What do you look for in a venue?

These days we see venues stocked with a greater biomass of carp than we have been used to seeing in the past. Productive waters will always be popular as the biggest majority of anglers can’t cope with waiting for a couple of possible chances a year.

I tried to catch this for 2 years and eventually hooked it only to lose it at the net. I went back 10 years later and eventually caught it.

Having said that I can confidently say there will always be decent fish with no names to target. So many waters with just a handful of carp which possibly weren’t supposed to be there which have been illegally moved, cast off as pike baits or moved under their own steam during times of flood which gives plenty of opportunity for the most pioneering type angler.

Myself, I like catching them too much to sit on head banging waters these days. I have done it in the past and will no doubt do it again in the future but for now I simply enjoy catching carp. So long as those carp live in pleasant homes and I can get a little bit of peace with just me against the carp without a constant barrage of visitors then I’m more than content.

I fell into the trap or to me at least I feel it was a trap of targeting particular fish. I did this for a few years and succeeded in catching particular fish that I really wanted in the album, but eventually realised that I was missing out on so much more enjoyment by doing this. Each time another fish came over the net instead of being totally jubilant I was a little disappointed deep down that it wasn’t the ‘right one’ rather than enjoying each fish for its own merits.

It’s different for every angler out there, what suits me and what suits the next angler will thankfully usually be different. If it wasn’t we would all be crowding in on the same water.

I would be interested in the priority of other anglers regarding where they fish.

Mine are as follows and tend to surprise a few as to what I consider to be a priority….

1. 

   Rather pleasing wake up call – The venue this was from ticked all the boxes.

   Nice venue – I have to enjoy being there

2. Methods – I dislike snag fishing or dragging weed beds in to find if you have a carp attached
3. Anglers – Decent like minded anglers who can respect your privacy as well as socialise at the right times
4. Security – I don’t want to have to worry whether or not my car is still there
5. The Fish – Possibly surprisingly the fish come 5^th on my list. So long as they pull my string I don’t really mind how big they are if I can tick all the previous boxes above.

So, what are your priorities?

Best fishes
Shaun Harrison.