Well i made one of the first mistakes in fishing rules the other week when i decided to pay one of my local fisheries a visit and see if we could get in a bit of winter fishing before the warmer weather approached. I was joined with my step father for the trip, Brian. We had selected this lake as it was well known for its good fishing and heavy weights. We checked on-line the details about the lake and noticed that some work had been done to it. They said on the web site that the lake had been levelled to 3’ foot all over. So off we went excited and ready for a great days fishing.
When we got there we selected what seemed to be some good swims with loads of 
nice features to it. We set up our gear an off we went. Well at fist it was cold but the day slowly warmed up but the fishing didn’t. Nothing! when i say nothing i mean absolutely nothing for hours not a line bite not a twitch not even when fishing the pole. We tried everything. We fed up our swims careful not to over feed as it was still winter but nothing seemed to attract the fish. There where other fishermen around the lake but no one seemed to be catching the fish. What was wrong?
Brian managed to get a couple of bream in the end after having to resort to feeder fishing at a long distance but still our swims remained dead. It wasn’t until we started to pack up and one of the local fishermen stopped for a chat on his way past and asked why we had selected the shallowest part of the lake to fish?
OH MY GOD!" I couldn’t believe what had happened. We had been led to believe that the lake was even all over where in reality it wasn’t it was shallow at the one end and deep at the other with a gradual shelf in the middle. We had been fishing the entire day in the wrong spot. We were the only one fishing at that end of the lake and now we understood what had happened. It just goes to show that you should take your time when you get to a new venue and speak to the local fishermen who are already around the venue (if any)and find out exactly what the lake or pond is like. Find out the best features and ask what has been caught lately.
This will then give you some idea of what is going on in the venue you are fishing. It
will save you having to find out the hard way that you have been fishing in the wrong spot all day. We at least i got a chance to test some of my new tackle and practice some of the new rigs i had learnt. Now talking of new rigs i found a new release from Task Tackle, rig cards that they were giving away at a show for free and also available on-line. i have included them within my web site to make it easier for you to find just follow the links:
