5 Tips On Groundbait For Roach
No roach angler worth their salt would be without groundbait at this time of year – here’s how to use it!
ADD FREEBIES
GROUNDBAIT alone is not enough to keep the fish in the peg and, because you want them to eat the hookbait, you have to add the same into the feed. For roach, that’s dead pinkies, dead maggots and casters – the three most common hookbaits. In the opening balls of feed, add very few free offerings. Once these are fed, pop in two more balls that are rich in feed (packed with casters and pinkies) to create a focal point in the swim to fish over. On a hard day that may be just a sprinkling, but on a mild day with colour in the water, pack each ball with feed. Dead pinkies are great because they are soft, visible and small enough to get fish grubbing about.
Add freebies to your groundbait
TRY USING LEAM
YOU can add leam to normal groundbait, which will make the mix behave very differently. Leam used to be seen as something that was only used with bloodworm and joker, but when this fine, powdered clay is added to over-wetted groundbait it achieves two things. First, it adds some weight and second, it breaks the ball down quicker on the bottom. Depending on how much leam you add, you can make a ball split almost immediately, leaving a lingering cloud, which can be dynamite in shallow, clearish water. Heavy leams are also available that will combat strong flows in deep water, getting a ball to the bottom in seconds.
Leam will make the mix behave very differently
BALL IT... THEN CUP
THE best way to get a lot of groundbait into the peg quickly is to throw in several large balls, known as ‘balling in’. You’ll see this a lot on big, deep natural venues where small fish are the target. A massive hit kicks the peg off quickly, but you need to decide on how many balls to throw in. There’s no point scrimping on numbers, so eight or 10 large balls can go in over an area of a square metre. A pole cup then comes into play. The opening hit gets fish into the general area, but you want them to move and concentrate on the spot where your rig is. Two or three more balls go in with the pot in the same place, but these hold more particles.
A pole cup is a great way to feed throughout the session
RIDDLE YOUR MIX
ASIDE from removing any large lumps of part-mixed groundbait, riddling also adds air into a mix, which makes it sink quickly and break up fast. Without being put through a riddle, the groundbait can be too stodgy and struggle to come apart. When you’ve riddled the mix, you need to decide what to do with the bigger particles that you’ll have left over. These can be thrown away if the fishing is likely to be hard, but on more prolific days they can be pushed by hand through the riddle to put some bigger bits and bobs into the mix.
Riddling your groundbait has many advantages
FEED IT LOOSE
THERE are times when cupping in groundbait loose is better than balling it in, and this is normally in very shallow water of 3ft or less. A loose mix also gets things underway much faster because the groundbait is already broken down and can work its magic straight away. It’s important that the mix is wet, so it has the weight to get down quickly and stay put on the bottom without any danger of drifting off, especially in flowing water. Loose groundbait also works on canals and drains with steep marginal slopes under the water – a hard ball may roll down this slope, away from where you’re fishing. Loose groundbait will form a carpet just where you want it, and never move!
Sometimes groundbait is best fed loose
Can paste be used on a leger rig? - Paul Garner
Paste can be used on rod and line, but for it to withstand the impact of hitting the water while being towed by a big lead it needs to be sticky.
This is easy to achieve, and there are several purpose-made paste mixes for this job. Follow the mixing instructions carefully with these baits, as the paste needs time to form strands of gluten that bind it together.
You can tell when the paste is ready to use as it will be almost stringy when you pull it apart.
A hair rig will also help you hook more fish when legering paste. Try moulding the bait around a paste cage, as this will keep it attached without impeding the hookpoint.
A paste cage on a hair rig is perfect for legering paste
The best method feeder hookbaits - Paul Garner
Hookbait choice can make a huge difference to your Method feeder catches.
Some score best with bigger fish, while others will win you extra bites on tough days. Here’s my pick of the bunch...
Picking the right hookbait can get extra bites on the method feeder
Fake baits
Artificial casters will pick off bigger fish than the real thing, and are great when there are a lot of nuisance fish around. Most packs contains different colours, so see which one the fish prefer on the day.
Dark baits often score in summer, but the off-white ones can bring bonus fish when the going gets tough.
Best for: Tench, crucians and carp
Artificial casters will pick off bigger fish
Punched meat
Easy to use, and with a distinctive taste that carp love, punched meat is one of my favourite Method hookbaits for larger carp.
Cut the meat into 10mm-thick slices and use a bait punch to produce perfect 6mm hookbaits, stepping up to 10mm when they are feeding well.
Best for: Big carp
One of my favourite baits for larger carp
Dead maggots
A bunch of four dead red maggots is very effective, especially in the cold, when small fish are less active. I like to use maggots that have been frozen.
They have a soft, stretched appearance, but are still quite tough. Use a bunch on a size 12 hook.
Best for: Bream, tench and carp
Dead maggots come into their own when it is cold
Pellets
For Method fishing I like an 8mm tough hooker pellet. The consistency is ideal for hair rigs, and I use them with a Quick Stop to make baiting-up simple.
In summer go for savoury flavours, while in winter, sweeter flavours work better.
Best for: Carp, tench, bream and F1s
Go for savoury pellets in the summer
Wafters
These slightly buoyant hookbait boilies only just sink, and hover just above the bottom. Being semi-buoyant, they are easy for larger fish to suck up, giving more bites and better hookholds too.
Wafters are tough baits, so you can often catch several fish on the same one. Hair-rig them using a boilie spike for best results.
Best for: Carp and bream
You can often catch several fish on the same wafter
How to make worm and caster last longer - Tony Curd
MY FAVOURITE method of doing this is to riddle the peat off the worms and use this to make your feed go further.
Fish a stiffer mix for bigger fish
Depending on the venue, this should be mixed sloppy if fishing up in the water or when targeting smaller fish, or mixed stiffer when fishing on the bottom for bigger fish such as carp or barbel.
To the peat I add a small amount of chopped worm and a handful of casters, and I feed this mix through a pole pot regularly.
Add a small amount of chopped worm and caster to the peat
You’ll be surprised at the big weights you can put together on very little bait when doing this!
It catches everything!
What's the best all-round maggot colour? - Bob Nudd
I’d take the colour of the water into account because when there’s a brown tinge to the water, bronze maggots work really well for roach, dace and chub especially on waggler or stick float tactics.
