Cheap, but effective fishing!

The day of ProperFishermanProductions’ (me) and Carl and Alex’s group meet up had finally arrived and I was looking forward to meeting new people and of course catching a few! Everyone had different plans on what species, tactic and baits which made the day even more interesting. This is my approach and how it went…
 

I am writing this article with the anglers in mind that can not perhaps afford to spend lots of money on expensive bait, but still want to fish with bait that is better than average and will catch you more than you normally would. This might be particularly useful for the match anglers out there.

I started the session by riddling my maggots to remove the sawdust/maize that they are kept in then poured Chapel Baits strawberry glug over them then put the lid on and shook them to cover them all. This will enhance your maggots, giving you that edge over other anglers. Along side the maggots I also used strawberry flavour soft hookers. These seemed to pick off the bigger fish, catching most of the tench. To feed the hookers, squeeze them between your fingers, just to split them. By doing so they will sink, creating perfect feed alongside your hookbait. When hooked they sink slowly through the water, balancing the weight of the hook, therefore fooling more fish into taking the bait on the drop.

The most important thing to do when bagging up is to feed as often as possible. By using a medusa pole pot I could feed maggots and hooker pellets constantly over the top of my float. When shipping out or playing a fish, twist the pole and it will stop any bait being dispersed because of the clever shape design. Also, all the while I was fishing the margin swim on the pole, I had a maggot feeder set up to cast to an island when I had been baiting throughout the day. When your primary swim goes a bit quiet this can be a great back up to pick off ‘bonus fish’ whilst still feeding your first spot that has gone slow.

After catching a fair few skimmers I followed my usual pattern of switching to a hooker pellet. Immediately it picked out a better fish and the elastic shot into a bush! Keeping steady pressure on the fish, I managed to get it out of the snags then I had to connect all my pole sections on and hold on tight and grit my teeth in hope it would have to swim back towards me at some point. After about a 10 minute fight a pristine ghost carp was in the net. I continued to catch skimmers and the off tench, and 2 signal crayfish, which certainly did not go back in the water!

At the end of the session I had landed a very respectable 14lb’s and 14oz’s, so overall a good day.

Tight lines… Michael Wickens

To check out Chapel Baits follow the link to the site - http://www.chapelbaits.co.uk/

Fishing the method feeder with float bite indication…

A mistake I see far too many anglers doing, in fact I would say 70% of anglers do this, is sitting in the first available swim and setting up straight away. Although it may have taken me a good half hour, I walked around the whole 3 acre lake in the morning mist looking for signs of carp jumping, topping or swirling in the margins. After a thorough walk I chose my swim where I had seen quite a few fish topping mid lake in a swim where I knew of a gravel bar at about 6foot depth. I had taken a while to start setting up –a while wasted as many anglers would say- but I was confident it would pay off!

 

Instead of fishing the method feeder in a delicate manner with a small inline flat-bed feeder it was a case of a big korum method feeder which I could mould a large amount of bait around. The difference with this rig though was I was going to be using a polaris float for bite indication, rather than a quivertip. Before setting up I balled in 2 balls of Chapel Baits strawberry groundbait in which I put a good splash of sweet strawberry glug in. I didn’t add any particle to the mix, as I believe that by leaving the hookbait as the only substantial mouthful it produces bites more often and quicker. Hookbait choice was a 10mm plum and black pepper boilie, again from Chapel Baits, hair rigged on a size 10 hook on 6lb mono. 

After casting out I tightened up to the feeder sinking the float and sunk the 10lb braided mainline then put the rod on the alarm with the tip under the water so that the braid would not sit on the surface, therefore get blown and sinking the float giving false indications. Within minutes of casting to the baited spot I was getting bites then 10 minutes later the float slid under and the alarm screamed and soon after a small dark common was netted. The first of many to come…

By recasting every 15 minutes, regardless of whether I was getting bites or not I often got an instant take, just after the rig had landed, sometimes bringing the feeder with the groundbait still on it! By 10.10am I had landed 7 carp, one being a decent mirror putting up a very good scrap!

After about 11.30 the bright sun started to kill the sport slightly, however with consistent casting and baiting it slowly started to pick back up again until a group of 5 anglers arrived and decided to all sit in the surrounding swims to me when the rest of the lake was free. I have never understood why anglers do this? After about half an hour of people casting within a few metres of my rig I moved to a different swim which I knew well. The 1^st fish from the swim came very quickly and by 12.30 I had banked 11 carp.

