It goes without saying that everyone experiences the odd blank or two and it can be really difficult to keep motivated through the dry spells. Even when you know you are doing everything right, sometimes those bites just don’t come along. I tend to fish waters that are pretty tricky, a decent size, low stocked and heavily pressured so although I am confident when I am preparing for my next trip and whilst I am at the lake blanking can be part and parcel of my fishing.
I am currently fishing one of Southwest Lakes Trust waters, Argal Reservoir, a low stock 64 Acre water down in the depths of Cornwall. I have found it extra tricky this year, which I can only put down to the blue green algae bloom which just does not want to disappear. I feel it is really throwing the fish out of sorts making it even trickier to buy a bite than usual and as there is very little I can do about the water conditions it makes it that much more important to fish as well as I can.
The important thing to remember is to keep going through the motions, don’t get lazy even though it’s the hardest time to keep yourself motivated and focused. Due to the lack of action it is the time you have to make sure you are doing everything right, ticking every box, dotting every I and crossing every T. When the fish are in this sort of mood everything has to be even more precise than when the fishing is more prolific, you need to be making every chance count. Because of the circumstances on Argal this year, it has certainly made me think long and hard about what I was successfully doing last year and making sure I am doing the same this year, knowing it will all come good eventually. I have some good mates that fish there and as well as talking to each other regularly exchanging information, we also motivate each other when the going gets hard.
My preparation never actually stops, I have a good idea of when my next trip is going to be when I am still at the lake, so I use every trip whether it is a blank or not to prepare for my next trip building up as much information on fish location in certain conditions and swim features as I can so when I head home I have taken some more useful knowledge away from each trip.
It starts for me with the weather forecast, it has such an influence on the fishes behaviour, even more so on a bigger water. Wind direction on a big water in my opinion is not as black and white some people think, the general “They always follow the wind” can be far from the truth, actually hundreds of yards in fact. I work along the lines of if it’s a warm moderate (upto 20mph) fresh wind they are very likely to be on it, if its blowing a gale or a few days old they are very likely to be off to the side of it. On a cold wind the first place I will be looking for them is on the back of it in the warmer, calmer water.
Air pressure is another thing I keep my eye on as I am sure they react differently in high and low pressure states, but as long as it is moving I am happy. If it is going up I am looking for the shallower areas in hope that the sun is going to come out and warm the water to attract them, but if its dropping I am assuming the weather is going to deteriorate and I am concentrating on areas where they are going to head when the weather starts to turn. I also think the moon is a big influence in fishes behaviour, in my experience you cannot beat a nice new moon, 48 hours either side of it can often find the bigger residents in the lake into making a mistake. So when the times are hard on the lake I am fishing I certainly try to base my trips around that.
I also feel it is really important not to change your bait choice for a few reasons, changing from a bait that has caught me fish before and I feel is an established bait In my opinion got to be picked up more readily than a bait they haven’t seen before. Also if I was sat behind a new bait blanking I know it would not take me long for me to start doubting the bait and blaming the lack of action on that, so sticking with it certainly helps my confidence knowing the bait works.
When I get to the lake I will spend a considerable amount of time looking around, on a big water location is massively more important than on a small lake as you have much more chance of the fish moving onto you than on a bigger water, so I try to use the weather forecast to give me a clue and that is where I start looking around, I always have my binoculars with me to scan around if that fails. Signs can be anything from them throwing themselves out, heads and shouldering or more discreet flat spots or bubbling, which the binoculars come into there own.
Once I have decided which swim I am going to focus on, If the fish are there in numbers I go straight for boilie approach using a throwing stick to apply my Nutrabaits Trigga free offerings, if it is a swim I have chosen because I think the conditions are going to bring them in front of me I tend to spod my baits out, creating a tighter baited area using hemp with additional hemp oil higher concentration of attraction for when they move into the area. If I am waiting for them to move in to the area I really focus on how they are going to move in or through the swim, will they drift in under the cover of underwater obstacles like walls, trees, shelves and gullies? In a situation like this accurate marker float work can be invaluable to help you pick up the earlier fish moving through the area. Once the fish are in the area in any number, drawing on any previous knowledge of the swim will help you pick out some decent spots without risking thrashing the water with a spod and marker. Even after a session where I haven’t caught I know my time has not been wasted, I know that the bait I have applied will only benefit me on a later session acting as pre baiting.
As with my bait choice I stick with a rig I am confident in and suits the angling situation, again I don’t want to be putting the fact that I have not caught down to a rig experiment that would be more suitable to a runs water. My go to rig is a simple lead clip set up with a rig about 10” long consisting of a size 6 Korda wide gape, tide with a knotless knot with a anti tangle sleeve kicking the rig away from the swivel, I keep it really simple with a rig I can trust.
These things are all part of the jigsaw that I put together when I am out on the bank, whether I am catching or blanking, as anglers we are always learning, so make sure you use every trip to build a picture and each minute spent fishing is a minute closer to that next fish, you just need to keep on keeping on and the fish will come, every session that doesn’t see a carp in the folds of your landing net is a session closer to that next fish. Stay confident, keep doing everything right and work your way through it.