My favourite all-round colour is the red maggot, and that’s because I think that they look like a bloodworm, which is the natural diet of many fish.
It’s also worth using a fluorescent pink maggot as a change bait, as again, the colour really stands out.
For more of your angling questions answered, turn to our ‘Ask The Experts’ section of the magazine each Tuesday.
How to make doughy cheesepaste with Paul Garner
Even when the water is really cold, Doughy cheesepaste stays pliable, making this my favourite recipe. A batch will last several weeks if you keep it cool between trips. Here is how to make it…
1: Carefully melt some blue cheese in a microwave set on half power for about 30 seconds.
2: Knead a fist-sized lump of dough until it has warmed up and softened.
3: Flatten the dough out and then spread the melted blue cheese on to it.
4: Sprinkle on a teaspoonful of Squid Powder and a tablespoonful of Parmesan.
5: Fold the paste in half and work it for five minutes until everything is evenly mixed.
Make it buoyant
1: With a bait drill bore a hole through a small piece of cork (wine bottle corks work fine)
2: Superglue the drilled cork to the shank of your hook, leaving the point well clear.
3: Fold a piece of cheesepaste over the hook and cork, covering them completely.
4: The finished bait – you can strike straight through it when a chub takes a bite.
For more great bait tips from Dr Paul Garner, pick up the magazine each Tuesday!
"It has to be bread for river roach" with Dr Paul Garner
Roach are staging a substantial comeback. Whether from the tremendous work of the Avon Roach Project, or natural recruitment on other rivers, big roach are out there for those willing to look for them.
Very often the first clues are fish caught by accident, often by chub or barbel anglers, using heavy gear. Be quick to follow up on these leads and you might just strike the silver fish mother lode.
WORLDS APART
Quite why river roach should be willing to feed on a much wider range of baits than their stillwater cousins, especially in the winter, can only be guessed at. I think it is probably because in stillwaters small invertebrates make up virtually all of the fish’s diet. This means that they become fixated on small baits, such as maggots.
In rivers, big roach will have a wider natural diet, and so are not as choosy. Heavily-fished carp lakes are almost a halfway house, with large volumes of boilies, sweetcorn and pellets going in to supplement the roach diet. Yet, even here, the number of big roach caught on these baits can be minuscule, especially in winter.
PUNCH IT
I grew up among an older generation of dyed-in-the-wool roach anglers whose tactics are just as good today as they were back then. Bread was their bait of choice, normally fished under a big balsa float to hold the line when trotting downstream. Today we might prefer to quivertip with a small feeder, but the bait choice remains the same
A decent-sized piece of bread can be a very selective bait, picking out the bigger fish.
A punch of around 8mm is perfect for producing big-roach hookbaits, although you must get the texture right to keep the bread on the hook. Look for a thick-sliced white loaf with a dense structure. Cheaper loaves tend to be full of air pockets that lead to their falling to bits.
To toughen up your slices of bread, compress them overnight. I use an offcut of kitchen worktop heavy enough to halve the thickness of the slices overnight.
Place a damp cloth between the bread and the weight to stop it sticking and to add a little moisture. Store the slices of bread in an airtight bag to stop them drying out.
TRY A CAGE
A small cage feeder is an easy way of feeding bread. A dry mix will hold in the feeder, but break down quickly. Drop your feeder into a bait tub of water to see how long it takes to break down.
CLOUDY FEED
Whether I am floatfishing or feeder fishing, my feed is based on punch crumb. This very fine white crumb is much less sticky than normal white breadcrumb and has an almost gritty texture. Mixed dry it will form an excellent cloud in the water column, but add a tiny bit more water and it will hold together and sink quickly.
Alternatively, remove the crusts from a few slices and put the white flake through a food liquidiser until it has been ground to a fine consistency.
This liquidised bread holds together perfectly in a cage feeder, and can be added to punch crumb when floatfishing to help get it down.
Roach don’t have big appetites, so avoid adding any larger pieces of bread to the feed. Two ingredients that are worth adding are a pinch of crushed hemp and the same of crushed pellets. Using pellets for river roach may seem odd, but roach do like the taste of pellets, even in rivers where they aren’t used a great deal.
MY CAGE FEEDER MIX
A combination of liquidised flake and punch crumb makes the ideal feed for a cage feeder.
Here is how I make mine...
Remove the crusts from six slices of white bread and break them into pieces.
Use a liquidiser to reduce the flake to fine particles. Make sure that you remove as many lumps as possible.
Add a small amount of crushed hemp and pellet powder to two pints of liquidised bread.
Use an atomiser to very lightly wet the mix to help it bind together.
Add a small amount of punch crumb if a stiffer mix is required.
***FOR MORE GREAT BAIT TIPS FROM PAUL, PICK UP THE MAGAZINE OUT EVERY TUESDAY***
Barbel fishing bait | TOP tips for barbel paste
Barbel love paste, whether it is wrapped around a boilie or on it’s own, it’s a must have bait for any barbel angler. To help you make the most irresistible barbel bait around we’ve put the best tips for paste together to help you. Take a look below and let us know how you get on.
Paste is very much a bait for all occasions, if it’s warm or cold you can’t go wrong with it.
But many anglers seem to think that it is only something to slip on the hook when carp are the target – they couldn’t be more wrong!
All fish love a nugget of paste, from shy-biting crucians to big roach and massive tench. It’s all down to the softness of the bait and the scent trail it gives off as it slowly breaks down in the water.
The minefield comes, though, when deciding which type of paste to use because this is a bait that can be tinkered with to achieve very different results.
The softness of paste can be regulated, as can its colour, scent, consistency and breakdown rate.
Fortunately, it is very easy to get hold of a paste that will cover every eventuality. Here is Angling Times’ big-fish man Jake Benson’s guide to picking the right paste – every time.
Stringy paste
There was a time when very few pastes existed if you wanted a tough bait that would stand up to being cast out on float or feeder.
Not now, though. Several companies produce pastes with an added secret ingredient – normally plant protein extract – which gives the paste a tough, almost stringy texture.
Such pastes can be used straight out of the bag and feature a fibrous texture that can be stretched apart in your hands without the bait breaking apart.
These pastes are not only good for long casts, but also come in handy when trying to avoid small fish that would otherwise whittle a soft paste down to nothing.
