Fishing

Fishing Lakes

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Best Fishing Lakes

UK Lakes Series

The UK is home to beautiful lakes, lochs, pools, reservoirs and waters, from the small but majestic Rydal Water in the Lake District to the bubbling Fairy Pools of Skye, the UK is home to a wide variety of spectacular lakes for water-sports, wild swims, bike rides, water-side walks and picnics.

These guides gives you plenty of information, including what species of fish can be caught at each water, maps, directions, parking details, ticket prices, rules for that venue, on site facilities, disabled access and contact numbers. Most lakes, ponds and rivers in and around the area are featured and all contain photographs of the venues. This full colour guide contains all you need to know for a great days fishing.

Much of the advice for fishing lakes will be similar to our suggestions for river fishing so we suggest that you read that first. We can then identify any differences between the two styles.

Rods – again we would advise a 12ft match rod. You are looking for a ‘through’ action whereas float fishing rods for river use are ideally ‘tip’ actioned. A through action rod has a gradual bend from the tip right down the section to the butt whereas the tip action has stiffer middle and butt joints leaving only the tip to bend.

The tip actioned rod is ideal when fishing for roach and dace in the rivers where you need to be able to pick up lots of loose line that is laying on the surface between the rod and the float. When we’re fishing lakes we tend to use ‘waggler’ type float with the line fixed only at the bottom of the float giving us a sunken line and a more direct contact to a biting fish. We would recommend something like the Shakespeare Odessa 12ft

Float Fishing for Crucian Carp

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Float Fishing Crucian Carp

jump to Float Fishing Video Crucian Carp

To catch crucians regularly a very carefully shotted light float rig is imperative the best floats being a fine-tipped antenna or a short narrow-diameter length of peacock quill fished in ‘mini-lift’ style. The object is to see those tiny bites for which crucians are renowned and which often barely register on the float tip (fig. 9B).

For this reason the single shot (a No. 1 BB or AA depending on float size) should be not more than 2 in from the hook. Try moving it even closer to 1 in away because sometimes this alone can make all the difference between seeing bites or not. The secret after casting in and tightening up so the float cocks is to wind down even further so the tip is just the merest ‘blimp’ on the surface. Strike the slightest movement.

When crucians are really feeding confidently denoted by clusters of small bubbles regularly rising to the surface the float might even lift completely out of the water and lie flat as the carp tills its head up after sucking up the bait and dislodges the shot. Or the tip will sink positively as the crucian characteristically runs along the bottom. Many more bites will barely register on the float so you need 10 hold the rod throughout and be eagle-eyed.

To stand a better chance of hilling bites from crafty crucians that just lie on the bottom blowing the bait in and out rig up a light antenna float with a dust shot 2-3 in from the hook with the bulk.

shot set at mid depth {fig. 9A). After carefully plumbing the swim adjust the float so the bait is literally a fraction above the bottom. As with the lift rig strike at the slightest movement on the float tip. Remember to keep loose feed or small balls of groundbait going in on the little-and-often principle and they might be encouraged lo feed all day. A ruse always worth trying when they are particularly dour is to gently wind the float in 6 in at a time which makes the bait lift upwards enticingly and fall gently down to the bottom again. Baits which are inherently buoyant like bread flake or csters or which are expected to move as worms work best when ‘twitching’ in this way to encourage bites.

Incidentally both these rigs work effectively for tench that are biting particularly shyly.

Crucian Carp Float Fishing Video</h3

Bass Fishing

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Bass Fishing

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In the past, where human populations were sparse and fishing pressure modest, sea bass were simply called “bass”, meaning basically “prickly.” But in Mediterranean Europe the same species began to be named in a way that indicated intelligence. The ancient Greeks associated the fish with the word labros, or “turbulence.” Homer uses labros in reference to wind and waterbut labros as it applied to sea bass gradually came to imply cleverness. In modern Greek the concept of the sea bass as a clever fish became its defining characteristic. Today the fish is called lavraki – “the clever one.” If you wanted to indicate in modern Greek that someone had cleverly figured out something tricky and challenging, you would say that he epyase lavraki – “he caught a sea bass.”

