Have you had any luck so far?

Not yet. Others are not fairing too well either in the stocked pond I have been going to. I am enjoying trying though.

I have also tried fishing for other types of fish in other lakes closer to home so I am hopeful it will improve with time.

You should be coming into spring. So there will be an increase in food supply. Insects, tadpoles / frogs, other fish etc. All start to breed and are a food source.

It is what I call "match the hatch". Make your bait or lure match what the fish are eating.

It takes time and experience. It can take a life time and you still see new things. It is a part of fishing that most people ignore and never learn.

For example. You might notice dragonflies. The favorite food of dragonflies is mosquitos. The mosquitos are there to lay eggs in the water. You then notice small green frogs are eating the mosquito larvae. You match your lure to look like a small green frog and catch fish....That of course is just a hypothetical example. But I can almost guarantee, if you took 100 people to the pond, 98 of them would never notice the dragonflies to start with !!

Structure is also something to take notice of. For example. A tree branch overhanging the water will provide shelter and food for fish. The branch will provide shade and shadows for fish to hide in and insects and small animals will fall into the water.

Another thing that is always a problem with stocked waters... How often is it stocked and when was the last time? Politics and funding comes into it. It can literally be several years between each stocking.

Several years ago I was fishing a stocked dam in Queensland. All I was catching was catfish. But it was supposed to be stocked with Murray Cod and Pearch. When I made some inquiries I found it had not been stocked for 6 years.

Having said that. For fresh water the go to start bait is always earthworms. For salt water prawns / shrimp is the go to start bait.

Sudden weather changes definitely does have an impact.

But if you have set your location correctly on the home page [Fishing Times] you should have all the info you need. There is also a new "clock" in beta mode to play with.

I have a 3'6" kids rod. It's a girls rod because it's pink...Don't ask where I got it from, no idea. I think I found it at the river. Anyway, last time I did a spur-of-the-moment over night trip (which was Christmas day) it was the only rod I caught a fish on. In fact one fish and one turtle.

At the end of the day to catch a fish, you need a hook and some line.

There is no need to get all excited about what gear to use... My golden rule is "that looks about right" !

To give an example. Here is a screenshot of some hook sizes. I guarantee...absolutely guarantee, there are people and lots of them...That will argue until they are blue in the face that there is a difference between size 2 and size 1.

To those people I say - On Christmas day I caught one fish and one turtle on a 3 foot 6 inch childs rod that I found lost at the river...and it is pink !!

One thing I forgot to mention. Smell...No offence, but you stink !

Fish have incredibly sensitive smell. Think of a bloodhound. Fish have a sense of smell hundreds of times more sensitive.

Every day you are coming into contact with products that contain powerful perfumes and pheromones. Hand soap, deodorants, laundry detergent etc, etc. You might not think so, but those smells are very prominent to fish. Especially in fresh water that is not flowing, like a pond.

Your local tackle store will have products to help (yes, it is such a real problem that there are products to fix it). Aniseed soap is popular but expensive. You simply wash your hands with aniseed soap before you go fishing.

Cheaper...Many people are also hyper sensitive to perfumes and pheromones. These days there are plenty of products made specifically for them. Here in Australia they use a blue butterfly logo to make it easy.

It's not like you would use it everyday. You just want to wash any perfumes off your hands before you go fishing.

I am thinking you have tried several locations on different days. But each location is a pond or lake. So each time the water is still, it is not flowing like a river. So any perfumes or pheromones are not being washed off with the flow of water....Just a hunch.

I am like the fish as in I am also sensitive to smells and do not wear perfume. This may be TMI but I am so sensitive I do not eve use deoderant. I did not think of fish smelling things but I certainly know about bugs and outdoors. I usually dont even wear insect repellant because it gives me a headache. I use other methods of taking care to avoid ticks or checking right away after hikes even. Thanks for the info about the soaps, I had no idea.

I do see all the useful info on this site and I do feel good about checking and using it so I will continue to do so. I agree with you that it can be as simple or as complicated as we want to make it with fishing.

Thanks for chatting with me. I have enjoyed it.

Not sure why your post appeared twice. But I deleted one of them. So if you happen to get a notice. It was only deleted because it appeared twice.

It was only a joke when I said you stink ha ha... I was just trying to think of why you have not caught any fish. Different locations at different times in still water...Could be soap or perfume.

Several years ago I met an old-ish grey haired Aboriginal man in Albury, which is a town/city about 150km south of me on the NSW VIC border. He was fishing. His gear was literally some line and a hook.

He had about 12 to 15 feet of line and a hook. Not even a hand reel to put the line on. His bait was cheese. Fish don't like cheese. But prawns do like cheese. Fish comes along and the smell of the cheese makes it look only to see a whole bunch of prawns...and it's cod fillets for dinner !!

True. You do not need fancy expensive gear to catch a fish. But if you want to you can.

Mark (he is the founder / owner of Fishing Reminder) has much more experience catching trout than me. He has made several videos worth watching (in the videos section). Mark is a bit like me. You don't need the top brand name gear. His videos are worth watching if you haven't already.