I decided to fish peg 47 today. It was really windy and i went with my gut that the fish had moved further up from off of the wall and its typically pegs 1-5 and pegs 50 - 44 that produce the goods this late in the year
I was really keen to try the waggler on these pegs but i was going to start on the feeder. They offer good cover (angler wise) but the depth is disappointment at around 4 ft for about 30 yards. I opted to ball in a good amount of bait on the waggler, i wanted to fish it at around 20m or so out so it would just be before and after a the weed bed which would normally be there in the warmer months. So its effectively a clear channel all year round and i see this as a typical paroling ground for the bigger specimens and the roach. Its fairly easy to find the channel with a heavy plummet.
Plumming up:
Don't be one of these people that use an SSG on the hook for plummeting a waggler. You want the biggest plummet you can get with the ethos of covering more area, though i wouldn't suggest using the flat plummets which are about now a days as these don't sink directly. What i suggest you do for plummeting is stick to the same length, but try different angles. Just reel a foot of a time and wait. If your rig stops and feels as though your in a snag, it'll most likely be a ledge. So let it go slack slowly and just see how much it drops if anyway, then click that area up put before clipping pull a section of about a yard or so off of the reel. Then cast to 2 and 10 o clock directions but at the same length and range. If you get the 'snag' effect still its most likely a ledge or from history or my plumbing it can easily be a long pipe, but either way its a feature and you have taken away all possibility of it being a snag as you can plumb it for the length of your peg.
Baiting up.
I knew what i was going to use for bait....Caster, Worm and dead reds.
So i found a nice channel at around the 25 yards area. Once i found that i then left my plummet on, cast out and just seen how the tow effected my float. This is also a good time to bait up, as i was feeding with balls (Babies heads) a marker comes in handy. I reckon 2 balls would do it for kick starting the swim off. My mix mainly contains the same ground bait ingredients what ever the time of year, whatever the weather. This is 50/50 with Bream or Roach 3000 with brown crumb and chopped worm and caster. If you want to go the way of the Roach 3000 though, its a good idea to soak it first thing in the morning as with it being mainly roach specific you do get some mid water and surface particles within it. So don't say i didn't warn ya:).
Its pretty important to make sure you give your ground bait a good riddle. I don't bother so much when i am balling in, but when its going in the feeder it needs to be soft and fluffy!
A couple of riddles and its sorted!
The Tackle;
The Waggler;
I tend to use my 14ft Drennan Silver fish rod for the majority of my bream and natural lake fishing. Its a light rod but if capable of taking lines up to 6lb, but i only ever use 4lb maxima anyway. I prefer the length of a 14ft rod on Natural venues just for the amount of snags that are commonly knocking about and the sheer amount of close in debris, with a 14fter it helps just angle the fish up that much quicker. My end tackle consisted of a very fine, cane tipped waggler which over all would take 2 AAA, i like to secure the float with 2 BB's and then have the remainder in No.8's or 6's as a grouped up show 6 inches away from the hook. If i am looking to cast further at range i would simple just spread them weight out a little. Hook and hook length would be my usual for this time of year, .9 Silstar Match winner to an 18 B511 (barbed). I wanted to pretty much catch anything that swims with this approach so i opted for just 2 reds on the hook, with the idea of switch to worm if it was difficult or i wanted something @ a better stamp. I also wanted to keep the perch away so i chose to feed plenty of caster in my balling mix (around 30% to worm). I set this line up so i was around 6 inch over depth.
The Feeder;
The rods i use for the feeder differ dramatically for the type of fish and the time of year on which i plan to use them. When i can get away with it i love to use my little silstar 10ft match picker. Unfortunately it was blowing a gale today so i couldn't really use it! I had to use my Preston 11' 6" carbonactive, which isn't a bad rod at all. I'm just not overly keen on using it anymore as its action is a little floppy for my liking. End tackle was a good old fashioned drennan themsley style g/bait feeder just on a standard running rig, but with a tiny bit of rig putty around a ft above it just to give it that 'bolt' effect but still remaining a running rig with the feeder able to drop off on the slightest bit of pressure. End tackle was above, i like to use .11 Silstar on the feeder though, it doesn't get that many pig tails with it then. I always like to start a session using around a 14 inch tail with the feeder but i have done it up to around 6ft before!
I wouldn't normally consider setting up a waggler on the pegs which i fished today, well i would, but i only ever fish the waggler late on or even on a night session in this area. I made a judgement call to fish the waggler first, something i would never do. Its something i teach people NOT to do when looking for a peg, you should not have any preconceived ideas of what you want to fish until you see the lake/venue but i already knew i wanted to fish the waggler on an area people rarely did.
To the fishing!
So as i mentioned above, i starting my swim off by balling in when i were plumbing. This gives a good marker but i tried to create an area of around 2 m2. I also gave two casts with the large version of the g/bait feeder just to kick start it. After that, i decided to go straight on the waggler.
Top tip! When your setting up. Cast your feeder in EMPTY and WITHOUT A HOOK LENGTH to where you intend to fish, leave it there and watch your tip for ten minutes. It'll show you if your too far out if you getting many liners!
Well, i started on the waggler and it wasn't long before i were getting small indications. After about 5 minutes and a few twitches i decided to almost totally submerge the float and just leave about 10mm above the water line and i also just went to 3 inches over depth. This resulted in the obvious - my float going straight under and into a roach, followed by a great deal more too!
I kept topping up with golf ball sizes balled every half hour of so, but i too kept scattering some caster around the area, to if nothing else just keep the perch at bay.
I was averaging around a roach every other cast. Its always difficult to hit the fast bites at range, especially on a windy day, i couldn't get away with anymore of the depth as it would just run through the peg too fast. It went dead at around 12 o clock so i then tried the feeder. Pretty much the same response but the stamp were much smaller. So i chucked another babies head in on my waggler line and then just waited until i could see liners on my feeder line.
Top Tip! If your fishing at range, and are fishing waggler and feeder, try to get a feeder line so when in the water your feeder line cuts through the edge of your swim. Look for liners and its a good indication that its time to shift!
Well pretty much 10 minutes after the ball i saw a couple of indications so i decided to go back on the waggler. Same again, just into roach! Just staying on the 2 dead reds seemed to be paying off.
With bites often and a continuous belt of fish rolling in. Roach from 1 - 8oz and a few bream up to around 5lb. The rod handled them superbly, not one fish bumped. I think a lot of peoplego over gunned they don't realize they can play the fish till its shattered, especially on a pleasure session.
I decided to call it a day when i started getting soaked through, didnt use that much bait so it'll save for another day. Just goes to show that you should think out of the box even if it does make you look a right twirp from time to time!
My catch around 30lbs maybe a little more if i am feeling generous!..................
Sorry about the quality! Bit hard when your by ya self!:).
Cheers!
Nathan @ Fish4thought
