Gaz Fareham's top three game-changers

Q: What are your ‘top three changes’ when it’s back to the drawing board time - when you’re really scratching for a bite? Miles Howarth, via email

Gaz Fareham says: “Usually I think scratching time can be attributed to being in the wrong area, or applying the wrong tactics for the time and place. That’s a massively sweeping statement, but I think carp are catchable for most of the season, if you can get yourself in the right place, at the right time. I think part of that mindset is what always pushes me on to angle that bit harder, and to find a way to make it happen. It is all too easy to write off sessions with a ‘they just weren’t having it’ attitude, and on the whole, that negative mindset just results in lazy angling, and I’ve definitely fallen foul of that myself more than a few times over the years. Whilst there is no doubt they’ll feed heavier at certain times, they’re simple creatures and will feed most days for the majority of the year.

“The first thing I do at ‘scratching time’ is look that bit harder. If you’re not seeing them in the day, go to bed earlier and set the alarm for 1am and sit up and watch and listen then; that is a classic during the autumn and winter: to see nothing in the day but for a few to slide out in the dead hours of 1-3am. In the summer, make sure you’re up just before first light, not 6am when it’s already been light for two hours. The vast majority of anglers will miss those really early, or late shows, and getting yourself on them is often the absolute key, at any time of year.

“Tactic-wise, if it really isn’t happening I will switch to the maggots and/or Zigs in winter, and in the summer months, for me, a little balanced tiger hookbait and hemp approach is often the best way to scratch a bite if they’re being a bit edgy and hard to catch on the standard boilie and pellet approaches. But that aside, at scratching time, I’ll just angle that bit harder - that usually does the trick.”