River Fishing Tips | Six tips to catch big fish on the pole - Steve Harwood

RIVERS are full of all kinds of obstacles that make many anglers nervous when fishing for larger species such as bream, tench, chub and perch. Weed is the most common of these snags but there's no need to put the pole away when fishing around the green stuff. Here are six of my top tips to beat it…

Big river fish can be caught on the pole

Use heavy floats

Get the bait down fast with a float from 1.5g to 2g and all the weight down the line.

Big floats help get the baits down fast

Big baits rule

Two halves of dendra worm are best for Thames bream and perch, fished overdepth.

Try fishing big baits over depth

Get the feed down

Roughly chopped worms are packed into crumb with casters and dead maggots.

Pack your ground bait full of feed

Don’t go too light

I use a 14-16 Gamakatsu 2210B hook with 0.15mm hooklength and 0.18mm mainline.

Don’t go too small with hooks

Soft & strong elastic

You’ll lose fish in the weed if your elastic is too light. I fish white or grey grade Hydrolastic: soft yet powerful.

Light elastic will see you lose more fish

Prime the swim

A baitdropper delivers choppy without spillage, allowing me to put the rig directly on top of where those worms are.

Bait droppers are great for delivering bait into a river swim