How long should you leave your rods out for?

“Are you happy to leave your rigs out for several days confident they are okay in an attempt to not disturb the swim or do you regularly recast them?”

This one really depends on how confident you are with your spot, the positioning of your rig, and whether or not you’ve seen enough signs without any action to convince you that a recast is necessary.

If I don’t feel as though I’ve had a lot going on in front of me, yet I’m very happy with my casts and still confident that the carp are going to turn up, then there’s occasions when I’ll happily leave them out for 48hrs, but that’s about my limit, as after that I’d be worried about my hook points dulling.

Timing is always important too, and ideally it’s nice to position your baits during the periods that the fish aren’t actually in front of you, maybe in the late afternoon whilst they’re sat in the weed or snags. Earlier this year I was fishing a clean spot close to the bank, in a very clear pit, and as I could easily see my hookbait’s position I would have been happy leaving it out for 48hrs at a time if necessary, especially as getting it into position involved wading along a crunchy gravel margin. As it happened, the action often came within a much shorter time than that, but there were several occasions were I found myself needing to re-position the rig simply because I knew I’d been done. One particular old crusty mirror was the main culprit, and when I finally caught him I could see why. He had a tough bony mouth which was locked wide open, and because of this he seemed more able to shake the rig free.

Old Crusty slipped up in the end. This one fish was the culprit for several aborted takes over a couple of trips. His permanently wide open mouth made it easier for him to shake the rig

Evenings and the first half of the night were the best chance of a take, soon after they’d left the cover of the snags, but time and time again this old dinosaur of a mirror would be first in and he’d pick up and dump my rig. The bobbin would crack the butt, the line would pull from its clip and the tip would even be bent round six-inches or so, yet each time my hand hovered above the rod I could see that all was still and he’d got away with it yet again.

On those occasions it was a nightmare trying to wade along a crunchy gravel margin in the dark, to first lift the rig out (so as not to blunt the hook), and then lower it back in again, all the while knowing that fish were in the area. Sometimes we have no choice, it’s either leave a rig out that you no longer feel confident with, or risk spooking the fish by re-positioning it.

On other occasions I like to recast more often, especially if I’ve been getting plenty of action, which kind of makes it easier to gauge whether there’s a likelihood that one of the rigs isn’t positioned as well as it could be. Just recently I had three rods out at range in rough conditions, two of which were fishing pretty much the same spot. The first rod to go was the rod fished on its own. Next, one of the other rods went, and then soon after repositioning that same rod it was away again. When your fishing two rods tight together sometimes you just get a feeling that one’s not quite right, and although two takes on one and nothing on the other isn’t particularly conclusive, it was still enough for me to re-do the rod that was yet to receive any action, even though conditions were very rough to say the least. An hour later it was away with a beautifully coloured mirror of 34lb+. Sometimes you just know when it needs re-positioning.