Fish you do well with

[xenon]

The roach thread got me thinking about this-there are some species I do well with and others I am useless at. Do you have a species you seem to more intuitively tuned into?

 

[Aknib]

Barbel and Perch spring immediately to mind.

The former I just happen to be on some very good waters but nevertheless I seem to do well with them for what seems like very little effort, the latter I do well with at times but they test me (and my patience!) far more.

Many years ago I always viewed Carp as something special but they have never been my strong point although it's nigh on impossible not to encounter them nowadays given the path many fisheries have sadly chosen and I spend just as much time and effort trying to avoid them but hey, that's showbiz.

Decent Rudd have always been a consistent failure for me too.

 

[sam vimes]

So much hinges on the waters you get to fish, especially those you can get really familiar with. I'm happy enough with my results whatever I've decided to go for, but it's all down to them being available in the venues I've been fishing. I don't bother trying to catch anything unrealistic for the part of the country I'm in and the venues I have available to me.

 

[steve2]

Tench, carp and pike. Tench because of the water I fish, Carp because they are now the easiest fish in the country to catch at all sizes due to stocking levels. Pike because it the fish I fish for most of the time on lures.
It use to be chub but I haven't fished a river for over 2years.

 

[markcw]

F1's on commercials,

 

[Sean89]

I struggle to catch Tench but when I seem to target them I always end up with nice Roach. Especially when using corn ? So although I don’t complete my objective I’m never dissatisfied!

 

[peterjg]

Carp: I used to love carp fishing, started in the '70s, pre boilies and hair rigs. Quite frankly at first I struggled badly. Slowly it came together and I was very lucky in joining what were almost certainly the two best clubs in the country for big carp. Eventually (by my poor standards) I cracked it and one season my average weight of carp caught was 31lbs 5ozs from a low stocked 50 acre pit. I last deliberately fished for carp in 2012. As for these grossly overstocked carp puddles well they are awful, that is not carp fishing.

Roach: they absolutely fascinate, big ones are just so contrary, so rare. Certainly harder than big carp. It seems that every time they prefer a different bait and presentation. Sometimes bread or wheat, corn, pellets, etc, etc, sometimes long or short hooklinks, the permutations are endless! The other major problem is to single out the roach, too often tench, bream, chub, barbel pinch their bait.

 

[Sean89]

Roach: they absolutely fascinate, big ones are just so contrary, so rare. Certainly harder than big carp. It seems that every time they prefer a different bait and presentation. Sometimes bread or wheat, corn, pellets, etc, etc, sometimes long or short hooklinks, the permutations are endless! The other major problem is to single out the roach, too often tench, bream, chub, barbel pinch their bait.

I’ve always caught them hard on the bottom feeder fishing with corn on the great Ouse. So nice landing a big roach as we all know they don’t have the best of times hiding from the predators

 

[108831]

Post lockdown most things with fins seemingly are avoiding my net,but many species over time have been very kind to me,chub,barbel,tench,carp,bream,roach,in fact most species,but times change,as do waters,cycles change fish populations,almost countrywide it seems so some species become rarer than hens teeth...

 

[mikench]

It has to be tench. It may well be me but I suspect they remain scarce in all the waters I fish.


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[Paste paul]

I used to be a real roach angler big bags and specimen......
I’ve had good days on casters hemp tares corn even elderberry .......
Rivers and still waters just loved catching them even been to Ireland chasing big bags of roach.
But then things changed and carp venues arrived and I started fishing them...... in the early days I used casters and maggots and had some good mixed bags but I realised to win matches I needed to target carp so pellets and paste was used....
I’ve gotten pretty proficient at it too but I’ve realised it’s not my bag so I now try and target roach and bream on natural venues.........
If I do go on a commercial I’ll buy a bag of pellets!!!! When I’m Rome ???

 

[Paste paul]

F1's on commercials,

F1 fishing is an interesting way to fish I think in its way it’s similar to roach fishing.
On one of our local council run venues there are some big 4 pound plus f1 which give a good account of themselves.....it also has a good balance of silver’s and f1 so good mixed bags can be had it makes for a great days sport without being silly.

