Fish at the in-form venues
If any readers are at
that stage in their angling careers when they begin to have ambitions to catch
some quite big fish of any particular species, then it is important to fish as
often as possible at venues that are currently offering and abundance of the fish
that are sought.
It may seem an obvious observation to make but not every angler knows that nothing
lasts for ever and fisheries that are producing really good results, with above
averaged-sized fish of a particular kind, rarely continue to do so for long.
Perhaps the really good days last a single season and often several seasons but
fail to be there at these optimum times and you chances are much lower.
To illustrate this phenomenon think about the changes that have taken place over
many years at what used to be a favourite and much visited, Hornsea Mere in East
Yorkshire.
As a child I envied the anglers who caught good numbers of big roach from the
mere. Two and three pounders were landed and even a record fish for the time.
Big pike in abundance were landed by the few pike specialists who fished for these
fish at that time. Also some very big perch.
A period of decline then set in, and though the fishing was still good by the
time I fished the mere, roach were not particularly big and the perch rarely grew
into old time heavyweights.
A revival occured in the pike prospects and I had many bags of pike that averaged
14 or 15lbs apiece and included some 20-pounders and over.
Another decline then resulted from the too numerous pike anglers who began seeking
Hornsea pike.
Pike are delicate fish and great inroads into the numbers of big pike occured
until I stopped fishing there.
Now though, I am told that pike fishing, especially from the boats, is well worthwhile
from October to the end of the season.
Of course, the density of modern traffic on the roads makes long-distance fishing
trips at nightmare though.