Four great specimen fishing tips from Dai Gribble
Fancy catching your target fish this weekend? Then check out these great specimen fishing tips from Drennan Cup winner Dai Gribble.
1) Seek out specimen roach
To track down big roach, look at match reports from the rivers or lakes you are thinking of targeting.
Match anglers invariably catch them if they are present, and unlike many specimen hunters most are free with information.
As well as match reports, your local tackle shop will provide valuable clues as to which stretches are likely to produce a magical two-pounder.
Knowing big roach are present where you are going to fish is a big step towards catching one!
Not being tied to the classical match fishing window of 10am to 3pm you can fish at dusk and dawn, prime feeding times.
2) Pack maggots for slow release
There is no better way of catching river chub than with maggots in a blockend feeder.
Ensure that the maggots are loosely packed so some exit the feeder on the way down.
These maggots will be swept downstream and draw fish in.
Later on, pack the feeder more tightly, so most of the maggots are still inside when it reaches the riverbed. They will then exit the feeder close to your hookbait.
Lots of maggots in a relatively tight area will drive the chub into a feeding frenzy and make them less wary of your hookbait. The shoal is also less likely to spook when you do hook a fish.
3) Smaller baits for day barbel
Barbel will feed all winter and any slight rise in river temperature is likely to turn them on. This is a good window of opportunity to target them, particularly on well-stocked fisheries.
Most of the weed in our rivers will now have died back, which means that unless you are fishing close to snags such as large boulders or overhanging trees you can scale down your terminal tackle and mainline.
This will almost certainly guarantee more bites.
Barbel have amazing senses and can easily find a small bait such as an 8mm Sonubaits Pellet O, even if it’s less obvious than a big boilie or a large lump of luncheon meat.
By using finer end tackle there is a good chance you can catch through the day rather than sit waiting for dusk in the hope that a much bigger bait will be taken.
4) Float your line on rivers
As the season draws to a close there’s every chance conditions will be ideal for trotting a float.
With most of the weed gone you can run a float downstream in swims where, for much of the year, trotting would be completely impossible.
No matter what species you are targeting, if you are using a float attached top and bottom, such as a stick or Avon, one thing is essential – your line must float.
A lot of popular floatfishing lines do just that, but all will benefit from a quick squirt with a silicone spray.
The additional buoyancy afforded by a spray makes controlling the float and mending the line far easier.
This in turn will help you trot your float through more fluently, which will lead to better bait presentation and more bites.
How to fish a weir pool
Well-oxygenated and containing a variety of fish species, weir pools are among the best features along any stretch of river – but at first glance they can seem daunting places to tackle.
Powerful flows generating white foam on the surface, unseen snags, weed and variable flows and depths all present a challenge to the angler, but the fish which live in a weir are pretty predictable when it comes to seeking out where they live.
1) Target ‘crease’ for Chub
Chub love to sit just out of the main current, ready to spot food items carried their way by the flow. ‘Crease’ swims, points where fast water meets slow, can be productive – chub will often dart out and grab a meal.
Try a static bait fished to the edge of the crease, using a bomb or small maggot or cage feeder and a sizeable bait that the fish can’t miss. A bunch of maggots is good if small fish aren’t a problem, otherwise a lobworm, breadflake or a 10mm halibut pellet will do the job. Use the feeder to get some bait down before you begin to fish. A waggler, stick or Avon float can also work, trotted past the slack.
You can loosefeed, but make sure it goes in well upstream so it hits bottom where the fish are.
2) Find Roach, dace and pike here
Roach and dace cope well with fast currents and can be found in the fast water run-off. Pike won’t be far away either, especially if there is a deep hole nearby to attract prey fish.
Use a stick float or waggler to catch the small fish, finding a clean-bottomed run to trot the rig 50 yards downstream. Keep a steady stream of maggots, casters or hemp going in every trot. You’ll soon work out where the feed is hitting bottom as this will be where bites come from.
On the hook go for single or double maggot and set the float to just touch bottom. Alternatively, a small maggot feeder will present a still bait if the pace and flow are too swift. This method can also pick up bonus fish such as chub or big perch.
3) Bream love slack-water areas
Just below the weir sill the water may look turbulent, but on the bottom it can be quite slow-moving. Big bream often populate these areas, getting away from the maelstrom of the main weir and picking off natural food.
A feeder will be the only sensible tactic, and bream love groundbait, so go for a cage model packed with crumb and a good helping of chopped worm, casters and/or pellets. A whole worm is the king of hookbaits for bream.
Pick a feeder carrying a loading of 1oz or more to start, and be prepared to go heavier, if needed, to hold bottom. Cast the feeder into the head of the weir and it will sink to the bottom where the slower water is. Fish with the rod in the air to keep as much line off the turbulent surface as possible.
4) Get tight to the weir for Perch and barbel
The two species most likely to be found directly under the weir itself are perch and barbel. Both benefit from the back eddies created by the pool that will bring food items their way.
For barbel, it has to be the straight lead using a big weight to anchor the bait in the flow. Give the fish a bait they can’t miss – a fishy or meaty boilie or pellet between 10mm and 16mm, or even an old-fashioned piece of luncheon meat or a lobworm. Use a safety lead clip system if possible, as this will allow a fish to escape should you lock up in a snag. Also ensure your tackle is up to the job – that means a minimum of 12lb line and a size 8 hook.
To loosefeed, a PVA bag packed with pellets and chopped boilies will ensure a patch of feed around the hookbait but be sure to thread the bag down your hooklink – simply nicking it on to the hook will see the bag ripped off by the flow long before the rig settles.
If perch are your target, then investigate back eddies or slightly slower water to the side of the main sill, which is a super ambush point for perch.
A legered lobworm will sort them out, but a brilliant way to locate the perch is to cast around with a lure rod and a small jig. This will locate any fish in the pool and you can then cast a legered worm, loosefeeding red maggots, to try to catch a specimen.
Pike fishing tips| Five great tips & Tricks for pike
Here are some of the best pike fishing tips that we could find to help everyone from the novice angler all the way to the experience piker.Take a look at these great pike tips to help you catch more next time you’re on the bank.
We have gathered some of the best pike fishing tips from Dave Horton who landed one of the best hauls of big pike in recent history consisting of five fish for over 150lb!
The Essex based anglers pike weighed in at 36lb 8oz, 32lb 8oz, 29lb 8oz, 29lb 4oz and 23lb 12oz.
it’s safe to say that Dave is no stranger to pike fishing, having spent the majority of his angling career chasing them throughout the British Isles and Ireland, claiming “It’s my thing!”
His record is nothing short of exceptional either, having landed 30 pike over the magical 30lb mark, topped by a personal best of 37lb 4oz. He’s had 100 pike over the remarkable 25lb-plus mark, and is only one fish shy of 300 20lb-plus fish to his name, although we’re sure it won’t be long until he breaks the barrier!
We asked Dave to put together a few monster pike tips, to help you catch one! As you will see, it’s paramount to be first…
1) Arrive First!
“Whether it means arriving first, or being the first to fish a venue. In the case of Chew, I had arrived early to secure the spot I wanted, I also purchased the predator ticket so I could be first on the venue after the eight week shut”
2) Fresh is best!
“Ensure your bait is in first class condition and as fresh as possible, don’t skimp on bait as it’s the final piece of the jigsaw, the difference between a successful picture and an unsuccessful one. I highly recommend online baits UK”
3) Get your bait out quickly!
“Big pike feed in short sharp spells, when you catch a fish get a bait back out straight away, a prime example of this is my recent session, where three of the pike fell within a 30-minute feeding spell”
4) Position your bait carefully!
“Positioning your bait in a manner that any moving fish will approach it first, will result in you having the greatest opportunity to catch it. On popular venues it pays to be at the end of a group of anglers, rather than in the middle”
5) Be prepared!
“I often think I make a lot of my catches long before I wet a line, I like to be completely prepared. Being in the right spot, at the right time, with the right kit, bait and mind set, only occur through preparation. This haul of pike didn’t happen by accident!”
Pike Fishing Near Me | Where can I catch pike
Wondering where is best to go pike fishing this weekend? Then you might want to take a look at our Fishing Near Me page. We’ve got loads of listicles for every species including pike! So if you’re stuck on where to fish then take a look as we can guarantee that you’ll find a river or lake near you, that is stacked with big pike! Click here to see more.
More pike fishing tips!
