Match Fishing Tips | Five tips to fish the margins this autumn
Despite colder nights there are still lots of fish to be caught in the edge – using a more cautious approach…
Easy on the feed
WITH summer now just a memory, piling in lots of groundbait and dead maggots down the edge has no part to play. Success is all down to how much – or rather how little – bait that ends up getting fed. Be wary of overfeeding the carp. Precision feeding with tiny amounts always catches more fish in early autumn.
Opening feed should barely cover the bottom of a large pole cup – effectively a small handful of dampened micro pellets and a few bits of meat and corn.
After that, switch to a Kinder pot holding a few micros and bits of meat and corn.
Light feeding is required to pull fish into the margins at this time of year
Pick a heavier float
Provided that the peg is snag-free, there’s no point in fishing stupidly strong lines. A 0.17mm mainline to an 0.15mm hooklength will land pretty much every carp in a commercial fishery, teamed up with a hollow elastic around a grade 12-14 and a size 16 Barbless carp margin-style hook.
The float is important. Diamond-shaped patterns taking roughly 0.3g are popular. This heavier weight will deal with the additional depth but also keeps the rig still in one spot – when feeding with a Kinder pot, it’s vital to ensure that the rig and bait are sitting right on top of that small helping of bait. For that reason, gently lower the rig down on to the feed to ensure pinpoint accuracy.
A heavy float will ensure pinpoint accuracy
Fish deeper water
In terms of depth, forget the 12ins of shallow water that produced in the summer. Very few fish will move into this depth to feed so instead, try edging the rig out into the lake to try and find 2ft 6ins of water. Any deeper there’s the risk of foul-hooking carp as the fish will still be quite active.
Feed both margins if you have the room in order to double your chances of catching. The water is starting to clear now, so you want to fish as far away from yourself as you can, at roughly 13m. You’re not going to be feeding by hand as you would in summer, so this longer distance shouldn’t pose a problem in this respect.
Look for deeper margin spots
No bites? Don’t panic!
If nothing happens when you drop in, the panic button shouldn’t be pressed. Instead, leave the margins alone for 10 or 15 minutes before having another look. When the carp do decide to move in close, bites occur within seconds.
Have just the one drop-in without a bite before leaving things alone – if a carp is there, it should pick out the bait quickly.
If a carp is about you should know fairly quickly
Meat for the hook
Meat is a bait synonymous with autumn, fished as 6mm cubes and more often than not with two cubes on the hook to present a slightly bigger bait to grab the attention of the fish.
Corn can be a good alternative, especially in very clear water, fished singly or as double grains.
Meat is a great bait in the autumn months
Match Fishing Tips | Get down the margins early! - Vince Cross
Unlike a lot of anglers, I always feed and fish the margins from the start as I’ve found that a few catchable carp can move into the edge early.
Action down the margins can start early on
My plan is to fish two margin lines, feeding one negatively and one positively and beginning on the positive one.
This is fed with a full pole cup of loose groundbait and some particles, be they dead maggots, meat or corn.
Feed two margin lines by cupping in.
If I catch two carp early on, then that’s good going.
After this I will leave the swim alone until there’s around two hours of the session. This gives the fish ample chance to move into the edge and start feeding properly.
You don’t have to leave the margins till the last hour. Bonus fish can be caught early on.
Match Fishing Tips - How to compete with the jigger - Robbie Griffiths
WHETHER you like it or not, the jigger can be a devastating method on its day, as it allows you to catch fish at different depths and its self-hooking properties mean you don’t miss any bites.
That said, you can certainly still compete using normal rigs, but you need to have several of them set up to find the exact depth the fish want to feed at on the day.
Once you find the right depth, a fixed rig can be even more effective than a jigger because you are fishing in the ‘feeding zone’ at all times.
A great tip is to have a really short line between your pole-tip and float, if fishery rules and conditions allow it, as this will help you to turn every bite into a fish in the net.
The jigger can be a devastating method
Commercial Fishing Tips - How to keep bites coming in the middle of the day - Des Shipp
When bites dry up and things get slow in the middle of the day, don’t just sit there waiting for something to turn up. Look no further than fishing off your rod-tip or on a top kit on the pole in front of you.
Action doesn’t have to be slow in the middle of the day - stay active!
Rig up with a size 16 hook and a 4x14 pole float or a small 2BB waggler, feeding maggots or casters.
A typical Stillwater roach rig perfect for margin work
This will catch mainly silvers, but something bigger can turn up too.
Steady feeding with maggots close in can draw all sorts into the peg
I’ll feed a dozen maggots by hand here every five minutes and when my other lines slow up, switch to this one. You may catch all day here or it may only last 30 minutes.
Commercial Fishing Tips - How close should you fish to islands? - Tommy Pickering
How close you should fish to islands all depends on the fish.
Islands are a great holding feature for fish, but you don’t always have to fish tight to them
F1s like around 18ins of water and I normally catch them by casting just short of the island.
Carp prefer 12ins of depth and can be attacked by chucking tight. Late in the day the carp may well end up almost hugging the island, moving into the really shallow water.
To find this depth, cast out with a bomb and try to get a feel of things. You won’t have a count, as the water is too shallow, but if it’s a foot deep, the lead should hit bottom immediately. If it’s a bit deeper, it’ll take a fraction longer to settle.
Carp prefer 12ins of depth near islands
Match Fishing Tips | When you should use dead maggots - Rob Wootton
Dead maggots are a superb bait when fished in big bunches for carp in the margins. I also find they have the knack of singling out the bigger fish as they don’t wriggle about like live maggots, so they tend to attract fewer little nuisance species.
They’re also very good on the feeder as, unlike live maggots, they don’t cause your hooklength to spin up and twist when winding in.
I always freeze maggots to kill them – I think the old method of scalding them with hot water seems to have gone out of fashion. The way I do it is to get the maggots and riddle off any maize or sawdust so they are totally clean. Then I pop them in a plastic bag, remove all the air, tie it off and pop the bag in the freezer.
It’s important not to freeze them for too long, as they can deteriorate if you do. I usually prepare them two days before I’m fishing and take them out the night before to defrost.
Dead red maggots
Match Fishing tips | How to use the shotgun maggot feeder
The maggot feeder is normally seen as a winter method on commercials when you need to eke out a bite from torpid carp and F1s – but it works in high summer too, reckons Middy and Dynamite Baits ace Dan Hull.
We’re not talking about the classic blockend model of feeder much-loved by river anglers in search of chub. Instead, Dan takes a feeder designed purely for commercial carp work and builds it into his summer maggot attack to produce a tactic that catches the carp but eliminates problems from roach and rudd.
It’s all down to the Sawn-Off Shotgun feeder from Middy, a new piece of kit that allows him to pack dead maggots and his hookbait inside a consignment of groundbait or micro pellets.
Once broken down, the feeder ejects the contents in one hit, something no carp in the area can ignore. More importantly, it won’t pull in small fish attracted by maggots leaking out of the feeder over a longer period of time.
It’s a bit like fishing the Method, as the feed breaks down to reveal the hookbait. With the Shotgun, Dan can also put a good helping of maggots by the bait to help big fish make their minds up in no time.
To put it all to the test, Dan visited Leicestershire big weight fishery The Glebe, home to lots of carp but also those potentially troublesome roach...
A mid-session winner
“There will always be spells in a session when the carp aren’t that responsive, and this often happens around midday.
“Piling in bait as you did at the start doesn’t work, and you’re left scratching your head a little bit, but this is where the Sawn-Off Shotgun feeder with maggots really pays off.
“By casting it across to a feature or far bank, as I have at the Glebe, I have ‘new’ water to fish for carp that haven’t had any bait fired at them yet and may have backed off from where I began fishing.
“Maggots are also a superb bait that carp don’t often see in the summer compared to corn and pellets, so if things slow down I’ll certainly pick the tip rod up and spend a fair bit of time casting the feeder.”
