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!