Not had your fix of pike fishing tips and want more? Then head over to our pike species page where we have everything from tips to tackle and venues. Everything you would want to prepare yourself for your next session is here so head over and take a look. Click here to see our species page.
Top 7 tips for pike fishing on rivers
Pike fishing on rivers can be a little tricky, to help you tackle these very tricky venues we've put together some of the best pike fishing tips for river pike so you can catch more when out on the bank whether you’re an experienced pike angler or decided to try it for the first time, we’ll have you covered with these great pike tips.
1) Understand the river
Rivers are wild, so you need to take the time to learn the stretch you are targeting to get the most out of your pike fishing. Ideally, walk the river prior to the season, when the river is low and clear so areas of deeper and shallow water are more easily identifiable.
This reconnaissance also allows you to check out areas of weed or even snags. Take in the geographical nature of the land too. The steeper the sides of the surrounding land, the quicker the river will flood in the rains. Plus, the lower-lying rivers also tend to stay in flood for longer. All of these things will affect how the river fishes.
2) Keep mobile
Once you have sussed a length of waterway, it is always best to keep mobile. It is often best to cover a couple of miles or more in a single session. This means keeping your kit to a minimum but the more water you are able to cover, the more chances you will have of finding a feeding fish.
3) Gear up!
On rivers, particularly strong, powerful waterways like the Wharfe, Swale, or Wye, the pike have built up a great deal of muscle mass as they are used to fighting the flow. So, to ensure you are able to land everyone you hook, step up your gear up accordingly. Use either 20lb mono or ideally braid. It's also best to use 28lb wire for my trace. River fish are not as pressured as stillwater fish, so they are not put off by tackle, so why risk losing them due to too your gear being too light.
4) Early and late
Low, clear rivers can be the kiss of death regards pike fishing, as their confidence and cover are blown. This means that especially on days when the sun is bright, either early or late starts are the name of the game. The amount of decent-size pike that have been caught over the years, fishing at either dawn or dusk is incredible.
5) Pre-bait
It sounds time-consuming, but never underestimate the power of pre-baiting. Rivers such as the Wharfe and Trent are big rivers and experience has shown that the pike on this type of watercourse are very migratory.
By getting the fish used to feeding in a certain area, you can start to either hold them there or intercept them as they are travelling in search of food. No river pike, especially one of the ‘big girls’, is going to turn their nose up at a free meal!
6) Twitch your rig
Always use float rigs on a river. Floats are better are giving you early indications that a fish has possibly picked up the bait.
To help induce a bite, one of the best tactics is to give the reel a couple of turns to twitch the rigs back to the bank. This can be like a trigger to a fish that is in two minds whether to take the bait, as it thinks its dinner is getting away.
7) On the rise
Often the best time to fish a river for pike is when the water is rising. The prey fish become very active and they need to continually adjust their position in the river due to the ever changing current speeds.
This leaves them wide open to attack from a predator as they are forced to search refuge from the flood.
Conversely, once the river is in flood, the pike fishing will be next to useless due to the extra colour in the water. You will now have to wait until the flow ebbs and the colour once again drops out before the pike will feed confidently. On the plus side, if it floods for a good while, the fish will be ravenous when the waters do eventually start to go down.
PIKE FISHING NEAR ME | WHERE CAN I CATCH PIKE?
Wondering where is best to go pike fishing this weekend? Then you might want to take a look at our Fishing Near Me page. We’ve got loads of listicles for every species including pike! So if you’re stuck on where to fish then take a look as we can guarantee that you’ll find a river or lake near you, that is stacked with big pike! Click here to see more.
MORE PIKE FISHING TIPS!
Not had your fix of pike fishing tips and want more? Then head over to our pike species page where we have everything from tips to tackle and venues. Everything you would want to prepare yourself for your next session is here so head over and take a look. Click here to see our species page.
Top chub fishing tips to help you catch more
Chub are one of the best species to target on the rivers, especially when it’s cold. To help you land a specimen chub next time you’re out fishing on the bank, we’ve put this handy guide with great tips from top specimen angler Phil Spinks.
The real beauty of winter chub fishing is that it requires so little in the way of kit to be successful.
Travelling light with just a rod, a landing net, bait and a few items of tackle is such an uncluttered and enjoyable way to catch fish.
By staying mobile and hopping from swim to swim, it’s possible to search out all the best spots where the fish might be holed up.
To set you on the right path, this week we’ve picked the brains of specimen angler Phil Spinks. Here are the top spots he looks for when targeting chub.
Floating detritus
Rafts that build up against fallen trees or snags offer cover and free food to the chub.
slack water
The still area of water adjacent to the main flow is a classic hotspot. Being out of the flow, it is also easy to bait up.
Inlet
Anywhere a small stream or ditch joins the main river will be a regular hangout for any chub looking for an easy meal. They are drawn to the sound, movement and extra oxygenation.
overhanging tree
Any trees or bushes hanging over the water are always worth a cast. Chub always love a roof over their heads.
undercut banks
Undercuts can reach for several feet under the bank and are well worth exploring with a bait.
Deep holes
Depressions in the riverbed offer the fish shelter from the flow, and are also areas where natural food collects
Best Chub Fishing Baits
We went to bait expert Paul Garner to get his views on what the best baits for chub are. Take a look at what he had to say here
Chub Fishing Venues to visit
Want to know the best spots to go chub fishing this weekend? Then take a look at our fishing near me page which has loads of chub fishing venue guides.
River fishing expert Dave Harrell Q&A
River fishing pro Dave Harrell answers some of your burning river questions!
WINTER GROUNDBAIT?
Q) I fish a deep river where it’s hard to get loosefeed to the bottom. What groundbait mix would you recommend in winter?
A) I use groundbait a lot in the winter and my mix is simple. I use differing parts of Bait-Tech Pro Natural Original with molehill soil.
If there are a lot of fish, I mix 3kg of dry groundbait with 1.5 litres of soil. If the fish aren’t as plentiful, I use even more soil, as this will just get the loosefeed down rather than feeding them. My ‘difficult days’ mix is 1kg of Pro Natural Original to three litres of soil.
HOW MUCH LOOSEFEED?
Q) When floatfishing on rivers in the winter I struggle to keep bites coming. Could I possibly be overfeeding the swim?
A) In the cooler months two to three pints of feed is usually more than enough on most venues. I have fished matches and fed every cast but still not used a pint. A rule of thumb is feed light to start and feed to the response thereafter.
Chub and dace will eat a lot more feed than roach, so species also dictates how much to put in.
Try to ration yourself by measuring out half-pints into your bait tin rather than having all your bait out from the start.
What size hooks for chub!
Q) What size hooks should I use for chub? A friend told me I’d catch more on a size 20 than a bigger hook!
A) Chub have very big mouths. While I’ve caught them on huge baits intended for barbel, I’ve caught many more on a small hook with maggots. Always match the hook to the bait. For single maggot use a 20, for double maggot an 18 or 16, and for three or four maggots use a 14 or 12.
REEL & LINE?
Q) I want to do some feeder fishing for chub on the River Thames. Can you recommend a good reel and line combination?
A) I’m a big fan of Daiwa reels, and I use a TDR 3012 for this sort of fishing.
Use it in conjunction with 8lb (0.24mm) Pro Feeder line. This is a sinking line, which you can get down under the surface quickly.
How do I plumb the depth on a river?
Q) How do I plumb the depth on moving water? I struggle because the float keeps getting dragged under!
A) Plumb before you put a rig on. Fix a small top-and-bottom stick float or balsa on the line and tie a heavy plummet or bomb to the line.
With only the one weight to work with you’ll find the depth much quicker. Try walking downstream, plumbing up every couple of yards. Do this for at least 30m and you’ll find just how deep the swim is.
WHY DO I KEEP LOSING FISH?
Q) Over the past few months I have been bumping loads of grayling off. Can I do anything to stop this happening?
A) Lost fish can be a real frustration at times and, unfortunately, it’s very rare to hook a lot of river fish in a session and land them all. The problem is, the fish use the current to their advantage and twist themselves off the hook.
A few things you could try include finer wire hooks, bigger hooks and softer rods.
All these things can help you to land more fish.
Top specimen fishing tips with Dai Gribble
Specimen fishing expert Dai Gribble gives out four of his best specimen secrets from using the birdlife to help you catch pike all the the way to trying just a single hookbait!
1) Choose your targets wisely
At this time of year it pays to target fish based on prevalent conditions.
