Fishing tips for hard days: How to get more bites

Move it…

If you’ll forgive me for starting with the blinking obvious, one common reason we fail to get bites is that the fish simply aren’t in front of us. They have fins, after all, and even if we’re in a spot that was red-hot last month, that is no guarantee today.

Using your feet is often a good idea if bites are not forthcoming.

Keeping an open mind and being prepared to move is helpful in absolutely any style of fishing you care to name- and I include so called “static” methods in this. Even with two or three rod carp fishing, smart anglers are not afraid to move. Cutting down on your kit can help with this, as a lighter load makes you able to move spots a lot faster.

Level up, or down!

Fish will feed where they want, which is not necessarily the bottom!

Talking of moving location, fish can be anywhere in the water column, from glued to the deck to just under the surface. If we’re at the wrong level, they may well ignore anything we throw at them. This especially true of species that are “all-rounders” with varied feeding habits, including, carp, chub and trout.

A lot of anglers habitually fish on the bottom simply out of convenience or habit. But what if our quarry doesn’t want to be there? A classic conundrum for this is sunny yet cold weather in winter. You might expect carp or roach to be right on the bottom, but such conditions often see them loiter in mid water. Bait anglers can easily switch to float fishing or popping up baits off the bottom. Lure and fly anglers should consider switching weights and lines, and counting down to different depths.

Change your hook offering

On this occasion, a bright and obvious hook bait did the trick.

As important as choosing the right bait or lure can be, you will notice that our list didn’t start with this suggestion. That’s because locating how and where fish feed is more important than what our specific hookbait is. If we know there are fish about, however, and things are still not working, a change might be in order. Perhaps the fish would prefer something larger, smaller, bolder or subtler than we are using? If the fish see a lot of angling pressure, perhaps we might offer them something different?

One great example for a lot of coarse fisheries is to return to simple, natural baits, as opposed to processed feed like boilies. Maggots and worms are easy for fish to digest and will catch in the toughest conditions. For lure and fly anglers, tricky or pressured fish often prefer something smaller and less obvious than what the majority use.

Switch feeding patterns

If in doubt, stick to small, accurate helpings of loose feed.

How we loose feed is often another critical factor in getting bites. There are very few cases where it’s not helpful to introduce some feed to encourage the fish, it must be said, and most of the time you won’t go too far wrong with “little, often and accurate”.

If you’re worried you might overdo it, however, another sensible idea is to try and add some attraction without going OTT or introducing much actual food. A well-riddled groundbait with only the odd hookbait sample is a good example of this, or just a tiny handful of worms or boilies that have been well minced. Even large fish like carp don’t always want a feast.

Or try prebaiting

Another way to shift the odds in your favour, especially for those who live near a particular fishing venue, is to prebait, (which simply means introducing bait even when you are not fishing, over a period of days or even weeks in advance) . If you can introduce bait regularly in a spot, this will often cut the time you might wait for a bite. This can also save a lot of patience – especially on venues where fish have lengthy patrol routes, or might need time to get confident eating baits they are not used to.

Refine your presentation

Another obvious reason you might fail to get bites is that your hook and line are too conspicuous. If the water is clear or the fish see a lot of anglers, this is especially true. Might scaling down win us some bites?

We must always fish sensibly with gear up to the job, obviously, but with almost all types of fishing, it’s an easy trap to fish more crudely than we need to. This is especially noticeable with dry fly fishing for trout in crystal clear water, for instance, where the difference between 3lb and 5lb line can be startling. Even with large carp, however, there is a world of difference between a size 6 hook and say a size 10. The smaller hook is not only subtler, but penetrates the mouth of the fish with far less force required.

Cuter rigs and smaller hooks are always worth trying for fussy fish.

Improve sensitivity and bite indication

Another common issue is that fish can become tackle shy, or are simply wary of resistance. Many species will pick up and drop baits, and without a sensitive setup we may not even know about it. Almost regardless of the style of fishing or target species, our bite indication should be as cute as possible.

A classic example of this for many anglers is having too much float showing or a needlessly heavy bobbin. Even with more aggressive fish such as pike, crude presentation or too much resistance can put fish off and prevent bites developing.

If they won’t feed, stimulate or provoke!

This pike took a bright yellow and black fly – hardly natural, but triggering!

It is a mistake to assume that we only catch fish because they are hungry. More often than most anglers realise, we are looking for a reaction that is not completely natural feeding response. For example, the perch in our swim might flatly ignore a worm sat on the bottom, but might well take one that is lifted and dropped.

Other times, we might need to actively provoke fish into taking. Pike and trout are good examples of this. Whether it’s territorial instinct or basic aggression, it can be worth giving them something bigger and more provocative where realistic offerings fail. Give them something unusual, bright or irritating and even a well-fed fish might lash out.

Change your clock, or change conditions

Another common reason anglers struggle to get bites is that they think of their own preferences instead of those of the fish. The times and conditions we prefer are often very different to those of our quarry. Fish don’t feed all the time, therefore the simple act of altering our fishing hours can be transformative. Starting earlier, staying later or even trying at night are all worth a try, especially if you are struggling for bites.

Sometimes fish prefer to feed at dawn, dusk or even at night.

Be scientific!

It’s one thing to come up with a theory or act on a hunch, but the more we can base our approach to fishing on evidence and experience, the better! While most of us do so naturally, a lot of important things are easy to forget or overlook. On that basis, why not keep a record of your fishing? The art of keeping a diary, seems to have gone out of fashion, but is a far more reliable way than memory alone to log your successes and failures. Patterns and solutions tend to repeat after all.

Patterns of success and failure tend to repeat – so logging them is always helpful.

Written by Dominic Garnett
Dom is a seasoned writer and angler as well as being a fully licensed level 2 game and coarse angling coach. Based in Exeter, you can catch more from him every week in the Angling Times, or at his site dgfishing.co.uk where you’ll find his blog and various books.