Pellet paste
Many commercially available pastes are made from ground pellets – and for a good reason.
Fish love pellets, and in many fisheries they see an endless supply of them. It’s so easy to make a crunchy pellet-based paste that’ll appeal to bream, tench, crucians and carp.
A coffee grinder is a must-have here to reduce a couple of pints of 4mm hard pellets into a powder (you can pick from halibuts, plain coarse or coloured and flavoured carp pellets). However, to get that all-important ‘crunchy’ texture it is important to leave a few lumps of larger bits of pellet in the mix.
To bind the crushed pellets, whisk up two egg yolks. At this point you can also add a teaspoonful of any liquid additive such as molasses or hemp oil to boost the pulling power of the paste. Slowly add the powder to the egg mix until a soft paste is formed. Keep kneading the paste until it attains a soft, putty-like consistency.
Groundbait paste
To create a super-soft paste you only need to slightly over-wet a carp-style groundbait. Because of its soft consistency, this type of paste is ideal for fishing at short range for crucians, tench and big roach.
The finished product will be almost runny, but with just enough body to stay on the hook. You can further enhance it by rolling or dipping the paste in hemp or micro pellets.
Ready-made paste or DIY?
Is it better to make paste fresh on the day or buy it ready-prepared? You can’t beat fresh paste made to your own specifications and you’ll know that the consistency is just right for the job in hand. Ready-made pastes don’t offer this, but it does no harm to have a tub stashed away in the bag in case you run out of your home-made mix.
Boilie paste
Made with eggs instead of water to make it much tougher, and using the same ingredients as top boilie recipes, this is a paste to wrap around boilies or large pellet hookbaits.
It’s designed to break down more slowly than traditional pastes, so you can leave a wrapped hookbait in place for several hours, happy in the knowledge that the wrap is still pumping out plenty of attraction. Big-carp anglers use these, but they’re also deadly for big bream and tench.
Boost your groundbait and catch more river bream
At this time of year, even a single day of rain is enough to send river levels up and add colour to the water. When that happens, bream become a reliable target.
Spurred into feeding by this influx of water and reduced visibility, these fish can appear after months of absence. In mild weather, 100lb is possible when you land on a hungry shoal on slow-flowing venues – but it’s far from a case of simply throwing a feeder out and bagging!
We asked England international and former FeederMasters champ Darren Cox for his tips on river bream succes in these conditions.
Choose your peg
“The first consideration is where in the peg to fish. I look for any large areas of slack water, whether thaey are caused by a bay or water running off a bend.
“The point where a river opens out from narrows is another guaranteed bream area. They love slower water, as not only is there reduced pace but natural food and silt will gather, resulting in a big larder for them to get stuck into.
“The silt will be full of bloodworm and the bream won’t move far from here. To find a silty bottom, cast a feeder or bomb out and wind it slowly back across the river bed. Resistance as the lead digs into the silt tells you you’ve found what you’re looking for.”
Add some fishmeal
“With colour in the water, bream feed by scent, not sight, so a groundbait to go in the feeder needs something powerful to stop them – that means fishmeal. I’ll mix up a ‘normal’ bream blend of sweet groundbait but also add a good helping of a halibut or plain pellet-based mix. This is mixed fairly dry to empty out quickly.”
Feed and hookbaits
“Keeping with the positive theme, I try and cram each feederful with as many particles as I can. That’s casters, chopped worm and dead maggots lacing the groundbait, because a big bream can demolish a feeder of bait in one go. Imagine this happening with a dozen fish in the area and you can see how much feed needs to go in.
“For the hook, nothing can beat worms on a coloured river, and while a dendra or lobworm tail is good, I swear by two large redworms tipped with a dead red maggot. Redworms wriggle like mad, and a bream can pick them out far quicker than three dead maggots, for example.”
Keep the bait going in
“I’ll cast every five minutes, even if I’m not getting bites to keep the bait going in on a regular basis – you have to be positive. Clipping up and aiming to a far-bank marker will put the feeder in the right place each time.
“If I cast and immediately get a knock on the tip this tells me that the fish are not backing off and that they want the feed, so you need to try and read the timing of the bite. If I am left waiting five minutes for an indication then the fish could be backing off.”
The feeder is king
“Rod and line is the only option for tackling a slack at range – the waggler just won’t present the bait still enough. That means it’ll be an out-and-out feeder job. Rigs for a slow river are nothing special, made up of the feeder running on the mainline that has a short 4ins twizzled length above the hooklink, for a semi-bolt rig effect.
“Mainline of 6lb is perfect, with a 30g wire cage feeder heavy enough to hold bottom in the slower water. A hooklink of 2ft 6ins or 3ft made up of 0.16mm Garbo Line will put the bait well downstream of the feeder, which is where you often find bigger bream sat below the feed picking off particles. That only leaves the hook to pick, and I can’t fault a size 13 Kamasan B711.”
Kicking off
“Six feeders of bait go in at the start and I would expect indications quickly. If nothing happens after half-an-hour but I am getting small fish knocks, this tells me more bait needs to go in so out go another six feederfuls.
“If nothing is happening at all then it will be a bit of a waiting game so you’ll need to leave the feeder out for longer and wait. Provided you are on a bream peg and conditions are right, there’s no reason why they won’t feed.”
Top Five Roach fishing baits to try now!
What is the best bait to use when roach fishing? Well we are about to answer that for you and give you five great roach fishing bait options for you to try next time you’re on the bank.
Here are five of the best roach fishing baits…
For more great tips from top anglers head to this year’s The Big One Show
• Maggots
I have often noticed that smaller silver fish tend to become a lot less active at this time of year, owing to the low water temperature, while the larger fish remain active. This can make maggots a viable bait.
Ask your local tackle shop on what day they receive their maggot supplies, and try to buy your bait as soon as it comes in. This will ensure you get the freshest and largest maggots. To keep the skins soft I store them in maize flour, changed every few days to keep it fresh.
Pineapple essence is the quintessential winter roach flavour, and its highly volatile esters leak off even when the water is very cold. Other citrus flavours are well worth using too, but there’s no substitute for fresh bait, especially where big winter roach are concerned.