As I sat there in the afternoon I noticed quite a lot of roach skipping in and out of the water where they were being chased by perch in a few different likely looking perch spots. I have made notes of where I saw this so in a couple of months time I know of a few good spots for my perch fishing. It is amazing how much you can learn about a venue by just sitting and watching.

In the afternoon the wind started to pick up making it hard to see the float in the choppy water, however the beauty of the polaris float is you can simply let out a bit of line and the float will sit higher out of the water making it easier to see. The fish kept coming in throughout the rest of the afternoon until 3pm when I had to pack up and I had managed to land 20 carp. If only I was allowed to use a keepnet!

  

I asked other anglers what they had caught on my way back, a few had blanked, but most had caught just a few carp. This shows that the tactics and bait not only worked, but also out-fished other methods. The beauty of the polaris float is it allows you to fish any rod you like, and fish a feeder with more sensitive bite indication.

Check out Chapel Baits by visiting the website - http://www.chapelbaits.co.uk/

Also keep your eyes peeled in all the angling papers and magazines for deals, competitions and features!

Tight lines... Michael Wickens

PVA Bag Brace!

Once again my brother had decided to do a night at the very last minute, but of course I wasn’t really complaining. My plan was to fish for a fish at a time and hopefully manage to fish through the smaller carp to get to the more decent specimens, however like most of my recent sessions it would probably fail miserably…

Setting myself up in a small snaggy swim I was confident of a few fish from both my left and right margin. The left margin had a large overhanging tree where carp were cruising on top. Only small, but it gave me confidence! Reeds and brambles lined the right margin. I often fish both margins as they produce the better fish, where as mid-water will produce far more fish, but a far smaller size. After running a lead through both margins I confirmed that the lake bed was clay, so I threaded on a length of clay rig tubing to the 12lb mainline in an attempt to make it blend into the lake bed.

Bait-wise, Chapel Baits Plum & Black Pepper boilies was the choice, fished in conjunction with pellets in big PVA bags fished tight to the margin features. Before putting the rig and bait in with the bag I squashed a PVA nugget and folded it in half over the size 8 hook. By doing so it gave me complete confidence that my rig wasn’t snagged on any underwater snags. With both rods cast out just before dark I set the baitrunner on both reels tight (almost locked up) and sat by my rods ready for a thumping take on the rod tip.

When carp fishing I almost always fish 2 pieces of critically balanced fake corn, as it is such a great, and underestimated bait. I still find it strange how fish would eat rubber, however fished with quality bait fed around it, it will almost always score!

Throughout the night I caught countless numbers of carp; however they were all small, averaging about 5lb. I was starting to get very frustrated being woken up for a carp of this size, but I fished on in hope I could fish through the small carp and the bigger fish would move in… and they did.

At about 4am the right hand rod screamed off and after a good battle on my 2.25lb test curve carp rods I netted a far better fish. With it lying on the mate after just being unhooked the other rod wrenched round too. ‘Oh no, not another 5lb carp’ I said to my brother as he dealt with the other fish, but soon I knew I was wrong by the way the fish was fighting. It kept its head down and kept plodding peeling line off the spool. I’m sure if I was using ‘poker sticks’ -as I call them- like many anglers of today I could have dragged the fish in, but where is the fun in that? Within about 10 minutes I had 2 far more decent fish on the mat and I knew at this point my tactics had worked. Of course though, the inevitable happened and I was plagued by more small carp for the rest of the session, but a good session all the same!

Bagging up on carp!

After finding the chub liked the Chapel Baits blackcurrant greedy pig match range, I decided to see how good it would be on bagging up for carp on a private lake stocked with small Carp, Roach, Rudd and the odd Koi. A thorough walk around the lake revealed bubbles created by feeding carp under a small tree that hung over the lake. It is not very often that I fish the pole, however this was the perfect opportunity, as using a pole cup I would be able to bait accurately every ship out and get the bait right where I wanted it under the tree, creating a tight feeding area!

To avoid the silvers and get to the bottom of the lake I mixed the blackcurrant groundbait with added pellets and dumbbells to a fairly wet consistency then put a small ball in the pole cup each ship out and gently dropped it over the top of the 4 x 10 float. Starting with a match dumbbell on a size 16 hook I really bagged up, but soon things started to slow down. A quick switch to the paste and the fish started coming in again. It is little edges like this that will keep you catching!

