Coarse fish feed naturally on a wide range of natural foodstuffs, and the diets of roach, bream, tench, carp and the like will reflect the food available in the water body in which they are living. This is hardly surprising because there is no survival advantage for a fish to ignore a square meal when it encounters one!
Occasionally, fish will pig themselves on a seasonal glut in a particular food type, and they can then feed almost exclusively on similar-sized grub until the larder becomes empty… the preoccupation of bream with bloodworms is a well-known example. However, it is far more usual for a wide range of both food types and sizes to be consumed.
We probably place ourselves at a distinct disadvantage by using loose feed and hookbaits that are almost identical in size, be they sweetcorn, pellets or boilies. As fish hoover in these free offerings, one by one, they soon become accustomed to the degree of suction required and, inevitably, treat with caution anything which is slightly different. If the oddball item is our hookbait, it is predictable that it will be rejected and we will remain biteless.
It is extremely difficult to make a hooked bait behave exactly like a free offering of the same size. Critically-balanced or hair-rigged baits can help, but they may well not offset the inherent weight of the hook and the resistance generated by the hook-link material.
The solution is simple, and it reflects the natural situation – bait up with freebies of different sizes (and, therefore, weights). Luncheon meat chunks cut into irregular shapes and pellets of different diameters, for example, make it far harder for fish to prejudge the weight of the food item and less easy to differentiate between a freebie and a hookbait.
The improvement in catches can be dramatic and well worth the modicum of effort required on bait preparation.
Top Tip
Boilies can easily be treated in a similar way, even if you only have one size with you, by slicing some into halves or quarters. They may be difficult to catapult long distances from the bank, but they lend themselves perfectly to short-distance fishing, pva bags and spod baiting techniques.
Top Bait Tip
This is prime Tench Time and if you want to target them use any Marukyu bait that contains Nori.
10m/m Nori Boilies used as above are deadly and are specialy made to target tench.
EFG 131 is the perfect groundbait to go with them. |
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Barely has spring appeared before the weather has fast-forwarded to summer-like conditions. It will settle down to a more seasonal pattern, of course, but the rapid rise in water temperatures will have prompted a spring feeding bonanza for fish.
At this time of year, shallower waters are often the first to turn on, and they should be preferred choice for great sport. Later in the month, assuming the weather has still been benign, deeper venues will slowly warm up and the fish there will begin to feed in earnest.
Because their body temperatures match those of their surroundings, a rise in water temperature will stimulate fish into actively searching for food. In many still waters, it takes rather longer for the supplies of invertebrates to catch up – the larder contains last-year’s left-overs, and the 2011 crop of food has yet to develop.
Fish are therefore hungry and highly catchable. A warm April and – especially – May are prime times for catching many species. Fishing for tench, in particular, can be fantastic at this time of year. Locating feeding fish is still important, of course, but unlike mid-winter – when the fish can lie doggo – they will now be far more active and mobile.
Fish will actively seek out warmer parts of a lake, even if the temperature difference is slight. For example, swims on the west-facing shallows which receive the first of the morning sunlight would be a sound choice.
Feeding times will also change, with more emphasis on feeding at either end of daylight. Overnight fishing can also be productive in shallow waters as long as the nocturnal drop in air temperature is not severe; otherwise, deeper venues are a better bet for night sessions.
Top Tip
The annual swarms of tadpoles can trigger intense feeding by fish which take advantage of this glut of easy food. The tadpoles are often in the very margins of lakes, and that’s where you bait should be!
With Tench being a great target fish at this time of the year, try any Marukyu product that contains Nori.
Nori 10m/m boilies can be brilliant along with the soft hook Nori Pellets SDP 2310 |
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Winter has a nasty habit of biting you in the backside, but the signs of spring approaching fast are everywhere. The daffodils have woken from their winter in the freezer, the gaudy male pheasants are engaged in ritual fights and newts are gathering in ponds in readiness for their slippery spawning. Water temperatures are still low, but if the Jack Frosts keeps away fish will feed often enough to make them highly catchable.
What to fish for depends very much on the type of fishing local to where you live. But for specialist anglers, the late winter period is THE time to search out heavyweight pike and perch. The females of both species will have contained spawn for many months, but as the eggs take on water and swell in late winter, so do their weights. It makes a difference – a big female pike can carry 5lb of eggs or even more.
