Commercial Fishing Tips | Get on the skimmers with Steve Ringer
AT this time of year, carp and F1s can be fickle creatures. Cooling water makes them less inclined to feed for long spells and, for the angler, that can mean a lot of wasted time spent waiting for a bite.
By changing your target species to skimmers, though, action is guaranteed. I know that they’re not everyone’s cup of tea, thanks to the slime they always leave behind on landing nets and clothing, but if they’re the right size, then skimmers are a great fish to spend those quiet spells of the session fishing for.
They grow big in commercials, thanks to a diet of pellets, meaning that catching 30lb of fish around the 1lb 8oz to 2lb mark is relatively simple. They also don’t need a specialised approach. When you’re fishing a commercial water the baits you use for carp will just as readily be taken by skimmers –namely corn and pellets.
Skimmers are a great fish to spend those quiet spells of the session fishing for
Catch close in
Skimmers like deeper water, and to catch them quickly you need to fish close in too. Look for so 5ft depth around 6m out. For the bigger fish you might have to go longer and deeper though.
Look for a depth of around 5ft for skimmers
Balls of pellets
Micros are the best feed on commercials, because the skimmers see so many. Instead of feeding them loose, where they can be spread out too much, feed a dampened ball of them.
A damp ball of pellets will keep the skimmers near your hookbait
Corn is king!
Although expander pellets would be my main hookbait, big skimmers love corn. I only use corn when trying for a better fish and will feed a few grains by hand to attract the bigger ones.
Skimmers love corn
Positive floats
You need a substantial float in deep water. The Guru Wire Pinger in 0.6g is very stable, allowing me to combat any wind or tow. I work the rig by lifting and dropping it to entice a bite.
Use a stable float in deep water
Canal Fishing Tips | Target the wides for canal bream with Alan Donnelly
Canals are generally narrow, with not much more than 13m of water to go at. But dotted along the length of most of them are wider parts.
These are turning points for boats or, in some cases, they were widened out when the canals were first dug back in the 1800s. From a fishing point of view, these wides act as a magnet to fish and anglers.
Boats don’t have too much of an impact on the waggler line because it’s tucked well away from the boat channel
Some wides can have 30m-plus of water while others can be incredibly shallow and are not all that they seem. Given a good depth and some cover, though, they’re brilliant and the ideal sort of swim to banish any thoughts that canals are all about tiny fish and battles with barges and mountain bikes.
Bream, especially, like these wider sections, but there’s a problem. Often the pole won’t be long enough to get to the fish. The answer is very much old-school, ditching the pole for rod and line tactics with a little waggler. This approach was the norm on canals back in the 1970s before the pole took over. We’re talking short rods, stumpy light floats and loosefeeding – a lovely way to catch fish.
Bream love to hang around in wide sections
My local Grand Union Canal around Tring has plenty of wides and they’re all home to bream that can be caught on the float. It’s easy to find a wide swim. The hard work is in deciding where to fish in the peg and how best to approach it. Groundbait can play a part, but loosefeeding can be better on some days.
The waggler is a great option to get the best out of a wide peg, letting you fish places you can’t reach with the pole and catch the fish that may have backed off to the other side of the canal.
I use specially-made floats by Graham Welton
It’s also a lot easier to fish than the long pole. Not everyone can manage 16m of pole, especially if the wind is blowing, then there’s the hassle of unshipping back on to narrow towpaths with bikes, joggers and dog walkers filing past.
The waggler does away with all of that. It’s an efficient method too, in fact when you’re catching well on it, it’s miles faster than fishing the pole.
Tackle doesn’t need to be specialised, you may well already have a lot of what’s needed in the shed. Base your attack around short, light floats, small hooks and minimal shotting down the line. A good through-actioned match rod is just the job. Add a few pints of casters as bait and a catapult and you’re more or less there!
An 11ft rod gives you the control for relatively short casts and is easier to use than a 13ft model. I use an 11ft Drennan Ultralight Matchpro.