Certain species are much more likely to feed in the cold. On rivers this means grayling or chub when the rivers are low and temperatures are near-freezing.
Grayling above all others will provide good sport at such times. In the past I have had to pack up because of ice forming in the rod rings with grayling still feeding.
If you’re made of stern stuff, applying glycerine to your rod rings with a cotton bud should stop them freezing, but personally I find when it gets that cold a good book or football on TV are more appealing.
2) Grebes will help to find pike
Great crested grebes are one of our most iconic birds on stillwaters. Not only are they beautiful, but because they feed almost exclusively on small fish they give the angler a big clue where bait fish are in a lake.
If a family of grebes keep diving in the same area it is a sure sign that there are plenty of small fish in the vicinity. The good news for the angler is that if the grebes have found them, pike and perch will have done so too.
It’s not foolproof, but if you’re not catching where you are fishing a move to the area grebes are feeding is well worth considering.
3) Try a single hookbait
Fish are cold-blooded and slow up the colder it gets. This means they need less food, so you need to feed more cautiously.
If the fish you want to catch is only going to eat one item, be sure it’s the one with a hook in it!
Unless a river is in flood and heavily coloured, fishy will generally be aware of something appearing in their environment fairly quickly, if not instantly.
Take advantage of this by giving loosefeed a miss and casting out a single large, smelly hookbait – cheesepaste (above) is best.
As ever, be as quiet and stealthy as possible and often your rod-tip will pull round in a matter of minutes or even right away.
If you get no action you can introduce two or three small pieces of cheesepaste and come back later after trying other swims.
4) Keep an angling diary
Keeping a diary may seem like hard work, but it’s worth it. You don’t have to go into a lot of detail for every trip, but the more you record, the more you will get out of it.
Recording catches, weights, bait, conditions, rigs, swim details and memorable moments will serve two purposes.
First, it is great looking back at a diary at a later date, and second, it will help you build up a picture of the waters you fish. This, in turn, will almost certainly lead to improved catches.
I referred to my fishing diaries a lot when writing my book recently and I was surprised how on some occasions I had remembered things wrongly from years ago – I have to assume I wrote things correctly at the time! It’s only natural that you will forget the small details.
Perch fishing tips | 7 tips to catch more perch
Perch fishing has grown massively in popularity over the past few years, to help you stay on trend and make the most from your perch fishing ventures we have put together seven top tips to help you catch more perch. Take a look at the tips below and see what you can implement on your next session.
1) This species will react to movement of the bait so if your fishing a static bait, keep twitching it because this will often induce a bite from a perch.
2) Attract silver fish and big perch will follow. Try introducing a few maggots or a couple of balls of groundbait before making your first cast. Perch love to investigate and the sight of feeding silverfish will peak their interest.
3) Don’t use a rod that's too stiff in the tip. This species will shake their head under the rod tip. you will also want a tip that's very responsive as perch can be very finicky when it comes to bites.
4) Perch have bony mouths so use a big, strong hooks because hook ‘pulls’ are often the main cause of lost fish and will shake their head while hooked.
5) Drop shotting is a devastating tactic for catching big perch. This will often get you a bite when all other methods fail. It has become a very popular tactic in recent years and makes going out for a couple of hours very easy as you don't need much kit to be able to catch.
6) When fishing worms in coloured water try cutting two lobworms in half and hook four broken pieces. This gives you maximum attraction from the release of the baits juices.
7) Try using flavourings and colourings to make any small deadbait stand out.
Barbel fishing tips | Top barbel tips to get you started
Barbel fishing has really grown in popularity in recent seasons so if you’re just starting out on your barbel fishing adventure then you’ll want to look at these great tips from Drennan Cup winner Dai Gribble who has landed many specimen sized barbel over the years. He’s got you covered and with the help of these great tips you’ll be able to catch a barbel next time you are out on the bank.
1) getting the right FEEDER MIX for barbel
There’s no doubt that pellets are a very effective bait for barbel, and my feeder mix reflects this.
You’re looking to create a potent-smelling mix which can draw fish into your swim, and one that will keep them there for the maximum amount of time.
I use Sonubaits Barbel Pellets mixed with Hemp and Hali Crush groundbait – both of which have been purposely designed for river barbel fishing – and I will mix them in a ratio of around one part pellets to three parts Hemp and Hali Crush.
Small particles are best for keeping fish in your swim for longer and I like to use a range of sizes of pellet from 2mm up to 6mm so the fish don’t get preoccupied with one size of bait.
The pellets will slowly get washed downstream by the current, creating a bed of bait, while the finer particles of the groundbait will be washed further downstream, giving off a trail of attraction which will draw fish up towards the bed of pellets.
2) The perfect barbel Hookbait
For big-river barbel I use pre-drilled 6mm or 8mm Sonubaits Pellet-O’s and attach them with a Korum pellet stop which pulls back slightly into the pellet.
This needs to be taken into account to ensure the hair is the right length – always tie the hair a little shorter than you think you’ll need, because the pellet stop will extend it.
I find the easiest way to get it right is attach a pellet to the hair before tying the knotless knot, as this will ensure the hair is exactly the correct length.
I like to take a selection of hookbait flavours and colours with me to the bank, as this allows me to experiment during the course of a session.
In terms of flavours, I’ve caught particularly well on crab, halibut and krill-flavoured pellets.
A great trick to try is to glug your pellet hookbaits in Pellet Oil. This toughens them up, and that way they’ll last longer on the hair.
3) The best Tackle for barbel
I like a 12ft rod, as it helps keep the line out of the flow ands hold the feeder in position.
A freespool reel, set correctly, eliminates the risk of a barbel pulling a rod into the water.
Most times I prefer a single rod but if bites are hard to come by I’ll fish a second on the same line, a few yards further downstream. I fish it with a straight lead rather than a feeder, as I don’t want spread bait around the swim, preferring to stick with one baited area.
Plenty of bait will be carried past this downstream rod and the hope is that it will pick up fish reluctant to move over the main baited area.
Want more barbel fishing tips?
Hungry for more tips about barbel? Then make sure you check out our barbel species page, which has tips from loads of professional anglers to help you catch more next time you’re on the bank. Click here to see more tips.
Fishing Near Me | Where to catch barbel?
Don’t know where to go fishing for barbel? Then don’t panic as we’ve got you covered with our Fishing Near Me page, we’ve got loads of venue listicles on every species so you’re guaranteed to find somewhere to fish. Click here to see more
Top carp fishing tips | The bread punch
Without doubt one of the most effective methods on small commercial snake lakes when it goes cold is a tactic known as ‘dobbing’ bread... and it’s working right now!
At this time of year you’ll find that carp and F1s will shoal up into sometimes quite large groups and show very little interest in moving far to feed on your baits.
However, if you can ‘dob’ a bait right in front of their noses they will often just suck it in, as it’s an easy meal they don’t have to work very hard for.
The hard part, though, is finding the fish to start but once you do, they’re generally not too difficult to catch due to the large numbers of fish there can be in a shoal.
Punch size
This depends a lot on the size of fish I’m looking to catch. If it’s all carp I might start off on a 10mm punch because I believe a slightly bigger bait is easier for the fish too see. Carp tend to have big mouths so a 10mm piece of punch isn’t that big.
If I’m looking at a mixed bag of carp and F1s then I’ll kick off on an 8mm piece of punch as a good starting middle ground. If I start to miss bites I will quite happily drop down to a 6mm punch. F1s have small mouths so dropping down a punch size can make a big difference in terms of the bite-to-fish ratio.
Once you start fishing and find a few fish the first thing you’ll need to do is work out what depth they are sitting at.
Normally, at the start, I will have a quick plumb up of the areas I want to fish prior to fishing to get an idea of the depth in front of me.
Finding the right depth
Once this is done I mark the depth on my pole and then take 4ins off the depth of the rig by sliding my float down.
This then means when the float settles I’ll be fishing 4ins off the bottom. I always prefer to start off fishing relatively deep as this way I can cover more water as the rig falls through the layers.
Today I’m at Guru Makins and I started 4ins off bottom, eventually finding the fish thanks to a few indications.
Unfortunately the first fish was foul-hooked and so I shallowed up the rig by another 4ins and went back into the same spot.
Sure enough, the next fish was hooked properly and, after a couple more fish from the same area, I felt I’d found the depth they wanted to sit at on the day – sometimes it really is that quick!