• Pellets
Our barbel rivers see large amounts of pellets going in all summer and autumn, and naturally roach tune in to this extra food resource. Fishmeal is a good fish attractor, even though we don’t normally associate it with roach. Try mixing some ground pellets with your liquidised bread and you’ll see what I mean.
For roach, try scaling everything right down to a 6mm tough hooker pellet fished on a bait spike and size 16 hook. Fill a Black Cap feeder with hemp and hard pellets. Don’t worry about the water temperature – roach will still eat pellets in the depths of winter, so I plan to use this tactic a lot this year.
• Hemp
When I have filmed roach underwater no other bait has attracted and held them in the swim like hemp, yet they often pick it up and blow it out many times before eating it.
For this reason I tend to feed the seed sparingly. A tin of hemp is generally enough for a day session. Feed it a pinch at a time to maintain a continual release of hemp flavour into the swim, rather than have it slowly dwindle away.
I don’t often fish hemp on the hook, but I will combine it with my other four baits. Hemp and pellet is a modern classic, in my book, and well worth trying, especially on barbel rivers.
• Boilies
As with pellets and hemp, roach see a lot of boilies as a by-product of carp and barbel anglers’ feed. Some of the biggest winter roach are caught by carp anglers on boilies, and this is a very effective way of singling out the bigger fish.
A 10mm boilie is just about the right size for a 2lb roach, and I can think of a number of times that this bait, along with a small PVA stick of pellets, has allowed me to get through the small fish and select just the big ones from the shoal.
• Bread
There is no better bait for roach than bread. Very cheap, it selected big fish from rivers and lakes where we never dreamed the roach grew so large. Knowledge of how to get the best from bread is slowly ebbing away, but that doesn’t make it any less effective, just unfashionable.
Back in the day I’d use heavy trotting gear with an 8mm disc of punched bread on the hook. A nugget of liquidised bread fed every cast would be all the feed that was required.
I am sure these tactics would still work just as well today and I plan to try them again soon, especially on running waters, where a bright, obvious bait would be difficult for any big roach to ignore.
Best baits to use to catch big perch
With the cold weather upon us it is time to start thinking about big perch and what baits to use when trying to lure a a PB into your net. We have taken a look at the best baits to be using right now when it comes to catching big perch.
For more great tips from top anglers head to this year’s The Big One Show
Worms
Few perch can resist a worm, with big lobworms picking out the specimens, while smaller redworms will catch smaller fish when the going is tough.
Lures
Perch will always chase a lure around, and small spoons and spinners take their share of fish – just be sure to use a wire trace in case of pike.
Livebaits
If fishery rules allow, a small live roach or minnow fished under a loafer-style float will produce, fished close to ambush spots.
Prawns
Commercial fishery perch seem especially fond of a tiger prawn fished on the float or sometimes freelined at close range.
CRUNCHY CRUSTACEANS
Signal crayfish are a scourge, but where you find these invasive crustaceans you also find big perch.
You can mimic crays with a raw peeled prawn, even on venues that do not hold crayfish. You don’t need very many prawns for a days fishing – I cut each one in half for a more manageable bait. Even so, a size 8 hook is required to match the bait size.
I never feed whole prawns, as they are very filling. On a cold day a perch might only need one to fill it up. Instead, I recycle used hookbaits by finely dicing them with scissors and feeding this ‘mush’ a little at a time.
If you are roving around and fishing several swims, a good tactic can be to introduce a bit of bait into the next swim before fishing it. Don’t go mad – a single mashed-up prawn or two chopped worms will be plenty to get the perch looking for more without overfeeding them.
Worms
I’VE yet to find a better bait for perch than the humble worm. The only problem is that they can be too good, and on venues with a lot of other fish it can be impossible to get through to the perch. On rivers in particular, though, worms reign supreme. Dendrobaenas are good, but there’s no denying that a lobworm is better by far.
With this year’s dry summer collecting lobworms has been difficult, but fortunately you can buy them easily, either from your local tackle shop or via mail order.
Lobworms are not a cheap bait, but as with prawns you don’t need many for a perch session. I will feed dendrobaenas and save the lobs for the hook to keep the price down, often using half a worm as a hookbait.
If I am floatfishing or planning on recasting a leger regularly I will simply hook the worm once through the saddle. The odd one will wriggle free, but this can be solved by hooking a maggot on after the worm to secure it.
When I expect the baits to be left out for longer, I will switch to a hair-rigged worm, using two Quick Stops to hold it on the hair.
This is a very effective presentation that allows the hook to be scaled down to a size 12 and gives very easy-to-hit bites, as the perch tend to hook themselves.
Attraction
Big perch will often be found in small groups, and it is important not to introduce too much bait. I am sure that on occasion my chances have been ruined when I have given the fish a few mouthfuls of food, which has been enough to satisfy their hunger.
Rather than try to attract the perch these days I focus on attracting their prey, especially on commercial fisheries, where small silver fish are top of their menu. A regular sprinkling of maggots will attract small roach, which in turn will get the perch active. In clear water try adding a small amount of groundbait too, as this will pull in more small fish.
Big perch really are a sight to behold, particularly on a frosty morning. I bet you can think of a few venues close to home that hold some nice fish, so what’s stopping you?
With just the simplest of tactics and a few well-chosen baits you could soon be putting the net under a plump stripey.
STORING LOBWORMS
Lobworms aren’t cheap or that easy to collect at this time of year, so it pays to look after them well.
Use a large bait tub with holes in the lid and add plenty of damp leafmould, some shredded newspaper and a little soil. Store the tub out of the sun in a cool but not freezing spot, and change the mix every week to keep the worms alive for several months.
Six steps to a big autumn stripey
When it comes to catching predators by design, watercraft is king.
Thinking about what you’re doing and, more importantly, what the fish are doing, will not only save you precious time, but also deliver the kind of sport you’re after.
One angler who understands watercraft only too well is Fox Rage expert Gary Edmonds. Gary has been lure fishing for decades, and seems to have a sixth sense for tuning in to what predators are getting up to.
“There are no hard and fast rules to it,” smiles Gary as he steps on to the banks of his local Rib Valley Lakes, ready to cast for perch. “But in general, if you apply the right thinking, you can usually work out where they’ll be – and from there you can work out what it’s going to take to catch them.”