Commercial Fishing Tips | Reach for the waggler with Des Shipp
I’ve fished enough rock hard winter matches to know that the pole isn’t the be-all and end-all when it comes to catching enough to put you in the money.
In truth, it can be the worst tactic to pick in clear water despite its superior rig control and bait presentation.
The problem is that the distance you can fish with the pole may not put you on the fish, which back away from disturbance on the bank. What’s more, any pole, even if the top kit is painted grey or white, will cast a shadow that won’t be to the liking of carp and skimmers.
Change to the waggler and it’s a completely different picture. The likelihood of spooking fish has gone, and you can cast around the peg to find a few bites.
On top of that, the waggler is just a lovely way to fish, one that’s all too often forgotten in favour of the pole or tip. You just need the right conditions and the right peg to put it all into practice!
When to fish it
Obviously, if there are no bites on the pole, the float is your next choice. Cast several metres past where you’ve been on the long pole to see if the fish have backed off a little or have been sat there from the start.
This range has to be comfortable enough to loosefeed over, and you also need the right wind to fish the float properly. Blowing over your back is ideal while a side wind, as long as it isn’t too strong, will do as well. You want to be able to cast, sink the line and have the float stay put for up to five minutes. If this isn’t happening, it might be a day for fishing the feeder or bomb.
Terminal tackle
I use 3lb Sinking Feeder Mono as mainline attached to a 20cm hooklink of 0.12mm Accu Power and a size 16 SFL-B hook. This balanced kit will easily land big carp and skimmers.
If the rod is too stiff, you’ll bump fish off and casting becomes awkward and inaccurate. I go for a classic match-style 13ft rod, the Supera, with a casting weight of 3g-10g. This isn’t cosmetic guff and is a useful guideline to help you get the most out of your fishing!
Fish overdepth
Owing to the lack of close control on the waggler, the rig is left to fish on its own, as it were, and you need to avoid any chance of the float being pushed through the swim by the wind or tow on the water.
Fishing overdepth is therefore a must. I start four inches over and see how it goes. This may increase to eight inches if the wind is bad. Another tip is to add more depth if you are missing bites. This gives the carp and skimmers more time to get hold of the bait before a bite is registered on the float tip.
Getting twitchy
Once I’ve cast out it’s not just a matter of leaving the float alone until it goes under.
Skimmers like a bait that’s being twitched along the bottom so, as you would on the feeder or if lifting and dropping on the pole, I’ll wait a few minutes and then move the bait.
This is dead easy to do and involves flicking the rod tip towards me as if I were sinking the line.
Watch the float come back to the surface and be ready to strike, as a bite should be pretty swift in coming.
What waggler?
I carry three types with me and all are loaded. This does away with clunky bulk locking shots and makes for smoother and more accurate casting through any wind.
In ideal conditions, an insert waggler is perfect but when it is blowing, a bodied or straight float comes into play – a 2.5AAA to 3.5AAA loading in old money is about right for most casts.
These are locked on the line with No8 Stotz, two above the float and four below, as these are easier to move than split shot. The remaining weight in the rig it taken up by a couple of No8 shot which are evenly spread down the line and a tiny quick-change swivel.
This lets me change hooklinks from unbanded to banded in a matter of seconds and also cuts down on spin-ups on the hooklink.
Feeds and baits
Skimmers love pellets and corn just as much as groundbait and maggots, so to give myself the chance of catching them and bonus carp, I err on the ‘commercial’ side with regard to the bait tray. Corn is brilliant in winter, easy to see and super soft. Sonubaits F1 Corn makes up my hookbait and loosefeed.
I fish a single piece on the hook but vary the size on each cast, from big to small, to see if it makes a difference.
Feeding is via the catapult at the rate of a dozen grains every cast – don’t worry when the feed spreads out before it lands as this is another great plus point for the waggler.
