How to make the most out of time on the bank
You can have a long-term girlfriend, be a dad and hold down a full time job and still be successful
“To get the most out of your limited fishing time, you need to consider a number of factors, starting with your chosen lake. When choosing a new lake, I tend to pick and choose very carefully. It has to be situated as close to work as possible so that whilst I may not put lots of hours into actually fishing, I can walk round and bait up likely looking areas a couple of times a week. I tend to try and pick two/three swims to concentrate my efforts in so when I turn up to the lake, I can pick the area that best suits the conditions of the day. I then spend a bit of time in each swim and find a few different spots that I can bait regularly. These spots are then walked out and marked as inconspicuously as possible. If, however, I turn up and the fish are blatantly in one particular area then I will set-up on them and wouldn’t just head to a baited area.
“Before going to bed the night before, I make sure that my fishing clothes are all ready to pick so that I’m not hunting around in the dark and risk waking the missus! The alarm clock is then set 30 minutes earlier than normal which sees me getting up at 6.15a.m. and then getting the van loaded, before heading off to work. If I’m extremely lucky I can get out of work about 30 minutes early. This ensures slightly quieter roads and means a journey time of 25 minutes rather than about 40. This could make all the difference and mean getting in a better swim or baited area.
“When it comes to packing away in the morning, as with most carp anglers, the last things out are always the rods and a net. Everything else is packed and loaded onto the barrow at about 7.00a.m. which means the rods can stay put for another 30 minutes. It obviously doesn’t happen all the time but on more than one occasion one of the rods has rattled off whilst lying on the ground!
“Lastly, if I know that I’m doing another night that week then I will tend to put a small amount of bait out and clip my rods up before leaving. That way as soon as I arrive I have three baited rigs on the right spots in just three casts which helps keep disturbance to a minimum.”