Too much pressure!

Whether it’s angling or atmospheric - it affects our fishing. Now, I've been fishing a pool for the last 3 months which not many other anglers do, in fact, not many know about it. It’s not the best looking pool and has a landfill site within breathing distance.

The first time I fished the pool was about 3 months ago and I blanked, so on the return trip I pre-baited an area with about a kilo of boilies and returned the following morning. Within 30mins I was into what felt like a decent fish. After a long fight I had 22lbs of leather carp at my feet (2nd biggest fish I've ever caught).

The day went from strength to strength with me catching another mirror at 20lbs and my mate Tolley catching 4 fish in total (all mirrors) 2 x 18lbs, 1 at 20 and the same leather I had in the morning.

The week after we decided to return to try and get some more fine action, only to find the pool was packed with anglers of all shapes and sizes going from the typical slobs to the fully kitted-out mothers with everything and the kitchen sink! Now don’t get me wrong I don’t mind others enjoying what I like, but when you're used to being able to turn up at 11 o clock and not a soul would be there it seems a little strange!

I have since returned on 4 occasions and blanked on all but 1. Now why is this? I've read somewhere about atmospheric pressure having an effect on fish feeding but have never experimented to see if this is true. Though I have looked up the pressures for the day we had a decent haul and they do appear to be much lower than at the other times we went – conspiracy theory 1. The next explanation I thought of was angling pressure. I can’t begin to imagine the vast amount of bait that would have gone into the pool (especially if they think there’s a chance of a ‘biggy’) and the amount of commotion caused by setting up camp and plumbing. Like I said before, this was a very quiet pool and I expect that the fish are not used to such activities and become very wary of anything out of the ordinary – conspiracy theory 2.

One of a major problems with this pool is that for a long time there has been a road that you could drive up to be within metres of the pool edge so that you could literally fish out the back of your car but also allows the poachers easy access and an escape route. Now I know for a fact that poaching has gone on at this pool in the past and if people are telling others what they are catching this would be an invitation to make easy money – I know I'm been paranoid but this sort of thing goes on and lines anchored into the ground have been found around the pool.

The fish here have for years been neglected, as it was inaccessible for a good 10 years so they have obviously been feeding on something other than boilies so for the past month I've been regularly going to the pool collecting what I think the carp may be eating instead (if they are eating). I know this sounds foul but I had a mooch around my landing net after a capture and found bits of glistening shell, so I recon there is a bed of swan muscles somewhere. With these factors in mind I have started a baiting campaign in very quiet areas of the pool – some areas with hemp, corn and pellets and another area with shellfish type foods, hopefully this will give me the edge.

It’s a mystery

I can’t even begin to comprehend why one week I can catch a few decent fish and then go for weeks after without a bleep! As my dad always says ‘that’s fishing for you’. This is going to sound bad but I'm hoping the riff-raff that are populating the pool are having the same bad luck that I'm having and get bored of sitting there without a bite, so that the pressure is reduced and hopefully kicking the carp back into the feeding frenzy that we dedicated carpers thrive off.

A predicament

I know this month’s paper sound like a moan, and it is, but I must stress that I don’t mind others fishing the pool responsibly and with respect for others, it’s just the odd few that spoil it for others.

Whether its noise on the bank or rubbish left in pegs there will always be a small population of idiots and I have to admit it is something we will have to live with.

Thanks for reading...

I'll leave you with a couple of pics of the best fish I've had out of the pool and I go away hoping that they will grace my net once again.

Slack lines

Burnsy