Pick your time

Tackling the unknown can be a bit nerve wracking, particularly if it is a busy water where there might be lots of eyes watching any newcomer. Funnily enough though, I often find that those first few sessions on a new water can offer some of the best fishing you are likely to get. With no pre-conceived ideas you will be relying upon water craft and your wits to catch fish, something that is often lost when you begin to form ideas about a fishery. Here are my top ten tips for getting the most from those first few sessions. Most of these tips will be pretty obvious if you think about them, so let us start with perhaps the most obvious of all.

Pick your time

Don’t start fishing a water until the conditions are suitable. For example, don’t go tench fishing in January, or pike fishing in August, when your chances of success are slim. Obvious really, but you would be surprised how many people I see fishing when conditions for their target species are, at best, poor. Choosing the right time also applies to the right weather conditions and the right time of day. In terms of weather conditions, avoid wet days as you are likely to spend more time huddling under a brolly than fishing efficiently. Go for a nice mild day with rising temperatures, reasonable light conditions (for fish spotting) and if possible mid-week when the fish will be less disturbed and you will have a better choice of swim. Time of day is again pretty obvious. Most fish feed better at dawn and dusk, and all will tend to show at these times, giving you a good idea of their location. Make sure that you make the most of every clue that they give you.

Listen to advice

Although you don’t want to get too hung up on it, take note of anything that regular anglers might say. Any piece of information might be useful, from which are the hot swims, to favoured baits. Coupled with this is actually getting other anglers to talk to you. I have found that a bit of psychology can make all the difference with many anglers. If you approach them, seem genuinely interested in what they have to say, and generally butter them up it is surprising what they will tell you. The other slightly more sneaky method that I sometimes apply is to pretend to know all about the fishery. For example, most lakes have a well known big fish and a question along the lines of ‘what does the big mirror weigh now?’ is likely to get a better reaction than ‘what’s the biggest carp then?’. It might not always work, but if you have a brass neck, then this is a very entertaining method of extracting a bit of info.

Don’t be in too much of a hurry

Make sure you have a good look around before you start. There is no need to hurry. Time seems to run incredibly fast when you are fishing, but you need to force yourself to devote a set portion of the trip to looking for signs. A third to half of the trip is not over the top. As well as looking for signs of fish, try to work out the popular swims, look for signs of bait, either on the bank or in the margins, look for lost tackle, snags, anything that can give you some idea of where people fish and where the fish might be.

Fish into the wind

A glib statement and one that needs clarification. If it is a warm wind from the South or West, fish into it. If it is an Easterly or Northerly, get behind it. Fish feed better on a rising water temperature, reasonably well when the temperature is steady and poorly when the temperature is falling. On a day to day basis the wind can have a very marked effect on water temperatures.

Choose an uncomfortable swim

Don’t just take the swim closest to the car park, make your swim choice based on two things. Fish location is obviously of paramount importance, but also worth considering is how often a swim is fished. Hard fished swims might produce a lot of fish to the regulars, but the fish are likely to be more cagey in these areas. Getting bait positions absolutely spot on will be more important. Using the going bait might also be more important when the fish are on edge. As you are likely to have knowledge of neither of these factors, it makes sense to avoid areas where they are of paramount importance.