Commercial Fishing Tips | Time to switch to corn - Steve Ringer
I’m sure we’ve all felt the chill in the air every morning, a sign that autumn is here and, with it, falling temperatures!
As far as fishing is concerned, this signals a changeover period from the methods and baits of summer to something a little more refined to ensure you keep on catching.
Water clarity will improve as colour begins to drop out of the water and fish, especially carp, will start to feed as much by sight as via their other senses.
With this in mind, hookbaits and feed need to be something that stands out, something that the fish can find quickly and easily. To my mind, there’s one bait that is king of them all – corn.
Super-soft and bright yellow, no fish can miss a few grains lying on the bottom and when all else fails, I know slipping a piece of corn on to the hook will give me a much better chance of a bite or two.
To my mind, there’s one bait that is king of them all – corn.
Big potting
How I feed depends on the species being targeted. If it’s a mixed lake, I’ll use a big pot to feed more, but if it’s just carp I’m after I’ll use a small one and feed for a single fish at a time.
If there are lots of species present, feed a big pot of corn
Hooking corn
As we move into autumn, I want to leave less and less, hook on show while leaving the hookpoint clear. I hook a grain through the rounded end so it will stay on the hook if I miss a bite.
Mask the hook as much as possible without covering the point
The right floats
Corn is a visual bait and fish will follow it down to the bottom. That makes using a float on the light side crucial iin order to give the corn a slow fall. The 0.4g Guru Wire Pinger is the ideal pattern.
A light float will aid the slow fall of the hookbait
Go for a light hook
To help with the slow fall of the bait, a light hook makes things look as natural as possible. The Guru Super LWG is my main corn hook, although a Kaizen is a good second choice.
Use a light hook too so the bait looks natural
Commercial Fishing Tips | Ambush them under your feet! - Steve Ringer
There’s no easier way to fish the pole than with just the top kit at close range – no shipping out is needed, there are no tangles and you can feed by hand. However, for me there’s another reason why using just a few metres of pole is a winner.
Fishing with just a top kit is easy and devastating!
When fished late in the session a top kit can catch some massive carp, fish that are moving from open water into the margins.
By fishing like this you can ambush those carp before they get to the shallow water and, for a short spell, absolutely empty the lake from just yards out!
It may seem at first glance that you’re fishing too close in to catch anything of any size, let alone do it regularly, but fish associate this short-range area with their feeding routine.
If you think about it, how many anglers throw unused bait in here at the end of the day? Fish cotton on to this free and easy meal very quickly!
Fishing a top kit is not a method to use all day, however, but early and late it can produce surprisingly well, and for very little effort on your part. Much depends on the depth you have and the contours of the lake.
Find the right spot and you’re in business…here’s four tips to fishing in tight.
All in the timing
A top kit works best in the first half-hour and then the final hour of the session. Two or three fish early doors here is a good result, but I’d normally plan on that final hour as prime catching time.
Final hour is bagging time on most commercial lakes
Find the depth
How far out and how deep do you fish? Look for 3ft or more, in the main body of water or on the marginal slope. You may need to add a short No4 section, or even a full section if required.
Look for the marginal slope and add sections if neccesary
Keep feeding
I’ll throw in three or four 6mm pellets or pieces of corn or meat every drop in and keep feeding even when I’m not fishing it, so the top kit swim will be primed for that final golden hour.
Keep the pellets going in
Stable floats
A bodied float like the Guru Wire Pinger is incredibly stable. In 3ft or 4ft, a 0.2g float will be fine, upwards of 6ft it might be 0.4g. Shotting is just a strung bulk above the hooklength.
A stable float is important when margin fishing for big carp
Commercial Fishing Tips | 4 tips for a big weight of silvers - Steve Ringer
One of the joys of fishing is never knowing what you’re going to hook next.
Even on commercial fisheries this is the case. Aside from the big mirrors and commons, you’ll find masses of F1s, barbel, skimmers, tench and roach which, when targeted correctly, can give you a brilliant day’s sport.
To catch them consistently, though, and to try and avoid the carp, you need a different approach. Light rigs fished through the water, small natural baits and regular feeding – plus trying to target areas away from the carp – are the key factors. Once you get these right, the bites will be quick in coming and you can really start bagging.
