28 nov 2021, float fishing, pond

 On 29 november 2021, last Sunday, went fishing on a pond in which I've fished previously. We arrived there at ~7 am. The morning was rainy, the day before was rainy. It rained for almost ~2 hours, after that the weather calmed down, but it was cloudy.

The place where I've fished: 

On the right side is a fallen tree, the water was changing as, around 9 am, the water retreats due to the pond being connected with a dam.  There, when the water falls back, the depth is at most 1 meter. I've fished at a distance of around 4-5 meters.

I've tried to fish with a match rod and a float fishing pole, the pole had a length of 3.60 meters and it was too soft for my tastes as I've coudn't place the float where I've wanted to.. maybe the float was too light - 0.40 grams. In the end, I've fished only with the match rod. I've also tried to fish for a bit for perch with soft lures, but I've gave up after I've realized that there were many weeds and I didn't have enough patience and space to properly try for it. I think that someone caught a palm size perch at natural baits (maggots/worms).

When I've first arrived I've feed the swim with 3-4 orange size pieces of mamaliga (mashed corn), which I've defrosted 1 night before (I've put it in the fridge at the past fishing sessions, when I didn't use it).

The polenta/mamaliga/mashed boiled corn flour, after defrosting, was heavy enough to throw it and remaind in the area of fishing. I think that, in the water, it slowly released particles. I've tried to bait the fish by placing the bait closer to the tree as the water, to my surprise (I've realized later) was tricky, it changed a lot and it was hard to guess where the water currents were; I suspect that my bait was feeding the swim of other anglers, on my right. Coudn't check those places.

After few minutes, after I've added some buyed groundbait, that I've had buyed some months ago, but I coudn't use. Unfortunatelly, I've had some problems with some beetles which infested my bait. Nowdays, I'm trying to use what bait remained. I've wet the groundbait with old milk and little pond water.

I've fed the swim intending to catch some bleak and crucian carp. Unfortunatelly, I've mainly caught small roach, palm size, around 10 centimeters which I've released as soon as I've caught them. The fish were bigger (medium length) than in the previous fishing sessions and they were really active, they were biting almost as soon as the float was stabilising itself in the water. I've used a single maggot on a Gamakatsu hook.

In the image is another hook, intended to fish for crucian carp with small mamaliga cubes anison flowerd (the angler told me that he added semolina and anison when boiling the corn flour)- an angler gave me some that could be used on hook. The roach was ,,hiting" it up and I've caught 1-2 small size ones, after I've got tired of that, I've used maggots, but with slow results. The roach wasn't biting too well and I've caught 1-2 bleak. The hook is too big for fishing for bleak. 

Usually, when I fish for bleak/silver fish I use small hooks. Unfortunatelly, I coudn't find in the local fishing shops some Katana/Maver fishing hooks which I like to use due to their durability so, nowdays, I tend to fish with Gamakatsu hooks - they are okay, small enough, but they get dull after ~20 fish; they are really thin and I doubt that you can catch some bigger size fish if your tackle isn't good enough.

Usually, I like to use thin fishing lines, in this fishing session I've used a 0.08 fishing line. 

I like to fish for small silver fish, like dace, bleak, gudgeon. Due to the season being winter, the fish aren't so active and they bite in a shy way - some angler on my left side caught small crucians (<8 cm) at sweet dough, the kind that's used by pastries. He also said that he added some flavours like Cola. The crucian bite was very soft and he had to hook them fast enough as they didn't rise, nor did they go with the bait. 

I've caught my first crucian carp on that pond, a 3 centimeters one, which I've gave to another angler.

I've also caught 2 chub, at most 15 centimeters long, One  chub was caught at the fishing pole, when I was checking the margins on my right, at a distance of at most 1 meter from the pond bank (close to the fallen tree). I've forgot where the other chub was caught. The chub were released; the bite was at maggots.

What's curious is that the bleak weren't on the swim, they were at few meters aways, I've checked the margins, but they weren't active. I'm not sure why that was happening, maybe my bait was too compact and there weren't enough particles to bait the bleak shoal? There are some really big shoals - thousands fish. At around 1 PM I've could see the fish coming really close to the pond bank, at a distance of at most 1 meter, you could've see them shining in the water. Aaand they were pretty big.

I've kept most bleak, those who were big enough. Even though I've caught +30 roach, they were too small.

There were 2 boats on the pond, one angler caugth some nice crucian carp.

From a friend I've heard that the next day few anglers caught big crucian carp close to were I've fished. I wonder, maybe my bait ,,activated" them?

I'll try to fish in the next fishing session at that place with a feeder, on the bottom.

Summary of the last 3 fishing sessions - many pics.

A. 

On 30 Octomber 2021 went fishing for perch with lures on a public lake. Walking towards the lake, I've passed through the a village - Somanesti/Calnic, where I've saw an interesting house. I like it's style.

The fishing session started at ~2 PM as the fishing session was unplanned and I didn't know where to go, nor what fishing style to practice. The lake should have crucian carp, tench, two invasive fish species Pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibossus) and Brown bullhead (Ameiurus nebulosus) ; in the past, I've could catch chub, but, with time, as the lake started to get covered with underwater weeds, the chub started to disappear or to retreat towards the clear water - I've used to catch them on surface lures (like Salmo Tiny), close to the reeds/aquatic vegetation, near fallen logs, under the forest or in those places where the wind could bring insects (especially locusts as the lake's surrounded by some high hills); sometimes, the chub could be found where the water was shallow or where the lake started to narrow.

