We are more than half way though a grueling close season – at least for me from my local club water! Although we can always visit waters, it’s just not the same! Sadly, we have to rely on other people’s success with sporadic buying of fishing DVD’s and magazines. But how many of us use this time constructively? Getting ready for June the 16th is vitally important to your future success and mainly, convenience on the bank. This could be; repairing tackle, improving your water craft skills and targeting new waters –especially learning about them!
Many fishermen will happily fish at their own pace, fair enough, but you never hear about the people that just occasionally go fishing. You don’t have to be an ultra keen angler, but just taking your time and learning about your tactics WILL make you a better fisherman. I, for one, have at least four targets this season to meet. As mentioned in my page ‘about me’, I claim that I will always strive to beat my previous targets. Having a target, and reaching it, will give you a great sense of achievement. It certainly did for me when I, finally, beat my rather small PB after just 2 weeks of changing lakes. Any targets would focus any of us and give anyone a great deal of determination.
After targeting your intended quarry and your location, the next thing to do is to decide where you are going to fish to have the chance of catching your target(s)?
During the close season especially, you can play around with baiting up and practicing your water craft. Buying in bulk of a quality bait doesn’t cost a load and it’ll give you a massive edge from the baiting up when it comes to open time. However, be sure to check with the water management if you are allowed to bait up and play around with this sort of thing during the close season. Of course, you don’t need a close season to do this, but it’s sometimes very hard to bait up a particular swim and hope that no one comes along and fishes on top of it!
One handy tip for your confidence is to not set a target too high or even too low; doing this will have the same effect as doing either. Catching loads of fish at your targeted weight will become boring and pointless. On the other hand, catching a fish that is almost impossible will lower your confidence and have the same effect as a too easy target.
Although many private clubs don’t get featured in magazines, a lot of venues do.
While talking about certain venues, using Google maps or Earth will allow you to make plans of how, where and when to fish. Using a form of overhead mapping, you can easily see the shallow, weedy, clear and deep areas of the lake.
I think that is all. I wish you all the best of luck with the future of your fishing – whatever it may be.