If I’d still been getting indications and no proper bites after changing the depth then I would have shallowed up further until I found the fish.
Starting your session the other way around – starting shallow and then going deeper to try to find the fish – doesn’t work, because the deeper rig is the key to helping you spot indications to start with.
The best bait – bread!
I’m often asked why bread is such a good hookbait for dobbing. I think it’s mainly down to colour. The water on most commercials tends to go very clear in the cold, so white bread is very easy for the fish to see.
I think texture is massively important as well. Once bread has been in the water a minute or so it becomes very soft, which makes it easy for a fish to slurp in with minimal effort.
When dobbing bread I get very few instant bites – say, within 10 seconds of putting a new piece of bread on – yet as soon as the bread becomes soft I get that bite.
Fresh is best
Having tried most bread on the market, if I had a choice it would always be Warburtons Extra Thick – the one in the orange bag.
I always try and get the freshest loaf possible, too, because this way it’s softer and extremely rubbery, which helps ensure it stays on the hook long enough for me to get a bite.
I used to mess around microwaving the bread to make it more rubbery, but now I just prefer to get a fresh loaf and use that.
The only time I’d consider microwaving bread would be if I couldn’t find any fresh and had to use a loaf that had dried out a bit.
Avoid the hotspot
Where you start fishing is crucial to success, and there is always a temptation to go straight to the most likely-looking spot for a fast start.
The problem with this is if this spot isn’t straight in front of you then you risk pushing the fish straight out of your swim.
Therefore, I always prefer to start off straight in front of me and then work to the left and right of my area, which I’ve found gives you more goes at the shoal.
What tends to happen is you find a pod of fish and catch a few before bites slow up because the shoal has become spooked and has moved.
It’s really all about finding them again and normally they don’t go far – one metre or two metres at most.
How to catch more carp on micro pellets when fishing
Additives and flavours – do they work or are they a waste of time? Anything that gives me more chance of getting a bite has to be worth investigation.
Much of my winter fishing revolves around the feeder, and in coloured water I work on the principle that if I can get the fish to find the micro pellets around the feeder then they should take the hookbait next to it. To achieve this, I pack a couple of flavourings in my bag – Ringers Chocolate Orange spray and stick mix liquid.
Flavouring pellets
Once my micro pellets are perfectly dampened for wrapping around a Hybrid feeder I’ll douse them in a five second squirt of stick mix liquid.
The end result is pellets that smell lovely and which will put out a scent for the fish to locate. My hookbait is straight from the tub – if I can get the fish to find the micros, they’ll soon take the bait!
Top hookbaits
In coloured water it has to be a bayonetted Ringers Allsorts which are fluoro pink, yellow and white. I also have a tub of the old faithful Chocolate Orange wafters on the go too. I throw one of each into the water at my feet, see which one is the most visible, and use that.
Generally, this means pink or orange. For hookbait sizes, an 8mm will catch everything but if I was after only carp, this would change to a 10mm or 12mm bait
Groundbait
Using groundbait around a Method or Hybrid feeder has fallen out of fashion but it does give you another way of putting more smell into the water and it can be very good for getting a pull when the fishing is hard.
I use a ratio of one third groundbait to two thirds pellets and go for Ringers Original fishmeal mix in dirty water, changing to Ringers Dark if the water is a little clearer.
20 Carp fishing tips to try right now!
With carp fishing being as popular as it is, it can sometimes be a struggle to head to a water full of confidence that you may actually catch a carp, especially on heavily fished waters. However to help you in your quest for a big carp while fishing, we have decided to come up with 20 carp fishing tips to help give you an added edge over the angler in the next swim. Check out our list of carp tips below and let us know what carp fishing tip best suits you!
Freezer or shelf-life?
Both types of boilie work well when carp fishing but ultimately it comes down to personal preference. Freezer baits contain few preservatives and so are ‘fresher’ but won’t keep once defrosted making these best for one or two sessions at best. Shelf-lifes can be kept in the resealable bag for ages but aren’t as fresh. However, they remain effective for longer than freezer baits and so are a better choice for the occasional carper.
Carp fishing line
Old-fashioned mono reel line is supple and forgiving, but there are two other options that have somewhat niche uses.
Braid is no good for fishing for carp at distance but at close range and in snags it is brutal stuff that won’t break, while fluorocarbon is almost invisible underwater and sinks well, ending up pinned to the lakebed. This makes it very useful in gin-clear water or on hard-fished venues.
Choose the right hook for carp
Carp hooks do various jobs. For surface fishing or when using pop-ups, go for a wide gape hook. For fishing a bottom bait, little can beat a long shank pattern.
Curved shank hooks are brilliant for wary carp that may otherwise eject another pattern as they pick it up. So think about the fishing you are going to do before choosing your hooks.
Carry different boilies
Of all the sizes available, 14mm and 16mm boilies are the most popular – but carp see a lot of them and can associate them with danger.
The way round this is to scale down to a 10mm bait, either as a single or double offering. At the opposite end of the scale, a bigger 18mm or 20mm hookbait will give them something different, and a real mouthful.
See more carp fishing bait here:
First locate your carp
Where will the carp be when you arrive at the lake? Several factors have to be taken into consideration.
A good starting point is the north-east corner of a lake. This will get the sun and also avoid the worst of any colder winds. Reeds and weeds are fish-holding spots, and a noticeable drop-off in depth offers an area where carp can move up and down in the water.
Check out 20 of the best carp fishing runs waters
Check the lakebed
Every lake is different when it comes to what’s on the bottom. It could be gravel, sand, silt or mud and all substrates have their pros and cons. Cast a lead around the peg with braided mainline and slowly wind it back, feeling for different sensations as it comes back.
Tremors and taps on the rod-tip will indicate gravel, whereas silt will feel like pulling the lead through cotton wool as it sticks in the muck. A smooth retrieve spells a sandy bottom.
Perfect your rods
Carp fishing rods are sold with varying actions and it can be hard to know which one to pick. A rod with a fast action makes a great casting tool but can lead to hook-pulls at the net... a through-actioned rod struggles to send leads a long way. The happy medium is a middle-to-tip-actioned rod that will let you throw a long way but be soft enough to ensure that fish don’t come off.
Switch to fakes
Carp of all sizes love maggots, but so do small fish. If your water responds to a maggot attack, don’t use live ones on the hook as these will be smashed by roach and bream. Instead, carry a pack of fake rubber maggots and thread four or five of these on to a hair rig. They look just like the real thing and won’t be shredded by nuisance fish.
Change boilie shape
Sometimes a round boilie won’t catch, but something as simple as altering its shape will get a take. Take a boilie and carve the edges off to create a square or irregularly-shaped bait. Better still, invest in a tub of barrel-shaped dumbell boilies.
Cast to the horizon
You need to choose a rod with the correct action in the first place. Balance and rhythm are the human element to casting further, and that means having a strong footing to cast off. When casting, have one hand (the one holding the rod and reel) pushing forwards while the second hand lower down the handle pulls back. This creates the whipping motion and the leverage needed to power the lead out.
Tip a pop-up
Adding a few maggots to the hook turns a standard pop-up boilie into something a little bit different that may just grab the attention of a carp or two on hard days. To do this, thread the pop-up on to the hair and then nick on the maggots before sliding the boilie down.
Wash out your baits
Changing how your bait looks on the lakebed can go a long way to producing a fish. A common trick is to ‘wash out’ a boilie.
This means fading its natural colour by leaving it soaking in water for a few days. The result is a pale bait that looks as though it has been on the bottom a long while and is safe.
Know your leads
A standard pear-shaped lead will work for most carp fishing situations but not all.
Pears are fine for all-round work when casting up to 80 yards but to go longer, an elongated distance lead will help you hit the mark. A flattened pear leads comes into play in silt or on lakebeds covered in debris. It will sit on top of the muck rather than sink into it.
Try Zig bugs
Surface fishing provides exciting carp sport in summer, and Chum mixers or floating pellets are normally the go-to baits for many carpers.
However, Nash Zig Bugs have really made an impression over recent years. These represent insects that carp will see on the surface throughout the year.
Deposit your feed
PVA bags for depositing feed around the rig come in mesh or solid versions. Solid bags will cast a long way with the lead buried inside and the feed packed tightly to produce a streamlined missile. Mesh comes into play for fishing as a stick of feed that breaks down quickly and forces the particles out through the holes almost immediately. It can’t be cast that far, and so is better for shorter chucks.
