Commercial Fishing Tips | Winter roach with Tom Edwards
Going for commercial fishery carp in the depths of January is the ultimate angling gamble. A combination of clear, cold water, changing air pressure and low temperatures often means that even if there are a few fish in front of you, the likelihood is that they might not feed.
That means several hours spent bored witless waiting for a bite out of the blue. It does little to fire the enthusiasm for a return trip, but there is another way to get the best out of fishing in the cold – and that’s setting your sights a little lower for small fish.
Roach, rudd and skimmers might not put up much of a fight compared to a big mirror or common, but they can be relied on to save a blank and can give you a surprisingly good day’s sport.
Scaling down tackle and changing from pellets and corn to maggots on the bait menu will not only catch these silver fish though – F1s and even the occasional carp will move in to investigate what those roach are getting so excited about.
That all adds up to the potential for a lovely mixed bag. Don’t think that the roach you catch will be tiny, either. Often, on commercials, they are chunky things that will soon see you put a weight together.
In matches on my local Lake Ross fishery, 15lb of roach added to a handful of carp and F1s can see you picking up a few quid. Get it all right and the fishing will be a bite-a-chuck, interrupted by that exciting moment when the elastic pulls out of the pole that little bit more from a big fish.
Bites are the name of the game here and there’s nothing better for keeping the cold and boredom at bay than seeing the float go under on every single drop-in!
Pole or waggler
There’s nothing to stop you from catching on the float, but I find that it’s a little too inaccurate to give you a bite a chuck, so the pole has to be the winner.
You’ll not catch really short though, even in mild weather. Coloured water and a comfortable 13m distance is perfect to keep the roach happy and hunting about for your hookbait.
Don’t wait too long
The key to this type of feeding is to have your hookbait among the maggots dropping through the water so, in theory, you get a bite just as the rig settles. So I don’t leave the float sat there once it has cocked. The chances of a bite are far less than if the single maggot on the hook is falling.
When the rig has settled, I’ll wait 30 seconds before lifting it out and laying it back in again over the loosefeed, and this is the pattern the day will follow. It’s a busy way to fish but it keeps the cold out and it’s much better than willing a quivertip to go round!
Strung shotting
In clearer water, I’m convinced that fish watch a hookbait fall and then drop down to take it, so you need to make the bait behave in such a way that they’re given enough time to make up their mind. A bulked shotting pattern on the rig is out of the question – a spread of shot in the bottom third of the rig allows the bait to fall slowly past the roach.
The fewer shot you can use the better, so the float needs to be light. In perfect conditions, a 4x12 Preston Innovations F1 Maggot is ideal and takes six or seven No10 shot spaced a few centimetres apart from the hooklink upwards. By laying the rig in sideways and keeping the line tight to the float, the bait will fall slowly and you can read every indication from a fish.
Light rigs are a must
Although there’s the chance of hooking a carp, I’ll ride my luck and fish light because I know this will get me more bites in the long run. Even then, you’d be amazed what you can land with light gear provided it is balanced and you take your time.
Mainline thickness is not so important and 0.16mm Frenzee FXT Loaded is fine, but what’s closer to the fish is key, so a 6ins hooklink of 0.10mm Silstar Match Team and a size 20 Drennan Silverfish Pellet hook are just the job.
Matched to a light hollow elastic (I use Frenzee’s Stretch in the green 6–8 grade) I’ll not bump many roach and still have enough in reserve to land a carp or an F1.
Bait choice
I find casters too selective when I’m fishing for bites, even though they are a brilliant roach bait – so it has to be maggots.
A single red grub on the hook will get the fastest bites, but there’s no harm in trying a double from time to time for a better fish. Maggots are also the only thing I feed, but I introduce them into the swim in two very different ways…
Start with a pot
Ideally, I want to loosefeed maggots, but that’s a little too gung-ho to begin with.
Until I can work out how many roach are in front of me and how well they are feeding, I’ll feed with a small pot on the pole, trickling in 20 or so maggots on each drop-in.
If there are lots of bites, then the catapult comes out and the same 20 maggots are fired in each time. These spread over a wider area and give me more chance of attracting a carp or F1 as opposed to using the pot.
