Up in the water annoyance

[TF_IanS]

Just fished a match where I had the most frustrating experience.
Up in the water at a local commercial, heavily stocked with f1s, carp and loads of roach,skimmers etc, fishing banded pellet
Basically having fed pellet for a good time to start getting a bites, I had a few f1s but also roach and small chub. Better stamp f1s then started showing (turning, surface etc) but couldn’t catch them. Got to a stage where I had a bite within 1,2 secs of pellet hitting water every time but there was nothing there probably 18 times out of 20!! Occasionally feel a slight pull but no hooker. When I did get a fish, f1.
I changed depths from inches to a couple foot, slapped, dropped pellet vertical, lowered very slowly, spread shot and tried small bulk also. Even changed hook type, both 16 but to no avail. Rig was knot less knot with band close to hook with small rubber keeping line and band tight to hook.
Mainly fed and fished 6mm hard, changed to 4 mm that initially seemed to make a diff for a few fish then back to same.
Drove me round the bend – any advice please anyone?
Thanks

[TF_big jackParticipant]

what was the conditions like what is flat calm if so you need to go deeper they will only feed shallow with confidence if there is a ripplel on the water the more the ripple the more confidence they will get the more calmer it is the less confident they get try that hope it helps

[TF_HatMan]

How long was your hair? For F1s I like the pellet to be almost touching the bend of the hook. Also for a 4MM pellet I’d not go above an 18, and don’t settle for anything less than a perfectly sharp hook (I use size 18 Middy KM2s, which are strong enough for bonus mirrors & commons but not too heavy).

Difficult to know if switching to an 18 would have made any difference, there are other things that could have helped too. e.g. Feeding, maybe a bit less or less but more often would have got them competing for pellets more, competing fish don’t have the time to be careful biters… Depth can make a huge difference & getting it right can make the difference between missing them and laccy streaking out before you’ve had time to react. If there’s no rule for minimum distance from pole tip to float, & conditions allow, it can help to have less than 6″ of lash – it speeds up the strike & some will self hook.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you might have been over feeding and whipping them into a frenzy. Once they are boiling on the surface you need to cut down the feed t odrop them back down a bit or you will just get hundreds of liners as you describe (i don’t think they were shy bites).

[TF_NathanWatson]

I think the hair is too short, bait gets in the way of the hook, should be about a pellet’s distance away. Also try feeding a lot less as said and try thicker or thinner line, thicker is often better!

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