This is an odd topic.  Over the many years, I have spent fishing, I have asked myself this many times when sitting up in the same swim each week.  I am 100% confident the fish are close by or will pass through my swim in the time I will be there.  So, why bother with all this walking around looking for them.  The conclusion I have come to (for myself), it depends on the circumstances of your fishing, I feel.  How dedicated are you to catching fish on that particular day?  This can be affected by the stresses of life or are you just looking for a break from it all.

I have found over the years, this can certainly play a key factor in some of my fishing trips.  I think it’s a very good thing and it can help your fishing for future trips.  You just need to make sure this doesn’t become the normal route.  The car park swim is the best example of this on most lakes.  Oddly enough in the past ten years, these have become the best swim on the lake.  Probably because they have been ignored in the previous twenty!  On one particular lake, I avoided this swim for some time, until one day I had no option.  I had seen fish, it just felt right and that swim went on to produce some stunning fish for me.

Even when my fishing is going very well, I still find that I fish the same swim, my favourite margin spots.  If you read all my blogs, it has not done me very well this year so far.  I sat there the other day and started to think about this and then thought I should do a blog – Why I was in the swim again?

I personally feel that out of all the little margin spots on this lake (and along the day bank), this swim gives me the best chances of banking a big lump.  So far over the past couple of years, my biggest is a 34 lber.  The swim offers the perfect opportunity as I am hidden behind the bushes.

I drop my bait the other side of the Beech leaves and sit back.  There is also plenty of room to play the fish once you have them under control and under your rod tips.  All the other swims are very tiny or very open with you sitting in full view of passing fish.  I did move around before on my quick one-rod trip.  It became clear to me that the fish were moving freely up and down this bank and they would pass this swim every time.  It’s more or less in the middle of this bank and the other thing I was worried about was the disturbance of catching a fish.  However, I realised one day that a carp 20 or 30 yards down the bank would never know and I soon found myself catching two fish, within my four-hour fishing window, until this year when all have to list so far is one.

I still see the fish moving along this bank, so why change spot?  This is the big question I am facing currently and the answer this time was move on.  This is a lesson learnt for the future.

Hope This Helps

Richard