Large water

I have recently started fishing a large lake which i am told is full of tench, carp, orfe/ide and large bream, it is also a home to plenty of pike

i have only recently got back into fishing and bought myself a match rod and reel so dont want to go hooking mega specimens just yet, but have so far only managed to catch some nice sized roach, perch, and the occasional crucian

i have been throwing in tiny handfulls of trout pellet every half hour or so and fishing with maggots and sweetcorn on size 16 barbless hooks just off the bottom (the lake is 6ft deep just a few feet out) so i have only been fishing a rod length out due to the wind and ripples on such a large water

but have not yet managed a tench, big bream, or small carp

is there anything i can do to improve my chances of catching some better quality fish ?

[Viking Lord]

How big is the lake? Is it a commercial or estate lake etc? Yes there is lots you can do that will improve your catch, Wind is usually a good thing in large lakes fish into it or into bay that it blows into, look for features such as lillies, overhang, bays, rushes, weeds, drop offs, submerged trees, tree roots etc etc, Fish to these, if you are going with the aim of catching species like tench and bream you will need to alter your approach, Fishing for big tench and bream is different unless your fishing a commercial pool then you will get anything anywere (not fun ). As a basic rule tench will be turning off as it gets cooler target the margins in summer and deeper water in winter, use ground bait not pellets to hold them, fish baits like corn, worms and chickpeas for decent tench. Bream seem to hang in the middle of the lake so best fish a feeder, again worm corn, maggots etc, get a good carpet of ground bait in for them, mix in brasm and casters. Not hemp. The more you can say about the lake the more i can help.

thanks for the tips viking

i would say to walk right around the whole lake would be a good mile and a half maybe 2 mile walk, the lake is sort of keyhole shaped having a large body of water and then sort of tales off into a narrow channel
the channel is the shallowest and has alot of sunken trees and snags and the wind seems to blow across the lake into that channel and there is a barrier of weed and floating weeds where everything gets washed up, i have tried fishing at the edge of the weed a few weeks back when it was a bit warmer but only managed to catch perch roach and about 40 gudgeon

i have had most success in a bay with reeds either side where it is pretty deep just where the lake starts to narrow, but so far i have never managed to land anything over a few ounces, i have been warned off using ground bait at this time of year so i thought maybe trout pellets would attract a few fish without over filling them with free offerings

the lake is in a park and is free fishing but as been stocked with fish over the past couple of years and as had fish brought in from another large lake which was filled in

perhaps i might have to wait it out until the summer before catching anything big but other people have been reporting catching quality fish in there at the minute, but that could just be fishermans tales

[Viking Lord]

No need to wait till summer, big fish can be caught anytime. Stick to the deeper pegs as it gets cold, pellets are less attractive in a large lake especially if its not overstocked, ground bait gets them in, little and often feeding is best. Id possibly fish the mouth of the channel, if the margins arnt working try a swimfeeder?

i am going fishing on thursday afternoon there i will try fishing deeper and take a bag of ground bait down and see what i get

thanks for all the tips

[Viking Lord]

Its ok, im sorry i carnt be more help, just its hard without me being there to see it etc, plus tactics baits etc change with weather, the best tip is to fish as many swims, with as many baits, with as many methods as you can until you find what works every lake fishes slightly different. Good luck.

i went for a few hours fishing yesterday found a nice deep swim and alternated between sweetcorn and maggot every cast (about every 30/40mins) on each on the bottom,

fished over a few small handfulls of red crumb i bought from the local angling shop mixed in with the juice from the corn and few pieces of corn and trout pellet,

i had one really big roach (about a pound) then for the rest of the day nothing, not even a nibble

a man in the swim next to me was pulling in roach, bream, and a small carp,

it must be down to my lack of experience or bad luck can anyone see anything i am doing wrong or anything i could do to improve my fishing

any advice would be much appreciated.

did you mange to have a quick sneek in what bait, rod etc he was fishing?
by the sounds of it, your getting quite annoyed with this, my tip fore this, as it is getting to winter and you want to catch small carp or some decent roach, my tip wiuld be to put a bigbed of hemp down and fish tare (chickpea) or sweetcoorn over the top. this is a personal favourite for me and caught me muy biggest ever match carp of 14. 2. best time of the year for this method now in my opinion seen as pellets tend to due off a bit in winter.

[madcaravanner]

Originally Posted by michael 1992

did you mange to have a quick sneek in what bait, rod etc he was fishing?
by the sounds of it, your getting quite annoyed with this, my tip fore this, as it is getting to winter and you want to catch small carp or some decent roach, my tip would be to put a big bed of hemp down and fish tare (chickpea) or sweetcorn over the top. this is a personal favourite for me and caught me My biggest ever match carp of 14. 2. best time of the year for this method now in my opinion seen as pellets tend to due off a bit in winter.

First thing when you fish a new water or one you ain't fished for a while is take a walk round it watch what the others are doing and who is catching and WHERE and on what some anglers are so secretive it's difficult (I know my son is a real Secret Squirrel when it come to baits)

don't swap bait every cast re cast every 5 minutes but ring the changes every hour or so

The Roach was good BUT at that size they live alone usually what you want is some fish that are shoaling
look at different baits some of the older one work great even though the "Fashionable " anglers wouldn't touch them

Remeber it's not what is prettiest in the tackle shop that catches most fish it's how you fish
EXAMPLE when I was in Dorset an angler said he had been told that WD40 inproved catches from the beach -- He had 2 micro Pout
I fished Mackerel and worm and had 4 pout and a Spotted Dogfish
in other words he was following "fashion" 90% of stuff in the tackle shop catchs ANGLERS not fish

cheers for the tips, i will try a bit of spying on other anglers if i get chance to go down this week