally not so nice to be out I’ll often only do 4-6 hours. Very occasionally I’ll do sub 4 hour morning or afternoon sessions at any time but that’s only when I don’t have time to fish longer as if I’ve got the time I try to get around 7 hours in. Won’t fish for less than 2 hours as just don’t really see the point of putting the effort in for such short time.

 

[Fugley-fisher]

Normally 5-6 hours morning till afternoon I have fished dawn till dusk, but the winter just gone I did enjoy some short roving chub session some of them were just a couple hours, helps I've river 5 minutes drive away.

 

[Arry]

Depends how I feel... sometimes 3-5 hours... sometimes I do a couple of days... depends on me mood

 

[The Landlord]

Never get the chance to do more than 5 hours because of work. If I manage a morning session, I have to knock off by midday & if it's an afternoon session, I can't get there until 3.30 at the earliest. I'd love to do longer sometimes but couldn't be bothered with night fishing. It's hard enough seeing small hooks etc. during the daylight!!