Because it’s not super-accurate, it will draw fish in from a wider area and also give you plenty of different spots to cast to, knowing that some corn will have landed there.
Sonu’s 4mm Pro Feed Pellets are my second feed but these are only introduced from time to time.
They pack a bit of a fishy smell to get the fish interested and also allow me to switch over to fishing a banded 4mm or 6mm pellet on the hook if I feel a change is required.
‘Spodding’ ground bait
Should your venue respond to groundbait you’ll have to use it. You can fire in small balls with a catapult but I find this a bit of a faff. I prefer to have a large cage feeder on a separate rod and use this as carp anglers would a spod, filling the feeder with crumb and casting several times to get a bed down at the start.
It looks weird, but it works!
Commercial Fishing Tips | Use the right pole elastic and land every fish!
Shock-absorbing elastic is a must for polefishing because the right elastic will mean you end up with far more fish in the net.
But there are so many elastics on the market that making the right choice can be difficult. This week Preston Innovations and England man Des Shipp helps you choose the right elastic on commercial fisheries… every time.
No8:
This is the softest elastic I would use on a commercial and would be my first choice when I know there is a variety of fish sizes in the lake, ranging from roach, small perch and skimmers, to F1s and carp of a few pounds.
The beauty of this elastic is that I know I won’t bump small silvers on the strike, while I still have a good chance of landing bigger fish with a little time and patience.
No10:
F1s are a popular target on commercials and my first-choice elastic for these fish, which can weigh 4lb-plus, is No10 hollow. This species fights all the way to the net and they also love heading for any underwater snags when first hooked, so you need an elastic with a bit of power, but that’s still soft enough to avoid bumping them on the strike.
No12:
When there’s a good chance of landing a carp or two along with F1s, then I’ll go one step further and use a No 12 hollow elastic.
This elastic is great for open-water carp in winter when they don’t fight as hard as they do in summer and you need to fish relatively fine tackle for them. A strong elastic might result in bumped fish at this time of year.
No14:
This is my favourite elastic for catching carp that weigh more than 5lb and also for fishing against bankside vegetation.
I won’t use it so much at this time of year when most carp tend to be out in open water, but like all hollow elastics, it will stretch a long way while still boasting lots of power.
Commercial Fishing Tips | Get your groundbait right for winter silvers with Adam Wakelin
Read many a typical match report and you’ll see anglers say ‘I put in six balls of groundbait on the long pole line’.
This is only telling half the story, though, because it raises a lot of questions if you really want to get down to the nitty gritty.
For example, what was the groundbait? What colour was it? How big were the balls? What was in them? The answers to these can be wide-ranging depending on the venue, the head of fish, water colour and temperature – and that’s just for starters.
Groundbait is essential for silver fish at any time of year but in winter it’s vitally important to use it correctly. Getting it wrong can wreck a swim before it has a chance to get going, so this week I’m taking a look at how throwing in a few balls for roach and skimmers can vary so much…
Ball it in!
The best way to get a lot of bait into a swim fast is to throw in several large balls, known as ‘balling in’. You’ll see this a lot on big, deep, natural venues where small fish are the target. A massive hit kicks the swim off quickly, but the big decision to make is how many balls to throw in.
There’s little point scrimping in this situation so I’d go for 10 or 12 large balls and throw them in on the pole line over an area a metre square. This also makes a lot of noise to pull fish in, but the groundbait has to be on the wet side to hold together and not break up in mid-air.
Loose groundbait
There are times when cupping in groundbait loose and not squeezing it into a ball is better, and this is in very shallow water of 3ft or less. I find that a loose mix gets things underway much faster, as the groundbait is already broken down. It is important the mix is wet, though, so it has the weight to get down quickly and stay put on the bottom without any danger of drifting off.
Adding goodies
Groundbait alone is not enough to keep the fish in the swim, and because you want them to eat the hookbait, you have to add the same into the feed. For me that means dead pinkies and dead maggots and casters where silver fish are concerned. These will be my three main hookbaits.
