Almost impossible

[Ian]

I don't have any real reason for posting this in the roach section as this farm pond seemingly contains carp,perch,bream,tench and hybrids as well as roach but it's where I might receive the best opinions.i don't claim to be an expert on any fish species but this water has got me totally stumped.i started fishing it last October and up til late November I caught some cracking big stripeys and every time I was there,just before the sun went down the roach would appear on the surface and in serious numbers.i never bothered fishing for them or any other species of that genre.anyway once the cold of winter set in the fishing became slower than treacle running up hill but I still fished it all winter right through spring.i managed a couple of carp in the spring but I never saw any roach topping or anything else for that matter.i stayed away from it from June up til 3wks ago when I decided to give it another bash and have only caught about half a dozen very small perch and one small roach in those 3 try's.first of all,I know there are big perch in it cause I've caught them,secondly I saw the roach shoals in October-Nov but never since.i know it sounds a bit premature to start questioning things but the way it looked last autumn I couldn't have imagined it being so difficult to the point of me questioning wether those fish are still there.last Sunday I fished the float and maggot with ground bait and I never got a single indication of a fish.i also had a lob worm on a ledgered rig for anything else but nothing but a couple of small perch.just before the sun went down I did see a couple of decent fish top and I think I counted a couple of the better perch possibly taking fry on the surface but that's been it basically since the turn of the year.the waters down a couple of feet and that makes the majority of it 3ft with a slightly deeper bit about 5ft.ive tried lobs,spinning and maggots for the stripeys,no joy but how come I haven't saw a bream or tench rolling in all the times I've been there.how come I haven't seen those roach or caught a few.could it be the fish almost exclusively feed at night,at this time of year anyway.could such little water be having an effect.i am going over tomorrow with bread,sweet corn,small worms and ground bait but I fear the worst.makes me wonder if the fish that's meant to be in it really are.opinions needed

[Nigel Rainton]

The temperature of the water might be the answer. If you have a thermometer take a reading. Just a thought.

[Julian]

I think the answer to this is :

Thats fishing.

[Vole]

I think it was the Idler's Quest chap who put forward the notion that the roach in any water will prefer one of bread or lobworms.
If he's right, and you've blanked on worms, then bread's the way to go...

"And if he's wrong, it isn't me." (Attributed to C.R. Milne by his father).

[Tengisgol]

Is it possible that the cormorants moved in during mid-winter - they can be quite devastating?

[Ian]

Well I will be giving it a go today.the place is only about 100sq metres. 9 times out of 10 I'm the only person fishing,I would have thought that if I put bait in it wouldn't be too hard to at least get some silvers.i don't mind having to scratch for bites as long as I know the fish are there,like Julian said,that's fishing.my favourite mix of bread,fruit shorties and corn will soon sort them out.i fished a pond in Newcastle last year and after 8 fails to catch anything significant I put the old favoured mix into action and had bream,tench,roach and crucians lining up,it can't possibly fail on this little farm pond,can it.........lets find out.

[Olly]

I fished a water like that - blank all day! Even the club was thinking of giving it up due to lack of fish. However come dusk they would feed - roach and rudd - on the drop using corn as bait to avoid the smallest fish. The club put it down to persistent cormorant predation during daylight hours and the fish had turned to night feeding to avoid the birds.

[Catfish.017]

We had a water like this locally. The clue to the conundrum lay in the empty Eastern European beer bottles we found on the bank one evening.

[Santiago]

Take a compass with you and fish in the North East corner or near as possible, and fish over a bed of hemp. However, if the wind is blowing from the east then you might as well stay in bed!

[Olly]

I have found this which could explain some things;_

""and the fact I encountered quite a few Polish anglers in 2013 doing all nighters in a quiet secluded spot where they had cleared the silty, sandy bottom of weed in order to maximise catch rates on the south east bank.

I'm beginning to think this place has been hammered over winter with the catching and killing of fish, something which has only happened to a limited extent in the past and it is now all but fishless.

I think the sign must have been posted by North Lanarkshire Council as a result of complaints from the local match anglers due to minimal catch rates. The match anglers, who used to be prolific on the east bank are now, like the fish, only prominent by their absence...

What a sad end for what used to be a great wee local loch :-( ""

Posted by fishinscotland at Wednesday, May 07, 2014