1) Timing
Get out of bed early for the best chance of catching perch, which will usually be very active just as the sun rises. “It can be hard work, but it’s usually worth it,” Gary explains.
“Depending on conditions, you’ll usually get a good hour or two of activity.” This early morning action is based on light levels. The predators make use of the cover of shade and this, combined with their superior eyesight, gives them an advantage over prey fish.
“The same is true of dusk but,
in my experience, it’s first light when you really have the best chance, especially with perch,” says Gary.
2) Light
Light, and the amount of it, has a big impact on the activity levels of predators. But that’s not just confined to first and last light.
“Realistically, the best days are dull, with a good ripple on the water which breaks up the light under the surface even further,” Gary explains.
“Even when the sun is up high and bright overhead, some of the worst conditions, you can still use light levels to your advantage.
“I look for a number of things. First off, natural shade from trees and bushes always works well. That contrast between the dark and bright water areas will attract predators which will hang in the cover of the shadows. Areas such as the margins of islands that are in shade are always great to try if you can reach them.”
3) lake topography
The underwater make-up of a lake has a huge impact on where you will find your target species.
It’s easy to just think of the bottom of the water in front of you as sloping off and then being fairly uniform, but that is hardly ever the case.
“It’s crucial to get a good idea of what is happening in front of you so you can fish for the predators in the most likely spots and make your fishing more likely to result in bites,” Says Gary.
“If you don’t know a water, it’s worth taking the time to cast your lure around and count it down on a tight line, waiting for it to touch bottom, at which point the line will go slack. You’re looking for variations in the time it takes for your lure to reach bottom. That will indicate changes of depth.”
These changes of depth are the areas that Gary will spend his time fishing, be that a steep drop off, a hole, a bar in open water, or in a fairly uniform area, even just a slight dip – all can be enough to hold fish, especially perch.
“Predators will be looking for areas where they can sit and gain a tactical advantage over their prey,” says Gary, casting out his lure.
“That could just be light cover as they sit lower down on a slope, or lurk on the far side of a bar.”
4) Temperatures
“In the winter, as the temperature drops the fish will be slow but still need to feed, although this can be in small windows of time during the day,” explains Gary,
“They will also look to have a more stable temperature that is less affected by sudden drops caused by overnight frosts and the like. They look to go to deeper water which is more temperature-stable, and that’s where you will most likely find them.
“On days when the temperature lifts, prey fish will move to shallower water which will warm up more quickly, and the predators will follow. On those warmer winter days I will quite often target the slightly deeper water behind shallows where I can see prey fish. This can result in some great sport.”
5) Man-made areas
Although they are always talked about in terms of fish-holding spots, man-made structures such as pontoons, walls or anywhere that will give fish cover will attract prey and therefore predators, and so they are definitely worth covering.
“If the water you’re on is fished a lot these will normally be the spots that get the most pressure, as they are the most obvious,” says Gary. “But they are still worth your attention. Structure in depth of water is what you really want. Something offering shade and cover ticks a lot of boxes with all fish – all you need to do is approach it differently to other anglers, whether that’s getting there earlier, fishing it later, using different sized or actioned lures or trying different techniques like weedless deadsticking.”
“Man-made structures really come into their own on what appear to be uniform, barren waters, such as canals and drains.
“If you have no discernible features and then suddenly find an outlet pipe or even a shopping trolley in the water, there will normally be fish around it.”
6) Techniques
In cold weather, cold water will result in cold fish that are less active, so you need to adapt to catch them. “One of the best techniques for lethargic fish is drop shotting,” explains Gary.
“In these conditions, working a jig slowly enough to get them to bite properly can be very difficult, but if you know where the fish are, a drop shot approach will allow you to present a lure effectively in the same place for as long as you like.
“This will get their attention, hold it and tease them into striking, especially if you have a shoal of perch in front of you. They will become competitive, and it puts them under pressure to hit a free meal before another fish does.”
Best lures for pike fishing
With predator season upon us it’s time to dust off your lure box and get back out there. To help you choose the right lures for you next pike fishing session we have gone to our weekly columnist Paul Garner to get his opinion on what lures you should be taking out on your next session.
Lure fishing is exploding in the UK right now, as many anglers discover the joys of casting artificial baits for a wide range of predatory fish.
On my local canal you are now likely to find just as many anglers drop shotting for perch with small lures as you are fishing the pole.
Head to the coast, and piers and jetties are frequented by anglers targeting a myriad of different marine species with their LRF (Light Rock Fishing) gear, armed to the teeth with soft plastics.
All fish are predatory to some degree and I have seen bream, barbel and even dace caught fair and square on small lures, so there really is something for everyone.
For me, though, nothing beats fishing for big pike with lures and that electric feeling that signals a ‘hit’ from a big predator just can’t be beaten.
CHEAP AND RELIABLE
I am an avid collector of lures, but increasingly I find soft plastics dominating my tackle box.
These deceptively simple rubber fish-shaped baits come in a wide range of different outlines and sizes, but they all work in much the same way.
You can buy soft plastics either pre-rigged, or as bare lures that enable you to rig them just the way you like. Best of all, they are among the cheapest lures you can buy, making this a great way to get into lure fishing for pike.
Pre-rigged lures are the ideal place to start, as these will be rigged for optimal performance.
Once you have learnt how to use these, swap over to rigging your own so you are able to fine-tune your presentation. Go for lures in the 6ins/16cm range, as these will be the easiest to cast and will catch pike of all sizes.
SLOW AND STEADY
There is absolutely no need for any complicated retrieves with soft plastics. You simply let them sink to the desired depth and reel them in! The odd pause to let the lure sink back down will also often bring a bite, as the change in speed triggers a pike that is following the lure to take it – but ‘slow and steady’ is my mantra.
To keep the lure working in the right depth zone use one gram of weight per foot of depth.
So, on rivers and canals I use 5g lures, on lakes around 10g, and on deep reservoirs anything up to 30g.
A really useful skill to practise is counting the lure down until it hits the bottom, which you can feel as a distinct bump.
Once you know how long it takes for the lure to reach the deck, you can count it down to any depth you want very easily.
Try to mix up the depths that you are fishing at. Some days the pike will prefer a lure presented just beneath the surface, while on others they want it right on the bottom.
These simple soft plastics really are very effective, and will catch plenty of zander and big perch as well as pike if you scale down the size a little.
