Those who have been in the dating scene before will know that sometimes your girlfriend’s, boyfriend’s, wife’s, or husband’s preferences changes. Here is an example; on a date you give roses to you girlfriend and she always accepts it with a big smile, gives you a hug, and says thank yous. The second date you the same and you get the same reaction. You do the same on subsequent dates and you get the same reaction.

Then one day you go on your date with your girlfriend, you give her roses (as usual), but this time she takes them, throws them at the back seat of the car, and asks you this; “do you think my wall is as big as the Great Wall Of China? I don’t have space to put so many roses.” You are dumbfounded. “How can this be? What did I do? What went wrong? Are we breaking up?” Those may be running in your head. Needless to say you feel dejected, down, angry maybe, and lost. Well, things have certainly changed. They are no more in your favour. You no longer go home smelling her perfume on your shirt while you sleep. Something needs to be done.

How the heck is this related to pond fishing (you may ask)? Haha, quite a lot in fact. Fishing is like courting a fish. You may be successfully catching them suing a certain bait, at your favourite fishing pond, and all of a sudden they stop taking your bait. You see them around. Just like the story above they just do not want to take you bait. Those who have done pond fishing long enough will know what I mean.

Why? Why? Why?

That is the question on every angler’s mind; why. Here’s why. Fishes are living creatures. They have a brain and they can make decisions. They can decide to eat  or not to eat. They can decide what they want to eat. They have moods. They have feelings. Just like human beings their mood, feeling, thinking, etc. are also dependent on the environment. As an example, when the water gets too hot or too cold the fishes in the pond can feel sluggish and refuse to budge. They may only eat food that falls right in front of them, and that is only if they are in the mood to eat.

Another reason why they may not bite is because of the bait. Yes, the bait may have been the “killer bait” (the one that never fails) but once in a while the fishes in the pond can and do have a change of diet. For many months they may enjoy catfish meat, but after awhile they may decide to go for tilapia; perhaps. Well, if you were to eat lobster daily, I am very sure that after 6 months you will lose your appetite at the sight of a lobster.

Necessity changes things and this is very true when it comes to, well, almost everything. Let us just say that your staple food is rice (as with most Asians). But one day the entire world ran out of rice due to some freak weather condition. Now that there is no more rice you find yourself looking for a substitute. Let us just say that the substitute for rice is potatoes. So, for a few months you have been eating potatoes daily as a substitute for rice.

Then suddenly, rice becomes available again. You may feel decide to eat rice again because you remember that rice is your staple. Now, the same cannot be said about fishes. May a fish will not remember what its staple diet was many months ago (granted different fishes have different memory capabilities). What sued to be its staple food may now be alien and thus they are more cautious. It will take some time to change their diets back to what it once was.

So, What Can You Do?

There is no guarantee that you will catch fish every time you visit your favourite pond. What you can do when suddenly the fishes in your favourite pond becomes uncooperative is to adapt to the new situation (which is current in the said pond). Talk to other anglers that are catching fish. Ask them what baits they are using. Pay attention to the conditions of the pond. Has anything changed? Maybe weeds have been removed and the fishes have decided to move to another spot too. This happens since fishes always look for places that gives them shelter and protection.

Let’s Summarize

When suddenly the fishes in your favourite pond stop taking your bait, here are some things that you can do to help you rekindle that fire again:

1. Baits… Observe (ask) anglers who are catching fish; what baits are they using.
2. Terminal tackle… Observe (ask) anglers who are catching fish; what terminal tackle are they using.
3. Study the condition of the pond. Has anything changed.
4. Observe the conditions of your surroundings. This includes weather, water conditions, noise levels, temperature, etc.
5. Or just hang on. It could be the timing. A temporary change in conditions can deter fish from eating. After a few hours things may change in your favour. This applies if most of the people fishing there at the time too are not catching anything.

Fishing is a sport. No matter how good or skilled you are sometimes conditions are just not in your favour. This happens to every angler. So, if you are not catching anything at your favourite pond or lake, fret not. Something has changed and that change has caused the fishes to not take your bait. You will have to do a little bit more thinking, put in a bit more work, and in no time you will be catching them again.