Wintle’s World – Uncatchable Fish

Mark Wintle, an angler for 36 years, is on a quest to discover and bring to you the magic of fishing. Previously heavily involved with match fishing he now fishes for the sheer fun of it. With an open and enquiring mind, each week Mark will bring to you articles on fishing different rivers, different methods and what makes rivers, and occasionally stillwaters, tick. Add to this a mixed bag of articles on catching big fish; tackle design, angling politics and a few surprises.

Are you stuck in a rut fishing the same swim every week? Do you dare to try something different and see a whole new world of angling open up? Yes? Then read Mark Wintle’s regular column.

Wintle’s World of Angling – ‘Uncatchable’ Fish

One of the pleasures of angling is fishing a water where there is some element of the unknown, that not every fish in the lake has a name or known size, that when you get a bite there is a chance that it could be of unknown size, or even species. Yet the opposite is often true, especially of carp fishing. “‘Old Doris’ weighed firty-ate last time it come aawt. Metallic’s the other biggy at firty-six.”

A newly stocked lake is the worst of all. The size of every fish is known; there has been no time for the lake to mature, to grow on its stock, for the fish to breed, and in many instances, given time, ‘acquire’ mystery stock from elsewhere. At least on an old lake there is the chance of the unknown, and on a river of any size this is also much more likely to be true.

Mark with a ‘mug’ carp

Disregarding the new lake scenario, it is often a tremendous surprise to the regulars when an established lake with a stock that is thought to be well known to the nth degree is drained down. In addition to the expected ‘Old Doris’ and ‘Metallic’ some other big carp, completely unknown to the regulars who have neither seen nor caught these fish, come to light. Furthermore, the carp are as big, if not bigger, than the ‘known’ fish.

Tagged carp

An experiment to find out more about catch rates involved stocking a lake with tagged carp. What followed was astonishing. As anglers we would expect the catchability of the fish to be fairly uniform yet almost the opposite occurred. Around a third of the fish were caught regularly, another third were caught rarely – possibly once, then became very difficult to catch, and the remaining third remained uncaught.

This result certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons. One suggestion was that it was pointless stocking a water with the uncatchable fish, and that those (uncatchable) fish should be removed! One wonders where the challenge would be.

The mug fish

The opposite of uncatchable is the mug fish. I’ve certainly come across a few in my time (some would argue all the fish I catch are mug fish). One chub haunted me on the Stour. I was trying to catch the big roach in the swim on hemp and tares, and did succeed, yet every day I first had to catch the scrawny three pound chub that persisted in feeding almost immediately I put some bait in the swim. Once it had been caught it could be returned to sulk under a weed bed; at least it was out of the way of the finicky roach. I caught that chub three days running.

On another water a 10oz roach x bream hybrid was always the first fish I caught during winter sessions in either of two swims, and I caught it at least ten times over the course of a couple of winters. How many other times it got caught is anyone’s guess for it was certainly easy to catch, and easily recognisable from its tatty fns and misshapen mouth.

So can ‘uncatchable’ fish be caught?

But I am digressing. Can those uncatchable fish, that must by definition frequent almost all waters, be caught? Forget for a moment just carp; I am applying the term to the broader spectrum of fish.

From the experiment described above it does appear that in normal conditions at least there are fish that simply never get caught. Some fish avoid capture through living in hitherto unfished corners of the water. These out of the way places, unfished for several reasons, provide a sanctuary for undisturbed fish. They may be totally inaccessible due to trees, reed beds, or simply prohibited access. This suggests that given access such fish could be caught, so the ‘uncatchable’ tag is not totally true.

What of the true uncatchable fish; the ones that are present in the fishable swims? What do we know of such fish?

These must be the fish that somehow avoid the bait with a line attached yet feed on loose offerings. Or do they know when an angler is present, back off and allow the mugs in, and then return when all is quiet?

Experience shows the above to be true, and yet there are occasions when the uncatchables get caught. I wrote earlier of ‘normal’ conditions, but every experienced angler knows of those all too rare days when the fish feed with such abandon it is as if every fish in the river or lake is throwing itself on the hook – they don’t call them ‘red-letter’ days for nothing.

When the mystery is revealed

The trigger could be the weather, a complex answer I doubt we’ll ever understand but some combination of temperature, pressure, wind or light that causes a feeding frenzy. On rivers it seems to me that a period when conditions are especially poor for a prolonged time, so bad the fish are totally disinclined to feed for weeks, is a precursor to a feeding spell to end all feeding spells when the ravenous fish lose caution. Prolonged snow water and very cold conditions are one possible cause, though I’ve seen it happen after weeks of floods too.

When the fish do go on the rampage like this it often takes bold moves on the part of the angler to take full advantage. Heavy feeding, much heavier than normal, can be part of the key to success. At the end of such a day’s fishing one can feel that one has emptied the river, and there is no doubt that a few of the normally uncatchables will have succumbed.

One time when there is a chance that some of a water’s mysteries might be revealed is during the spring. With the fish more intent on spawning than avoiding capture there is always a chance that you’ll get a close look at those fish that otherwise remain hidden, and a good enough excuse to take a walk around your favourite water in spring, if permitted.

Other than the exceptional circumstances mentioned above, are there any other ways of tempting those hard to catch monsters? There must be, and yet defining how is the difficult part. This is where the angler prepared to understand what methods are in common use on a particular water, and prepared to try a totally fresh approach has a chance to succeed. ‘Methods’ covers more than just a rig; it could be a combination of a new bait, rig, feeding method and area to target. The aim is to trick the ‘uncatchable’ fish into finally making mistakes.

In the end it boils down to whether you are happy catching the easy fish, or relish the chance of the truly difficult. Whatever your choice just remember that a little bit of mystery goes a long way!