 

[markcw]

F1 fishing is an interesting way to fish I think in its way it’s similar to roach fishing.
On one of our local council run venues there are some big 4 pound plus f1 which give a good account of themselves.....it also has a good balance of silver’s and f1 so good mixed bags can be had it makes for a great days sport without being silly.

On some of the commercials I fish apart from silvers,sturgeon etc, there are some good sized margin carp.

 

[nottskev]

On one of our local council run venues there are some big 4 pound plus f1 which give a good account of themselves.....it also has a good balance of silver’s and f1 so good mixed bags can be had it makes for a great days sport without being silly.

Council run venues? Lucky you. I have 3 nice council-owned waters within a stone's throw of my house. Fishing is banned on all three.
The estate lake at the end of my road is off limits, but I can drive 15m down the A52 and fish 3 beautiful park lakes jointly managed by Derby Council and a local club.
The difference in attitude between councils is stark.

 

[rayner]

I believe F1s are trickier to catch than the roach, they are like quick lightning at ejecting a hook bait.
Roach for me in smaller sizes say to 8oz are easy as. Even small F1s are ninja fish. The only effective way of catching numbers of F1s to my old brain is self hooking rigs, some fisheries like Lindholme insist on a 6" lash which makes them trickier than if you're allowed a 3" lash.
One way to overcome the longer lash is to overshot the rig, some fisheries outlaw that.
I hate F1s they are too quick for me, without help from rigs I'm dumbfounded by them.
The jigger is my only help with the little sods. Give me roach anytime.

 

[fred hall]

For me it's chub going back 60+ years to when I first fished the Ribble. I would be fibbing if I said it's all down to my superb technique with this species but I can think of maybe a dozen instances over the years when I've fished a water for the first time, including 2 commercials, and bingo up pops old rubber lips!

 

[Philip]

Zander are not an easy one for me. As well as being a quandary fish anyway the venues I fish have things like Catfish as well and it can be difficult to single out the Zander from them. Other than that I guess as you gain experience you start to know were and how to fish to catch a specific species and set realistic targets.

One thing I found quite amusing is on occasion when I have taken a non angler with me tiddler bashing or whatever they have been sort of surprised when I manage to catch a certain fish I say I will ,for example a Roach, the first thing they say when I reel one in is “is that a Roach then?” and if I say yes its like I am some sort of magician. haha.

 

[markcw]

I believe F1s are trickier to catch than the roach, they are like quick lightning at ejecting a hook bait.
Roach for me in smaller sizes say to 8oz are easy as. Even small F1s are ninja fish. The only effective way of catching numbers of F1s to my old brain is self hooking rigs, some fisheries like Lindholme insist on a 6" lash which makes them trickier than if you're allowed a 3" lash.
One way to overcome the longer lash is to overshot the rig, some fisheries outlaw that.
I hate F1s they are too quick for me, without help from rigs I'm dumbfounded by them.
The jigger is my only help with the little sods. Give me roach anytime.

True, F1's can be tricky, I have found that you have to constantly change depth to keep in touch with them, even a couple of inches can make a lot of difference,
As for bites, on some commercials I fish they can range from elastic streaming out to a tiny dink on the float,

 

[Keith M]

some fisheries like Lindholme insist on a 6" lash which makes them trickier than if you're allowed a 3" lash.
One way to overcome the longer lash is to overshot the rig, some fisheries outlaw that.

Excuse my ignorance but what exactly is a lash; in fisherman's language?

I do catch a few 2lb Roach (give or take a couple of ounces) but only about 1 or 2 or 3 per season and only in my local stream but that's only because they are present, so I wouldn't say that I do well with roach.

I would say that when I target barbel or chub I'm quite succesful but that is probably because I know the streams and small rivers quite intimately so I know when the conditions are just right.

The same goes for the Tench and the Carp on my local estate lake; which over the years I've got to know like the back of my hand and know when conditions are just right and which swims will produce.

Keith

 

[rayner]

By the way, I've checked the rules at Lindholme, it seems the length of the lash is 8" I don't know what the reason could be.
The lash is just a term for the line between float and elastic connector