Think big and clip on a ‘bosher’!
For years, the best way to get bait into your peg early on when fishing the feeder was to make several quick casts with the biggest open-end that you had in your collection.
For more great tips from top anglers head to this year’s The Big One Show
Fast forward to 2018, and the past 12 months have seen the rise of the ‘bosher’, an over-sized cage feeder designed to get a massive hit of groundbait and particles into your swim in no time at all. The theory borrows from the world of specimen carp fishing, where spods are used to do the same thing.
You can see why it’s called a ‘bosher’
Just four or five casts with the ‘bosher’ can get several pints of feed down, an amount that would take up valuable fishing time if using a much smaller feeder. Provided the weather stays mild, laying down a big bed of feed still plays a significant part when fishing big open lakes for bream, skimmers and carp.
These fish prefer to graze over a big bed of bait, whether the water is cold or not, and the aim is to give them that big pile of feed then fish a tiny feeder over the top. The opening hit draws the fish in and subsequent regular but much smaller amounts get them feeding.
It’s an approach I’ve used a lot this year at home and abroad. It works on a similar principle to balling in a lot of groundbait on the pole. After the bombardment, a good hour is needed to let things settle down and for the fish to find the food.
This is time well spent, and all things being equal you may not need to bring the ‘bosher’ into play again for the rest of the match, relying instead on that little feeder to keep things simmering away nicely. If another bait injection is needed, then a couple of ‘boshers’ will give you a quick impact and get you catching again.
What is a ‘bosher’?
This feeder is effectively a massive cage feeder capable of carrying a lot of bait. It doesn’t cast that well, and you certainly can’t manage a good chuck using your standard feeder rod, so you’ll need a separate bit of kit.
This is like a spod rod and many anglers, myself included, have a carp-style rod with plenty of backbone for heaving the ‘bosher’ out to beyond the 60m mark. Braid and a shockleader are also important to go the distance and clipping up is also key. There are a range of sizes so pick the one that has enough lead to get to where you want.
Initial feed
Once you’ve decided where to fish and picked the right-sized ‘bosher’, the next job is to decide how much feed to put in and what this is made up of. It’s almost December, so we’re not talking 20 feederfuls, and I find five loads to be ample to start.
Rather than letting the feeder settle on the bottom and then empty, though, I empty each feeder out high in the water, well before the thing settles, so that the feed falls over a larger area.
This creates the bed over which the fish can graze.
Enter the ‘thimble’
With the ‘bosher’ having done its thing and an hour passing to let things calm down, it’s time to fish. The worst thing that you can do is go in over the feed with a big open-end or cage feeder as this will only spook the fish, especially in clearing water.
There’s no need for a feeder this big either, as enough bait will be in the swim already. Instead I use what I call a ‘thimble’ feeder, a tiny cage with just three holes along its length. This makes minimal disturbance and gives the fish just a taster of feed on each cast, normally that 2mm dampened pellet mix.
Talking tackle
With winter coming, you need to be thinking about scaling down your tackle, but not so much that you may lose any bigger fish that are hooked, especially carp.
On a typical mixed fishery I’ll gear up with 8lb Middy M-Tech mainline to a 12ins hooklink of 0.14mm to 0.16mm Middy Lo-Viz finished off with a size 14 eyed KKM-B hook to let me hair-rig the hookbait.
At all times I use a running rig as this is 100 per cent safe, letting the feeder slide along the mainline, stopped above the hooklink by a couple of Middy Slot Shot with a short link of twisted line below to cut down on tangles.
Feeding again
If the peg shows signs of dying completely, putting in two more ‘boshers’ of bait can promote another run of bites.
This is no different to potting in a couple of balls of groundbait if fishing the pole, but before I picked up the ‘bosher’ rod I’d certainly consider casting a metre past where I’ve been fishing, or even off to one side, to see if the fish have backed away slightly.
If they have, the response should be reasonably instant.
Top Pellets
Because I’m feeding pellets and corn, it makes sense to use both on the hook. This means a single grain of corn or two 4mm expander pellets.
Expander pellets are not commonly used in the feeder, but in colder conditions, and especially for skimmers, they are much better than a hard pellet.
Just ensure that your finished pellets are a little tougher than they would be for using on the pole, so that they can withstand the force of the cast.
Particles or groundbait?
There are two schools of thought as to what to put into the ‘bosher’. Although groundbait is very good, I’ve found, even at this time of year, that pellets and corn catches me a bigger stamp of fish.
For that reason I’ll introduce a mix of different-sized pellets and some corn. Even on natural waters, the fish are used to seeing these baits.
A good mix are 2mm Dynamite Baits Swim Stim and F1 Sweet pellets, dampened to help them stick inside the feeder, plus the same amount of bigger 4mm Swim Stim pellets and a sprinkling of corn.
A sweet fishmeal groundbait is still worth bringing along and using if the day is particularly hard or the fish are very small.
Top surface fishing tips for carp in the summer
Surface fishing when the sun's beaming down on your local lake is one of the most exciting ways to fish. So to help you land a monster from the surface, we've asked Paul Garner to give us some of his best Surface fishing tips for carp.
I hope that, like me, you’ve been making the most of the long summer evenings – these conditions scream carp to me, with the topwater sport being more consistent than I can ever remember.
That said, on some venues, the best tactic has revolved around baits fished just under the surface, rather than on it.
Several tactics can be employed to put you in the zone and make catching carp easy.
MAKE A HAZE
Beyond the distance that I can comfortably catapult pellets, a baggin’ waggler or rocket feeder takes over. I particularly like the rocket feeder, as it can be used with a wider range of feeds compares to the baggin’ wag. For instance, I will often pack the feeder with dampened 6mm pellets and a pinch of groundbait to create a hazy cloud in the water column.
By twitching the feeder back I can release more bait and lift the hookbait, allowing it to flutter down two or three times each cast.
The haze effect is something I find myself using more and more whenever I am fishing up in the water or on the surface. The release of fine particles that hang in the water helps to disguise the hook and line.
SPODDING OVER ZIGS
Not every day is ideal for fishing the float, especially on a big, open reservoir. Even a relatively light wind can see rigs quickly dragged out of position, and the carp definitely avoid hookbaits being dragged sideways by the tow.
Fortunately, there’s an answer and the catches can be amazing if you are prepared to work at the fishing.
Spodding over zigs is often talked about but rarely done on most of the waters I visit. It’s a busy tactic, as you need to keep a haze around the hookbait to maximise the number of bites, but get it right and it can be a bite a chuck.
Once again, a slow-sinking mix is essential, but because it is packed into a spod the bait can be more like a soup, clouding up in impact and forming a dense cloud of attraction. This is very easy to achieve using any groundbait mix that you like – I tend to use a fishmeal-based mix, adding roughly three times the normal amount of water to the groundbait. Aim for the consistency of soup.
Adding pellets or other baits can be counter-productive, as they will quickly sink out of the upper layers, perhaps taking the carp with them.
WAFTERS
There’s no doubt that a bait falling through the water is more attractive to carp than one that has come to rest and is simply hanging in midwater.
Slow-sinking baits are ideal, as they maximise the ‘hang-time’, keeping you fishing effectively for longer.
Wafters have revolutionised my up in the water fishing, with a dark-coloured 10mm wafter becoming my standard hookbait. Check the hookbait in the margins, as some wafters are more buoyant than others.
Sometimes you have to slightly trim the bait to get the required sink rate - I like to trim the sides to make the bait flutter through the water.
PING THOSE PELLETS
At distances up to around 30m the pellet waggler rules supreme. The constant pitter-patter of pellets hitting the surface soon drives the carp into a frenzy. Sound waves travel much further underwater than they do in air, so it’s not uncommon to see carp travelling from several pegs away to make a beeline for the gentle splash-down of a pouch of 8mm fishery pellets.
Consistent baiting is the key, but it can take some time to get the fish feeding hard enough to get caught.
