Match Fishing Tips | How to prepare bread for punch fishing - Ray Malle
You can use bread straight from the bag, but I much prefer to ‘steam’ the slices first at home.
This results in a tacky bread that stays on the hook if I miss a bite and, at times, I have caught two or three roach on the same piece.
To steam it, I remove the crusts from the bread, microwave a slice for a few seconds and then wrap it in clingfilm to seal the moisture in. I then zap another slice and fold it into the clingfilm and so on, ensuring each slice is moist.
I then remove one slice at a time on the bank. Bread prepared this way very seldom falls off the hook.
Steamed bread is a great bait for roach
River Fishing Tips | Pinkie and groundbait for coloured water roach with Josh Newman
Bread has been the go-to bait for winter roach on the drains and small waters of East Anglia for decades – so much so that the alternative for a netful of fish, groundbait and pinkie, has become a little redundant.
However, if you put your faith entirely in bread you can, at times, be going down the wrong route entirely. Times when the river is heavily coloured and has a bit of pace on it, or where thousands of smaller roach are present, are just perfect for a pinkie attack. It will speed up your fishing no end and always beat the bread men.
Take the Welland in Spalding, where I am today. This is a typical town centre river that’s been well coloured for months after all of the rain we had before Christmas.
Bread has grabbed the headlines for 50lb nets of roach but groundbait and pinkie is, in my opinion, equally as good, if not better, when the river is running and you need to keep the fish pinned down in one place.
For that reason, I’ve left the punch crumb and breadpunches at home and with a few kilos of groundbait and pints of pinkies, I’m itching to get cracking and get stuck into those plump ‘stamp’ roach that have made this river a must-fish over the last few weeks!
Groundbait menu
Four types of groundbait make up my mix and they all have different jobs. My base is Sensas Gros Gardons and Super Canal Black to which I add half a bag of Sensas Black River to make the mix stickier and heavier. The final ingredient is 250ml of PV1 Binder, which acts as the cement in the mix.
Pinkies can soon break a ball of groundbait up so I don’t add loads to the mix, beginning with 150ml of them and the same amount of hemp across all the groundbait I’ve mixed. You want just enough in there so you can see a few when a ball is made.
When pinkies rule
Bread will work 90 per cent of the time at Spalding but if the river is more coloured than normal and flowing harder, groundbait is better to keep the fish exactly where I want them. What’s more, I’m confident of catching those better fish in among the tiddlers.
Pinkie as a hookbait is vital, as maggots are just too selective and mean a longer wait for bites. It has to be bright fluoro pinkies on the hook and enough of them are crammed into the groundbait to get the roach hunting about.
This hookbait also allows you to catch several fish on the same bait and means that if you miss a bite, you only need to drop back in and get fishing again. With bread, you’d need to bait up again.
Opening feed & ‘top up’
Two large balls go in at the start, and I will only feed groundbait from this point. Loosefeeding is pointless, as it will only push the fish down the peg and pull in a smaller stamp of roach too.
Faced with a lot of fish, you need to keep topping up regularly to ensure that the stamp of roach is right. This can mean potting in another big ball every 20 minutes.
When to feed again is decided by when the bites slow right down, the size of fish drops away or if the river flows in the opposite direction, which can happen on the Welland at times!
This re-feed is one large ball but I will also feed a smaller, richer ball packed with pinkies on occasion. This is when I have fed a big ball and caught a few but feel more bait is needed. Adding a big ball so soon is too much but a smaller ball full of pinkies is enough to get the fish back to where I want them.
Changing depths
I will plumb each rig up to fish at dead depth, but you won’t catch all day like this. Sometimes the fish will want the pinkies presented an inch or two overdepth while on others, fishing off bottom can work best.
My advice is to try both and see which works better. A good pointer for this is if you are catching roach with the hook down their throats. If so, this tells me that I need to come shallower to lip-hook them each time.
Three rigs
The Welland can flow hard one minute and stand still the next, so you need to be ready with a range of rigs.
Three will generally cover pinkie fishing – the main float is a 0.6g rugby ball-shaped pattern but I also have a 1g float in the same shape for when the flow picks up and an old school Image Pole Stick of 0.5g for when the river is flowing hard. This works like a mini stick float and I prefer it to a flat float as it still lets me run the bait down the peg.