Why not give these popular lures a go this autumn?
Chub Fishing Baits | Best baits for big chub
We asked bait expert Paul Garner what his best baits to go chub fishing with were and he came back with five amazing chub baits that will make sure you land your biggest ever chub on your next session.
The scorching weather of the past few weeks has had a big impact on my river fishing so far this season.
For more great tips from top anglers head to this year’s The Big One Show
With barbel off the menu, I have spent some enjoyable evenings stalking chub on my local rivers instead. The low, clear water conditions have been perfect for this, with the dark shadows lurking under the overhanging branches of bankside trees giving away the presence of my quarry.
Location is rarely a problem with chub – you know they are never going to be far away from cover at any time of the year, and a good flow will attract them too, even if the water is only knee-deep. Persuading them to take a bait can be a different proposition, though, especially if they have been fished for, as their superb eyesight and uncanny ability to spot anything out of the ordinary can make them frustratingly difficult to catch.
With time, and a steady supply of maggots or casters, you can overcome this natural caution and often catch most of the fish in a shoal, but I prefer to roam the river, looking for fish and making just a cast or two in any likely-looking spots before moving on to pastures new.
Fishing like this, especially if you can follow the path of the bait and the reaction of the fish, can teach you a lot about the behaviour of the wily chub in your local river.
Choice of bait is important, and although I will normally only carry one or two types with me at any one time, there are five that stand out as the best for summer chubbing.
SLUGS
Not for the squeamish, but by far the most effective chub bait that I have ever used, slugs elicit an instant reaction from chub that has to be seen to believed.
The loud ‘plop’ of a slug hitting the water will attract any chub in the swim and within seconds those white rubbery lips will engulf a freelined bait. If you don’t get a bite on a slug then you can be pretty sure that there are no chub in the swim!
While my garden is full of slugs in the spring, hot weather can make them difficult to find, just when you need them most.
Look in any dark corners of the garden, especially first thing in the morning. Compost containers are often home to loads of slugs and are the ideal places fom which to collect them. There are several different species, and the chub love them all! Store your slugs in a cool, dark spot and they will last for several days.
WORMS
When I find it impossible to collect slugs my second choice, although it can be hit-and-miss, is worms. You won’t find a worm that is too big for a chub, so go for the largest you can find, as this will add casting weight.
The bigger the worm, the more it can resist the attentions of small fish. Just as with slugs, you are likely to get a bite on the first or second cast as the chub home in on the splash. If no reaction is forthcoming it’s best to move to a new spot and try again.
Hooked once through the ‘saddle’, worms will last for several casts if they aren’t gobbled up first. Although not as dense as slugs, worms can still be lobbed a reasonable distance without any additional weight needing to be added.
LUNCHEON MEAT
I always keep a couple of tins of meat in the car. Although not the most effective chub bait, a cube of meat can save the day when other baits are hard to come by. I treat meat just as I do slugs, hooking a large cube on to a size 8 hook and freelining it into any likely-looking spot. One benefit of meat is that its light colour is very easy to follow as it slowly sinks and drifts downstream.
Often, the bait will simply disappear as a chub swallows it.
BREAD CRUST
On larger rivers it can be difficult to spot chub, especially if they are holding station in mid-river. In this situation you can still freeline a bait and simply watch the line for bites, but often a different approach is more effective.
On hot, windless evenings chub will often take emerging insects off the surface and we can make use of this behaviour to catch them. The crusts of a fresh loaf make the ideal bait, pulled into chunks and allowed to drift downstream. Pay particular attention to crease lines, where chub are likely to hold station.
Follow the crusts downstream until you spot the tell-tale splashes of chub picking them off. Once the chub are feeding confidently like this the hookbait is likely to be taken straight away.
TINY LURES
For sheer fun and excitement, few methods beat light lure fishing for chub. A splashy lure fished on or just beneath the surface will often bring a response. Try fishing really shallow swims where the broken water gives way to a steady glide. Often chub will be here feeding on minnows and other small fish.
Alternatively, try using more imitative lures – grasshoppers, crayfish and tiny fish patterns – that can be mounted on a 3g jig head and bounced across the bottom of shallow swims.
Expect the unexpected, and don’t be surprised if this tactic catches other species too.
Five amazing baits for summer bream
Want to land a big net of specimen bream this summer? Then check out these great bait tips for bream from bait expert Paul Garner as he has put together the ultimate list of bream baits to help you catch more now.
For more great tips from top anglers head to this year’s The Big One Show
Every summer I try to put together a good catch of bream.
This could come from a river or a stillwater, as both types of venue can contain shoals of slabs averaging 5lb and upwards.
My tactics are simple, but effective. The Method feeder is my first choice, loaded with a groundbait mix that won’t break the bank.
A lot of rubbish gets talked about how much bait you need to catch bream. Sure, a shoal can number dozens, if not hundreds, of fish, but remember – you are trying to catch them, not feed them! My experience is that heavy baiting for bream can be counter-productive.
If the fish are following a patrol route then no amount of bait will persuade them to stop. Introduce too much and they will leave most of it, including your hookbait.
A couple of kilos of bait is more than adequate for a day or night session. The bulk of this will be groundbait, with a tin of sweetcorn and some pellets and mini-boilies thrown in for good measure. If I have some frozen maggots in the freezer they will go in too, but they are just the cherry on the cake and not essential.
CHEAP GROUNDBAIT MIXES
Bream do love fishmeal groundbaits, and a mix that contains plenty of crushed pellets will certainly do the trick.
It’s surprising how little fishmeal is needed in the mix to have an effect, though, so to cut costs I will use a 50-50 combination of groundbait and brown crumb, to bulk out the bait. Remember, though, that brown crumb does not bind particularly well, so this could well affect how much feed the groundbait can hold.
I use soaked flaked maize a lot. This resembles cornflakes in its dry state, because that is essentially what it is! When soaked it swells up and emits a milky haze with soft flakes that bream (and carp) really like.
I use molasses to flavour and sweeten the groundbait – I find it to be most effective for bream, and it’s cheap. You can buy it by the litre from animal feed shops.