Amount to feed
Feed a dozen casters at a time, upping this if small fish are a problem. Casters make a noise hitting the water, bringing fish off the bottom.
Hookbaits
A single caster will get bites at the start, but switch to double if you want to catch something a bit better. Use the dark-coloured shells.
Elastics and floats
A Blue Hydrolastic is soft enough for silvers, but has enough power to tame F1s. Use a light float such as a 4x10 or 4x12 F1 Slim pattern.
Terminal tackle
A size 16 Guru F1 Pellet Barbless hook is the ideal hook, matched to a 6ins hooklength of 0.12mm or 0.14mm Guru N-Gauge line.
Commercial Fishing Tips | Time to get down the margins! - Steve Ringer
As much as I love my feeder fishing, there’s something unique about doing battle at close range with massive fish.
Often these can be located just inches away from the bank, where you can see them swim into the area and upend to feed, sending clouds of mud from the lakebed billowing upwards before your float vanishes and the fight kicks off.
If you’re on the lookout to up your personal best, there really is no better way to do it than from in the margins.
Because this is a method that works later in the day, it’s ideal for after-work or evening sessions when a couple of hours is often ample to catch a string of fish.
So why not get up close and personal with the fish? It’s a really satisfying way to fish.
Get up close and personal with the fish
The right floats
A margin swim is typically 12ins-18ins deep, calling for a 0.3g or 0.4g float. In deeper water you’re better off trying to catch shallow with a 0.2g float. In any case you must always get the float as close to the bank as possible to eliminate line bites.
Get the float as close as possible to the bank
Big baits
For carp, double corn, double expander pellet, two worms or eight or nine dead maggots is perfect. For F1s, double maggot or caster rules on a size 16 hook. Red-dyed meat or pellets work really well in heavily coloured water.
Dyed meat works brilliantly in coloured water
Find the flat spot
If I can’t find a flat area, I will fish on the slope and set my rig to 14ins, plumb up and find where this is on the slope. I then lay the rig in with the float closest to the bank and drag it into position so that the bait is resting on the bottom.
It is essential to plumb the depth
Try the feeder
A big Hybrid or Method feeder fished on an underarm cast tight to the bank is an easier way to fish than the pole. If you are getting line bites on the pole, a change to a feeder will give unmissable bites and properly hooked fish.
The feeder will give unmissable bites down the margins
Commercial Fishing Tips | What to feed when paste fishing - Darren Cox
I try to feed as little as possible when I’m actually fishing, relying more on the paste itself to keep the fish fed.
Before I start, though, I’ll pot in a ball of micro pellets and perhaps the odd one every now and then when I’m fishing other lines, just to keep the swim primed.
Once I begin using paste, I’ll add just a sprinkling of micros to the pot I’m putting the paste into before shipping out.
These tiny pellets will stick to the paste and make it look a bit different, as well as giving it an unusual texture.
I know some people like to strike the paste off the hook every few minutes to keep some feed in the swim, but I’ve always found that the paste on its own is enough to keep lining the fish up – it’s filling stuff.
If all goes well, you won’t need to strike the bait off, because you’ll get a bite within 60 seconds.
Paste is a great bait in the warmer months and you only need to feed a pot of micros to kick start the swim!
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.
Commercial fishing tips | Catch more beyond your pole line with Cameron Hughes
A common problem in the clearing water of commercial fisheries at this time of year is having a pole line you have been catching well on suddenly die a death.
From regular bites, the swim suddenly appears devoid of life and you’re left scratching your head as to what to do next. Do you feed more aggressively to trigger a response or carry on in the hope that things will return to normal given time?
Both these could work, of course, but for me the answer lies in changing tactics completely and digging out the waggler rod. Casting past that original pole swim into ‘new’ water will always find fish that may have backed off from the disturbance created from catching well on the pole.
It’s not a tactic that will catch lots of fish – I tend to use it more as another option if the pole fades or if I feel that my original catching area needs a rest. It’s definitely an enjoyable way of fishing in the way we used to be before the pole began to rule all.
You can catch carp on the waggler, but it’s for silver fish where the float really comes into its own. Roach and skimmers are famed for backing off the main feed area as a session progresses and they also feed at all depths. This allows the use of a lightly shotted waggler to search the depths and find where the fish are.
