Location: Where you're getting it right and wrong

Location: in my eyes by far the most important part of catching carp because if they are not in front of you… Well, do I need to say anymore, but how many times have we all got it wrong?

Observing people turning up at Diggerlakes is always interesting and how they approach the lakes, and most people have a kind of set way they walk, look and try to find their quarry. In the first of this series of four articles I am going to give you two different ways anglers have applied themselves to the lakes – one successfully and one not so, and then breakdown how I have observed their mistakes or why I think they did well. Amongst this I will also relate how I, or friends, have got it very right or very wrong!

Check all the nooks and crannies around the lake

Setting the scene

So let me set the picture: it’s a lovely spring day with a nice breeze, not enough to move fish en masse but enough to give a nice bit of ripple. It’s T-shirt weather, the fishery is greening up nicely and fishing well, with fish being caught from both lakes.

Having walked the lakes already and been working most of the morning I had a pretty good idea of my top choices of swims if I were fishing and had seen numbers of fish in these mentally chosen areas. This particular day there were four anglers on Snails which was where I was working, and one was in Tyler’s Bay fishing off Max’s Island with his mate in Swim 1 and the other two anglers were in the two junction swims which leaves a large area of quiet unfished water down the Meadow Bank from Swims 3 right around to Tyre Island. Fish had been caught from Max’s and Swim 1 but nothing from the junctions although fish were being seen.

The light was okay but not great and to see any fish without them rolling or fizzing you needed to look carefully with a set of polaroids on, and if possible an elevated position such as a tree or higher bank. Now one point I want to make here is that polaroids are an absolute must for locating fish and I have a few pairs in various states, from my best going out ones to old pairs which act as reserve pairs in case I lose my best ones. I feel completely lost without them and wear them through the year. They are a MUST-HAVE and yet I see so many anglers without them!

Polaroids: totally essential but so many anglers don’t carry them

Angler No.1: Mr Keen

Enter ‘Angler 1’ who I will give the fictitious name of Mr. Keen. Now Mr. Keen has fished the lakes for some 12-months and I know him by first name and likewise. He has really struggled with the fishery and I really wanted him to catch, as so far he had very little to show for his efforts. I watched him arrive into the car park (I am out of view some 150-metres away) where he gets out his water bottle and is off around Snails to hopefully locate some carp. I continue working at the far end of Tyler’s Bay and then drive up the road to grab a drink and some lunch.

After stopping for a chat with the park manager, I then return to the lake some 45-minutes later and by this time Mr. Keen’s car is unloaded, indicating he is on the lake somewhere. Taking the dog and a sandwich, I stroll around the lake passing over the bridge and up past Swim 1. Now earlier, whilst walking Snails, I found obvious fish in the channel between 4 and Small Steps, colouring up the water. They are also in the back of Inlet Bay on the shallow bars in front of Diesels, Tyre Island and The Ski where they love to get in the spring as all three have the same nice shallow bar running through them. They love to scratch, dig and mooch about on this shallow area, all of which I could see by standing and watching for a while or from the tree to the right of Small Steps which gives a great view of the water in front of the Small Steps and Guys.

As I walked on around I was surprised to see Mr. Keen in Brick Point and already with his bivvy up, bedchair in place and he was putting his banksticks in as I walked into the swim. Now it transpires Mr. Keen is fishing for 24hrs and he got his ticket at 11:45; it is now 12:45 so he has been on the fishery for an hour. It is a nice spring day, no chance of rain, very little angling pressure, and fish showing themselves if you look carefully, as well as one area of the lake is fairly well stitched up so that counts that area out. Mr. Keen has, however, set-up in the one area I didn’t see any fish – but that’s not to say there are none there.

Wear drabbed coloured clothing to help blend in

Now, before anyone thinks I should have given him some guidance on the fish’s whereabouts pre-setting up, normally I would have and very often tell an angler already set-up if I have seen fish elsewhere but this particular time Mr. Keen was like a rat up a drainpipe and now well dug in on Brick Point.

I asked him what he had seen and he said nothing obvious but fancied this swim due to the new area we had cut through and had fancied this swim since we had opened up said area. I proceeded to tell him of the fish I had seen in the swims either side which are very different pieces of water and can’t be fished from his chosen swim, Brick Point, so a move would have to be made. He proceeded to tell me he’d had a lead about and put some bait in and would wait for them to “come to him”.