Tighten the clutch
Don’t fish with the clutch set too light. This will let a carp power off rather than come off the hook, but you won’t be able to exert any pressure.
Instead, fish with a tighter clutch. This will immediately give you the upper hand and stop that first run – from then on you can slacken the clutch or even use the reel’s backwind facility if preferred to a degree that suits you and the swim you are fishing in.
Feed crushed pellets
When floater fishing, instead of firing in 8mm floating pellets from the bag, grind some up and break others into halves or quarters.
When fed, this range of bait sizes will see some float and some sink while releasing smaller particles into the water. This can work well when the fish have shied away from whole pellets.
Strip some braid
Braid hooklinks lack stretch but will sink and stay on the bottom. If you want the best of both worlds, try coated braid with the outer coating stripped off – these are supple but still sink.
Make use of the power of particles
Too many anglers think that boilies and pellets are all they need on the bait front. That’s true to an extent, but it can get expensive when baiting up in bulk. Particles are perfect for prebaiting or for piling in as a large hit at the start of a session and because they are relatively small, they keep fish grubbing around in the swim for longer. Parti-Blend is a super mix of seeds and pulses that covers all bases, while hemp, maize, sweetcorn and maple peas mixed together make another knockout feed.
Get zig depth right
How far do you set the hookbait to be off bottom when fishing a zig rig? Start with the bait at around three-quarters depth and then move it up or down by a foot at a time every hour or so until you get an indication.
Chuck a single out
In the winter months carp fishing can be quite hard going with the species starting to switch off from feeding on large amounts of food. This is why it’s a good time to change tactics and cast out a single boilie on a rig of your choice towards showing fish or spots that you believe will deliver. This is one of the best ways to get a quick bite in cold conditions.
HOW TO PRESENT YOUR BAIT OVER WEED
One of the biggest questions that gets sent into the Angling Times office is how do I present a bait over weed when carp fishing? Well we have the answer for you and that is PVA bags they are a life saver in situations when you can’t guarantee that your bait will be well presented on the bottom. A PVA bag will protect your hookbait all the way to the bottom and ensure that it is well presented for when the carp come sniffing over it. Another positive to this method is that you know that you’ve got a nice pile of bait surrounding your boilie to help entice the carp over.
Eight great fishing tips to keep you catching!
In the colder months it can become much harder to catch while fishing. To give you the best possible chance of catching we have gone to Dai Gribble who will reveal the best ways to maximise your fish catches during the cold spell.
For more great tips from top anglers head to this year’s The Big One Show
• Be Prepared
Days are short so you need to make the most of your time on the bank – and that means things like setting rods up at home are a must-do at this time of year.
It’s far easier than trying to thread the eyes of your rod in the half-light of dawn when you should be focusing on getting a bite at what is often the key time for big fish.
By keeping rods set up and ready to go you are also in a better position to take advantage of good conditions.
If everything is in a heap in your garage you may decide it isn’t worth the effort and you won’t benefit – simple!
• Maximise time
Many species feed best at first light and again as light levels begin to fall towards dusk. If you can, plan to fish at one of these times rather than in the middle of the day.
Often you will find one species will feed more at a particular time of day on a particular water. If you fish the same venue regularly you might spot a pattern, such as getting more pike runs between, say, 10am and midday. Make the most of this by ensuring you are set up and ready in advance.
• Be ready for everything
One of the best pieces of advice I can give for all-round anglers looking for specimen fish is to always have the right bait ready to go. This means investing in a bait fridge/freezer.
Maggots and worms will last for weeks in a fridge, while deadbaits for pike will last all season in a freezer.
Having good bait for different species readily available enables you to target the species that is most likely to feed under conditions on the day (or night).
• Use a weather app
Weather can have a big impact on winter fishing, and it makes sense to target a species that is most likely to be feeding.
There are loads of weather apps for phones, and long-range forecasts are easily found on the internet, so use them to your advantage, especially if you’re fishing on stillwaters which are prone to freezing over.
• And river levels...
There are a number of websites and apps that allow you to check river levels, and this is something I tend to do every day.
The ones I use the most are GaugeMap and the Environement Agency’s website. GaugeMap is great, as you can go back more than the past five days to get historic info on the venue.
It’s vital that you don’t just look at the one nearest to where you are planning to fish, though. Look at the ones upstream to get an idea of what is heading your way.
Once you know the likely level you can determine which species is best to target.
• Baiting up
Remember the old adage that you can always put more in, but you can’t take it out – and think about your baiting strategy carefully.
Fish are cold-blooded, so their metabolism gets slower the colder it grows, which means they eat less.
The good news is that most species respond well to a slight rise in temperature... and even the smallest of temperature increases can trigger feeding activity, so make sure you’re ready with the bait.
• Get on the move
It often pays to move swims regularly as then you will almost certainly be presenting your bait to many more fish, and the chances of a bite increase.
On stillwaters, for example, pike can be quite sluggish other than during short feeding spells, but you can often trick them into taking a bait outside their prime feeding times if you cast a bait very close to them.
Be prepared to recast baits around the swim rather than casting out and sitting with baits in one place for a long time.
• Keep warm
Winter fishing isn’t much fun if you’re cold and wet, but these days there’s no excuse for going badly dressed.
There is a lot of really good clothing available from both angling companies and outdoor shops.
Temperatures often plummet when the sun sets, and you don’t want to leave just at prime time because you are cold.
In extreme weather, when the rivers are full of snow-melt and stillwaters are frozen over, then my best advice is to stay at home! This is when you can spend some time gleaning vital info for your next trip. Did I mention I’ve just launched my new Beyond Dreams book…
Four top targets for the months ahead
Winter has crept over the threshold and the next few months won’t see much respite from the cold.
So is this a time to stow the tackle away, light a log fire and dream of better times to come?
After all, what chance have you got when the river bursts its banks and floods the surrounding farmland? Even when it stops raining, frost seems to suck the life from every lake and stream, exchanging nature’s colourful palette for gloomy monochrome.
Despite winter’s extremes I happily rise to the challenge. Only snow melt keeps me indoors in the warm. Match your fish species to the conditions and there’s no reason why you should fail – and there’s the added bonus that your quarry is putting on weight in readiness to spawn. Now, more than at any other time, comes the chance of a personal best.
So whatever the winter brings, it will still be worth casting a line. The biggest challenge is probably leaving home and the TV!
Now let’s take a look at four species, and how they will put a bend in your rod this winter.
For more great tips from top anglers head to this year’s The Big One Show
Target 1: Perch
The beauty of a shoal of sergeants is that they can be found anywhere – from rivers and streams to lakes and canals. So whatever the conditions you’ll have a chance of finding fish in fine fettle.
My biggest tip is to make sure you fish during the short feeding period that occurs every day, regardless of temperature. If the water is clear this will be from 3pm to dusk, but all that changes if there is a tinge of colour in the water similar to that found in commercial fisheries. Then, early afternoon is best and sport tails off as darkness approaches.
Why is this so? Well, in my opinion light levels are the trigger for perch to feed, and three factors are involved –the amount of sunlight, the clarity of the water and its temperature. Nothing in nature happens accidentally, and even if we can’t understand it, this doesn’t mean it’s a random occurrence.
Although lure fishing is still all the rage I rarely do it these days. The fact is it’s been done to death, and the perch aren’t daft enough to keep eating plastic. If you find a virgin water, great, but if not, stick to real food. Provided the water isn’t like pea soup a livebait takes some beating. Fish it on 5lb line, under a Drennan Loafer float and a size 4 Kamasan B983. If you’re unable to catch any, or rules dictate you can’t, don’t worry – I’m supremely confident with a worm, caster and red maggot combo.
Finally, if small fish prove a nuisance, try a prawn and always remember to use a resistance-free set-up in your pursuit of perch, ‘the biggest of all fish’.
Target 2: Barbel
Barbel love a warm, flooded river. In a raging flow tactics are more akin to cod fishing but trust me, below the turbulence the fish will be feeding.
In such conditions a big lump of paste wrapped around a boilie takes some beating, a good back-up being a lump of meat. I fish these on a size 4 or 5 Cryogen Gripper hook and 3ft of 20lb Tungsten Loaded coated braid. The rest of the tackle needs to be just as robust, especially if you’re using 5oz to hold bottom. Leadcore is great in snaggy situations – my favourite is 18lb Syncro XT.