Some anglers said that the lake also has pike, carp, rudd and roach, though, until now, I coudn't catch any. At around 1 km, somewhere on the top of the hills is places a smal pond where, in the past, I've could catch small roach/rudd. If time allows, in the future, I plan to move some to the bigger lake as they could find better conditions - the pond is small and, as times pass, it gets swalowed by weeds and aquatic plants, beside that, the bigger lake has a certain depth and could use their help to create a certain biodiversity. In the past, it's said that there were some nice ones. I'm not sure why they no longer can be caught, maybe they've got too big, but, at least, few small ones should be present when fishing, maybe they were eaten by cormorans or by otters? Who knows. I suspect that there should be catfish, though, I'm not sure as I've never fished there at night, nor did I see or hear of any catfish younglings to be caught.

I'm curious to see if the Brown bullhead has any natural predators, even though it's an invasive fish species. From what I've saw online, there are some birds that predate them, like cormorans, but I'm not sure if there are any european fish who would constantly attack them. I suspect that pike or european catfish could attack them, but I've never saw, nor heard of that.

In the past, I've caught a small a small chub a small Pumpkinseed fish, at float. I've also saw, few years ago, nice perch being caught at Pumpkinseed, on the bottom.

A certain lake near the big one; it's pretty shallow and in the past I've saw anglers catching small crucian carp. I never fished too much in it due to it's depth and because in the hot season there's too much vegetation. I suspect there to be some roach, rudd and I've caught 1 small chub, there should be bigger ones.

The big lake: 

Near the bridge the water reaches a water depth of aroun 2 meters; it's a shallower area where other anglers, in the summer season, could catch crucian carm, bullhead catfish, small tench.

This area is, from my point of view, the deepest part of the lake. I think that it;'s depth is more than 5 meters in some places.

In this area, last autumn saw an otter predating just before it got dark.

In that corner, on the opposite lake bank, nice crucian carp could be caught, near the reeds.

Caught no fish, nor did I have any attacks. There fere few other anglers who tried their luck, but no one could catch anything. Though, I suspect that one of them (he was on the other lake bank) caught 1 or two small crucian carps in the late afternoon.

The curious thing is that I've saw only one Lepomis gibossus fish, near the lake bank, where the water was very shallow, but, in rest, no fish presence could be felt. To my surprise, ~ 1 hour before it got talk, the fish got active, I've could see them ,,eating" at the water surface and they did that on the first part of the lake, where the water was, hm, shallower or, at least, where the lake bottom was irregular. The fish were eating/playing and with no shyness. I suspect that they did that because, before it got dark, a short breeze started to play and because due to the water clarity, the fish were searching for the reeds safety. As it got dark, few predators were supposed to be active (except, maybe predator fish like catfish).

How the lake looked like few years ago: https://dori.sunphoto.ro/Balta

How an angler caught crucian carp last year: 

B.The second fishing session was on Jiu river, up a certain bridge. The fish were shy, even though I've could see some feeding at the surface. Due to abrupt and heavy vegetation I've coudn't find a better place on my river bank so.. I've fished under and between some trees. The water had a dept of ~1,5 meters, it was warmer than I've expected, mabye because of a certain heating industry up the river. It was a tricky fishing session as I've coudn't build a good fishing feeding habit and so I've coudn't select the bigger fish. I've tried to catch bleak, caugt 1 small rudd/roach, 1 small - finger size barbel and 1 bitterling. I've kept the bigger bleak.

Had to use a 0,08 leader, a <1 gram float and a red 18 Gamakatsu hook with a single maggot hooked on the hard side. Had to constantly feed the swim as the fish weren't cooperating. If there was no food, there were no baits. Though, at some moment the bigger bleak were biting downstream. I suspect that some bigger fish, maybe even predator ones (there was a perch like attack) came to the swim as for some time there were very few baits. To my surprise, even if the weather was cloudy and a bit cold, the bleak ate. 

Other anglers were fishing from a bridge at barbel by using worm, maggots and cheese. Their results so and so results as the average size of the barbel was around 15 cm.

Maybe, in the future, I should bait on the bottom and try to check the fish there. Maybe I should use two fishing rods with different baits and different hook size.

C.  Today I went fishing at T, the lake near the Jiu river, up the two dams. The lake is connected to the river/dams so, when the dams are up, the water level is falling. We arrived at the lake at arount 8 am, found a better place than the date before. Wanted to catch crucian carp, but, in the end, I've ended fishing for bleak due to the fact that only 1 angler had constant results at crucian carp - he found an area where the lake bottom had a ,,hole" in which the fish shoal was staying - he caught few crucian carps who were around 400 grams. The hole had a ~2 meters depth.

I've used a <1grams float, 0,08 leader line, 0.18 Gamakatsu hook - the fish weren't biting very well and had to constant feed even though there was a really big fish shoal - thounsands fish! The problem was that I've coudn't select the big bleak, nor could I check the bottom to see if crucian carp, roach and rudd were present. From what other anglers said, there's also pike, carp. All fishing session could see perch attach, the perch seemed very aggresive or maybe there was also a pike? Caught 2 small perch at maggot and a bigger one at worm. In the future I'll try to use some soft lures, to see what's exactelly happening. The water depth- after it retreated- was around 1 meter, the bites were shy. If there was no feeding, there were very few bites. I've could see that from how many bites other anglers had. The guy who caught most crucian carps was using very small corn mashup cubes and I think that he was using 2 hooks. 

The nights are getting colder and colder and the water started to freeze. The weather was cloudy.

After the water retreated, the bleak retreated with it and it started to feed further. 

Next time, I should search for a bigger depth and to see if  a heavy bait feeding could bring better results. Maybe I should use a short fishing pole (~3-5 meters) and a better set up, a sensitive one with a ~0.5 grams float.

Almost no other angler was feeding the fish as constant as me and they had few bites and caught small fish.

Even from boat, at the middle of the lake, the results were bad. The fish retreated in the deeper levels?

I've repeated an old mistake as I've went fishing being tired.