Sweetcorn
Bream love corn. Its yellow colour and salty taste make it easy for them to locate and they will spend a lot of time eating every grain. This makes it a top hookbait too and I normally use two or three grains on a hair to make the hookbait stand out. Because this is a relatively soft bait, look for grains that are fully intact. Try combining two pieces of real corn with a buoyant flake bait to produce a brilliant wafter.
Mini-boilies
If I am night fishing then 12mm boilies will often be my hookbait of choice, simply because they are long-lasting and I can have total confidence that they will still be there come morning. For bream up to about 8lb I use a single 12mm bait, but for bigger specimens I find two 12mm baits brings more bites. Try a sweet flavour, such as Strawberry Crush.
Dead maggots
Live maggots can attract too much attention from small fish, even though they are a brilliant day-time bait. Switching to dead maggots both in your feed and on the hook can avoid this problem, as their lack of movement doesn’t attract as many small nuisance tiddlers. Try using a bunch of four maggots on a size 14 hook for best results.
Worms
Worms can be problematic if you are on a venue with a lot of small fish, but on a
low-stocked pit they can be very effective. Try to get hold of some small lobworms – no more than 4ins long. I like to hair-rig these, adding a piece of buoyant corn to not only give the bait some buoyancy, but also to act as a giant bait stop.
Pellets
Bream love pellets, especially high-oil halibut pellets, and two 10mm baits hair-rigged in tandem have caught me a lot of big bream. You can buy ready-drilled baits that are very easy to rig, but the hole can be a little too large for a normal bait stop. Try using a Quick Stop, or add a tiny square of elastic band before the stop.
How to prepare sticky micro pellets
Micro pellets need to be prepared quite differently to normal fishery pellets. Instead of soaking them it is much better to very slowly add water directly to the pellets, just as you would if mixing groundbait. This stops them breaking down and turning into concrete!
For more great tips from top anglers head to this year’s The Big One Show
1) Add a good glug of Scopex Squid Syrup to a pint of water and stir well until the syrup has dispersed.
2) Mix a handful of 3mm pellets with a bagful of sticky micro pellets and put the pellets into a shallow mixing bowl.
3) Slowly add the liquid while keeping the pellets moving all the time. Only add more water once the initial liquid has been absorbed.
4) When the pellets have reached the right consistency they should stick together when compressed in your hand, but break down to a mush when rubbed.
Tench fishing baits | How to make Jelly pellets
Summer is here which means it is a perfect time to go out tench fishing. However finding the right bait to use can be quite difficult which is why we've asked bait expert Paul Garner to walk us through this great tench fishing bait so you can try it out at home.
Pumped expander pellets are ideal for tench and crucians, giving that key soft texture that is so important.
Adding a small amount of gelatine to the water gives the soft pellets a more robust texture, meaning they will stay on the hook better.
For more great tips from top anglers head to this year’s The Big One Show
1) Add a teaspoonful of Scopex No1 flavouring and a similar amount of red powdered dye to a pint of warm water.
2) Add a sachet of gelatine powder to the warm water and stir constantly until the gelatine crystals have fully dissolved.
3) Half-fill your pellet pump with 6mm expander pellets and then pour the dyed and flavoured liquid over them.
4) Pump the pellets then leave them to stand under pressure for about six minutes, or until they have all sunk, whichever is the sooner.
5) Release the pressure and pour off the excess liquid. The pellets will still be quite hard, but will soften as they absorb more liquid.
6) Store the pellets in an airtight container. A tablespoonful of squid powder coats the pellets, giving them even more attraction.
Margin baits for shy biters
Tench and crucians are species synonymous with summer.
Crucians, in particular, are making a resurgence around the country and there is now a good chance that you will find some in a fishery close to you. Despite these two species preferring the warmth of summer they can be finicky feeders, thanks in part to the abundance of natural food.
Back in spring fairly crude tactics work well enough, but now a more measured approach is required.
Often, tell-tale knocks on the float will give away the presence of the fish, but hittable bites can be few and far between.
For more great tips from top anglers head to this year’s The Big One Show
MELT-IN-THE-MOUTH BAITS
Soft baits are definitely the way to slow down difficult-to-hit bites from both tench and crucians at this time of the year. I think a soft bait feels more natural, so the fish hang on to it that bit longer.
When the fish are feeding well the bites are sail-aways – the float simply buries as the fish moves on to the next bait.
There are a few soft baits that you can try. A small pinch of paste is one option, soft hooker pellets are another. Both these baits are easy to prepare, although you can buy them ready-made if you prefer. I like to prepare mine fresh to get the consistency just right.
Making my own bait also means that my feed will contain the same ingredients as the hookbait – a custom-matched pair.
GROUND PELLETS
I like to use pellet powder to make my paste. You can soften the whole 3mm pellets up by soaking them in water overnight, but to get a finer and more consistent bait, grind the pellets to a powder – it really makes a difference.
You can add other powdered ingredients to your pellet powder, such as krill or liver powder, to boost the paste.
A soft paste can be made by adding water to the pellet powder. You might find that this bait is a little too delicate and difficult to keep on the hook, so to overcome this, instead of using water to make your paste, trying using egg white instead. The albumen in egg white is a brilliant binder, and will transform the consistency of any paste.
Alternatively, add two tablespoonfuls of wheat gluten powder to a pint of ground pellets and mix with water. The gluten acts as a binder by forming strings of protein in the paste, making it soft but much longer-lasting.
GROUNDBAIT PASTE
If I am using pellet paste I will feed nuggets of the same and fish with a piece about the size of a grain of corn. The smaller the bait, generally the better the bites, but this has to be balanced against using robust tackle, especially hooks no smaller than a size 14.
Groundbait paste is another option, especially if you want to lay down more of a carpet of fine feed and fish a matching bait over the top. You can make groundbait paste using egg white or gluten.
Dynamite’s Swim Stim Green is a perennial favourite of mine for this tactic, once again with a small amount of krill powder added.
HOOKABLE PELLETS
When big fish are in the swim I like my hooker pellets to be slightly more robust than normal.
This comes down to confidence, as often the float will dip and bob as fish bump the line. I want to ensure that the hookbait is still secure and that I can leave the float out until I get a proper bite.
Jelly pellets are ideal for this style of fishing, having that extra robustness that I crave. As the name suggests, these are much more rubbery pellets, made by adding some gelatine to the liquid used to pump the pellets ,which then sets to a jelly-like consistency.