Pike tend to spawn in very shallow, weedy or reedy water, and they will gather near these areas any time from now until April. The spawning trigger depends, in part, on the warmth of the preceding months - so spawning is unlikely to be early in 2011 – coupled with the prevailing temperature. These fish will pick at the available food, reserving their feeding binge for immediately after spawning, so small, visible baits are well worth trying. Look for deeper water close to known spawning grounds.
Female perch tend to spawn rather later, often shedding their yellow-orange ribbons of incredibly sticky eggs sometime between late March and late April. Above anything else, perch love cover – snags, overhanging bushes, floating islands – and may keep in these refuges until low-light conditions prevail.
Dawn and, especially, dusk are key feeding times. A lobworm fish close or on the bottom, or a small live or freshwater deadbait, are the standard approaches, fished so that any resistance is minimised. Small sea deadbaits are pretty useless for perch – avoid!
Top Tip
You will increase your chances of catching big predators by first attracting small fish into your swim. Careful groundbaiting and the regular introduction of a few maggots should bring in the bait fish, and the predators won’t be far away. Make sure you carry a big set of scales with you!
This winter the match anglers have caught some huge perch using Krilled maggots, give them a go. |
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In this age of heavily-stocked lakes and long-stay big-fish angling, it is understandable that many anglers seem to have forgotten one of the basic ingredients for success – stealth. Keeping quiet and avoiding unnecessary movement may seem immaterial on coloured fisheries where fish are numerous, but it is well worth remembering that fish don’t have to eat all of the time. And spooked fish usually stop feeding.
It seems pointless for an angler to employ the finesse of pole fishing coupled with great baits and careful feeding if he or she makes so much racket that any self-respecting fish will skedaddle to the far side of the lake. This is especially true in winter because when fish are inactive and are scared from away from a swim, they may not return that day.
It is no coincidence that on many fisheries the excellent catches in pleasure sessions dwarf the much more modest results when matches are held. The underwater din produced by many pairs of wellies clumping along the banks and the noise of anglers setting up simultaneously is a big turn-off for fish.
The good news for pleasure anglers is that your can maximise your chances of a good day’s fishing with just a little thought and care… and it costs absolutely nothing! The best way to get the approach right is to pretend that you are trying to watch wildlife at close quarters because the principles are the same. In short, mum’s the word.
So, the sensible angler:-
➢ Approaches his peg slowly and carefully, without clumping his feet
➢ Sets up his seat, banksticks and brolly as quietly as possible – a mallet has no place in an angler’s kit
➢ Doesn’t shout to his mate (it happens!)
➢ Avoids creating a silhouette on the skyline by keeping a low profile
➢ Restricts bankside movements… and then only slowly
Top Tip
Wooden platforms may be convenient, but they are also an excellent way of amplifying sound underwater. If the fishery rules allow, put your spare tackle on the platform but set up and fish from the bank alongside it. |
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The bitterly cold weather of late, coupled with significant snowfall and well-below temperatures - by day and by night – has ruled out fishing on most stillwater venues. Some rivers have also either frozen over or have been full of flotillas of floating ice. In such inhospitable conditions, fishing has been either impossible, impractical or a sheer test of survival.
Thick ice can take surprisingly long to melt once temperatures rise above zero, but it is worth keeping an eye on nearby lakes because the day the ice goes can herald a mini feeding spree by fish. For pike, especially, the red-letter days of mid-winter often coincide with big thaws. The sudden flush of oxygen once wind action can again aerate the water, and the increase in light penetration, act as feeding stimuli.
It’s not just stillwater pike that are eminently catchable during inhospitable weather; perch fishing can also be good when the weather conditions are dire, and roach are often wiling to feed, too, albeit that they tend to nibble rather than feed with gusto. Loose feed should be kept to a minimum, but the use of correctly-designed, cold-water groundbaits can give you a huge edge. Fish will respond if their appetites are whetted, even if their stored food reserves may be sufficient to tide them over until spring arrives.
In rivers, most fish tend to look for an easy life away from the main flows, so slacks and gentle but deep glides are better swim choices that areas where the current is strong or where the water boils. In addition to pike, perch and roach, you can expect chub to feed in chilled waters. Visual, smelly baits can work well providing they are presented to where the fish are lying. Some casting around, or a roving approach to swim choice, can help locate feeding fish.
If you have access to rivers that support grayling, now is the time to go after them. Grayling will feed consistently in cold weather, and if you locate a shoal, sport can be excellent for as long as you can prevent ice freezing in your rod rings! |
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