In the opening balling in of feed there’s next to nothing added, and it all goes into those rich balls that are potted in.
On a hard day this amount may be just a sprinkling, but on a mild day with colour in the water I’ll pile it in, packing each ball to the maximum.
Dead pinkies are especially good as they are soft, highly visible and small enough to get the fish really grubbing about.
Ball size
I’ve already talked about the opening balls being proper two-handed jobs, but any top-up should be much smaller. This is normally a single-handed squeeze to produce something that resembles a sausage.
Topping up is done to get the fish back to where you want them so the groundbait is just a carrier for the particles, which is what the fish will be hunting for.
Loosefeeding over the top
There are times when groundbait alone isn’t enough to keep catching – firing in loosefeed over the top keeps the swim simmering along nicely.
Picking up the catapult gives you two bites of the cherry, in that you can get bites over the groundbait but also as the hookbait falls in amid the loosefeed at a range of depths.
How much and how regularly you feed is governed by how many fish are in front of you so, in a solid peg, I may even ‘double pouch’ (fire in two lots every time). But as a rule it’s just the one load and only 10-20 maggots or casters each time. Maggots are good for a range of fish sizes but quality counts in a match, and I’d always go for casters to find a better stamp of roach or skimmer.
What about loosefeeding on its own? If I knew the fish were already there and I didn’t need to add any groundbait at the start, then this would be viable, but I always feel groundbait gives you a quick start and pulls fish in immediately, whereas pinging bait in is more of a slow burner.
Pot in a richer groundbait
The pole pot comes into play once I’ve thrown those big balls in. That’s because the opening hit gets fish into an area, but I then want them to move and concentrate on the spot that I’m going to be putting my rig over.
Five more balls go in with the pot in the same place, but these are ‘richer’ in that they hold more particles.
All things being equal, the fish should come to the balling in noise and then find those rich balls and stick around. When they do back off, they won’t go far and it only needs another rich ball potted in to bring them back.
Potting is also advisable on very hard days when bites will be at a premium and you need to wring every last fish out of the peg.
I will also use a pot as opposed to balling if there are a lot of pike about, as the balling pulls small fish in and the pike follow.
Commercial Fishing Tips | Pellets for winter silvers with Cam Hughes
SILVER fish can be life-savers on winter commercials, given the sheer number and different sizes of roach and skimmers out there to catch.
Silvers grow big in commercials as they eat pellets intended for carp, but if you use maggots, pinkies and worms it can be a job getting through to the better fish when their smaller brethren always get to the hookbait first.
Feeding more bait is not always the answer, as it runs the risk of killing the swim entirely or, worse still, pulling in a few carp if the weather is mild – the last fish you want to be playing on light tackle.
The solution lies in using pellets. When skimmers and bream are the target, I can be confident that every time the float goes under, it’ll be a decent fish. Provided I don’t go mad with the feed, there’s a minimal chance of a carp crashing the party. Pellets also seem to put off the little fish.
You see, skimmers see pellets all year round and accept them as part of their natural diet. I find that I also get a far more instant response to pellets as opposed to maggots and groundbait, so it’s the ideal bait to a session and get a quick burst of fish before things quieten down.
Don’t attract carp!
The more bait you put in, the more chance there is of attracting carp, even in the cold, so go steady!
I’ll fish two pole lines, one fed negatively and the other more positively, to see how much feed the skimmers will take and if the positive swim pulls in more carp.
My positive line sees a third of a big pole cup of micros go in, while the negative swim is fed only with a small pot on the pole to tap in little helpings of pellets.
I try to leave the positive swim for as long as possible to let the fish settle, but also just in case they don’t want more feed going in over their heads, as may happen if I fished here too early and had to feed more bait.
Start negatively
I kick off on the negative line and feel my way in, only feeding another little pot of micros after 10 minutes if I’ve not had a sign.