Why it works
“The Sawn-Off Shotgun allows me to tuck the hookbait inside the feeder and to dictate how quickly the contents come out. This means there’s no bait spilling out immediately, which can attract roach, and I am able to cast very tight to vegetation without any danger of the hook catching in branches or reeds. Getting as close as you can to cover can often make the difference between a quick bite and a long wait!
“How fast the feeder empties is simply down to how wet or dry I make the groundbait – the drier it is, the faster it will eject, whereas wetter and it will stay in for longer. This is also useful if you think too many small fish are being drawn in immediately.
“In shallow water, dry is best but in deeper swims, go for a damp fishmeal mix, my favourite being Dynamite Baits Swim Stim.”
Regular casting key
“Carp respond to noise in summer. Keeping the feeder going in not only makes this commotion but also ensures that plenty of bait is going into the swim.
“Chucking every two or three minutes, as you would a Method feeder, is perfect. The aim of the game is to get quick bites once the fish have turned up and are tuned into the feed.
“Bites can be aggressive but I’ll wait till the tip pulls right round and won’t strike at small indications from active fish swimming around the feeder.”
Filling the feeder
“To load the Shotgun I fill the body with dead maggots and then cap it off with groundbait or, if you prefer, dampened micro pellets, which are particularly good in deeper water.
“I then either leave the hookbait hanging out of the feeder if I think I am going to get a fast response, or I will tuck it inside the feeder should roach be about. Tucking the bait in should produce an unmissable bite as the contents of the feeder empty and the carp sucks on every maggot that it can find.
“A hooklink of around 6ins is ideal, ensuring that the hookbait will always be close the feed once the Shotgun has emptied.”
Match Fishing Tips | Three winning tactics from Jamie Hughes
It’s easy to think that fishing on commercial carp waters is all about one dominant seasonal tactic.
That could be fishing shallow in warmer weather or chucking out a bomb or feeder when things turn a bit colder – but to catch consistently throughout the year, the successful angler needs to be able to turn their hand to a bit of everything.
Nowhere is that more apparent than on the match scene, when staying one step and one fish ahead of your rivals is essential to consistent success.
Getting your tactics right and making the correct decisions during those five hours of fishing will very often be the difference between a win and a near-miss.
One man who knows better than most about getting this right is the unstoppable Jamie Hughes, who recently booked a place in his third big-money final. The Wirral man has now earned a spot in the Fish O’Mania XXVI, Maver Mega Match This and Golden Reel Angling Championships finals. If he wins the lot, he stands to pocket a projected £180,000!
Qualifying victories have come by fishing a range of methods based around the pole, from shallow tactics for big carp to battling gales for shy-biting F1s.
Now the Matrix/Spotted Fin superstar, already a triple winner of Fish O’Mania, reflects on those wins and what he learned from each match.
Here he shares his top tips for successful fishing on commercials in the next few weeks…
Victory No. 1 | Fish O’Mania XXVI Qualifier
Venue: Tunnel Barn Farm Peg: New Pool 5 Weight: 146-3-0
It was blowing a typical March gale for this one, so fishing the long pole was out of the question. That forced me to focus on the margins and going short at 5m. However, the lake is dominated by F1s that you have more of a chance of catching than ‘proper’ carp at short range.
When fishing in such terrible conditions, it is important to keep things simple and comfortable for yourself. Trying to fish long would only waste time and give you bad presentation in the first place. What I noticed during the match was how crucial the feeding was.
Put too much in and the F1s would come up in the water where they’re much harder to catch. It was a case of feeding less often but with a decent hit of bait each time. This put enough feed into the peg to keep the fish there but ensure they stayed firmly on the deck.
The decision to fish hard pellets rather than expanders was important too. I do this a lot because my theory is that every time a fish takes an expander it gets caught so naturally they associate them with danger.
Hard pellets are different, as the fish see lots of them as feed and so aren’t as wary of them.
Top tips
1) Don’t be afraid to use heavy rigs when it is windy. At times the weather means that you simply can’t go lighter. A 4x16 float sounds big, but when there are waves on the lake its stability is an absolute must.
2) Even though you think you might not be feeding a lot, foul-hooking F1s is common. If this happens to me, I first cut back on how regularly I am feeding. Feeding more but less often is the way to go – feed too little infrequently and I just don’t think you’ll get enough fish into the peg to catch consistently.
3) How well you catch in the edge can be governed by the depth. Ideally, 12ins-20ins of water is perfect but even if it’s deeper than this a good weight is still possible. In this instance I’d have an eye on catching shallow, as F1s, in particular will want to come off bottom, especially if you are feeding maggots regularly by hand.
Victory No2 | Golden Reel Qualifier
Venue: Woodland View Peg: High Pool 27 Weight: 266-10-0
In contrast to the Fish O’ match, this one was on a warm, still day when we fished in T-shirts and carp were the target. Before the start there were lots of fish cruising about close to the surface all over the lake and, when this happens, I find that they’re not really in the mood to feed.
Dobbing or mugging comes to the fore here. This basically means spotting a fish and dropping a single hookbait in front of it, trying to get the carp to take it. Fishing this way is hard work, but it’s amazing how many fish you can catch if you do it right.
The most important thing I learned from this day is how the colour of your pellet hookbait can make a difference. I began fishing a normal plain-brown 6mm pellet but was only catching one out of every four fish that I saw.
Switching to a much darker pellet did the trick and I then nailed every single one – I presume this was down to the colour of the pellet, which created a silhouette against the sky that carp could see far more easily.
Another difference to normal mugging was that most of my fish took the pellet as it was just reaching the maximum depth of my rig, around 2ft. I think that at times the carp watch the bait fall past them, respond to this movement and follow it down before sucking it in, so fishing very shallow was never going to be as good.
Top tips
1) Be prepared to have a crack at any fish you see! I caught a few on a top kit but then went out to 16m. Have the belief that you can catch cruising fish at short range – mugging is rarely a method that sees you catch all day on one line.
2) Invest in some polarised sunglasses as these make such a difference. They cut out any surface glare, allowing you to see each fish and judge in which direction it is swimming and whether it has seen your bait and is showing an interest in it.
3) I always use a long pole between the pole and float when mugging so the fish won’t be spooked by the pole tip. Around 3ft to 5ft is ideal, and I like to use a light float as well – only around 0.2g with all the shot beneath it to give me a concentration of weight to help swing the bait into position.
Victory No3 | Mega Match this Qualifier
Venue: Tunnel Barn Farm Peg: house Pool 29 Weight: 135-8-0
Although a lot of the lakes at Tunnel Barn are narrow snakes, this peg is actually in open water, and on the House Pool there’s an even mix of carp and F1s. You need to have an eye on catching both, and that meant fishing both shallow and on the bottom.
The match actually went pretty smoothly, starting short before moving out to 14.5m on the bottom with banded hard pellet. Once I started getting line bites or saw the odd swirl, I changed over to a shallow rig and this worked well too.
When fishing shallow, however, a change in weather conditions can kill the fishing stone dead.
Whether it’s air pressure or rain I don’t know, but midway through we had a big thunderstorm and the bites ceased completely! This is when being able to go back and fish on the bottom paid off, and I did this by feeding more heavily than you normally would when fishing shallow.
Top tips
1) By feeding heavily with 4mm pellets I knew that I could catch shallow and that a good percentage of the bait would get to the bottom. I caught 40lb of carp late on by changing to the deck. If I hadn’t been so positive in my feeding, those fish wouldn’t have been there in the first place.
2) When you haven’t got an obvious feature, where do you fish? I like to be well away from where I’m sat but far enough out that I can feed comfortably with a catapult and control the rig. This is why 13m or 14.5m would always be my starting point. Later I could add a pole section to follow the fish out.