Of course, because I am pumping the pellets I have the option to add extra liquid attractors, and will generally use a small amount of sweet flavour, such as Scopex No.1, to counteract the slightly bitter taste of the gelatine.
You can use larger pellets, but I have found 6mm baits to be perfect for both tench and crucians at this time of the year, with a noticeable drop-off in the number of bites when bigger baits are used. Rather than introduce too many baits at the start, I prefer to drip-feed pellets a pinch at a time, adjusting the feed rate depending on the number of bites.
Unlike carp, which will come up in the water to intercept pellets fed this way, leading to line bites and foul-hooked fish, tench and crucians will tend to stay on the bottom to feed.
Spend less and catch more with this method mix!
Want to catch more carp while fishing? then take a look at this amazing carp fishing method mix from Angling Times columnist and Nash backed Paul Garner. We asked Paul to give us his best carp fishing bait on a budget and he came back with this golden piece of information.
Rather than use a Method mix that breaks down quickly, I much prefer a slower release of bait from the open frame of the flatbed feeder.
This ensures that the the bait on the feeder will remain the focus for the carp even when their frantic grubbing around on the bottom, complete with waving tails, is washing the pellets all over the swim.
To get this slower release effect is simple – I mix a small amount of groundbait in with the soaked pellets, as here...
1) Cover a pint of 4mm coarse fishery pellets with water and let them stand for four minutes to absorb some of the water.
Pour off the excess water and allow the pellets to stand for a few minutes more until they are soft all the way through.
Add just a sprinkling of Method groundbait to the pellets and mix well so that the dry groundbait evenly coats the pellets.
Use a Method mould to firmly press the pellets on to the feeder in the usual manner.
Leave the hookbait just outside the feeder so that it is not obstructed by the pellet feed.
Best Tench fishing baits and methods for right now!
ishing for tench this summer and unsure on what bait to use? To help you narrow your choices down we've asked Paul Garner to give us his best methods and bait to help you catch more tench while fishing. See below for the best tench fishing baits and tips for the summer.
Now's the time to catch a big tench, and gravel pits are the best places to do it.
Even though the fishing can at times be frustrating as the fish roll and bubble with abandon, yet hardly give a flicker on the float or bobbin, don’t despair – there is often a very simple answer to this problem, simply by using the right bait…
NATURAL FEEDERS
It’s often claimed that gravel pit tench become harder to catch the further into summer we go. I think this is down to preoccupation with natural food.
As summer continues the density of invertebrates rises by the day, giving the tench a limitless larder. Why eat a lump of bread flake, or a boilie, when they are surrounded by natural food?
Interestingly, I have followed a couple of venues for more than a decade that have developed into big-carp fisheries. I was expecting the tench to tune in to the quantities of boilies being fed right through the year, but no.
Except for a brief window in the early spring when the tench do fall for bright pop-ups, they have steadfastly remained hooked on naturals.
I’m not saying this happens on every tench fishery, but certainly on venues with a low stock of fish and high levels of natural food you could be waiting a long time before getting a bite on some baits.
Fortunately, there is an answer, and a very simple one at that.
MIMIC NATURE
The invertebrates that tench feed on are mainly bloodworm and caddis fly larvae. You can see why tench can be so difficult to catch – just look in the margins of a rich gravel pit. The bottom will be crawling with life as the cased caddis, carrying their tube-like homes woven from bits of reed stem and sand, crawl around looking for food.
How do we go about mimicking this natural larder? One answer, rarely employed in the UK but popular in Europe, is to collect and use caddis larvae as a hookbait.
I can see the logic to this but I would also worry that my hookbait would simply be the needle in one enormous haystack of grub. Fortunately, maggots, casters and worms provide a good enough alternative to be eaten by the most finicky of tench.
HORSES FOR COURSES
I find red maggots are very effective on the venues I fish – they are easy to use and can be stored for a few days. I will have some large dendrobaena worms with me too, as a change bait, should the need arise.
Worms are my first line of attack on older, siltier lakes. These venues tend to have tench that feed mainly on bloodworm, and I guess this is why worms will outscore everything else.
If silver fish are a nuisance, casters are my go-to bait, with a matching artificial hookbait. The tench don’t mind the plastic but the silverfish will certainly be less of a problem. Casters would be my first choice if I had good tench fishing close to home, as storing them on the bank would not be a problem. As I tend to travel a fair way for good tenching, though, storing casters becomes an issue.
FLAVOURSOME
All three of my chosen baits will work just fine as they come at this time of the year.
Tench, from my observations, are very visual feeders, so they will home in on a spread of bait on the bottom without further encouragement.
If you want to try flavouring your baits, particularly maggots, there is only one additive that I will use at this time of the year - Shellfish Sense Appeal, a real humdinger that only needs to be used in minute quantities.
Try adding half a teaspoonful to a pint of maggots to give them a strong shellfish smell. On a tough day I think this extra flavour can make a difference, so it’s worth having a bottle in your bait bag.
HAIR-RIGGING WORMS
A secure way of fishing worms on either the float or feeder is to hair-rig them between two Quick Stops held in position in a large loop on the hair. To pop up your bait, simply add a disc of rig foam.
Pop them up
Tench will often cruise around several feet off the lakebed and cover a lot of ground quickly. If they are in a feeding mood they will drop down to investigate any bait on the bottom.
Normally, I introduce roughly equal quantities of hemp and my chosen hookbait. The hemp is likely to be picked up and blown out by the tench many times over the course of a session. Some will be eaten, but the rest will keep the fish browsing for quite a long time.
The maggots, worms or casters are there to get the tench feeding harder. There’s no need to fill it in. A couple of pints of bait are plenty for a morning session.
One trick that often brings bites much faster than normal is to pop the hookbait up. When fishing maggots this is normally achieved by sandwiching a sliver of rig foam between two or three maggots on the hook.
Rubber casters are naturally buoyant, so use just enough to counteract the weight of the hook. Worms can be injected with air, but I prefer to hair- rig them with a small disc of rig foam to add buoyancy. The foam also acts as a buffer on the cast.
Whether you are fishing a float in the margins, or casting to distant gravel bars with a feeder, using these three baits will prove the key to unlocking gravel pit tench.
Give it a go, you will not be disappointed.