ASK THE EXPERTS
This month's winning question:
Dear Panel
I have been fishing a local water of 20 acres and, following usual tactics, I have fished with the wind in mind, but an angler on the bank commented the other day that because of the islands in the lake, the rules have changed. I just nodded as if I understood, but I didn’t really. Please help.
Many thanks,
Bill Greenhill, Gainsborough
Dear Bill,
Firstly, I’ll state right here and now that on a water of 20 acres the wind will play a massive part in the location of the fish, even if it does have islands in it. All I’ll say is that by the sounds of it you are far more in tune with the water than the guy who reckons the wind doesn’t play a part in where the fish are because of the islands!! On most waters a howling wind will always be the first place I would look for any fish present and, nine times out of ten, they can always be found on the end of the wind. Wellington was slightly bigger than the lake you’re fishing on, Bill, but I always found certain swims would produce in the big winds, but strangely, some of the swims that always did the business for me were in the middle of the lake. I’m not saying that angling right in the teeth of the wind would have got me more bites, but I knew if the big southwesterlies turned up, then so would the carp.
The calm before the storm…
On the flip side of the coin, always keep your eyes peeled for signs of fish on the back of the wind. This will be relevant after the wind has been blowing in the same direction for a number of days, and the fish almost seem to get a little bored of the new wind and back off it. Just for the record, in the winter try to fish where the sun hits the lake first, this area of water will obviously be a couple of degrees warmer and my past results would seem to indicate that I’m correct in saying the fish will congregate here as it’s somewhat more comfortable than on the end of a freezing northeasterly.
This shot was taken one hour after the first picture. I went on to land two
40lb fish during this horrendous storm.
I think the point I’m trying to make Bill is always keep your eyes peeled for any signs of fish, whether it’s summer or winter; always make sure you walk the lake before building up a picture of where you’d like to fish, be aware of the wind, but if the fish aren’t there, then there’s no point in fishing there. Normally, the fish should tell you where to be putting your baits, although when they are playing hard to get and you don’t see so much as a single bubble, on the end of the wind is as good a place to start as any.
One of the 40s caught during the storm. It just proves that the weather really does play a massive part in our quest for catching carp.
Good luck Bill, and be lucky.
Iain Macmillan