Going one step further, I asked him why didn’t he put the rods out in one of the swims with fish in for a few hours and as long as no one came along and wanted to fish them, leave his bivvy in his chosen swim and drop back in there that evening. I even showed him Guys swim with the fish colouring up (I did have to lend him my polaroids as he did not have any…)

At that point I said my farewells and wished him good luck – I could sense he felt a little bit uncomfortable. Off I went, back to work at the other end of the fishery, leaving Mr. Keen to make a plan.

Come 6 o’clock that evening I walked around and looked across from Tyre Island and lo and behold Mr. Keen was in Brick Point, rods out, sat in his bivvy.

The next morning and on my way to work at 6:30am I dropped in to check the fishery, walk the dog and see what had been caught. As I walked past Brick Point curiosity got the better of me and I wander in to find Mr. Keen asleep with the bivvy pretty much zipped right up and with a dry net and mat. Mr. Keen had blanked again and the next time I saw him, some two weeks later, he said he had not seen a thing but lots rolling in the bay behind him, in front of Guys, so that was where he was set on fishing this time and off he went having already set-up his bivvy! (He blanked again…)

Angler No.2: Mr Sneaky

Enter ‘Angler 2’ who I will call Mr. Sneaky. Now Mr. Sneaky I had heard about from his success on another local water and it always interests me to see how a successful angler on one lake adapts to another. Snails is apparently harder than the water he had been on but not having fished the other water I could not comment.

Mr. Sneaky pretty much caught from day one on Snails and this was the same spring as Mr. Keen was fishing so a good comparison for this observation piece.

One day I was stood above Perseys on a high bank which borders Diggerland, taking a particularly long and boring phone call. Whilst chatting away and looking across from my vantage point I saw Mr. Sneaky pull up in his van at the Snails car park end. Again, this was midweek and Mr. Sneaky was carrying his usual bucket of bait for a little pre-session prepping. I watched him slowly progress along the Park Bank and then he disappeared before the small junction appearing some five minutes later. Out of interest I sat down on a log and watched him work his way all the way along the bank and then right past my hidden observation point, he then slowly and methodically crept around the lake checking all the nooks and crannies with his polaroids on.

After a while I spotted him sat up a tree looking into one of the many bays and as I then had finished my call I wandered round only for Mr. Sneaky to be found in the Small Steps crouched down watching the water. I gave him a wide berth for him to then catch me up down the bank for a chat and he relayed what he had seen.

Sitting back from the water’s edge is a good move

As the conversation progressed, we compared spottings of fish over the last few days, and although he had seen a few fish, he wasn’t 100% sure where to go. In the end he decided to start in a swim called The Ski as he had a 24hr ticket and with the dry spring weather wasn’t in any hurry to set-up camp and had trickled a bit of bait in a couple of spots elsewhere (I will cover bait application at a later date). He commented that the weather was pretty much staying the same for the next 24hrs.

Mr. Sneaky then said his farewells to cover the rest of the lake and see what else was about and he then proceeded to check every swim on his way around and spent time looking and all the angles as he went.

That evening one of my bailiffs text me to say that there were three on for the night and I asked where Mr. Sneaky was. He replied saying he had been in Tyler’s but had no luck and had moved to The Ski where the fish were showing on the shallow bar to his left.

Early the next morning, as before, on my way to work, I walked around to find Mr. Sneaky sat on the bank behind his brolly drinking a coffee and watching. He’d had two fish, one in the evening and one at first thing, but was contemplating moving one swim to the left as they were rolling under the Tyre Island tree. Mr. Sneaky then went onto say he had sat up until fairly late to see if the fish had moved after his first fish but was confident for another when he had spotted a couple of shows after dark.

Over that year I watched Mr. Sneaky on many occasions and used his shots on our Facebook page many times due to his consistency and will no doubt use him in later articles as he is a very much a worker when it comes to location.

Baiting the correct spots can make all the difference. This lovely margin spot produced a number of fish once I’d “trained” them to the spot

10 points which highlight why Mr Sneaky out-fished Mr Keen

Two very different anglers with two very different approaches and two very different results but many things the same. They both had 24hrs on the same lake with similar weather conditions, at the same time of year, and both had parted with twenty-quids worth of hard-earned cash. But why so different?

1. Mr. Keen pretty much had a pre-set plan; he had decided which swim he wanted to be in and that was that. (A) This can SOMETIMES work if you know the fish are there and maybe you have seen them the night before you fish or you have invested a lot of pre-baiting time on this area. (B) No matter what you think, ALWAYS, ALWAYS take time to look elsewhere or if you can put some gear in your chosen swim and wander round unless it’s a Friday night and swims are being snapped up then your hand can be forced to make a decision.