If you think about it, a bait falling through the water, or suspended under a float, is not a natural way for a carp to find its grub, so the fish have to be excited enough to eat anything put in front of them to get caught. Take your time before casting out. It can be tempting to try and get that first fish under your belt quickly, but allowing the carp to feed for anything up to an hour before catching one will, in the long run, catch you a lot more fish.
How to make a pike fishing groundbait
You can use a wide range of different ingredients in your pike groundbaits, as I am just as interested in attracting silver fish as I am predators.
Chopped and mashed fish are a good starting point, because they match the baits you will be using for pike, but fish oils, pellets, maggots and worms can also be added to draw in the prey fish.
1) To a pint of water add two tablespoonfuls of Winterised Salmon Oil from a tackle shop and mix the additive in well.
2) Slowly add a bag of Method mix groundbait until a stiff consistency is reached. Leave the groundbait to stand for about five minutes to allow the water to be fully absorbed.
3) Next, add a tin of mashed sardines in water (not oil) to the groundbait.
4) Pellets, maggots or worms can also be added to the mix to help attract bait fish.
5) Cut up a few oily deadbaits, such as Blueys or sardines, and add these to the groundbait.
6) Mould the finished mixture into balls and catapult four of these around each pike float.
Five amazing worm tips
There are few more natural baits than a worm, and they will catch every fish that swims, on all venues.
I’ve caught bream on a gin-clear Irish river and 300lb of big carp from the edge on them, but there’s a lot more to fishing with worms than just chopping them up and sticking one on the hook. Here are my five top worm tips, no matter where you’re fishing this week…
1) Two ways to hook them
How you hook a worm can vary depending on the fish you’re after, and I have two main ways when fishing a commercial water. For carp, I take the whole worm and nick it through the head. This gives a better hookhold should I strike and miss a bite. For skimmers, barbel and ide, though, I will cut a worm in half and then hook it through the middle, allowing the juices to leak out.
2) Redworms rule for bream
We all know bream love worms and that a dendra is a good bait, but they really love redworms too. These tiny worms don’t look much but they have great pulling power, even for the biggest of fish. On a big natural lake when fishing the feeder I’d use two redworms. I’d hook one and then push it up the hook shank before hooking the second, leaving it resting on the bend to allow the maximum amount of hookpoint to show.
3) How fine to chop?
Chopped worm is a brilliant feed, but how long you spend with the scissors depends on the size of fish you are aiming to catch.
Big carp and tench need only a rough chop with the scissors to create larger pieces, but the opposite applies for small skimmers and roach. In this instance I will chop the worms almost into a ‘soup’ of finely-minced pieces.
4) Create a worm cloud
Chopped worm and caster isn’t just good for fishing on the bottom – it can be deadly when targeting carp and F1s up in the water. In this situation, don’t throw away the soil that the worms come in, as this will help you create a super fish-attracting cloud. I riddle the soil off but keep it to hand and then chop the worms. The soil goes through the riddle to remove any big lumps and is then added back to the worms. Throw in some casters and you’ve got a super slop to feed with a small pot on the pole.
5) Big baits for the edge
If you’re after the bigger carp when fishing the margins on a commercial, big baits really are best – and that certainly applies to worms. One dendra is not big enough and while two are good, I would have no qualms about fishing three whole worms on a large size 12 hook. This is a real mouthful that smaller fish will struggle to take, but a double-figure carp will gulp it down without a second thought.
How to chop worms with Tommy Pickering
Worms are a fantastic bait at this time of year but how you prepare them before they are fed can make a huge difference to your success rates. This week I reveal my top tips for preparing the perfect chopped worms.
Bait size
Anglers rarely pay much attention to the size into which they chop worms.
The size of fish you are targeting dictates how fine you want your worms to be. For roach or hand-sized skimmers I will chop them to a pulp. This will not give the fish much to feed on but creates an attractive cloud to keep them in the swim.
If bigger fish such as carp, tench or bream are on the agenda I don’t want the worm pieces to be so fine. I think these fish need something to get their heads down on as opposed to just an attractant if they are going to stay put in the swim.
Scissor type
The type of scissors you use may seem like an irrelevance, but it really does matter.
Double or triple-bladed chopped worm scissors give you very little control and they will hack the worms into a pulp quickly.
Use single bladed scissors so that you can control the size you are cutting the worms into.
It may take a bit longer but you’ll have your worms exactly as you want them once the job is done.
Pole cup
You could cut your worms up in a bait box, but the shape of it means that some worms may escape the scissors and slide along the bottom of the tub.
The spherical shape of a pole cup means you get access to every single worm and can cut them all to the desired size.
Batches
I see so many people cutting all their worms up at the beginning of the session, but this is a big mistake.
The first few you feed will still have the juices oozing out of them but if you go to feed them a few hours later they will be lifeless and will have dried up, making them a lot less attractive to the fish.
Cut your worms up as you need them so that they pack a punch every time they are fed.
The diet secrets of fish with bait expert Dr. Paul Garner
With such a vast range of baits available, has it ever crossed your mind whether they resemble the natural food of coarse fish?
What do fish actually eat when they are not feasting on our bait? The answer can give you a better understanding of what baits work, and when.
The diet of coarse fish is affected by many things. Fish species is obviously important, but so is their size and the time of the year. Some fish are better able to make use of a sudden abundance of one type of food, while others have a more restricted diet.
Coarse fish gain most of their sustenance from eating small invertebrates – everything from tiny bloodworms to tadpoles and snails. Generally speaking, larger food items are preferred. Most will be eaten either off the bottom or picked from submerged plants, and although fish are very good at ‘sorting the wheat from the chaff’, some silt and plant material will also be swallowed. However, they gain very little nutrition from this.
Bloodworm for all
Bloodworm are found on the surface of silt and on the stems of plants. Smaller fish species such as roach pick them off for an easy meal. This is only half the story, though, as larger species may also become preoccupied with these tiny insects.
Tench and bream have a particular love of bloodworm and feed on them by hoovering up the lakebed, sorting the edible from the rest in their mouths and eating only the animals. This shows just how dextrous these fish can be. No wonder they can at times eject a hook with ease.
If you think that either species is in your swim, but you are not getting bites, tit’s possible that they are focused on bloodworm and a smaller bait could pay dividends. Red maggots or a small dendrobaena would be my choice.
Both species will move around lakes looking for fresh bloodworm beds where the amount of available food is high. This can explain the patrol routes that these fish adopt, and why some spots are more productive than others. Find a natural bloodworm bed and your chances of success will be good, especially if you plan to prebait.
Crunchy caddis
Often the mainstay of the diet of carp and tench, caddis larvae come in many different forms, from species that build intricate cases from grains of sand or bits of plant stem, to those that spin underwater webs, just like spiders.
Most are around a couple of centimetres long, making them a decent mouthful for even quite large fish. Those with crunchy cases are normally found over gravel, while a case constructed from plants is great camouflage over silt, or amid weedbeds.
The most common caddis that you are likely to see emerging in numbers at this time of the year is the black sedge. This is a cased caddis found widely in stillwaters, and is often the most numerous of all the caddis species. On some lakes where I have filmed underwater the bottom can be crawling with these critters, making a very easy meal for fish.
When fish are feeding on caddis larger baits can be used, and the fish are likely to be less picky. Larger worms are worth trying, as are more easily seen baits, such as sweetcorn and punched meat.
Snails
There are dozens of species of freshwater snail. Although we tend to think mainly of freshwater mussels, because they are so large, if you take a look into the margins of any river or lake you’ll see a whole range of different sizes and species. In fact the bottom is often covered with snails.
Snails are eaten not just by carp and barbel, but other species too. Roach are lovers of small snails, but bream and tench seem less fond of this delicacy.
If you retain a carp for a while, very often you will find the remains of snail shells in the sack that the fish has passed through its body. The shells are cracked open using the strong pharyngeal teeth at the back of the throat, allowing the juicy innards to be digested.
It has long been suggested that one of the reasons hemp is so effective is because it resembles small black snails. This could well be part of the reason, but the strong taste has to play a bigger part. Boilies and bigger baits, such as meat, come into play when the fish are feeding on snails, the bigger bait being more in line with the fish’s natural diet.