Where, though, do you cast such tackle when faced with a maelstrom? Look for creases formed by bends, cattle drinks and cribs, as well as what I describe as ‘glass water’. This is a calm section amid the turbulence and will probably indicate a smooth gravel bottom.
Provided the temperature is high, barbel will feed in clear conditions just as enthusiastically as in a big flood. For this scenario maggots in a big feeder, cast regularly, can’t be beaten.
Come on… surely the thought of a rod hooping over in the rests is enough to make you leave the sofa?
Target 3: Grayling
Sub-zero temperatures and a clear river will put off many anglers, but these conditions are the signal for grayling to feed. Unless the water has actually frozen over you’ll have a chance.
Nor is the species for just the lucky few who can fish a chalk stream. Even the Trent holds these beautiful fish, so do a bit of research and there’s a fair chance that you’ll have an opportunity to catch grayling close to home.
Maggots and corn form the basis of the attack with a 13ft or 14ft float rod and 4lb mainline.
The mono must not sink and you need a big, buoyant float to stay in control. I would then bulk-shot at three-quarters depth with a couple of dropper shot below that. For corn, a size 14 hook is perfect, or an 18 with maggots.
Putting your hookbait in the right place and feeding correctly are what count, and I wouldn’t be without a little bait dropper. Often, feeding by hand is fine but when the water deepens I want to be more accurate. This is when I reach for the dropper.
Stay mobile and try to cover plenty of water. However cold it is, rest assured there is always somewhere a grayling will be willing to feed.
Target 4: Chub
If any fish can get you out of jail it’s the chub, and a whole host of tactics will catch them.
I prefer a clearing river, but a big smelly bait in a flood can also produce the goods.
I enjoy trotting a float and spraying maggots, but for this the water has to be on the low side. Trotting works best when a shoal is targeted. So unless I’m certain what’s in front of me I’m more likely to be roving with a quivertip.
It’s important to use a rod with interchangeable tips, and to choose the lightest one possible. Remember, too, that once you’ve got on 3oz or more to combat the flow there is far too much pressure on a glass tip and you’ll be wasting your time. Far better to switch to carbon and cast slightly upstream, putting a bow in the line.
Use just enough weight to hold bottom and look for drop-backs.
Both bread and cheesepaste take some beating and can be used in a number of ways. I’m more likely to use bread with a feeder to give the added attraction of liquidised particles. With cheese I will use a link-leger and rely on the hookbait or introduce extra bits of paste by hand.
Either way, in my book, a day spent roving for chub takes some beating.
Top 10 pole fishing tips!
For more great tips from top anglers head to this year’s The Big One Show
• Sprinkle in the feed
Pole fishing in the cold is all about trying to get fish to drop down onto the bottom to feed and there is no better way to do so than with a sprinkle pot.
The beauty of a sprinkle pot is that you can feed very small amounts of bait on a regular basis without having to keep shipping back in and out to do so.
The idea with feeding just one or two maggots or five or six micro pellets is that any fish in the area see the bait falling through the water and then follow it down to feed.
F1s in particular respond really well to this approach. Quite often if the fishing is hard I will fill the pot full of micros and just keep tapping a few out every 60 seconds or so. This is a great way of making something happen as opposed to waiting for it to do so.
• Feed with accuracy
Pole pot position is, without doubt, one of the most important things to get right when fishing for F1s.
It never ceases to amaze me when I see anglers who just slide a pot on and start fishing.
F1 fishing is all about feeding small amounts of bait and keeping everything tight, something you can’t do if your pole pot is 6ins back from your tip!
If your pot is 6ins back then every time you feed your hookbait is at least 6ins away from the loosefeed. While you might get away with this when carp fishing, you won’t when targeting F1s.
The optimum position for a pole-mounted pot is right on the pole tip. This way you know you are feeding right on top of your float and concentrating the fish where you want them.
• Use a ‘half-ex’
When targeting carp and F1s in the cold a really effective trick is to start new swims away from my initial area.
Often I’ll catch five or six fish from a spot before it dies, usually because the fish have spooked and moved. The problem is that they rarely come back and so you need to go chasing around your swim to find them. This is where half-extensions, or dolly butts as they’re also known, come into their own.
When fish move they don’t go far, so moving just 0.5m is more often than not far enough to put you back in touch with the shoal.
A half-ex allows you to move quickly, efficiently and accurately.
• Keep your rig moving
Winter polefishing is all about making the fish ‘have it’ as opposed to sitting and waiting for a bite.
If you sat behind me polefishing I think you would be staggered at how much I move the hookbait. I do this primarily by lifting and dropping the rig.
Lifting and dropping basically involves lifting the float anything from 3ins to 12ins clear of the water and lowering it back down again slowly. This movement causes the hookbait to rise and fall in the water, something which fish often find impossible to resist, and bites tend to come just as the float settles again.
Quite often you can sit without a sign with a motionless float, only to lift and drop and get a bite immediately, that’s how effective that little bit of movement can be.
• Look for cover
One thing is for sure, when the water goes cold and clear, any sort of cover – especially rush beds, aerators, or even structures like bridges – will hold carp and F1s.
When it comes to targeting them, I always fish just off the cover to start with and try and pick up a couple of ‘easy’ fish.
Once the early bites stop I simply move closer and closer to the cover, picking fish off as I go.
When I say you have to go tight to the cover, I do mean tight – this often means resting your float against an aerator for instance.
• Consider colour
After spending a lot of time maggot fishing for F1s it became really apparent was that hookbait choice made a big difference, and two maggots on the hook always seemed to be better than one.
Most anglers, however, tended to just fish two red maggots whereas I always found adding a little bit of colour made a huge difference, and seemed to get more bites fishing a red and a white maggot.
I’m sure that in the clear water the white maggot stood out that little bit better than the red but by combining the two I was getting the best of both worlds so don’t be afraid to mix it up with your bait colours in the winter.
• Maggots & pellets
A trick which has served me well when F1 fishing is to take both pellets and maggots, and always start by fishing with pellets.
Pellets are very much an instant bait for F1s and will give you a fast start. I’ll usually stick with them for chasing fish around up to the three hour mark, before making the important switch to maggots.
The difference with maggots is that the fish always seem to feed properly on them, as in they get their heads down and you won’t need to move around your swim.
It therefore makes sense to fish maggots late as that’s when the F1s tend to want to feed, normally as the light starts to drop.
• Try going long
As far as open water pole fishing goes, the best bit of advice I can give you is that if you’re struggling for bites then ‘go long’!
When the water is cold and clear and the carp don’t really want to feed they will push out from the bank to where they feel safe.
When I used to fish Makins Phase One in the winter when it was rock hard the best way to catch a carp or two was always on the long pole, normally 16m if the wind allowed.
When I went long, I’d feed just enough bait to catch one fish and wait, then repeat the process.
• Always feed a short line
A line I always like to put in at this time of the year is a short pole corn line. In the warmer months this would be a meat line, but at this time of year it is all about corn.
With the water being clear I feel that corn offers that bit more visibility, making it a lot more effective.
The secret to the short corn line is the feeding and I won’t start putting any bait in until two hours to go. Even then I will feed it purely by hand if possible.
Little and often is the key and I’ll flick four to six grains out every two minutes, working on the same principle as the sprinkle pot, banking on the bait falling through the water drawing the fish in.
Most people make the mistake of dump-potting corn in, and this just isn’t as effective once the water goes clear keep it dripping in.
• Use fluoro
Over the last few years I’ve become a massive fan of fluorocarbon in cold, clear water as I believe it gives me an edge, especially when I am targeting notoriously clever fish such as F1s.
I use a 4ins hooklength of 0.10mm Pure Fluorocarbon and this is attached loop to loop to my mainline of 0.13mm Guru N-Gauge.
Hook choice for maggot fishing is a size 18 Guru F1 maggot hook which is a lightweight pattern perfect for this type of fishing.
Improve your watercraft and catch more!
There’s no point in having the latest kit and top-quality bait if you turn up at your peg and end up fishing in completely the wrong spot to begin with.
Watercraft is what angling success boils down to at this time of year and even on relatively featureless-looking commercial fisheries, there’s still plenty going on under the water to dictate where the fish will and won’t be.
Faced with a large expanse of open water and little on the surface to base your attack around, how can you work out where to target your attack at a time of year when the weather can change drastically and alter the feeding habits of the fish?
