Hints and tips
1: Dot your float down : when I see many young anglers (and the odd adult angler) float fishing I see that their float is sticking 1inch to far out of the water. DON'T the reason why you shouldn't do that is because when the fish picks up the bait and starts to swim away it feels the resistance of the buoyancy of the float and will spit it back out without even a nick on the float. This is especially prone to happen when fishing for perch, which have very rubbery but sensitive mouths. Also it hugely reduces the effect of seeing shy biting fish like Crucian Carp, Roach or Rudd. When in the winter months and the bites are at a premium then dotting your float down gives you hugely improved bite sensitivity and presentation.
2: Preston Original Slip Elastic is a must : the best elastic on the market in my opinion and plus its the cheapest of them all at only 1.99 for 5m its great compared to some of the latex stuff which is around £15 :O. a bit to much in my opinion! it has great power when you need to get your fish in quickly and get its head up to net it. but when you first strike into a fish it is very supple and 9/10 the hook holds stays firm without the worry of the hook being pulled out or ripped out of the fishes mouth which is very important for the welfare of the fish.
3: Hemp and Caster : The best combination of baits in my eyes EVER! it has never let me down and any species will love the crunchy caster hook bait and the hemp keep carp and bream digging for ever. Hemp also releases loads of oily gasses and lets of thousands of bubbles to draw fish into your swim/peg.
|
|
4: Hemp in a PVA bag : many people struggle to use hemp in a PVA bag for the simple reason that it contains water therefore melting the mesh stocking. but a great way to get round this problem is to add ground bait to it. the ground bait soaks up the water and therefore means you can add hemp (the best fish pulling attractor) and ground bait in a PVA bag of mesh without the fear of it melting.
|
|
5: method feeder fishing : many people struggle to present their hookbaits perfectly around a ball of groundbait or soaked pellets, but hopefully this lttle tip will help you overcome this problem.
setup; a rod with a good through action like the preston carbonactive 10ft mini carp feeder rod. it is important to have a rod with a good action all the way to the but of the rod. this is because when fishing with a method feeder you are usually fishing up against reeds of lilly pads or tight to and island. this calls for alot of pressure being put on the fish and therefore maximising the chance of a hook pull and loosing fish. also when you get the fish up to netting distances the shaking of its head usually pulls the hook out but with a rod with a good through action it bends with the vicious lunges that the fish cause and therfore again reduces the no. of lost fish.
reel; a good reel with a very good drag on it the allow the fish to take line if it needs to.
line; trilene, most trilene lines sink very well so try and aim for them. you dont want to spend ages sinking you line and miss a bite or move the feeder.
feeder; preston innovations small inline method feeder. a great little feeder and when used in conjunction with the preston innovations method quick release mould it is brilliant. it greates a perfect ball of g-b or pellets around your hookbait. also it creates a perfectly aerodynamic shape which can be cast extremly accurately and to a great distance.
hook; preston innovations PR36 eyed hook for hair rigging. a great hook which is very strong and can handle fish up to 15lb easily on a size 18 hook!
bait; method mix; the feeder mix should be either bait tech special 'g' green or halibut method mix or finnaly the swimstim green from dynamite baits.
other tips to think about when using the method feeder; 1.keep you rod still, keep you rod on two rod rests so you can't nock it. i belive that the vibrations carry on along way down the line and spook the fish so i ALWAYS keep my rod still on two rests. 2.use a korum quickstop; a korum quickstop is a fantastic little gaget that allows the very quick presentation of any soft pait. it is a small plastic spike with one hollow end which you put a needle into and the push into the desired bait. it the give a perfect presentation every time and only takes a couple of senconds to do.
6. fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
7; don't put all your eggs in one basket; it is important to have say around 2 or three diff. pole line to fish in a match beacuse if you catch a carp and it charges through one place it can scare the other fish off feeding. then you can got to another place and catch straight away.
