Lake Fishing Tips - How To Catch A Great Haul

Here are some lake fishing tips to help you catch more fish.
Lake fishing is a very enjoyable way to fish.
There are few things as pleasant as sitting next to a lake on a Summer's morning in the countryside.
Before you go fishing you will need a rod, reel with some line, hooks and weights, floats and a landing net.
You can use a ledger, but I prefer to float fish. I select a float, put some weights on the line so that the tip of the float will just be showing above the water. Nest I put a fairly small barb less hook on the line.
I put a nice piece of luncheon meat on the hook and cast out into the lake.

I then throw a few pieces of luncheon meat into the water near my float to attract some fish.
Sometimes I will have a bite within a few minutes of starting, but usually I need to wait for about an hour before the float goes under the water.
One of the great things about fishing in lakes as opposed to rivers is that once you have fish in your swim, there is no current to take them away, and you can go on catching plenty of good fish for anything up to a couple of hours.
To start with do not use any ground bait, you might be lucky and start hooking fish without any.
You probably will need some ground bait though, but an important tip is to just throw a few very small pieces in, just enough to attract the fish and not enough to feed them.

This way you will always have some hungry fish in your swim.
Here is another tip.
Once you have hooked your first fish, throw a little more ground bait in.
This is because the fish you have just caught will have disturbed the water and you need to distract the fish that are still in the swim and keep their interest aroused.
Part of the excitement of fishing, is not knowing what you are going to catch.
You cast out into the murky water, with your hook about six feet under the float - but you can't see the fish.
When your float goes under the water, and you have a bite, you strike and if you hook the fish, if it is a small one, it will come in quite easily.
If you hook a bigger fish, you will know straight away, because you will feel your rod bend and often the fish will speed away, deep in the water and yards of line will fly off of your reel.
This is what you have been waiting for!
When this happens, it is best to try and keep your rod fairly upright and use the flexibility and power of the rod, to play the fish.
Gradually reel the fish in closer to the bank, keeping the line taught.
If all goes well you will be able to reach for your landing net, then try and pull the fish near to the surface of the water.
This will probably be the first glimpse of the fish you will have - always an exciting moment.
If I am fishing on my favourite lake, it will probably be a carp.
I will then have some idea of its size and weight.
More than likely, he will dive deeper into the water again, if it is a large fish and this could go on for a few minutes, until he is a little more tired and I can pull him to the surface, place my landing net under him and scoop him out of the water.
Once he is safely on the bank, I will take the hook out of his mouth and weigh him, then gently lower him back into the water to swim away.
Its very satisfying to land a nice fish, if it happens once or twice in a session, then its been a good day`s fishing.
Over the last few years fishing with a pole has become popular.
This consists of a hollow fibre class or carbon fibre pole in one metre sections.
You can build the pole up to the length that you are going to present the bait out to, for example twenty metres.
At the end of the pole will be some line with a hook with your bait on it.
When you get a bite, you will have more chance of catching a fish because there is no slack. The once you have hooked the fish, you just take sections off of the pole until you are left with the fish near enough for you to scoop it up with your landing net.
Poles are quite expensive though so you will probably not want to start off with one.
Another popular method of fishing is to use what is known as a hair rig.
You will usually ledger with this method and this consists of a hook attached to your line with another smaller length of line (the hair rig) that is attached to the hook and dangles beneath it with the bait threaded on to the hair rig.
With this method the fish sucks in the bait and the hook will also be sucked into its mouth at the same time.
When the fish feels the hook it will try to blow it out of its mouth, but this will usually
result in the fish being hooked.
If you intend to go fishing, the best idea is to go with a friend first to see if you enjoy it.
If you do then you will need some fishing tackle, such as a rod, reel with some line and some hooks and floats.
You can often pick these things up at a good price at car boot sales and websites such eBay and Amazon.

For more tips on lake fishing plus details of free fishing trips that are available please visit: http://www.squidoo.com/lake-fishing-tips

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ged_Silvers 

See my previous post: Lake Fishing Tips - Catch More Carp