The top 10 steps to catching in the winter with Phil Ringer
It takes a real leap of faith to cast into a vast water such as Boddington Reservoir in the depths of winter and catch a number of carp – they could be anywhere!
However, there are some very simple things you can do to stack the odds in your favour. It’s true that throwing a bomb or feeder out and relying on the law of averages for a carp to find the bait will work – but that’s no good under match conditions.
Ideally, I want a bite every cast to stand any chance of winning a few quid. My 10-point plan for nobbling a few winter carp has worked time and time again. There’s nothing complicated to it, no herculean casts or fancy rigs needed. It’s all about getting the basics right and then making small changes throughout the day to get the tip to go round.
Step 1 - Set up comfortably
There are no prizes for being the first angler to catch, so take your time setting out your stall so that when you begin fishing everything will be to hand. You could be waiting up to half-an-hour for a bite so when it comes, you don’t want to be groping around for the landing net. Equally, make sure your seatbox is set comfortably.
Having pellet banders, Method moulds, pellet cones and spare hooklinks to hand is also vital, as is an array of bait and additives. That way I don’t have to get off my box and faff about looking for some pop-ups – and miss the inevitable bite!
Step 2 - Feeder or Bomb
Winter carp fishing revolves around fishing the tip, and the first decision to make is whether to use a bomb or a feeder. I’ll look at how the lake is fishing before I even arrive on the bank so I have an idea in my head as to whether the fish will want a bit of feed or not.
If they will, it’s a Hybrid feeder (above) in conjunction with my favourite hookbait, an 8mm Chocolate Orange Wafter, but if the water is cold and weights are not brilliant I’ll think about beginning on the bomb with a pellet cone and two yellow 8mm wafters – a great bait when the going gets tough.
Step 3 - The right distance
It’s unlikely that the carp will be at short range, but you don’t need to hit the horizon. Around 50m is a good starting point, so you will need a rod that can do the job – something around 12ft or 13ft. I deliberately begin by casting shorter because I know that the fish will push further out into the lake as the day goes on.
This means that my final cast of the day will often be the longest. Begin fishing at the range of your casting and you’ll only be left with the option of coming back towards you.That’s no good.
Step 4 - Clipping up
Accuracy is important when every bite is at a premium, so that means using your line clip and a pair of distance measuring sticks so you can say with certainty where you will be casting to. Often, if I catch a fish, I will throw back to the same spot to see if its mate is about but without a line clip, the cast will never be 100 per cent accurate.
Step 5 - Fish positively
You may only catch six carp in a typical winter session and end up waiting up to 40 minutes for each bite. The very worst thing that can happen in this instance is to lose the fish that you hook by gearing up too lightly with a size 18 hook and a light hooklink.
I want to be confident that when I hook a carp, I will get it in, so that means a size 10 Guru QM1 hook and a 0.17mm hooklink. Remember, it’s not about getting a bite as soon as you can, so delicate rigs aren’t as important as in summer.
Step 6 - Go left and then right
Not only do I vary how far I cast into the lake – I also change how far down or far up the swim I go. By this, I mean that I will cast 10 or 20 yards to the left or right of my starting point directly in front of me.
A carp may well be sitting just 10 yards away, but in winter lethargic fish won’t move on to the spot where your feeder or bomb is sat. By winding in and casting down the peg, however, your chances of catching are instantly increased.
Step 7 - Timing your casts
A stopwatch is a vital part of my winter match fishing carp kit as it lets me know how long the rig has been out in the swim. I pay a lot of attention to how long it takes me to get a bite, and I’ve found that between 20 and 35 minutes is the optimum time for a bite to come. Naturally I need to know at a glance when I’m approaching the ‘witching hour’.
Normally, I will wind in again after half-an-hour but if the lake is fishing very hard then I may leave the bait out another 15 minutes.
Step 8 - Method ball sizes
These are the two Method balls I use – ‘skinny’ or ‘fat’, based on how many micro pellets are moulded on to them. The skinny ball is used at the start as it puts a minimal amount of bait into the swim, working on the assumption that the carp won’t initially want a lot of bait.
If it turns out that the fish are feeding reasonably well, I’ll change to the fat ball with double the amount of pellets to give them what they want. This change tends to happen in the second half of the match when things have warmed up a little.
Step 9 - Changing hookbaits
Changing what’s on the hook can trigger a big change in what you catch at any time, but especially in winter. You may get no response on a wafter, whereas a stack of three bits of corn can see the tip fly round. We all have favourite baits and mine is an 8mm Chocolate Orange Wafter for starters.
But if I am getting no response, my next cast might see me change to a corn stack, a yellow wafter or a small, highly visible pop-up. Often, just a change in colour can make all the difference.
Step 10 - Using additives
I know a lot of anglers who think additives are nonsense but I think this all boils down to confidence – I don’t think they can do any harm, especially in winter. I always carry a bottle of Almond Power Smoke Korda Goo, which I drape on to the hookbait inside the Method ball. This releases a lasting green cloud as it breaks down.
Bread can be changed too by dyeing it from its natural white colour, and almost any hookbait on your tray can be dipped in an additive just before casting out.
10 brilliant bait tricks from Steve Ringer
Looking for an edge on commercials? Match ace Steve Ringer shows how to boost your baits.
1. Margins – big baits means more bites
When fishing in the edge, one of the hardest things is getting a carp to pick up your hookbait, especially when a lot of them are feeding, .
I would go as far as to say there is nothing more frustrating than being able to see carp in the edge and then not be able to catch them.
This is where a big ‘target bait’ such as 10-12 dead red maggots really comes into its own.
If you think about it there are going to be lots of maggots on the bottom so if I fish just two or three on the hook it’s going to take a while for a carp to find them. Fish a bunch, however, and bites can be instant! That’s how much of a difference it can make.
2. Blow up your pellets
A few years back I was doing a lot of straight lead and pellet fishing but always felt I was missing an edge over other anglers who were fishing the same tactic.
Then one day when I was packing up I noticed a few pellets had fallen under my seatbox. What struck me was the size of the pellets – they had taken on water and were almost twice the size.
This got me thinking as the same thing had to be happening in the water once the pellets had been on the bottom a while. I therefore decided to pump some hard 8mm pellets and leave them in water so that they ‘blew up’ into massive, soft pellets.
Once I got the process of prepping the pellets rightthe results were staggering and I was getting more bites than ever before on my ‘new’ blown pellets!
I had found the edge I had been looking for and ever since that day when lead and pellet fishing I always have a few ‘blown’ pellets with me.
3. Hard pellets - noise is the key
When the fishing is hard and there isn’t a lot happening I am big believer in trying to draw a few fish into the swim and the best way to do so is to make a noise with hard pellets.
I pick up my catapult and ping just 3-4 pellets on top of the float every 20 seconds.
The reason this works is that carp home in on the noise of the pellets hitting the water but at the same time I’m not putting lots of bait on the bottom and risking killing the swim.
Size-wise this tactic works best with either 6mm or 8mm pellets because anything smaller doesn’t make enough noise to help pull a fish or two into the swim.
4. Coloured water equals red meat
I love fishing meat but it loses its effectiveness when the water is extremely coloured.
When this is the case I will take a handful of my 6mm cubes and dye them red. The reason being when the water is very coloured red offers a strong silhouette and gives the carp a bait they can really home in on.
I was always sceptical about red meat in the past but I’ve had good results using it too many times in coloured water conditions for it to be coincidence.
I use Ringers Red Liquid to dye my cubes and will only dye my hookbait meat and not the cubes used for feeding.
5. Foul-hooking? Hemp is the answer
I’m often asked how to prevent foul-hooking carp when fishing meat close in?
My answer is to use hemp. But, and it’s a big but, it has to be used in the right way. If you feed it little and often along with the meat then there is a danger the carp can get preoccupied on it and you won’t be able to catch them.