Another edge that caught few a fish when things slowed down was burying the hook into a 6mm soft hooker. They are very slow sinking, therefore created a natural looking bait that was falling through the water. The carp even took them on the drop this way! Lifting the rig slightly out of the water and dropping it again also gained interest.

In a few hours I bagged roughly over 25+ carp. They put up a great scrap on a no. 8 elastic and proved that the baits work!

Visit the website www.chapelbaits.co.uk/ to check out the baits!

A new season... A new mystery

That magical date that all of us river angler look forward had finally arrived, and I was itching to get on my local river, the Sussex Ouse. In my first 2 seasons of fishing rivers I had learnt so much and caught many memorable catches such as chub to 3lb 12oz, barbel at 2-3lb (of course it would be the day I didn’t have any scales on me or anybody to photograph me holding it), many other chub well over 3lb, along with the usual catches of perch, dace, gudgeon etc.

I had recently been invited to join another club, the Ouse Wanderers, where I had only seen the water once and wasn’t at all sure what I should expect. I had heard of 9lb+ barbel and chub over 4lb, but there is a large weir pool where it isn’t really known what it contains, creating a whole new mystery as to what the river holds… I have now made it my challenge this season to try and discover what it holds! Because of this, my approach was very simple—Spend about 15-20minutes in each swim trotting to discover the fish holding spots, snags and the depths. I had a feeling this would be a session where I would lose a lot of floats, split shots and hooks…

My gear I had packed and partially set up was a 10foot Daiwa float rod, in my eyes the perfect rod for the job, just enough length to get the float out to floating rafts and tree lines, but not so long that I would be getting snagged in trees every cast! The soft tip would also be perfect playing all species, but the progressive action would provide enough strength to enable me to land a big chub, or even a barbel if I was lucky enough to hook one. Reel wise, my choice was a centerpin, perfect for trotting, therefore searching the fish holding swims and deep runs. The sensitivity and control over the float you get with a centerpin over a fixed spool reel, makes them far more suitable for trotting. It is important not to load your centerpin with too much line as otherwise the line will not peel off the drum properly with the pull of the flow. I load mine with roughly 40 yards of 5lb line. 6lb mainline is the maximum I would go with when trotting with a centerpin as then your presentation will start to fall, so as a rule of thumb, the lighter the line, the better presentation, however I knew there were big carp and barbel about so I didn’t want to go too light! At first, casting with a centerpin is very difficult, but once you master the technique you will realise the benefits of using a centerpin.

The first swim I came to was a small weir pool with an old bridge (which was rather dodgy looking, but it was safe) that looked likely to hold a few fish. I put the rod together with the already set up small chubber float, which I had slightly over shotted to improve its sensitivity. Adamant that trotting down along the brick walls would produce a fish I flicked out the float then again flicked out a few maggots over the top. 4 runs went by down both sides of the weir, but not even a nibble. I slid the float up the line, meaning the maggots on the size 16 hook would be just bouncing along the bottom. First trot down and the float slowly, but surely slid under. I struck into the fish, then it was off! Not a good start, but I didn’t let it get me down, just flicked out the float again and let the float go with the flow (excuse the pun) where it buried again, resulting in a very acrobatic brown trout.

I moved down a few swims until I found another swim lined with overhanging and partially submerged trees, which had to hold fish. I caught 4 baby chub along with a greedy deep-hooked perch that needed the disgorger. After getting snagged and snapping up twice on underwater features and missing a lot of delicate bites I decided a change to a maggot feeder might pick up a better fish with a worm hookbait. The tip constantly knocked, had to be perch, but nothing would take the bait confidently, so back to the float it was. This time my choice of float was a stick float, which was definitely the right decision as I was able to hit all the bites due to the sensitivity of it.

As the day went on I had caught a lot of small chub, the biggest being roughly half a pound, a handful of roach, perch and the odd gudgeon. I noticed that the fish only seemed to take the red maggots, but ignored the other coloured maggots on the hook. When the bites got slow, I found that 1 caster and 1 maggot seemed to get more bites. By hooking the caster at the tail end and the maggot at the head end it helps to reduce line twist when reeling in.