3) The bottom of the House Pool is very silty, but I could see the carp bubbling. In this instance a bigger hookbait was needed, something that would stand out on the bottom – and that meant a 6mm or even an 8mm hard pellet.
Match Fishing Tips | Des Shipp's top pellet waggler tips
At long last we’ve had some warm weather. That makes fishing shallow the tactic to be on now.
For many, fishing the long pole is the preferred road to go down, trying to catch carp cruising around near the surface. The trouble with this approach is that in very sunny weather, the fish may not want to venture close to the bank and feed directly under the pole-tip.
The solution is to get the float rod out of the bag and fish a pellet waggler. It’s a very positive, busy method that allows you to fish at different depths and ranges to keep in touch with the carp but far enough out to keep the fish confident and feeding well.
When it’s warm, the first few feet of the water will be the quickest to heat up and the fish know this. They’ll come off bottom and very likely not feed on the deck at all. I love this sort of scenario and will often pick the waggler over the pole to catch consistently.
There are a good few rights and wrongs where the waggler is concerned, however. Get these sorted and I guarantee that you’re on for a brilliant day’s fishing this very exciting and non-stop approach!
Why the waggler works
There are a few positives that the float has over the pole, the first being that you are fishing well out into the lake where the fish will be at their most confident.
There’s no pole being waved over their heads, and any commotion on the bank won’t spook the carp. You can also cast further out, closer in or off to one side in seconds, without having to add pole sections.
The combination of waggler and loosefeed hitting the water makes a serious racket, and this is what attracts the fish and helps to get them feeding. Slapping a pole float on the surface just won’t make the same amount of noise!
The right conditions
Unfortunately, the waggler can be prone to suffering with bad presentation in windy weather, although the good news is that the float shouldn’t actually be in the water for that long.
That said, I’d fancy either calm conditions or the wind blowing over my shoulder for the ideal wind to fish the pellet waggler in.
A stiff wide wind is never as good, but much depends on how quickly you are getting bites. If this is only around 10 seconds then this should be just long enough to keep the waggler where you want it. If bites are taking longer, the float can be pulled offline or across the lake too quickly for the fish to take the bait.
Regular casting
Successful pellet waggler fishing boils down to making noise from the float and pellets hitting the water, and it’s for this reason that you need to cast regularly and not leave the float in the water for too long.
My general approach is to feed and then cast the waggler past the area that I’m feeding, leave it for around 15 seconds, then feed again and wind the float back into this feed and give it another 15 seconds. If nothing happens and conditions allow, I’ll feed again on top of the float and wait another 10 seconds before winding in and recasting.
Different ways of feeding
Although the pellet waggler is a positive method, the feeding doesn’t need to be. I’ll fire in only six or seven 8mm Sonubaits Pro Pellets each time I feed. If I put in much more than that it will force the carp down in the water where I can’t catch them.
Half-a-dozen is enough to make that all-important noise but still keep the fish on the hunt. The only change I’ll make to this is that on occasion I will feed two lots of pellets before casting.
This generally happens only when the fishing is good and I know a lot of carp are in the swim.
Depth choices
How shallow you fish the waggler is dependent on the depth of the lake, so on waters that are say, 10ft deep I’ll fish the float set at 3ft 6ins. This gives me the chance to catch carp on the drop as they swim about and see the pellets falling through the water.
I’ll make changes and come shallower only if I get indications on the float but no bites. This tells me the fish are further up in the water. In this instance, I’ll move the float up the line by a foot.
On lakes with 4ft of depth, I’ll switch to fishing between 12ins and 18ins deep.
Pellet sizes
You have to be able to get your loosefeed to the spot you want it, and this is why 8mm pellets are best. If the wind is over your back you may be able to fire 6mm pellets the right distance but I much prefer 8mm baits, as they also make more noise when landing on the surface.
On the hook, I’ll fish a 6mm pellet. This is a smaller bait that the fish can pick out from the loosefeed. It’s also worth trying something like a light-coloured SonuBaits Band ‘Um (white or orange) as a change bait.
Floats
I’ll always go for a loaded float as it won’t tangle and flies much better than one with big shots around the base.
The Preston Innovations Dura Waggler is a beauty, and between a 4g to 6g loading is ample on most commercial fisheries to reach the distance needed.
I use the dive disc that these wagglers come with fitted to the base as this ensures that the float pops up to the surface immediately upon landing and is ready to show up a quick bite. This also makes a little more noise. In terms of the loading it takes, I add enough brass discs to leave all the orange or yellow tip showing. Bites are positive, so you don’t need to dot the tip right down.
Pick the right rod
Short rods rule for the pellet waggler as you’ll be in and out quicker on the cast and also able to pick up the line much faster on the strike.
The two-piece 11ft Preston Innovations Supera Pellet Waggler model is ideal, and I never have the rod out of my hand except when feeding with the catapult.Sometimes, the carp can almost pull the rod in as soon as the float lands.
Attaching the float
I want to be as efficient as I can when fishing the pellet waggler, and so using a reliable attachment system for the float is key to success.
The Preston Innovations Pellet Waggler Kit has everything you’ll need, with a safe snap link swivel for slotting the float on to and float stops to fix the waggler in place and stop it from sliding down the line when you’re bagging up. I also have a Quick Change Swivel between hooklink and mainline to prevent the line spinning up, which will otherwise happen when winding in many times during a session.
Pellet waggler tackle
My mainline is Preston Innovations Sinking Feeder Mono in 4lb breaking strain. If the carp in the lake are very big I’ll up this to 6lb.
For hooklinks, I’ll happily use Mag Store Hair-Rigs, which are ready-tied hooks with a pellet band already fitted. These use KKM-B eyed hooks and my favourite length of hooklink is the 15ins that they come supplied with. On deeper lakes I may need a longer link to put the bait further down in the water so I will tie my own, still using the KKM-B hook but with 2ft 6ins or 3ft 6ins of Powerline. For a size 16 hook I’ll fish 0.16mm line, upped to 0.19mm for a size 14.
Match fishing tips | Master F1s on the pole with Bob Nudd
Few will argue with the effectiveness of the pole for all types of fishing.
It offers pinpoint presentation, feeding and control of the rig at all times – but on commercials, when your target may be fast-biting F1s, it really comes into its own.
So after a good start on the feeder on Decoy Lakes’ Horseshoe Lake, it’s time to switch to the pole in search of the venue’s fast-biting F1s. Averaging 3lb, these are lovely fish to catch but they can be very finicky, which makes using the pole even more of a necessity.
Faced with a lot of open water and a reasonable depth, it can be difficult to know how far out to fish and how exactly to feed. But, as ever in fishing, I like to keep things simple. If I get the basics right, the fish won’t be far behind.
Distance – long or short?
You can fish with up to 16m of pole if you wish but I’d warn against this for a couple of reasons. Your control of the rig at longer distances will not be as good as when fishing closer in, and if the wind does get up during the day, wrestling lots of carbon can be hard work.
With this in mind, I’d recommend fishing 11m out. On every fishery I’ve visited down the years this puts you into the deepest water. This is a comfortable range for rig control and accurate feeding, and it also makes for easy shipping in and out of the pole.
That’s not to say you couldn’t fish closer in than this but, in my experience, the closer to the bank you fish, the longer it will take for the carp and F1s to move here and settle confidently.
I’d reserve fishing just a few metres out for the final hour of a session. Even then, I’d expect only a few bites.
At all times I use two pole rollers. Not only does this make for easier and quicker shipping and unshipping but it is also much safer for your pole. Using one roller can see the pole fall off or tip back and get blown away by a gust of wind.
Balanced tackle
There’s every chance of hooking a double-figure carp or a big barbel on the pole so I can’t afford to fish too light, even though this will get me more bites in the long run.
