Losing motivation

[u/sultankiamma]

I started fishing as a hobby to overcome stress and spend time in nature. However, about 1.5 months into it (weekly fishing trips), I am losing motivation. I don’t know why I can’t catch fish. I have a decent set up - light rod, different kinds of soft baits, and so on. I try to look out for places fish can hide (docks, tree covers, bridges etc). I target mainly perch through would be happy if ANY fish bite my bait. I have even seen fish surround my bait, hit it a few times and move away. I have changed lure sizes, colours, tried shads, craysfish looking baits, insect and centipede looking baits but nothing works. Tried to make baits look as natural as possible, using a mono leader. Tried different movements - slow, very slow, no movement at all. Tried different conditions- before rain, during rain, after rain, sunny… I just don’t catch any fish! What should I do?

Edit: I live in Finland, if location matters.

[u/_not_quite_there_yet]

I'm in the UK, and I always bring a small amount of maggots when fishing because if I fail to catch my target fish (e.g. carp, tench etc) with more specific bait, I will use a maggot to catch something and avoid blanking (and sometimes I get lucky with a nice fish using a maggot).

[u/imisspluto69 → u/_not_quite_there_yet]

this is gold 👏

[u/[deleted] → u/_not_quite_there_yet]

This reminds me of the film "A River Runs Though It," when this pair of brothers are roped into taking the brother of a girl one of them likes, out fly-fishing. Both are expert fly-anglers and the younger one winces and says out loud, "he's gonna bring worms -in a red folger's coffee can!"

Legit the next day when they go to the river to fly-fish, Paul jokingly asks this guy if "he remembered to bring the bait," and this drunken fool literally turns around, and pulls a red folgers coffee-can full of worms, out of his car (next to the drunken and sleepy hooker he brought along, for some reason).. THen he later gets drunker and falls asleep naked in the sun during this fishing day, which is even funnier. When you see this dude passed out naked with a TERRIBLE sunburn next to this chick, the only thing these brother can do is try to figure out what her tramp-stamp tattoo on her arse means..

It's pretty obvious, but one of them is like "are those initials" and as the camera pans back you can see that one arse-cheek says "LO" her other arse cheek says, "VE"!!! They take the guy home and are not treated well by this dumb dude family but they never say a word about what actually happened.

[u/_not_quite_there_yet → u/[deleted]]

😂 Having not watched it, I'm assuming the can of worms isn't a metaphor and bringing the worms was a smart move 😅.

I've never failed to catch with maggots... Admittedly I pretty much exclusively fish on commercial lakes. But even a tiddler gives me a little dopamine and confirmation there are fish in the lake 😅.

[u/[deleted] → u/_not_quite_there_yet]

Worms are pretty good, but if you're fly-angling ona resticted stream it's way illegal here.

I totally will use worms and live-bait to fish but only when it's the right move at the right place and time. One trick I learnt as a little boy was how to stick a metal pole into the recently-damp ground and then wrap a live electrical wire around it, the shocks from the electricity go into the ground and the worms will flee upward and you do not need to even dig a hole.

Super-dangerous, but also makes it a lot easier than spending 30 minutes diging a hole with a shovel, or going to the store and spending 5 bucks on a small can of live worms. DO NOT plug it in until you're ready to stand back and wait though because it's legit dangerous to you!

The only reason I do not use worms all the time is that, I try to figure out what is happening on the water when I show up, and worms are a below-ground animal, which doesn't actually "fall into the water naturally" very often. Sure you can load up a hook with a worm but the fish will steal it off your hook and vacate..!

If it hasn't rained recently, the fish won't expect a worm and not take it seriously, in my own experience. A hungry one will, but the big nice old ones know that "this is a prey that should not be here above me in this moment," and be super careful then eventuaklly strip your hook bare and leave you wondering why nothing has hit in 10+ minutes.

Maggots are better, because they are bright-white and stay SUPER active on the hook for a long while. The fish can see them easily and see them moving so they will trust it and snag the whole thing instead of nibbling all the bait off and vanishing. I just do not leave trash lying around long enough near my home to be able to collect maggots, so I don't use them often.

[u/_not_quite_there_yet → u/[deleted]]

Ahhhh got you. Maggots are a staple in every tackle/bait shop in the UK and they're cheap (~£3/pint). I don't grow my own 😂.