 This is how to blank. Down at Burton Bradstock Hive Beach. It's absolutely round, middle of September. I'm down here with my partner in crime, Phil. Paid my seven pounds fifteen and now I've got to move my car. Blanking is when you fail to catch any fish. If you follow fishing or other anglers on social media you might be under the impression that no one ever blanks and of course that's not true. There's no seagulls on the water. There's no reports of mackerel being in or giant tuna jumping out. It's four o'clock. I'm really keen to try and get over some rough ground, find some greens, some squid in deeper water. I like to catch corona from Martin, the shopkeeper. So our little strips of squid on size six hooks. Where's my buddy budding up? Bags, bags, bags. This is fish, fish, fish, fish, so there's the sun. That's Phil. I had my own ideas about where I wanted to fish and using the Navionics boating app on my iPhone. I was able to see exactly where I was, what sort of depth of water I was in and what direction I was heading in. At the top there you've got the speed you're traveling at. I'll also tell you local marks, the direction of the tide's actually moving in, the state of the tide, the height of the tide, the contours. For 30 quid or so it's an app that every angler out on the water should really have. It's a 10-15 minute drift, not a touch. This is nice. Right, so in this video I'm going to tell you how to blank. Rule number one is to be completely ill-prepared. Number two, plan for everything. The more time and money you spend preparing for a session, the more likely you are to blank. Number three, take a friend with you because a friend will not only lose parts of tackle that you need, or spook fish, but they'll try and convince you to fish somewhere entirely different to where you want to fish. And then you're blank. Number four, never ever say the word blank. It's the equivalent to saying Macbeth on stage as an actor snag. That's a shame. It's important to learn how to blank in today's instant gratification society. Enjoy yourself while you're fishing. Don't just focus on the fish. If you want to blank, video record everything. With the intention of making a video of you catching loads of fish. So I've got a fish on the right-hand rod, miniscule, whatever it is. It sort of ruins my how to blank video. Ruined it. Maybe if we're more happy to blank, we wouldn't end up having so many fish to reservoirs and commercials. This is fish-wish, fish-wish, fish-wish. Can you hear me? Over? No, it's been very slow, very dead. The more complicated your rig, the more likely you are to blank. If you see loads of people in one part of the lake, don't go over towards where they are. Maybe a sheet at the other end of the lake. That'll help you blank. Use barbless hooks. It means you might lose the one or two fish you actually hooked that a day. Facing too much belief in this idea that fish are intelligent, like casting out your boilie to a feature and being too scared to wind it in and recast within 24 hours in case it spooks the fish. Assuming fish have no intelligence whatsoever and can't hear you, see you. That'll help you blank. This isn't really about what you can do to help you blank. It's about what you can do to help you enjoy blanking. Be some choir. And with scenery like that, that will do, you know, that will do. If you can only enjoy your fishing when you're catching fish, you're not on angler. How you doing? That is the first time in living history that I've ever known you to blank. Full credit to Phil, because although he blanked, he was using rubber worms instead of fresh live worms. There he goes. Just need a rod tip to go now. Pluck, pluck. Pluck, pluck, pluck. And he's in. Goal! Look at that! Don't come running to me to ask how you go about blanking. I don't know. Oh, lovely. One very spiky black bream. Delicious, highly prized, way too small. There we go. One bream off you go. See you later buddy. That's all. If you never blank, then it's possible that maybe you're not setting your challenge high enough. Sun drops, comes alive. What earth is it? Ah, it's a doggie. Good old doggies. You've got to love them. Here's an interesting fact. They used to make sandpaper out of dogfish skin, didn't they Phil? Yeah, blah, blah, blah. Are we going in then? So basically, this is a call for people to try harder to blank. Maybe if we all blanked a little bit more often, the fish wouldn't be under so much pressure. At all, would we? It's a simple principle of delayed gratification. The more difficult the challenge, the more rewarding it is when you achieve it. It's as simple as that. So in my view, it's better to be a blanker than a wood.