The perception of the bass as clever occurs in other Mediterranean languages. The Romans named the fish after an animal they considered particularly intelligent – lupinus, which eventually became the French loup de mer – “sea wolf.” And the Latin poet Ovid wrote of sea bass as using its smarts to frustrate its potential captors. “In vain above the greedy [fisherman] toils,” Ovid wrote, “while with arts more exquisite the bass beguiles.”

European sea bass thus seem to have rapidly solidified their reputation for cleverness in the Mediterranean. The reason for this may be a direct product of the holiday-like environment of the Mediterranean Sea, the place where humans and sea bass had their most intense interactions. The Mediterranean occupies an exceptionally warm and dry climatic zone. Most rivers on the European continent flow away from it, meaning that, compared to other seas, the Mediterranean’s biotic systems receive few nutrients. The sea is therefore described by scientists with the Greek-derived word oligotrophic – a place that “contains little nourishment.” By the time one reaches the level of the European sea bass, both the population of fish and the size of individual fish are naturally smaller and more sensitive to exploitation than in more productive seas. Recently the Italian cookbook author Marcella Hazan said that when she moved to the United States, she simply could not find the right fish for her European sea bass recipes. “Your bass are too big!” she lamented.

Bass Fishing Video

Carp Fishing

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Carp Fishing

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One of the largest members of the minnow family and a close relative of the goldfish, the common carp is among the least – favoured targets of freshwater anglers in North America. Common carp exist in good supply and in relatively large sizes (compared to most other species), and provide an underutilized resource for anglers, not to mention an ample source of protein. In some circles carp are highly regarded as a food fish and can be prepared in many ways. ID. The common carp has a deep body form and a heavy appearance.

Distinctive features include a short head, rounded snout, single long dorsal fin, forked tail, and relatively large scales. The mouth is toothless and sucker like, adapted to bottom feeding, and the upper jaw projects slightly past the lower one. The common carp has a single serrated spine at the front of the dorsal and anal fins and two pairs of fleshy barbels on either side of its mouth. Colouring ranges from gold to olive to brown, with a yellowish colouring on the lower sides and belly and a reddish tint to the lower fins. Each scale on the upper sides of the fish has a concentrated dark spot at its base and a conspicuous dark rim.

Common Carp Cyprinus carpio

Juveniles and breeding males are usually a darker green or grey with a dark belly, and females are lighter. Habitat. Common carp are incredibly hardy and flexible in their habitat preferences. Primarily bottom – dwelling fish, carp like quiet, shallow waters with a soft bottom and dense aquatic vegetation. Although they favour large turbid waters, they also thrive in small rivers and lakes. They can live in low – oxygen environments and can tolerate temperature fluctuations and extremes. In some northern waters where the fish are abundant and such terrain is lacking or offers no food, carp will cruise over shallow, rocky flats and shoals, browsing along the rubble bottom. Food. Omnivorous feeders, carp have predominantly vegetarian diets but will feed on aquatic insects, snails, crustaceans, annelids, and molluscs.

Carp Fishing Video

Aquatic plants and filamentous algae are the most popular food groups. They grub sediments from the bottom with their sucker like mouths, uprooting and destroying vegetation and muddying the water. Carp primarily spend their lives in small groups and are inclined to roam for food. Angling. Because carp primarily eat aquatic plants, and not other fish, they are less receptive than many other species to the most commonly practiced methods of fishing in North America. Nevertheless, they are strong fish and hearty battlers, capable of stretching a fishing line and testing the skills of most anglers. Getting a carp to take your offering can be a challenge, as they are not impulsive predators or ambush strikers.

For the most part, they are not chasers or stalk – and – attack hunters. They are unlikely to strike most lures, although they occasionally strike a slow – moving jig, and either a weighted or a dry fly. Spinning, spin-casting, fly-casting, and bait-casting tackle are all used to land carp, but spinning is probably the most functional method. In North America, carp have been caught on an assortment of bait, primarily dough-balls, corn, worms, processed baits, and commercially prepared baits, with and without chumming. Although they primarily feed on the bottom, carp also feed on or near the surface as well as at mid-levels. Fishing for carp is mostly a waiting game, but stealthy anglers can opt to take a more aggressive approach and hunt for them, stalking and casting to visible fish. the equipment list.