Terminal tackle is the same on all rigs, made up of 0.14mm Sensas Feeling mainline to a 6ins hooklink of 0.10mm Feeling and a size 18 Hayabusa 157 hook for double pinkie, my preferred hookbait.
Shotting on the two rugby ball rigs is a straight bulk of No8 shot and a single dropper of the same size. Only on the Pole Stick does this alter, with a bulk and four or five droppers, so I can waft the bait around when holding back.
Elastic choice is a little different, though, and is based around the size of roach I am catching. It’s a No8 Slip set soft. That sounds a bit ‘agricultural’ but is ideal for swinging in 4oz roach that you’d have to net if using a No5, for example. Little things like this make a big difference when speed is the key.
Commercial Fishing Tips | Winter roach with Tom Edwards
Going for commercial fishery carp in the depths of January is the ultimate angling gamble. A combination of clear, cold water, changing air pressure and low temperatures often means that even if there are a few fish in front of you, the likelihood is that they might not feed.
That means several hours spent bored witless waiting for a bite out of the blue. It does little to fire the enthusiasm for a return trip, but there is another way to get the best out of fishing in the cold – and that’s setting your sights a little lower for small fish.
Roach, rudd and skimmers might not put up much of a fight compared to a big mirror or common, but they can be relied on to save a blank and can give you a surprisingly good day’s sport.
Scaling down tackle and changing from pellets and corn to maggots on the bait menu will not only catch these silver fish though – F1s and even the occasional carp will move in to investigate what those roach are getting so excited about.
That all adds up to the potential for a lovely mixed bag. Don’t think that the roach you catch will be tiny, either. Often, on commercials, they are chunky things that will soon see you put a weight together.
In matches on my local Lake Ross fishery, 15lb of roach added to a handful of carp and F1s can see you picking up a few quid. Get it all right and the fishing will be a bite-a-chuck, interrupted by that exciting moment when the elastic pulls out of the pole that little bit more from a big fish.
Bites are the name of the game here and there’s nothing better for keeping the cold and boredom at bay than seeing the float go under on every single drop-in!
Pole or waggler
There’s nothing to stop you from catching on the float, but I find that it’s a little too inaccurate to give you a bite a chuck, so the pole has to be the winner.
You’ll not catch really short though, even in mild weather. Coloured water and a comfortable 13m distance is perfect to keep the roach happy and hunting about for your hookbait.
Don’t wait too long
The key to this type of feeding is to have your hookbait among the maggots dropping through the water so, in theory, you get a bite just as the rig settles. So I don’t leave the float sat there once it has cocked. The chances of a bite are far less than if the single maggot on the hook is falling.
When the rig has settled, I’ll wait 30 seconds before lifting it out and laying it back in again over the loosefeed, and this is the pattern the day will follow. It’s a busy way to fish but it keeps the cold out and it’s much better than willing a quivertip to go round!
Strung shotting
In clearer water, I’m convinced that fish watch a hookbait fall and then drop down to take it, so you need to make the bait behave in such a way that they’re given enough time to make up their mind. A bulked shotting pattern on the rig is out of the question – a spread of shot in the bottom third of the rig allows the bait to fall slowly past the roach.
The fewer shot you can use the better, so the float needs to be light. In perfect conditions, a 4x12 Preston Innovations F1 Maggot is ideal and takes six or seven No10 shot spaced a few centimetres apart from the hooklink upwards. By laying the rig in sideways and keeping the line tight to the float, the bait will fall slowly and you can read every indication from a fish.
Light rigs are a must
Although there’s the chance of hooking a carp, I’ll ride my luck and fish light because I know this will get me more bites in the long run. Even then, you’d be amazed what you can land with light gear provided it is balanced and you take your time.
Mainline thickness is not so important and 0.16mm Frenzee FXT Loaded is fine, but what’s closer to the fish is key, so a 6ins hooklink of 0.10mm Silstar Match Team and a size 20 Drennan Silverfish Pellet hook are just the job.
Matched to a light hollow elastic (I use Frenzee’s Stretch in the green 6–8 grade) I’ll not bump many roach and still have enough in reserve to land a carp or an F1.
Bait choice
I find casters too selective when I’m fishing for bites, even though they are a brilliant roach bait – so it has to be maggots.
