Reflections on coarse fishing

 Today I've had the first coarse fishing for this season. I've went with a friend and someone else to a new pond of a ~40 meters length and a width of ~20 meters. As for the depth, I'm not sure, it was around 2 meters? 

We arived at ~7 am, when it was still dark. There was a cold breeze, the weather is getting colder and colder as it's late autumn. I've fished on the left side, in a ,,circle" between some underwater reeds on my left and on my right a fallen tree. Unfortunatelly, the results were bad as I've caught only small fish: common bleak (which was my target fish species) and small roach (<10 cm).

I've feed the spot with some mixed bait. At first, the fish were receptive, but after 1-2 hours of fishing the weather began to ,,retreat" and that happened for at least 30 centimeters (length and depth). So, in the end, the bait was placed too close to the shallow water. That could work if I were to fish from the afternoon to the night as behind me were tall trees who shaded the place so, the fish, when the sun appeared were in the far sight, where they could heat themselves.

At this fishing session I've did some mistake:

1. I didn't check the surrounding depth, so.. I've fed the fish a bit too closer, when the water retreated, they also retreated. I've tried to feed a bit further, but that didn't work - the feed was too spread and a bit heavy. I've alsoignored the fact that, underwater, there were few aquatic plants so.. the bait was falling between it, making the fish hide in it.

2. I didn't use a adequate float as the float that I've used was a bit too ,,heavy" and unfit for that place - I've coudn't see it too well due to the fact that the water reflection blurred it. As I was fishing for common bleak, a <0.50 gram float could be better. 

3. I didn't change the hook to fit the fish size. So, had lots of missed baits, either the fish was too small or it was bigger than my hook.

4. Didn't have enough bait to change it on the hook. I've fished with maggots and bread. The results were poor. There was a person who used mashed corn cubes/drops and caught nice crucian carp! The baits were at ~1,5 meters after a weed cover. The float depth was close to the bottom. I think that he used 2 hooks. He didn't feed the fish, from what I've could observe. His float place had some sun and I think that he had baits after the water retreated. He used a peacock feather & and a crow feather float.

5. Went fishing being tired, that made me lose my concentration, patience and made me feel sleepy.

6. Caught 1 small perch, common bleak size and saw some perch attacks as the water depth was shallow and the silverfish were jumping around after the perch attacks. I've could also see some undentified fish shoals who were feeding/staying at the water surface. Either they were heating themselves or there were other reasons. An angler that was fishing from the middle of the pond, by using a boat, said that the fish were staying at the surface. He caught some rudd (~20 cm the biggest), at float, at mashed corn cube(?). He didn't feed the fish, but he was fishing near a weed cover/cleared circle.

There were ~20 anglers fishing, but, in my surroundings, from ~7 anglers, only 2-3 had okay results, they were targeting crucian carp. Very few anglers were feeding the fish, one of them (the boat one) told me that they don't feed the fish as that'll attract the small ones and so you'll miss the big ones.

In the next fishing session at that place I'll try to bait the fish by using big bait, like grains (wheat). Though, I'll have to take into consideration the fishing session length as I don't want to bait the fish only for it to be caugth by others. Maybe I'll also take with me the predator tackle, to fish for perch. Someone caught a nice one (~15 cm length) at worm.

I should also take with me fishing boots and what I've weared made me lose distance. At some point of time, I think that I've had a roach shoal on the feeding spot, had plenty missed baits and caught a nice one (in comparation with the others). 

We left at ~1Pm, when the water began to rise. The fish were moving around, very few common bleak had bain in their mouth so.. that means that either I've fed too little, that they were too many or that the bait was served wrong. As they were feeding at the surface, I've should use cloud making bait and not one who was falling to the bottom most time. I've also used some old bait so... maybe it wasn't too attractive to them?