It's the end of March and Spring is well and truly in the air - here, angling icon Ian Chillcott runs us through his thinkings at this time of year.
Spring is in the air!!
Feel your way in……
It may sound a little strange, but I find it hard to suggest anything to anyone with regards to what to do on a particular water, especially if I have never fished there. It’s much like anything written or spoken in the public domain. You should only generalise, explaining the things which you would do, not necessarily telling the reader or listener they’re definitely going to work. It’s something we should all bear in mind, every water is a little different to the next, even if they are situated right next door to each other. However, from the day I started serious carp fishing, way back in the mid 1980’s, things have changed rather a lot! Back then we had to plan our seasons, not sessions, based on catching one or two carp in a year. Whereas now a days it’s all about how many you can possibly land on each visit. Fisheries have popped up all over the country and the world, if you travel that far, which have been heavily stocked making the capture of carp much easier. Not something some of us would want to hear, but they are the facts, and cannot be denied.
The 1980's, things have changed rather a lot since then.
Carp angling has become a pastime where people can catch massive fish, and don’t have to travel abroad to do so, anymore. To be honest, everyone deserves the chance to play, land and handle such creatures. Ironically, I have no wish to pour scorn on this fact, as many would have you believe. It really doesn’t matter how many fish you are angling for, or how big they have become, you still have to give your fishing some thought. Information on a target venue, or even one you will visit infrequently, is a valuable asset. All you have to do is get it, and sometimes this involves a little bit of hard work and sacrifice. Even if the carp have become an easier fish to catch, the more you put into the captures the more they will mean to you. And at the end of the day...
This is all that really matters... isn't it?