Fish in swim but not taking bait

[maverboy]

Hi,
When fishing my local commercial,i have no problem getting carp into the swim but i'm having a really bad catch rate,generally using 8lb/0.20 line,size 16 hook with a bunch of maggots or hair rigged meat or corn,any answers to this?
Thanks.

[Nick D]

Are you getting any bites at all?

Maybe try using lighter gear?

[SPADGER]

What size are the fish ?
If the are F1s or carp under 5lb, my guess is that you are far to overgunned to get bites.
They have probably seen a lot of angling pressure, so won't look at a bait if it doesn't look right.
Try scaling everything down and using smaller baits, like double maggot, single corn or a small pellet.
Feed little and very often, so as to get the fish used to picking up bait.
I have found that throwing in tons of bait, at wary fish, only makes them back off.
Only to return later and feed at their leisure.
Try strong 18 or even 20 hooks, and lower your line diameter to 0.14 or even less.
Just take things easy and you will get em in no problem.
Hope this helps.

[maverboy]

Thanks guys,the fish tend to be 5lb up to 20lb plus with an average of about 8-12lb.

I am getting bites which vary from knocks to full on take offs(sometimes fouled)but cannot seem to get consistent takes.I have tried being sparing with the bait and heavily feeding but still get the same results so i am now thinking it is something to do with technique as the fish are there.

Do you think it may make a difference if i start varying depth as at the moment i tend to fish a little overdepth which worked at first.

[fishster]

I agree with what everyine is saying ,go lighter and smaller hooks but have you tried going bigger as in hooks i had a similar problem and changed to a size 12 hook and hey presto i started to hook nearly every bite.Cos i know what people say about fish being wary but in the summer months i always tend to scale up as they are not as finickey in summer as they are in winter.Try it and let us know how you go.

[SPADGER]

You may also be getting too many fish in your swim. Another tactic may be to fish around the edge of your feed area.
Picking off the fish on the edge of the shoal.
This may eliminate the liners.

[SPADGER]

You may also be getting too many fish in your swim. Another tactic may be to fish around the edge of your feed area.
Picking off the fish on the edge of the shoal.
This may eliminate the liners.

[maverboy]

Thanks for the replies,i will try fishing around the area a bit more and a larger hook size,i'm going next week so will let you know the outcome,

[06_ryan_06]

as a general rule, i would approach it with a 16 wide gape hook, the a 14 on standby and a hair rig 16 on standby aswell to change things if you get the same scinareo
linewise 0.20 will be good for bagging up but you can get away with 0.13-0.15 i would probly have a 0.17 rig and then have 0.15 hooklength on it, and have a 0.13 hooklength ready incase you still dont catch.
i do belive tho that your problem is down to bait, feeding and the hooking of bait.now with fish of that size i would use 4-6mm pellets, due to them breaking down slower wich will make sure smaller fish dont interupt your swim to early,bream can kill a swim off if you feed a 4mm pellet that breaks down fast, you may not see another carp all day if they really arive in your peg so the pellet you feed is important.just to be on the safe side...6mm will probly be best with a few grains of corn to aid with a different hookbait.
it sounds asthough the venue you fish is highly stocked so 70ml of pellets may well be good enough for a few carp, feed 70ml of pellets and fish it out to see how many fish u get off 70ml, once you've gone 10 mins without a bite then try fishing a meter past the feed area to see if the carp have backed off or just eat all the pellets and gone, once no more carp are caught feed another and fish it out again untill you catch close to what you caught the first time, keep the feeding strict and you should see a pattern emerging, stick to the pattern and fish should start coming to the net quicker and properly hooked.
other times u might have loads of fish in your peg and cant get a bite, i belive this is down to the hook point showing, try burying a hook in corn so you cant see the hook, this normally gets takes quick but corn is soft and if your hook is sharp enough it will pull through and hook the fish properly, fast bite proper hook hold, just what you want but if that does not work then hair rigged pellet or corn may do the job, if you change from normal hook to hair rig and it works, it means its the size of your hook or the way you hook the bait, so scale down and bury the hook in the bait you use, one way or the other you should get bites quicker and proper bites.

[maverboy]

Well,i managed to get a 4 hour session in today and bingo.Upped to a size 12 and a korum quickstop hairig and had about 8 fish,most above 10lb,biggest 15lb 4oz,still not sure if what i did has made a difference but everybody else on the lake were catching all.All the fish were cleanly hooked aswell and managed to lose a couple that were bigger,

Also tried fishing meat directly on the hook and had nothing which was strange.

[ManBehindTheMask]

Ryan 06, dont you think 0.13 - 0.15 would be much too light for the size of fish Maverboy is talking about. I would rather fish 0.18 or 0.20 and get all fish out i hook rather than hook loads and have loads of bites on 0,13 and get broke on most... You never win a match by losing the most fish ...

[06_ryan_06]

no i dont,if you use a strong enough hook, not to heavy elastic you can get anything out on 0.13.
iv had up to 14lb out on 0.13 16 kamasan b911 hook and 14-16 elastic and know of people getting bigger out on the same setup with just a different hook.
in winter 0.10 is used with 12-14 elastic and they are got out then so y not in summer with the gear steppd up a little from it?
in fishing you got 2 sides, the light guys and heavy guys, both have the same success

[ManBehindTheMask]

You must be the first person i have known who soley targets big carp with 0.13.. Mixed bags of fish with the odd lump yes.. But for soley big carp i see no advantages of using lighter than 0.14..

[justin case]

They sound like wise old fish to me

make sure you are dead depth and not overdepth they can suck that bait in and blow it out before you even see it register, when i go to places likme this i always fish a hair sometimes a long one

[george rigby]

try using ligheter line an feed in a concentrated area. little and often. Just scale everything down a bit.