Let Matrix-backed triple Fish O’Mania champion Jamie Hughes be your guide to keeping the bites coming as Christmas is knocking on the door – it’s really not as complicated as it may seem at first glance!
For more great tips from top anglers head to this year’s The Big One Show
What to fish
“Faced with open water, the first problem you may encounter is tow caused by the wind. Wide exposed swims are prone to this and it can render the pole line unfishable in terms of presentation.
“If this was the case then the feeder or bomb would come to the fore but provided conditions are not too bad, the pole has to be the No1 approach for precise feeding and perfect presentation. I’d certainly always set both up because the wind can change during a session and increase tow.”
Where to fish
“You may not have any fish-holding features on the surface so your best friend will be a plummet. Most lakes have changes in depth and these may be a matter of inches but they can make a big difference.
“I’d spend a good 15 minutes plumbing around the swim on the pole to find these depth changes and would think nothing of going out to 16m to find them. I’m looking for an underwater bar that offers a substantial depth change. On the feeder, this isn’t as important as I’ll be using the rod to cast around as opposed to building up a swim in one spot.”
The bait to bring
“Maggots are good for F1s and silvers, but if you’re after carp, nothing beats pellets – even in cold weather. Hard pellets beat soft expanders every time, so I’d bring some 4mm and 6mm hard pellets and a bag of micro pellets. That should be ample for a winter session. Changing hookbaits is key so I’d throw in a tin of corn and some bright wafters for the tip.”
Casting around
“Unlike in summer, I’m not trying to build a peg up with the feeder. Instead, I’ll cast to different spots around the peg. When I catch a fish I then chuck back to the same spot but if nothing else happens, I’ll be on the move again.
“How long I leave the feeder out depends on if anyone around me is catching on the tip. That could mean waiting up to half-an-hour before winding in. I’ll revisit spots that I’ve cast to earlier in the day as the little consignment of pellets that went in beforehand may just be enough to draw in a few carp.”
Pole baits
“I’d begin fishing with bread dobbing about at half-depth to try and catch fish that aren’t that interested in feeding but would only give this 15 minutes using an 8mm piece of breadpunch.
“If I’ve not caught then I fall back to fishing pellet, a hard 6mm banded on the hook with micro pellets fed via a small pot.”
Get on the pole!
“Should the weather be good then I’ll always go for the pole. Where to fish is all about what’s underwater and at my local fishery Mill House, there’s an underwater bar at around 16m on every peg – and that’s what I’m looking for. There’s no guarantee that the carp will want to be on top of the bar so I hedge my bets to fish both this shallower water and the deeper spot just in front or behind it.
“When you’re talking distance there’s no point trying to catch short because the fish will be reluctant to feed here and 13m would be as close to the bank as I’d go. I’d kick off here in the deep water for reasons of comfort as much as anything else!
“When to fish the shallower bar is down to if anglers around me are fishing here and catching, but also the air pressure. In high pressure, the carp seem to prefer sitting in the shallower water on the bar ,but in low pressure, they’re in the deep water. That’s the rule of thumb I subscribe to.”
Go for The feeder if it’s windy
“If the wind is too bad to fish the pole properly, the tip is your only sensible option and this gives me two options – bomb or feeder. In very clear water I’d go for the bomb, but if there’s still some colour in the lake then the feeder is better.
“My feeder is a Matrix Alloy Open Method, but this is in the smallest size available to introduce just a dozen micro pellets on each cast. Roughly, I want to feed on the feeder the same amount that I’d be putting in if I was fishing the pole. Tackle is still sensible for carp, with an 0.16mm Power Micron hooklink to a size 16 KKM-B hook.
“As for hooklinks I try to use as short a link as I can, often just 2cm long. This gives the fish less chance of ejecting the hookbait.”
Let the bait fall slowly
“At Mill House the carp seem to watch the bait and feed fall and then take it just as it settles. I’ll trickle in a dozen micros and lay the rig in over the top, expecting a bite within 60 seconds.
“If not, I lay the rig in again and wait another minute before shipping in and repeating. My rig features a strung shotting pattern with a Malman Roob float taking between 4x12 to 4x16 dependent on the wind.
“The lighter float has strung shot but on a heavier rig, these are spaced slightly closer together for better presentation, leaving around 2cm of float tip showing. I also never fish overdepth because you can miss a lot of bites from carp.”
Waggler fishing tips for your local commercial
We all know how deadly the pole is for catching, offering unrivalled accuracy in feeding and hookbait presentation.
For more great tips from top anglers head to this year’s The Big One Show
But, as the water on commercial fisheries begins to clear a little, waving carbon over the heads of the fish can be the worst thing you can possibly do!
Although you’ll still catch on the pole, having a waggler line up your sleeve can keep the bites coming. Such is its effectiveness in November and beyond that you may not even need to pick the pole up at all.
Rod and line allows you to cast around the peg to find the fish and present the bait at a range of depths, yet it’s a criminally under-used approach.
Norfolk matchman Robert Walton knows the value of the ‘wag’, however, and it plays a key part in the Matrix Wensum Valley Angling man’s cold-weather approach on his local Reepham Fisheries. Here’s how he fishes his float-and-maggot approach...
Why use the waggler?
“Fish will back off from the pole line so it is important to have a second line on the go. The waggler offers more versatility in terms of how far out you can fish.
“My pole line would typically be around 13m out. I then have my waggler line at around twice this distance so that I’m keeping both lines well apart. Fishing at this time of year – especially for F1s – is about getting bites regularly.
“Because of the size of the fish, you need to keep something going in the net throughout the day.”
Multiple swims
“I’ll begin on the waggler because this gives me time to prime my pole line and let things settle down. I’ll have two areas to cast to, roughly at angles of 10 o’clock and two o’clock in the swim.
“I’d give this between 45 minutes and an hour before picking a top kit up. Two lines also lets me experiment with my feed.”
Come off bottom
“Don’t think that the fish will always be on the bottom – especially F1s. These fish can come off bottom to get at the loosefeed or sometimes because they simply prefer to be here, and this will be shown by knocks as the bait falls, or by line bites.
“Fishing 1ft off the deck can result in a smaller stamp of fish, but it will keep you catching. The colder the weather is, the more productive fishing off bottom is, so it’s worth bearing that in mind.”.
Waggler rig
“The float is a 4g loaded Matrix insert waggler to a 5lb mainline and an 0.11m hooklink to a size 20 Matrix Carp Bagger hook to fish double maggot (one red and one white). This is set around 2ins overdepth with shotting down the line made up of four No9s set 4ins apart in the bottom half of the rig.”
Feeding
“Around 20 maggots every couple of minutes are catapulted in. By having two lines to go at, I can feed more on one of them to see how fish will react. To give them a bit of a kick, I spray the feed with Marukyu’s Scopex Amino Spray to give them a lovely bit of scent.”
Casting around
“Although I try to land the waggler in the same spot, it does no harm to cast beyond the feed or to either side to see if the fish have backed away. I do this if I’ve waited a while for a bite. My plan is to cast past the feed and wind the float back into the target area. This is where in that opening hour I’d expect to pick up a few carp and F1s. If the response is slow, cast past the feed and leave the float there.”
Chub fishing tips | Rigs, Bait and chub tips
Here are some of the best chub fishing tips to help you catch a personal best next time you are out on the bank. To get the best chub tips possible we have gone to current Drennan Cup champion Dai Gribble.
For more great tips from top anglers head to this year’s The Big One Show
The link leger rig has to be one of the simplest set-ups in fishing, and I can’t believe more anglers don’t use it when targeting chub in autumn and winter.
What it lacks in complexity it certainly makes up for in its ability to put a hookbait in the perfect position – and its fish-catching prowess is unrivalled.
In fact, some of my biggest-ever chub have fallen to this rig.
My rig is made up of a leger bead threaded on to the mainline, followed by two float stops.
A large hook such as a Korum Power in size 8 or 6 is tied directly to the mainline with a five-turn grinner knot.
The weight for the rig is made up of an SSG or AAA shot which is attached to a doubled-over loop of line threaded through the small hole in the leger bead.
It might seem simple, but there are some great benefits. First, it only has one knot in the entire rig which makes it as strong as possible. The lack of hardwear makes it stealthy too.
It’s adjustable as well, and although I use two float stops to prevent the weights from sliding down to the hook on the cast, these can be moved by hand to vary the length of your hooklink.
If the rig gets snagged then the shot can easily slide off the short link, leaving the mainline free.