It’s much better to use hemp purely as settling bait. So at the start I will pot in two thirds of a large 250ml Drennan pot of just hemp to form a bed. Then if I start to catch a few and then start to suffer from foul hooking, I will simply introduce another big pot of hemp to settle them back down again.
6. Feed heavy close in to get out of jail
Every now and again in a match you need a get- out-of-jail card and, while most people use the margins for this, I prefer to fish short on a top kit straight in front of me.
I mix hemp, corn and meat and simply lash it in to create the impression of someone packing up and throwing all their bait in.
I normally kick the swim off with three big handfuls of bait and go straight in over the top because quite often I will get a quick response from a fish within seconds.
From that point on I will keep lashing the bait.It’s an approach that doesn’t always work but it has paid off on many occasions for it to be my ‘go to’ line when things aren’t going to plan.
7. Pack in the particles for bream
The secret to building a big weight of bream is particles particles – casters, pellets, worms etc.
I pile in the particles in the first hour to put a bed of bait on the bottom. To do thisuse a bigger feeder and cast more often.
Then when the bream turn up, perhaps 90 minutes in, I have a lot more bait on the bottom to hold the bream for longer.
8. Corn – two grains are better than one
Sweetcorn is a fantastic bait all year round but it’s particularly effective at this time of year.
The interesting part about corn is that when it comes to fishing it on the hook then I always tend to find that two grains are without doubt better than one.
Loads of times I have caught on corn and alternated between single and double on the hook only to find two grains constantly produced quicker bites and bigger fish.
There are two possible reasons for this, firstly the bigger bait stands out more over the loose offerings so the carp spot it that bit quicker, or it could be that everyone tends to fish a single grain of corn so two grains gets treated with less suspicion.
9. Stand out or blend in?
When fishing the Method or Hybrid feeder there are loads of different hookbaits you can use but I like to simplify things by dividing them into two camps, blend-in and stand-out.
Blend-in baits are those such as hard pellets that match the pellets on the feeder. When the fishing is hard this type of bait takes some beating.
The reason for this is that when the fishing is hard there aren’t many fish in the swim so those that are there can afford to be picky about what they pick up. Hence a blend-in bait works well as it can trick even the wariest of carp.
If, however, there are loads of fish in the swim then stand-out baits such as mini fluoro boilies or bread really come into their own. These work because they are highly visible and give the carp something they can really home in on.
10. Give your meat a double cut
A couple of years back I spent a lot of time at Tunnel Barn Farm fishing meat into the shallow water across to far banks and islands. The problem was I struggled to hold the fish in the swim for long periods when feeding 6mm cubes.
What I needed, of course, was to create a cloud to firstly draw the fish in and then hold them in the swim once they arrived. To achieve this I decided to create a meaty mush by passing around a third of my 6mm meat cubes back through the cutter again, giving myself a feed made up of different sizes which almost exploded on the surface of the water.
This was added to 8-10 6mm cubes in my pot so when it was fed the cloudy mush pulled the fish into the swim and once they arrived they followed the 6mm cubes down to the bottom so I could catch them!
Steve Ringer's 101 greatest stillwater tips
1 How often to cast when fishing the Method is a question I get asked a lot. Every day is different and it pays to vary it during the day anyway. Start by leaving the feeder out for 5 mins at a time and then time how long it takes to get a bite.
If you’re getting bites within a minute then there’s no point leaving the feeder out there. This may change later in the day so have a few longer casts later on.
2 When it comes to fishing for F1 hybrids there are times when your swim might only be 18ins deep, especially against an island but such shallow water can holds lots of fish. When this is the case you want to be getting positive bites and the key to this is to use a heavier than normal float.
I wouldn’t think twice about using a 10 x No11 Mick Wilkinson F1 float shotted with strung out No11 shot with the bottom shot 5ins from the hook and the others spaced at half-centimetre intervals above. This then allows me to get the hookbait straight to the bottom where the better fish are located
3 Regulating the amount of bait you wrap around a Method feeder is an important part of feeder fishing, but one that most anglers don’t even consider. ‘Double skinning’ is something I’ve been doing a lot of in recent years and allows me to pile in more bait per cast, perfect for when the fish are having it. Basically I fill the feeder up as normal then instead of casting out I put another layer of pellets on. This is done by putting more pellets into the mould and pressing the already loaded feeder back into the mould to give it a second skin of pellets and so double the amount of bait on the feeder.
4 To kick off a swim for skimmers and carp I will start by casting at least 10 medium cage feeders full of groundbait and micros to put a bed of bait down on the bottom and get the fish feeding. I’ll then drop down to a small cage feeder to begin fishing because bream don’t like big feeders on their heads while they’re eating.
5 When it comes to using micro pellets on the Method feeder, don’t be afraid to mould them really hard with lots of pressure as you’ll be surprised how quickly they come off once in the water.
6 Commercial fisheries hold such a range of fish nowadays and skimmers and crucians can be just as important as carp. So you need to have the right balance when it comes to elastic. Provided I’m not going to hook any huge carp and am fishing a good mixed fishery then I’d use doubled up No5 elastic set on the soft side in conjunction with a side puller kit so I can tighten the elastic on bigger fish.
7 Paste consistency is one of the most important parts of paste fishing in that the softer you have your paste the more bites you will get. The problem, of course, is that the softer the paste the harder it can be to keep it on the hook. To help with this I mix my paste to a relatively stiff consistency to start with and then tweak it as required throughout the session by dipping the paste in a tub of water before putting it on the hook.
8 It's a simple tip, but make sure you carry a whole range of sizes and weights of Method, blockend, and groundbait feeders ranging from tiny feeders that hold just a pinch of maggots to much bigger versions to get more bait in. This allows you to tailor the amount of bait you feed and also covers you for hitting the spot should the weather conditions change.
9 Meat and hemp is a great combo throughout the summer for margin fishing, but some anglers get it wrong when it comes to the ratio of each bait to feed. You don’t want to feed much meat as this is going on the hook, so to kick off a margin swim I feed three large 250ml pots full of hemp with an odd cube of meat mixed in and because this is normally a swim for the last two hours of a session I’ll then look to top it up with another full pot every 30 minutes, using the same ratio of meat to hemp.
10 I first got my hands on a little bottle of Kiana Carp Goo Almond Smoke Bait Spray this winter and it’s awesome on bread. Fluoro pink in colour with a strong almond-based flavour that leaks off a fish attracting cloud, it also changes the colour of the bread which allows me to offer the carp something different to everyone else casting out standard white bread.
11 When potting in a lot of hemp I want a hookbait that really stands out for the fish to come into the swim and home in on. Meat is best but don’t go down the route of fishing the same-sized cube as you’re feeding. Sometimes a ridiculous-sized bait can catch well and a large 10mm cube is my first choice.
12 On mixed waters with both skimmers and carp I use an 8ins hooklength of 0.17 (6lb) Guru N Gauge on my groundbait feeder rigs. This might seem slightly on the heavy side for skimmers, but it ensures I’ll be able to land carp if I hook one. Hook choice is a size 18 or 20 Guru MWG – light, but tough for both species.
13 Most anglers like to clean their worms off but when fishing shallow water or up in the water I’ve found it better to keep the soil and peat on the worms as this helps to form a cloud which in turn attracts fish.
14 When I fished canals for roach I was always taught to completely bury the hook in a caster but where commercial fisheries are concerned, whether fishing for roach or carp, I like to thread the bait on the hook leaving the point showing as I find I hit more bites this way. If I can’t catch leaving the hook point showing, as can happen, then in my opinion there aren’t enough fish in the swim to make fishing for them viable.
15 Dead maggots are a great bait for margin carp or fishing on the Method feeder and to prepare them I put the cleaned maggots in a large bowl and add cold water until they’re just covered. I then slowly pour boiling water on the maggots while stirring them and once all of the maggots are dead I then add more cold water to prevent them scalding. Drain them and seal them in a plastic bag until needed.
16 When faced with a typical swim, rather than fishing straight out in front I like to fish at a slight angle of either 10 o’clock or two o’clock if we take 12 o’clock as being central. This way when I hook a fish I can steer it away from the baited area and keep disturbance to a minimum. This is important when trying to catch a lot of fish from one spot because playing fish on top of where you are trying to fish is not conducive to a quick bite once the fish has been landed.
