Below the surface

The number of fish in your swim is rarely fixed and can change throughout a session based on a number of different factors...

How many fish are in your peg?

IF YOU’RE having a good day and catching more than your mate sat in the next peg, is this because you’re a better angler, or simply that you have the bulk of fish in front of you? That’s a question many of us have asked ourselves when experiencing either a very productive, or frustrating, session.

Well, the truth is that there is rarely a fixed number of fish in any swim for prolonged periods of time, so let’s take a look a closer look at the factors which determine the meandering of fish around a lake on any given day.

Upwardly mobile

Fish are highly mobile creatures, often swimming long distances at dawn and dusk. Sometimes these movements are predictable and correspond with moving from resting to feeding areas, while at other times they may appear almost random.

Radio tracking studies give us the best indication of how far fish move and how often. It’s common to see some individuals moving much more than others, often joining a shoal for a short period before breaking off and moving on, either on their own or with some of their shoalmates. These more adventurous fish perhaps get payback for the extra energy they use up by being the first to find areas where food is plentiful.

A shoal of roach, for example, is not always made up of the same fish, but is a constantly changing unit as fish come and go. Between dawn and dusk, however, most fish tend to stay put, moving only short distances within a ‘ home range’. These resting areas often have features that give the fish extra cover, such as overhanging trees or weedbeds. In rivers, areas of reduced flow might also feature.

Territorial tendencies

Depending on the venue, a fish’s home range could be as little as one peg, or could extend across 10 or more. Even small species such as roach are not static and often cover quite a bit of ground within their home range. This is why bites can suddenly dry up as the fish move away, and then kick in again as they return. So, for much of the year we can think of the swim in front as containing an everchanging number of fish. Some will enter the swim, while others will leave. Getting your feeding right and not spooking the fish will often determine how long they stay put.

To some extent at least, how far and how often fish move is controlled by water temperature. The colder the water, the less fish will move around. This is especially true for carp, tench and barbel, that prefer warmer temperatures. In the depths of winter when the water is only a few degrees above freezing, it’s not uncommon for these species to seek out the most favourable areas and stay there for days or even weeks. This is why even on the most uniform of commercial fisheries you can find that a few pegs will be absolute ‘ fliers’ in winter, while others will appear ( and probably are) devoid of fish.

Let’s stick together

As a general rule of thumb, fish in a shoal tend to be happiest when they are about four body lengths apart. So a 12in carp will be about 4ft from its nearest neighbour. In shallow, clear water you’ll often spot shoals of roach swimming in formation and the shoal will not be as tightly- packed as you might imagine.

Staying a few body lengths apart makes swimming more efficient as the fish are not constantly swimming through the turbulence created by their shoalmates. When feeding hard or being stalked by predators this shoal dynamic changes and fish will get much closer together. Therefore, to some extent the number of fish in your swim will be limited by how tightly the fish are packed in together.

‘ Spooky’ species

Carp are generally happy to pack quite tightly together when feeding and are also highly mobile, which can explain why such big catches can be made from often quite tight pegs. With a high density of fish present anyway, as you loosefeed the fish will pack together even tighter and those on the periphery of the swim will join in. This is perhaps why action can sometimes become more hectic as a session progresses.

However, more timid species, such as bream, often don’t react in the same way and with a more spread- out shoal, even on a flyer peg, it can take only a few fish being caught to unsettle the rest. With most of the fish in one shoal, they may stop feeding or move. This could explain why sport from these species can quickly tail off once a few are caught.

So it’s safe to say that very rarely do you have a fixed number of fish in your peg. Numbers ebb and flow as shoals move around seeking food and shelter. Getting your feeding right will encourage them to linger for longer in, increasing the number of fish present and potentially boosting your catches. Spooking the fish will have the opposite effect, pushing them away from your swim and reducing catches.

“Between dawn and dusk most fish tend to stay put, moving only short distances within a home range”