Combine the rig with a loaf of bread and you have the perfect combo for roving the banks and searching out those chub-holding hotspots.
How many fish?
This style of fishing is ‘smash and grab’, and in many small swims you are unlikely to catch more than a single chub as the disturbance of catching one will spook any other fish present for an hour or two.
In larger swims such as long creases, by starting at the upstream end and working down you can catch more than one. If you do catch a chub, hold it in your landing net for a few minutes while you try for a second.
Where to find the fish
Chub will be found in many different types of swim. In particular they love the cover provided by overhanging trees, and creases where slower water sits beside the main current.
The beauty of roving is that you are not committed to staying in one swim for long – if you don’t get bites, move on to another.
I like to bait three or four swims before fishing each one in turn.
The rig I use makes changing the amount of shot very easy, so I can add or remove shot to ensure the hookbait ends up where I want it. In some cases I add shot to get the bait to hold further out, in others I use less shot so the rig pulls under a tree or other close-in feature such as an undercut bank.
Prep your swim
When roving for chub I like to fish lots of swims, as I have found that if a chub is present and willing to feed I get bites very soon after casting.
To improve my chances I like to prepare a number of swims prior to fishing them by introducing a couple of handfuls of mashed bread.
I make mashed bread up in small amounts. I simply take the centre out of three or four slices of thick sliced white bread, which are saved for hookbait.
The remainder is put in my landing net and submerged until the air bubbles stop coming out. The bread is then lifted out and allowed to drain before putting it into a bait box and mashing it up with my fingers.
The aim is to break it up into small pieces but not turn it into a complete mush.
The mashed bread can then be fed by squeezing it into small balls. These should explode on impact, leaving a mixture of different-sized fragments of bread, everything from crumbs up to pieces about 2cm across.
Why not use a feeder?
The reason I don’t use a feeder filled with liquidised bread when roving for chub is that most of the time I want to move my hookbait into position after casting, for example, under a tree.
Under such circumstances a feeder won’t work. All the contents will come out as the bait is swinging into place, and rather than draw fish to the bait it will actually draw them away from it.
My approach is to present a bait to fish where they are living rather, than sit and wait for them to come to me.
My two hookbaits
I use bread in two forms for hookbaits for this style of fishing – flake and crust.
When using flake I like to fold a piece of bread about the size of £2 coin over and then squeeze the folded piece gently around the shank of the hook, before gently working the hookpoint clear.
I generally fish flake with a hooklength about 2ft long, but will lengthen this if I am getting only tentative bites.
Often, plain flake works really well but if bites are not forthcoming I add a bit of extra attraction with a squirt of Sonubaits Cheesy Garlic Lava. This adds a big hit of smell to what is already a highly visible bait.
Crust is hooked by pushing the hook through one side of the crust and then turning it and pulling it back. I like to use a piece about 2cm square and I’ll shorten the hooklength to 5cm to 10cm, which ensures the crust is anchored just off the bottom.
By priming swims in advance, if any chub are present then hopefully they will be on the lookout for more bread and bites often come soon after casting. Indeed, sometimes the bait is still bouncing around across the current when it is taken, so be prepared to strike straight away.
Adapt your pellet strategy and catch in the cold
With much colder weather on the way, how you approach a commercial swim and fish with pellets has to change if you are to keep in contact with your quarry.
This applies to both swim selection and the way you fish. For example, if you’re faced with a relatively featureless lake, choose a swim in the middle of the bank.
At this time of year, the fish – carp and F1s – will start to shoal together tighter than in summer, and if you have plenty of water in front of you you’ll have more space to search the swim.
This applies to all types of fishing. I’ll start by targeting three areas – one out long, between 11m and 13m on the pole; a second swim closer in; and a third using an open-end or pellet feeder.
For more great tips from top anglers head to this year’s The Big One Show
A) Long pole
This will be my main line of attack. Look for underwater features on the pole line. Often there’ll be a deeper area at long-pole distance right in front of the platform you’re sitting on. It might only be a few inches deeper than the surroundings, created by feeding fish, but in the winter things like this can make a massive difference to your catch rate.
However, it’s also worth feeding a second long-pole swim downwind of the first. You may well find that as the session progresses, fish will drift away and they may end up here, especially if the water is clearer that it was in the summer.
On good days, you’ll find you can keep fish coming all day by swapping between these two areas regularly. Mark your pole so that changing depths is quick and easy.
Feed is simple – slow-sinking micro-pellets – and the best hookbait is likely to be 4mm or 6mm expanders.
B) Close in
You’ll still catch close to the bank when the water cools, but only if it’s 3ft deep or more. Look to fish here later in the day, and expect barbel as well as F1s and carp.
Maggot and caster can sometimes be the best baits here, although I’ll always feed some pellets and grains of corn as well.
C) Feeder
A small open-end or pellet feeder is my third weapon at this time of year, and a good call if the fish drift away from the long-pole line.
A short hooklength and a banded 6mm pellet will keep things nice and simple.
Perch fishing tips | Dig out the worms and catch more!
If there is one time of the year when targeting a big perch becomes a reality, it has to be autumn.
For more great tips from top anglers head to this year’s The Big One Show
Clearing water and cooler temperatures seem to trigger this predator into hunting strongly, and while a dedicated big-fish approach using small livebaits or lures can produce the perch of a lifetime, you can also play the numbers game and keep busy with a netful of smaller stripeys – with the chance of a proper monster thrown into the mix.
Canals, rivers, drains and even commercial fisheries all hold plenty of perch, and a 2lb fish is never out of the question.
Lobworms and a chopped worm feed approach remain one of the best ways to catch them.
Former England international Mark Pollard knows about big perch better than most. The Matrix match legend has caught fish to almost 4lb during his match fishing exploits on canals and Fen drains down the years, and he has a relatively simple plan of pole fishing attack to keep the float going under.
Follow Mark’s advice for every chance of a perch personal best…
Feeding
“My feed is surprisingly minimal for a greedy fish like perch. Each time I feed, I deposit around an eggcup-full of bait. This is made up of around 12 dendra worms and a single lobworm roughly chopped, plus 20 or so casters.
“How to feed is very important, and I’d go for cupping in every time – this lets the feed fall through the water naturally. A bait dropper comes into play in stronger flows, or if I want to concentrate the feed in one spot and twitch the hookbait over it on harder days.”
Move the hookbait
“I inject life into the hookbait by flicking the rig to the side four or five times, lifting it 6ins out of the water and letting it drop around half-a-dozen times.
“Lifting and jigging the rig is like drop shotting with lures. What I’m trying to achieve is to get a perch annoyed at seeing the worm flicking about all over the place and goad it into taking the bait.”
Rigs
In coloured water, a heavy rig is best. This is made up of 0.16mm Pro Micron mainline, a 0.14mm hooklink, a size 14 SW Feeder hook to a 4x14 MP Carp 1 float and orange hollow Matrix elastic. With minimal visibility, there’s no need to go fine, but in gin-clear water I go as low as 0.14mm main and an 0.12mm hoolink. I’ll keep the size 14 hook, though.
Where to fish
I have two lines at the bottom of both slopes – close in and right across. This is where natural food washed in off the banks gathers. It is important to have these lines well away from each other so there’s no risk of splitting a shoal of perch up. I’ll also fish ‘down the peg’, so although I may only be fishing 4m out on the short line, I’ll use 10m of pole and have my swim several metres down the swim.
Top hookbaits
Hookbait is half a lobworm tail around 1.5ins-2ins long, but a small tail segment can work, as can three-quarters of the worm. Dendras are a good change bait using the worm nipped off just past the saddle. Double caster can also be brilliant.
The Right Timing
“I’ll feed my worm lines from the off, but actually start off fishing for roach elsewhere in the peg, giving the worm time to settle. After 15 or 20 minutes I’ll have a go on the worm to see if an early perch is about.
“Judging how long to stay on these lines is something a lot of anglers get wrong, though.
“I go on the worm and if I catch one, I stay on it, but of nothing happens, I come off it, feed again and go back to the roach. Big perch should be treated as a bonus, and if one is present, it will have a go immediately. I then have a look back on the worm every 30 to 40 minutes.
“Late in the day, when the light begins to fade, is a great time for perch, so don’t be too down-hearted if not much happens early on in the session.
“I’d plan to fish the worm line for a little longer than normal towards the end of the day. When it all comes together, you can catch a fish on every drop in a peg that earlier seemed devoid of perch.”