That means my rig is made up of 0.16mm Browning Cenex Hybrid Power Mono as mainline, while for the hook I’m happy to use ready-tied varieties. I’ve caught thousands of fish on the Drennan Barbless Carp Maggot pattern. This is coloured red, but it doesn’t seem to matter. It’s a very light hook and so perfect for shy F1s.
These are tied to an 0.14mm hooklength but to my mind the most important part of my set-up is the elastic. Too heavy and you’ll bump fish on the strike, too light and it’ll take ages to land them!
My pick is Browning Xitan Microbore in the 1.9mm grade, which works out at around a No7 to No9 strength in old money. This is set at a soft tension through my pole top kit, and by using a side puller system I can control exactly how much elastic is being used.
Generally I will fish at dead depth with maggots or expander pellets, and the only change to this will be if I switch to a bigger bait such as a grain of corn or a hard banded 6mm pellet in search of a better fish.
In this instance, I’ll go an inch overdepth to play a bit of a waiting game.
Lower the rig in
Chances are that if you lay the rig in and let it fall in an arc, there’s more chance of a roach getting it. By lowering the rig in slowly, as if it were going down a plughole, I know that the bulk of shot will work quicker and bypass any small fish. Be careful to do this gradually, though, otherwise, you may get a few tangles!
Kinder pots rule
If I was fishing for just big carp then I’d definitely feed using a large pole cup to get a lot of bait into the peg. As I’m after predominantly F1s, though, a smaller pot on the end of the pole is much better.
This ensures that just enough micro pellets are going into the swim every drop-in to catch a fish quickly, but leaving enough to keep any other fish in the area on the hunt. If I big-potted, then I’d be giving the fish too much choice as to what to eat, and bites would be slower as a result.
The bait menu
I’m well aware that Horseshoe Lake is full of small roach, so I can instantly discount maggots as a feed from my plans. Although carp and F1s love them, the trouble you’ll get from small fish won’t be worth the hassle, so that means pellets all the way!
However, if the venue had few silver fish in it, I’d probably go for maggots – it’s all about the species of fish you’re expecting to catch.
My feed is made up of Van Den Eynde 2mm micro pellets that I dampen down before fishing to ensure they all sink. For the hook I’ll start on double red maggot but if roach are a problem, I’ll immediately switch to a 4mm Van Den Eynde RS Elite expander pellet – F1s in particular are suckers for an expander.
Floats – it’s like roach fishing
Because F1s are shy-biters you need to think about the float you are using. Obviously the wind strength and any tow on the lake will play a part in this decision but I like to fish as light as I can get away with. For fishing the pole into open water, I’d be thinking of a float taking between 0.3g and 0.7g. It’s a very similar thought process to the one I use when fishing for roach on my beloved drains and rivers.
I’m a big fan of slim pencil floats and although they may not look it, they are very stable and for this session, a 0.3g DT Floats model will be ample. Shotting is made up of a simple bulk of four No 9 shots plus a single No 9 dropper all grouped in the bottom third of the rig. The bulk is important as I suspect that many of the roach will be swimming around off bottom so I need to get through them quickly. The float is always dotted right down so that I can react to every indication – often all you’ll get from an F1 bite is a tiny ‘dink’ on the bristle. My advice is to strike at everything!
Use a solid pole!
I expect a quick response when starting on the pole and so it proves, with four plump F1s in four drops. Marvellous! However, the roach have also clocked on to the pellets being fed and are doing their best to take the double maggot hookbait at every opportunity. The logical step is to change baits so on goes a 4mm expander. There are good and bad aspects to this, the good being that the roach aren’t interested. The bad is that it’s taking much longer to get a bite compared to using maggots. However, when the float does go under it’s an F1 or a carp.
Tempting as it is to want to get bites and catch quickly, the reality is that at this time of year it often isn’t going to happen. If I could catch an F1 or a carp every five or 10 minutes in a pleasure session I’d be perfectly happy, and that seems to be the pattern of the day. It’s a bit of a wait, but eventually an F1 finds that expander too difficult to turn down.A couple of hours’ fishing fly by and before I know it, we’ve reached that magical time on commercial fisheries when the carp begin to move close in.
Match fishing tips | Fish at half-depth and catch more carp!
On a typical snake lake peg, fishing tight up to the far bank with a bait presented on the bottom can lead to foul-hooked fish.
It’s annoying, and it does the chances of building your peg up no good at all. Is there a remedy?
Most definitely, and it involves fishing shallow. Shallow in 2ft of water? It may sound daft, but far from being the height of lunacy, it’s a tactic that’s given me 200lb match weights from venues such as the Snake Lake at Essex water Puddledock Farm.
This lake has identical-looking swims with a typical 2ft to 3ft of water tight to the far-bank beds of sedge. Although I use the term ‘shallow’, the truth is that I’m going to be fishing at half-depth and looking to catch carp that I can see moving in the swim.
It’s a little bit like dobbing in open water in many senses, getting into a routine of feeding, keeping your eyes peeled and then laying the rig and bait into the path of a carp. Done right, the elastic will be ripped out of the pole with every fish hooked properly in the mouth!
Hold your horses!
My simple plan for fishing shallow is to identify a couple of areas in the peg with sedge or reed cover and fish these – but not from the word go. It takes around 30 or 40 minutes of feeding to get the fish into the area hunting around for the bait. It is vital that you can see the carp moving in the peg to catch them. If there’s no movement, this means there are no carp off bottom and you’d be better off fishing on the deck.
Swapping lines
Having two spots gives me the option to rest swims when the fish have had enough, but I will pick one as my main fishing area, normally one that offers easier fishing and feeding, combined with more cover.
When the bites tail off here, I’ll change to my second area. The rest can do the swim a power of good, with the fish returning within 10 minutes of the change.
How shallow?
Many fisheries have a rule on how shallow you can fish, so for this approach so you may be limited. However, in 2ft of water, 12ins or a little less is ideal for putting the hookbait into midwater. I find that you rarely catch carp just inches deep unless they are actively slurping at the bait on the surface.
Feeding
Bait and feed is hard 4mm pellets, but far from piling in the bait and waiting for the pole to be yanked over I begin by catapulting in 10-15 pellets each time to make some early noise and get the carp mooching around. Once I see a few moving, I cut back to five pellets each time. If this doesn’t work I’ll cut back further to just one or two. Should this draw a blank then I’ll turn to my last resort of a couple of bigger 6mm pellets to make some splash.
Find some cover
The right sort of peg is crucial and I’d want a peg that offers reeds or beds of sedge to act as cover. This will keep the carp feeling safe with the foliage over their heads and also lets me hide the pole tip away from the fish. Try it in a barren swim with just a bare far bank to fish to and it’s never as good.
Simple rig
The float is a tiny 4x8 MAP SF3 pea-type float taking a few No10 shot underneath. This acts more as a sight bob, as when it goes under, the elastic often follows! Lines are 0.18mm Power Optex main to a hooklink of 0.13mm and a size 18 Kamasan B911 eyed fished with a bait band. Elastic is MAP’s TKS Twin Core in the red grade.
Hide the pole!
This is the most important part of fishing this way. Put the pole over the heads of the fish and they’ll clear off, so I try and use those reeds or sedges to my advantage and hide the pole in among them.
I basically look, and once I see a carp moving right to left I tuck the pole behind where the fish is moving from and lay the rig in front of it. The pole tip is never put over the top of the fish! Sometimes I may even rest the pole on the sedge itself.
Carp fishing tips | How to bag up on carp in the cold
I have to admit that as I drove up the M6 for my latest session at Barston Lakes I feared the worst.
Temperatures had plummeted overnight, and the amount of frozen water I saw on the journey wasn’t exactly filling me with confidence.
However, I was heartened by the sight of the fish in the pond at the fishery swimming around, rather than shoaled up in one corner, and I thought that there might be a chance.
What I certainly didn’t expect was that in just a few hours’ time I’d have taken one of my biggest ever winter catches of over 130lb of carp, F1s and skimmers, in temperatures which never got above 2ºC.
