Be Flexible With Your Angling!
Aaron touches on why it is so important to be flexible in spring, from changing rigs to changing swims it can certainly land you more fish!
I have previously touched on the subject of being flexible with regards to your angling approach, but I think it’s fair to say, a spring session I experienced last year will really hammer the point home. Like everyone else, my late winter/early spring angling was halted due to the first COVID lockdown. I had secured a ticket for a lake close to my home that held both a mirror and common around the forty-pound mark, in addition to a good head of thirties. It’s only a small venue, but pressured and, key to this story, relatively deep, with depths of well over 20ft in places.
The lake finally re-opened in mid-May, and what felt like all the other members turned up for the start of the new season. In fact, every swim was taken and a bunch of anglers had to turn away. A strong northerly wind was pushing into the Road Bank and I managed to secure a swim midway along that bank. By the time I had pushed my bankstick in, I had already seen three shows. It was crystal clear they were on the wind, and in numbers too. I had an inkling they were up in the water column, but I was a little torn, as in theory these carp would be hungry, having not seen any bait for a few months. So, I decided to fish on the deck over a bit of bait, in this case the Cell which I have a great deal of faith in.
Well, the shows never stopped, but by the following morning neither I, nor anyone one else on the lake had landed a carp! I didn’t need telling twice… In came the bottom baits, on went Zigs, and over the course of the next 24hrs I hooked a total of ten carp, landing some lovely mirrors up to 32lb 2oz. Apart from my action, the lake still had not done another bite! There are times of the year when you really cannot ignore Zigs, and that spring 48hr trip perfectly illustrates that.
All my takes that trip came to black foam flavoured in Mainline Profile Plus Pineapple Juice, though on another deep lake I fished in the past, 12mm pop-up boilies as a Zig hookbait worked really well (Mainline Hi-Visual Pineapple Juice was a particular favourite). We are a little spoiled for choice now, as Mainline also makes the dedicated Supa Sweet Ziggers hookbaits, which I will no doubt incorporate into my angling this season.