17 My running loop feeder rig is a set up that’s caught me lots of fish where allowed and tying it couldn’t be easier. Firstly take a snap link swivel and thread it on to the mainline, then tie a 6ins loop with the snap link swivel trapped inside.
Push the snap link up to the knot and tie three small loops in the big loop below the snap link swivel, trapping the snap link swivel in a 2ins loop.
The series of small loops creates a stiff boom and stops the rig from tangling on the cast. My hooklength attaches to the bottom loop via the loop-to-loop method.
18 Most anglers put the hookbait on the outside of the Method ball believing the fish will come to the hookbait first – don’t! Once the pellets fall off the feeder, so does your hookbait. Put a layer of pellets on first so the bait is in the middle of the feed.
19 When fishing big baits for big fish you need to use strong, wide gape hooks. The wide gape is especially important as this helps you hook bigger baits like catmeat or multiple baits such as double corn or luncheon meat. Even though the bait may fill the hook you can leave plenty of hookpoint showing.
20 You can catch fish from anywhere in a commercial peg, but I like to look for a particular spot in my swim at the bottom of the near slope, where the bottom levels out and the depth is constant – this is a natural holding spot for fish where food gathers. This is typically around 5m or 6m out and is especially good in the latter part of the session provided you feed it regularly by hand from the word go.
21 When pole fishing, sometimes resting a swim can give it a new lease of life. It’s difficult to come off a swim that you are nicking an odd fish on, so you can drop on one where you know you might not get a bite, but over the course of five hours it’s something that can be worth doing just to keep the one good swim going.
22 Maggots can be a brilliant bait but you can’t fish the same sort of rig that you’d use for pellets as you’ll miss out on a lot of bites. I bin the bulked shotting pattern on my pellet rigs. Instead I use a finer, strung out pattern that you’d normally see on rivers or canals, as even in coloured water I think the fish watch the maggots fall through the water.
23 The obvious place to cast when faced with an island is as tight as possible to the overhanging grass. But it can pay to cast 2ft short to start with before going tight to the bank as this will give you the chance of catching for longer later in the day.
24 Big baits are great on the Method when there are a lot of fish in the swim as they appeal to a fish’s greedy nature.
When there are fewer fish about and they can afford to be picky, a large hookbait can often go ignored. This is when you need to scale down and use small baits that almost blend in with your feed, such as a single dead maggot fished on a small size 18 hook.
25 When bites are few and far between there are still things you can do in order to draw a few more fish into the swim. One such thing is to pile finely chopped worm through the feeder and nothing else other than groundbait to hold it in place. The finely chopped worm releases loads of attraction into your swim without putting in too much feed that could soon fill up the fish.
26 It might look daft but there will be times when fishing with meat that I thread three or four cubes on the hook. It looks like a type of ‘stringer’ that big carp anglers use but I think that its bizarreness means it can actually throw the fish off guard, especially early in a session when they’re not that wary.
27 When maggot fishing I like to fish as short a line as possible between pole tip and float and depending on fishery rules this is often as short as 6ins. The shorter line means I am much more direct on the float – in other words I can hold a short tight line to the float and once I get a bite I’m on it instantly.
28 It might sound odd but when I’m using big baits for proper carp then I like to fish with a strung bulk shotting pattern, even in shallow water. This gives the bait a slow fall and also gives the rig increased stability. This pattern is also extremely versatile and due to the number of shots on the line I can quickly change should I need to put line on the bottom and drag a couple of shots should the need arise.
29 Flavouring dead maggots is something I’ve started to do a lot more of recently.
This is done by firstly killing the maggots and then once they are dead and have cooled I give them a squirt of Mainline Activ-8 liquid flavouring, a real favourite with big carp anglers, which helps to give them a boost.
30 Believe it or not reel choice is important for feeder fishing because a bigger than normal reel will increase your casting distance. Bigger reels have bigger spools in comparison to standard match reels, which allows for better line lay as the coils aren’t so tightly packed. This can put as much as an extra 10 yards on your cast.
31 I catch loads of carp on boilies so that got me thinking why not try crushing a few up and using them in a PVA bag? The great thing about boilies is that there are so many colours available, meaning that the combinations I can use are endless. I will feed them with other baits like pellet.
32 When fishing corn on the pole the best bit of advice I can give is to make sure you always fish at dead depth, provided conditions allow you to do so. The reason for this is so that if a carp sucks the bait in it will register on the float as either a dip or sometimes a slight lift, either of which should be struck at.
33 Often only thought of as a winter bait, worms can actually be best in warm weather and on venues where you’re looking to catch skimmers, F1s, small barbel and carp. A chopped worm feeder cast tight to an island can be lethal.
34 Once your Method feeder has moved for any reason, whether knocked by a fish or moved by a liner, then you need to reel it in. For the Method to work properly you are reliant on a fish feeding on the groundbait/pellets around the feeder and once the feeder has moved your hookbait is no longer in the right place.
35 Slapping your rig on the surface is a deadly way of catching fish shallow.As a rule I ship out, loosefeed three times over the float and then slap the rig in three times in succession. On the third slap let it fish. If the float doesn’t bury I lift the rig and slap it again three times.
36 Too many anglers think that expander pellets are only to be used on the hook but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Waters such as Barston Lakes respond to mashed expanders, which are basically pellets given a blast with a cordless mixing drill to create a rough ‘hash’ of pellet that can be fed either as a ball or loose in a pole cup.
37 When fishing with sweetcorn for carp most anglers tend to fish only a single grain of corn on the hook, but I have caught an awful lot of fish using double hookbaits too. Maybe it’s to do with the colour or simply the sheer size that looks completely different to anything you might be feeding.
38 A good little tip when fishing shallow is to use a Dacron connector. This helps stop your rig from tangling around your pole tip, something which can happen a lot when slapping your rig.
39 Ever thought about fishing a feeder in the margins? This is a great tactic on some waters where the fish can spook away from a pole over their heads. It’s best done with a Method and if you’ve got a platform next to you, cast your baited feeder to the deep hole in front of the peg that has been scoured out by keepnets.
40 Maggots are a great F1 bait and surprisingly for these delicate feeders, a double bait often outscores a single offering so if you’re struggling, try increasing the bait size.
41 Always look at the weather conditions and your target weight to decide how much you need to feed. If conditions are good (overcast with a good ripple on) then I will attack it with more bait. Equally if it’s flat calm and bright sunshine then a more cautious approach normally pays dividends.
42 So many anglers fish with one small pot on the end of their pole but have you ever thought of fishing with two? As a match progresses and more and more fish move into the swim then I will often switch to double potting. This is done to increase the amount of bait I’m introducing into the swim and really push my catch rate up a notch or two.
43 When I’m getting lots of indications on a plastic cage feeder but not many bites I put my hooklength through the middle of my feeder, leaving the bait protruding about an inch below the bottom of the feeder. This way when the contents of the feeder break out my hookbait is in among them.
44 A key part to catching well is to fish a float that offers perfect stability and I reckon the fibre glass-stemmed Mick Wilkinson Diamond is the best all-round pattern for fishing depths between 4ft and 7ft.
45 Groundbait in the margins has become popular in recent years, but feed the mix loose as opposed to in a ball so it spreads out and coats the bottom in the shallow water rather than going down in a solid ball.
46 Wetting your line before casting also helps you to cast further as dry line never casts particularly well. The ‘wetting’ can be done by spraying the line or alternatively soaking the spool to make sure all the line comes into contact with the water.
47 Straight from the tin, luncheon meat is very fatty and can be like handling a bar of wet soap when putting it on the hook. A top tip is to pop the cubed meat in a bait tub of water, which will dissolve the excess fat and make the cubes easier to use.
48 Try giving your paste mix a bit of extra oomph. Crushed hemp can be good to put a bit of activity into the swim, while finely crushed pellets create a bit of added crunch.