I decided to head upstream, further up from where I started to see If I could find any more nice looking swims, but I was met by a herd of desperately mooing cows… I knew something was up, so I went over the other side of the field to the other side river to find a cow stuck, with water up to its neck! ‘This is the weirdest ending to a session I’ve ever had before’ I thought to myself, so I set off back up to the farm to find the farmer.

‘Excuse me mate?’ I said to the farmer, but no answer. A little louder this time ‘excuse me,’ but still no answer. He was quite clearly a little hard of hearing, So this time I made sure I was almost standing next to him and said ‘there’s a cow stuck in the river’ to which he replied in a very strong Sussex accent ‘ohh, you’re ‘ere to load the chalk lorry!’ Eventually I managed to get my message across and he was very grateful.

Overall, not a bad session at all, I had certainly enjoyed the peace of the river and not seeing another angler! I had found the good swims, and caught a few fish, despite them being small. On my next visit, I shall use a slightly different approach, where I will sit and wait with bigger baits such as bread flake, worms, pellets and luncheon meat to hopefully pick up a more decent fish.

 I wish you all luck this season… Tight lines!

Mastering 'the' Method

Seeing as I hadn’t been for ages, a quick session was definitely in order! Nothing special, just a short session with a few fish would do, mostly just to keep me sane and to give me a break from revision.

At 9am I loaded my gear into my mum’s car then set off for my local syndicate. Here I was bound to catch. I knew it too well too blank, in fact I have never blanked there, even when the lake was frozen (I managed to avoid a blank with a small Rudd)!

It was pretty average weather, however windier than I had hoped, meaning my original plan of stalking carp on the surface wasn’t going to work, so it was time for a re-think. What method did I know would catch me decent fish?

The method feeder it was, a tactic I knew well and had already caught good carp on. The wind was blowing into the far bank, therefore hopefully taking the fish with it, where I knew of a few underwater snags that would be holding carp.

Baits

Fishing on my syndicate isn’t hard and the fish certainly aren’t fussy, although I have found that certain flavours –and also colours– work well, which is something that if you find on a water can really work to your advantage. The groundbait I used was homemade, a secret recipe! To the mix I added the old faithful corn, hemp and maggots to give the carp a few particles to root around for, however its important not too add too many particles or the mix wont bind well.

Tackle

When fishing the method feeder, it is important to have a feeder rod with a bit of grunt in the butt to allow you to have a decent chance of landing the large carp that often fall to the method. The tip is not so important, but I used a 2oz tip, just about right, allowing me to chuck the heavy feeder to the far bank.

 The Rig

I kept the rig simple, as the method feeder is about getting fish into a feeding frenzy, and definitely not tricking them into taking your bait using fancy camouflaged rigs.

My theory

Almost every angler you ask will say ‘casting to the exact same spot every cast is the key,’ however I slightly disagree. When using method feeders I do clip up, and I do fish in a tight feeding area, however an area of about 2-3m. By not casting into the exact same spot every time the fish are less wary, but my main reason for doing so is that the bigger fish often feed on the edge of the feeding area, which I certainly proved today…

After losing the first fish at the net, I continued re-casting every 15 minutes or so, resulting in the fish starting to feed heavily meaning I was getting a lot of tugs and knocks on the rod tip. This is the hardest bit in my opinion, having to sit on your hands and ignore all these line bites, but wait till the tip pulls right round and keeps going to reap the rewards!

If after a little while if I had not had any line bites, I took the rod off the rests and dragged the feeder along about a foot then put the rod tip in the water and sunk the line as usual then tightened up on the rests. From doing this, it often produces a fish, much like lifting a pole rig. 

Once the feeder has settled and the line is sunk, keep a slight bend in the tip, especially if fishing close to a feature. This way, the fish will not feel too much resistance, but also you will be able to hit drop-back bites.

Pack on groundbait hard so that it does not fly off on the cast. I also fold the line into the groundbait and add another layer of groundbait to keep the hook bait close the feeder, producing more and quicker bites. You’ll also notice that I used one piece of fake buoyant corn, and 2 real pieces. This creates a critically balanced bait and also means there will always be a bait in the hair, even if the real pieces have been pulled off!

 

Final Result

Fishing from roughly 9.30 to 1pm I landed 7 carp, the biggest being 12lb 13oz. Although this is good, it isn’t one of my best days on the method feeder. I urge all of you to go out and try this method, it can be utterly devastating!