My local fishery, Rycroft near Derby, is a typical commercial venue full of silver fish, and I’m currently in the middle of a silver fish series on there where the waggler plays a vital part in my match plan.
It’ll work just as well, though, if not better, on a pleasure session – so for a bit of practice and to show the benefits of time spent on the float, I’m tackling the Carp Lake, home to some big old roach and plenty of chunky skimmers.
Why fish the float?
It’s an enjoyable way to fish that works when the going gets tough and the fish show signs of shoaling up towards the middle of the lake, which is always beyond pole range. The fish are there and catchable, but you need to find a way to get to them. The waggler is the only sensible option, and I use it as an ‘occasional’ tactic to rest the pole or search around if things show signs of slowing down.
I may only catch half-a-dozen fish on it, but they tend to be a bit bigger on the float. At the end of the day, these are fish that I probably wouldn’t have caught if I’d stayed on the pole.
The right distance
You can cast a waggler as far as you like, but going too far will mean you struggle to feed accurately. I always loosefeed on the waggler for commercial roach and skimmers and want the feed to spread slightly but not too far.
A distance of 20m-25m, wind depending, is about right. This is far enough away from the pole line for you to catch any fish that have backed away.
Always loose feed
Groundbait can work if you are catching lots of skimmers and bream but a waggler allows you tofish through the water to get bites at all levels – so loosefeeding is the best course. Maggots are good when things are really hard but if it’s still relatively mild I’ll always go for casters, which will catch the quality fish.
I’m also quite aggressive with the amount I feed, typically 40 casters at a time to create a reasonable-sized catching area to cast around in – but this can change quite quickly if I am not catching as well as I’d like. If bites are slow in coming, cutting back on the feed will come into play, so let the fish tell you how much bait they want!
Top hookbaits are single or double caster, but I would always start on a single red maggot to get a few bites and work out exactly what’s in the swim before I make the change to caster.
Casting about
Because of that slight spread of loosefeed, the cast doesn’t need to be in the same spot every time, but it makes sense to return to the same area if you are catching. By all means drop the odd chuck slightly past this or off to one side.
As to how long to wait before casting again, I’m quite active so I will cast, let the rig settle and wait 30 seconds. If there’s no bite, I’ll twitch the float around a yard, wait another 30 seconds and then wind in.
Ideally, I should get an indication just as the bait settles or shortly afterwards – the only time I would leave the float in for longer is if I was catching bream and skimmers on the bottom and not roach.
10 brilliant bait tricks from Steve Ringer
Looking for an edge on commercials? Match ace Steve Ringer shows how to boost your baits.
1. Margins – big baits means more bites
When fishing in the edge, one of the hardest things is getting a carp to pick up your hookbait, especially when a lot of them are feeding, .
I would go as far as to say there is nothing more frustrating than being able to see carp in the edge and then not be able to catch them.
This is where a big ‘target bait’ such as 10-12 dead red maggots really comes into its own.
If you think about it there are going to be lots of maggots on the bottom so if I fish just two or three on the hook it’s going to take a while for a carp to find them. Fish a bunch, however, and bites can be instant! That’s how much of a difference it can make.
2. Blow up your pellets
A few years back I was doing a lot of straight lead and pellet fishing but always felt I was missing an edge over other anglers who were fishing the same tactic.
Then one day when I was packing up I noticed a few pellets had fallen under my seatbox. What struck me was the size of the pellets – they had taken on water and were almost twice the size.
This got me thinking as the same thing had to be happening in the water once the pellets had been on the bottom a while. I therefore decided to pump some hard 8mm pellets and leave them in water so that they ‘blew up’ into massive, soft pellets.
Once I got the process of prepping the pellets rightthe results were staggering and I was getting more bites than ever before on my ‘new’ blown pellets!
I had found the edge I had been looking for and ever since that day when lead and pellet fishing I always have a few ‘blown’ pellets with me.
3. Hard pellets - noise is the key
When the fishing is hard and there isn’t a lot happening I am big believer in trying to draw a few fish into the swim and the best way to do so is to make a noise with hard pellets.