I elected to fish peg 83 on the grass bank area at the far end of the lake, where at least I’d have the wind off my back for a spot of feeder fishing.
Just lately I’ve been having a great run of results fishing the feeder on venues such as Barston and Boddington.
Some might think that feeder fishing in the cold is ‘chuck it and chance it’ and it’s all about drawing on the fish.
In part I’d have to agree – you do have to be on fish to win at this time of year because you can’t catch what’s not there.
But if you are on fish then there are a few little tricks which can make all the difference.
Here are seven simple steps which helped me to my big weight…
Go for small hookbaits
At this time of year every bite is a bonus. With this in mind, I like to keep my hookbaits small, 4mm and 6mm wafters.
I feel that when it’s really cold a smaller hookbait has more appeal. Skimmers, in particular, are great weight-builders and love a mini wafter.
With the water being so clear everywhere, yellow baits take some beating. On top of these I also like to have a few dead maggots with me. As a change bait they can often produce a bite, even on the Hybrid feeder when all else fails.
An example was the recent Golden rod qualifier on Barston Lakes. In bitter conditions the carp and F1s shut up shop but I managed 11 skimmers for 17lb, all on 4mm or 6mm yellow wafters, to win a 20-peg zone and qualify for the Larford final later in the year.
Pellets early, groundbait late
In the cold it’s all about taking whatever comes along – at the end of the day all the fish get weighed in!
In the last few weeks I’ve noticed that the bulk of the fish that get caught are taken early on in the match, whereas I would say that the last hour at this time of year is more often than not the worst.
Taking this into account, I have been varying my Hybrid approach a little.
I still like to fish pellets early as I feel they are a more positive bait, but the last hour, when bites are at a premium, I’ve been switching to groundbait in the feeder.
On venues that contain a number of skimmers this seems to produce a bite or two from them to boost my weight when others have stopped catching.
Clip up and move
At the start of a match I always like to clip up.
In the cold, carp and F1s like to shoal up, so if I cast and get a bite I like to go straight back to the same spot. Chances are there will be more than one fish there.
Once bites dry up, though, I see no point in repetitively casting to the same spot waiting for the fish to come back. Nine times out of 10 they won’t, and so I’ll look to fish a different spot.
Initially, if room permits, I’ll have a look to the left and right of my original spot, before moving further out.
When moving out more often than not you don’t have to go far – a metre is often enough to nick a bite.
When the new spot tails off I simply move again and hopefully follow the fish.
The secret is to find ‘new water’ that’s not been disturbed and where the fish are likely to feel safe.
Carp are easily spooked, and if I’m not catching I will always look for new water as that’s where the fish are most likely to be.
Light elastics
When fishing mini Hybrid feeders it’s important to think about what elastic to use in the feeder, as I need every fish I hook to end up in the net!
As a guide I will always kick off on the black, heavy elastic because if I am going to catch a carp or two this normally becomes apparent very early on.
However, if I start to catch skimmers I will drop down to the white, lighter elastic as I feel I get fewer hookpulls as a result.
Don’t think you can’t land carp on the lighter of the two elastics, because you can – I just feel the black is more suited to carp whereas the white is better for skimmers and F1s.
Use measuring sticks
I have said this many times before, yet it never ceases to amaze me that anglers still repeatedly cast a bomb to get clipped up at the required spot.
All this does is spook any fish that might have been in the swim and send them dashing for cover at a rate of knots!
I do appreciate, though, that clipping up is important, which is why I use measuring sticks.
Using the sticks I can clip up at the required distance quickly and efficiently with no disturbance to the swim. This way my first cast that hits the water will be my first cast of the match.
A little tip here is never to clip up at your maximum range to start with if you’re fishing into open water.
Try to leave yourself enough room so you can move out two or three times as the match progresses. This way you might get two or three goes at the fish as opposed to just the one!
Big hooks
While I’m a fan of small feeders and hookbaits, I’ve recently discovered that bigger is better when it comes to hook choice, even when fishing for skimmers.
For this reason I’ve been hair-rigging my mini wafters on size 10 QM1 hooks!
My reason for this is that I feel the fish find a bigger hook much harder to deal with when they suck the hookbait. This results in more bites and, importantly, even better hookholds.
I just think we’d be amazed how many fish suck in the hookbait and blow it back out with us being none the wiser!
With a bigger hook I feel this happens much less and I put more fish in the net as a result!
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.
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.
16 amazing pole fishing tips
Take a look at sixteen of the best pole fishing tips for the summer months. We've aksed match fishing legend Steve Ringer to give his top tips for fishing the pole in the heat. Take a look at the tips below and see what you can apply to your fishing below.
Set up a lighter elastic
Over the last few years I have become a massive fan of using puller kits for pole fishing. They enable me to use light elastics, which prevent fish being bumped but still enable me to land all sizes of fish.
This is important when it gets really hot, as you’ll find that some species can ‘shut up shop’ – this is why fishing for a variety of species can pay off.
If I’m fishing a venue where there are lots of decent skimmer bream but also carp from 7lb-10lb I will fish White Hydro set soft. That way I can land the big skimmers, but should a carp come along, I have a great chance of landing it using the puller kit.
Use lighter rigs
Just because it’s summer, many anglers fall into the easy trap of tying up really heavy rigs, thinking it’s all about bagging big weights on heavy gear.
I have long been of the belief that light floats will catch you more fish, and I will think nothing of using a 4x10 float in depths ranging from 3ft to 6ft.
A light float enables the hookbait to behave in a very natural manner and that, I’m convinced, leads to more bites. I have always felt that carp spend a lot of their time off the bottom but will follow a bait down to the lakebed before taking it.
Work your rig
To me there are few things worse than just sitting there watching a motionless float and not doing anything about it.
In my head I always like to believe there are fish present, and I just have to find a way of making them have it.
One of the best ways of doing this is by lifting and dropping the float. This has the effect of causing the hookbait to rise and fall in the water, a movement that fish at times find irresistible.
When I say ‘lift and drop’ I don’t mean lifting the whole rig out and lowering it back in again. Instead I’ll lift the float between 4ins and 8ins, depending on the depth of water, and then slowly lower it back in again. Bites tend to come as soon as the float settles.
Tie shorter hooklengths
For pole fishing I like to use 4ins and 6ins hooklengths. The shorter ones are for shallow water swims or fishing up in the water, and the 6ins versions for bottom work in water deeper than 3ft.
When fishing shallow, to my mind a 6ins hooklength takes up too much of the rig itself and stops me putting shot near the hook without putting it on the hooklength, something I’m reluctant to do.
However, in deeper water a 6ins hooklength allows the hookbait a lot more movement, something that I always feel leads to more bites.
target the features
Carp, F1s and barbel all love to shoal up around features.
The best ones right now are aerators which, when used regularly, will scour a deeper area in the lakebed beneath them. Barbel sit in these holes.
Always start by fishing just off features. That way you can catch a few fish straight away before it slows, then move closer to the aerator to catch a few more!
Create a cloud
When fishing in shallow water across to an island I’ll try to put a cloud in the water to
draw more fish into the swim and hold those already there.
To make a cloud, my favourite way is to feed sloppy micros made from over-wetted 2mm coarse pellets.
I then fish corn, meat or an expander pellet on the hook into the cloud.
Make things happen
When pole fishing I try to make it happen rather than wait for it to do so.
If I’m not getting any bites or indications I’ll ping a few hard 4mm or 6mm pellets over the top of the float. Any fish in the area will then either hear the noise of the pellets hitting the water and home in on them, or spot the pellets falling through the water and follow them down.
Keep meat fresh
Meat cubes can quickly dry out and begin to float. So I’ll put my cubes into a bait strainer, fill a three-pint bait box with water, and lower the strainer into the water for about a minute.
