If I could sum up my fishing this year in one word it would be BLANK!
At the beginning of this year I decided to give up a ticket to a local angling society that I have held for twenty three years. The day after giving up I regretted it and ever since then I have cursed that decision. There are a few reasons why I have made the wrong decision one being; I joined another society a very good one too but all their waters are a minimum of a half hour drive away and in this financial climate petrol has to be considered even if you are popping to the shops for a pint of milk!
I understand and totally appreciate that when fishing new waters it takes time to get a feel of them, watch out for feeding habits over a few sessions and explains why I have blanked apart from a few low doubles on the waters. Now if I was still a member of my old society I would be inclined to go to a water that I know my methods have worked just as a confidence boost we all need that as human beings and as anglers at times.
I love carp angling and it is a very big passion of mine but after this years fishing my head is frazzled! I have started doubting my methods and starting concentrating on what others are doing. I am then fishing methods that I have not got total confidence in or experience rather than fishing with methods that I know and had success using for years. I know sometimes you have to change your fishing methods to suit different waters but you should change because you believe its right to change and not because it conforms to what every other angler is doing.
Now I wish I could be telling you at the end of this article that after a long hard season so far I have come through the other side and caught a dream carp but as I say I don’t like to conform to every other dream article out there!!! What I would like to tell you is why carp angling no matter how much it annoys me why like many others I keep going and love it. First and foremost carp angling for me is what my fiancée says to me before she goes for a bath “I am having a bit of me time”. I enjoy a social session with the lads from Team Catch and Release also a couple of friends I have been fishing with for years but I really do enjoy being beside a lake all on my own captivated by what’s going on around me on the bank and in the water. My senses are always heightened when I am on my own you have less of a distraction. I find you are more tuned in to every noise or movement of the water. Some of the lakes I have been fortunate to be a member of and fish one offs in the past around the Kent and south east area have been a real pleasure to just be in the surroundings as well as some lovely carp caught.
I like many others do fish commercial waters I tend to if I have been working nights as closer to my work or when going with friends. One of my biggest pet hates is when you look at a lake and all you see is bivvies then directly behind their cars to me yes sometimes it is handy to drop your gear off at the swim but not leave your car there it ruins the “at one with nature” feel too it. I always maintain that every session you must always learn something even if like me you are blanking. This is something that keeps my passion for carp angling alive it might be something as silly as packing your trolley in away that makes it easier to handle or you have been studying a lake learning the patrol routes and feeding areas.
I don’t want to come across as having a moan im merely trying explain my year of carp angling. As always you have too look forward and make decisions that you as a angler are happy with rather than what you read in articles. I plan to stick to my own methods first an foremost. I have also become part of Viking baits, which I am very excited about a quality bait to take onto my waters. I’m going to be stripping back my fishing and using the approach of K.I.S.S Keep It Simple Stupid sometimes the best way not to over think and go with instinct. I have a couple of video blogs I have been working on planning to get them edited and out soon.
I hope I have got across my feelings towards carp fishing as much as it does my head in it still draws me back every time.
I will leave you with one saying the great Bear from Team Catch and Release said to me after I blanked at the social.
“Thats why they call it angling not catching”