49 One trick I have been using to good effect is to pick an out of the way area of the swim but still in the deep water of my peg and then trickle maggots into it. Fish it in the last hour and you’ll often catch some big F1s.
50 Lift, drop, and drag your pole rig around your swim. To do this I simply lift the float around 8ins to 12ins clear of the water before slowly lowering it back in again while for dragging, move your float slowly to the left or right.
51 When skimmers are grubbing around on the bottom picking up small offerings such as micro pellets, they seem to pick up a smaller hookbait far more readily so in this situation I’ll scale right down and use two 4mm expanders on a hair-rig.
52 If you want to cast a long way, give it some welly. Hold your rod properly with one hand on the bottom of the handle and the other around the reel and really punch the feeder out by compressing the rod fully on the backward swing.
53 Just lately I’ve found laying my rig in to be far more effective and to do this I flick the rig out to the side and then hold a tight line between float and tip. This causes the hookbait to fall in an arc and bites come as the float settles.
54 The weight of your feeder is crucial for ensuring fish hook themselves when using short hooklengths so make sure your empty feeder has enough weight.
55 If I'm in doubt as to how I should feed at a new venue I always work two swims – one I feed negatively and the other positively. This way I can quickly work out which is best on the day.
56 I never go fishing on a commercial where bream and skimmers are likely to show without 2mm or micro pellets. They are perfect for adding to a groundbait mix or for wrapping around a Method feeder, but they must be dampened beforehand to make sure they all sink as from the bag they tend to float about.
57 When suffering from lost fish through hookpulls don’t change to a bigger hook. You want the fish to suck in your hookbait in a confident manner and the way to achieve this is to use a small hook so your hookbait behaves in a more natural manner.
58 When feeding baits like meat I’m a big believer in using different-sized pieces so that the fish are hunting around continually. I’ll cube up 4mm and 6mm pieces using a meat cutter and then feed them with finely minced bits for a real ‘Bombay mix’ style of meat.
59 A great trick to try in the last hour of your match is to unclip your feeder and cast as far as you can past your main baited feed area. Big carp can sit back from any disturbance sometimes and you can often pick up a few big fish.
60 Keep your groundbait covered. Dried out crumb can reduce your catch rate as a session goes on, so always keep an eye on your mix and if it dries out add more water or, better still, cover the bowl with damp towel to retain the moisture.
61 Target hookbaits are a must when fishing the Method feeder to create a bait that stands out in terms of colour. For example, an 8mm white bread disc fished in combination with dyed red micro pellets is something that the fish can easily home in on.
62 If bream, skimmers, and F1s are the target, then I add wetted down, 2mm micro pellets to my groundbait mix to increase the food content and give the fish something to grub around on.
63 Don't just think cage feeders are only for groundbait. I use them for feeding 6mm cubes of meat, mushed meat, softened micro pellets, and expanders too. The key for me is their rapid release of the bait when you’ve got fish feeding in your swim.
64 For bream fishing on the feeder at range I now like to feed via a spod rather than making a dozen casts with an open-end feeder. Particles are key for keeping bream in your swim for long periods and I use a mixture of baits that give both attraction and hold the fish. Micro pellets keep bream grubbing around for ages and we all know that they love casters, while chopped worm helps to put a scent in the water. Hemp is an underused feed for bream but they love the oils it gives off.
65 Sweet or fishmeal? That’s the choice we have to make when picking a groundbait for commercial waters and today most bait companies make a specific sweet fishmeal groundbait for the job. Being coarse textured they’re the perfect choice for piling in a big carpet of feed.
66 Any hookbait that has extra attraction will catch more fish and dusting baits is a great option. A sticky liquid additive coats the hookbait, to which you can pour on your chosen groundbait or powdered additive. Give them a good shake to disperse the crumb and the baits are good to go.
67 The biggest mistake anglers make when trying to cast a long way is that they try to cast off a line that is too short. On a 13ft rod look to cast with at least 5ft of line between feeder and rod tip, swing the feeder in front and then as it swings back take the rod back as well. Once the feeder pulls on the rod tip behind me I know it’s in the optimum position for casting. This fluid motion helps with distance.
68 When bites are few and far between there are still things you can do to draw a few more fish into the swim. One tip is to pile finely chopped worm through a feeder with nothing else other than groundbait to hold it in place. The worm, prepared almost to a mush, then releases loads of attraction into the water without putting that much feed into the peg.
69 Bread and maggots, worm and caster – both great, old school cocktails of bait and ones that still work and can give you a very different presentation to what other anglers are using. If I can make my bait stand out from the crowd then I’ll always have an advantage.
70 One of my favourite lines to fish is known as the ‘5m meat line’ and it’s an area where you’ll find big fish patrolling later on in the day. As the name suggests it’s a swim I like fishing with cubes of meat but bizarrely it’s not always at 5m out. Instead I will plumb out from the bank until I find the spot where the bottom levels out and aim to fish here which can be 5m, 6m, or even 7m out.
71 A neat little trick when adding sloped lead weights to your maggot feeders is to reverse the lead so that its bulk is at the top of the feeder. This helps the feeder to fly much better when casting into the wind and also cuts down on tangles.
72 Something you hear anglers talk about is how many turns they have fished, for instance 80 turns. This refers to how many turns of the reel handle it takes to wind the feeder back from the swim. This is useful if I have to unclip as I know exactly how far out I was actually fishing.
73 Ever been caught without a paste on the bank? Mixed correctly, you can form a perfectly usable paste from groundbait and I liberally over-wet the groundbait so it has the consistency of a slop, then after a minute or two the groundbait will absorb the excess water and you’ll be left with virtually perfect paste.
74 You might think that the Method feeder is a positive approach for big weights but there will be times when the fish are finicky and you need a more refined attack. I’d scale down to small baits, such as a single dead maggot or a 4mm pellet fished on a size 18 hook.
75 Most anglers will tell you that the Method feeder is at its best fished either at long range or against an island. It’s just as effective at short range, in fact just off the end of the rod top. Feed a particle-rich groundbait at the bottom of the near shelf and underarm a small Method over the top using use a big bait like corn.
76 Never chop all of your worms in one go at the start. Not only will this tempt you to overfeed the swim but also will see the worms dry out as the day progresses, meaning those
all-important fish-catching juices are lost.
77 Until a few years ago corn skins were something I’d read a lot about but never got round to trying. When I used them they were a revelation, especially for F1s. To make a corn skin simply squeeze the insides out so you are left with just the skin.
78 Carp love spicy baits so it makes sense to use chilli hemp to try and get an edge. If there are 10 anglers in a line all feeding the same bait and I’m feeding something different then my bait will stand out and I’ll catch more.
79 I've lost count of the times when I’ve been fishing the open-end feeder with no sign of a carp only to switch to the Method and get a 10lb-plus fish first drop. Next time you’re faced with a big, mixed venue, start on the open end, and be prepared to switch to a Method feeder later in the day, it can make a massive difference to your final weight.
80 Using a shockleader can make a difference to the distance you can cast. Load your reel with 4lb mainline and tie a 2ins overhand loop in the end. Then take a heavier line, around 8lb, and tie it to the loop using a bloodknot. Wind the 8lb line through the rod rings so you have just one or two turns on the reel once the end of the line is in the casting position. This way you are casting off the 8lb line but once the cast is made you have less friction going through the rings.
81 One problem with fishing worms is that they can fold over the hook point and lead to bumped fish. I find it much better to hair-rig my worms as this means that not only is the hook point always clear but it also means I can get away with using a smaller hook than would normally be the case. This in turn leads to better presentation which should lead to more bites.
82 Bream can become preoccupied with groundbait and pellets and ignore your hookbaits after a while on the open-end feeder, so it can then pay to put on a Method feeder and bury your hookbait into the ball of feed. The fish will suck it in without even realising.
83 On big waters the further out I can fish the more I’m likely to catch, but it’s no good fishing at range if you can’t reach it with your feed. Most anglers feed 8mm pellets but I prefer 11mm hard pellets, which can be fired out that bit further and that gives me a real edge over those around me as I’m always going to be first on the fish. If I feed it well I can keep the fish out of range of my neighbouring anglers too.