I then remove the strainer and tip the meat into another box, where it remains wet but not soaked. If it starts to dry out just give it another dunk in the water.
meat & groundbait
Meat doesn’t have much pulling power, so I like to feed it in conjunction with a strong fishmeal groundbait.
The groundbait pulls fish into the swim and once there they find a decent meal in the form of the meat.
This works well in shallow water or over to far bank features for carp and F1s. I like to overwet the groundbait before adding it to the meat in the pot. This makes it heavier, so when it’s fed it isn’t easily wafted off the bottom by feeding fish.
Make red meat
Red meat cubes are a hookbait that feeding carp home in on, and are deadly when fished over a bed of hemp and corn in coloured water.
I cut a tin of meat into 6mm cubes and add a tiny amount of Ringers Red Shellfish liquid, which colours and adds a bit of flavour to the meat.
You can fish red meat on the pole anywhere, but to me it’s at its best when fished short on the flat area below the near slope.
Feed heavy close in
Every now and then I need a ‘get out of jail’ card. Rather than use the margins for this, though, 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 their bait in. I normally kick the swim off with three big handfuls of bait and go straight in over the top.
The response is often immediate. If not, keep lashing the bait in to try to make something happen.
Try a Jigga rig
This is a brilliant set-up for summer fishing for carp and F1s up in the water with casters and meat. Basically it’s a dibber-style float with a hollow centre that enables your line to run straight through the middle, and a short, weighted stem that makes the float settle straight away.
You bulk-shot the rig as normal, but the float is able to run freely up and down the line, checked only by a couple of float stops above and below it.
When a fish sucks in the hookbait it hooks itself against the pole tip, with no resistance from the Jigga.There really is no need to even watch the float!
feed positively
Fishing for a big weight of silvers on a natural water requires a very positive approach on the bait front, so for a five-hour session I take three pints of casters, half of red maggots for the hook, three kilos of groundbait and half-a-kilo of worms. On top of that I would also look to take a tin of hemp and a tin of corn, just to bulk out the groundbait.
To kick the swim off I will introduce four big balls of groundbait containing loads of finely-chopped worms, casters and a few grains of corn and hemp.
My initial idea is to try to keep the fish on the deck, as this makes them a lot easier to catch.
The best way of doing this is by feeding groundbait at the start via a big pot and then throwing in small, 50p-sized balls containing chopped worms and casters throughout the session.
I like to chop the worms really fine so they release loads of scent into the water without filling the fish up. It’s this scent that I believe plays a big part in pulling fish into the swim.
Use a long line for wary carp
A little trick for shallow fishing is to set up a long line rig which I can flick past my feed. I use this to pick off any wary fish that are sitting at the back of my feed.
I find that after a few fish have been caught, the rest can quickly become cagey and back away from your swim.
To stay in touch, all you need is a relatively short float that takes plenty of weight – say, a 4x14 – and will use up to 5ft of line between pole float and tip. This enables me to cover a much bigger area than would be the case with a standard short line rig.
Banded caster for f1s
Putting a caster inside a pellet band is a great way to catch F1s in summer.
Set up this way the bait is tougher than you think, and often I can catch five or six fish without a change of hookbait.
A hair-rigged caster leaves the whole hook free, and with nothing to mask the point your bite-to-fish ratio is much higher.
A longer-than-normal hair and a caster on the band also avoids hooking any small nuisance silver fish among the F1s.
Go bigger with pellets
Most anglers think 8mm pellets are way too big for pole work. In reality, though, we happily fish them for the same carp on the pellet waggler or bomb and pellet.
Of course, if the carp are happy eating big pellets out in the lake then it follows that they are likely to take them just as willingly on the pole line.
They’re particularly effective when fished short.
Top Pellet Waggler fishing tips with Rob Wooton
If there’s a tactic that ticks all the right boxes for catching carp shallow in summer then it has to be the pellet waggler. We aksed reigning Maver Match This champion Rob Wooton to give us his best tips for fishing the pellet waggler.
Compared to the pole, the waggler allows you to cast around your swim in search of the fish and feed accurately. It puts a lot less strain on the back and arms than the pole and offerds more of a safety net when playing and landing angry carp than several metres of carbon with elastic inside it.
For the average angler, wielding 13m of pole and trying to feed tightly around the float while lifting and dropping the rig can be a bit of a turn-off, but the waggler does away with all that. Instead, you just cast, feed and repeat until the float buries and a fish is on.
It’s a very robotic way of fishing but a method that rewards the busy angler best. You may make hundreds of casts, many of which won’t result in a bite or a fish, but compared to casting out and leaving the bait sat there, regularly chucking will give you a much better chance of success.
Float choice
“Things have changed when it comes to the type of waggler you fish. The days of relying on a big float to make a splash and pull the carp in are on the wane. The fish on heavily-fished waters are more educated, so you need to employ a little more finesse.
“There is still a place for big pellet wagglers, but increasingly I use lighter, almost traditional, floats. Middy’s Carp Baggin’ Machine Fat Boy floats are straight clear plastic patterns taking just a few grams, and these make far less noise when they hit the surface. This lack of commotion, I am sure, helps catch me more fish and I tend to pick floats with a loading of between 2g and 4g.
“That doesn’t sound a lot, but provided you use a thin and light mainline, you can still cast these floats far enough.
“I’ll change to the bigger wagglers when I want to make some noise or I am planning on casting in and out very quickly. In this instance, the Middy Xtreme S2 floats come out to play in 6g and 8g sizes.”
Rigging up
“I’m not a fan of pellet waggler attachments to lock loaded floats in place. I prefer instead to use Slot Shots on the mainline above a 6ins length of twisted line. This twisted section reduces tangles and the Slot Shots won’t budge, even after repeated casting. I fix two below the float and one above it.”
The right mainline
“As I’ve already mentioned, provided you use a thin and light mainline the lightest of wagglers can be cast a long way, so there’s no point in picking a thick 8lb line.
“Instead, I go for low-diameter Middy M-Tech in 0.16mm or 0.18mm diameter, which is rugged enough for catching 100lb on a repeated basis and casting hundreds of times.
“Hooklink is 0.16mm to a size 16 eyed barbless hook tied using a knotless knot to incorporate a pellet band. I’ll also mention rods – I pick an 11ft model as the perfect all-rounder, but do make sure it has a soft action to prevent bumped fish on the strike.”
Finding the depth
“The depth you fish at varies over the course of a day as the carp can move up and down in the water, so I begin by fishing 2ft deep, altering this based upon two factors. If I am not catching, this tells me to fish deeper as the fish should be down in the water a little. In this situation, I could be fishing 5ft deep.
“If I’m getting lots of indications and foul-hooking fish 2ft deep, going shallower will help so I change the depth to just 12ins.
“I don’t do this by moving the float and the shot about, as this weakens the hold of the shot. Instead, I slip on a different hooklink – I have plenty tied up to fish at 1ft through to 5ft or 6ft if need be.”
Regular casting
“This is the most important part of fishing the pellet waggler. Nine times out of 10, you catch a carp that has taken a bait falling through the water.
“So cast as often as you can, feed as often as you can and be prepared to work at it!
“The noise of the float and bait hitting the water attracts the fish and I wouldn’t leave the waggler in the water any longer than 30 seconds before winding in and casting again.
“The idea is to feed, cast, feed again, wait a few seconds, give the float a twitch by pulling the rod to one side, wait a few more seconds and then wind in and repeat.”
Feeding amounts
“Fewer pellets more regularly is the key here and, as with my wagglers, I also scale down the size of pellet used – 8mm baits are fine for windy days or when I need to fish at range, but generally Dynamite Baits 6mm Swim Stim pellets are perfect.
“I feed half-a-dozen each time, aiming to group them in an area around two metres square to create a catching zone into which I will cast the float.
