Keeping it simple...

My first fishing outing was brilliant and produced a few fish. This spurred me on to want more. I can't go fishing anywhere near as much as I would like to so the practical side is way behind the theory. I have a list of things to try out as long as my arm. Most of them may not be implicated for months, years or maybe never.

The first time out I had absolutely no experience whatsoever. The only knowledge I had was gleaned from an old Matt Hayes video I found on YouTube. This showed in easy-step by-step stages how to put the rod and reel together and rig it for waggler fishing. It also showed how to plumb the depth and simple casting and playing the fish into the net. It worked and I caught fish.

By the time I went out for the second time, I was not much further down the road of learning and we blindly fished away all day. Trying to cast in a straight line and to any distance seemed much harder than the first time. I now realise that we were doing it all wrong. We were casting at random stretches of water and just hoping for the best. Our depth seeking was a mess - we even lost one of our plummets. The floats we happened to use were too light and we had no idea where the fish were likely to be. We also did not know anything about baiting the swim to get the fish feeding or even where and when they might feed.

For our next few trips, I will be much more considered. I have a plan to continue with waggler fishing around the island with constant casting into the same place, after feeding the swim. I will try using the line clip to make this happen and I have seen a method of casting that should suit me and get the hook-bait in the correct place. This is of course all theory and this will be its first practical use. Once I am happy I can get the technique somewhere near right I plan to try some feeder fishing or ledgering using a  quiver-tip rod and see how that goes.

In the fishing free period between now and our next outing, I will have a go at making my own ground bait and collect together a selection of different hook baits to try. I will also gather together some shop bought ground and hook baits and see how that goes.

Now that's interesting... another 1p book from Amazon

Amazon and Kindle (one of the same, but you know what I mean) have added to my reference library this week. I found a couple of books within my celling price of 1p on Amazon's 'New and used from...' A copy of Tony Miles' Coarse Fishing - A Step-By-Step Guide and the book pictured above is a really interesting book, with lots of under-water photography, called Improve your Bait Fishing by John Bailey. I then found on Kindle The angler's Book of Freshwater Fish. This is almost current being dated 2013. So I am now studying one fish at a time. So far I am studding Barbel!

One development that might change things dramatically is that I have discovered there is a local club that has a complex of several lakes, some river fed and others spring fed, 15 minutes drive from here! I must have driven past the lakes thousands of times and I had no idea they were there! I have contacted the club and they suggested I contact their Bailiff who will give me a good look around. If I like what I see I will join the club and with that amount water on my doorstep I might be able to increase my practical experience. I will post a report once I have seen the complex...

Ralph.