84 Think carefully about the type of feeder you’re using because different types give you different bait presentations. Method and pellet feeders are great when fish are feeding tight and coming to the feeder quickly, but if you want to spread out your bait to keep a shoal of fish in the area then you should opt for blocke
85 If you're fishing in shallow water use cage feeders with large holes so your bait can come out of the feeder quickly – the larger the holes the better, in my opinion.
86 Carp can often be attracted to a bait that looks different and my ‘capped’ pellets have caught fish when all else has failed. They are dead simple to prepare and are effectively a hair-rigged hard pellet ‘capped’ off with the end of a dumbbell-shaped high-visibility boilie.
87 When it comes to getting the distance then long rods definitely reign supreme. A 12ft rod will cast a long way but not as far as 13 footers – the longer the rod, the longer the potential cast.
88 Dobbing bread has been very much the ‘in’ method on a lot of snake lakes this winter and that won’t change in spring. One thing I have noticed is that the sloppier your bread is, the quicker you get bites so I carry an atomiser to spray the bread before I punch a piece for the hook. Bread can take quite a bit of time to go soggy once in the water so by spraying it before hooking I am just speeding up this process.
89 Hard pellets are a great bait but I like to take them that extra level and let them swell up even further to what I call ‘blown up’ pellets. I’ll take normal 8mm hard pellets and double pump them in a pellet pump before leaving them overnight in a sealed bag of water. This creates massive, but super soft hookbaits. Here’s how to make them...
A) To prepare the hard pellets put the required amount in a pellet pump and then fill the pump with water.
B) I like to pump the pellets twice, as this will quickly make them take on water and become super-soft.
C) Drain the water off and put the pellets in a plastic bag with enough covering water to keep them wet.
D) Place in the fridge overnight, and in the morning they will have blown up and are ready for the hook.
90 Soft expander pellets can catch picky carp and F1 hybrids on most commercials, but when roach descend on your peg then these baits are pretty much useless. One trick is to punch meat out to the size of the pellet and leave to dry a little in the open air.
They’ll develop a thick outer skin and will then become small-fish-proof while looking like a pellet.
91 Looking for a cheap but effective addition to a groundbait mix for filling it in at the start? Corn is the answer and I’ll often add two whole tins of corn to my crumb when fishing places like Larford Lakes where the carp like a bit of bait. The beauty of corn is that it’s a very visual, large-sized particle bait the carp can easily spot and because it offers a decent reward it will hold bigger carp in the swim for longer. It’s also heavy so stays on the bottom well and won’t be picked off by little fish while you’re waiting for the big fish to appear.
92 Adding extra lead to your feeders is vital for distance and I’ve found one large lead is much better than a couple of smaller ones as it is much more aerodynamic.
93 The question I get asked the most is why do I fish with red groundbait at times? Well, carp seem to love feeding over red mixes in heavily coloured water. It’s also very visible and I can easily spot a red cloud of crumb being kicked up when a carp starts feeding close in over the groundbait.
94 There's only one way to feed pellets on the far bank of snake lakes and that’s with a Kinder pot but I’ve found that tipping them in loose can produce a lot of line bites as the bait fans out as it sinks. By pressing the pellets tightly into the cup the end result is a ball that will ‘plop’ into the water, sink quickly and break up in a relatively tight spot, thus keeping the fish in one spot.
95 When striving for distance I find carbon quivertips are better than glass as they don’t flex as much on the cast as glass and a 2oz or 3oz tip is best.
96 There are times when the fish come straight to groundbait in an open-end feeder and often ignore a hookbait as close as four inches away. The solution to this is to fish it like a Method version, tucking the hookbait in the feeder on a short tail so that when the groundbait is released from the feeder the bait will be in among it.
97 Look in my bag of feeders and you’ll see some Methods that are what I like to call double leaded, weighing the best part of 50g. These are ideal for extra casting distance and keeping the feeder static when fishing on a slope.
98 Even though I may be feeding big 11mm pellets I actually still prefer to use an 8mm pellet on the hook because they’re taken more readily by a feeding carp and fewer fish get hooked outside the mouth, something which can be a real problem on the pellet waggler when using big baits.
99 Light baits, such as pellets and meat, can get churned up all over the place when fishing down the edge. For that reason I always like to use hemp as it is a heavy bait and when fed in bulk creates a great carpet that pulls in the fish quickly.
100 Some Method feeders have long stems attached to them and this helps them to fly through the air with accuracy on long casts. Opt for short stems for fishing tight to features and shorter range.
101 While visibility is no doubt sweetcorn’s key characteristic, it doesn’t give off much in terms of flavour attraction. When the water is coloured after rain I feel it can lose its effectiveness somewhat. A quick squirt of liquid Scopex before letting the grains stand for 30 minutes to fully absorb it all will do the trick.
Autumn bait tips
Want to keep catching this autumn? We reveal a host of bait tips to help you put fish of all species on the bank over the next few months
WHICH DEADBAIT?
I keep a selection of many different baits in my freezer, although there are some that I never leave home without.
For static fishing, my favourite baits are large sardines, while the next best are mackerel heads and tails (below). Smelts are great for wobbling, and cast a long distance when frozen. They are also very visible, which does mean that they can be prone to catching lots of small pike.Herring, sprats, launce and trout are also good stand-by baits.
WORM HEADS
There’s nothing more natural in fishing than a worm and, although they’re not the first bait you’d think of for roach, they are especially productive on commercials in the cold. Nip off the head and fish it like a caster with your hook point out of the side.
If it’s a case of catching fish quickly, you can even land a few fish on each worm before the hookbait needs replacing.
HOT HEMP
This is a tactic used by a lot of carp anglers. Rather than try to add flavour to the seeds, put a couple of fresh chillies in your pot when cooking hemp, which will give it a spicy boost that’s perfect in cold weather.
WORM SPICES
It’s almost impossible to flavour your worms, and most of the time you don’t need to, but a sprinkling of chilli powder on top of your chopped worm can impart a powerful scent. This can be a great tactic when the fish have seen a lot of chop.
GO NATURAL WITH ELDERBERRY
Always look to natural baits when the going gets tough ¬ elderberries are a prime example. Hook them in the same way you would tares ¬ and if you’ve got a bush overhanging the river, then you know the roach will feed on them.
USE A BAITDROPPER
If you’re fishing water deeper than 4ft or 5ft or any fast-flowing water and want your feed to hit the bottom in your peg, not yards downstream, then use a bait-dropper. They can be used on the pole or running line and you don’t have to use a carrier such as groundbait, which can attract small nuisance fish into your swim.
MILKY WHEAT
A good trick to complement your hookbait is to use the liquid from the soaking process. Leaving the wheat in a warm place for four days or longer produces a thick, milky liquid which carp find really attractive. It can be used to mix up your groundbait for your feeder or for cupping-in.
ALWAYS TAKE A LOAF
Probably the most versatile bait you can get, it’s always worth taking bread with you to the bank. Big and visible, bread can be used as flake for big roach and chub,or punched out into small or large discs for smaller fish.
You can also flavour your slices of bread ¬ add your favourite flavour to an atomiser of water and spray on to the slice to dampen it slightly.
PVA BAG YOUR LOBS
Specimen anglers targeting bream will often use air-injected lobworms as hookbaits, but these big baits can be difficult to cast any distance.
A trick some anglers use is to roll the wet lobworm in groundbait to dry it out so it doesn’t melt the PVA bag, hook it up, and then drop the baited hook and the lead into the PVA bag with a few pellets or dry casters.
This neat package can be cast a long way, and once the bag has melted, the worm is left hovering above a bed of bait.
SINGLE HOOKBAITS
On small rivers, when fishing with maggots and casters, it can pay to use just a single maggot or single caster on your hook, even if you are fishing for big, greedy fish like chub. This tricks the fish into thinking the hookbait is another free offering.