A single red grub on the hook will get the fastest bites, but there’s no harm in trying a double from time to time for a better fish. Maggots are also the only thing I feed, but I introduce them into the swim in two very different ways…
Start with a pot
Ideally, I want to loosefeed maggots, but that’s a little too gung-ho to begin with.
Until I can work out how many roach are in front of me and how well they are feeding, I’ll feed with a small pot on the pole, trickling in 20 or so maggots on each drop-in.
If there are lots of bites, then the catapult comes out and the same 20 maggots are fired in each time. These spread over a wider area and give me more chance of attracting a carp or F1 as opposed to using the pot.
River Fishing Tips | Punch for winter roach with Alex Bates
Few baits are cheaper and easier to use than bread, whether you’re in search of a big autumn river chub or a monster carp off the top in summer.
For the winter match and pleasure angler, a bag of Warburtons sliced comes into its own on rivers, canals and drains when roach are on the agenda.
Fished as ‘punch’, small discs of bread that swell up once in the water, bread seems to have the knack of catching when all else fails and often picks up a better class of roach than maggots, casters or pinkies. This makes it a must-have in cold weather and on clear venues.
The basics of breadpunch fishing are relatively easy to follow, but according to top matchman Alex Bates, it is in the feeding where the men are sorted from the boys, so to speak.
Get it wrong and your catch rate will falter, but sort the feeding out early on and a truly massive net of roach is on the cards.
Tackle & Bates tackle shop boss Alex has been brought up fishing his local Old River Nene in March, where breadpunch reigns supreme in winter, and has seen how fishing with this bait has evolved over the years. It’s gone from an attacking method with regular balls of feed thrown in, to a more austere feeding and fishing ‘in-out’ line of attack.
Many fish on his local drains and rivers respond to bread so he took the Angling Times cameras to the River Welland in the Lincolnshire market town on Spalding to run through the do’s and don’ts of winter punch fishing.
Alex’s advice was a bit of an eye-opener on a venue packed with so many fish!
It’s all about feeding
“The first thing to say about punch fishing is that it’s not about throwing in a ball every chuck, even on pegs that are full of fish!” Alex warned. “I find this only ever works if you have a lot of little roach in front of you, but we always want to catch as big a stamp of fish as we can so you have to feed differently.
“My approach is to introduce bread feed as you would on a canal, a ball at a time, and then fish it out. This basically means adding another ball only when the size of the fish has dropped, or they show signs of moving down the peg. So, if you start getting plagued by little roach or the bites are coming miles down the peg, that’s the time to feed again.”
Small balls work best
“Don’t be tempted to feed too much of the bread mix as this can make the peg worse rather than better,” he revealed.
“I make a ball roughly the size of a golf ball or a little bigger, and I know it will stay where it’s landed. Punch crumb is heavy and doesn’t get wafted about if the pace of the river changes or, as can happen in March and Spalding, it begins to flow the other way completely!”
What depth?
“Punch fishing to me is all about finding the better stamp of fish, so you’ll need to change depth from a few inches off bottom to an inch or two overdepth.
“If there are few little fish about, fishing off deck can work well and this is when the pencil float is best – but on the SF2 pole float I fish this just overdepth to help slow it down,” he said.
Simple bread rigs
“There’s nothing very complicated about my rigs, and I tend to fall back on two types for different jobs,” he said. “The first is a 0.3g Rive 3 pencil pattern for when the river is not running too hard. if it flows, I change to a Drennan SF2 0.4g float as this has a slight shoulder to let me slow the rig down in the flow.
“The pencil is shotted with a bulk and one dropper to get the punch down fast while the SF2 has a spread bulk. The pencil allows me to work the bait by lifting it up and down in little flow and even fish just off bottom, whereas the SF2 is designed to be held back slightly and run through the swim at roughly half pace.
“By keeping a tight line I can see every indication. There’s also less resistance to a fish with the spread pattern so you can see the bite quicker,” Alex added.
“My favourite punch hook is a size 19 Hayabusa 128 fished with 0.12mm main, a 5ins 0.09mm hooklink and a No5 solid elastic.”
Best hook bread
“On the hook I use Warburtons Toastie straight from the orange bag for a very soft bait that can work well if the fishing is hard.
