Sonning Pit

[smith69]

Hi All,

Please could i get some advice on how best to fish a lake at this time of year because i keep blanking with no bites what so ever. I have been feeder fishing with baits ranging from maggots to worm to sweetcorn and pellets. The species i am after is bream and tench as i am told there is a large head of fish in the lake but they are not taking my bait.

Is it best to let the weather warm up a bit as i feel i am wasting my time at present

Also can anyone explain how i find a gravel bar in a lake as i am casting and hoping at the moment which is not helping my cause

Many thanks
Matt

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Sorry dont know the lake

[Banana Steve]

Hi and welcome to the forum, if i was fishing an unknown lake, i would speak to the local anglers, this time of year you need to find the deepest part of the lake, i would fish the feeder, with a fine groundbait something like match blend or super black. i would scale down to a size 20 or 22 hook and a hook length of around 0.12mm in diameter, i would use pinkie and maintain a steady amount of feed going in on the feeder. say a cast every 5 mins, but make certain that you cast to the same point each time.

As for the gravel bar local info is always the best.

Hope this helps and i loook forward to you reports on what you catch

[mithrandir]

Again, sorry do not know the venue.

I would think that tench are unlikely to show this time of year, when they do get going try fishing near lilies and weeds, tench love the weed.

To find a gravel bar try casting out a marker float with a feature finding lead ( the sort that look a bit like a Sputnik ). as you drag the lead back you can stop and measure the line it takes to bring the float back to the surface.

You should be able to feel the lead rising and falling over features, but if not the drawing back the line 10 feet, then release line until the float shows, until you have covered the area you are interested in, should identify the high and low spots.

I am not very good with bream, I seem to pick them up when carp fishing, but I do notice that they move in shoals, when you hit one you hit loads! They do like a carpet of bait, lots of ground bait or spod mix, I often pick them up on sweetcorn baits and a good carpet of ground bait with bread crumb, small pellet and corn as the basis.

Good luck with your hunt, I personally love tench fishing, I often pick these up on small boillies and a good carpet of pellets placed in clear patches near weed beds. I use the feature finding lead, with braid on the reel, to pull through the weed until I find a clear patch. I have heard that raking a patch of weed out and baiting it is good for drawing in tench, takes a few days but if you fish regularly try developing a weed free patch that you bait up in a section of your favourite swim.

[Greenheart]

I agree with what Bananna Steve & Mithrandir have said, but in winter, be very sparing with the amount of Groundbait & loosefeed that you use. As for finding the depth use a marker float like Mithrandir says (You should be able to find more info on this subject on Carp fishing websites or books) Or use a plumb lead on a float rig. Attach a weight to your hook & just keep adjusting your float until you find the depth.