GIVE THEM FISH
Most anglers don’t realise how predatory chub are. Just like pike and perch, they can be caught on live or dead fish baits. Some huge chub have fallen to small bleak livebaits but one of the best deadbaits are pieces of mackerel.
Use a chunk or a strip of this oily fish on a size 6 or 8 hook.
MIXED WORMS
Small perch will grab at larger pieces of worm then move away quickly from the main feed area, while bigger perch will sit directly over the feed and wait to be provoked into striking at a piece of worm.
A feeding compromise between the two is ideal, so finely chop the bulk of your feed then add four to six larger hooksize segments of approximately 2ins-4ins in length to the feed.
MIX YOUR MAGGOTS
A good trick when fishing for chub is to feed mainly whites and 10 per cent reds and then fish a red maggot on your hook. This will attract the fishes’ attention as it will stand out in the crowd.
GET MINCING
Minced steak is a brilliant bait for feeding as small, golf ball-sized balls.
Chop the meat up into small pieces and add some very fine maize to break it up. When you feed a ball into your swim, or via an open end feeder, it will break down, releasing the meat particles. The maize will form an attractive cloud, too.
DON'T FILL YOUR FEEDER
In cold water, maggots don’t crawl ¬ so if you want them to come out of your feeder quicker, then leave some room inside your feeder.
By only filling your feeder three quarters full, you allow water to flow through it and wash the maggots out.
TRY A PELLET STRING
One 20mm pellet can be just too big for the fish to take sometimes, so for most of my pellet fishing for chub and barbel I use strings of smaller, 8mm pellets fished on a short hair.
LIQUIDISED OR PUNCH
Punch crumb has a coarser texture and is slightly heavier than liquidised bread, making it perfect for moving or deeper water, or in bigger-fish situations.
Finely-liquidised bread is a superfine feed best suited to canal fishing and the cloud it produces attracts fish quickly and holds them for long periods in your peg without having to refeed.
LOB IN A FEEDER
Attract fish but don’t give them anything to eat by roughly chopping a lob and putting it inside a small blockend feeder. The fish can’t get at the bait in the feeder, only your hookbait.
WHEAT FOR BIG FISH
Wheat is certainly one of the most neglected of all seed baits, yet it is very cheap and can be very effective for a whole range of species, not just roach.
Soak the seeds in salty water for 24 hours and then boil for around 10 minutes. Take off the heat when the seeds are soft enough to hook. Carp, tench, chub, bream and barbel are used to hoovering up particles, so are less wary of small, loosefeed-sized baits.
FLAVOUR YOUR PELLETS
My pellet flavouring consists of two tablespoons of molasses and half a teaspoonful of powdered betaine mixed into a cup of warm water.
I then put a pint of pellets in a large bait tub, add the liquid to the pellets and shake well so that all the pellets are covered.
After about an hour the liquid will have soaked into the outer skin of the pellets and they will feel slightly damp to the touch. Leave them in the fridge overnight and they’re ready to use.
GROUNDBAIT PASTE
If you know the fish like your groundbait, then make a paste bait from it. Put the groundbait through a flour sieve to remove any lumps that may impede the hook.
You can use either egg or water to mix the paste, depending on the consistency required. Wrap it around a boilie or paste spring.
STEAK TRIANGLES
Steak can be a great hookbait for chub, but can cost you fish if it’s not hooked properly. Fish a triangle-shaped piece of steak as it won’t flip back over and mask the hookpoint.
SINK AND FLOAT
Bread has lots of advantages over other baits. The most important of these is that you can instantly change the buoyancy of the bait. Just by squeezing the bread to remove some of the airpockets, the bread will sink faster and hold in position. With just a couple of swan shot to balance the bait, it is possible to keep the bread searching for fish right around the swim.
RED DEADS
It’s much easier to colour and flavour baits that don’t already have a strong natural colour or smell, so I normally use herring or sprats as the silvery flanks of these fish take a colour exceptionally well.
Half fill a shallow tray with cold water and add a couple of teaspoonfuls of powdered dye - pink or red are good as they stand out. Then add flavour. If you’re using concentrated flavours add a couple of teaspoonfuls, or half a bottle if it’s a liquid-based additive. I have been experimenting with baits flavoured with anchovy essence which does hum, but the pike like it!
Lay the baits in the tray so they are completely covered and stick the whole lot in the fridge for about an hour so they have time to take on the flavour and colouring.
ADD SOME LEAM
A good trick some anglers have for catching perch in the cold is to feed black damp leam and chopped worm in a cloud.
Put a small amount of loose damp leam into a dry pole pot and sprinkle a pinch of finely-chopped worms on top and then cup this in.
BRIGHT BAITS
Carp anglers often complain of catching too many chub or bream when they’re fishing for river carp ¬ so why not take advantage of this?
Brightly-coloured pop-up boilies are a must-have in your bait bag this autumn. They’re easily spotted by greedy fish and will also wave enticingly in any float. Fish them on a 6ins to 1ft hooklength so they sit above any weed on the bottom.
SLOW-SINKING CASTERS
The darker, often floating casters are frequently ignored by most anglers, but can be a great bait for wary fish. That’s because they fall slowly through the water and will rise enticingly up in the water if fish are feeding and stirring up the bottom. Counter-balance the floating nature of the bait with a medium wire hook.
KEEP FEEDING
If you’ve not caught after an hour or so of fishing, don’t worry. Keep the feed going in because the chances are that fish are still swimming around and you just need to attract their attention. Even fish hiding out in weedbeds will eventually come out and investigate a steady stream of bait falling past them.
The problem could be something as simple as the light conditions.
Many species, especially perch and roach, only really become confident as the light begins to fade at the end of the day, or when cloud cover arrives overhead.
SMELLY PELLETS
When rivers are flooded, it can pay you to fish a big, smelly bait which the fish can home in on. Halibut pellets are normally thought of as a barbel bait, but they catch a lot of chub, too. Drill them out carefully and fish them on a hair-rig.
BOOSTING MAGGOTS
Adding spices such as turmeric increases flavour and also degreases your maggots, helping them sink quicker. It will produce a nice plume or cloud as the maggots escape from your feeder. Simply cover the maggots in the powder and leave them overnight to get a nice coating.
CHEESY BREAD
Check your local supermarket for cheesy crust loaves which combine two of the best chub baits of all time.
Hook the crust by passing it once through the back of the bread and then turn it back, making sure that the hook point is clear of the bait to ensure you hook fish cleanly.
MAKE THE PERFECT CHEESE PASTE
Few moments in fishing are as exciting as catching a fish on a bait that you've made yourself. Chub are suckers for a lump of cheesepaste, and here's a great cheesepaste recipe that always seems to produce the goods throughout the colder months...
STEP ONE
Start off with a smelly cheese - Danish Blue or Blue Stilton, but any strong-smelling cheese will do.
Remove any rind and if the cheese is really soft you can rub it through a fine cheese grater.
Alternatively, cut the cheese into cubes and microwave on half power until it has melted.
STEP TWO
Colour your paste dark red so that it is less likely to scare away timid fish.
Add a quarter of a teaspoon of red powder dye to the cheese and stir in well.
You can add flavours at this stage - garlic oil is particularly good, but take care not to add too much as it is incredibly potent.
STEP THREE
To make the cheese into a usable paste it needs to be stiffened up and shortcrust pastry works wonders for this.
It can be bought from any good supermarket for a couple of quid.
Lay the block of pastry on top of a work surface or a chopping board and roll the block flat with a rolling pin.
STEP FOUR
Once you have rolled the pastry flat so that it is approximately 3mm - 5mm thick, place your cheese mix on to the flattened pastry.
Gently smear it all over the pastry using the back of a spoon.
Make sure the cheese paste covers the whole of the pastry.
STEP FIVE
Fold in the edges of the pastry and start to form a ball.
Knead the ball to spread the cheese mixture throughout the whole of the pastry.
Seal it in a plastic bag to stop the paste from going hard until it is required.
Any excess can be stored in the freezer in lumps large enough to see you through a typical session.