“On good pegs, this changes to Warburtons in the blue bag. I microwave each slice for 10 seconds on full power in the morning and then pop them in a plastic takeaway tub with the lid on,” explained Alex.
“This results in a slightly tacky bread that won’t swell up too much and stays on well for shipping out.
“However, it has to be right, and the acid test is whether the piece of punch stays on after the strike. If you are coming back with the bread still on the hook, it is too tacky!
“I also cut each slice into quarters so I use them up faster, and this also means I am fishing with fresher bread as opposed to using a full slice, which can take an hour or so to use up.
“In that time the slice will have dried out, whereas a quarter won’t last as long and so is perfect. Best punch sizes are 4mm or 5mm,” he added.
Alex’s feed for fishing breadpunch
“You can go down two routes here, either using liquidised white bread or punch crumb – both have their place,” Alex said. “Liquidised bread is quite active and fluffy and helps gets bites when fish are few and far between.
“Punch crumb is heavier, goes straight down and gives off little in the way of particles, so it’s ideal when you’re on a lot of fish that you want to keep on the bottom and catch fast.
“My favourite mix is two bags of plain white breadcrumb and a bag of Sensas Punch Crumb. I’ll add a little gravel to this when mixed to help it sink every time.
“I mix the bread feed the night before to a damp consistency. Then in the morning I spray it with an atomiser to bring it back to the right consistency. You should be able to squeeze a ball with one hand easily. If it shows signs of falling apart after the squeeze, give it another spray.”
Feed the right way to catch more silverfish
FEEDING a swim correctly at the start of a winter roach fishing session can make or break your catch, according to match ace Mark Pollard.
You need to think how you are going to deliver it to the swim. The Dynamite and Matrix-backed star uses five different methods of feeding, and here he reveals where and when each one comes into play.
Using a catapult will allow you to feed steadily and fish at range.
CATAPULT
“If you are fishing at a range that can’t be fed easily by hand, but a steady trickle of bait is required, then a catapult will play a big part in your strategy.
“If you have a fairly deep swim and you are targeting roach, it is far better to try to get them feeding shallow, as it will then take a lot less time for the float to go under once the rig has settled.
“Keeping a regular trickle of bait going through the water column will eventually bring the silvers shallow – even on really cold days – and introducing 10 maggots or casters every minute is ample.”
BY HAND
“Bigger species such as carp and F1s will be sat well away from the bank now, but you can guarantee silverfish will be at close quarters.
“A regular trickle of maggots and casters is needed to get roach shoals competing, and the easiest way to do that is by hand. As a rule of thumb I will feed 10 maggots or casters every minute or so.
“Feeding by hand also works on a ‘throwaway line’ close to the bank for bonus fish later on. Trickle in a few grains of corn or pellets throughout the session and it could produce a few key bites in the dying stages.”
Using a big cup allows you to feed accurately
BIG POLE CUP
“Feeding with a big cup provides pinpoint accuracy and more often than not that is key to getting a few bites.
“Make sure you don’t overdo it at the beginning – too much bait can kill a swim in an instant. Introduce something like 50-60 pellets or maggots over each line at the start and don’t add this amount again unless bites completely tail off.
“A big cup is also ideal for feeding balls of groundbait when you want the pile of feed to be concentrated tightly.”
BAIT DROPPER
“There’s no better way of guaranteeing that your bait gets to the bottom in flowing water than using a bait dropper.
“It is particularly useful when fishing worm and caster for big perch or chub, when you feed a decent quantity from time to time, as opposed to styles where a little and often approach is required.
“Use a bait dropper in very deep swims on stillwaters to get every morsel to the bottom where the bigger fish are.”
SMALL POLE CUP
A small cup allows you to re-feed after every fish
“Almost every top kit I have set up will have a small pole cup on the end, and I will usually add bait to the swim with it after every fish.
“The amount needed to top up at this time of year when fishing for carp and F1s is minimal – five to 10 pellets, maggots or grains of corn is more than ample to help get that next bite.
“Make sure your cup is as close to the pole tip as it can be so that you are feeding directly over the top of where your rig is sitting.”
BOOK A COAHCING SESSION WITH POLLY
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Get your feeding right and you can enjoy catches like this.