“Hookbait is always the same as what I’m feeding, so that’s a 6mm Swim Stim hard pellet.”
Strike at everything
“Because carp have wised up, bites won’t be the sail-aways of the olden days! Instead, I’d advise striking at every indication on the float. The strike needs to be a solid upward sweep of the rod and not to the side.
“Keep a tight line to the float – this shouldn’t be too difficult when the float is in the water for only 30 seconds at a time.”
Steve Ringer's 10 steps for sucess on snake lakes
Find the hidden hotspots
When I arrive at my peg, the first thing I do is plumb the whole swim extensively, just to try and get an accurate picture of what exactly is in front of me.
This doesn’t mean just plumbing the areas I like the look of, it really does mean plumbing all over.
Quite often you will find there are features below the surface that hold fish, but if you don’t plumb the swim properly you’d never be any the wiser they were there.
When I say ‘fish-holding features’ I’m talking about depth variations such as small drops-offs or even holes in the bottom which fish like barbel have scoured out.
Quite often, a barbel hole will be no bigger than 18ins across, yet it will hold lots of fish.
It’s also important to get a picture of whether the bottom is made up of soft silt or gravel, and this is why I use a really heavy plummet.
I always prefer to fish on an area of hard bottom rather than soft, as it makes presenting your bait much easier.
Open new swims
If you do start to catch, then bites dry up, never be afraid to start a new swim in the same depth of water. This way I then have two lines I can rotate in order to keep bites coming.
Once I have two lines, I will look to catch two or three fish off each before moving and repeating the process, therefore keeping my catch rate ticking over that bit longer.
As a guide, a new swim doesn’t have to be miles away – normally 2m is far enough away so that the two swims don’t impact on each other.
Swapping between swims is also a lot easier if both spots are exactly the same depth, as the same rig can then be used!
Start short
Without doubt the most common approach on snake lakes is to start tight across to the far bank – after all it always looks more appealing over there.
By doing this, though, you are potentially missing out on a couple of early fish.
Normally, if you are quiet when tackling up, you can catch a couple of quick fish on a top kit plus one straight in front of you, almost between your nets.
You see, if it’s quiet the fish like to be close to the bank, hence you can often catch a couple straight away before they realise what’s happening and push out to the far bank.
This is only a line I will fish for 15 minutes at the start, but more often than not it will produce a fish within seconds to get your session off to a flyer.
Fish at an angle
Once I’ve exhausted my close-in swim I will work my way out towards the far bank, starting by fishing down the track.
I always like to try and put any other lines at angles of either 10 o’clock or two o’clock, if you imagine the swim as a clock face.
This means when I hook a fish I can steer it away from the baited area and play it straight in front of me without ruining my swim.
There’s nothing worse than hooking a carp and playing it on top of where you are fishing. By setting my swims at angles I can avoid this happening.
Use a longer pole rig
When fishing tight over then more often than not you will only be fishing in inches of water.
In this situation carp can be very spooky, especially if a pole is waving about over their heads.
For this reason I like to fish a longer than usual length of line between pole float and pole-tip.
Instead of fishing with 12ins of line, I will fish with between 24ins and 30ins to help me keep the pole tip high above the water so there is less chance of the fish spooking away from it.
Using a long line can often mean you get a slack line and this can lead to missed bites if you’re not careful.
To combat this I keep a tight line between float and pole-tip by using a string of No9 back shot.
The bottom shot is placed 4ins above the float and the rest are then spaced at 4ins intervals above this.
I miss very few bites when I’m back shotting like this.
Start short
Without doubt the most common approach on snake lakes is to start tight across to the far bank – after all it always looks more appealing over there.
By doing this, though, you are potentially missing out on a couple of early fish.
Normally, if you are quiet when tackling up, you can catch a couple of quick fish on a top kit plus one straight in front of you, almost between your nets.
You see, if it’s quiet the fish like to be close to the bank, hence you can often catch a couple straight away before they realise what’s happening and push out to the far bank.
This is only a line I will fish for 15 minutes at the start, but more often than not it will produce a fish within seconds to get your session off to a flyer.
Give yourself bait options
No matter how well you think you know a venue it’s always important to give yourself a couple of bait options.
Even if you think it’s going to be all about pellets, make sure you have a back-up of something like maggots, which tend to be a safe option on snake lakes.
Venues change from one day to the next, and by having two options instead of one you are giving yourself the ability to switch should the need arise.
Go long and find a gap
When deciding where to fish across I will always look for gaps in the rushes that allow me to get as tight to the far bank as possible.
Carp like to hug the bank provided there is enough depth for them to do so, therefore the tighter I can get to the bank the better, as this makes it easier to catch them.
There’s nothing worse than a far bank full of rushes but nowhere to get in between them. If I have to fish in front of them it’s usually too deep to do so properly, and line bites and foul hookers then become a nightmare.
Use the right floats
In general snake lakes are quite shallow, so light floats are the order of the day. As a guide, I like KC Carpa Ape floats for fishing across and in the edges and Mick Wilkinson Steadies for down the track in the deeper water.
Sizes are depth-dependant, but if it’s 4ft-5ft in the track I will look at either a 4x10 or 4x12. For across and down the edges Apes in 0.2g are the norm.
Feed carefully
If I’m in doubt about how to feed a swim I’ll always opt for a little and often approach – you can put bait in but you can’t take it out again!
If I start by feeding little and often I can always up my feeding if the need arises. However, if I start by dump potting lots of bait and it isn’t right there is no way back.
The other plus with little and often feeding is that it’s a great way of pulling fish, as both the noise of bait hitting the surface and falling through the water will attract fish into the swim.
Finish down the edge
As I’ve mentioned, I always like to start my session by fishing short and then moving out as the day progresses,
Then, late on in the day, I work my way back again to finish in the edges.
The reason for this is that I start short to catch quickly, then move across as the fish get pushed out by angling pressure.
Once the fish get used to what’s going on and start to move back in I will simply follow them.
The margins are very much the place to be in the last hour of any session.
Picking the right feeder for fishing with Jamie Hughes
Feeder fishing has become all the rage in recent years, with more people than ever choosing to watch the tip fly round instead of reacting to the float shooting under.
As a result of this boom, the variety of feeders that can be found in your local tackle shop has rocketed, leading to confusion when picking which is best for the job in hand.
Jamie Hughes relies on four different types of feeder for his action, and this week he reveals the deadly quartet and when to turn to each.
Maggot feeder
“If you want to fish for silvers on the feeder then this is the ultimate tool. Simply fill the feeder with maggots, chuck out and wait for them to escape slowly.
“You can moderate how quickly the maggots escape, piercing more holes in the feeder if you want a fast release when the fish are feeding well or using masking task to cover a few of them when the action is slow.
“I will start off using a hooklength around 2ft long, with a size 18 hook at the business end. If I am missing bites I will shorten my hooklength by 6ins, as these are likely to be line bites as the fish gorge close to the feeder itself, but if I can’t get any action I will extend the hooklength by 6ins.”
Cage feeder
“This is a great feeder for introducing lots of bait, as it will release the contents quickly.
“Packing it with groundbait is the best attack, especially when fishing for bream, although dampened micro pellets can be used in it if you are fishing for carp.
“When bream fishing I start the session with a large cage feeder, cast it out fully loaded and then leave it for 20 seconds before twitching it to release the contents and winding in.
“I then repeat that process several times to get down a big bed of bait for the shoal to sit over.
“For the fishing itself I will switch to a smaller feeder so that less commotion is caused.”
Pellet feeder
“This is a brilliant feeder for when carp and F1s are my primary target.
“If I am chucking a fair distance then I am confident that the bait packed inside will still be there when it reaches the final destination – that is really important.
“I also believe that a pellet feeder releases the bait at a slow pace. This is ideal for days when you are having to wait for bites as opposed to bagging one every chuck.