If I catch a fish, then I’ll feed again to see if any more are about, but those bites will tell you how to feed from here on.
If the plan of ‘catch and feed’ is working, then carry on, but if things die down you have to try and do something.
This could be changing to that positive swim – going on the waggler, for example – or feeding more heavily on the negative line to see if this is actually what the skimmers wanted in the first
Admittedly, this final option would be my last resort, since after an hour on the negative swim I would expect fish to have settled on the positive line and to be able to catch here.
The distance to fish
As the water begins to clear, the further away from the bank you can fish, the better, and that makes 14.5m my main fishing distance on the pole.
This also gives me the advantage of leaving enough space between this line and the bank to put in a short pole swim with casters for roach and perch, for example.
However, I won’t just stick to this one line as often the bigger skimmers will back off the feed.
Adding just half a section of pole and going past it can bring you a run of fish in no time.
If the swim goes quiet, I add a half extension and go out to what will be 15m and hope to catch here.
This won’t work every time you do it, and you should only spend 10 minutes maximum here, whether you catch or not, before reverting back to the main 14.5m swim.
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.”
How to catch more river bream
With the rivers finally being coloured, it's now one of the best times to go out and land yourself some river bream. Below are some of the best tips from Mark Pollard to help you catch more bream when you next go out.
Warmer water and reduced visibility spurs this fish into having a go but winter bream fishing on a river is nothing like in summer, when you can bosh the bait in and fish very positively. .
You must scale down and adopt a different approach to your feeding, but you’ll still need a fair bit of groundbait. The idea is to tempt the fish into having a go every time you feed, rather than introduce a big bed of bait and fish over this all day.
Groundbaiting isn’t as simple as throwing in a dozen balls and emptying the place!
Find the right swim
I wouldn’t bother messing about with fishing on a shelf or a slope in winter. Bream and skimmers prefer a flat bottom at the maximum depth.
If your swim has a shelf close in, than fishing a few metres past this where the flow is at its steadiest should be ideal.
Go light on floats
Even in deep water I’m a big fan of fishing as light as I can. This leads to better presentation and offers less resistance to a fish when holding the rig still, and you will miss fewer bites than with a heavier float.
So, in 10ft of water with a reasonable flow, a 2g MP Roach using an olivette and four No11 droppers strung out underneath it to cover the final few feet of the swim is perfect.
If the river is flowing more slowly, I may even consider dropping down to a 1g float.
How far overdepth?
River bream fishing in winter doesn’t involve setting the rig massively overdepth, as bites can be very shy. I’ll plumb up, then slide the float a couple of inches up the line – that’s about it. This allows me to inch the rig through the peg without it dragging under.
If I was wanting to go any further overdepth I would essentially be aiming to hold the float dead still. In this instance I think you’d be better off fishing a feeder or a pole feeder instead.
Cup in... don’t ball it!
Perhaps the most important element of any type of skimmer fishing is feeding, and in coloured water this always involves groundbait. You need to cup the balls of feed in rather than throw them. Throw several balls in and you cannot say with any certainty how accurate you have been.
This is fine in summer but not on a cold winter’s day. My aim is to create one spot where all the groundbait ends up. From this I can work around the area, holding the rig tight on top of it or running it below or above the spot.
When to top up
At the start of a session I will pot in five balls of groundbait, and from there I can see how the fish will respond.
When the bites fade I will pop in another ball or, if nothing is happening, another goes in after 20 minutes and this then sets the pattern. You can get through a lot of groundbait this way, so I mix up at least three kilos. What I have found in winter is that you’ll get an initial flurry of bites from that opening hit of bait, then it goes dead. The fish are still there but they’re not feeding with any degree of positivity. You’ll need to give them another ball to get a few of them to move back over the feed area and have a go.
Typically, you can expect to catch two or three skimmers or get half-a dozen indications before you need to feed again.