2. Mr. Sneaky took his time looking and observing; he visited every swim without an angler in. (A) Judging by his route, Mr. Sneaky has a few tucked away corners he checks which is always good to do as it gives an indication of what area the fish are sat in, especially in the warmer months when they may be sunbathing in their favourite bush or weedbed. (B) Mr. Sneaky likes to wear polaroids which is a must. You ask any of the more well-known anglers about the use of polaroids and I bet there is not one that would not wear them and be lost if they did not have them for a trip.

3. Mr. Keen is your classic angler who “likes the look of a swim” which is a statement you should use once you have exhausted all other possibilities.

4. Use elevated areas to observe the water, be it a tree or a high bank, as this can open up a whole new world you may not see from normal ground level. (A) Check all the nooks and crannies of a lake as this may give an indication of where the fish are on a lake.

5. If the weather is dry then leave the bivvy packed up and fish rods on the deck for a while if you spot fish and be prepared to move onto shows.

6. Don’t have pre-conceived ideas – if you do, be prepared to change your mind!

7. If you’re out for a social then be prepared for social result and make the best of the closest swim to your mates.

8. Mr. Sneaky invested a lot of time looking and learning and always had a Plan B whereas Mr. Keen, who is a nice guy, but was all too quick to choose a swim based on old information or a whim when opportunities were all
around him.

9. Keep looking even when you’re set-up and then look some more as you may spot an opportunity for the morning or another day.

10. Get up early and watch the water and keep working and try and add those extra few percent in your favour. (A) Watch for weather changes as this has a MASSIVE part to play in location. (B) Look for weather fronts moving in which may help with the whereabouts of your quarry. (C) Seasons and the time of year will often dictate where a carp may want to be. (D) Record sightings and captures at certain times of year, especially if you’re after a certain fish. (E) Depths of the lake, features and snags all help with location.

Creatures of habit

Learn their habits, track their routes, and you'll start to put the pieces of the jigsaw together

Having observed carp in so many different situations, there is one thing that stands out and that is they are creatures of habit, be it on a daily basis or seasonally. On some of the bigger venues carp would turn up in their favourite spots almost like clockwork, especially in the summer where they would sun themselves and digest their food. This is not to say you can catch them in these areas, but it will indicate which area of the lake they are in and over a period of time, by watching, you may be able to work out where they have been pre-resting up.

These resting areas or sunning spots were used to a massive advantage on Wraysbury where over a period of a couple of years these areas where found and used to identify certain fish and work out what area of the 120-acres they were in. Often I would find fish in these sanctuaries and fish either as close to them or an area a distance away where I knew they would end up showing and hopefully feeding. On more than one occasion I identified a fish only to catch it that night or the next morning away from where I had seen it or on a route I had watched it take. Location is part of the jigsaw.

P.S. Most importantly, enjoy yourself. At the end of the day it’s only fishing!

Sometime’s I get it right. Two bits of plastic on a patrol route saw the capture of this fish after 10 minutes of the bait being in the water

20 minutes and two fish after watching them feed on a shallow plateau

My own mistakes

You have to make mistakes to learn the right way....

I fish very little now, but when I do it’s usually an overnighter so often limited and a little rushed. Now you would have thought being the owner of a fishery I would be able to charm them out of the water on request… how wrong!

One particular overnighter I was dead set on a particular swim as I had seen fish in there and it has a record for throwing up the big ‘uns so all day I couldn’t think of anywhere else on the lake. When I arrived I quickly reserved the swim with my gear and went off to check the tickets and the rest of the fishery. Now there is a swim we call Diesels and as I passed it I thought, ‘blimey, that looks coloured’ and the wind was cutting in there nicely, BUT still I was dead set on the chosen swim.

Later on in my swim, one of the regulars dropped in for a chat and commented that Diesels was chocolate and why was I in this swim? I laughed it off, I hadn’t taken into consideration the weather change.

The next morning, with one 16lber for my efforts, I was then informed by the cameraman that a bloke had turned up late in the evening and dropped in to Diesels having spotted the coloured water and caught five topped by the second biggest in the lake at the time. Hey, you live and learn.

To this day anyone can get it wrong and if you’re not able to spend time looking before you fish, you often make misjudged decisions; I am happy to laugh at my own failings and learn from fishing badly and also understanding why I did not catch. A rig badly presented in the right swim is better than a well-presented rig in the wrong swim. Thanks Phil Thompson for that one. Until next time, be lucky and take your time.