“Tuck a bright hookbait such as a Bag‘em Matchbaits Tuffit inside with the dampened micro pellet loosefeed and the rod tip will soon arch round.”
Method feeder
“Without doubt the Method feeder is the one I use the most. It has helped me win a lot of matches over the years.
“Groundbait or dampened 2mm micro pellets can be moulded around the frame and will crumble off once they reach the bottom.
“The fish will dive in and attack the ball of bait and will suck up your hookbait at the same time.
“Use a 4ins hooklength so that within a split-second of them attacking the feeder, they inhale the hookbait and then feel the weight of the feeder.
“The fish will now bolt and hook itself against the feeder. It is a deadly tactic that will catch you an awful lot of fish.”
8 Great feeder fishing tips to help you catch more
Looking for some big fish action on the feeder this weekend? Then you may want to take a look at these top feeder fishing tips from Steve Ringer, as he shows you how to catch more carp on the feeder for when you are out on the bank next.
1) Big hooks mean big fish!
On venues such as Boddington the carp’s average size is 7lb-9lb. It’s not so much the size of the fish that’s important here as the size of their mouths!
An 8lb carp has a huge mouth, and this is worth keeping in mind when making your hook selection. When rules allow I like to use a size 10 QM1 hook. That might sound big in a match situation, but if you compare a size 10 to an 8lb carp’s mouth it suddenly doesn’t seem that big at all!
In the cold, every bite needs to count and I’ve found that using a size 10 gives me an improved bite to fish landed ratio.
It’s also worth pointing out that QM1s are razor-sharp, something which I believe is important when we are talking about making sure a carp doesn’t suck the hookbait in and then blow it straight back out again without getting hooked!
2) Use heavier feeders
More often than not big-water carping is all about distance fishing, so picking the correct weight of feeder is extremely important.
I tend to stick to three types – large 45g and 55g feeders and 42g, which are classed as medium size.
If conditions are perfect I’ll kick off by using a 45g, large feeder. I prefer a big feeder on big venues as I just feel it increases my chances of a carp finding it!
As the session progresses you’ll frequently find you need to go that little bit further out as fish can back off, and this is when I switch to the 55g, large feeder to help me reach the extra distance.
For extreme range I actually drop down a feeder size! Believe it or not, I use the 42g, medium feeder when I need to go really long, as the slightly smaller body size outcasts its bigger rivals.
I will add that for all my long-range, big-water feeder fishing I go for a Hybrid feeder rather than a Method, as I believe it protects the bait a lot better on impact.
3) Gear up to go longer
As far as distance goes at Boddington, quite often I might have to fish in excess of 100m to get to where the fish are, especially if they push out as the match progresses.
With this in mind, I always like to have both a 13ft and 14ft Tournament SLR rods set up.
The idea here is that I start the match on the 13ft rod, but if the fishing is hard and I’m chasing the fish I’ll switch to the 14-footer.
I reckon the 14ft rod gives me another 10m-15m casting range. That might not seem like a lot, but it can make the difference between getting more fish and not.
4) Boost your attraction levels
Giving my pellets a flavour boost can be a real edge, particularly when the water is coloured, as it gives carp more chance of finding my bait.
I use Goo for this and it’s very much a case of ‘less being more’ – a blob no bigger than a pea is plenty. Once added, use the nozzle on the bottle to spread it on to the pellets.
For a quick release I put it on the outside of the pellets, whereas for a slower release I half-fill the feeder, put the Goo on, then seal it in with a second layer of pellets. This is great when you’re waiting longer for bites.
My go-to flavours are Pineapple and Caramel, and I opt for the Power Smoke versions.These are thicker in consistency and stick to pellets better than the thinner Bait Smokes.
5) Swell your micros
One of the questions I’m asked the most on social media at this time of year is whether to use groundbait or pellets on the Method or Hybrid feeder.
My answer is simple – unless you have prior information that says groundbait is best on the venue then, as far as I’m concerned, pellets are without doubt the better option.
Given the choice, I will always use 2mm Ringers Method Micros. These I prepare the night before, and then tweak them again in the morning.
By damping them the night before, I find they swell up a little bit more, which I prefer when targeting big fish.
6) Use low-diameter mono
It's wrong to imagine that to cast further you need to be using heavier lines of 8lb and above.
Lower diameter lines are much more effective, and I use either 4lb or 5lb low-diameter Guru Pulse as my mainline.
If I try to cast to extreme range with 4lb or 5lb mono there’s a good chance I’m going to crack off, so I incorporate a shockleader of 10lb Tournament ST.
I cast off this 10lb leader but I still have the benefit of 4lb or 5lb mono once the leader leaves the rod rings.
As to leader length, when the feeder is in the casting position I like to have 4-6 turns of the leader still on the reel.
To join the mainline to the shockleader I tie an overhand loop in the mainline and then a double tucked half blood knot to attach the leader.
The knots are then trimmed tight so there is minimal friction through the rings.
7) Big bright baits are vital
Hookbait choice is all about using what you’re confident in, and right now that’s 10mm and 12mm wafters.
These may seem like big baits, but bear in mind I am targeting big carp by match standards as opposed to F1s and skimmers.
What I love about wafters is that they just sink under the weight of the hook and give me a very light hookbait that flies up inside a carp’s mouth when sucked in.
This means it’s very hard for a carp to get away with spitting out the hook and bait once they’ve been sucked in.
Colour is entirely down to personal preference, but if I had to pick just one then without doubt it would be an orange wafter – it’s been brilliant so far this winter!
8) Be prepared to move
Location is key when it comes to catching carp in the cold.
I always start by clipping up, so if I get a bite or indication I can get back to the same spot again stright away. Normally, where there’s one carp there will be others nearby.
If I don’t get a bite or an indication I will never have two casts to the same spot.
This might mean taking the clip off and going further out, or keeping the clip on and just casting to the left or right of where I had originally caught, in a bid to find the fish again.
When it’s cold, carp don’t tend to come to bait, so it’s all about trying to find them.
How to catch more winter carp with Phil Ringer
It can take a real leap of faith to cast into the vast expanses of a water such as Boddington Reservoir in the depths of winter and catch a few carp.
However, there are some very simple things that you can do to stack the odds in your favour.
Casting a bomb or feeder out and playing the law of averages may well work, but that’s no good on a cold day when you can’t feel your fingers and toes.
In an ideal world, we’d all want a bite every cast. However, I have several tried and tested bits of advice that always nobble a few winter carp. There’s nothing complicated to it, no Herculean casts or fancy tackle. It’s all about getting the basics right and then making small changes throughout the day to get the tip to go round.
1) 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 and so have an idea in my head as to whether the fish will want a bit of feed or not.
If they will, that’s the Hybrid feeder in conjunction with my favourite hookbait, an 8mm Chocolate Orange Wafter, but if the water was cold and weights in matches not brilliant, I’d consider beginning on the bomb with a pellet cone and two yellow 8mm Wafters, which is a great bait when the going is tough.
2) The right distance
It’s highly unlikely that the carp will be at short range. This does mean a decent cast, but not so you 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 – and that’s no good.
3) Fish positively
You may only catch six carp in winter and end up waiting up to 30 minutes for the 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 in that when I hook a carp, I will get it in and 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 so important.
4) Timing your casts
A stopwatch is a vital part of my winter 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. I’ve found that between 20 and 35 minutes is the optimum time, so I can 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 I may leave the bait out for a further 15 minutes.
5) Changing hookbaits
At any time of year, changing what’s on the hook can trigger a big change in what you catch. This is especially the case in winter.
You may get no response on a Wafter, but changing to a stack of three bits of corn can see the tip fly round, so don’t stick to the same hookbait for the full session.
As anglers, we all have favourite baits with lots of confidence in them and by all means, this should be the starting bait (mine is a 8mm chocolate orange Wafter).
If I was getting no response, though, 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 a difference.