I pick up my catapult and ping just 3-4 pellets on top of the float every 20 seconds.
The reason this works is that carp home in on the noise of the pellets hitting the water but at the same time I’m not putting lots of bait on the bottom and risking killing the swim.
Size-wise this tactic works best with either 6mm or 8mm pellets because anything smaller doesn’t make enough noise to help pull a fish or two into the swim.
4. Coloured water equals red meat
I love fishing meat but it loses its effectiveness when the water is extremely coloured.
When this is the case I will take a handful of my 6mm cubes and dye them red. The reason being when the water is very coloured red offers a strong silhouette and gives the carp a bait they can really home in on.
I was always sceptical about red meat in the past but I’ve had good results using it too many times in coloured water conditions for it to be coincidence.
I use Ringers Red Liquid to dye my cubes and will only dye my hookbait meat and not the cubes used for feeding.
5. Foul-hooking? Hemp is the answer
I’m often asked how to prevent foul-hooking carp when fishing meat close in?
My answer is to use hemp. But, and it’s a big but, it has to be used in the right way. If you feed it little and often along with the meat then there is a danger the carp can get preoccupied on it and you won’t be able to catch them.
It’s much better to use hemp purely as settling bait. So at the start I will pot in two thirds of a large 250ml Drennan pot of just hemp to form a bed. Then if I start to catch a few and then start to suffer from foul hooking, I will simply introduce another big pot of hemp to settle them back down again.
6. Feed heavy close in to get out of jail
Every now and again in a match you need a get- out-of-jail card and, while most people use the margins for this, I prefer to fish short on a top kit straight in front of me.
I mix hemp, corn and meat and simply lash it in to create the impression of someone packing up and throwing all their bait in.
I normally kick the swim off with three big handfuls of bait and go straight in over the top because quite often I will get a quick response from a fish within seconds.
From that point on I will keep lashing the bait.It’s an approach that doesn’t always work but it has paid off on many occasions for it to be my ‘go to’ line when things aren’t going to plan.
7. Pack in the particles for bream
The secret to building a big weight of bream is particles particles – casters, pellets, worms etc.
I pile in the particles in the first hour to put a bed of bait on the bottom. To do thisuse a bigger feeder and cast more often.
Then when the bream turn up, perhaps 90 minutes in, I have a lot more bait on the bottom to hold the bream for longer.
8. Corn – two grains are better than one
Sweetcorn is a fantastic bait all year round but it’s particularly effective at this time of year.
The interesting part about corn is that when it comes to fishing it on the hook then I always tend to find that two grains are without doubt better than one.
Loads of times I have caught on corn and alternated between single and double on the hook only to find two grains constantly produced quicker bites and bigger fish.
There are two possible reasons for this, firstly the bigger bait stands out more over the loose offerings so the carp spot it that bit quicker, or it could be that everyone tends to fish a single grain of corn so two grains gets treated with less suspicion.
9. Stand out or blend in?
When fishing the Method or Hybrid feeder there are loads of different hookbaits you can use but I like to simplify things by dividing them into two camps, blend-in and stand-out.
Blend-in baits are those such as hard pellets that match the pellets on the feeder. When the fishing is hard this type of bait takes some beating.
The reason for this is that when the fishing is hard there aren’t many fish in the swim so those that are there can afford to be picky about what they pick up. Hence a blend-in bait works well as it can trick even the wariest of carp.
If, however, there are loads of fish in the swim then stand-out baits such as mini fluoro boilies or bread really come into their own. These work because they are highly visible and give the carp something they can really home in on.
10. Give your meat a double cut
A couple of years back I spent a lot of time at Tunnel Barn Farm fishing meat into the shallow water across to far banks and islands. The problem was I struggled to hold the fish in the swim for long periods when feeding 6mm cubes.
What I needed, of course, was to create a cloud to firstly draw the fish in and then hold them in the swim once they arrived. To achieve this I decided to create a meaty mush by passing around a third of my 6mm meat cubes back through the cutter again, giving myself a feed made up of different sizes which almost exploded on the surface of the water.
This was added to 8-10 6mm cubes in my pot so when it was fed the cloudy mush pulled the fish into the swim and once they arrived they followed the 6mm cubes down to the bottom so I could catch them!